That's fine but I didn't summon outrage. I literally said I wouldn't listen to the presser because it matters precisely 0%.
I for one don't see what you said that was problematic, especially since I agreed.
And a response in ALL CAPS doesn't make what you said untrue. I'm glad that it sounds like both the front office and fans are clear that what they say at this point is irrelevant, what matters is a) how they behave this offseason, and b) how they play next season.
Hard to argue that [the Braves] weathered their injuries as well or better just because they barely snuck into the playoffs. The teams weren't on the same level to start with.
Not to pick on you particularly, but the injuries excuse is increasingly lame, especially when it seems to come up every year lately.
...
Injuries happen. Being healthy is better than being not healthy, but good teams manage to overcome injuries. Good front offices build depth and make trades to overcome injuries. Why can't we do these things?
It's funny -- I've been making your point elsewhere on this board for a few years now. But that context wasn't in my post, so you I don't disagree with your thoughts.
The Brewers, in particular, I noted elsewhere are a frustrating counterpoint to the 2024 Red Sox. They also traded their ace starter before the season (Burnes vs. Sale), lost two of their best players for significant time as you noted... and yet won 93 games and made the playoffs thanks in part to filling similar gaps in their roster.
The position player they got for Burnes (Joey Ortiz) was very good, their starting pitching acquisitions of Frankie Montas and Aaron Civale made chicken salad out of chicken... stuff, and they turned Tobias Myers -- a former prospect and double DFA castoff in 2022 -- into a mid-rotation starter.
I think
@Red(s)HawksFan answered the difference between the Braves and Red Sox. To add to it:
The Braves won 104 games last year, and this season they won 89 games and made the playoffs by 1 game in Game 162. So their baseline -- if Strider and Acuña and Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris and others had remained healthy -- was probably 95-100 wins. Those injuries, you could argue, cost them 6-10 wins (this is back of the napkin stuff, I'm not looking into WAR).
The Red Sox won 78 games last year, and won 81 games this year, missing the playoffs by 5 games. I have two responses here:
1) The 2024 Red Sox had bad luck. How many more games do they win if even 2 of Giolito, Story, Casas, Grissom and Whitlock stay healthy? I think 4-5 is realistic (Story alone was worth 2.5 WAR in 2022 when he only played 94 games).
2) To your point, the 2024 Red Sox failed in painful and glaring ways to address this bad luck. Back to the Brewers. They acted decisively in early July, deciding to buy and correctly identifying the two Starting Pitchers they needed to bolster their rotation. Now to the Braves. They traded for Jorge Soler, they called up Ramon Laureano from AAA, and had turned White Sox swingman castoff Reynaldo Lopez into a Cy Young candidate, so losing Strider wasn't as painful. The Red Sox made incredible strides with Houck and early results elsewhere looked promising, but got a rough finish (for example: after his solid 1st half, Kutter Crawford's 6.56 ERA in the 2nd half was part of what went wrong in August). Their trade deadline acquisitions were roughly uniformly disastrous, and while they made a few solid depth signings (Dom Smith in particular) they didn't add up to a successful season.
I blame both bad luck and bad decision making for why the Red Sox are cleaning out their lockers today instead of getting ready to play Game 1 in Houston or Baltimore.
