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Post by jbuttah on Mar 29, 2024 22:23:38 GMT -5
That was my reaction when I realized he was up after Reyes.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 29, 2024 21:29:43 GMT -5
For all that is holy, bring on robot umps, please!
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 29, 2024 8:59:47 GMT -5
Funniest moment of the night: the look on Casas face after he struck out in the 9th with Duran dancing down the 3rd base line. It's the same look I give my kids when they're arguing over something stupid.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 29, 2024 8:53:38 GMT -5
Fangraphs has the Red Sox rotation as middling at best (21st in the majors by projected WAR). But it's interesting to see just how flat it as - relatively weaker at the front and stronger at the back. Here's how they rank when sorting each team's top 5 starters by projected WAR total:
SP1 (Bello): t-25th SP2 (Pivetta): t-21st SP3 (Crawford): t-18th SP4 (Houck): t-11th SP5 (Whitlock): t-5th
Funny. I was thinking last night how a rotation of all 3rd starters would do because I think all 5 of the Sox starters will end up pitching to that level. And if they're really lucky and Bailey is that good, they could end up with 2 2nd starters and 3 3rd starters.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 29, 2024 8:48:21 GMT -5
These things have a way of working themselves out and sure just 1 game down but if O'Neill stays healthy I wonder where the PT for abreu is going to come from? Sure they will rotate him around to get guys days off but I believe they said they hoped he'd get 400 ABs. Kind of hard to see that happening with a healthy roster. I think injuries will make that a non issue. If Story gets hurt Rafaela is likely gonna playing SS. If Yoshida or any OF gets hurt, Abreu slots right in. I could easily see him getting 30 games at each OF position. That's around 400 AB right there.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 28, 2024 23:00:06 GMT -5
The one fastball was 94.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 28, 2024 22:16:02 GMT -5
Didn't think he had any chance at 2B.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 28, 2024 21:51:35 GMT -5
WOW, that's what you call easy power.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 28, 2024 21:50:38 GMT -5
Castillo is getting every strike call on balls wide of the plate I'm doing work while watching and I've already counted 3 clear balls he called as strikes.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 28, 2024 21:49:39 GMT -5
First game of the season, and my blood pressure is already through the roof because of this friggin ump. Robot umps can't get here fast enough.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 28, 2024 18:21:40 GMT -5
I'm going out on a limb and say that I think the Sox finish first in the AL East! A lot of things have to go right for this to happen, but after the last few years of everything going wrong, I think lady luck will be visiting the Sox this year.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 22, 2024 21:11:19 GMT -5
Old Time Sox fans, why did Pete Rose get the lifetime ban with MLB for betting? There's rules against bookies in MLB, even against other sports, they have explicit rules against it exclusively. Everyone is worried about the only betting situation in MLB that's ever happened. I don't blame them. Pete Rose has been banned for 35 years and he's the all time hit MLB leader. I'd put the odds of Ohtani as the bettor at -400.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 21, 2024 12:35:23 GMT -5
Hope it's just me, but that swing looks a little slowish.
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Post by jbuttah on Mar 21, 2024 12:33:57 GMT -5
I would not at all be upset with a sort of 1A and 1B scenario similar to what the Sox have now with Anthony and Mayer. If so, it'd be a heck of a development for the Sox and the farm. Cespedes bat does sound really impressive for an 18 year old with some extra projection left on their body. I could see a season or 2, 3 or 4 years down the road where the lineup is all home grown. Odds are against it, but at least you can reasonably imagine it anyways. Anthony LF Grissom 2B Devers DH Casas 1B Cespedes 3B Mayer SS Bleis RF Rafaela CF Teel C Flip Cespedes and Mayer and you have a deal! I wouldn't be surprised if 1 or 2 of those names are traded for pitching.
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Post by jbuttah on Jan 14, 2024 11:41:26 GMT -5
First base is soooo far awayyyyyy... The dugout is way closer 🤤 But seriously, I could see something like: fatigue worsens performance at the plate > player starts pressing > player walks less. usually, if a hitter is fatigued, they feel they need to start the swing a little sooner, which leads to making earlier swing decisions, which leads to chasing more, swinging more, and weaker contact. Definitely. also when you start pressing you try to quicken your swing by muscling the bat through the zone which has the effect of slowing your bat by quite a bit. I fully expect Yoshida to finish next year with a >120 wRC+, and wouldn't be at all surprised if he had >130 wRC+ the next two years.
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Post by jbuttah on Dec 30, 2023 15:19:47 GMT -5
I am glad you guys like the trade. I think its a horrible trade. I hope I'm proved wrong. I am of the opinion that this trade by itself really doesn't move the needle that much either way. Just on the face of it, I guess I'd rather have Paxton/Grissom rather than Sale.
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Post by jbuttah on Dec 23, 2023 10:05:37 GMT -5
Or they would have offered him competitive money. I mean at some point we kind of got the sense that 300 million gets you in the game. That's how I took it as, not the having to blow away the field kind of thing. If the Sox offered say 8 years 240 million then they were unsurprisingly never in the game. All of this is kind of ambiguous right now. Hopefully soon we will know for sure what was really meant and we wont get the riddles. We had multiple reports saying they did offer $300m Competing against the Dodgers, Giants, Yanks and Mets, I didn't think the odds of the Sox signing Yamamoto were that high. I'm a little weary of signing a guy 5'10, 175lbs to a 300mm contract. Somebody compared him to Tim Lincecum and that seems like a fair comparison. Overall, I'm not too upset that Yamamoto signed elsewhere as I don't think the Sox are just one piece away from being serious WS contenders.
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Post by jbuttah on Dec 12, 2023 9:27:45 GMT -5
I don't know how many other players make as much in endorsements as Ohtani does. That's probably the major reason for this type of deal.
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Post by jbuttah on Dec 8, 2023 9:20:39 GMT -5
Interesting. Heyman was the one person saying he could go back to Texas, but I assume that was a Boras thing. I know there was talk of Monty’s price possibly going to an unreasonable level, but what is market like if the Rangers are out? Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets? Yankees if they don’t get Yamamoto could be one (although they traded him for a dude in a walking boot after implying he couldn’t be trusted in the postseason…) You wonder if he’d be too pricey for mid to small market teams, but not so high it would feel like an overpay for the Sox? Dodgers, Giants, Cubs, Red Sox, Blue Jays are the teams that are going to spend money for sure. I can't shake the feeling that the Mets are bluffing. Yankees are tough to figure out. Based on nothing but my gut, I'd put the order of most likely to sign Ohtani as Giants, Dodgers, BJs, Cubs. Really don't think Sox are in it to win it.
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Post by jbuttah on Nov 3, 2023 22:07:23 GMT -5
OK. appreciate the response. Hope he has some humility, because he is gonna need it. There really isn't enough information, just like life, to make decisions without an understanding that you can and will being wrong a majority of the time. I stand by the Theo comments. It isn't really about his judgment, it is more about his personal relationship with him, which creates bias. Their dynamic has no meaning in Boston, a totally different town / fanbase. And he has been gone long enough to not really know much about the environment here at this time as well. I mean, he recommended Cherington, which had good points, but is the same kind of dynamic. We are not in the mix, so of course, he knows more than us. But if we were, we may come to a different conclusion than he did. I'm not going to automatically rubber stamp Breslow because he is now "our guy". Being an ivy league smart guy doesnt necessarily equate to being an effective PoBO. I happen to think that Chaim Bloom is pretty damn smart but I dont think he was a particularly effective PoBO. Breslow is in effect a raw rookie. He strikes me as a man with a plan and the bravado to back it up. I suspect he got the job because he came in with very specific details of what he wanted to do to make them a 2024 post season team and very specific ideas of how he wants to keep them playoff caliber for the long term. If history is any guide he will get 4 seasons to enact his vision with the heaviest slant on the 4th year as Dombrowski found out. Ownership likes to give the PoBO position a presidential term and then decides whether or not to re-elect them. My sense is that Breslow came to his interviews with a plan of attack and I cant shake the feeling that Breslow will do a lot more than a splash signing or two. I suspect he will do a major reshaping of the roster and that likely there will be trades made that might be painful to some of us prospect huggers, myself included. I'm cool with the Dombrowski method of dealing from depth and the talent judgments he made with it, but I'm wondering how safe even Mayer and Anthony are. I'm thinking only Teel is probably safe, although I'm not saying it's likely that Mayer or Anthony gets dealt. I'm thinking Breslow might surprise people because of his novice status and might come out guns blazing. There very well could be a shakeup to this roster. Maybe I'm mistaken but i dont think he told ownership that he plans on being cautious like his predecessor was, not that I'm saying he will be reckless. Bold is probably what hes aiming for, somebody willing to take more calculated risks. So I say you have to give him a lot of rope. He certainly has me very interested in what he might do. And I am certainly very willing to give Breslow a lot of rope. Just remind me of that if/when he trades my favorite binkies away. I'm not a Cheringtonist, and my only problem with Dombrowski's trades were the returns. The only minor leaguer that would hurt me to lose for any return would be Anthony. I'd like to see him in "Freddy Lynn Returns to Fenway!"
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Post by jbuttah on Sept 23, 2023 14:07:57 GMT -5
When they signed Duvall it was so that Kiké would be available to play SS. Yeah, Yu Chang was a "cast-off" but what do you expect for your Plan D? And he played at about a 1 WAR/year pace when he was on the roster, which is pretty good for a cast-off.
As for the decision to sign Story in the first place... I'm surprised we haven't gotten more "shoulda signed Seager or Semien" revisionism. I thought both those contracts were ludicrous at the time, but Semien has already earned almost half the value of his contract in the first two seasons and Seager is playing like an MVP this year.
Bloom signed too many players coming off injuries or that had injury questions and ‘hoped’ that the injuries would not be a problem. Many of these backfired. I believe Cherington was fired because of his poor performance in free agent signings: Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Rusney, traded for Allen Craig…. IMO, Bloom was fired for the many injured and ineffective free agent signings and inactivity at the deadline the last two years. That said, I am glad he hung on to so many prospects I hope to see some of in the game today! I think another big factor was his inability to find players and develop/tweak them to become useful players, like TB did with Springs and LA did with Brasier.
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Post by jbuttah on Sept 23, 2023 14:04:40 GMT -5
How are the Mets, Padres and Yankees doing this year? How are the Rays doing? It’s not that simple. Money helps…., but it absolutely does not buy World Series Championship! SanDiego sucks for the amount of money they they spend (I live there). Talk about a GM that needs to be fired. SD will never win a WS until they get a GM who knows what the hell he is doing. I am a 52 year Red Sox fan. I waited 33 years to see my first WS title, and now I have seen 4 in the last 19 years (all under the same ownership group). Money helps, but a farm system to have controllable, inexpensive core of players and then adding FAs gets the job done. I watched a lot of Red Sox teams built differently and they all failed. He should be fired on the basis of that idiotic Bogaerts contract alone.
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Post by jbuttah on Sept 20, 2023 12:33:25 GMT -5
I rolled with this guy until this deadline. This team deserved more. Especially in the pitching. All the other years are fine. I believed this team needed at least one starter and I said I would like one more bat. Another Turner easier said than done but someone that gets on. Def one more starter . I would of took Erod Iguess. Evoladi was available I dont know. But the team deserved some help. I first said Theo come back. But I totally forgot my boy Eddie Romero Jr. I love it for him to get this prize. He seen it all been through it all. I want him to get a legit shot. I dont know if this makes sense coming from me.But if this guy got the job he knows the team. I bet he knows right now what he would do in the offseason. who to target. Like he doesnt need 6 months to look at things. I dont know. I lost my focus I was a big supporter of this guy He kind of got buryed. But he very responsible for the teams international success. Not just him. I'd bet that Romero would move on if he's not promoted to the head job. So with that in mind, I'd hope he'd get some serious consideration. I don't think the Sox need someone to come in to revamp everything, that was Bloom's job. They just need someone with better judgment in building a team. For me, the Renfroe/JBJ trade was the best(worst) example of how Bloom just couldn't build a roster. They basically had 3 lefty swinging, left fielders playing the outfield. They had Kiki Hernandez starting at shortstop for god's sake!
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Post by jbuttah on Sept 14, 2023 16:48:07 GMT -5
I would think if Ed Romero doesn't get the job, then he's outta here.
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Post by jbuttah on Sept 10, 2023 19:19:16 GMT -5
Duran-Rafaela-Abreu this is the way Yes. Let Turner go. Yoshida is the DH. Verdugo traded. I think when he's not going well, he's just a downer in the clubhouse.
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