drewski6

The rest of the season just got boring.

Thibbs wasnt a huge part of the devers return, his flip for a pitcher who had just lost his job in a rotation was an obvious fallback due to not being able to work something more impactful out. Thibbs #5 ranking makes it look like more of a cost than it was. This dude is like 23, not hitting in A ball, and has no position. Flip him for May was easy come/easy go but not a real spenediture And we gave up a #17 cruising for a rule 5 draft for an aging bp arm. Scraps for scraps. And do you believe that nobody wanted any of our other prospects at all? Because thats what Bres is selling you. You buying that? That every team we called just didnt have interest in our packages? Or is it more likely that the gun shy sox got gun shy. Too focused on what we are giving up. This team has been scared money at the poker table since Dombrowski left And is there something to be said for entertainment value? It was never boring under Dombrowski , and its been nothing but snooze city since. I demand to be entertained. But I do get some entertainment from reading about our guys on soxprospects.com so not saying that prospects hold no entertainment value. Roman Anthonys first couple games were an event , sure. I cancelled plans to watch. But I want more entertainment from the entertainment industry

When you have a young talented team, you flip prospects for vets. Its simply what you do.

Im not sure about overrate, but hoard. Like im not sure we think that our #19 prospect is going to be some future hall-of-famer, but for some reason, when someone asks for a prospect, we're like "NO!!! And how dare you even ask about our precious prospects? How about this, we swap out the #19 ranked prospect and insert an all-star in their prime instead (Devers, Duran)....We'll trade them , sure, jsut not our prospects" Its gollum in lord of the rings level "my precioussssss, my precioussss"

which would make his post deadline comments disingenuous and also like 3 or 4 comments made since devers trade about competitiveness same ole red sox, words about effort, but too focused on what they are giving up (scared money) and lies/exaggerations its obvs bs. yankees and padres dipped pretty deep into their pools, you mean to tell me that after making 5 previous trades, yankees had the assets to get bednar, but we never did? Breslow was dealing from a very restricted list, or only willing to get guys making zilch. I did notice may is like 1m left pro-rated, hmmmmm deadline deja-vu F"ING STIFFFFFFFF

scared money dont make money

he said ungodly not unknown

Your first two paragraphs in an article about why you are talking about cease and not duran were a lot about duran. There was an add after the first two paragraphs , so I didnt initially see that there was more. Once I scrolled down I realized that you got off to a heavy duran-focused start but did settle into your non-Duran related points.

Ive recently been told that if we arent a clear cut elite team with no holes, we should punt.

Heres my order of pref 1. Very good starter 2. Mid rotation starter (if #1 cannot be acquired) 3. Very good RP 4. Back of rotation starter (if better cannot be obtained) 5. Solid BP (if very good RP arm cannot be obtained) 6. Bat (Inf or DH) 7. A second 3/4 starter if one obtained (so #2 this list moves down here if #1 is got) 8. Second Solid BP arm (so #5 above moves down here if we acquire the "very good RP" higher on the list) 9. A depth /"change of scenery" cusp starter (if no other starters acquired) 10. A "change of scenery" pen pitcher (if none other acquired) 11, Bench help (C , 1b, util...) 12. A depth /"change of scenery" cusp starter (if other starter(s) have been aquired) 13. "change of scenery" pen pitcher (if other pen arm(s) have been acquired)

Also this notion that third place team (in the AL, not even AL East LOL) should punt is so wild and so outside of norm. Teams that are in ninth place buy. Because you never know. The Rangers werent the third best team in the AL when they won the WS 1.5 years ago.

I have not once said this team is great. I have continued to say everybody sucks in the AL and somebody has to win the pennant.

or at least disguised non-buying. And if we do that Breslow is Bloom and Boom is Breslow.

I think the convo right now is if trading Chapman counts as white flag. It depends on what else we do. I lean towards yes, because who wants him that badly, so I think the reason why you would trade him is to not want to part with prospects. And that doesnt feel like a real effort to me. But its possible that a team insists and dangles something that more than compensates. And then we go get another closer. But like Bellhorn and I were saying, the economics of that are murky at best. Because it would imply that we can replace Chapman for cheap, and therefore we should flip him. Dont flip prospects to get whatever you are flipping chapman for, instead flip chapman and then flip prospects to replace chapman. Therefore we wind up better on all fronts. And its like if there are just as good pitchers available for cheaper why would our initial dance partner (getting chap) just bark up that tree? Its hard for me to see how it would go down flipping chapman, but having a net of buy. This whole buy-sell is mostly just selling disguised.

Now show me SF

If 20% chance at making WS says, "lets retool" then you are exactly what we think you are. Scared. This is why you concede in the game threads. You are scared of disappointment. So you concede at first chance. 20% is quite good.

Thats prob higher than it will be in 2027 or 2028 when the yankees add 14 all stars between now and then. Strike while there is an opening. Yankees lost their best hitter and pitcher, Mariners have been struggling, Jays too.

Because its not "or" its Devers vs both. Its also a large on the "why" You are trading your best rp who has been a lights out closer at the deadline, when previously having shown shades of throwing in the towel, and why are you doing this if not to punt? If you are that concerned about hoarding prospects you arent actually trying to win in 2025 and you will fall out of it, like we keep doing.

Of course, things like the count, the pitcher, the pitch, the park dimensions play a large role. For example, if you are in a park with a deep OF and you try to pull an outside pitch , its gonna die unless you are in the top 3% in strength.

Thats clearly who we are talking about and thats the next step in development There are a couple schools of thought on this, none of which preach to sacrifice launch angle for velocity. They are actually correlated. You get both when you meet the ball out in front (pull) and this is the desired outcome....HOWEVER....A lot of coaches preach up the middle. Its not because youd rather go up the middle than pull. Its so if you are a little early you pull, a little late opposite field. So up the middle approach gives you a little forgiveness. This is why many players hit "mistake HRs", looking to go up the middle, but a bit too early can be great, jsut keep it fair. When you pull (and connect) you get natural loft and velocity, the problem is if you are pulling then you are meeting the ball out in front and susceptible to late break and chaneups. Which is why the whiffs come along with the pull approach. Also, you are probably more likely to skim the top of a sinker when out in front, get jammed, trex arms...All of that......But your OPS on cleanly hit batted balls is higher when you pull. BUt your cleanly hit batted ball rate is lower when you pull because if you stay back, you get more time to assess where the pitch is going. But you wont get nearly as much loft or power. So do you want to barrel more balls or send the ones that you do barrel farther? Very few players have had a stay back approach. Most oppo hitters are using an up the middle approach but erring on the side of contact over loft, so slapping balls oppo. Theres a reason theres only been one king of this (Tony Gwynn).

Bednar. But Bednar has next year booked, so I honestly think hed cost more. Buy + sell economics are flawed

You almost lost me, talking about Duran so much in your article attempting to decouple Cease from Duran. I was wondering if you could help yourself. But then I scrolled down and was glad I did. Sure - decouple, and Im fine renting Cease. PW is too rich for my blood, but a deal centered around Thibbs, absolutely.

Yeah, probs. The Crochet move was kind of obvious for me to give too much credit. ANd Bregman was a panic last minute , gotta do something..... I wouldnt cry over either.

Baseball drafting is about bonus pools. But with a better slot comes more pool money. But theres also IFA and minors where drafted assets go up and down in value. Baseball is just not a chase the draft sport like basketball or football. The worst thing about getting bounced in the first round would be that we would have missed an opportunity to turn Chapman into prospects who fit your 2027 2028 (2028, but only if we tank this year) timeline. Keeps getting worse.

Did you mean Harmony?