The Red Sox continue to baffle me with their off-season
moves. I keep assuming that they’ll make a move that makes sense of all their
crappy moves. Something like, “Oh, they saved money on a first baseman so they
could sign Josh Hamilton.” Or, “Oh, they saved money in the outfield because
they traded for Giancarlo Stanton.” But, they keep filling up their roster,
without adding any talent. So far, they’ve done nothing with that fantastic
financial flexibility but save money.
They traded away Adrian Gonzalez, and replaced him with Mike
Napoli. Anyone think Mike Napoli has more talent than AGone? Didn’t think so.
In fact, Napoli is coming off a terrible year. We’ve been told that that was a
fluke. We just need to assume that he’ll return to the numbers he put up during
his career year a couple seasons ago. If we’re allowed to do that for Napoli,
why doesn’t Gonzalez get the same option? Wouldn’t it be more likely that
Gonzalez returns to the numbers he put up for an entire career as opposed to
the ones Napoli did once?
They traded away
Carl Crawford, and brought in Shane Victorino. Again, Victorino had a terrible
year last year. But, we’re supposed to hope that he can return to the numbers
he put up a couple years ago. Sound familiar? So, we can assume that Victorino
will put up numbers like he used to, but we can’t assume that Crawford will
return to form? Even though Crawford’s numbers were much better than Victorino
ever had, and he did it for a lot longer than Victorino did? What am I missing
here?
You want to tell me
that Beckett and Dempster are a wash? Fine. You’d be wrong…but at least you can
make an argument that it was worth saving the money. I’d still rather have
Beckett who has shown that he can pitch in the AL, as opposed to Dempster who
has shown he can’t.
But, that’s not even
the real issue. Like I said, if you want to sign lesser players to save money,
that’s fine…as long as you use the money for something. The Sox saved, what,
$25 million by making those three changes? But, they filled up all their roster
spots in the process. If they had used that $25 million on Josh Hamilton, for
instance, that would have been one thing. But, they didn’t. They’re just making
the team worse, and pocketing the money?
And, you can’t even
say they Sox are bridging to the kids. They’ve clogged up all their spots with
mediocre talent. The Sox have two shortstop prospects. They can only use one of
them. The Sox have Ryan Lavarnway, a top catching prospect…who’s probably more
of a first baseman. Too bad. They’ve got Naploi clogging first base for at
least the next two years. What about Kalish and Bradley? They’re stars in the
wings. Well, they have Victorino now for three years. Does this mean Ellsbury
is definitely gone next year? Or, are they going to use the $25 million they
saved on him? If they do, they don’t have a spot left for two kids. What about
those pitchers they got from LA? Sorry, the rotation is set for the next two
years.
Maybe they can use
the kids as trade chips? That’s the whole point of having prospects in the
first place. So you can trade them away before they become busts. So, you
package Lavarnway, Bradley, and Bogaerts together and shop them around. What
are you trading for? A first baseman? Then what do you do with Napoli? Can’t
trade him. A second baseman? Nope. Shortstop? Not if Iglesias is the real deal.
Third baseman? Nope. Clogged up, hopefully. Pitchers? Then you have to move one
of the ones you have.
So, I don’t get it
at all.
What was the point
of making us watch a less talented team?
Yeah.... I've... I've got nothing. This all confuses the crap out of me. These all should have been one year deals if we're "waiting" on the prospects. They all should have not actually happened if we weren't. Maybe they're doing a "Moneyball" thing and they have intangible stats we're not realizing... but I can't figure it out.
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