Jack Parkman

Probably. Especially in a society that glorifies winning at any cost, and views moral integrity as mental weakness.

Like it or not, they've just opened pandora's box. There's no reason not to do this if you're already good.

Lifetime ban. Bring down the hammer. I don't think that anything short of that would deter anyone from doing it again. This is a far more egregious offense than what the Braves did with their international signings. It's the moral equivalent of your entire team roiding up.

No it's not. It's a slap on the wrist. I'd bet you that 30/30 fanbases think that if this is the punishment for cheating to win a world series, it's worth it.

We're all Sox fans. If the Sox ever left Chicago all to the Cubs, I guarantee most of us would become Cardinal fans. I would. I get it. I question why in the hell I'm a Bears fan every December. In my age group(mid 30s) Most of the football fans are split in half between Bears/Packers. Especially before Lovie was hired. I know plenty of people who were born and raised in Chicago, born after the Bears won their lone SB and are and always have been Packer fans. This is more common than you think among those born in the mid to late 80s. Anyone who is young enough to not remember 1985 has a different perspective.

They do, and it's reasonable. They started to charge people extra to watch the damn games. If you want to piss off your fanbase, one way to do that is to charge them extra to watch their team on tv and cry poor simultaneously. When an organization squeezes every dime they can out of their fanbase, they're not allowed to cry poor. I know plenty of Cub fans that are beyond pissed.

I'm proving that it's a league wide disease. Even the Yankees and the Dodgers, the teams with the highest payrolls in baseball, have fallen prey to it. Go win a damn WS for fucks sake. Flexibility is only theoretical if it's never used. As much as I b**** about KW, this is a point where I'm glad he's still involved. He will tell Hahn to go get what the team needs to win. The goal of baseball isn't to make the playoffs as many times as possible, it's to win a fucking world series. Go do that. I apologize for blaming this on sabermetrics. What I'm really complaining about is front offices being too damn conservative. I blame sabermetric valuation techniques for this pervasive conservatism, not sabermetrics themselves. This is the kind of shit that pisses me off and insults my intelligence as a fan: If the Sox pull this shit with Moncada or Giolito next winter I will tear them a new asshole.

It does, because it convinces front offices to do nothing instead of trying to win a damn championship. It can backfire on you too. Look at the Yankees with Clint Frazier. He was a top 40 prospect 2 years ago, became blocked and they didn't use him to help themselves at a position of need. Now, his value is significantly worse than it was. Prospects are being valued more than winning. That is my problem. Win a damn Win a Damn world series, worry about the future when it comes. All of the Cub fans that are complaining about trading Gleyber Torres are idiots. They might have a point with Eloy, but he was blocked anyway. I don't want the Sox to make the same mistakes that other teams are making. From what I've seen over the last 20 years, teams have a choice: Multiple playoff appearances with no championship over a decade or more or maximizing a short window and getting at least one. The back end of that is going to be painful. We're seeing it in town with the Blackhawks and Cubs right now. Ask their fans if it's worth it? They'd say yes. Again, players come and go, but championship banners fly forever.

Maybe In this case I'm equating sabermetrics with conservatism in team building. I'm railing against conservatism not necessarily sabermetrics, mostly using sabermetrics as an excuse to be overly conservative.

I don't think they are bad if used properly. Using them as an excuse for not getting the job done is.

I have done research. The Royals and Cubs, and Red Sox sold out for rings. They have one. The Dodgers didn't, and they don't. Players come and go. Championship banners fly forever.

Ideas like surplus value, $/WAR etc.

The Braves proved that it is very difficult to win that way.

That teams are being too conservative. The Cubs took being aggressive to the extreme. It's even infiltrating the Yankees mindset.

$/WAR wins games but not championships. We now have 20 years of data that proves that. Chalking it up to a crapshoot doesn't make sense because in 20 years one of these teams would have won if it actually was a crapshoot.

How come Oakland, Tampa and the Dodgers never won anything? You could point to the 90s Braves as well who won 14 straight divisions but one title with a similar approach to LA.

The payroll wasn't what I meant. What I meant was overvaluing his prospects.

Yeah, and how many World series has that won them? Oh yeah, zero. This approach has been proven by the Athletics, Rays and now Dodgers to be excellent at winning games and inept at winning World Series.

And it doesn't matter because they still haven't won a WS since 1988.

They refuse to trade any of their young players for immediate help. Friedman runs the team like he's still in Tampa. There has to be a middle ground.

They're the perfect example actually. They held on to all of their prospects instead of trying to win. I'm not saying to do what the Cubs did, but a middleground approach would have won them a WS. They were a player or two short for 4 seasons in a row.

They'd never say it publicly so that's a bullshit argument. If they did, they'd alienate their fanbase. Internally, I'd say every team that's not the NY Yankees. Honestly, I think the Dodgers are in that boat. It's fine if it's a tool to get to winning a WS, but it's not ok if it's the end all be all. Sabes are fine if the goal is to use them to win the damn WS. They're not ok if they're used to squeeze money out of the players and fans, and that efficiency trumps winning championships.

I can agree with those who say sabermetrics are ruining the game, but not for the same reasons. It comes from the GM position where the bar has changed such that $/WAR is more coveted by owners than winning the damn WS. And that's a problem.

I'm going to try to will Nylander into being good like I did with Giolito. Wish me luck. Not serious. I understand Nylander might be scouting fools gold. Just a baffling player. Has all of the tools, including hockey sense but isn't putting anything together whatsoever. Not giving up yet, but I find myself yelling at the TV on every shift of his.

Preach. Lavine is destined to always be the best player on a bad team. Markkanen and White are 3rd options on a good team, and WCJ is a defensive specialist. However, there's not much they can do if they keep getting the 7th pick in perpetuity. I think Markkanen can develop into a 2nd option if he puts work in on developing a post game. He's fucking 7 feet tall. Use your size, dude. He's already got the skills most 7 footers don't have(mid-range and 3 point game)