Recent content by allmanbro

Having more teams buying CAN set up a bidding war, but I don't think the players the Sox are selling are good enough for that to be a factor. Maybe there is some individual team that sees this as an unexpected, one time shot, and goes all-in. This could make a difference, but it's hard to...

I get what you are saying here regarding fans. On the topic of trades, I would guess that the shortened/more volatile season will mean a smaller return for the rentals they are shopping. When luck is playing a bigger role relative to talent, the marginal value of adding a guy like Workman or JBJ...

How does this date get decided? It seems completely arbitrary.

I've wondered if the Red Sox will be less impacted than other teams by the economic fallout here because 1) Their payroll had always had more to do with the soft cap than with revenue 2) They were planning to have a down year in revenue anyway (not by this much of course, but their expected and...

As I said initially, it's hard to imagine this coming up much in practice. But it's in-principle possible that DH flexibility could change roster construction: maybe there are catchers who would be called up as a third C (even if just for short stretches) for defensive reasons even if they can't...

Ha, an application I hadn't imagined! I was thinking the new DH would only be necessary when you are switching which position the DH is hitting for.

I've always thought it should be an option to have the DH hit for any player you want. If you did that, there might be a few pitchers out there where it would make sense to let them hit and put a terrible hitting defensive player somewhere. Maybe that would be so infrequent it's not worth it...

I thought the same thing when I saw a similar blurb elsewhere. The longer quote there (taken from the original Athletic article) almost seems to suggest a moneyball type advantage to be had, and that MLB was substantially behind (for example) the NBA, in using tech/design/fit of uniforms to...

Along the lines of the one-day deal, if he likes Boston, I wonder if you could make an unorthodox pitch for a kind of retirement tour: a one-year deal where he slots in as a bulk guy/middle reliever/spot starter. He throws 100-120 innings, where the team works hard to only put him on the mound...

I think the timing and the trajectory work together. Remember how Ted Williams recommended a slight uppercut because the swing plane matches the plane of the pitch better, they overlap more, and you get a bit more time. When the ball is coming down like that, its plane only very quickly...

Two of his first three ML HRs were grand slams, which always seemed really cool to me. (I actually remembered the numbers being a lot more dramatic than that, but I was young at the time)

I don't have direct comparisons, but that strikes me as a pretty big effect. On any individual team, the actual comparison for a potential 3 hitter is between whoever hits 1/2 and whoever would hit before him in another slot. But this is enough to make me think we shouldn't worry too much about...

So, given that The Book was published in 2006, and (at least as I recall) was looking at league averages, do we expect this to actually be true of smart modern teams that put high OBP hitters 1 and 2? In 2006, there were still plenty of teams that would leadoff with a low-obp speedster, and...

He did throw 15 playoff innings in 2018, but ya, I think this is most likely. The "optimistic" prediction would be based on the assumption that his problems last year were a result of the 2018 title run (with nagging injuries) and quick turnaround. Maybe building him back up this year can get...

This seems right, and here's hoping it is. I have also wondered since the Mookie trade if part of the decision to do the mini-reset now is that the team already knew they couldn't push Sale too hard this year anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a couple (Pedro-style) IL stint breaks, and...