Dick Allen

More proof that not being an asshole pays off if you haven't been a very good player.

Whatever you think of Puig, his reputation has definitely cost him some cash this offseason.

Eventually there will be a breaking point. Obviously baseball isn't basketball. Losing one player isn't going to ruin your ticket base. But if it becomes a pattern and winning stops, and prices keep going up, what seems very unlikely is going to happen. I watched Hub Arkush on Kap's show last year. He has his dad's season tickets, tickets they have had for the Cubs since he was a little kid. Obviously not a corporation, but last season he almost cancelled because the price is getting outrageous. Maybe he breaks this year. Maybe not if he has Comcast and can't watch them on TV.

And even if that is the plan, you waste a year of in their prime Betts and Sale for Alex Verdugo? Vergudo is pretty good, but not that good.

I just think when you aren't operating on a shoestring budget, and you charge the customers what you charge, if you want them to stick with you during lean times, you better be ponying up when windows are open, and not satisfied with half assed, and a profit. Mookie Betts is a player you get signed or you go down swinging like Brian Downing trying. Trading him for financial purposes is OK for the Marlins, not the Red Sox.

According to Forbes, the broke Red Sox only made an $84 million profit in 2018. The 2019 figures are not out. So you must be right, paying Mookie Betts wasn't going to work. I wonder why they even offered him a significant extension. Trading him isn't going to increase their chances of bringing him back. There were other ways of resetting their tax.

You play it out. There aren't many Mookie Betts around. Trading your best players usually doesn't result in more wins in the short term. Their "window" is open about as long as Sale's arm remains feasible. To dump Betts now, makes it less likely Sale is pitching meaningful games.

John Henry's sports empire is supposedly worth $6 billion. You are trying to win and you trade Mookie Betts. F-. Could you imagine if JR did that? And he isn't worth anything near John Henry's group. I'm sure some will say it's totallly different, but fast forward a few years and the White Sox are trying to win, and Moncada is the player we have all hoped, and JR sends him elsewhere for a package like this. Fail. Fail. Fail.

The very definition of NBA hell. They supposedly draft well, but still lose. The team needs a new vision. Pax, Gar, and Boylen have to go.

Joc was available because they upgraded. His price was obviously higher earlier, as they had no MVP level replacement and weren’t looking to move money. But yeah, b**** the Sox didn’t bring Joc in for a year.

He has agreed to the trade. Cease and others back to Colorado, now the done deal will be completed this weekend, so he can get a couple more days of attention before it "falls apart".

Hold for breaking news........

No need to worry, the update is Arenado is torn about leaving and if he turns down the trade, the management he was just ripping for doing nothing, told him they will do nothing with him this year. How nice. I wonder if JR will be meeting with Mike Trout next.

Someone actually believes this guy. That's the saddest part.

Obviously false. It’s one thing to tweet a trade that hasn’t taken place yet, but one that supposedly is done, and no one else has it anywhere? OK.

How does he not know what he has? He has 4 or 5 guys who will always be lucky to play more than 55 games. He has a super athlete with all the tools but can’t play defense or close out games, and once his athleticism starts heading south, so will his game., and a bunch of scrubs. If everything goes their way, they are an 8 seed, maybe a 7, if Coby White develops and a first round blowout loss. It isn’t going to turn around next year unless they get DRose lucky in the draft lottery, but they don’t even want the lottery. And he doesn’t want to admit the team also has to overcome being out coached on a nightly basis.

What are they really going to change? Does anyone really believe they will hire a new guy to make the decisions that need to be made? They might hire someone they will let bounce ideas around. But it will be years before they let a new guy tear down GarPaxs rebuild They would have to admit they were wrong. They can’t even do that with Boylen where even the beat writers and TV guys wonder WTF? Did you hear Stacey King when Boylen compared Luke Kornet to Robert Horry?

You're loaded like the Bulls, you stand pat as much as possible.

Waiting for the annual, Bulls had a lot of discussions, everybody loves our players , but just nothing that made sense for them line we get every year. No one loves their lottery players more than GarPax.

The talent is still there. There are a lot of really good players you would have written off if you based their future results on what they did in the major leagues up to the age of 24. If he would have been domininating AAA would you feel better about him?

What does that have to do with future results? I think he's in a pretty nice neighborhood. Just remember the worst house in a great neighborhood is a lot better than the best house in a bad one. They guy will still be 24 on Opening Day. There are a lot of stars that would have had worse numbers if they were in the major leagues at the same age. The guy has a ton of talent. Hopefully, it comes out. If not, it was a good gamble.

MLBTR has a poll on the Betts trade. How anyone could give the Red Sox anything but an F for salary dumping an in their prime MVP with the revenue they generate, and not give the Dodgers an A for acquiring that type of player is beyond me.

I remember seeing mock drafts and Luka going all the way from 1 to 5 and I had never seen him play. So I went to YouTube, and my God, this was the guy. Not crazy athlectic, isn’t build like an Adonis like Lebron, but to me he was a modern day version of Larry Bird. So clever with the ball. I think he was only 18 or 19 in the videos I saw, but he clearly was the most basketball savvy player on the court.

That’s exactly right.

How good is the SS position if Carlos Correa is considered 9th best?