MiddleCoastBias

Hahn et al blaming the players for the toxic culture ->

Yeah but they were also interested our castoff Kimbrel, so they can't win 'em all

I've been in Boston over ten years and had to live through multiple World Series and Stanley Cup parades here. My friends etc still ask why I'm not a Boston sports fan yet and it's like... it doesn't work that way.

With evidence that MLB tried to prevent players from helping anyone gather baseball that could be analyzed, this definitely sounds intentional and nefarious. https://twitter.com/NoahAFrank/status/1600329918935506944?t=80TdUs_Yw0-LVXvCms17IA&s=19

Are there any you're able to share? I recall stuff about Keuchel (he was pretty vocal about placing blame in the media) and some mentions of cliques in the clubhouse, but nothing overtly about individual players.

They should've done this live. Doesn't the NBA do the pull live?

Well that was quick.

Woof. I've long been a fan of Profar even after the prospect-luster has worn off, but even I'm resigned to the fact that he's the best we can reasonably expect as the consolation prize to this off-season.

But I imagine a lot of other teams may also be thinking the same thing now, driving that competition for him (and price) back up.

Ohmygod. This is so stupid and I hate it. Why does MLB do such dumb things that they can (and should) get absolutely roasted for? They deserve everything coming to them. Judge's season was an all-time great and an incredibly fun thing of fans of all teams to follow, and now we're going to have people throw "well actually" asterisks on it. Completely avoidable and unnecessary blunder.

"And here comes Grifol to get Graterol". I'm sure Benetti will have fun with that one and Stone will audibly roll his eyes haha

But it's happening live, so it's exciting! Until the foodies who read this site see this rumor and start putting it out on Twitter, and then it isn't fun anymore.

Haven't seen this posted elsewhere and thought it worth discussing. Tonight they'll be drawing the order for the 2023 draft lottery. Full info on the format can be found here - https://www.mlb.com/news/2023-mlb-draft-lottery-odds The Sox stand #15 right now (mired in mediocrity!) with 0.6% chance at the #1 overall pick. The first six picks will be denied determined by lottery and the remainder will go by winning percentage and postseason finishes.

"New" as if we weren't complaining about 3B for eleven consecutive years between Crede leaving and Moncada taking over. How quickly everyone forgets how big of a headache it was to find someone competent to replace the carousel of crap we trotted out there year after year. I'm in no rush to repeat that.

The pitch clock thing actually makes a lot of sense and will definitely be something I hadn't thought to watch. He looks gassed if an AB goes to like 6 pitches and then he needs a minute to recover walking around the mound. Great point, Dick

Coming into this off-season, I was looking at all of the top-tier SS on the free agent market (meaning a lot of teams needing to SIGN a SS) and I was thinking "wow, I'm glad we're not in that boat." And now I'm panicking because maybe we are, for some reason? I did not expect this.

Ooo I like this one, it's even better than the typical "there's a move that may or may not happen. I'm right if it does, but also it might fall apart." Now we get the generic "some people will like it, some will not." I swear, they should write horoscopes with the way everything is so "specifically" open-ended.

I think it was Cali that suggested trade Hendriks and have ReyLo close, and that gave me pause but worth considering. But I still think ReyLo is closer to being a closer now than he is to going back into the rotation.

More like the $100M+ question given how much starting pitchers cost now.

I'm assuming that it would've made sense to trade Vaughn before we let Abreu walk. Now we can't.

You make a lot of interesting points and a lot of things could go right with these moves, but my hangup is: ReyLo as our closer. Not to say he can't function as the closer, I just wonder if that's the move we make as a team trying to compete for the World Series? I get you don't know if a guy CAN close until you try him there, but that seems like a big risk to if we find out he CAN'T close. That's a move you make if you're a year or two from contention but a gamble play in what is supposed to be a contention year.

Tired: interesting that there are only two players (Eloy and Robert) with player-specific promos, don't want to risk advertising something for a player that might be traded. Wired: Sox confirm Hendriks and Giolito will be traded this off-season.

I'd be 100% in on this move. A lot of people are talking about other moves for bounce-back guys like Gallo (I don't understand that one) or Winker, but I would bet on Gleyber Torres being the player to most benefit from a change of scenery.

Gun to my head? Yes, but only for Benintendi (Conforto and Nimmo will be out of our price range. I'd rather take the bullet than Gallo.

This right here. I take it as a fun thought experiment and a way for seasonal authors and publications to stay relevant in the off-season, keep a conversation going. Purely entertainment. Why else is Vegas posting World Series odds on teams when they don't even know who will be on the roster? People are basically betting on favorite logos at this time of year and they're happy to take that money.