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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 25, 2024 6:54:26 GMT -5
Fair, but Rafaela is the only one of those 5 projected to be a starter next year (and for the next 5 after that) so in my opinion that causing more scrutiny over his bat in general by folks. True that but we're also talking about SSS to start a career and projecting it to his future. Yes, but the issues being identified are exactly what people have been talking about for years, so there's more credibility behind the observations. Conversely, the defensive data (16th percentile OAA) doesn't align with history, so that certainly feels like a SSS. But to his credit, he's overcome adversity at every level along the way.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 24, 2024 23:10:26 GMT -5
Rafaela has a higher OPS than Hamilton, Valdez, Reyes and Dalbec. He's not close to the biggest offensive black hole. Additionally, when he's at shortstop, that means one more outfield bat is also in the lineup. Fair, but Rafaela is the only one of those 5 projected to be a starter next year (and for the next 5 after that) so in my opinion that causing more scrutiny over his bat in general by folks.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 23, 2024 19:17:55 GMT -5
Dalbec is an 0-3 away from batting below his jersey number.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 14, 2024 21:27:57 GMT -5
9-7. Oppositiion is .500. West coast trip outa way. Other than the Devistating news of Story nit terrible No one here (as far as I saw) expected them to compete. Overall mood was off the charts negative. Really they completely pissed away at least two games so they could easily be 11-5. If you're going to play hypotheticals, Kenley could have lost today and we could have lost that 1-0 game in Oakland. Let's not get carried away here. 9-7 is a good spot to be at in mid-April - it's where their Pythagorean is saying they should be and I'm satisfied with that, all things considered.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 8, 2024 19:08:19 GMT -5
Very excited to see Manny and Ortiz get back together again.
Growing up in the 90s, I remember thinking that the 86 Series was something in the distant past. To now think that the 2004 Series is closer to 86 than today puts things into perspective. Also makes me appreciate how great of a run we've had in Boston sports.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 8, 2024 19:03:08 GMT -5
It's refreshing to hear Verlander spend some time giving a thoughtful answer, especially in a world where the click-bait, trigger-inducing comments tend to be the loudest ("it's the pitch clock"). Maybe it is the pitch clock, but maybe that's a sign that pitchers can't go max effort every pitch. And that was his broader point, there's so much nuance to the issue that it needs to be explored thoughtfully and it stems back to the incentives.
He also gave an interesting anecdote that he didn't get Tommy John until after he had to change his game to go for swing and miss. Gone are the days where he was starting at 92-93 and dialing up to 100 when needed.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 6, 2024 21:47:36 GMT -5
We talk a lot about the pitchers as individuals causing this to themselves, but I think they are a symptom of a bigger problem coming from above. Now you're getting pulled in the 5th, 2 times through the order max. That does two things - it's telling starters that non-max effort isn't cutting it in the big leagues (as they'll replace you with someone for the 5th and 6th innings) and it incentivizes them to not focus on saving their arm to go deep into games (allowing them to max effort).
The chart showing a new-normal for injury counts post-pandemic is interesting.
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Post by foreverred9 on Apr 1, 2024 21:53:57 GMT -5
Kraft paid for Gillette himself and didn’t make us foot the bill as taxpayers, he ain’t cheap. We wouldn’t have a local football team with the history it does without him You know how many scumbag billionaire owners make taxpayers pay for their construction projects? Most of em He certainly reinvested in the area and the stadium/team and made it one of the most profitable franchises in sports and he did so when the Patriots couldn't pay to be on TV. With that said it was a reinvestment that paid off nicely for him. I think he's a very good business man. Cheap isn't the right word, but he has spent less on players than almost every other team the past decade. Your data above has them average at 19.5 out of 32 teams in spending. Seems middle of the pack rather than below almost every other team. Why are you so fixated on cash spending? Is it proven that cash spending equals success? I'm seeing Kansas City between 16th and 27th dating back at least 5 years. Cleveland's been up at the top recently, along with some other bad teams. The spending 2020-23 is certainly questionable, but tying it back to this general statement about Kraft when he's presided over a dynasty from the day he stepped into Foxborough up to 2018 makes the argument feel hyperbolic. Especially when it felt like BB had the pen for all football decisions.
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Post by foreverred9 on Mar 29, 2024 22:32:28 GMT -5
Is gameday right? Grand slam but they got the runner out at second?
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Post by foreverred9 on Mar 28, 2024 22:46:33 GMT -5
Not often you see a triple down the left field line.
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Post by foreverred9 on Mar 6, 2024 20:03:08 GMT -5
Wouldn't it be better for them to have an embarrassing loss? That's the type of game that makes them realize they are still mortal and can't lose focus. A loss to the Nuggets gets an "oh well" and they move on.
They need some adversity, as they still need to get better operating under it. Prior to the 4th quarter they had not been outscored in 20 out of the past 21 quarters (and the only one they didn't was the garbage-time 4th quarter against the Warriors where it was 26-25).
With that said, Tatum with the ball at the end of the game almost always leads to bad look and a miss. They have to find a better play.
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 27, 2024 17:53:01 GMT -5
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 19, 2024 18:07:16 GMT -5
It comes up as a T-Mobile Tuesday deal, but I think it shows up a bit closer to the start of the season. It's still telling me to "come back next year" under the MLB.tv promotion that I was signed up for.
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 19, 2024 17:07:26 GMT -5
Sandoval is up there with -1.6 bWAR for 95M, but Sale at least has put up 2.6 bWAR so far for 88M. That'll keep him in the bad but not worst ever category.
Stephen Strasburg is going to get 245M for 8 starts. He accumulated -0.5 bWAR too. That has to be the worst.
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 16, 2024 19:21:42 GMT -5
The injury makes it impossible for me to stress over the evaluations right now. Ask me again mid-year.
If he still struggles this year at AA he'll be dropping down lists. But if he hits fine, the reset button is going to get hit and then it becomes a question of durability and playing a full season.
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 13, 2024 17:52:39 GMT -5
Licensing MLB teams and individuals players sounds expensive in a genre that's all about producing content for cheap.
Might need to get Jon Dowd and Anthony Friese as players instead (hope some of you remember this reference).
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 3, 2024 12:12:49 GMT -5
I would agree with you, we as a fan-base in the 2000s didn't feel the "pain" of turning a profit but for some reason we are now. That's really the confusing part.
They probably were making a profit in the 2000s but that might have been an era where they were able to optimize their revenue. They found ways to make money - NESN was churning out fantastic ratings in the 18-49 demographic for advertisers, merchandise sales were booming, and they were creating new ways to generate revenues (i.e. concerts, monster seats, Game On) that allowed them to boost revenue to then cover the payroll.
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Post by foreverred9 on Feb 3, 2024 10:21:15 GMT -5
The one thing I feel confident in saying is that this current ownership wants to run the Red Sox at a profit. There's too many investors, so they aren't going to be able to get away with running the Sox at a loss. And I'm not sure they really had run them at a loss in past years either, but NESN revenues likely were huge then.
Expecting us to compete with the Mets and the team of the year (i.e. Padres) is going to set us up for disappointment each year. But you'd think this fan base generates enough revenue to be a top 5 spender. That's the piece of the equation I can't wrap my head around, that we aren't a top revenue fanbase. But if NESN is hemorrhaging and the investors want Red Sox + NESN to be profitable, maybe that's the source of the downward spend.
Saying that the owners don't care anymore, or that their investment in PGA changes how they thinking about running the Red Sox, just doesn't make any sense to me. I know that's a popular hot take and it's the easy road to take, but it's not logical. FSG is a conglomeration of many entities that individually each have a goal to return a profit.
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 19, 2024 19:34:52 GMT -5
I feel like we are missing some important data point. This ownership has made a pivotal shift in the last few years that doesn't track with their history over the previous two decades. I refuse to believe they've decided to squeeze this team into a higher-margin business.
Is NESN hemorrhaging? That's the only piece to the equation that I could see cause them to dramatically shift payroll. They reap the benefits of owning a regional network when it's booming, but now that model is floundering and they are immediately feeling the impact of lower advertising dollars. They don't get the benefit of being locked into a contract.
With all that said, I fear they are managing to the death spiral. Revenues are down because performance is down, and rather than fix performance to generate higher revenues, they cut expenses and get less interest, leading to even lower revenues.
This model of interchangeable parts doesn't make this team marketable either.
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 17, 2024 20:09:21 GMT -5
Time to change our picks again...
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 17, 2024 19:28:02 GMT -5
It's all behavioral. Putting out 270M as a feeler now makes a team feel like they won by getting him at 4/120. They're all shopping at Joseph A. Boras.
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 12, 2024 18:18:10 GMT -5
If only the Bengals spot was open... "on to Cincinnati".
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 8, 2024 21:53:22 GMT -5
This reaction from Vince Carter and Quentin Richardson is great too:
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 8, 2024 21:46:02 GMT -5
I was checking updates while grocery shopping so I missed the end. Can anyone tell me what the hell happened?
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Post by foreverred9 on Jan 7, 2024 22:23:58 GMT -5
What that 2/28 tells me is that the front office still wants to pay a reasonable amount and not mortgage the future.
The most rationale spending is on locking up the last couple arb years and extending beyond. Lets hope that means we offer legit, market-value contracts to our players in those years. Casas, Bello and then eventually Mayer, Anthony, Teel, and Grissom.
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