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Post by juanpena on Apr 4, 2024 11:21:38 GMT -5
That save in Game 4 against the MFY was the luckiest moment we’ve had as Red Sox fans. That sac fly by Gary Sanchez was traumatic! Nope. The luckiest moment by far was Tony Clark's double in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS going into the stands, keeping the runner at third. The ball didn't just hop into the stands, like they often do in the right field corner, it bounced and hit the ball, but instead of bouncing back onto the field, it skipped into the stands.
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Post by juanpena on Feb 23, 2024 20:40:45 GMT -5
Damn, I guess I really DID try to block out the Bobby Valentine experience.
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Post by juanpena on Feb 23, 2024 14:46:49 GMT -5
I think the best-case scenario would be about 88 wins, which could get them a wild card and make it a really fun year to be a fan. For the lowest wins total, I could see this team being the first Red Sox team since 1965 to win fewer than 70 games in a non-shortened season. The way that would happen is them being on a 76-80-win pace at the deadline, and Breslow wisely deciding to sell off guys in their last year, leading to lower win totals in August wins total.
But lowest wins total is not necessarily worst-case scenario. As others have stated, they could be treading water at the deadline on the fringes of contention, make no moves and not get in. That would be the worst-case scenario.
The best-case scenario development-wise is that their new pitching program is making guys get better, both with the current major-leaguers and guys like Gonzalez, Perales, Fitts and Sandlin. But a 2024 development that would be really welcome would be Grissom and Abreu showing they are legitimate, everyday players--or Abreu's case, at least the the long half of a platoon--in the major leagues. At some point, the Sox will have to pay big in money or prospects to get a top-of-the-rotation guy, and if they know they'll have cost-controlled guys in second base and right field, they can budget their resources (cash and prospect capital) accordingly.
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Post by juanpena on Feb 13, 2024 23:13:19 GMT -5
I think it is more a strategy to have cost-controlled players in as many spots as possible, then splurging on two or three pitchers and two superstars. We haven’t seen it yet, but I truly believe this is where we are headed in the next three years. Build the core from within, then add shiny pieces to put them over the top. That sounds good, and maybe it will work, but you need to remember there will be other teams bidding on the shiny pieces, too. When contract length and dollars start getting high--say if the Sox and Mets both target Corbin Burnes after this season--will the Sox be willing to splurge against big spenders like Steve Cohen?
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Post by juanpena on Jan 14, 2024 0:54:04 GMT -5
One thing I’ve been thinking of is what about 2 younger starters. How about Emerson Hancock and Edward Cabrera. Probably get them for Duran or Rafaela . I like the idea of 2 young starter growing into the rotation. Sort of like Crawford, Bello, Whitlock, Houck, and Murphy? OK, it's possible Whitlock can stay healthy and handle a starter's workload, and it's possible Houck can learn to get through a lineup three times--and I sincerely hope in both cases they can. But do you honestly think Chris Murphy can be a starter in the major leagues?
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Post by juanpena on Dec 24, 2023 14:15:02 GMT -5
Just to pick up on this snippet... The same pitching staff as last year, but replacing Kluber with a good pitcher... would be a pretty good pitching staff, no? If you take Kluber's -1 WAR and turn it into +3 WAR the Red Sox go from 22nd in pitching WAR to 7th. That's without counting on any improvement from Pivetta or a maturing Crawford or Bello, not to mention the knock-on effect of allowing Houck to spend more time in the bullpen. There's almost always a Corey Kluber on the team. It probably happend to most teams where a guy you're counting on or think is going to be decent craps the bed. Even the mighty 2018 Red Sox had a Kluber on the team, except he went by the name Pomeranz, who went from being a reliable 17 game winning top notch starter to becoming that team's torch, so when you run your numbers and projections you have to factor in a torch, that last years pleasant surprise wont be as pleasant this year and you might get a pleasant surprise this year if you're lucky. Pomeranz was a non-factor, but the 2018 Sox got a combined 2.4 bWAR out of Hector Velazquez and Brian Johnson. That was huge in holding the fort until the Eovaldi trade.
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Post by juanpena on Dec 13, 2023 19:50:12 GMT -5
If this is the case, who better to bring to the table than Big Papi? You could fill a bus with BOS WS champs who loved the spotlight -- Pedro, Pedey, Sale... Schilling [ducks] Sale loves the spotlight? Seems like the opposite to me.
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Post by juanpena on Dec 8, 2023 17:55:17 GMT -5
I don't hate it as a complimentary piece. Depends what we gave up though. Maybe someone like Mata? Doubt it would be Mata, who's out of options, when they just took Fernandez in Rule 5. It would be really hard to carry them both.
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Post by juanpena on Nov 17, 2023 19:57:15 GMT -5
Well we're +1 middling middle reliever and -1 starting second baseman and RHH bat in the deal. Hopefully there's a bigger plan here... Nope, Breslow's done. This is the team he's rolling with.
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Post by juanpena on Oct 8, 2023 0:25:58 GMT -5
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Post by juanpena on Oct 5, 2023 9:56:29 GMT -5
Spotted in the wild: an actual fuddy-duddy take about how the pitch clock is bad, even after a full season in which it has obviously improved the game immensely. Trust me that I am no enemy of purple prose, nor of lamenting all the ways the modern world reduces everything in our experience to crude calculation, but sheesh...
That's exactly the take I would expect from a literature professor who wrote a poetry collection called "Eggtooth."
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Post by juanpena on Sept 9, 2023 21:06:05 GMT -5
the AAAA relivers 4 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 4 BB And the two pitchers they got in the Enrique Hernandez trade can't beat out those guys for spots.
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Post by juanpena on Sept 9, 2023 17:40:18 GMT -5
It was a joke about how fans of all the other teams that missed out on them wish they had gotten them. Nothing personal.
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Post by juanpena on Sept 9, 2023 16:49:01 GMT -5
Your missing my point. This is not just a Bloom issue. This was and has been an issue over multiple FO’s. Including those who operated during a CBA in which there were no limits on draft spending 29 other teams didn't take those guys. And every team has a site like this, people right now might be complaining on those sites. Taking both would have been amazing. Taking one would have been nice. This year showed more than ever the importance of starting pitching, particularly starters who can go deep into games. If Crawford and Houck are starters, you're unlikely to get more than five innings out of them. Best-case scenario for Gonzalez and Perales seems to be 2025, so they're going to have to go outside the organization to find a good starter or two (perferably two) or punt on next season.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 24, 2023 13:54:43 GMT -5
BALSA BAT DOOGS AND THE VAZQUEZ RETURN BOGAERTS CRIED ABOUT Do you honestly think Bogaerts had any idea who Abreu and Valdez were or what quality of prospects they were? He reacted emotionally because a guy he'd played with virtually his whole career and was his friend was traded. These guy are human beings. His reaction had nothing to do with who was coming back or what Bogey thought of them. But my pointing that out is no way meant to disparage Abreu. He's doing a great job seizing the opportunity.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 6, 2023 20:54:51 GMT -5
Guidas, what is with the Mr. Bloom thing? Someone said a while back I didn't respect him. I actually do, and, while I don't know him, I believe he's probably a really nice guy, and we'd have several things in common. Anyway, to show him the proper respect, he is now Mr. Bloom. I disagree with a lot of his moves, but I respect him. But because I don't work for the New York Times, no Mr. for me.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 6, 2023 20:20:02 GMT -5
Guidas, what is with the Mr. Bloom thing?
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Post by juanpena on Jul 30, 2023 13:50:58 GMT -5
Chad Jennings also reported in that article that Bogaerts wasn't going to waive his no trade last year From the article: Xander Bogaerts had a no-trade clause the Red Sox didn’t expect him to waive. If they didn't ask, they'll never know for sure.
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Post by juanpena on Jul 22, 2023 14:45:26 GMT -5
Merloni: If you're the Red Sox, Casas is the guy you want at the plate right now. He's given you three good at bats today DOB: *Long silence* His ABs with runners in scoring position are generally awful.
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Post by juanpena on Jul 22, 2023 13:16:46 GMT -5
How the hell can Casas get picked off?
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Post by juanpena on Jul 16, 2023 18:04:37 GMT -5
No, it certainly wasn't.
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Post by juanpena on Jul 15, 2023 19:53:44 GMT -5
Seabold getting torched by the Yankees. The Sox should be ashamed for not hitting him when they faced him.
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Post by juanpena on Jul 15, 2023 8:46:20 GMT -5
This is correct. I excluded the guys who'd already been on the MLB roster. Devers and Benintendi were the good ones I mentioned that he hung onto. The dip in the prospect pool after them leaving very little near MLB talent on the farm due to bad moves by Cherington. He "hung onto" Devers only in the sense that the White Sox chose Moncada over Devers in the Sale trade. The White Sox wanted Moncada, Kopech AND Devers. Dombrowski said no. Sure, it seems like a simple "no" to make--even for one of the best pitchers in baseball signed for three years at a team-friendly rate--but it goes against the prevailing wisdom that when Dombrowski wants a player, he'll throw in whatever is needed to get him.
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Post by juanpena on Jul 6, 2023 20:25:24 GMT -5
Verdugo having a terrible game offensively and defensively. He’s had a tough week or so It’s still less than a week since he threw out the tying run out the plate to end Saturday’s game then hit a bomb in the ninth to win Sunday’s game.
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Post by juanpena on Jun 19, 2023 16:23:02 GMT -5
I would agree the “Dombrowski strips farm systems bare” storyline oversimplifies things.. however, I think it is very telling that under the graduated prospects table on the home page, there is a gap of nearly four full years between Devers’ graduation and the next graduation, a potential platoon corner bat in Dalbec. That's largely because they whiffed badly on the 2012 and 2013 drafts. That's where the next wave should have begun. The only real hit from those drafts was Mauricio Dubon, and after the Sox traded him, two other organizations traded him before he found success. Ty Buttrey had value as a trade piece and some MLB value before he retired and Brian Johnson was useful in 2018, but otherwise those drafts were pretty bad.
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