This season is not on Dombrowski.
It's on the players not performing to their expectations and randomness. Maybe some on Cora.
As I said many times in my defense of Ben, when the pre-season projections, both analytic and non-analytic, agree that the Sox should be one of the top 2-3 teams in baseball, then the GM has done his job.
Do you think the Nerds would suggest that Dombrowski sign Pearce based on the emotion of the WS?
The same type of thing was said when the Sox signed Panda, that they were fooled by his postseason performance.
Give the GMs some credit. They are smarter than that, even the non-analytic ones. The Nerds would definitely not be fooled by post season heroics.
Hmm. I wonder if Lucchino is still pulling strings from somewhere behind the curtains.
I strongly felt that D.D. was wrong to pretty much ignore the bullpen and spend the money elsewhere . I have seen nothing since that changes my mind on that . However , spilled milk is spilled milk . The season is not over . I think making Eovaldi the closer , while it may seem like desperation to some , is the single best thing we can do to turn this around. If it works , it will not only provide a closer , but it should help the rest of the bullpen as well . The ripple effect may even help the starters . Eovaldi as closer gives us our best shot at winning. Let's get started with it .
I thought the Sale contract was a great deal for the Sox, despite signs of decline. Most of the great pitchers have a little meltdown between 29-31 and then have some very good years for 2-4 years afterwards. I still expect Sale will earn his keep.
I could be wrong: he could become the next King Felix, but I doubt it.
I know many said it was a mistake before this year started, and right now, you look right, but his contract has just begun.
Almost everyone, but me, loved the Moreland signing and re-signing. His fragility led to the trade and re-signing or Pearce. That was a mistake that led to the second mistake (needing to sign Pearce as insurance).
The Nunez re-signing was a mistake. He was clearly physically breaking down. His injuries and decline led us to trade Buttrey for Kinsler.
Eovaldi's playoff heroics were a big part of his re-signing, but those moments rallied the team, and losing his clubhouse presence would have been the first excuse used had we sucked this year with some other starter signed instead of him. It was an overpay, but we did need a solid SP'er, and we were not the only ones trying to sign him. The astute talent seeker, Astros, wanted him badly. Yes, it was a mistake (at least for 2019).
As we all know, free agent signings are more busts or negative than gains. Expecting DD to ace every signing is expecting too much.
We do NOT have an unlimited budget, despite what many people seem to think. DD spent to the limit to get us the ring in 2018. To "continue improving every year" without a farm left us to the point where we had about 5-6 holes and precious few dollars to fill them all. Had we known Chavis would do what he's done, maybe we wouldn't have signed Pearce, but then again, maybe we'd have spent that money on Cody Allen or David Robertson or one of several other RP'er FA flops.
In hindsight, maybe we sign Ottavino or Morton and we'd be better off, now, but it is the previous high spending and emptying the farm that got us to last winter's pickle, and DD had to be perfect with his signings to keep us as a top contender.
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
You were definitely the leader in this position from day one, and it is certainly true that our pen was and still is weak. Word was out that we were shopping for Robertson. Signing him would have led to the same fate as now. Cody Allen was mentioned by several posters, including myself, as a cheaper option. That would have been a huge mistake.
Some of us felt that Ottavino was the best choice of the higher bracket FA signings, and having him now would certainly be a big plus over Eovaldi, but look at how crappy our rotation has been. Clearly our rotation would have been a big area of need right now had we signed Ottavino instead of Eovaldi.
Had we signed Ottavino & Morton, we'd be over the max line. Had we done that and Chavis flopped, we'd have Holt at 1B everyday and Nunez at 2B everyday.
In hindsight we should have signed one of Morton or Ottavino, but we might not have really been that much better off had a couple other factors not worked.
I'm not defending DD. He got us to where we are today, but he also got us to where we were last year, and that was the plan all along. Go for broke and deal with the fall-out later.
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
The plan included being maxed out on the budget and emptied of farm hands available by 2019. Yes, I think we thought we'd still be competitive, but we knew we did not have enough money to "keep getting better". We didn't even stay even. We brought back Eovaldi and Pearce but lost Kimbrel and Kelly. The "plan" forced us into having to choose whicj holes to fill and which holes to roll the dice with.
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
The question is how much better would we be with Kimbrel and Kelly. Most of that falls to Kelly since this team is usually behind going into the 9th so Kimbrel wouldn't be getting save opp's. Kelly seems to have turned the corner some out in LA now but I question whether his presence so far would have made a big difference.
The problem children are Price and Porcillo. If they were performing as expected it's possible that Kimbrel would be getting more save opp's as our pen wouldn't be as overtaxed and maybe not as bad.
It's a mere moment in a man's life between the All-Star game and the Old Timer's game.
-Vin Scully