oldtimer

I would think of Chatham as a utility player with Chavis at 2nd and Dalbec at first (supplemented by a veteran left handed first baseman who could be Moreland)

From what I read of the result of the Arizona league, the side of the strike zone calls were good but where the difference occurs is balls that dive down and catch the front of the strike zone and wind up in the dirt at the catcher. With human decision making, those would be balls. The players who were interviewed indicate that pitch would require more adjustments. It seems that the high tech approach is at least consistent and wouldn't be impacted by hurt feelings or dizziness, blinking or other human frailties.

I'm hopeful he will direct the staff to get away from issuing the most BoBs in the league. Lets try to throw more strikes and show the door to those who cannot. I hate it when a Boston reliever comes in late with a multi-run lead and proceeds to walk several batters. Kimbrel got that way and did Lelly, Barnes and others. Had to be at least partly coaching at play. Hope the new guy, having been a pitcher can help us improve in that regard.

I see the so-call robo pitch calling as a tool to aid the umpire do his or her job. Clearly, it has the potential to be far more accurate and less controversial. After another year of watching erroneous calls impact games and perhaps even the series outcome last night I have become more in favor. It has already been tested in two minor league applications, so the time for implementation in the majors is getting close.

Don't know where to put this but in watching the WS last night, the importance of getting ball and strike calls correct was brought home to me again. MLB had put the umpire behind the plate that had graded best on getting ball and strike calls correct and yet humans blink and can otherwise get things wrong at times. One such time occured in the 7th inning. Greinke had given up a homer to Rendon and had the dangerous Soto at bat. The count was 1 and 1. Greinke threw a sinking pitch to Soto that was well within the strike zone and should be made the count 1 and 2, a pitchers count. Greinke grimaced at the call of ball and then tried to nibble and lost Soto. He was removed from the game and the rest is history. It wasn't the only bum call as Correra was called out on strikes on a pitch that was several inches inside. I know there will be boo-hiss comments from those who would not favor robo-umps but you could make a case that the WS outcome was altered by a bad call when the technology was there to avoid the issue. I don't know if it will be brought up in the news but maybe it should be.

When he winds up in some god forsaken backwater for the most money, you will have your answer.

Now there is talk of a potential trade of one of our starting pitchers to the Texas Rangers. Could be Price but also could be Sale.

Then there is a chance his health will deteriorate and his season numbers in 2020 will be worse. He has to weigh both possibilities. Its one of those bird in the hand scenarios.

Would you rather have onne 7 win guy and three 1 win guys or four 2.5 win guys? The 7 win guy, you may have to tie up your money for 10 years to sign him. Personally, the chance of declining performance due to injury is higher for one 7 win guy.

This isn't fast pitch softball where you can have one dominant player and still win. Eddie (the King) and his court don't work in MLBB.

In reality, a first tier competitive balance tax of $208 mil means $208 Mil less about $15 mil for benefits and some amount for wiggle room needs to be left for mid season adjustments. If one choose $6 mil you really have $208 less $21 or $187 Mil for salaries and that has to include the 40 man roster over the 26 man. I agree for planning sakes that the team needs to decide on a heirachy of spending by position criticality. How that is done is part of the planning that FO needs to develop. To make this plan work, a number of low cost players need to be brought up through the conduit of the farm system on a yearly basis. Name a number (3, 4 or 5). Hard for a team in the upper echelon of competitiveness to develop enough farm to MLB's consistently to fill the need. Getting a few low cost FA's is an alternative. The current Sox are in a bad position, with Pedey all but done and still on the books. They there are Price, Sale and Eovaldi all making big money and on long term contracts. Then Bogaerts at $20 Mil and JDM at $24 mil and Betts natuarally wanting to be paid according to his perceived value. It doesn't work and that is what Bloom is facing in his first year. I can see the Sox going over the first tier, but not to be smewhat competitive. Bloom is facing tough decisions to return the payroll to a more sustainable amount while keeping the club competitive. Oakland and the Rays did it and on a much lower total salary basis.

For those with an interest in our farm and the progress of some of our standouts, I recommend reading the following: https://www.milb.com/milb/news/triston-casas-jarren-duran-carry-boston-red-sox-organization-all-stars/c-311011996

A couple of high interest minor league pitchers not mentioned are Mata and Houck. If either caqn fill a starter role we are in much better shape. I would hope the new pitching coach, reportedly Buch, will change the basic approach to more aggressive command of the strike zone. I didn't like the high walk rate we had last season.

I didn't think a lot of fans pointed at DD for this years failures. That had to be placed primarily on the players and coaches. DD was constrained by the budget limitations (those he helped create) but that was the primary arrea of blame. What I thought most fans were saying is that DD's methods would not be the best approach for dealing with a team with a bloated payroll, a weak farm and a number of underperforming contracts. Clearly the ownership is looking for a reset this year and someone more suited to making that happen, while starting to rebuild the farm was sought. Bloom is a guy who appears to meet those traits, so without blaming DD we are moving on to different methods.

The Yankees are carrying a big payroll and need starting pitching. They certainly had underperforming contracts. I would expect Cashman to make moves in the off season but he will be contrained unless the Yankees want to exceed the second tier. Our pill will start to be swallowed in 2020 and depending on how well Bloom and the front office stay with the plan, I expect we will stay competitive. Quite a bit will depend on Sale and Price. Anything from Eovaldi will be a bonus.

I will be happy if Bloom can start us on the path to a better farm, keep us somewhat competitive and also start the process of recovering from DD's excesses. I do not believe all that can be done in a year or even two, but I want to see a positive direction. When we get closer to championship quality, we can spend the money after making the effort to reset first.

So, the FO seems to be determined and no doubt Chaim will need to have a period to develop an understanding of the personnel and coaches and learn the opinions of the other FO and owership views. Maybe he is a quick study, but it will no doubt take time. The first key event will be forced by JDM's opt out clause which may be exercised no later than 5 days after the WS. After that, the big opportunity will come up during the winter meetings from Dec 9th through 12th. It will be interesting to see what the intervening period will hold as far as coaching and player changes. I do think the aim will be to drop below the first tier of the competitive balance tax, but not to waste the good young talent that we currently have. It will be an interesting ride.

I wouldn't use your word as we don't know who will fill in at the DH position and what their capability would be. JDM is special, so there would likely be an effect, but devasatation is probably an overstatement.

Those appear to be the titles. How they in fact work together is yet to be defined. Does the GM run the budgetary side and baseball operations look to talent. Seems like the two overlap to a significant degree.

Certainly glad the important GM position has been filled and by a reportedly smart hire. I am also happy the hire was made from outside the existing organization as I believe we need an independent thijnker during this difficult period of meeting salary goals while rebuilding the farm. Good luck as this will not be an easy task.

Depends on what people mean by results. I'd be happy to see the farm improve year to year and the team reset for 2020 while staying at least somewhat competitive. A lot will depend on the performance of Sale, Price and Eovaldi.

I don't think Beni's weight increase impacted his hitting as much as his defense. He does plan to slim down somewhat for next season and that should help his speed. Beni had a good two week period and then lost it in aug and sept. Did the hitting coaches try to work with him? Maybe its like theAA for Beni in that first he had to admit he had a problem, before he believed he needed to make changes. He has taleny, and we fans need patience.

Sounds like he feels he was cut out of the input on decision making. If true, there is more going on behind the scenes than we know. I was also 70 when I retired as a consultant to a major techincal firm. I too felt I was cut out of the main decision making and because of my history they wanted to say I was on board but didn't want my experience and input. Hard to know what it means but it may be significant.

The problem with an internal hire is that four people have or think they have equal sway in the decision making process. That sounds like a comittee to me, and committees decision making is often the butt of jokes. Whoever gets the inside job would have the other three used to having equal sway and possibly delay or turn the choice to the least objectionable to the committee. An outsider would have the clear choice in decision making. While the Sox could keep their offense and be competitive in run scoring and probably defense, the cost would push us to or over the second tier off the competitive balance tax. Maybe by keeping Moreland and Holt and choosing from Hernandez, Chavis, Dalbec and Chatham from the farm and we would have no additional needs. I assume Leon would stay under that scenario. On the other hand, the Red Sox Pitching is probably not competitive in 2020, even if Porcello were to be replaced with another FA starter and we try to bring up either Mata, Houck and or Johnson. Too much unknown there to risk having to go over the second competitive balance tax. JH already has reacted to that saying he wants the reset. Clearly our relief pitching would also need some refreshment as well. Generally, we talked about the need for maintaining a strong farm team to allow 3 or 4 players to move up each year to be supplemented with FA's and through trades. Having a very low ranked farm puts us in a weak position going forward. Just one more reason to reset now. Moon has said it as have others. Get a GM who buys into the vision of improving the team by trading away assets that can't help us in 2021 and later. A positive spin on that would be to keep players who can help us. Play out long term contracts that were perhaps foolishly made and bolster the farm. These are not the most popular things to do as they require the Sox to be somewhat less competitive in the short run. Part of the process includes bring ing up some of the most ML ready farm players. Just because we have a weak farm doesn't mean all of the players are weak. We should have done more of that this year but I suppose the FO didn't want to burn arb years or the like. So.. 1. Hire and top notch GM from outside but one that buys into a rebuilding process. 2. Trade away assets that won't be there to help us in 2021 and beyond. 3. Rebuild the farm 4. Avoid long term and expensive contracts except for very special cases. (Especially true for pitchers who have the wear of many seasons on their arms)

We quickly need to sign a GM who can and will make the difficult moves necessary to direct the club into the path of recovery. Who will that person be? Perhaps ownership will not recognize the need for a stellar GM. Things will start to happen at an accelerated pace following the WS, which may even end this weekend.