RTC

Option C - Elvis returns

No I meant actual good ones.

When was that?

Don’t disagree at all. My point is just that fans change their opinion more than a bit when the jerk starts playing for the team you root for. (see Rodman, Dennis)

Ask Aaron Boone or Ben Zobrist if they think it was just theatrics. Or it would be interesting to hear Justin Morneau's take on when AJ ..... yes ... ran inside the line down to first and took a shot at Morneau's heel. (hmmm, sounds familiar) I enjoyed AJ when he was on the Sox but truth is he was a punk. A lot of revisionist history there.

We need Manny and Harper resolved soon. People are so bored that this site is bordering on unreadable lately because almost every thread turns into a pissing contest.

Does this mean Goose/AB is taking over all the beer around the park? I sure hope not.

Nope. Not at all.

If you play the White Album backwards it says "Brian Cashman pulled one over on everyone"

Zero Dark Manny

If J. Michael Robertson turns out to be total BS (99% certainty) I’ll still give the guy props. He says it’s a burner account, has people throwing out conspiracies that it’s a Reinsdorf, and his three follows are the Sox, Bulls, and Stadium. Most well thought out troll job I’ve ever seen, but I gotta admit, it would be epic if it turned out to actually be Jerry. Part of me actually hopes it is.

Don't take our fun away!

Yep. And if I'm the Sox, immediately after the announcement I'd have ticket reps walking around the room with tablets for people to buy tickets on the spot.

And Bruce Levine will be reporting that Manny got in for less than full price

If they somehow pulled off anything sneaky, I'm sure tomorrow most of us will look like Rowand when Pods hit that home run off of Brad Lidge --> "No. No way. No way!!"

Ah, good times ......

My sources say today will be boring and because of that there will be pointless arguments about which mediocre player is better. Or not.

This is an interesting thought. Is it possible that his statement not only shut everyone up, but also had ripple effects on chatter beyond just Manny?

.... and I'm an idiot.

The strange thing is that not only has any Manny chatter gone dead, but it seems like all noise about Harper, Keuchel, Ottavino, and Kimbrel went silent as well the last week or so. And not just relative to the Sox, but in general. It's feels like Thanos snapped his fingers.

Huh? They had TWENTY-TWO guys last year that were between 0 and 1. You want more?!? EDIT: Just realized you may have meant more players with over 1 WAR. Totally agree on that. Sorry if I misunderstood. (Also, I used bWAR for my numbers because that's what you originally used. You can't switch to fWAR now for Bummer because the numbers look better. Bummer was -.1 bWAR) That said, just my opinion, yes, I would take one 2.3 WAR guy over a -.1 and .5 and day. By the very nature of using WAR, the -.1 and .5 guys are much easier to replace, and should actually be somewhat easy to improve on. But that's just my opinion, others may think otherwise.

I hear you, but I didn't mean to imply teams have no Palkas. This is why I suggested looking "depth" on contending teams, not "individual guys". I'm sorry if it came across that way. But the players you bring up sort of reinforce my point. - From everything I've read this winter, upgrading over Gattis is a priority because they want better production than .4 WAR. Honestly they probably would've loved to have Joc Pederson at DH with his 2.3 WAR. - Marwin Gonzalez at 2.5 would have been the third best player on the Sox. Marwin friggin Gonazales - And their utility infielder (Marisnick) put up 1.7 WAR, which is what the Sox starting 1B put up. - Astros had 20 players at 1.0 WAR or higher. Sox had 10 (FYI, Dodgers had 17, Red Sox had 17) - Astros had 10 players at 2.0 WAR or higher. Sox had 5 (Dodgers had 13, Red Sox had 10) - Astros had 5 players at 3.5 WAR or higher. Sox had none (Dodgers had 6, Red Sox had 6) I hear what you're saying, I guess my point was in the scheme of constructing a lineup the Daniel Palkas of the world aren't worth losing any sleep over - there's bigger fish to fry. That's all. The Sox problem is not whether to keep Palka or not, it's that they don't have enough players that are significantly better than Palka or Gattis.

This. Absolutely this. I get liking a player on your team. Even one that you know is not that great. I really liked Chris Getz when he was on the Sox, for reasons I really can't explain. But I knew he wasn't even remotely an answer to anything, with the possible exception of the question "Who are the mediocre players on your team?". You can like guys but be realistic. BA nails it above. If you want to see what depth looks like on a team that contends for a championship these days (not in 2005), look at the lineups for NY, Boston, or Houston. I think maybe it's just that Sox fans eyes have glazed over because we've gotten so used to watching a big giant pile of meh (#miredinmediocrity). When we see anyone that shows even the slightest bit of talent we get excited. Some people are so intent about hanging on to guys like Palka or Leury or "giving them a chance to show what they've got" while the Yankees are trying to figure out how to upgrade from a guy (Andujar) who would be one of the best players on the Sox, because they want even better. And, no, I'm not saying Joc Pederson is the second coming of anything. But compared to Palka, Joc does more things better. Plain and simple. He's a bridge for a couple years which, AT BEST, is all Palka would be. And Joc is a better bridge. Another thing that I think folks are missing is competitiveness in 2019. I totally get it when anyone thinks why bother with Joc because they're not competing in 2019 anyway - just see what Palka can give you (but see my points above). I think what everyone is missing is I'm really getting the impression that the Sox think they can compete in 2019 if they get Manny. So whether any of us think that's realistic or not, if that's what they believe, well, there's your answer as to why they'd want someone like Joc.

I am conflicted by the fact that I can handle all the actual Machado news just fine, but I have to drink to follow this thread ...... I blame all of you.

This awesome. The off season has officially crossed the line into fun-bad. I did! And there was less blood shed than in this thread.