They were heavily tied to Robertson who has been a complete bust in Philly. I think, or hope, that DD learned his lesson with Smith and Thornburg on acquiring relievers in December. Go with what you have and acquire who is pitching well. He generally makes very astute trades for mid season pitching (Pomeranz, Ziegler, Eovaldi, Cashner, etc) and am confident he won’t do anything silly. He’s a phenomenal trader.
I was just expressing my frustration. If they can't win as currently constructed, and they think they have a legit shot, then you're right- it doesn't matter and they need to make some moves. But I think it's still fair to question DD's offseason and point out how terrible the plan for the pen was at the time. It's one thing to resign Kimbrel and Kelly, have an injury and/or poor performance, and have to bring in a reinforcement. It's another to do absolutely nothing and then have to bring in three guys (I'm counting Cashner as the Eovaldi replacement) to fix half the pen in July.
Probably the only thing in your post I disagree with. I dont know that what you gain with the bat is not outweighed by what you lose with the glove, but in a vacuum they can find a way to replace the bat and then some.
Yes well even good teams do make mistakes. Would you rather they not correct them when they see they’ve made them?
It's beyond the scope of this thread, but I dont think the plan was that terrible (but that's definitely debateable by reasonable people). Put another way, I dont think the Sox current predicament is the result of the construction/performance of the bullpen, so much as it is the starters falling short of expectations (Sale, Porcello, Eovaldi/5th slot in particular).
That tells me that Trade Values site doesn’t value Bradley’s defense as much as other defensive metrics do, or defensive metrics say Conforto is a better outfielder than I thought he was (which would just highlight how awful even the “best” defensive metrics are, basically no more useful than hockey’s +\- statistic), and it must not discount the value of relief pitchers as much as this board suggested they should be discounted all season.
Or, we are roadblocks for them. Our offense is hitting on all cylinders and the pitching is improving.
It wasn't a "total failure". They're right in the mix for a playoff spot. Of COURSE it's a down year compared to 2018, but that was by any measure a ridiculously extreme outlier, with very very little chance of repeating. It was much more realistic that this team could win 98-100 games. Right now they're on pace for 10 fewer than that so yeah, definitely disappointing. But "total failure" is a bridge too far. The season still has two months to go.
I agree with you. I’d view Workman clearly as a “sell high” candidate. If they Sox had dropped off and become sellers, they might have been able to maximize his future value to the team. But since they’re in it, he stays and we hope the pixie dust keeps working for 3 more months.
I don't understand why you keep asking this. I've simply said that I'm annoyed that they have to do so in order to fix the team's problems now when there were potentially available solutions over the winter. I never said they shouldn't try to get better. They're doing it in a less efficient way in my opinion. That's all.
I'm not criticizing your annoyance level. You definitely have a right to that. I get annoyed whenever one of my favorite teams makes a mistake, not just this particular one.
but you wouldn't be replacing JBJ with a CF. You'd be replacing him with an OF and sliding Benny or Betts to CF.
Well that's hard to say, since I assumed they were trying to stay under the cap but if they make more moves now they could go over the cap. If the cap wasn't an issue over the winter I would've liked to see them go after Ottavino, Britton, Kimbrel, and Miller in FA, and maybe explore a trade for someone, like say, Diaz.
Betts yeah, but Benintendi can’t play center field.
Do their abilities fluctuate wildly, or do their results? If abilities are what fluctuate, then waiting for the deadline to see who got touched by the ability fairy is sound strategy. If abilities are relatively stable but luck and usage patterns are what change from year to year, then you’re not buying anything by waiting until you have to pay extra for the what is only an appearance of stability.
I said abilities because the term is more inclusive to injuries. I think Blake Treinen is a great pitcher despite the results he’s gotten this year, but his ability to be has been hampered. Either way it’s a riveting philosophical debate I am sure.
Matt Barnes has done this as well over the last 2 years (including also throwing the hard stuff).
Great post, but a small nit: 0.1 innings is a full out – 1/3 of an inning – not a tenth of an inning. This only makes your point stronger wrt the bullpen, though.
The Red Sox CF if they moved Bradley would be Betts or Benintendi. They would replace his bat with a corner outfielder, or a DH, as the LF often probably would be JD Martinez.
The Yankees started it. They had the lowest FB% of any MLB team in baseball 2016-18 (2nd lowest in ‘15; 3rd lowest now). I can think of a bunch of guys they acquired who almost immediately started ramping up breaking balls (Kahnle, Gray, Robertson, Miller, Clippard, Warren, etc.), and they eased Sabathia and Tanaka that way too.
I know that in general baseball terms 0.1 innings is 1/3 of an inning, but I clarified that I meant actual decimals, not thirds of an inning.
Well if money was no object, then yeah, I'd love to have had Ottavino, Britton, Kimbrel, and Miller too!
Well for now that would have seemed like a good call. Probably would have saved some money too. Who would have been your 5th starter then? (Again, we didn't know that Eovaldi would get hurt, so you can't say, "Well we needed one anyway.") You'd have had Sale, Price, Porcello, ERod, and....whom?
Ottavino's walking as many guys as Workman. If there's worry about Workman "continuing to get away with it," it should be the same for Ottavino.
Trading JBJ for Diaz lowers the payroll a bit, but I think we've moved up that option.
Interesting comparison...
Beni came up as a center fielder and played there about 260 games in the minors.
And what you leave out regarding the rotation is Eovaldi needing elbow surgery for the second year in a row and forcing the team to use scrubs like Ryan Weber and Josh Smith, and bullpen long men like Velazquez and Brian Johnson (when he wasn't on the IL), as starters. That put additional strain on the bullpen by a) removing resources and then b) stressing the resources that remained. Even if the average innings/outs per game is only up a bit from last year's pen, it's very much about when those guys are working as well. There were probably a few stretches where a starter only going 2-3 innings forced guys to pitch who might otherwise have gotten a day off if the starter went 5-6+.
There was also that little factor that Ottavino was pretty clear that he wanted to be a Yankee.
For the record, I advocated right here on SoSH in the offseason for signing Charlie Morton. I thought he'd be a great pickup at very reasonable money.
You realize that a "yates-type" is less valuable than Diaz right?
Theo just did what I think people are advocating for: trading a fungible asset for an under the radar arm.
