Savin made a very interesting post that I wanted to hear more about, but it was in the JBJ thread. The big question under debate was whether or not the Sox should stop thinking about the postseason already and start looking at the rest of 2015 as developmental time/ tryouts for 2016.
Savin pointed out that a number of teams before the 2nd WC era would've made it from as far back as the Sox are now. And I would add, those teams didn't have the 2nd wildcard to shoot for, so it is possible that they were less aggressive in terms of getting the best team on the field than they could've been.
Obviously, of course, this anecdotal list does not at all prove that the Sox would be wise to keep going for it. If 8 teams would have made it over 12 years, many more would not have. OTOH, the Sox have vastly underperformed preseason projections, so there is some theoretical hope that they are much better in terms of underlying talent than they have shown.
In the context of the discussion in the JBJ thread, the question was if the Sox should favor De Aza or JBJ. But it seems possible to me that JBJ might actually do more to help the team win than De Aza would anyway. IOW, it is possible that taking the developmental/2016 approach could actually lead to better results on the field... And certainly going young with the pitching could help--I have more hope for Brian Johnson going forward than for Masterson... And maybe cutting ties with vets like Napoli would actually be good either way.
So, I wanted to hear the thoughts of SoSH on this issue. What approach would you favor? How thoroughly doomed are the Sox for the postseason this year?
Savin pointed out that a number of teams before the 2nd WC era would've made it from as far back as the Sox are now. And I would add, those teams didn't have the 2nd wildcard to shoot for, so it is possible that they were less aggressive in terms of getting the best team on the field than they could've been.
Savin Hillbilly said:
The following teams were 7 or more GB after 81 games and (unless I'm missing something) would have made 2nd WC:
1997 Dodgers: 8
1998 Blue Jays: 16.5
1999 Athletics: 7
2000 Indians: 10
2005 Indians: 9.5
2005 Phillies: 8.5
2006 Phillies: 11.0
2009 Giants: 7.5
Obviously, of course, this anecdotal list does not at all prove that the Sox would be wise to keep going for it. If 8 teams would have made it over 12 years, many more would not have. OTOH, the Sox have vastly underperformed preseason projections, so there is some theoretical hope that they are much better in terms of underlying talent than they have shown.
In the context of the discussion in the JBJ thread, the question was if the Sox should favor De Aza or JBJ. But it seems possible to me that JBJ might actually do more to help the team win than De Aza would anyway. IOW, it is possible that taking the developmental/2016 approach could actually lead to better results on the field... And certainly going young with the pitching could help--I have more hope for Brian Johnson going forward than for Masterson... And maybe cutting ties with vets like Napoli would actually be good either way.
So, I wanted to hear the thoughts of SoSH on this issue. What approach would you favor? How thoroughly doomed are the Sox for the postseason this year?