If the season gets to September 1, the Red Sox luxury tax resets
- Thread starter soxhop411
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I laughed. It's primarily the reason I posted it here. Though I'm unsurprised by the push back they got for it.
It’s a lost season, and no one is being asked to spend their hard-earned money on tickets, concessions, etc.
It was predictable that people would get upset. The staffer who sent the tweet probably should’ve thought better of it. But the people who are upset are being totally ridiculous. As Rip says, it’s nice when people don’t take themselves too seriously.
Yeah, it's funny. Are we going to wallow about the 2020 suckage or wake up to the fact that hopefully soon there will be a new competitive Red Sox team?
It's a strong sign that the organization values fiscal victory over on-field victory at the present time. Not exactly something to raise a flag for, but with this club one never knows. They can run it up next to the one they'll raise for having the very worst starters' ERA in history.
There's absolutely nothing funny about this season or the present state of the club IMO, and there hasn't been since Mookie was traded. No one signed up to root for financial flexibility.
That's just me though.
There's absolutely nothing funny about this season or the present state of the club IMO, and there hasn't been since Mookie was traded. No one signed up to root for financial flexibility.
That's just me though.
I think it's funny. And I'm strangely enjoying this season.
And now, with the reset, it's a success.
And now, with the reset, it's a success.
Yeah, maybe not well thought out, but funny. I mean, is the social media staff supposed to pretend this season is something else? It's a reset, now let's start getting better.
I think you might be attributing the tweet as reacting to the luxury tax reset. I took it to mean that the trade deadline is done and they might have what could pass as a farm system now.
The farm system is MUCH improved from 7-8 months ago. Granted, the MLB team is much WORSE, but the farm system is significantly better.
Pretty sure the tweet was about the luxury tax reset. "iykyk" means "if you know, you know". Basically, a winking acknowledgement to fans who know that with the passing of the deadline, the season is official and the tax has been reset.
Agreed. I was talking with someone at work today about this and they were upset about the lack of pitching coming back in the deals. I told them to keep an eye out for the PTBNLs. I wouldn't be surprised if they already know the names involved and that they were AA pitchers. Time will tell but the cupboard is no longer bare.
And... I just learned iykyk (thanks RSFan!). Had no idea what that was. Thought someone was channeling Curly.
Right. I think the Friedman/Dodgers approach is a likely, loose model for what we’ll see. Reset, reload, pull the trigger when the time is right.
I'm enjoying the season, too. I've watched or listened to at least some of about half the games.
I never expect the Sox to win, so there's zero anxiety about it. It's just baseball, which I missed so much before they came back, that I was watching Fubon Guardians' games — and they were terrible, too! I realized how much I love putting the game on and, like, doing the dishes or scrubbing the grout in my bathtub.
The team is a very weird mix of good and terrible, but it's surprisingly watchable.
It's fun to root for Chavis to make contact, for Dalbec to hit 390 foot popups, or for Phillips Valdez to throw a dozen changeups in a row, as he did last night. Verdugo has been a positive delight to watch. Robinson Leyer just made his debut, and he seems really fun: straight high-90s heat that he throws out of the zone, and then a tight slider/cutter thing in the mid 80s that he tries to spot the corners with. Darwinzon Hernandez just went back on the IL, but I find him absolutely electrifying to watch. Even Arauz is interesting.
Devers slumped hard for the first few weeks, but now is in the midst of a two-week span with a 1.000ish OPS. Bradley slumped hard for the first few weeks, but is now in the midst of a two-week span with an .840ish OPS.
You didn't think a tweet with the text "If you know you know" was a joke? Alright.
Honestly, I didn't see it until it was posted here. I also didn't know what "IYKYK" meant. I didn't notice it until it was mentioned. I did know it was light-hearted. So I guess I did know.
This is very well said, other than the fact that you left out X, who is just a stud and a delight to watch.
Baseball games are like a companion to me. My house, or even my Residence Inn, feels more like home with the Sox on in the background.
There is absolutely nothing funny about the news of the world this year, with the pandemic killing people, costing jobs and keeping people from seeing loved ones and well as all the people being killed by police, protests, counterprotests and violence.
The Red Sox being awful is part of a hangover for putting forth their best team of all time isn't killing me. In fact, if there is ever a season to suck, this is absolutely the one. And the one they needed to happen - the tax restting - just happened, which seemed in doubt on many occasions,
If the Sox are awful next year and are all jokey on Twitter, then I'll be upset. But today's tweet didn't bother me at all.
I actually edited out my comments on Bogaerts because I felt they took away from the thrust of the post. What I was going to say was that I think I finally realized this season that Bogaerts is on a Hall of Fame path.
(I think Mookie blinded me by being on that Barry Bonds-in-Pittsburgh trajectory — Betts through 27: .301/.374/.523, 44 rWAR, 132 SB, 150 HR; Bonds through 27: .275/.380/.503, 50 rWAR, 251 SB, 176 HR.)
Bogaerts is 27, and he has 22 bWAR/26fWAR. Since the beginning of 2018, he has a 138 OPS+, and is showing no signs of slowing down. He has been remarkably healthy (averaging just under 150 games per year since he became a starter), he has a perfect baseball physique, and a good arm. I don't think we've had a hitter with better balance since one Manuel Aristides Ramirez.
If he stays healthy, he should enter his 30s with 35ish WAR. Averaging the systems (B-R hates his defense), he has 24 now. Say, he finishes this short season at 25 and then averages 5 WAR in his age 28 and age 29 seasons. That's a handful behind Derek Jeter's trajectory — and (and here's the cautionary tale) Dustin Pedroia's *knocks wood* — but not wildly so. If he has two more 7 win seasons (like his 2019), he could be right there with Jeter's 40 rWAR by 30.
If plays well into his late 30s, he could easily end up with 60+ WAR. He'll probably move off shortstop at some point, but he has plenty of bat to be a serviceable on the Robin Yount/Gary Sheffield SS-->OF trajectory. I don't know if he'll approach 3000 hits like Yount — he'd have to average ~180 hits/season for eleven years — but 2500 seems in range. I don't think he could reach 500 HR like Sheff, but 350 seems in range. He has 115; he'd need to average 22 HR for eleven seasons to reach that mark.
It just depends on how long he can stay healthy, and wants to play.
So it looks like the Sox social media folks are taking some hits today...
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/09/01/red-sox-roasted-twitter-gaffe-celebrating-luxury-tax-reset/?fbclid=IwAR0XcMpH0iAQGo5Ng_GJvGvnACPpgbKSRhW8p2HGc__qblAglZhe_gwll20
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/09/01/red-sox-roasted-twitter-gaffe-celebrating-luxury-tax-reset/?fbclid=IwAR0XcMpH0iAQGo5Ng_GJvGvnACPpgbKSRhW8p2HGc__qblAglZhe_gwll20
But suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.
Add me to the weirdly entertained group. I get a Casey Stengel "Can't anyone here play this game!?" vibe about the pitching staff because I knew they would be god awful and they aren't even trying to hide their tankiness. You kind of just have to laugh it off because who gives a shit in this climate? The announcers don't have to travel with the team, so there is a minimal amount of weariness in their voices and they can just casually call a game.
Basically this is the best season in history to be completely irrelevant.
Basically this is the best season in history to be completely irrelevant.
How is the Justin Long tweet about CHB not being celebrated here - and honestly how is that .... uhhh... fine example of humanity still employed in Boston (CHB I mean)?
Or it's a strong sign that they realized the position the club was in coming into 2020 and that there was no path to current victory. Did you sign up to root for a team that would have been maybe 14-22 instead of 12-24 if they had kept Mookie? They have a better path to the next contending team now than they did 6 months ago. Every team values financial flexibility and other than the Dodgers who have had the benefit of a weak division for years no team tries to win every year. This season was lost it before it even started once they lost erod after losing Sale, might as well have fun with it.
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I thought “IYKYK“ was Gammons’ comment on the tweet.
I have no issues with the tweet. It was what I have been thinking since the end of the 2019 season.
I have no issues with the tweet. It was what I have been thinking since the end of the 2019 season.
It may have been provided as constructive criticism. The implication is that he can improve. We need to stay positive in these trying times.
Another way to think about it is, it's kind of like closely following a minor league team. The record doesn't really matter - it's much more about following individual players, seeing who had the chops to make it long term, how young guys are (or aren't) developing, trying to figure out whether a player's performance is indicative of something larger or just small sample size, etc. It's a very different way to follow a team but I agree that for one season it's interesting if nothing else.
So we've reset. Does anyone know the status of the Yankees as it pertains to the luxury tax? I know there are certain levels but I don't really understand how it works.
I'm glad that this tweet is getting the important scrutiny it deserves in the light of so very few things going on in the world (even in the baseball world) that would overshadow it.
What’s the best site to look at future cap commitments vs cap space for baseball? (Who’s the Sox version of Miguel?)
I'm a fan of the tweet, appreciate the sense of humor, and have no time for the "once you let Mookie go you can never possibly be redeemed" line of thought. But one thing not mentioned above that I particularly appreciate: it speaks to the informed baseball fan. I'm guessing the breadth of the fan base in (insert your favorite dumb market here*) wouldn't be aware of the significance of the tweet or the cap reset, whereas Red Sox fans have had their eye on September 1 since the season started. And I feel very smug about that.
* -- I think I'd go with Los Angeles here.
* -- I think I'd go with Los Angeles here.
I just use Cot's
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al-east/boston-red-sox/
They have pretty good info for payroll, salary cap numbers, blah, blah, blah.
To me, this season is an overwhelming success. We were very lucky to have the season Sale went down for TJ be the season we offloaded Mookie to get under the CBT AND be a season where the brand damage is mitigated somewhat by the overall peculiarity of pandemic baseball. Verdugo is, so far, everything we could have hoped for and more, Jeter Downs is a top 50 prospect, and we traded a bunch of old dudes for prospects with upside. We even gamed the draft and got Blaze Jordan. Chaim is a goddamned genius, and I am fired up for 2021.
Where is that coming from as a source? (apologies, it just pops up as a google doc in my browser). I'm just curious as the numbers seem off compared to Cots and some of those arbitration figures are kinda nuts. $8.75M in first yer of Arb for Devers? FWIW, Cots has them at $122.5M, before arb or medical or the Perez option and minor leaguers, so it's not crazy off, I'm just curious on the source.
View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WWRsQNsGZkWuJZwlY8--xVBXMJGjh230D45KiHTHuvY/edit#gid=1520401900
Cots and Spotrac are pretty darn close, right around $123M. Given the google doc also has tabs for the other Boston team, I am interested where it comes from.
Do the medical and 40 man tabs count towards the luxury tax? I'm not sure exactly what those cover, but that might be the difference, money that ownership still has to spend but nothing that has a competitive disadvantage to spending it. That totals up to 20-25m
They do, but the difference is closer to $60M with the original one also including arbitration estimates which seem all over the board, high or low.
I'm not enjoying the media beating the drum over JBJ not being offered an extension after not being traded and having nice things said about him by Bloom. Tempest, meet teapot. Rob Bradford is being insufferable on the topic. I'm glad he wasn't traded, but his future with the Sox should not be a hot-take item. His agent is Scott Borus, btw.
So, this team took down a self-deprecating tweet that acknowledges the only good thing to happen to the team this year because the optics were supposedly bad... but continues to employ Ryan Brasier and trot him out there in a Sox uniform after he tweeted racist garbage a week ago. Coooool.
Taking down a tweet and cutting a player for a retweet are two different levels of action, aren't they?