oldtimer

Typical E-Rod with high pitch count and only in the 4th inning. Only one walk, so he continues to nibble. I though he and Cora were discussing this and going to alter e-rods thinking. Nothing seems different. Bad habits die hard.

I just went back to read the in game thread and now will need electroshock treatment to get over a bad case of depression. The Sox came back to win one. Swihart hit well, the pen was good again, a few others finally got some important hits. I'll take it as a omen of things to come. God bless us every one!

Maybe the question that should be asked is, Was the Spring Training preparation adequate? There was very little opportunity for the Starters to work the bugs out and very little time for the starting field players to be in as a unit. Also, starting on a long road trip can't be helpful. It is what it is, so the guys have to suck it up and start to play winning ball. Don't want to see us in a big hole going into May.

Not a good start by the team. Sale and the BP did the job but 7 hits without a run. This team needs to get it going.

We are going to run out of people to blame and its only April 2nd. Its the starting pitchers, no Hembree sucks, no its the hitters (some are fat), no its Devers who will break the seasons errors for a ML 3rd baseman. It must be Cora, lets blame him.

Looks like Devers error rate could be high again. May increase the pressure to move him to 1st for 2020

Hard to believe they could be that bad. Not all of them. Just crazy bad numbers for a season start, and yet our BP was pretty good. So its something to do with the preparation with our starters. If Price sucks, we will at least show consistency.

Strange how what sounded like out pitching strength, the starters, have had a rough go and the BP came through at least last night. Baseball is confusing and unpredictable in the short term but in the long term things will be okay.

Perhaps it's short for fantasy!

I watch "The Damn Yankees" every year just prior to the season. Kind of like a kickoff to the season. Young people may not know that one (Whatever Lola Wants).

I also like this lineup. Devers, JBJ and Nunez have been talked up as the most likely to improve over last year. Now we will see how well the lineup functions and of course we need to be patient with them. Pearce and Pedroia will add to the lineup when they return from the first road trip.

Hope the regulars start hitting and the pitchers get back in the groove. The season is uponn us.

So with Pearce and Pedroia starting the season on the DL, we will go with 12 field players with Travis, Holt and Nunez filling in and 13 pitchers. Not getting either Pearce or Pedroia back during the first 10 days of the season.

I am hopeful that Beni will hit to all fields more often than last season. Maybe it's the wall, but I thought he tried to hit to left much of the time and that he took away a significant amount of his power by doing so. I don't see him as a power hitter, but do believe if he can spray the ball he will get more hits. He could go from a good hitter to a top of the line average hitter.

It looks like Cora and or DD made the decision after a long deliberation. They know more than we do and I trust their decision.

When do the Sox need to make the decision to keep either Leon's or Swihart's salary off the books? Is it Tuesday?

Something to be said for maintaing a consistent batting order as starting pitchers these days often only go 5 innings anyway.

If Mookie gets the same amount of ABs in 2019 as last season, he will be paid the equivalent of $38,500 for each AB not counting benefits. Sounds like a living wage to me. I prefer him betting 2nd in our iineup but don't see an enormous benefit either for 1st or 2nd.

That wasn't an option in the poll!

The performance of players leading up to their FA year will have a lot to do in determining their worth. For Betts, it is a crap shoot and he is betting on a sustained level of performance to give him substantially more than $20 mil AAV for 8 years. If his performance is sustained, we benefit from it but then will probably have to match $35 mil AAV for 10 years. That would send me looking for alternatives.

You misread what I said, which is that what our regular players don't perform well in spring training, how can we expect them to flip a switch when the season begins. I am not bothered at all by win/loss records.

I grew up in Mass and later moved to upstate NY. Both had cold and snowy winters. We bought in Florida as a 6 months a year home and then sold out of NY and landed in the mountains of NC. Best of both worlds, not too hot in the summer and warm in the winters.

Spring Training is winding down and soon the meaningful games will begin. Every team is hopeful at this point and some have justification to be hopeful, as do the Sox. Being an older fan, I tend to look to eyeball tests and accumulated wisdom tomake judgments, but also realize the statistical approach has its place. DD and the front office must have to use the statistical approach primarily to structure the team but how do they really look at making those judgments? 1. They have an amount of money to spend based on the competitive balance tax. That amount is known and they may exceed it but need to reset to it to avoid serious penalties. Hopefully they never exceed the second tier unless perhaps they foresee a championship. 2. They have to apportion the spending to cover 13 field players and 12 pitchers, with room to allow for adjustments based on the inevitable injuries and major underperformance. They also have to account for dead money contracts (ala Pablo and Justin last year). In addition there are non salary related costs to consider. 3. How do they look at apportionment? Probably based on WAR as the major guideline. I have always been a little confused by that term. If I had all 0 WAR guys on the team, does it mean I can win 81 games per year? If so, I would look to have some guys who would contribute to the 25 WAR number needed to be a champion. If I was DD, in simplistic terms I could pay a percentage of the money left in the competitive balance tax maximum over what a group of 0 WAR guys would earn, based on the contribution to the necessary additional WAR. It doesn't appear to make sense that you can pay that way as the big stars gets so large a slice of the pie that there isn't enough for the remaqining guys. In reality, young stars coming up get significcantly less than their value so a consttant stream of them is needed to keep a team competitive while staying under the competitive balance cap. 4. Team balance is also needed and DD has got to keep a functional team throughout the season. Utility players and call ups need to be budgeted for. 5. Risk assessment has got to be a key area Risk includes health, injuries and declining performance. The front office probably has a model for declining performance and can see from injury histories the liklihood of lost time duriing the year. Risk has to go up for a player if long term contracts are given as the models are probably less reliable over longer terms. The larger the contract given and the span of time envisioned increases the risk involved to the team achieving its goal of winning a championship. 6. There is also a Chaos factor involved in any decision. One that is unpredicatable. That can come in and throw all the good planning into a mess. So given this line of thinking, first is it sound? If sound, then what would I advise? 1. Get rid of all underperformers based on WAR rating 2. Avoid long term contracts with the term of contract based on the age of the player. Maybe 10 years for a star 25 or 26 years old. years for a guy just past 30 and 2 or 3 years max for those 33 years old. If the contract demand exceed value to thee team, trade the player. 3. Put money and effort into the farm team and develop ew young players who can make contributions beyond their cost. 4. Reset the competitive balance tax limit (at least as long as there is one) to enhance the ability to strengthen the farm team. How this thinking applies to our existing players is the big question. Is Mookie worth $35 million AAV for 10 years? Similar questions for JDM, Bogaerts and so on. Tough position to be in as a top exceutive. Money Ball suggests a way of thinking that has a hard edge but one that makes some sense.

I too believe he has a lot of upside this year. He is probably our best hope for improvement with JBJ being second in that parade and maybe Nunez third, since he is supposedly recovered from his leg injury.

The going rate where I live is $3500 a month and may be higher on the coast. Three month rentals are required if you can find one.