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Recent Posts
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Post by Guidas on Apr 19, 2024 20:05:17 GMT -5
Great win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 17, 2024 20:06:56 GMT -5
Great Win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 17, 2024 8:47:07 GMT -5
Yes to all of this. As long as I've been following baseball, having a season with no significant injuries are outliers. Whether chronic (i.e. the "nagging" type that resurface on some guys), bad luck like collisions, twists, broken fingers and hands, or pitchers breaking with no prior warning, it happens to virtually every team, every season. These are all part of a 162 game season, period. For the life of me I am not sure what the philosophy has been with this team since late 2019 other than to try to get under the tax and more or less stay there. That may be a preferred business operating model, but whatever the accompanying team-building philosophy has been, it's produced substandard results. I know this is Breslow's first year, but his off-season was more or less indiscernible from one of Bloom's off-seasons. "Waiting for the kids" is great and all, but it's not like they're bullet-proof, either. I feel like Breslow built a roster that makes a lot of sense in the abstract: each position, and each spot in the rotation and bullpen, was filled at the beginning of spring training with an at least competent player, some of them with significant upside. But one disruption to that plan (and there have already been several) and the whole thing quickly starts to wobble. Whereas Bloom's rosters tended to be kind of weird, sometimes with inexplicable holes in them (e.g., the 2022 outfield), but also with flexibility and redundancies that could help to patch things on the fly. But it's hard to separate these approaches from the situations they each inherited. For Bloom, that was an almost total lack of young talent filtering up and a lot of dead money on the books, which made it hard to cover all the holes on the roster. For Breslow, it's been an inexplicable budget constraint (I guess? I assume?) that's handcuffed his ability to bolster the roster even as a bunch of young talent is finally arriving.
And the first rule in this sport seems to be that there will be disruptions. Or as we've all referred to that great bard at one time or another: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." Michael Tyson, PhD in Life, Nobel Laureate of Street Philosophy
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Post by Guidas on Apr 17, 2024 8:44:01 GMT -5
Got to keep telling myself "expectations are low, just enjoy baseball and watch the kids develop". Trying hard to keep fan emotions out of it. Not easy to do. We're all fans here or we wouldn't be here. Nothing wrong with wanting your team to succeed, or even letting that affect your appraisal of on-field play. Different than the stories than the statistics tell us sometimes, but not always. And I gotta say, watching the kids develop has been going on for 4+ years now. They have some talent down there and in Boston, but we're fans of the MLB team for a reason, and it's not to have the best farm system or win AA championships.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 17, 2024 8:14:09 GMT -5
This team, which had money to burn, nonetheless went into the season with almost no depth at all to hedge against injuries. As of April 17th, Giolito and Story are out for the season, Grissom has yet to debut, and Pivetta's missed two weeks. Devers has already missed six games, and it sounds like he's set to add to that. It's tough to overcome the combination of bad luck *and* bad contingency planning. They've worked around the pitching injuries so far (sort of; if Giolito had been healthy, Houck could've been helpful in the bullpen in a game like yesterday's). But the replacements for Grissom, Story, and Devers have already compiled -1.2 WAR in 18 games. Yes to all of this. As long as I've been following baseball, having a season with no significant injuries are outliers. Whether chronic (i.e. the "nagging" type that resurface on some guys), bad luck like collisions, twists, broken fingers and hands, or pitchers breaking with no prior warning, it happens to virtually every team, every season. These are all part of a 162 game season, period. For the life of me I am not sure what the philosophy has been with this team since late 2019 other than to try to get under the tax and more or less stay there. That may be a preferred business operating model, but whatever the accompanying team-building philosophy has been, it's produced substandard results. I know this is Breslow's first year, but his off-season was more or less indiscernible from one of Bloom's off-seasons. "Waiting for the kids" is great and all, but it's not like they're bullet-proof, either.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 14, 2024 15:32:53 GMT -5
Great win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 13, 2024 17:56:56 GMT -5
Great Win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 13, 2024 8:37:08 GMT -5
I feel really sorry for Story. The guy clearly lives to play, and he is having many years taken by injuries. That is cruel. This. I mean, at the same time you could exchange the name "Sale" for "Story" and it was an evergreen since 2019. I say this being big fans of them both rebounding. Was not a fan of the Sale re-signing (I wanted him to prove he was healthy, and I wanted them to go after Cole), but was supportive of the Story acquisition when they passed on Seager. After his extension, Sale gave the Red Sox a total of 4 years, 6.7 fWAR and (according to Fangraphs) produced $53.5M in results/value at a rate of $24.1M per year over 4 years (and I believe they are still paying him $17M this year, yes?) for a total of $113.4M invested. So far, Story has given the Red Sox a total of 3 years, 2.9 fWAR and $23.1M in results/value at $23.3M per year over 3 years with 3 years still to go (assuming Story doesn't opt out in 2025), for a total of $140M invested. The Sale deal was supposed to be Dombroski's death knell. Bloom took fewer big risks, but the three he did take — Story and Yoshida acquisitions, Devers extension — Story is looking a lot like the Sale deal, and probably worse unless he can generate about 4 fWAR next year. Yoshida is TBA but not off to an auspicious start, either.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 12, 2024 21:02:30 GMT -5
Sad.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 12, 2024 12:56:15 GMT -5
After 1 home run, the big league club welcomes him back! He will now CARRY this team to the playoffs.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 10, 2024 10:30:31 GMT -5
This is brutal. My heart goes out to Story. He reminds me of Sale - a ton of talent that keeps getting injured.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 7, 2024 18:05:08 GMT -5
Great win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 6, 2024 15:15:09 GMT -5
That looked like a shoulder separation for Story. Hope it's not worse than that. Separation usually comes with a torn labrum, but since it's not his throwing side, as long as he's not in pain and he can swing, then he can get it reattached in the off-season. Separation usually 6-8 weeks recovery, plus minor league games to get the timing back. Tough blow for him. Going to miss Rafaela in CF if they move him to SS, but the alternative is Hamilton who looked out of his depth there in MLB stints and is a black hole at the plate. The problem even with only a separation is that if he dives for anything the shoulder has an easier time popping out again. Having had four on one side and three on the other, I can confirm this.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 6, 2024 11:44:28 GMT -5
That looked like a shoulder separation for Story. Hope it's not worse than that. Separation usually comes with a torn labrum, but since it's not his throwing side, as long as he's not in pain and he can swing, then he can get it reattached in the off-season. Separation usually 6-8 weeks recovery, plus minor league games to get the timing back. Tough blow for him.
Going to miss Rafaela in CF if they move him to SS, but the alternative is Hamilton who looked out of his depth there in MLB stints and is a black hole at the plate.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 6, 2024 7:48:44 GMT -5
Great Win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 4, 2024 12:44:52 GMT -5
Is Yorke is repeating AA despite having nearly 500 PAs there because he's blocked by Meidroth, or is there something they want him to work on more in AA?
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Post by Guidas on Apr 3, 2024 17:30:38 GMT -5
Great win!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 2, 2024 11:08:50 GMT -5
there it is ! been missing THE CALL. always a pleasure to see.I was watching the UConn Women and got distracted. It is THAT time of year!
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Post by Guidas on Apr 2, 2024 8:32:27 GMT -5
Also, if the MLB owners cared at all about the integrity of the game they’d for Fisher to sell. He makes Jeff Loria look like George Steinbrenner.
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Post by Guidas on Apr 2, 2024 8:30:44 GMT -5
Great win!
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Post by Guidas on Mar 31, 2024 17:44:39 GMT -5
Great win!
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Post by Guidas on Mar 29, 2024 7:03:05 GMT -5
Great Win!
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Post by Guidas on Mar 28, 2024 21:51:15 GMT -5
BOOM!
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Post by Guidas on Mar 27, 2024 12:47:22 GMT -5
The Athletic's Eno Sarris is bullish about Sox starters in 2024: "The Red Sox have a top-five American League rotation" From the article: I love Saris and think he's more comprehensive on pitching than virtually all of the other big outlet writers. If this is correct, the Sox will win 92 or more games. If Eno's misreading the spring tea leaves - and I've long been told that spring outcomes are virtually meaningless - then this staff will be at or below the mean being predicted by this board. We should have a good idea about 50 games in what this staff is and is not.
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Post by Guidas on Mar 27, 2024 11:02:36 GMT -5
With regards to the thread, I am guessing Breslow gets the final call on extending Cora. Given the Sox track record with free agents who they let play out the season (and I'll lump Cora in this bucket), if he doesn't have a new contract before tonight's game, can we assume that Breslow is letting him walk, short of winning the World Series? Otherwise, he and the ownership group will likely be looking at topping Craig Counsel's $40m deal with the Cubs.
My only other thought is, at the end of the year, ownership offers — and Cora accepts — some kind of front office position. However, this would seem to make Breslow's seat a little warm, if not hot. I really don't anticipate the front office for Cora scenario occurring, but it's within the realm of possibility given how often we've been told the owners love Cora. Then again, they loved Theo, sooooo.....
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