SonofaRoache

The FO made that bed and must sleep in it. We gave them another chance to rebuild and that's fine. However, just because they got a chance doesn't mean they don't have to prove themselves and earn respect. They had a chance last year and blew it big time. I believe they will make us much better next year but I understand why fans are hesitant to blindly follow them.

If Hahn doesn't call up Robert then he is essentially a liar. Robert forced our hands big time and it won't matter. That being said, I wanted Robert called up August 1st, and if that didn't happen, just leave him be. Robert will probably only miss 7 games next year due to rainout, but having that early experience would have really benefited him. 2026 is not nearly as important as 2020, as we may be wasting a year of Giolito's and Moncada's prime seasons with us.

Mendick is an option but I want an already productive player there to start so increase win totals.

Nah, Leury can man second base and give us a similar batting average to what Magical would have those first 3 weeks or so. We wouldn't be getting immediate power anyway.

Don't want to be too obvious with service time manipulation.

They can't bring both up at the exact same time. It probably has to be a week or two apart.

That's why I think it sucks. Im speaking in terms of evaluating great players against each other and you can only compare players to their positional peers in most sports. Like in football, no one is comparing Rodgers to Mack. No one is comparing Jordan to Tim Duncan. Baseball is a sport where each position is really it's own thing. So if we are evaluating players, they should have similar positions and offensive expectations.

Let me rephrase this. Those who evaluate WAR to determine who the stars are do so by position. A first baseman isn't going to be compared to Mike Trout by using WAR. So the statistic itself sucks, but when determining who the great players are positional comparison is most important.

Well the whole point of WAR is to compare players at similar positions. So Ortiz is going to the HOF because he is better than his other 1B/DH peers. Mike Cameron is not going to the Hall of Fame because he is not better than his outfielder peers. WAR is useless when comparing different positions because each position needs a certain skillset.

Stras and Gio as 1 and 2 would still work well for us if Kopech and Cease give us solid pitching.

So apparently the Twins announcer and stadium PA guy uses he gone on twins strikeouts.

How did that Abreu homerun look on TV? The fans here were stunned and the people sitting next to me thought it went foul because the outfielders didn't move.

Just saw the lineup card. Is Ricky serious?

Took my family to Minneapolis this weekend for the misses birthday and tonight's game. Cannot say that I am impressed with Target Field at all. Our stadium is just as nice as this one. Our food options and concessions, and fun zones are much better.

Who said it was only about this?

Yeah we can sign two good starters, Grandal, and a decent RF and still have money left over to pay salary increases comfortably.

Nope. I couldn't care less what Hahn said as is the case with most people. We are mad because we lost Machado to the Padres by being cheap. And then had the nerve to say their offer was better because they included incentives Machado wouldn't have reached. We are mad because we wasted money on his friends that could have went to him, not because Hahn was confident and open.

The Sox would have to overpay to make that work by a lot. Thise guys aren't signing until after Cole does because they want bidding wars for their services. Whatever big teams don't get Cole, will turn their attention to those other guys.

Hahn is spinning like a wheel here. People weren't pissed because he raised expectations with Machado. People are pissed because we all knew Machado was a fit for this team, at a reasonable cost for a young star, with 2 suitors, and we screwed up. We already know the Sox need to spend big this offseason whether Hahn says it or not. If they fail this off season, fans aren't gonna say we don't care because Hahn didn't raise expectations.

Why not just start him in the bullpen at AAA an inning at a time first and then stretch him out to start by August?

We are in year 13 of not winning 90 games. The criticism may get to be over the top but it is to be expected. Fans are not obligated to give the people who've failed miserably a chance to prove themselves for a third, fourth, and fifth time. The only reason fans have been patient now is because they tried a new method to winning. I trust this process, but think in 2019 it shouldn't take 5 years to contend again. Competent organizations can compete in 3 or 4 years, even if it is just for an 88 win season.

Money overcomes every thing in MLB. Machado would have signed with us had we paid him more than SD, remember he wanted to be on the East Coast as well. I'm still confident Hahn can get this right but he needs to own this situation and put his nuts on the table this off season. No more rebuilds take time jargon. If we lose going all out, fans may be upset but at least he tried. This team can compete in 2020 if they spend money and invest wisely. Our pitching staff should be front lined by Cole/Stras, Gio, another middling vet, Cease and Lopez to start the season. If Kopech and Rodon can give you anything next year that's a bonus.

If we call them, they will come.

This is amazing. We aren't sacrificing anything as our team will play in one of the coolest scenarios this century. This game will be talked about big time and we are already getting big time attention today. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be the first team to do this.

There is no reason that we can't win 88 games next year. Although our biggest hole is in Jerry's wallet, if we spend the money and upgrade our other three huge holes at Vet SP1, DH, RF, we will be ready to roll. After that add a second bottom of rotation stabilizer. That would give us three pitchers we can depend on and hopefully guys like Kopech, Cease, Lopez, Rodon etc can step up. The only hole on offense once Magical and Lu are up would be Renteria.