dgalehouse

Everything is relative. A lot of these guys are on the fringes . In and out of MLB . Not really good enough to stick and make a career out of their profession.

Exactly. If the small time Charlies want to sing the blues , let them spend the bucks and improve their team . Let them sell out the ballpark every night . There are no poverty cases among MLB owners.

It does help the winning percentage when the " trash " plays the other " trash ." As for them being " better at baseball than any of us are at anything " ; I'm not sure about that . That covers a lot of territory. Anyway , in the words of baseball's resident Nutty Professor, Bill ( The Dork ) James , they are all replaceable.

I grew tired of complaining that the Yankees " bought the pennant " a long time ago . I wouldn't want to go back to those days .

For the Sox , it has been the most idle , inactive post season since 2013 / 2014 . I am kind of disappointed, but still looking forward to opening day and hoping we can once again win the A.L. East .

Actually, it is not easy to lose to some of the trash populating the lower level of the A.L.

The Cooler .

He may not be the most likable guy , but a " cancer " ? Actually, that is kind of my point. People act like he is Public Enemy No. 1 . But many others have done much worse .

From what I can see , Carlos Pena is clearly better than Salty or Gomes .

I don't understand that. If the Yankees got Machado, it would make them that much harder to beat . How is that good ?

We are all pulling for Matt Barnes to be our next closer . Barnes fired a fastball at Machado's head . Very dirty . Very dangerous. Pedro routinely threw at guys . I don't condone any dirty play . But , as I said , Machado has become a convenient target .

All overhyped. If he was with the Sox , especially if he helped win a title , we would be hearing that he is a hard nosed , aggressive player who wants to win . And we would hear that he does hustle when it matters . But he has become a convenient target for hypocritical fans . Double standards are everywhere.

Machado is an excellent ballplayer. He would probably fit somewhere in the level below Trout and Betts . The whole thing about his being a punk is very overhyped. Sure , the Padres might wind up regretting this signing , but I give them a lot of credit for taking the chance . As the saying goes ; " No guts , no glory ."

All the tough talk is meaningless. Red Sox vs Yankee trash talk that we have heard a million times. All point of view stuff . The season will start soon . In the words of noted boxing referee , Mills Lane ; " Let's get it on ."

I think Devers has the potential to be a really good hitter. It's a learning process, but the ability is there .

That's not the point. It's the ifs, ands or buts that make up most of the debate talking points. That is how it is supposed to be. And I am not really saying that we could have won it all without Sale . Just trying to make the point that you can find some numbers to support many different positions. Plain common sense would tell you that Sale was an integral part of the championship team .

Okay . But you could say that about almost everything. There are always going to be many ifs , ands or buts.

' Okay . So , the team could have gone 11 - 16 in the aforementioned jabroni 's starts and still won the division.

I get that . And I certainly don't mind being messed with for some of my off beat ideas . Still , after all is said and done , wins and losses are the bottom line . The advanced metrics and the other stats are really just a means of trying to understand how that bottom line was reached .

Chris Sale was 12 - 4 last season . We could have replaced him with some jabroni who went 5-11 and still won the division. And Chris had a somewhat less than stellar post season . So we could have won without him there as well . Now , this is not to take anything away from Sale , who is a truly great pitcher. And it is by no means a suggestion to let him walk . It is merely an attempt to show how one can play around with numbers to " prove " even the most ludicrous statements .

It goes without saying that Sale is a great pitcher . I do think there are legitimate concerns about his health and durability.

Should be interesting to see if Boras can get a better deal for Harper. On the face of it , Machado is the better player of the two .

A tip of the fedora to the Padres for breaking the logjam and taking a gamble in an attempt to improve their team and , hopefully, make a run at the Dodgers. And a good day for San Diego fans who lost their football team to L.A . recently. And very good to see Machado not go to New York. We didn't need that . Expect Harper to sign shortly , probably with Philly .

The unbridled enthusiasm is perfectly understandable considering the juggernaut the Sox were last season . But is it realistic ? The Sox lost their closer and also another high velocity arm from the bullpen. That is 128 innings and 44 saves to somehow make up . Next to nothing was done to compensate for these losses . Reason being , the owner has reached the limit of his willingness to spend on the team . And you really can't blame him for that . As far as expecting other players to improve on past performance , fine but that is something any team can say , and not something you can really count on . To me , although at least a wild card berth is almost a forgone conclusion, there is legitimate concern about winning the division again . And saying that we are better than last year is not based on solid ground. Vegas has now made the Yankees and Astros a slight favorite over the Sox . And let me remind you again that I am always the reasonably optimistic one . Some of those who are teeming with optimism now are usually the first ones to freak out when things go even slightly wrong .

That is why they play the games . We will find out soon enough . Right now , I simply don't see how we are as good or better than last year . And I think that is a very pragmatic view .