drewski6

Again, Im not talking about Polanco at all. He was never a target of mine. My point is that everyone is in a rush to always get younger, and sure , you have a longer window with a 23 year old, but there is a reason why the perennial high drafters rarely go anywhere. And thats because they cant keep their high draft picks before said high draft picks price themselves out of their organization....BECAUSE.....Dudes under 24 just dont dominate sports leagues. Championships are won , in the vast majority of cases, by men between the ages of 28 and 32. Understood that if you ahve a 24 with 6 years of control , thats a great window. I get that. But for the 2026 red sox, if you think that a team that an offense built around RA, Mayer, Casas, Campbell is going to compete with the best offenses, history tells us otherwise. RA wont hit his prime for another 5 years, that would make a 10+ rebuild with nothing promised on the other end. Its just not worth it to refuse to compete until we get him. And avoiding free agents or trades for players in their current primes is refusing to compete.

My buddy was talking up Geno to me last night and making good points (Geno = Eugenio)

Right now best case is prob 2 of Bregman, Geno, Marte

I left Palmeiro out because I was a fan of him as a kid, and it hurt that hes a cheat. AROD cheating doesnt bother me as much (it should) but I left him out because I dont picture him as a ranger. Whatever, didnt put a lot of thought into it.

I started off the top of my head, then used internet resources to supplement

If they want Tolle and Mayer , they are going to have to eat A LOT of contract. I do Cedanne and Harrison with $0 eaten.

Now do under 23

I know theyll get the payroll to a respectful number somehow, but its going to be overpaid short term deals because they are scared money at the table.

Sophmores slump and Im not expecting superstar numbers out of Anthony. Hes good but hes a leadoff hitter without the wheels. Hes not going to carry our offense. Hes too young for that. No news is bad news for crapass. I hear about Tatum working his butt off to get back all the time, its radio silence on crapass. Hes not going to be ready, and even if he is, hes not in shape, and hes going to get hurt again, because hes unathletic and fat.

I dont even really know how this is fixable, if we werent even close on alonso, you can prob rule out bichette and bregman We'll prob overpay for Paredes in prospect cost hurting us in both the short term and long term. Then get a 2 yr deal with an opt out after 1 for a 3rd tier first baseman.

You dont need to punish yourself. We know you love your sox. We know you want better. Im bummed too

I feel like a politician who expected to win but lost and has all these bottles of champagne in the back and just nobody wants to drink em. I really expected us to be high fiving over alonso right now. But I know the dangers of too many eggs in one basket and tried to prepare myself. But im disappointed.

Thats fine, If I read right now that the Red sox traded Cedanne, Campbell and Harrison for Seager with no money eaten, Id be popping bottles.

150/5 does seem to be a magnet

Guys who were very good beyond their age 32/33 seasons, in most cases for multiple years past age 33 (a non complete list that just scratches the surface): Ortiz Manny Nelson Cruz George Springer Jose Bautista Encarnacion Mcguire Ruth Edmonds Larry Walker Ichiro Beltre Gary Sheff David Justice Palmeiro Ricky Henderson Goldshmidt Willie Mays Aaron Judge Babe Ruth AROD Bobby abreu Gwynn Bonds Griffey Ted Williams Hammering Hank (Aaron) Hammering Hank (Greenberg) Ellis Burks Cal Ripken Barry Larkin Pete Rose Jeff Bagwell Biggio (senior) Derek Jeter Joe Dimaggio Miguel Tejada Freddie Freeman Frank Thomas Jim Thome JD Martinez Sin Soo Choo Mike Cameron Brady Anderson Jimmy Rollins Giambi Texiera Anthony Rizzo Torii Hunter Mike Lowell Chase Utley Chipper Jones Wade Boggs Stan the Man Minni Minoso Eric Davis Raul Ibanez Paul Molitor Miggy Pujols Willie Mays Sammy Sosa Mike Schmidt Carlos Delgado Lou Broc Otis Nixon Jeff Kent Jeff Konine George Brett Tim Raines Pudge VMART Vlad (sr) Darryl Strawberry Ryan Howard (maybe he fell off drastically at 33) Moises Allou Eddie Murray Andres Galaragga and his super weird batting stance Mickey Mantle Lou Gehrig Fred McGriff Jose Canseco Adam Dunn Mike Stanton Yaz Carlos Beltran Juangon Andre Dawson Mike Piazza Soriano Harold Baines Todd Helton Joey Votto Lance Berkman sooooo many more apolgies for any repeats and weird spacing

wait the mets never actually traded darryl strawberry? Sandler is just wrong?

There were people on boston.com who wanted to ditch ortiz in 2008 , declaring him washed up...And moonslav made a famous "rumors of papi's decline have been greatly exaggerated" post and it was a moonslav post, so of course it stuck around for like 3 years and got up to 10k posts and might still be going if BDC didnt kick us out. Im recent here, becasue i went to another place first because i wanted a single sign-on with my basketball foruming But that place didnt have enough activity, and pumpsie eventually shut it down and I tried to get in here for awhile before i was finally let in. I just kept trying to create account and it kept telling me that it was in queue/consideration and I just dont think anybody was checking it. But then something happened here, with the takeover and I got right in. So ty for the changes here whomever was behind it. Wonder if RKARP is here somewhere. RKARP you here?

By being the mets They also traded daryl strawberry and adam sandlers thanksgiving song frames it as an unbelievable decision.

It could have been someone different than Chris Carter also, like Jeff Bailey or Place or another prospect, but the point is that we've heard all the "younger is better and its all about WAR / dollar spent and value value value" arguments before. And the dont sign players over 30 and dont trade for them. And always be looking 5 years down the road. You know what I say? When you are always dreaming about tomorrow, tomorrow never comes. Im philosophical

his name was burritoT and he was on boston.com forums.

I assume "flat fastball" if meant as a positive is the new way of saying "fastball with good carry" Throws from the OF can have good carry too, because they are more straight line than "arc'ing throws" so maybe they are trying to be nuanced and thats why they wont just say "good carry" (like they use to) Still, if someone told me a fastball has good carry, I think I would be able to figure out they werent talking about Raul Mondesi gunning dudes down at the plate from RF. And would be talking about the "riser" You are right, they just have to keep the terms fresh to feel smart. Because before it was a "fastball with good carry" it was a "rising fastball" And I wonder who the first nerd who was like "actually, the pitch isnt rising, it just looks that way because our eyes are trained to expect a certain level of drop that isnt there, so you are technically incorrect when you call it a rising fastball. Instead call it a fastball with good carry" ANd everyone is looking at the nerd like "yeah, we know"

wish we were as good at fixing the top of the 40 man as we are the bottom, but hey, marginal improvements are still improvements i guess. Death by 1000 paper cuts, is what they called the bloom years. But we're looking for something to be positive about.

Not the OF we got for Vaughn is a win for me. They were like this dude was just picked in the 8th round of the last draft, is likely to stick in CF, super athletic, and has raw power but needs to better his hit tool to fully capitalize on teh raw power. Felt like a good deal for Vaughn Grissom who i expected to get waived/claimed. And now we've also repurposed the 40 man roster spot without parting with the aforementioned acquired OF'er Thats some good work.

I assume that by fastball they mean the ball doesnt drop like our eyes expect it to and therefore it creates an illusion to the batter that its rising. Im sure youve been in there against one. They actually do look like they are rising! Thats not just an expression. My only thing is this - they use to call that "good carry" a term Im sure youve heard. Thats what it mean. It stays up, doesnt have the usual arc, and gives the illusion that its rising. Not sure why the term change.

Youre not bad at it mr: "rumors of papi's decline have been greatly exaggerated" When Ortiz had a relatively rough 2008/2009 (for his standards) and the youth worshippers wanted to kick him to the curb to make room for this Chris Carter (I think theres been a few) https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cartech01.shtml And we heard all the "would you rather have a player in his 30s declining and making big money or a player in his 20s making min wage" and all those other WAR per dollars arguments then too (jokers were trying to attach a prospect to papi just so someone would take his "bad contract" when he still had 5 HOF years left). Some of us remember