Fan_since_Boggs

The problem with Sonny Gray is he couldn't handle the pressure of New York and so I worry about him in Boston. Ohtani would be the guy but he will cost a fortune, the most expensive contract ever, and I don't see him leaving the West Coast. Then again, if the Mets continue to suck this year, does Steve Cohen make a crazy offer to get him? If the Red Sox can get an ace and a solid #2 out of Bello, Whitlock, and Drohan, that will make things much easier and they won't have to look to free agency or the trade market for a top starter.

I like that--the Las Vegas Strippers or the Las Vegas Card Counters. The other option would be the Las Vegas Brothels. Along with a casino at the stadium, they could add a brothel as an extra amenity and watch the money roll in. It would give guys something to do in-between innings. I've heard that the stadium would come equipped with a retractable roof to handle extreme weather conditions. I wonder what will happen to the Oakland Coliseum when the A's leave. Do they tear it down and build condos? If the Red Sox left Boston and became the Las Vegas Red Sox, would I continue to root for them or would I simply root for the new team in Boston? I'm not sure what I would do, but it will never happen. The problem with Oakland is that they will never get another baseball team and so what does the fan do, continue to root for the team in Las Vegas, stop following baseball, or root for the Giants? When the A's leave Oakland, the Giants should benefit from that and maybe that will factor in as soon as this offseason when the Giants make a push for signing Ohtani. When the Giants and Dodgers left New York, the Mets came to town and some of the fans who once rooted for the Giants and Dodgers turned to the Mets.

Las Vegas population: almost 650,000 Oakland population: around 430,000 And if they build the ballpark in the right spot in Las Vegas, near the casinos, the park should attract many visitors, people who come to Las Vegas from different parts of the country. Who goes out of their way to take a trip to Oakland, CA? Surely, more people take vacations/trips to Las Vegas.

I see Drohan and Bello as the two best young SPs in the organization, and both will hopefully be key contributors for a long time. What is the long term prognostication for Whitlock? Will he turn into a dependable starter or will he spend the bulk of his career in the bullpen? He is always hurt and that could impact his future as a starting pitcher. What is the long term prognostication for Houck? I like him but will he be a better long term fit for the bullpen? What is the long term prognostication for Winckowski? Will he ever return to the starting rotation or will he be a reliever going forward? Is there another SP in the Red Sox farm system that you think will be a long term pitcher in the Red Sox starting rotation? Who should I be watching at this stage as he moves up the ladder in the farm system?

The development of Drohan is an exciting thing, hope he keeps it up. With Drohan and Bello, the Red Sox have two really good young SP for years to come, hopefully top of the rotation guys.

I think this is a good move for the A's organization. (1) Las Vegas has a larger population than Oakland. (2) More out of town people come to Las Vegas than Oakland, and that should help with attendance especially if it is a really nice park with a lot of extras. Can they set up a gambling casino in the park with a big screen TV and have people bet on the game as it is going on? (3) It sounds like they plan to keep the name Athletics. I'm not sure if that is a great idea. The Las Vegas Raiders sounds good, but the Las Vegas Athletics? Yuck. How about the Las Vegas Gamblers? I like that and the residential population will like it too. Or how about the Las Vegas Aces? That's even better. If they call themselves the Las Vegas Aces, they can keep the same hat and logo with the A. Aces refers to card games, but can also refer to ballplayers or a pitching staff more specifically. The name "Athletics" has been in MLB since the early 1900s, I get that, but there are better options for Las Vegas.

The last place Yankees play the last place A's. But hey at least the A's aren't spending like 300 million dollars. Volope looks like the kind of player who would bat leadoff on a last place team. Oh that's right, that's exactly what Volope is doing. The Red Sox fans got lucky last year when Judge had a season for the ages. That forced the Yankees to invest big bucks in Judge and he looks like the kind of player who will have injury problems going forward, just like Stanton.

The Yankees with the second highest payroll in baseball and yet are a last place team. In the meantime, the struggling Mets have the highest payroll in baseball and are led by a GM who worked under Cashman. The Yankees front office is rotten to the core. Time has passed Cashman by and the Yankees need a fresh perspective on things. Cashman has never been able to consistently evaluate pitchers and has a history of either overlooking injury issues (Montas, Rondon) or make-up (Gray). I think Boone is a pretty good manager and gets the most out of Cashman's idiotic moves, but the organization can't go forward with Cashman at the helm. The garbage rookie SS that the Yankees trot out there every game, Volope, this is prospect that Cashman wouldn't trade last year? Volope sucks, he doesn't have the athleticism for SS (he belongs at 2b) and I'm not sure if he is ever going to hit. Cashman has this thing for prospects--he consistently overvalues the Yankees prospects, even a lousy one like Volope. The Yankees will never get rid of Cashman but the Mets will surely dump Cashman's protegee in the offseason if the team doesn't improve.

I wonder if the Red Sox dumped Hosmer because they would rather bring in Dominic Smith, a player they tried to trade for last season.

Judge didn't do anything wrong on that play. He went after the ball and when called off, he moved out of the way--he didn't collide with Bader, didn't make physical contact with Bader. Bader dropped a ball he should have caught. Due to the crowd noise (playoff game) Judge may not have heard Bader until the two converged on the ball, but these things are never perfect. Judge got out of the way in time and it was Bader's responsibility to catch the ball. Judge is definitely getting over 300 million and some have speculated that it could be closer to 400 million than 300 million. I seriously doubt Steinbreener doesn't bring him back on a massive long term deal and so this will be good for the Red Sox and bad for the Yankees.

Some observations: (1) M.Kay really went after Boone in the postgame on YES Network (Jack Curry, who is Kay's sycophant, did the same thing). There is speculation that Kay would only do this with permission from above. Some are saying that Boone is gone after the Yankees lose the series to the Astros. Could Donnie Baseball return to New York? (2) Kay was wrong. Cole was up to around 95 pitches and he hung at least one slider that inning, evidence he was getting tired. Also, Cole had good stuff that game, but his location was far from ideal. He threw too many pitches, and was helped out enormously by the Astros chasing pitches out of the zone. Cole did not have a great start, great stuff, yes, but poor location and it could have gone much worse for Cole if the Astros didn't chase. If Boone leaves Cole in in that spot, and Cole gives up a big hit (very possible), Boone would be heavily criticized for keeping Cole in. At the end of the day, Boone's decision was not all that unreasonable even though it didn't work out. If Cole pitched like a true ace, Boone doesn't have to make a hard decision there. (3) Cashman traded for Montas, an SP with a barking shoulder, and didn't acquire Castillo, a dominant starter and that poor decision is on Cashman. (4) What the hell is going on with H.Bader and his mouthpiece? How many closeups do we need of Bader's face with Bader chewing on his mouthpiece? Bader is the most disgusting person. MLB needs to do something about the situation--fine Bader for being gross.

Two additional notes: Niko Kavadas takes over at DH in 2024. Ceddanne Rafaela takes over in CF in 2024.

Could Niko Kavadas turn into a future starting DH for the Red Sox? The Red Sox offense has gotten away from a disciplined approach and Kavadas is a guy who takes pitches, gets walks, and has power. He can't field. He isn't going to be ready in 2023, but he could be ready in 2024.

Now that Casas has been promoted, we know one piece of the puzzle for 2023. 1b: Casas 2b: Story SS: Correa 3b: Devers C: Wong/Mcguire LF: Verdugo CF: Hernandez (one year deal) RF: ??? a platoon combination of T.Naquin and someone else? DH: ??? but NOT JD Martinez; maybe the youngster Valdez? Or sign a veteran hitter to a one year contract?

Perhaps the Red Sox intend to move Winckowski to the bullpen. On the other hand, it is probably too early to give up on him as a starter.

The genius that is Chair Bloom. How many more moves of his will not work out before his next birthday?

You wonder if things will get ugly enough for the Red Sox this year, convincing John Henry to part ways with Bloom after the season. It is so hard to say, Henry is (and has been) so mercurial with his GMs.

Like most Red Sox fans, I would rejoice if Theo returned. Even though he has made mistakes--big mistakes with some contracts--and never proved he could win a championship on a small payroll, he is still a talented GM. However, Theo seems to be on to other things and probably isn't interested in being a GM anymore. The Braves are an excellent organization. They have been able to develop stud players, just remarkable, and unlike the Rays, the Braves actually won a World Series. If the Red Sox dump Bloom, the Braves might be a good organization to find the next Red Sox GM.

The stupidity of Brian Cashman rears its ugly head. The post-trade numbers of Montgomery and Montas: Montgomery 16.2 IP, 3 BB, 17 Ks, 1 ER, 0.56 ERA Montas 14 IP, 6 BB, 8 Ks, 14 ER, 9.00 ERA I thought the goal of the trade deadline was to make your team stronger?

Even if Duran makes an out, I'm happy they kept him in against the lefty and didn't pinch hit with Doofus Dalbec.

Take a chill pill, Jackson. Geez, I make an observation on a relief pitcher and you freak out. Remember what I said a few months ago: "the Yankees were peaking at the wrong time" and you said I didn't know what I was talking about. But how wise my words seem now!

JD looks like he needs to retire. He has really aged over the last few months. And there were people who were saying the Red Sox would making JD a QO. Never in a million years.

Oh baby, I'm smellin' it. In the offseason, the Red Sox will ship Duran to the Padres for Tatis and 300 million. The Red Sox will have their SS replacement and will reunite Tatis and Hosmer. Yeah, you have to wonder about Tatis now. They use to say that A-Rod was the greatest high school prospect in the history of baseball. But some have speculated that A-Rod starting taking PEDs in high school and so maybe A-Rod wasn't the greatest high school prospect in the history of baseball and that the PEDs just made him look like he was. Cano completely fell off the cliff without the PEDs. He was getting older too, but still, his numbers completely fell off the cliff and we know that Cano was not taking PEDs this year since this was the last year of his big contract and he wasn't going to risk losing out on the money.

The Red Sox have one of the worst OFs in all of baseball in terms of offensive production (bottom tier). The Red Sox have one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball (bottom tier). While I don't have the stats on the 1b position, I'm assuming the Red Sox are really really awful at the 1b position relative to the rest of the league. This is Bloom's fault. The GM should be competent enough to avoid multiple bottom tier scenarios.

Clearly the league has adjusted to Holmes and are making him throw strikes rather than chasing. Holmes is having a problem with his control. And when you force a pitcher to throw more strikes, that pitcher is going to get hit more anyway.