CaliSoxFanViaSWside

I wonder if Holt might head back to the Red Sox now.

Well I guess my every indicator was correct. Said that 14 hours ago and 9 hours later he was traded. I just think in New England they ignored the every indicator for a lot of false hope and over thinking it. Bloom will be a good GM. He was just put in a no win situation. They were up against the luxury tax, they couldn't make any major moves unless they got rid of salary and they absolutely had to trade Betts . No one was biting on Price alone. I think Bloom did pretty good regardless. I don't view trading Betts as a PR disaster . Great players want to be Free Agents .There was nothing Bloom could do about that so the only option was to trade him. I think he did great getting the Dodgers to take Price too and pay for half his contract. I'm pretty sure Maeda was unhappy with the Dodgers so they were glad to be rid of him and get Price in return. Once Bloom settles in and gets out from underneath the Dombrowski mess he'll be a real asset for the Red Sox.

You must not have been reading my posts . It's been me against BackDoorBreach forever about Mazara. But I think his hate for Mazara outweighs my liking the deal for him. It's all (well not all but a lot) in the Castellanos thread . Where have you been ?

Part of my problem is with the title of what they are measuring "Top 10 Right Now". I believe they give the most recent season the most weight but I don't know how much weight . It's hard to argue the list without knowing the exact criteria they use. "Right Now" to me means who was best in 2019 or at the most combine the last 2 seasons but weigh 2019 at 60% and 2018 at 40% and have some criteria that also says how many games played qualifies you at the position . If they want to make it a minimum of 100 games over 2 seasons, fine, but 200 and then 250 or 300 games should weigh more, I really don't care how much WAR you accumulate in half a season because games missed from a great player hinders your teams success a great deal, If any of the "experts" want to deviate from what the Shredder uses , great , that's subjective and up to them but still keep in mind the list is called "Right Now" for a reason. If the Shredder isn't programmed heavily to the last couple years stats then don't call it Right Now.

How could you come to that conclusion while every indicator is saying he is going to be traded and Boston is crippled by the luxury tax ?

If you believe that and you have every reason to, then how in the hell is the best bet to trade for and extend him ? Do you think he would agree to a contract so much less than he would get in Free Agency ? Their best bet is till to go after him in Free Agency rather than giving up valuable assets and thinking they could extend him. Neither way is likely to get Betts but at least waiting til he gets to Free Agency won't make the Sox look stupid by trading away part of the future for 1 year .

Not the same arguments unless you have a list of arguments against both players. There's no doubt AJ was a grade A asshole. He traded people badly. And opponents hated him and so did many of his team mates. As far as I know he didn't get punched in the face in a bar brawl with a bouncer or refuse to listen to his coaches or get quoted as saying he didn't play hard until he was in a contract year. I tried to find something about AJ getting in trouble with the law . All I could find was he got a speeding ticket in Spring training one year with the Sox without incident. Apparently he knew when NOT to be an asshole. It's one thing to be an asshole to people but another if you think you know more than your coaches and get in trouble with the law and don't work hard or hustle. So basically they aren't the same arguments.

I assume you mean because 2 ex Sox are at 4 and 6 ?

So if all 9 guys in my lineup had 123 RBI's that would be a bad thing ? Sure there are better stats but most act like RBI's mean nothing but you got lucky because you had opportunities. It's not that at all. It's what you do with you opportunities. I don't know that Abreu had the most opportunities in the AL to drive in runs. It's not like we had a team full of great OBP guys. He hit very well with RISP . To me that's better than a walk with RISP but walks mean more than RBI's.

Right but it was half a year. What about all those games missed where he isn't contributing anything to his team ?

Why is it funny ? Why shouldn't we ?

And like my earlier arguments or questions all those stats you sited place extreme importance on walks. Where is the importance placed on driving in runs or batting average with runners in scoring position ? Still have to score more runs than the opponent. I know sabermetric stats are like Gods to some of you but use common sense too. RBI's mean more than they are given credit for and walks are given too much credit because they are used over and over again in every major offensive statistical category, propping up weaker hitters while a lack of walks hurt a good hitter thus punishing him with lower numbers across some of the categories who mentioned. 2nd and 3rd 2 outs , whats better a walk or a single ? Do they count equally in fWAR and OPS ? Which would you rather have in that situation ? Also without a list I have no idea who you are saying was ahead of Abreu. Encarnacion made the list of 1st basemen but he played less than 50 games at the position. At least play the majority of your games at 1st in order to beat out guys who play the position more frequently. Just throwing those stats at me without context means nothing. YOU DON'T EVEN TELL ME IF THOSE ARE OTHER 1ST BASEMAN YOU ARE COMPARING HIM TO AND WHO IS AHEAD OF HIM ON THE LIST, SO HOW CAN I ARGUE AGAINST ANYONE ELSE YOU SAY IS AHEAD OF HIM ? (I am not yelling at you .I just have never been able to get the BOLD to work.) Common sense .

Just as I suspected because of Anderson's lack of walks and errors he didn't make the top 10. Stacked position for sure though. I know many think bWAR is a joke but I actually prefer it over fWAR. This is case once again like with ABreu where the lack of walks and fielding give the impression that Anderson is not a top 10 SS. There is way too much distance between sabermetric stats and traditional stats now. When a batting and RBI champ can't qualify as being Top 10 in the majors something is wrong.

I just don't think there's any reason to bargain hunt. The longer you wait the less likely you are to find the one who truly fits your needs. They are all probably bargains right now. At this point in time anyone hoping to be a starter has little hope. I look at Mendick much the way I look at Keuchel,Bumgarner Ryu . Keuchel was the cheapest of the bunch but you can't say for sure he will be less valuable then the other 2. Mendick is Keuchel . He is likely to be just as valuable as anyone in his limited role. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he is capable of equal WAR as Madrigal. His versatility and willingly to do anything the Sox say to be up with the big club might actually be hurting his chances of being more than he appears to be. Of course he might not ever be as impressive as he was during his brief call up too.

Wait , you bolded one part of my post and then literally went on to say almost the exact same thing as me in the bolded and non-bolded part.

You are probably right however... Let's look at where we are right now. Not a playoff team unless the young starters step up, Payroll is currently less then many thought it would be for 2020. If they do step up and the other young position players do well we are sitting pretty for 2021 . Yeah we will lose some relief pitchers and have more expensive arbitration raises but the Sox could afford Betts, There's no doubt about that at all. Actually going after him and then signing him is still a extreme long shot and the Sox more than likely settle for a lesser option if Mazara stays the Mazara we all know and ummm love. More than likely we will still be looking for another high quality starting pitcher unless Kopech, Cease. Rodon or Lopez show a lot more than just incremental growth.

It seems more apparent that with every passing day the Sox are going to go with what they already have or just wait everything out and see who's left over and desperate. They could easily sign any one of those guys right now. I'm not sure where payroll is now but it seems to be under the $120M many were saying where it would be . What this means I have no idea. Do they wait a little longer and sign a few more guys to minor league deals ? Are they saving to see where they stand at the trade deadline ? Perhaps they are currently in negotiations with a utility guy, reliever or any of the other players left. Many here had hope payroll would be higher but RF had no clear cut option and better starting pitchers either were extremely expensive or might not provide any more than Keuchel will and were more expensive also; There are still over close to 15 FA's who put up between a 1-2 WAR last year . 5 of them are classified as 2B, a few of whom are utility guys. Others are Andrew Cashner, Jason Vargas, Russell Martin, Puig, Maybin, Pence, Pillar, Jarrod Dyson. There's still Colin McHugh and Taijuan Walker as possibilities who had under 1 WAR.

Still, though, the Betts rumors are heating up quite a bit. Bloom got no biters on Price so they have to do something. No one seemed to be in a hurry to help them out. I wouldn't expect too much for Betts . Probably not Verdugo .

If you have video and audio of your Pacer appearance I'd include that too. They will still audition you I'm sure but a video will get you taken seriously faster.

Maybe on the bases he gets good jumps . In the outfield he doesn't, he admitted he was bad at it but says he's been working on it. There might be a statcast measure of reaction or jump time for OF's and Eloy's was bad.

It really depends on how Moncada Eloy and Robert do this year or even Mazara . There's alot of slightly proven but mostly unproven power but such high ceilings that Betts may not be needed but an upgrade like Springer might be great. If Mazara shocks the world and hits 35 bombs they might try trading him or try extending him. I'll wait til the end of the season to make up my mind.

No it's not crazy at all and frankly you could go even higher in batting average and OBP . As far as what I expect, just being a little more serious while he still maintains the fun he seems to be having. He really does need to improve his fielding but I won't ever expect that to be on the plus side but I'd like him to be average. Hitting I expect him to be more selective and see if the launch angle thing is right for him. He's a lot like Mazara in that he's a line drive hitter who likes to use the whole field and likes to extend his arms so he's vulnerable to low and away because he likes going to the opposite field. But he hits too many hard hit balls for ground outs . Once he starts learning to lay off certain pitches and take more walks I think he's capable of huge power numbers.He's already a very good mistake hitter so force the pitchers into making more mistakes and not go after pitchers pitches.

Thank you . I always do that, mute for moot. Only one grammar, typing, forgot something thing is pretty good for my posts. That's why you always see my posts edited. If I get corrected enough, it'll stick eventually. But I am not Steve Stone with many followers. I doubt even one person follows me here, nor do I represent the White Sox . Here I can look drunk, high, ignorant, unrefined, angry, mean or stupid and not worry about it. Not sure he has the same luxury.

You consistently said $4M in at the least 5 posts and also a 3 yr. extension between $12-15M one time and $4.5 per year for 2 years. But I did see one where you said between $3-4M.

According to the latest Future Sox article isn't Dunning still regarded as our #2 pitching prospect ? I'd call that a top prospect.