5GoldGlovesOF,75
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Everything posted by 5GoldGlovesOF,75
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That's funny. And then it's not.
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Can we play Baltimore 30 times?
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Oppo!
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Professional hitters adjust and put the bat on the ball. Still waiting for the first Red Sox batter to make hard contact this season... I'm feeling it will come in the bottom of the 3rd.
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I was thinking what my first game thread post should be... and thought about my hopes for a new season. First goal: watching less strikeouts for Red Sox batters. No flailing one-handed at 79-mph change-ups. I flailed.
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Instead, the team that needed pitching more than anything got no pitching in exchange for the best player. LA is loaded with good-looking young arms, and Bloom couldn't pry one loose, then had to initially agree to take one from the Twins? A lot of people surmise Bloom was hired to trade Mookie, but I also suspect he was ordered to get rid of Price, and the only taker was the new GM's old boss: "Sure, Chaim, we'll take Price off your hands -- but forget about getting any of our pitchers." -
There's fan loyalty and nostalgia -- and the professional game better respect both if they want to still have a professional game.
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A Realistic View at 2020: Part II
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to moonslav59's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
Good debate: '18 vs. '04. Both led by a pair of borderline Hall of Famers -- Sale and Price, Schilling and Martinez -- followed by solid vets in Porcello and Wakefield, young contributors in ERod and Arroyo, and postseason heroes in Eovaldi and Lowe. '04 gets the edge in durability; 157 games started by five guys (a record that may never be broken, especially now that Bloom's on board). -
A Realistic View at 2020: Part II
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to moonslav59's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
6) Video man banned from video room. -
I think there will always been opposing views in what's considered fair MLB market value -- the fans' incredulity about someone paid kajillions to play a game or what owners are willing to shell out. I never disagreed with Betts that he should get every cent he's earned or that's he's worth more than Harper or Machado. It just stings he was so adamant about being a free agent, and then a day before playing his first game for LA he signs an extension. I'm not surprised, and maybe Covid uncertainty was a factor... But he's not my son's hero anymore. Mookie will just be a Red Sox card in a plastic sheet in a binder from memorable seasons past.
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A Realistic View at 2020: Part II
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to moonslav59's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
Strasburg and Scherzer? Pedro and Schill? Spahn and Sain and pray for a vaccine? -
It doesn't appease me in any way; it just gets me more pissed. Kennedy should've just wished Mookie luck and stressed moving forward. Instead, saying he's "disappointed" could mean two things -- to me, at least: the Sox are sorry they didn't sign Betts, and they were maybe planning on trying to again this winter. I don't believe the latter, but I'm sure they'll regret the former. I know some posters thought/hoped Mookie would still sign back in Boston if the money was there, but I always thought he was gone for good once he was traded. 1). a place like LA is more appealing, with better baseball weather and less baseball pressure; and 2). Bloom was specifically hired to build the future and bury the past.
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I'm all in on Arauz. I look forward to the day he's good enough that everyone agrees to one, consensus pronunciation of his name. Last spring, I heard him pronounce it to announcers... who later disagreed.
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A Realistic View at 2020: Part II
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to moonslav59's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
Before this year, "flu-like symptoms" was the go-to excuse when a player was so hungover he had to be scratched from the lineup. Now "flu-like symptoms" can literally mean the end -- of a player's season, a team's season... even worse for some fans. -
So for the Red Sox to make the postseason, all they have to do is just play as well as last year... when they were the seventh-best team in the AL? Or, as long as they're eighth-best? Pessimists may say they're missing 55% of their total victories from four starting pitchers -- ERod, Porcello, Sale and Price. Or that their remaining starters with the most wins are Eovaldi and Weber (they had two each). Oh, and they're also bereft of their best position player who led the team in Wins Above Replacement... every season for the last half decade; gone forever. But this is the time -- in non-green font -- to get on board the Peraza-Pillar-Arauz Era. Verdugo!
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It's not wasted on me, because I'm here now to watch this season... but who knows if any of us will be here in 1-2 years (and that's not just a Covid or camo storm trooper political note). For me, as I stated in past threads, Red Sox year-to-year seasons are most entertaining when they're annual contenders. I know a few said they favored coming in last place three out of four years if there's a trophy mixed in, but the odds of that happening again have to be less than capping off three straight firsts with a ring. I'll take another 2016-19 over a repeat of 2012-15 any time.
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Especially most young guys. They should offer $10M for 10 years to each of Duran, Dalbec, Downs and Arauz today. That kinda money at their age is what they've always dreamed of. Lock them up, there's your foundation for the next decade. Then invest the rest of the Betts' savings on about a hundred young arms (but not proven MLB starters, because any of them will want at least $20M per year... as if that's the going rate).
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Nowadays, "always about the money" really equates to "actually, about the years". Star players in their primes want security, and who could blame them? So if the Sox want to stay competitive by paying their best player or signing the best free agent, they'll have to commit big bucks for a decade. Otherwise, be prepared for more goodbyes to guys like Devers, and to see pinstripes and Dodger blue on all future Lindors and Sotos. My worry is the past repeating itself, and instead of locking up true stars -- or waiting patiently for the right guy to become available, like NY and LA just did -- Boston will throw gauze all over gushers, and blow money on shorter term Pandas and Hanleys...
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I never felt it was always about the money. He wound up signing with LA for the same AAV that the Sox offered. I always felt it was about getting out of Boston. He never ordered his agents to make a deal to stay, like Bogaerts. Mookie is now the hot ex-girlfriend... fun while it lasted, but there was always the sense he knew he could do better.
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Well, the point is we all care about the team... which even the GM said wasn't going to be as good this season, about a minute after announcing the trade. Luckily, we only have to watch sixty games, instead of one hundred and sixty...two.
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I appreciate all your comments. But as far as hamstringing the organization, I hope most people are referring to the luxury tax and reset rules, and not actual salaries. The Red Sox have always been able to splurge and afford what they thought were great players. They paid 30 mil per to Sale with a bad elbow, 30 mil to Price with a bad attitude, and offered 30 mil to Betts about to enter his prime. I certainly hope Bloom can rebuild a good team, but I also trust Boston will still try to lock up star players and fan favorites as part of the process. I can't identify with musical chairs; I can't even dance.
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I did the math, so I'm not as depressed: 13 for $380 reportedly includes this year ($20M), so if it's really an extension of 12 for $360, then that's at the same $30M annual rate the Sox offered (10 for $300). This would at least confirm what I suspected, and justify trading him; Mookie didn't want to stay in Boston.
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This whole news makes me ill. Betts is the best all-around homegrown Red Sox player since the draft began -- that's over half a century. If he's not the guy a rich team pays market value to keep for his entire Hall of Fame career, then no one is. I'll change the channel the day Cooperstown unveils his bronze plaque with an LA cap. Mookie is a role model for kids and a face of the franchise. Instead, we get to free up money to bid for the Trevor Bauers of the world -- Bauer, a guy who got pissed on the mound, turned around and threw the ball over the centerfield fence. The best Boston manager of all-time traded him the very next day...
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The key is movement. If it's all heat but straight, like Eovaldi was last summer, MLB hitters rip away. But if he throws 100 with a wrinkle, like the cutter he used as a weapon in the '18 postseason, batters have no choice but to guess. Most unhittable pitching I've ever seen was a few years back in Baltimore, when I sat about 20 rows behind the plate on a Sale day. Fastball 100, slider 90-something, and his long sidearm lets go about halfway to the plate -- the human eye can't even see the ball until it's too late. Granted, the last-place O's were loaded with rookies, but they didn't stand a chance: 5 IP, 1H, 12K, and one hard hit foul ball that I swear was just a good guess (the pitch hit the bat's sweet spot).
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A Realistic View at 2020: Part II
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to moonslav59's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
I hope they're still here, but if Boston hits rock bottom and Bloom goes full rebuild, Beni and Vaz at their salaries may never be worth more on the market in actual prospect return or as part of a package for not-yet-primetime MLBers. In the same sense, I can see Bloom dealing JD -- who could opt out now that DH is universal -- to a team looking for a big bat in the stretch run... if they're willing to give up a decent future arm from their #41-60 man roster.
