S5Dewey

Boras is hired to get the best financial offers from as many teams as possible. When he starts offering "advice" as to which teams a player signs with it becomes a conflict of interest.

That's true but while Boras doesn't actually make the decisions for the players his opinion carries enough weight that the player usually does what Boras advises him to do. IMO Boras advises them to do what's in the best interest of the player's pocketbooks but not in the best interest of the player. Of course I've always seen a HUGE conflict of interest in Boras' negotiations. What's in the best interest of Scott Boras - who undoubtely works on a commission? What puts more money in Boras's wallet, a $30MM contract or a $20MM contract? If you were Scott Boras which contract would you encourage the player to take? Jus' sayin'.

That list may be short but the list is growing.

If he'd sign a one year deal to play either 2nd or 3rd for the Sox in '19 I'd be all over it. It would give us insurance against Bogaerts as well as if Pedey can't make a comeback. If things work out for both both Bogaerts and Pedey then move Devers to 1B and award 3B to Iggy, then work to extend him.

You're just teasing me now, aren't you? :D

I never understood why the FO couldn't acquiesce to Harris' request to pitch with his opposite hand. Harris was a guy who could come out of the pen and throw >100 innings/year during a time when the Sox were a .500-ish team. They could have allowed him to do it in a mop-up role in a game, he'd get the recognition, and the Sox would get the publicity. All he wanted was the guarantee that he'd be allowed to do it. Win/win. What's the big deal??

Harris pitched for the Red Sox from 1991-93 and wanted a clause in his contract that he'd be allowed to do it in a game. The Sox refused. Two years later, while pitching for the Expos, he got that chance. "A natural right-hander, by 1986 Harris could throw well enough left-handed that he felt he could pitch with either hand in a game, but his team would not allow this keeping him from being a legitimate ambidextrous major league pitcher. Harris wasn't allowed to throw lefty in a regular season game until September 28, 1995, his penultimate game with the Expos. In the ninth inning, Harris retired Reggie Sanders pitching right-handed, then switched to his left hand for the next two hitters, Hal Morris and Ed Taubensee, who both batted lefty. Harris walked Morris but got Taubensee to ground out. He then went back to his right hand to retire Bret Boone to end the inning. Harris's glove, which was custom built with an extra thumb so that it could be worn on either hand, is now on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame."

I'm just going to say what everybody already knows: We're going to have some SERIOUS salary crunch in the upcoming years and there's no way we're going to be able to keep this team intact. That means that some of our premium players are going to leave and regardless of how they leave they're not going to be here. The good news is that it frees up some salary. The bad news is that the team isn't going to be as good. If we could sign him to a one or two year contract I'd be all over it, but he'd be foolish to take that on. And we'd be foolish to offer a long term contract to someone who's rapidly approaching "past his prime" status, especially when his salary in those past-his-prime-years would hamstring us from being able to sign solid position players. Even if we sign him to a long term contract and he proves to still be effective.... he won't give us what we need because there won't be the potential saves for him..... because of his own salary!

I've always felt that the distribution of shares says a lot about how the players feel about the non-players. IIRC some (most?) teams make some allowances for clubhouse guys, etc. while some don't. Does anyone know how this gets done? Is there a meeting of a group who makes the decision as to who gets shares and who doesn't? Are some of the people who end up not getting shares present at that meeting?!!

MLB has released the value of the "shares" for the Sox (and each playoff team) after the 2018 WS. https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2018/11/26/full-share-on-world-series-champion-red-sox-tops-416000 Each share for the Sox was just shy $417M (that M is thousands in this case) and the Sox voted 66 full shares, 10.25 (?) partial shares and 8 cash awards. Do teams ever release who's getting the awards? It'd be pretty easy to determine who 25 of them are, but what about guys like Hanley? Does the PA prohibit any of the money going to guys like Cora and the rest of the coaching staff?

Don't go out on any limbs there, Doc.

Annnnd..... Here we go again!

That means absolutely 0 to me. That's not a knock on Pedey, rather it's a good thing. That's his attitude - that he's always ready to go. However, his attitude has little to do with whether his knee is actually going to be ready to go. I'm not saying it won't, but at the same time Pedey's saying that doesn't mean it will be. It only means that he wants it to be and believes it will be.

Again, Gold Bricks.

If we're talking about two guys who are essentially the same and we've got one of them why would we want to make a deal to replace him with other one?

This is something I can live with, especially considering that he won't be commanding a Harper/Trout/Mookie type salary.

...or another spiking by a cheap-shot SS.

I spent what seemed like decades watching the Sox take a late lead into a game only to see the Yankees come back and snatch another victory and then watch Yankees trolls show up rub salt in an open wound. In fact, it continues here now when Yankee trolls come here to find something.... anything... "wrong" with the Sox. One would think they'd have a life and post on their own board, but noooooo. Therefore any chance I get to return that "favor" I'm going to do it. At the end of the day it's not about the Yankees team, it's about their fans. Besides, it's fun, and part of the Red Sox culture. I like New York and I don't even dislike the Yankee players (or most of them). It's their fans I dislike.

I never thought I'd be saying this now but given the SSS of the playoffs and the fact that I'm hoping he's going to work on his defense in the off season I wouldn't be upset with seeing Devers penciled in as the starting 3B in 2019. As I've always said, I'll give up a little defense at the corners to get offense there. Devers has shown the potential to bring that offense to the position and, while nobody will confuse him with Brooks Robinson, at the same time he'll be good enough with just a little improvement. IMO Cora's comment about wanting a defensive 3B was meant to light a fire under Devers.

I've wondered how often a player is offered a guaranteed position. Would a GM make an offer to a person, say Bryce Harper, saying, "If you will come and play for us I'll promise you that you'll play Right Field in at least 150 games and bat 4th." Wouldn't that be a stupid offer to make? It would tie the manager's hands. What if Harper continued to bat ~.250 and his power started to decline? What if they guaranteed to Walker that he would be the starting 2B and Pedey made a resurgence OR Walker's offense hit a decline? Wouldn't the FO be hog-tied to that guarantee? I would sooner think Walker would be told that there's every possibility that he'd either be playing 2B or 3B in 125 or more games but the Sox wouldn't be guaranteeing anything. You have to perform to get playing time and if you do, you will.

And a happy Thanksgiving to you, my friend! Gorging one's self on food and then watching football almost mandates copious amounts of beer... doesn't it?

Even those who live in Canada!

Thanks, Manny!

I don't have any hassle with Pedey's contract. It was even a bit of a hometown discount at the time and it locked up one of the best 2B in baseball. To think that he wouldn't have done at least as well elsewhere is naive. Of course there are some risks in those long term contracts and Pedey's in particular since he plays hard and throws his body at everything. That's why the contract favored him. As with any insurance policy he was betting he'd get hurt and the FO was betting that he wouldn't. What was unforeseeable was that his career would get shortened by a cheap-shot artist spiking him in the leg and ruining his knee. Were it not for that we'd have had him for this run in 2018 as well as for 2019 and very possibly into the future, albeit with reduced playing time. The good news regarding his contract (if there is any) is that his contract peaked in 2018 @ $16M. Now it's "only" $15M, $13M & $12M until it expires in 2021.

I'm not trying to be a dick about this, but what does your post have to do with what I'm saying? After Notin's (correct) post that the original data was OPS and I used BA I looked back at the Yankees splits. In 2018 the Yankees BA was .002 better against RH pitchers than against LH pitchers. (.250 v .248) That's 11 hits spread over the 162 game season or one hit every two weeks based on their 5500 PA's. Now we're making plans for 2019. Again, is that .002 BA or that .027 OPS worthy of having decisions made because of it? Or are we getting so wrapped up in the numbers that we don't see the insignificance of some of them? And yes, I recognize that some hitters have more significant splits than others but IMO that shouldn't factor into our building a starting pitching staff for 2019. It would be more appropriate for the BP.