Exactly. Jed Lowrie is older than Pedroia and Sonny Gray's slight frame (5'10 185) is starting to show the strains of throwing major league fastballs (hurt last 2 months of 2016 and first month of this year). Khris Davis would provide a bit of needed pop but his low average would hurt an offense that desperately needs consistency. But the main thing is why the hell would you trade away the (hopefully) answer to your problems at 3b when he's possibly about a year away.
Other than that it's not Dallas Braden and it would be the one of the small handful of worst deals in franchise history, great post!
Not to mention they are stuck with those salaries during one of the best free agent classes in history (2018).
Allen Craig is done this year. Hanley comes off the books after next year (option for 2019). That leaves Sandoval as the only albatross in 2019 (plus Castillo, but he's only $11M), unless you also count Price and Porcello. Pedey at $15M isn't stopping them from signing a big ticket FA.
Who are the kids he's given away who will fill the gaps around the current young guys who will soon be getting paid big? Serious question. Bogaerts/Bradley/Betts/Benintendi/etc are going to be getting significantly expensive 2-3 years down the line at minimum. Other than maybe Anderson Espinoza, who has Dombrowski traded who wasn't a) blocked by one or more of those guys, b) is still far enough away that he'd be coming up and playing his cheap years in sync with the "B"s pricey years, and c) is a virtual lock to ascend to a big league roster at all?
Yes, plus guys like Travis and Devers, and, maybe/hopefully, Chavis and Groome.
If DD had hypothetically not signed David Price and just sat on all these "given so much away" assets since he got here, do we still win the division last year? Would we even have a competitive chance at making a playoff run this year? Generally speaking, watching a good solid core of young player primes come and go with nothing (in terms of championship chasing, which includes the enjoyment people take out of the grind while thinking there is even a chance of it happening) to show for it is still a far worse but always real and overlooked potential fate on the table imo.
This is from COTS.
I doubt he's the highest priority, but they could see what happens in the 2018 offseason, and then, if desirable, try to extend JBJ (whom they'd still control through 2020) by buying out a year or two of FA. They'd need to decide on extending X (and others) before then.
1) For nine of the past ten years Pedroia's wRC+ has been between 112 and 133. (Exception being 2014 -- I think he was playing through injury that year.) This year so far it's down to 104.
His home to first times have gotten slower from this year to last year (4.16 to 4.31) according to this chart from fangraphs, but other than being slower, the wRC+ drop off isn't that great and he has dealt with two injuries already.
In blowouts and when recovering from injury. In no way is he being replaced regularly for defensive purposes.
You know, you kind of killed my point. You're right . I suppose I'd just wish he would have acquired more helpful players with the guys he sent out.
It's a dumb trade idea. But I'd consider doing a Davis for Bradley swap. Adds power to a lineup that needs it.
http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2017/06/hanley_ramirez_boston_red_sox_19.html
Khris Davis is a 29-year old horrendous defender in LF with poor on-base skills. JBJ is a 27-year old excellent defender in CF who has been close to Davis' equal as a hitter since 2015, and it's going to get a lot closer when JBJ's luck starts reverting to the mean given how hard he's been hitting the ball. Not to mention that it would make the lineup even more right-handed, leaving Benintendi, Moreland and Leon (whose LH bat is useless) as your only lefties assuming Sandoval has fallen out of favor.
It's becoming necessary to talk about this supposedly bonanza 2018-19 FA class, if we're assuming it's influencing roster construction. Considering our core and a few other factors, it's hard to see where we're going to spend the money.
"Regularly' was a poor choice of word, sorry. But I counted 9 times in 48 games when he was pulled for a sub either on defense or for a pinch runner. That's not nothing.
These are each of the games Pedroia has started and not finished this year.
Cody Allen, Andrew Miller and Craig Kimbrel are also on the market.
For the cost of, at worst, a pro-rated portion of the league minimum, no harm in taking a flyer on him. He's unlikely to be any kind of a solution, though.
No room on the 40-man presently, so an additional move would be necessary to add Peralta or anyone else. Holt could be moved to the 60-day DL, I suppose.
Peralta's recent splits against LHP are pretty terrible. His stint in Detroit was a long time ago DD.
... or Brian Johnson could go on the DL himself, which would allow Marrero to come right back.
But needing extra rest is, in itself, a mild form of decline. If you were a 1300-inning player in your prime and now you're an 1100-inning player, then even if nothing else about your performance has changed, the value of your overall contribution has decreased. And it's not true that everything else about Pedroia's performance is unchanged. He's slower, and his power is not what it was; La Luna is waning. His defense has been surprisingly resistant to age and injury, but even that is a tick or two below his peak.
Chone Figgins didn't play for the Sox, and my name isn't Sean. Or Shawn
Then take a closer look. If you want to look at a stat that evaluates how the Sox play against teams that are .500 or better and below .500 it makes more sense to look at those teams' records vs teams other than the Sox. Otherwise, a Sox victory denigrates the achievement by making the opponent worse and vice versa.
Team Opp Rec non-Sox Sox rec
NYY 34-24 (.586) 1-4
MIN 32-27 (.542) 2-1
TBR 32-29 (.525) 4-3
TEX 32-30 (.516) 3-0
MIL 33-31 (.516) 1-2
TOR 31-31 (.500) 2-1
CHC 31-31 (.500) 2-1
SEA 32-32 (.500) 2-1
BAL 25-26 (.490) 6-7
STL 30-32 (.484) 2-0
PIT 30-33 (.476) 3-0
DET 26-31 (.456) 3-4
CHW 27-34 (.443) 2-1
OAK 24-37 (.393) 1-3
PHI 21-40 (.344) 3-0
Is he available for free? He had a peak era+ of 97 in '14, then 93, 92 before this year's 59, with peripherals to match. I'd rather give Kendrick and Velasquez some more rope than spend resources for that.
The asking price is not going to be much and I don't think you realize how bad Kendrick has been since '12. ERA+ of 80, 81, and 73 with Colorado in 13-15 and he hasn't even been worthy of a major league roster spot for much of the last 2 seasons. Given what Kendrick looked like in his 2 starts, I'm not interested in giving him any more rope. Velazquez doesn't have a track record either. In terms of being your 6th or 7th starter, Koehler is not a bad option. He eats innings up at close to a league average rate. He needs to bounce back from his struggles this year however.