S5Dewey

Some days :D

But if you can get 8 WAR out of three guys and pay them less, isn't that a good deal?

From a fan's standpoint we shouldn't even consider trading him. He's great to watch whether on offense or defense and his WAR reflects his overall value to the team. From an economic and baseball standpoint we should at least be willing to kick the tires on trading him. Let's say he puts up a WAR of 8 this year and it would take $30M/year to keep him. We should be looking at the possibility of trading him for, say two 3's and a 2 if we could sign those three guys for less than $30M. That would lower our salary without impacting the number of wins the team gets.

Then to take this one step further, ticket sales is all profit for the owners.

Well, it's about friggin' time! I did it weeks ago!!

It's something no Red Sox fan should ever forget. Now, I'd be the last one to wish any bad luck on Mr. Machado, but it'll be interesting to see how his career unfolds if he continues his dirty play in the NL.

Hahahahaha..Oh, Kimmie, I DO love your sense of humor!!!!

Or Machado.

IMO DD is preparing to let Betts go and keep everyone else he can "afford" to pay. He may be thinking that the team is better off with 25 solid-to-outstanding players than with one HOF'er and filling the 25 with lesser players. Bill Belichick would agree - although it's pretty hard to say that TB12 isn't a HOF'er .

This is what happens when we feed trolls.

Feeling guilty?

Did I miss something? Did MLB change the season this year so it ends during the first week in April? During my athletic "career" I had the privilege of being on the same team with a man who was a decade or more older than I was. When our team was falling behind either in the standings or during a game and I said something negative he'd calmly say to me, "Don't panic. The cream always rises to the top". He was right. It's a marathon, not a sprint, my friend. Be patient.

Some folks here love trolls. That's why they keep feeding them.

Yeah. I tried it...once..and was quickly rebuked by a self-appointed moderate/sheriff, probably because I came from the old BDC and wasn't one of "us". I haven't tried it since.

I know this will fall on deaf ears because it flies in the face the stat geeks, but I'll be interested to see how many HR's Mookie gets this year batting second. I've always felt that in his first AB he sometimes takes advantage of a pitcher who hasn't settled in yet and gets a hittable pitch.

I don't agree. IMO Mr. A. Fan doesn't understand the metrics and doesn't care to. All he cares about is that his team won a couple of rings.

You have Yankees friends?? You need to start hanging out with a better class of people.

That may be true, but you can say that about just about any club - I think. I'm unsure because it assumes that we have knowledge of how much money the owners have and are willing to spend. I can remember when I first heard that Catfish Hunter had been signed for $3M. I said "Outrageous! They can't afford to pay one player that kind of money!" Now we have at least one signing per year of $30M AAV with no end in sight. Where's the limit? I don't know and you don't know. Maybe the Halo's will collapse under the weight of Trout's contract, or maybe they'll be the one to sign Betts for more money than Trout is getting. As I keep saying, we have no idea how much money there is floating around out there in MLB but what we do know is that it's more than most of us ever dreamed.

I know it's easy to think that way but this is a different team with "real" pitchers on the mound. One also has to remember that many/most ofthese ST games are won and lost by players most fans have never heard of before..... and never will again. I would agree that the Won/Lost records are meaningless, but the performance of the starters is a better indication of what will happen in the regular season. And yes, I know that Mookie was 0-19 (or some such thing) last season and JDM has been cold this year, but that doesn't worry me. Good hitters don't just forget how to hit. The only player who comes to mind who actually just forgot how to hit over one winter was Alan Craig.

It doesn't matter. The Sox lost the Commissioner's cup trophy (which goes to the team playing in Ft. Myers with the most wins) with their recent loss to the Twins. The season may as well be over.

Taking yours and vegasbob's post directly above yours together it raises only one question: If the Sox don't sign Mookie...who's going to? Who would commit that much of their payroll to one player? And of those who would like to, who can afford to? With Harper signing with the Phil's, Trout signing with the A's, and the Yankees with their own salary issues with Stanton and looking at Judge, Severino, etc., the market for any player demanding what Mookie will be wanting is getting very small.

IMO Mejia is third in line to be the closer. First is Barnes, whom I think will prove that he's not up to the job. Kimmie's and my dispute over 'clutch' not withstanding, I think Barnes' role will remain as a set-up man because he doesn't have the kajones to be the closer. Next will be Brazier, who will be better than Barnes but less than adequate. I'll admit that I haven't seen him pitch 'live' but once in ST but I don't think he has the stamina to be a full season closer this year. Next up is Mejia and I hate hate hate his PED history and wouldn't be a bit upset if he weren't with the team any more, but as long as he's there I think he has what it takes to be the best closer on the team. I've seen him in person a few times and I like what I'm seeing. There is no doubt in my mind that he's not working on specific pitches. He's trying to get hitters OUT and he's doing it more successfully. AND he has a history of closing. I know there are some who say that Spring Training doesn't mean anything but I think you'd be hard pressed to convince Mejita, Workman, and some of the other pitchers on the bubble of that.

I see the argument against collusion as being the same as the one against the PED users: The owners don't want to sign players to a high salary/long term contract just like the owners didn't want to sign PED users because of the damage to the game (or at least that's what they gave lip service to). However, they don't trust each other NOT to sign these guys... so they do. There may not be owner enforced work stoppages but I believe there's an excellent chance of a player's strike at the next CBA if the owners & players can't agree to raise the floor for players (which would also raise everyone's salary). As difficult as it is to type this with a straight face... there are more players making less than 7-figures (less than $10,000,000/yr) than there are making more than that. Right now we're embarking on a HUGE three-tier system with the elite players making >$30M/Yr, the next step down making >$20MM/Yr and the rest below that with most making

I hate so say this, but... yes.

Or may be Feldman will be ready by then.