Fan_since_Boggs

Yeah, I think Boone is gone after the season. The Yankees fired their hitting coach and that gave us a look into Brian Cashman's demented thinking: pass the blame onto someone else. Steinbreener will never get rid of Cashman because he doesn't really care about baseball and he treats Cashman like a brother. Cashman will continue to run the Yankees until he decides to retire. I was watching that ninth inning meltdown against the Marlins. Two things stood out to me. (1) Volope should have gotten an out on that routine grounder. Instead, he fell down and by the time he got up and threw the ball it was too late. He has quick hands but limited range, making him a better fit for 2b. (2) The triple down the first base line, was I the only one to notice that Judge jogged after that ball and didn't hustle or run hard at all? Watch it again on replay--he doesn't go after the ball at full speed as if he didn't care. Is Judge's behavior and lack of effort trickling down to the rest of the team?

Bloom has set this team up to be really good for a long time. He definitely deserves another year even if the Red Sox don't make the playoffs this year. But he has to deliver next season. They have the lineup to get it done, and several stud position prospects are on the way, but where will Bloom find SP upgrades? Let's say Bello is a 3 starter, Houck/Whitlock together a 4th starter, and Crawford a 5th starter, where do the Red Sox find two SPs at the top of the rotation for 2024? I'm not counting on Sale, he is a waste of space, a sunk cost. The Red Sox need to add two quality SPs for 2024 IMO and then we can start thinking about competing for a World Series championship.

The Red Sox starting OF next year: Duran (LF), Rafaela (CF) and Abreu (RF). That should be an excellent defensive OF and Rafaela and Abreu have now proven they can hit at the AAA level. With Devers, Casas (2nd year), Yoshida (2nd year), and Story, they will have enough established hitters to carry two rookies in the OF. They can also play Yoshida from time to time in the OF, move Duran to CF or RF to give one of the rookies a day off (if struggling). In that scenario, the Red Sox should think about bringing in a veteran hitter who can DH when Yoshida plays in the OF.

109 million of wasted resources. That's remarkable. With the exception of Donaldson, all of those guys are making comparable money next year. The Yankees have the second highest payroll in baseball this year (only behind the Mets) and can't even make the playoffs. Both New York teams are a disaster, but at least the Mets had the prudence to sell off at the deadline for prospects and begin a rebuild. The Yankees (Cashman) couldn't even figure that out.

Brian Cashman sucks at his job: SP Carlos Rodón 2023 salary $27 million 2023 WAR -0.5 3B Josh Donaldson 2023 salary $25 million 2023 WAR -0.1 DH Giancarlo Stanton 2023 salary $22 million 2023 WAR 0.1 1B Anthony Rizzo 2023 salary $20 million 2023 WAR 0.6 IF DJ LeMahieu 2023 salary $15 million 2023 WAR 0.6

Boone is a good manager. If the Yankees fired him, he would get another shot with someone else. Boone is the Yankees fan whipping boy but that is because the Yankees fan base is generally uninformed. Cashman is and continues to be the problem for the Yankees. He is a terrible GM. I thought for certain the Yankees had a 1-3 year window of opportunity before the cliff but it looks like the cliff is already here. The organization is in shambles, with a terrible minor league system and old players signed to long term contracts. They need to rebuild but Cashman doesn't know how to rebuild. The last Yankees world series victory was built on excessive spending (signing Sabathia, Burnett, and Texiera) and steroids (A-Rod, Pettitte, and Cano) and so I'm not sure how much credit we would want to give Cashman for 2009. Bottom line: the Yankees have spent a fortune on payroll over the years and have little to show for it and that is on Cashman. Edit: is it true that Judge didn't get one hit in the Astros series? Once again, Judge crumbles under pressure, the guy who can't play through a minor toe injury. What a Wus!

Next year: 1b: Cascas 2b: York/Valdez/Urias compete for the starting job SS: Story 3b: Devers LF: Duran CF: Rafaela RF: platoon, Abreu/Refsnyder DH: Yoshida I'm not sure what Turner will do but many people seem to think he will test free agency. Trade Verdugo. The problem: the Red Sox need to add starting pitching, but the Mets will be all over the SPs in free agency and the Mets have heavily scouted the SP from Japan. Steve Cohen is worth 20 billion and will probably spend big after trading Scherzer and Verlander.

A couple of observations to enlighten Yankees fans. 1. How has the Sean Casey hiring worked out? 2. I finally found a good comp for Anthony Volope = he is the second coming of Wally Backman 3. What Yankees fans don't realize is that Aaron Judge is not a winning player and shouldn't be captain. First, remember how he sucked in the postseason last year? Judge chokes in big spots. Second, Judge couldn't play through a minor toe injury? Instead, Judge takes a 2 month vacation, blaming his sore toe, while the Yankees fall from contention. That isn't acceptable and a winning player would never do that. If Judge had a toe injury in 2022, you can be certain he would have played through it when he was playing for his mega-contract. Judge is a me-first player who doesn't care about the overall good of the team, that is very, very obvious. That's all I got for now, Yankees fans. Enjoy last place.

There were a lot of steroids guys on that 2009 team including A-Rod, Cano, and Pettitte. That team didn't win without cheating.

Cashman has gone too far with the run prevention players. He went all in on run prevention and sacrificed offense. That's one reason why he should be fired, but he won't be fired because Hal doesn't really care about baseball and Cashman is in complete control of the organization. The left side of the Yankees infield is ugly, with Donaldson who looks washed up, and Volope who can't hit or field (he belongs at 2b). Rizzo looks washed up, ditto for Lemahieu. We also can't overlook how the Stanton trade backfired on the Yankees. The Yankees totally took advantage of the Marlins, gave them nothing for Stanton. At the time, I thought the commissioner should have blocked the trade. The irony is that Stanton turned into a bad player on a loaded contract, someone who can't field, can't run, doesn't stay healthy, and is extremely inconsistent at the plate. But the Judge situation is even worse. He gets paid almost 400 million (or whatever he was paid) and he can't play through a toe injury? And this is the captain of the team? If this happened to Judge last year, you can be certain he would have played through it and earned the big bucks. But now that he has all of the riches in the world locked up, the loser won't even play through a toe injury. Judge = loser. The Yankees are a complete mess. There is no easy fix. They basically need to rebuild, but Cashman isn't the guy to lead the rebuild. The firing of the hitting coach has turned the Yankees into a joke in the eyes of many including many people in baseball. The idea that the hitting coach is to blame for this mess shows you how low Cashman will go to save his own reputation. And then they hire the low IQ moron in Sean Casey who can't figure anything out. I would think that Boone is next to go if the Yankees don't make the playoffs. Cashman will need another fall guy at the end of the season.

It'll be fun to watch the young players over the next few seasons--Rafaela and Yorke in 2024 and Mayer and Blaze in 2025. They Red Sox are doing a nice job developing a new core of position players, but they will need to find some SPs in free agency and I'm wondering about Casas, will he be a long term answer or not? Of course, it is possible that things will not go all that smoothly for Rafaela, Yorke, Mayer, and Blaze. They could struggle just like Casas is struggling now and make us wonder if they can succeed at the highest level.

The Red Sox should be sellers IMO. It is all about getting the team ready to compete in 2024. The 2023 team was never constructed to win a championship.

woops, How could I overlook our two stud catchers! Yeah, I would put Winckowski in the Starting Rotation this season (2023), since the Red Sox aren't seriously competing this year and see how he does. It is possible he could be part of the starting rotation next year. I like Crawford as the swing guy, the 6th starter.

Could the Red Sox look something like this in 2024? 1b: Casas 2b: Yorke Ss: Story 3b: Devers LF: Yoshida CF: Rafaela RF: Abreu DH: Valdez/Turner 4th OF: Duran Trade: Verdugo Starting rotation: Whitlock Bello Houck ??? ??? In free agency, spend big on two starting pitchers. The Red Sox really need Casas to develop, but I'm worried about him. If we could redo the offseason, I would want the Red Sox to trade Casas for a young starter. If Casas turns into a bust, the Red Sox will need a 1b next year. Blaze won't be ready next year. Hopefully, Casas will show some major improvement before the 2023 season is over. Also, I'm not counting on Sale in 2024. He is a sunk cost. Maybe I would move him to the bullpen. Either way, can't count on him. Mayer and Blaze will be ready in 2025.

Does Pivetta get non-tendered next year? It is certainly hard to see where he would have a spot in the rotation with Sale, Bello, Whitlock, Houck taking up 4 rotation spots and the Red Sox will likely pursue a big time starter in free agency.

Not sure when Story is expected to return this year, but I see Valdez and Story as the starting double play combination next year. And Abreu could be starting in RF next year. That Vazquez trade might prove to be a brilliant move.

Volope back under .200 and has an OPS+ of 75. How much longer do the Yankees go with this guy? I suspect the Yankees will be targeting a SS at the trade deadline.

The thing about Yamamoto is that even though he is 5'10" he is only 24 years old and the Red Sox would have him through his prime seasons. It is not like they would give him a 15 year contract. A 6 year contract is a more reasonable expectation. So even if it is true that smaller starting pitchers don't age as well as bigger guys, the Red Sox wouldn't have to worry about that for the first contract.

The best I could do: Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Glavine had one exceptional year after age 33 and several pretty good years. Maddux had several exceptional seasons after age 33. Both are listed as 6'0" while Pedro is listed as 5'11" I think Maddux is the best example of a smaller pitcher who continued to have dominant seasons after 33, but it is hard to find these guys.

From the age of 33 onwards, pedro only had one exceptional year, proving that Theo was right to not resign him. In contrast, Justin Verlander has had about 5 exceptional years from age 33 onwards. Steve Carlton had about 5 exceptional years from 33 onwards. Randy Johnson had about 5-10 exceptional years from 33 onwards. The same thing is true of Nolan Ryan. Can we find a smaller pitcher, comparable to Pedro in size, who did what Justin Verlander, Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan did from age 33 onwards?

Although, what is interesting about Pedro is that while he was an incredibly talented and dominant starter for a period of time, his decline set in perhaps a little earlier than you might expect and that could have been due to his smaller stature. For the Mets, Pedro only had one big year, he is pretty mediocre beyond that one big year--injuries and ineffectiveness--and one could also argue that Pedro began declining in his last year as a Red Sox. In contrast to Pedro, Randy Johnson's dominance continued for a longer period of time in his 30s and maybe this had something to do with Randy Johnson being a bigger pitcher than Pedro. How many great seasons did Pedro have from age 32 (last year with Boston) to the end of his career? Not as many as we might expect. I think Pedro reinforces the point that you don't want smaller SPs, you want bigger bodies. If you have a really good SP, but small like Pedro, you might not want to sign that pitcher to a long term deal that would take that pitcher into his mid-30s.

Yamamoto is 24 years old, that is nice. But he is 5'10" and I don't know how that plays with the Red Sox front office. So many scouts today prefer the bigger SP, the 6'3 or 6'4 guy.

The problem with the Yankees is that their window is going to close relatively soon as Judge and Stanton get older. The Yankees have poured so much money into this team (the second highest payroll), they won't have a lot of financial flexibility going forward as they begin to fall behind better run teams in the AL East. The Yankees need to win now and are built to win now. In comparison, the Red Sox are building for the future and are in the process of creating a window that will yield multiple years of success, probably championships. Volope has a terrible (but predictable) OPS+ of 77. And the Yankees are batting this loser in the leadoff spot. That is just unacceptable and speaks to the Yankees poor management. On a better team, Volope is in the minor leagues learning to play 2b and trying to develop a hit tool. Fortunately for the Red Sox, they don't have to worry about problems like this--the Red Sox have the best SS prospect in all of baseball and he could be ready to go as soon as next year.

Good stuff. It definitely sounds like Yamamoto should be the Red Sox's target. The Red Sox will have the money for him too. Get an ace like Yamamoto and surround him with developing pitchers like Bello, Whitlock, Houck, and Drohan, and the Red Sox could finally have a championship caliber starting staff.

I like it when a team adopts a name that is rooted in the history of the city/state where the team plays, and that is why I would like to see the A's change their name to something else. The best example of this would be the San Francisco 49ers. The gold rush was such a fascinating period in U.S. history and gave birth to the city of San Francisco. In turn, the football team called themselves the 49ers, the term that described the people who rushed out to northern California looking for gold beginning in 1849. Cool stuff. I guess someone could argue that the name "Athletics" is part of baseball history and that the A's should maintain historical continuity for the sake of baseball history. That is a fair point too. Good point on the Buffalo Bills, a strange name for a team in western NY. I wonder what the story is behind the name and why was it adopted over other choices?