19 bold predictions for MLB in 2019

[BillyWilliams]

I also hope #9 comes true, would be pretty cool for Ichiro, he deserves it.

[iortiz]

Well, last year people said that the Yankees were going to win the division as well and see how it ended up.

We are practically the same team. Yeah, We lost Kimbrel and Kelly but I won't miss them at all.

IMO Kimbrel is going to enter into a inevitable decline process and Kelly sucked most part of the season. Also, they cost a lot of money.

Said that, if the Sox stay relatively healthy, and add a BP arm and/or someone become a solid closer & set-up arm, my money will be with the Sox again.

If healthy, the Sox still have the best offense and rotation of the game. Not even close.

The only concern is the pen which could go by committee if they don't add another arm.

[Carpin]

Well, last year people said that the Yankees were going to win the division as well and see how it ended up.

We are practically the same team. Yeah, We lost Kimbrel and Kelly but I won't miss them at all.

IMO Kimbrel is going to enter into a inevitable decline process and Kelly sucked most part of the season. Also, they cost a lot of money.

Said that, if the Sox stay relatively healthy, and add a BP arm and/or someone become a solid closer & set-up arm, my money will be with the Sox again.

If healthy, the Sox still have the best offense and rotation of the game. Not even close.

The only concern is the pen which could go by committee if they don't add another arm.

I partially agree with you, specially regarding Kelly, with Kimbrel somehow he still has his velocity, I don't think his decline will be huge, at least not this year, but it will come.

Let's remember that he only undefeated is father time.

[BillyWilliams]

Well, last year people said that the Yankees were going to win the division as well and see how it ended up.

We are practically the same team. Yeah, We lost Kimbrel and Kelly but I won't miss them at all.

IMO Kimbrel is going to enter into a inevitable decline process and Kelly sucked most part of the season. Also, they cost a lot of money.

Said that, if the Sox stay relatively healthy, and add a BP arm and/or someone become a solid closer & set-up arm, my money will be with the Sox again.

If healthy, the Sox still have the best offense and rotation of the game. Not even close.

The only concern is the pen which could go by committee if they don't add another arm.

There were many who picked the sox to win the division as well.

As far as the "not even close", take off the rose colored glasses. The Yanks scored about 25 runs less last year and the difference between the 2 teams in OBP was .010, SLG was .003 and OPS was .009. As for the rotation, the sox starters ranked 9th in ERA, 7th in earned runs, 9th in BAA and 6th in WHIP. While very good, hardly what I would call "best in the game, not even close".

[iortiz]

There were many who picked the sox to win the division as well.

As far as the "not even close", take off the rose colored glasses. The Yanks scored about 25 runs less last year and the difference between the 2 teams in OBP was .010, SLG was .003 and OPS was .009. As for the rotation, the sox starters ranked 9th in ERA, 7th in earned runs, 9th in BAA and 6th in WHIP. While very good, hardly what I would call "best in the game, not even close".

They destroyed NY, HOU and LAD in the highest leverage situation you can fece and when it counts —in POs. Arguably this was the toughest path to win the WS of all time, when you look it backwards.Geez they literally destroyed Verlander, Severino and Kershaw, the last one twice. They destroyed NY´s and HOU's pens which everyone said at the time they were untouchables. Regarding pitching, Price performed like an ace in POs and was one of the best pitchers of the game in the second half of the season. Eovaldi perfomed like a Stud as well, his injury issues seem very gone —he threw several devastating 100+ mph FBs after 90+ pitches and with terrific command in many games. Porcello responded well when required, and the BP which was a mess entering into the POs, surprised everyone.

Also, remember that the Sox played practically a month with half of their engines because the PO spot was gained very early, so Cora rest a lot of people in September. Sox could have won 120 games easily and the stats you are presenting would have looked ridiculous if they had gone in winning mode.

Not to mention, we lost Sale like a month and E-Rod after a stupid injury when he was finally pitching like an ace.

Said that, again... If the Sox stay relatively healthy, Sox will be the best team in baseball again, NOT EVEN CLOSE.

[iortiz]

Also.. we have an "intangible" weapon —Alex Cora.

Alex proved when and how to push the right buttons. IMO he is the best manager of the game —not only regarding stats management, baseball fundamentals and technical concepts applied, but at mentoring and keeping the locker room with good chemistry as well with all those egos.

[BillyWilliams]

They destroyed NY, HOU and LAD in the highest leverage situation you can fece and when it counts —in POs. Arguably this was the toughest path to win the WS of all time, when you look it backwards.Geez they literally destroyed Verlander, Severino and Kershaw, the last one twice. They destroyed NY´s and HOU's pens which everyone said at the time they were untouchables. Regarding pitching, Price performed like an ace in POs and was one of the best pitchers of the game in the second half of the season. Eovaldi perfomed like a Stud as well, his injury issues seem very gone —he threw several devastating 100+ mph FBs after 90+ pitches and with terrific command in many games. Porcello responded well when required, and the BP which was a mess entering into the POs, surprised everyone.

Also, remember that the Sox played practically a month with half of their engines because the PO spot was gained very early, so Cora rest a lot of people in September. Sox could have won 120 games easily and the stats you are presenting would have looked ridiculous if they had gone in winning mode.

Not to mention, we lost Sale like a month and E-Rod after a stupid injury when he was finally pitching like an ace.

Said that, again... If the Sox stay relatively healthy, Sox will be the best team in baseball again, NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Nonsense, they didn't "rest a lot of people". Their top players all pretty much saw 135 games plus.

Not taking anything away from their postseason performance, it was excellent, they were certainly the hottest team.

As far as injuries to sale and erod, every team has injuries and we should expect that all teams will have injuries again this coming season.

So price pitched ace level for the 2nd half? Severino pitched ace level for the 1st half until he started tipping his pitches. Not sure what that even means.

I have to laugh at eovaldi's injury issues "seem very gone". He's always had 100 mph stuff, question is whether he has turned the corner or not. Jury is still out on that.

Bottom line is I backed my statement up with stats, you backed yours up with excuses.

[iortiz]

Nonsense, they didn't "rest a lot of people". Their top players all pretty much saw 135 games plus.

Not taking anything away from their postseason performance, it was excellent, they were certainly the hottest team.

As far as injuries to sale and erod, every team has injuries and we should expect that all teams will have injuries again this coming season.

So price pitched ace level for the 2nd half? Severino pitched ace level for the 1st half until he started tipping his pitches. Not sure what that even means.

I have to laugh at eovaldi's injury issues "seem very gone". He's always had 100 mph stuff, question is whether he has turned the corner or not. Jury is still out on that.

Bottom line is I backed my statement up with stats, you backed yours up with excuses.

LOL!

I'm not backing it up with excuses. Just the opposite. Facts are all over my argument. I'm just pointing out that the Sox still have the edge —by far— to win it all again if they stay relatively healthy. As I said, we could have won 120 games easily. Geez A lot of people here included me complained at the time for dropping too many games that were very winnable in September—Again, Cora proved he was doing the right thing to win the WS. He proved us all we were wrong.

If you can't accept that Cora managed in September without the winning mode button, there's nothing more to debate.

Also, entering the POs, the apparently hottest teams were HOU and NY, and not BOS, but once again, BOS wasn't playing with all of its engines because they clinched the PO spot and the division very early, but when Cora pushed the winning mode button, you can see the results. We were way superior.

Said that, we can disagree, no big deal. Time will tell though.

[BillyWilliams]

Again, I posted the stats that showed the sox didn't have the best rotation and offense "by far".

You posted a bunch of what ifs, could haves and maybes.........

[jacksonianmarch]

The sox did not have the best staff in baseball. They did have the 3rd best pitching staff in the AL, albeit not considerably different than the #2 or the #6 team. The Yanks happened to be 0.03 ER per 9IP behind the Red Sox in 5th place in the AL. The sox starters were 4th in baseball, 0.28 ER per 9IP ahead of the Yanks. The sox did have the best offense in baseball, scoring 25 more runs than the Yanks and having a miniscule .009 advantage in OPS over the same Yanks. I am not sure the sox can count on career seasons again from Betts, JD, and Bogaerts. Maybe the expected small drop from them is offset by Devers or a full year of Pearce standing in for Hanley's 2 months of awfulness. Maybe not. One thing is for sure, the Yanks lost 6 weeks of Judge and a full season from Sanchez (for the most part). We also would hope to see the real Stanton as well as his 2018 season wasn't bad, just not to his previous level. Reminds me of ARod when he came in. ARod's 2004 was a really good season, but his subsequent seasons were insane. Maybe those upsides balance off a couple months of Tulo for Didi and maybe a second year swoon from our two top rookies in Torres and Andujar. Or maybe we add Machado and just launch ahead. One thing is for sure. The difference between the two clubs on the whole was not significant. .009 in OPS and .03 in ERA. That is more than within the margins and that doesn't include us adding Paxton, even if you argue that Happ and Eovaldi will be around for the whole year. And it doesn't include you losing Kimbrel.

[iortiz]

Again, I posted the stats that showed the sox didn't have the best rotation and offense "by far".

You posted a bunch of what ifs, could haves and maybes.........

This is when stats have to be taken with a grain of salt. As I said, they just dropped a month +, so stats, don't reflect the accurate picture —and still they were very good.

[BillyWilliams]

This is when stats have to be taken with a grain of salt. As I said, they just dropped a month +, so stats, don't reflect the accurate picture —and still they were very good.

And nobody stated they weren't very good.

You claimed they were the best, by far.

[iortiz]

And nobody stated they weren't very good.

You claimed they were the best, by far.

.... and I’m not disputing that, because everybody know we were very good.

If destroying the Yankees again as we did last year, can be called “by far”, I’d call it that way. I strongly believe based on what I assessed, could/will happen.

[BillyWilliams]

.... and I’m not disputing that, because everybody know we were very good.

If destroying the Yankees again as we did last year, can be called “by far”, I’d call it that way. I strongly believe based on what I assessed, could/will happen.

Thanks for going out on a limb here, anything "could" happen ..........

[Slasher9]

2018 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox

i love how yankees fans have literally become pre-2004 red sox fans.
"wait til next year"
"our rotation is better"
"we have the best farm"

there is no longer a doubt....hammer has become the nail.....