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Post by p23w on Nov 14, 2019 15:03:10 GMT -5
I think people are too obsessed with technology. If devious minds can make use of it to steal signs... they will. It is up to devious minds on the opposing side to defeat these attempts. If they can do it with technology so be it. If they can do it with subterfuge well fancy that. In motor sports the prevailing mindset is "it ain't cheating if you don't get caught".
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Post by dmaineah on Nov 14, 2019 17:15:52 GMT -5
The Braves have signed closer Will Smith to a three-year contract, the team announced. The three guaranteed years will pay Smith $39MM, and Atlanta has a $13MM club option for 2023. That option contains a $1MM buyout, as per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Nov 14, 2019 17:28:15 GMT -5
Abreu and Odorizzi are accepting the QO, reportedly.
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Post by jerrygarciaparra on Nov 14, 2019 18:21:35 GMT -5
Going to be real interesting to see this sign stealing stuff go down. The real question is will it be a perfunctory exercise by MLB or will they really get into it and hold people accountable if they cheated or arent truthful about what happened. The backdrop of the MFY's and the whistling accusations...that takes on a new meaning. Of course, I am positive the MFY were cheating all year also, no way that team could be that lucky with the injuries. if it somehow involves out majestic 2018 season, that will hurt....just a little. Honestly, if we cheat and win....I am cool with it.
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Post by Addam603 on Nov 14, 2019 18:26:58 GMT -5
The Braves have signed closer Will Smith to a three-year contract, the team announced. The three guaranteed years will pay Smith $39MM, and Atlanta has a $13MM club option for 2023. That option contains a $1MM buyout, as per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal Reports day he’s gonna be the setup guy and Melancon will remain the closer.
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Post by rjp313jr on Nov 14, 2019 19:14:10 GMT -5
Mike Trout won his 3rd MVP (should really be at least 4), has finished 2nd 4 times and 4th once. For those of you keeping track, in his 8 seasons he’s top 4 every year and top 2 in 7 of them. If he got hit by a bus and never played again, he wouldn’t even be HOF eligible. Madness - what a silly rule.
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Post by vermontsox1 on Nov 15, 2019 9:03:01 GMT -5
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Nov 15, 2019 9:15:48 GMT -5
If so, bye-bye Eddie Romero Jr.
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Post by James Dunne on Nov 15, 2019 9:20:11 GMT -5
Romero was hired under Epstein, was promoted to International Scouting Director under Cherington, the promoted to VP under Dombrowski. I don't know that he'd go to the Pirates as a lateral move because of some sort of loyalty to Cherington. Romero's going to get a job where he's the decision maker for the major league club. The job that was called "General Manager" up until about 2011 has all kinds of titles now, but it's still the job Romero is going to be looking for.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Nov 15, 2019 9:22:53 GMT -5
Romero was hired under Epstein, was promoted to International Scouting Director under Cherington, the promoted to VP under Dombrowski. I don't know that he'd go to the Pirates as a lateral move because of some sort of loyalty to Cherington. So you think if he would have left the Red Sox it would have been to join the Giants organization? They were the only team I can think of that had an opening for a position higher than assistant GM. I mean, if Cherington is given one of those Presidents of Baseball operations jobs, wouldn't Romero have a crack at being general manager which is a higher rank than assistant GM? Well, I'm editing here because I just re-read that Cherington would be offered the GM job. If that's so, no that would not offer a promotion for Romero. However, I'm still uncertain that GM is the exact title Cherington would get. It could be a position that is rephrased. I get the point that Romero wouldn't be the big decision maker either way, but right now he has Bloom AND O'Halloran ahead of him on the depth chart in Boston.
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Post by James Dunne on Nov 15, 2019 10:14:01 GMT -5
Right, I think - honestly, I think everyone agrees - Romero will probably leave the Red Sox at some point to be a General Manager. But I don't agree that Ben Cherington getting the Pittsburgh job means that Romero will follow him there.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Nov 15, 2019 11:04:50 GMT -5
Xander Bogaerts extension: doesn't have the qualifications to run a baseball team. John Lackey trade: give this man another baseball team to run. I don't hate Ben Cherington, but there's only 30 of these jobs and I don't know why he needs a second chance at one.
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Post by James Dunne on Nov 15, 2019 11:41:51 GMT -5
Glass-half-full: Cherington cobbled together a 2013 where he got a lot of luck with the Punto trade and literally every player on the '13 team being as good as possible, but also made a lot of sensible, roster-filling additions that allowed that team to succeed. He built an absolutely stacked farm system basically from scratch, with only a couple rebuilding-style deals, getting Eduardo Rodriguez for Andrew Miller (who he bought low on), and the Webster/De La Rosa pair, but otherwise finding several star or near-star players as amateurs and making the decision to hold onto them. That farm system put the pieces in place for the next guy to have the resources, both financial and in terms of players, to make very shrewd high-level moves that made them arguably baseball's best team from 2016 to 2018, and arguably the best team of the century in 2018. His poor major league moves in 2014 and 2015 came from misguided pressure from ownership to "win now" with a roster that wasn't in shape to do so. Therefore the fault for insane free agent decisions like Sandoval and self-defeating trades like Lackey really lies with management. Pittsburgh, where an organization-wide rebuild is needed and that short-term pressure from the top doesn't exist, might be a better market for his skill at building up the farm and slowly letting it bubble to the top.
Glass-half-empty: Win-now pressure or not, the Sandoval and Lackey moves looked bad at the time and went almost as poorly as possible. The infrastructure that enabled him to build that farm system was in place before he arrived, and, as director of baseball operations, he did a monumentally poor job turning a really good farm system into major league wins by basically standing pat on the whole system. And, as someone who supposedly understood the value of a system in his approach to the organization, did not go back to that when signing pick-compensation attached free agents like Ramirez and Sandoval and neglecting the farm when trading Lackey and Lester, and holding onto Uehara and Tazawa in order to contend the next year - an inidcation that he understood "talent" but not "value." This is in direct contrast to someone like Dombrowski who was able to determine the players he thought would be part of a core that he should hold onto (and man did he do a good job of that) while being willing to sell high on the others.
So yeah. He's probably not the guy I'd have hired, but I get it, and I do think Pittsburgh is a better fit for him. Also Pittsburgh is a wildly underrated city in general so good for him.
EDIT: He's awfully similar to the guy they fired though.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Nov 15, 2019 12:01:57 GMT -5
I'd hope that the pressure-cooker dynamic he was likely confronted with from the then ownership cabal taught both sides a lesson. He's no dummy and his time in academia may have given him space to figure out how he wants to approach the next round. We'll find out soon enough if he takes it.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Nov 15, 2019 13:39:38 GMT -5
Right, I think - honestly, I think everyone agrees - Romero will probably leave the Red Sox at some point to be a General Manager. But I don't agree that Ben Cherington getting the Pittsburgh job means that Romero will follow him there. Hope you're right. It occurs to me, though, if Romero thinks his voice would be heard more in Pittsburgh than in Boston he could leave as he does know Cherington better than Bloom. They worked together for a long time. As it is though, Bloom strikes me as a guy who isn't "my way or the highway" so that Romero's voice will be heard. It seems like his voice wasn't when Dombrowski was running things and probably only listening to Wren or LaRussa.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Nov 15, 2019 14:42:58 GMT -5
What Pittsburgh needs as a franchise is a culture change more than anything. Lot of things out of that org this year that were culture-based more than anything else. Cherington seems like a decent fit to me, actually.
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Post by rjp313jr on Nov 15, 2019 19:05:53 GMT -5
Xander Bogaerts extension: doesn't have the qualifications to run a baseball team. John Lackey trade: give this man another baseball team to run. I don't hate Ben Cherington, but there's only 30 of these jobs and I don't know why he needs a second chance at one. Don’t a lot of guys get better the second time around after the experience they gained the first? I think it’s a positive that he’s been away from the position for several years; it lets reflection sink in. As James pointed out there were a lot of good things he did.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Nov 15, 2019 20:38:38 GMT -5
Xander Bogaerts extension: doesn't have the qualifications to run a baseball team. John Lackey trade: give this man another baseball team to run. I don't hate Ben Cherington, but there's only 30 of these jobs and I don't know why he needs a second chance at one. Of the 30 job holders, how many have won a World Series ?
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Nov 16, 2019 8:07:49 GMT -5
Xander Bogaerts extension: doesn't have the qualifications to run a baseball team. John Lackey trade: give this man another baseball team to run. I don't hate Ben Cherington, but there's only 30 of these jobs and I don't know why he needs a second chance at one. Don’t a lot of guys get better the second time around after the experience they gained the first? I think it’s a positive that he’s been away from the position for several years; it lets reflection sink in. As James pointed out there were a lot of good things he did. Look, Ben Cherington is fine. My complaint is less about him and more about baseball's diversity/gatekeeping problem. Of the 30 job holders, how many have won a World Series ? Dayton Moore has one, you want him running your team?
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Nov 16, 2019 8:17:17 GMT -5
Don’t a lot of guys get better the second time around after the experience they gained the first? I think it’s a positive that he’s been away from the position for several years; it lets reflection sink in. As James pointed out there were a lot of good things he did. Look, Ben Cherington is fine. My complaint is less about him and more about baseball's diversity/gatekeeping problem. Of the 30 job holders, how many have won a World Series ? Dayton Moore has one, you want him running your team? No but that argument makes about as much sense as yours.
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Post by Don Caballero on Nov 16, 2019 9:40:46 GMT -5
Look, Ben Cherington is fine. My complaint is less about him and more about baseball's diversity/gatekeeping problem. Ben Cherington is a bad example for that, he's had some success and it's at least a sensible choice.
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Post by incandenza on Nov 16, 2019 10:25:16 GMT -5
Don’t a lot of guys get better the second time around after the experience they gained the first? I think it’s a positive that he’s been away from the position for several years; it lets reflection sink in. As James pointed out there were a lot of good things he did. Look, Ben Cherington is fine. My complaint is less about him and more about baseball's diversity/gatekeeping problem. Dave Dombrowski's joblessness seems like an odd thing to point to as evidence of baseball's diversity/gatekeeping problem.
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Post by adiospaydro2005 on Nov 18, 2019 12:27:01 GMT -5
The reporting in the Athletic about the Astros' cheating scandal is revealing how far and wide they cheated, including references to e-mails from an Astros' executive asking for help from scouts for help stealing signs, including the use of cameras. MLB needs to come down really hard on the Astros, including its organization, executives, coaches and others across the organization. I would venture an early guess on punishment will be something like $5 million fine to Astros' organization, 6 figure fines for Astros' executives, coaches, etc., signficant suspensions for all implicated parties (up to one year or more), and loss of multiple draft picks for the next two years.
The argument everyone does it didn't wash when the Patriots got hammered for Spygate camera in the wrong location. MLB needs to come down hard on the Astros to deter other teams from cheating.
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Smittyw
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Post by Smittyw on Nov 18, 2019 15:46:28 GMT -5
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Post by jimed14 on Nov 18, 2019 17:24:44 GMT -5
Imagine how mad we'd be if the Astros beat the Red Sox in 2018.
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