9/17-9/19 Red Sox @ Rays Series Thread

From a Twins fan buddy in Minnesota on this upcoming weekend: “please put us out of our misery”

They did do us a solid by DFA’ing David Ortiz, so sweeping them and ending their suffering is really the least we can do

It's a completely different economic dynamic now than then as well. Teams were worth less than a billion dollars, and the stars weren't close to making 1/2 a billion in pay. Granted, at some point it's all monopoly money after a certain figure. I don't know, I want to be hopeful but there are soo many moving pieces that could go either so right or so wrong with our decision making the next few years.

We do *need* a bonified ace who is A: Healthy, and B: Still has something in the tank. Just having one would make the outlook for the rotation look so much better, and we have enough parts with health to have a really competitive pen even if Martin and Jansen walk.

They've been painful to watch offensively for the past month and a half, but I don't even worry about their numbers against left handers as much as I (beating a dead horse) loathe their defense and really feel like takes the air out of the team when they have gaffes. It feels like (even if it is not always true) that every big mental mistake or errant throw is followed up by a two-run homer. 

I'll be interested to see how their pitching strategy matures. Everyone was singing Bailey's praises early in the season when we were dominating on that side of the ball, the league adjusted and since then we've had long stretches of middling results, either because of strategy, or because guys like Houck, Crawford are throwing more than they have ever thrown in their careers to this point. It'll be interesting to see now that they have that experience under their belt how they prepare to hold up a little bit longer next year. 

As for the hitting strategy, I don't know what to do about that. The league rewards guys for slugging and power, but I miss having a balance between that and just being able to make contact and have productive outs when necessary. I don't think Fatse et all are doing anything specifically incorrect, and earlier in the season I loved when the Sox were pushing the envelope on the basepaths and wish they didn't go away from that pressure, to me that was exciting baseball, when guys were putting the ball in play and letting their athleticism be the deciding factor versus their strength. I'll go back to my old folks home now.

Yankees aren't really playing for much at this point.

I'm out on Garcia, but I do think that there's a chance that if we brought Sims back he could be pretty good for us.

Bailey Horn, however, has been atrocious and now he’s gone

I had no clue until this second he was a Boras clients. Oh yeah he gone

Bello gem tonight?

I’m sure they would love to have TO back in a vacuum, but the fact that they could sit on their hands all winter and still roll out an outfield of Duran/Rafaela/Abreu (with Roman in the wings) means they don’t have be to super aggressive about it, which you kinda need to be when it comes to a Boras client.

Do I hear 2 in a row ?

I like TON bombs more than just about any old fool, but he strikes out at well over 30% of his at bats.  The homers may be hard to replace, but the contact won't be that hard.

I don't really want him back.