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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 20:36:12 GMT -5
That's fine and all I'm saying is $$$ are a lot cheaper than a talented, homegrown, young core that we know fits together and fits (can handle) Boston. Don't disagree that there is always work to be done - catcher (perhaps Swihart is the answer) first base/third base - (2 of Devers, Chavis, Dalbec?) relief pitching (Lakins, Feltman with Braiser as "closer"?). Reasonable Sale extension (in years if not $). I know we won't have all this work, but I really want to avoid borrowing trouble by messing with the group more than needed.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 20:20:35 GMT -5
I was trying to point out in a somewhat light hearted manner that I think the idea of breaking up the core of a young, historically successful team is .....not wise. The Sox have,by and large, bought good pitching and if that's what you're worried about losing then rest assured they can and will buy more, either with money or prospects if they fail to develop it, but they aren't going to give up their core players thereby creating more holes unless they feel there is no chance to extend them. If and when that time comes, then they do what they must, but that time isn't now. Sorry if you're offended by my style here, but if you want to even consider moving Betts, Bogaerts and Devers you'd better come up with a lot more talent for them than those you posited (or in Machado case a better human being).
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 19:36:17 GMT -5
I was using hyperbole to make a point which is that I don't think it makes sense to mess with the extremely talented core of a young 108 win team. And the names you checked included 3 that are, if not cancers, are certainly not team first warm and fuzzy players. Plus you can't even consider giving up Betts for anyone except for Trout so I'm really unsure why you even raised that.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 18:28:22 GMT -5
Harper, Harvey & Machado in - Bogaerts, Betts, Eovaldi out? What are you building, the Oakland Raiders of baseball?
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 15:45:53 GMT -5
Nobody has accused Sheffield of being smart as far as I can tell. Nice to have some smart former players doing pre/post game analysis. Some aren't and some cannot get over their biases. I think Pedro is awesome (ortiz, too, I think, but I have seen much less of his stuff) without being a Sox homer. No mistake, he's still rooting for the Sox, but he's honest. Sheffield's an idiot (at least this little bit that I have seen). He's very anti-Red Sox but can't even give any good reasons when he's picking them to lose every game. Hey give the man his props, he's been right almost 32.75% of the time ETA, that's full season plus playoffs, much like some other non-Sox his playoff record is worse than his regualr season performance.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 12:39:23 GMT -5
You either make your own effing luck or you overcome the bad luck - or you lose. That's what the Sox did in '04 (likely '07, although not much comes to mind) and in 2013 (although it seems like lady luck was on our side, they certainly overcame many obstacles). Patriots have been doing just this for 15 years. ESPN, the Worldwide something or other but not what they think, is just continuing their Boston hating bias. Whine, whine, whine.."the Astros 3rd level stats are so good, 4th best ever, had better OBp than Boston by 10 points, better SLG by 1 point so that means they outpitched them. Had to be luck right, the ball Betts was interfered with on was over the fence (based on exactly what) but the camera was blocked...blah, blah, blah." One of the best things about Boston sports is sticking it to those self aggrandizing clowns of the shrinking subscription base. And BTW, replace Kimbrel's performance with pretty much anyone else and those OPB and SLG numbers probably reverse.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 19, 2018 8:18:29 GMT -5
THe big question for me is: Will the NL team pitch around Porcello?
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 17, 2018 10:05:26 GMT -5
rjp313jr said "...Playoffs will be different but we are so far from that." How can you say that there's only 81 games left!!!! We're half way there! Wait, what oops wrong sport Never mind. Gotta lay off the chowdah!
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 17, 2018 10:00:32 GMT -5
Sooooo going to fit well with the A-rodless MFY?
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 17, 2018 8:01:07 GMT -5
Seems like Machado is auditioning for the Astros.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 17, 2018 7:58:14 GMT -5
There is a certain someone whose M.O. is accusing others of that of which he is guilty, not a good look.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 16, 2018 20:32:43 GMT -5
The movement emanates from the top down so ball then glove,not glove first.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 10, 2018 21:58:17 GMT -5
You mean like this??
Start Spreading the News They're Leaving Today It's Time to Pack Up Your Old Mitt New York, New York
Those LCS Blues Just Won't Go Away You Can Go Home and Just Sit New York, New York
You're Gonna Wake Up Every Night and Begin To Weep A Hundred Win Season Collapsed into a Very, Very Big Heap
The Sox Red and Blues Continue to Play They Won't be Coming Back To Old New York
You Claim It Isn't Fair But We Don't Really Care Toodle Loo New York, Neeeewwww Yorrrrrk
All Sit!
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 9, 2018 22:38:25 GMT -5
Just want to thank Kimbrel for his no drama Koji-esque performance s/
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Oct 9, 2018 22:28:11 GMT -5
Win or lose, no way should they resign this guy!
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 28, 2018 12:06:33 GMT -5
All he did was multiply $7.25 times 160 hours (assumes 4 x 40 hour work weeks per month). He's as wrong about that as he is about his view that baseball is only a game or that the economy requires large profits siphoned to the fortunate few or to monopolistic corporations or that that situation demands lower workers (I assume he meant low paid workers). All you have to do is look at many European countries where either through strong unions, a more egalitarian philosophy, a more graduated tax rate have managed to provide a much higher standard of living to the "lower workers" in their society including such things as universal access to health care or higher education. If you want to see something that is only a game, take a look at any trading floor where primarily young people with a different skill set play leveraged games with other people's money while acting with all the maturity of junior high students. The reason why America has the best standards in medicine is because they DON'T have universal health care. There's a reason why people from China and India come here to practice medicine. It isn't a higher standard of living because it DOESN'T PROVIDE THE BEST HEALTH CARE. IT JUST PROVIDES HEALTH CARE FOR ALL CITIZENS. No, the reason provides the best standards in health care is because it is the world's richest country and provides those standards for its wealthiest citizens (and foreigners who can afford it). America does NOT have the best health care results globally. We are behind in: infant mortality (@30 out of 40 OECD countries), 26th in Life Expectancy and 37th Globally in overall health care efficiency. It dies not provide health care to all it's citizens unless you say that anyone can go to an EMergency Room, after which if they don't have decent insurance there is a good chance they will be bankrupt. Just recently my wife fell and ended up in the ER (it was 11:30 pm). She was not admitted but had a battery of tests including an EEG and x-rays. We just got the billing through Medicare. The 3 hour stay was billed at over $15,000 - Medicare and our supplemental which we are fortunate enough to be able to afford covered it all paid about$1,000. If we were not on Medicare and had typically crumby insurance we would have been on the hook for thousands, I know this because we had an incident in our pre Medicare days where something of similar severity left us with years of paying off the uninsured portion that our supposedly fair play didn't cover. So if you want to spout your JINGOISTIC ALL CAPS NONSENSE, at least try actual instead of alternative facts to back it up. Mike Trout has been the best player in baseball for the past several years (2nd best this year - MOOKIE!) but the Angels have been mediocre. That's the U.S. healthcare system in a nutshell.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 27, 2018 21:54:09 GMT -5
All he did was multiply $7.25 times 160 hours (assumes 4 x 40 hour work weeks per month). He's as wrong about that as he is about his view that baseball is only a game or that the economy requires large profits siphoned to the fortunate few or to monopolistic corporations or that that situation demands lower workers (I assume he meant low paid workers). All you have to do is look at many European countries where either through strong unions, a more egalitarian philosophy, a more graduated tax rate have managed to provide a much higher standard of living to the "lower workers" in their society including such things as universal access to health care or higher education. If you want to see something that is only a game, take a look at any trading floor where primarily young people with a different skill set play leveraged games with other people's money while acting with all the maturity of junior high students.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 25, 2018 20:10:01 GMT -5
I advocated for a living wage, something the minimum wage most definitely is not. $15/hour, $2500/month. If you can't afford to pay your employees that you don't belong in business and that's as true for Walmart as it for Baseball. As far as that $27k per average for 20-24 year olds, it's the Bill Gates (now Jeff Bezos) fallacy, Gates walks into a bar, on average everyone is a millionaire. And as to the assertion that marginal players contribute nothing to the system, forum rules prevent me giving the deserved response to that so I'll just say, you need org guys with well above average ability vis-a-vis the average college level player to help the cream of the crop develop. The better their situation is, the better they will be able to compete and drive the system forward.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 25, 2018 9:11:21 GMT -5
I think at least $2500 month (the equivalent of a $15 minimum wage based on a 2000 hour year) is the least they could do given that these guys work for them more than 40 hours a week. Add to that provide a high quality meal every day which would teach them better nutrition and compensate them for the extra hours. Drop in the bucket for the owners, maybe marginal for the bigger bonus babies, but very significant for the org guys and dark horses.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 24, 2018 15:37:52 GMT -5
@ umassgrad2005 I also worked in the banking industry throughout most of the 80's and 90's. I did a fair amount of traveling, didn't get paid directly, but at that level of salary and bonus it was irrelevant. I was basically on call for emergencies (one time I had to leave home at midnight and drive into Manhattan to take over the trading of a new issue security in Hong Kong because the Tokyo head office hadn't done anything like that before and was blowing the deal for the highest of profile international institutions. It's was part of the job. The same of MilB players, the travel is part of the job, but their salary doesn't compensate them for it like mine did and yours does. Life happens, now I spend a few hours a week working at an hourly wage for one of the biggest employers in the country to get out of the house and fund some luxuries for us. I get to be with people who need that job (often with one or even two others)just to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the company got a multibillion dollar tax break, paid about an eighth of it one one time "bonus" even though it will get the same break again this year and for the foreseeable future instead of just increasing the hourly pay rate. So, no sympathy for greed billionaires whose "hard work" consists of schmoozing one another and lobby Congress for the next tax give away at the cost of the average citizen's health and well being. Somehow, many other advanced countries (and especially the Nordic ones) have manages to create systems that provide better lives for their citizens while still enable those who care to, strive hard and catch some breaks to get very wealthy. No one is advocating that MiLB should live in the lap of luxury, but Baseball could do a lot better by those players without the danger of sending any owners to the poorhouse.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 22, 2018 15:50:11 GMT -5
Are you (Umass) seriously comparing yourself working for a bank or investment company wand likely on a decent salary perhaps with bonus to a minor league ball player? Are you saying that because they earn more than $7.25 an hour (equivalent to $14,500 a year) that it's ok? Newsflash, there are a lot of people who work for an hourly wage and they often get paid for travel (not commuting time)since it cuts into the time where they would be at their second or third job trying to make ends meet. I also would bet that most MiLB players do work 60 hours a week including workout time - something that's optional for you and me - but is an integral and essential part of their profession.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 22, 2018 14:04:23 GMT -5
For those who don't like the term "Clutch"perhaps "Mental Toughness" will substitute,we hear that about the Pats all the time.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 22, 2018 13:11:48 GMT -5
All of the above arguments are good ones, but the one salient point for me is that there are at least several hundred MiLB players who earn less than minimum wage after adjusting for bonuses (something which should be taken into account IMO). There is NO REASON for this to happen. The answer I believe is that MiLB players should be guaranteed $2500 minimum per month (the equivalent of the $15/hr wage based on 2000 hours/year. Players who received bonuses above some amount (fully adjusted for paying agents and differential tax impact) could get less.
I never shop at Walmart and use Amazon only if I can't find an alternative because of how the treat/pay their employees (try to avoid some other notorious companies as well). This country would be a lot better off if more money was shaken loose to people who would actually spend it on day to day living. Baseball is no different. People join law firms hoping to make partner and work ridiculous hours (but at least they get paid enough to live on and, maybe defease their student debt), same with Wall Street. Paying people less than a living wage is, pure and simple, exploitation usually done by those who don't need the extra money - and in the case of baseball you can talk about the risk the owners aer taking, but you'd be hard pressed to find examples of those who came out losers by the time they sold their franchises.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 18, 2018 18:59:32 GMT -5
Yup, won't hurt to get extra looks at the "vaunted" MFY bullpen.
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Post by maxwellsdemon on Sept 18, 2018 12:23:36 GMT -5
So it seems that dog is non-observant
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