Red Sox Get Their Man, For a Price

Yup. Let the era of using the player's name as a noun in the headline begin!

I know I don't usually do these posts until someone makes it official. But, if EVERYONE else is acting like it's true, I might as well go along with it.

First of all, the contract is huge. HUGE. 7 years and 210 million huge. It's too much. It's way too much. It's not even close to not being too much. And, let's stop focusing on the 3-year opt out like it's a good thing. Those are never good things for the team. If the player pitches well, you need to overpay to keep him. If he doesn't, you're on the hook for a dead weight contract.

But, It's not my money. I always say that John Henry is free to spend as much of his money as he'd like. As long as he doesn't cut it off. Ever. In four years, a 27 year old Xander Bogaerts becomes a free agent. The following year, a 28 year old Mookie Betts does the same. Don't you dare say they have to walk because the Sox are paying David Price's corpse $33 million. Beyond that, back up the truck and pay the man his money.

Because the Sox are better next year thanks to this deal. The Sox are better for the next three or four years. I wrote the other day that maybe the impeding free agency of XB and MB gave the Sox a "go for it now" deadline. It looks like that's exactly what they thought. 

They went for it in a big way.

The beauty of adding someone at the top of the rotation is that it allows everyone to slide down, and make their slot look so much better. It happened with Kimbrel. Sure, he wasn't an enormous improvement over Koji at closer. But, Koji as set-up is huge. And Tazawa moving to the seventh makes that an enormous upgrade. So, three innings were improved with just one guy. That's what Price does. He gives the Sox an obvious ace. But, it's so much more. Suddenly Porcello as the #2 guy looks a lot more appealing. Miley gets to sit at #3. Clay gets to be the #4 pitcher with the most upside in the league. Rodriguez gets to dominate the fifth spot. Even ignoring wherever they stick Kelly, all five spots in the rotation were just vastly improved. By adding one guy. Suddenly a severe weakness of last year's team becomes a strength. One more guy that you can count on going deep into a game, and an improved bullpen to help out the ones that can't. 

Betts

Pedroia

Bogaerts

Ortiz

Ramirez

Sandoval

Castillo

Swihart

Bradley

Price

Porcello

Miley

Buchholz

Rodriguez

Tazawa

Koji

Kimbrel

And, the Sox probably aren't even done. Remember those prospects I thought the Sox should use as a Godfather offer for an ace (or, whatever)? They got their ace, and still have all the prospects. They even got to keep their super-high draft pick since Price was signed without compensation. What are the Sox going to do to improve even more?

The sky's the limit.

This could be a lot of fun!

Free Agency and Godfather Offers

I was having a discussion after the Kimbrel trade about the Red Sox and their prospects. I was realizing that even after the trade, the Sox still had a glut of prospects. They also have an outfield all in their twenties, as well as a two catchers and a shortstop that are just babies. Pedroia’s untradeable contract has him around for a while, along with the guys on the corners. 

What good are prospects with all the long term star power? There won’t be a spot for any of them any time soon. 

Why not start making some Godfather offers. Sure Oakland again says they won’t trade their young star. And there’s no particular reason for Chicago to trade Chris Sale. But, there’s a price for everyone. If the Sox suggested “A catcher and any 5 minor league prospects” would that be enough? Whatever number would be enough, just offer it. I’ll take my chances with a starting line-up under 30 and Chris Sale added to whatever rotation the Sox start the season with.

But, then it hit me. Things aren’t like they used to be. Even though Betts and Bogaerts just turned 23, it’s not like they’re penciled into the Sox line-up for the next 15-20 years. I think many people assume that the Sox will be unwilling to give Xander the free agent money he’ll command…much like they didn’t with Ellsbury. So, even with a young core, we’re not looking at 15 years of being set up the middle. It’s only four years until Bogaerts is gone. Five for Mookie. Which means a couple things. It does present a sense of urgency. What are the odds you’ll come up with a duo that talented any time soon? Doesn’t that mean you need to try a little harder to win now? Doesn’t it make it even more reasonable to clear out the farm and go for in in 2016-19? I would think so.

But, it would also make cleaning out the farm a bit more difficult. The only reason Chicago would trade Sale (just for conversation’s sake) is if they felt they couldn’t catch Kansas City in the years he has left of being an ace. That it would be better to forgo his best years, and have the prospects ready to go when the Royals come back to the pack. But, by then the catcher prospect they might have gotten will also be ready to leave via free agency. And they’d only have a few years left of someone even as young as Moncada. That’s not going to get them to make a trade.

So, is that whole type of trade dead? Unless it’s an Adrian Gonzalez type deal where you agree to sign the guy to a long-term, below market contract? Are the only prospect deals available anymore the ones like the Kimbrel trade? A couple of them for an extra part. Are the offer choices for Felix Hernandez or Johan Santana reserved for Red Sox lore? After all, these days that trade would only get you Hernandez for a couple years.

What’s the point of prospects anymore?

List of 36: Things I’m Thankful for in 2015

1. Mookie Betts

2. Tom Brady’s first pitch

3. Pictures in Section 36

4. Trade packages

5. Making friends in the stands

6. Section 36 stickers

7. No Derek Jeter

8. Jackie Bradley Jr’s glove

9. 1074 Twitter followers

10. Craig Kimbrel

11. A visit from Alayna

12. The BBC outfield

13. Pictures with Section 36

14. Souvenir chicken fingers

15. Opening Day pageantry

16. Xander Bogaerts

17. 535 Instagram followers

18. Ice cream in a helmet

19. Pedro’s HOF plaque

20. Pictures with a “I’d Rather be in Section 36” sign

21. Autographs before games

22. A visit from Lauren

23. Catching a ball

24. Keeping score

25. 355 Facebook likes

26. Souvenir Sodas

27. Eduardo Rodriguez

28. Section 36 shirts

29. Collection additions

30. Snapchating section36

31. Blake Swihart

32. Pictures from Section 36

33. Nobody being untouchable

34. Sweet Caroline

35. 2016

36. Readers!

From the Pedro Binder

2003 Playoff Portraits

Wow.

Just wow.

I really like this card.

Honestly, I’m not sure why. But, I think it’s because it’s willing to go the extra mile.

After all, paintings on baseball cards are nothing new. They’ve been doing it all along. Nor are baseball meant to look like works of art anything out of the ordinary. Donruss Studio anyone? But, this one has the ability to bring that all together, and then some. It’s clearly a painting, and doesn’t even pretend to hide from that. It’s on the canvas type cardstock, to really bring that home. But it kept going. It’s a head shot, in keeping with the “portraits” name. The smudged pain border on an otherwise plain canvas screams simplicity. It’s just a gorgeous image.

But, it keeps getting better. There’s a spot for Pedro’n name and team along the bottom, clearly written in plain black. The company logo and brand name are also tucked away so that they don’t infringe on the image. Fantastic.

I’ve often said that there are some cards I’d love to have blown up and hung on my wall. I’ve never meant that as much as I do with this card.

And the card knew I’d say that from the beginning.

(Rev) List of 36: Best Players I’ve Seen Play In Person

Once again, the awards season has passed. With that, it’s time to revise the list of best players I’ve seen play live. As I’ve said, I make this list based mostly on awards. After all, my grandkids are more likely to ask me if I’ve seen a former MVP than some player who played well for a while (except for David Ortiz, I suppose). Since I’ve pretty much eliminated everyone from my top 36 who hasn’t won a Cy Young or MVP award, I’ll ignore the ROY winners. Which is nice, because I’m not sure I’ve seen either of them anyway. The two Cy Young winners were Jake Arrieta and Dallas Keuchel. I haven’t seen either of them play live, yet. So, they don’t make the list. For the MVPs, I have seen both Bryce Harper, and Josh Donaldson play. So, do they make the list? I think an MVP is better than just a Cy Young, right? Looking at my previous list, I had a couple slots taken up by pitchers with just a CYA on their resume. But, they each had two of them. I can pretty easily say that Harper bumps them with both a ROY and now an MVP. But, Donaldson?. Are two Cy Youngs better than one MVP? I think I say no. They both get the boot, and Donaldson gets a slot. So, here’s the new updated list. 

1. Roberto Alomar (HOF)

2. Wade Boggs (HOF)

3. Barry Bonds (MVP)

4. Ryan Braun (ROY, MVP)

5. Miguel Cabrera (MVP, triple crown)

6. Jose Canseco (ROY, MVP)

7. Roger Clemens (MVP, CYA)

8. Josh Donaldson (MVP)

9. Dennis Eckersley (HOF)

10. Jason Giambi (MVP)

11. Tom Glavine (HOF)

12. Juan Gonzalez (MVP)

13. Ken Griffey Jr (All-Century Team)

14. Vladimir Guerrero (MVP)

15. Josh Hamilton (MVP)

16. Bryce Harper (ROY, MVP)

17. Rickey Henderson (HOF)

18. Matt Holliday (MVP)

19. Randy Johnson (HOF)

20. Chipper Jones (MVP)

21. Greg Maddux (HOF)

22. Pedro Martinez (HOF)

23. Andrew McCutchen (MVP)

24. Justin Morneau (MVP)

25. Dustin Pedroia (ROY, MVP)

26. Kirby Puckett (HOF)

27. Albert Pujols (MVP)

28. Jim Rice (HOF)

29. Cal Ripken (HOF)

30. Alex Rodriguez (MVP)

31. Ivan Rodriguez (MVP)

32. John Smoltz (HOF)

33. Ichiro Suzuki (ROY, MVP)

34. Miguel Tejada (MVP)

35. Frank Thomas (HOF)

36. Mo Vaughn (MVP)

Who’s on your list?