That just means it's awesome. Don't be so cynical, you guys.Lose Remerswaal said:No reviews yet?
We wondered, of the two deposed managers – Terry Francona and Bobby Valentine – which one is held in higher regard by Henry and the Sox owners?
Francona, who managed two championship teams, albeit with great talent, or Valentine, who had a record number of injuries and chaos during his year at the helm?
https://twitter.com/nickcafardo/status/301367446349168640Mike Napoli won't play any first until he has an MRI to evaluate where his hip situation is. John Farrell anti pâtés next week for 1b
At some point, this has to come down to the editors. I can't believe this clown has the clout to get this kind of crap through.Smiling Joe Hesketh said:Are you fucking kidding me? What sane person even thinks of this question?
I can't decide which comment from today's Notes column best captures Nicky's utter lameness.1. David Ortiz will have little or no protection in
the Red Sox lineup and should expect to walk a ton this season. This
could be a tough season for Ortiz, who will also try to stay healthy for
the bulk of the year, despite his troublesome Achilles’ tendon. The Red
Sox elected to go the “scrappy” lunchpail route rather than get the
ultimate protection, Josh Hamilton. We’ll see if the strategy works.
9. OK, I hope it sells well and everyone got things off their chests, but I think I’m just about done with the Francona book.
joe dokes said:Isn't this:
The Sox could trade some of their acquisitions at midseason and perhaps pick up extra draft picks.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/02/20/red-sox-spring-training-camp-low-expectations/U1UFyh0d4XRwrQXVbPrBRI/story.html
wrong?
Hendu for Kutch said:There are tradeable draft picks as part of the new CBA's competitive balance lottery, but it's a very small number of them at the ends of the first two rounds. So technically, yes, they could trade those guys for draft picks. But they'll have to each be acquired in separate deals from separate teams, since no team has more than one and no team that acquires them can re-trade them.
It's technically correct, but it's dumb to think they're going to be able to accumulate a bunch of these 12 available picks. First and foremost, 7-9 of those picks are held by teams not likely to be adding at midseason. If Cafardo thinks they can make separate deals to acquire several of the available 3-5 picks, well...that shows you what sort of baseball mind he is.
Jose Iglesias made many games worth watching last season --
every day he seemed to make at least one remarkable play. Compared to a
.300 hitter, a .200 hitter will get about one fewer hit every three
games or so, but if during those three games he creates three extra outs
in the field, playing him still appears to put the team way, way ahead.
At least in theory: no-brainers in baseball are sometimes elusive. In
reality how does the WAR (or other all-in benefit statistic) work out
when a .300-hitting shortstop with only average defense is compared to
the very best defenders (e.g. Brendan Ryan) if the plate production is
only .200?
-- Tony, Portland, Oregon
Yikes. Way above my intellectual capacity. All I know is what
pitcher wouldn’t want Jose Iglesias to be the starting shortstop? He
does save outs, saves pitches thrown. This is why Joe Maddon is so
excited about having Yunel Escobar at shortstop. He really believes his
pitchers will benefit.
Any columnist worth his salt would have reached out to an expert in the field and had them give an answer.MyDaughterLovesTomGordon said:This was my favorite from his generally pathetic mailbag today:
So, the question is actually a pretty decent one, asking about how much defense is weighted in evaluating a player with contemporary metrics (though the use of BA shows the guy still has a way to go). Nick's response?
Literally, "way above my intellectual capacity." I mean, obviously, Nick - but is that really an acceptable response from the guy who is the lead Sox beat writer? Couldn't he refer the guy to Baseball Prospectus or the Bill James Almanac or some other source that explores the value of defense vs. the value of offense?
I'm sure there are plenty of pitchers who would rather have a masher with average defense over an automatic out with plus-plus defense. It depends on the rest of the line-up, the rest of the infield defense, etc.
It's not impossible that Iglesias is the better choice at shortstop, but that answer is just so devoid of actual interest in educating and serving the readers it's embarrassing.
Corsi said:Any columnist worth his salt would have reached out to an expert in the field and had them give an answer.
"That's above my intellectual capacity, but I reached out to X and Baseball Prospectus and he says..."
Fucking lazy hack. Doesn't know the answer, so he throws out some cheesy platitudes instead.
He was a bit combative during our discussion, unwilling to discuss the incident with Bobby Valentine that seemed to stain the relationship of player and manager for the remainder of his tenure in Boston.
“I’m not going to talk about Bobby. I’ve moved on, he’s moved on. I’m a New York Yankee in 2013 and that’s what I’m focusing on. I don’t think it does any good to rehash stuff like that. You have your opinion. You’re pretty adamant about what you thought, so go with it.”
Sure sounded like Youkilis hadn’t moved on, but he wasn’t about to engage in any more chit-chat about Valentine.
The Gray Eagle said:It's great how with each column you can tell who the one guy is he bothered to talk to that week. The Twins are in spring training next to the Red Sox, so Cafardo obviously talked to Gardenhire for like 15 minutes. Boom, Sunday notes column is all set! With like 6 nuggets of info on the Twins, which obviously everyone in New England can't wait to read. "So the Twins are excited about Aaron Hicks, that's interesting!"
He's actually so lazy that he doesn't talk to all of his 4 or 5 sources each week, he just talks to one of them. At least he actually talked to someone, instead of just giving us his "analysis," so I guess it could be worse.
JohntheBaptist said:"Better filmmaker--Alfred Hitchcock, creator of countless classics of form and broad appeal, or Ed Wood, who had a debilitating angora fetish?"
BannedbyNYYFans.com said:"Way above my intellectual capacity" - Updated title to this thread?
quint said:Well now, this is actually a legitimate debate.
Teixeira looks to be in an outstanding shape. Sure, his OPS has declined the past four years from .948 to .846 to .835 to .807, but he’s still a force, still the guy the opposing pitcher hates to face.
Do you think that the Sox' strategy in signing the free agents, and trading for Hanrahan, that they signed this offseason was to stockpile talent for the July 31st trade deadline in order to acquire prospects? Sounds like a good plan to me.
George, Andover, Mass.
That could be George, but what a ridiculous strategy for a big market team if that’s the case. You build a team in the offseason so you can trade them? Who would take Victorino’s contract? Napoli could be dealt, I suppose if someone just wants a half-year fix. Gomes has a two-year, $10 million deal. He was overpaid. Hanrahan could be traded. But again, why would you build a team so you can trade them at midseason? I can see a smaller team doing something like for draft picks, but the Boston Red Sox?
Corsi said:So this guy asks Nick a somewhat reasonable question and he answers it with four questions of his own.
Everything I'm reading about Jackie Bradley, Jr., seems a bit like deja vu all over again. Any of those statements could have been made 60-plus years ago when Willie Mays came up. Can you compare Jackie Bradley to Willie Mays?
Maggie, Burlington, Vt.
Not quite ready to do that Maggie. Bradley has very good skills and like any young player, we’ll see how he adapts to the major leagues at some point. I still believe the Red Sox will send him back to the minors, but at least they’re thinking boldly about keeping him.
Corsi said:So this guy asks Nick a somewhat reasonable question and he answers it with four questions of his own.
soxhop411 said:Why does he pick the most idiotic questions? I mean really.... You pick This question?
Everything I'm reading about Jackie Bradley, Jr., seems a bit like deja vu all over again. Any of those statements could have been made 60-plus years ago when Willie Mays came up. Can you compare Jackie Bradley to Willie Mays?
Maggie, Burlington, Vt.
Not quite ready to do that Maggie.