Ugh, I think that’s it.
Crazy things can happen, but I have a feeling tonight was the nail in the coffin.
Crazy things can happen, but I have a feeling tonight was the nail in the coffin.
Astros-Sox - 8/29
- Thread starter Shaky Walton
- Start date
Yep. Raffy’s a damn good ball player and he’ll be a big contributor for us for a long time. He’s not in the top 10 of things that worry me about the future of the Sox.
If Bloom wasn't so cheap, he'd have gotten the club a bunch of top-flight managers. Instead of dumpster-diving for a suspended Astro's castoff.
The front office painted themselves into a corner and pretty much had to pay Raffy. They had a legitimate five tool player, an MVP and reported all around good guy, but when he got close to free agency they dicked around with him, didn’t want to pay him, traded him and got peanuts in return. Then they dicked around again with their face of the franchise shortstop, made all kinds of noise about how signing him would be their #1 off season priority, but in reality never we’re serious about it and lost him too. After that the fan base was on fire, and both Henry and Bloom were both booed by the fans at the Winterfest. There were even signs at the Bruins game at Fenway on New Years Day, that were confiscated by security, calling for Raffy to be extended. The front office was perilously close to losing their fan base and had to do something big.
Gonna have to at least split that four game series. I’m afraid it will be Bronx northeast then and we don’t have the HFA in reality.
Wow. I had never heard that story. I wasn't that thrilled with the signing and felt that it was the FO trying desperately not to lose the fan base. Now, it may have had the opposite effect. But will the fans who booed Henry take any responsibility? (Just saw @Papo The Snow Tiger's post above covering the same topic more fully. However, I wouldn't be as upset as y'all if the team went all-out Tampa in its approach, not paying huge salaries, developing young ones more, especially pitchers.)
His failure to recognize what this team was at the trade deadline will hurt this franchise next year and for years to come.
I’m mostly being tongue in cheek. The truth according to fangraphs is that his plate discipline is actually a little better this year than prior years.
He hits the ball really hard and that is always going to make him valuable. Maybe even worth $300 million. But with our defensive problems and the glut of DHs, I am not sure he is right for us for $300 million, which is why I would trade him if we could. But we probably can’t for a while.
I wasn't at this year's Winterfest (but I have some friends who were and confirmed the booing, and even told me the video clips of it didn't do it justice). If I were there, I probably wouldn't have actually booed anyone, but I would have withheld any polite applause.
I'm probably going to be in the minority with this, but no matter how it plays out I'm still really glad Raffy is locked up to be a long term, and hopefully a lifer Red Sox. There's also a romantic side to baseball, a side that allows us to become attached to the individual players. That attachment keeps us watching games even though there's very little, or no chance at all, of the team winning a championship that year. The Red Sox went through a rough period after 1978, but on the last day of the 1983 season, Yaz's last game, I was so glad that I was a fan of the Boston Red Sox. I was at the Yaz Day game the day before, and it was like a love fest, and when Yaz ran around the warning track after that last game it got very dusty in my living room. Being able to see that made up for all the previous frustrations. Fast forward a few years to Papi's last game when he came out to the field and tipped his hat to the fans with tears in his eyes. Fans of teams like Tampa just don't get to experience moments like that. No team can be perpetually competitive, but they can give you something to hang on to and cheer for.