Simmons Rates the AL - What Team has the best chance?

[BriMc]

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There's not a better sports writer working today.


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sure if you dont read the hardball times or baseball prospectus.

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I said sports writer, not nerd who writes for other nerds on some obscure baseball blogs.

[Pudge714]

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There's not a better sports writer working today.


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sure if you dont read the hardball times or baseball prospectus.

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I said sports writer, not nerd who writes for other nerds on some obscure baseball blogs.

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I think he's a much better pop culture writer than sports writer. If you want an entertaining read he's near the top of the list. If you want groundbreaking analysis he isn't a guy you should read.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Bottom line: They overachieved in the first half because of Papelbon (who was simply out of his mind) and Big Papi (who probably swung 6-7 games in Boston's favor it had no business winning). Now the Sox are underacheiving. It's probably a 92-win team at best. And I could spend the next 3,000 words ranting and raving about the unacceptable performance of the Henry/Theo regime since they won the World Series -- the catastrophic Renteria/Clement signings; lowballing Pedro/Damon, then half-heartedly renewing talks at the last second; overvaluing Beckett (a genuine disappointment) and Crisp (a colossal disappointment); undervaluing their own prospects (Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez) in the Beckett trade; freezing at this year's trading deadline; dealing Arroyo without knowing about the health of Wells and Foulke; allowing 40-year-old Mike Timlin to pitch in the WBC (he's a walking corpse now); letting Roberts and Cabrera go; handing Beckett that unconscionable $30 million extension (I yelped out loud when I saw the headline); and we haven't even mentioned last winter's soap opera with Theo yet -- but I don't want to ruin my chances of getting a key to the office next season. So let's just say that everyone did a swell job and I fully support every moronic decision that was made. Now where's my key?

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usual crap slinging written by the donkeys here.

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I agree with a lot of this stuff. Not all, but in general a lot of Theo's moves have not worked out.

I always hated giving huge money to Renteria when decent money could have kept Cabrera, and I never liked trading Arroyo (like Cabrera, a guy who liked playing in the pressure). Pedro was probably walking, and Damon wasn't worth the money he gots, so I didn't disagree with those moves.

[holeplug]

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There's not a better sports writer working today.


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sure if you dont read the hardball times or baseball prospectus.

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I said sports writer, not nerd who writes for other nerds on some obscure baseball blogs.

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I think he's a much better pop culture writer than sports writer. If you want an entertaining read he's near the top of the list. If you want groundbreaking analysis he isn't a guy you should read.

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Well his basketball stuff is actually good for the most part. It is pretty easy to tell just from the content of his columns that he watches and knows a lot more about basketball than the other sports he writes about.

[gusmahler]

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There's not a better sports writer working today.


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sure if you dont read the hardball times or baseball prospectus.

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I said sports writer, not nerd who writes for other nerds on some obscure baseball blogs.

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I think he's a much better pop culture writer than sports writer. If you want an entertaining read he's near the top of the list. If you want groundbreaking analysis he isn't a guy you should read.

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Well his basketball stuff is actually good for the most part. It is pretty easy to tell just from the content of his columns that he watches and knows a lot more about basketball than the other sports he writes about.

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Yep, especially football. But that's actually a good thing about him. He knows he's not a football expert, so he writes his NFL columns for entertainment as opposed to enlightenment. His NBA columns show that he knows about basketball.

[sublime]

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I always hated giving huge money to Renteria when decent money could have kept Cabrera,

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ocab got 4 years and 32m, renteria 4 and 40. thats an extra 2m a year for a guy who AT THAT POINT (see below) was one year younger AND had been worth about 6 wins more over his career.

theo epstein is a GM, not a fortune teller. A YEAR YOUNGER AND A BETTER PLAYER TO THAT POINT FOR 2 million a year more AT THE MOST IMPORTANT POSITION ON THE DIAMOND. those are the FACTS he had to work with, unlike 97% of boston, he cant predict the future and had no way of knowing renteria would suck last year.

which leads a to another of his shots at the FO....coco crisp...so the sox unload one 'mistake' in renteria (how many GM's would admit to a 40m mistake?) and get a 26 YO center fielder entering his peak....is that enough? NOPE....crisp has played about 14% of his stay in boston (assuming he stays here whole time) and he is a COLLASAL disappointment. does the media perhaps give a little leewya because, well he had a broken hand and all? NOPE...MISTAKE. FO sucks. they are resting on laurels etc........

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and I never liked trading Arroyo (like Cabrera, a guy who liked playing in the pressure)

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if he liked playing in the pressure so much, why is he having his best season(even when adjusted for parity) pitching in the middle of nowhere? wouldnt that suggest he didnt pitch well under pressure?

its not like we gave him away either. most people dont realize just how good WMP is SUPPOSED TO (and injury aside has been) be. there is a VERY good chance he will be a SUPERSTAR in MLB. sure he sucks in the field, but so doesnt manny/dunn etc....

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Pedro was probably walking,

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i agree, somewhat. i am just convinced that omar was going to spend whatever it took to get him, and the red sox were not going to go over xxm at x years (which they still ended up going over). personally, i would have perferred they spent WHATEVER it took to keep him and cut bait on varitek, but can you imagine the windfall by the fat losers if the red sox didnt resign the WHITE HEART AND SOUL of the sox?

damon shouldnt even be brought up by anyone. the deal was awful, and even yankee fans admit it. sure i would like to have the guy on the sox, but they are running a business ocver there and you dont make money (or the playoffs) by spening $3 on a guy worth $1.25

oddly enough, two of the bigger mistakes were trading josh bard for mirrabelli and signing varitek...of course the FO gets walks on those because they are 'gritty' players.


fans of the red sox dont realize how good they have it.

[crockpot]

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I always hated giving huge money to Renteria when decent money could have kept Cabrera, and I never liked trading Arroyo (like Cabrera, a guy who liked playing in the pressure).

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cabrera costs $2 million more per year than renteria. that is not the difference between 'huge' and 'decent' money in my book.

renteria was projected better than cabrera for 2005-08 before the deals were signed. after renteria's disastrous 2005, he still has a better 2006-08 projection than cabrera. he has outplayed cabrera this year. what's the problem? just because your pocket aces get cracked doesn't mean you should have folded them.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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ocab got 4 years and 32m, renteria 4 and 40. thats an extra 2m a year for a guy who AT THAT POINT (see below) was one year younger AND had been worth about 6 wins more over his career.

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ocab only got that much b/c what what Renteria got. Ocab could have been had for $6 or $7 instead of the $10 the Sox eventually spent. that was the real mistake I thought.

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if he liked playing in the pressure so much, why is he having his best season(even when adjusted for parity) pitching in the middle of nowhere? wouldnt that suggest he didnt pitch well under pressure?

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the point is that he was a rubber armed #4 guy you could count on. will WMP end up being better? we'll see, but my guess is no.

and you bring up Varitek, which is probably another bad deal.

I'm not hating on Theo, just saying that he's been far from great.

throw in some moves he wanted but could not get done (Contreras, A Rod, etc) and Theo regresses closer to the mean. overall he's been good, but a bit lucky.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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I always hated giving huge money to Renteria when decent money could have kept Cabrera, and I never liked trading Arroyo (like Cabrera, a guy who liked playing in the pressure).

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cabrera costs $2 million more per year than renteria. that is not the difference between 'huge' and 'decent' money in my book.

renteria was projected better than cabrera for 2005-08 before the deals were signed. after renteria's disastrous 2005, he still has a better 2006-08 projection than cabrera. he has outplayed cabrera this year. what's the problem? just because your pocket aces get cracked doesn't mean you should have folded them.

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see my post above. the Sox set the market w/ Renteria, which helped set the bar so high for ocab.

also, I don't think you can just compare #'s like you did - I don't think Renteria would have performed to those #'s in Boston.

[sublime]

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ocab only got that much b/c what what Renteria got. Ocab could have been had for $6 or $7 instead of the $10 the Sox eventually spent. that was the real mistake I thought.

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how do you know this?

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the point is that he was a rubber armed #4 guy you could count on. will WMP end up being better? we'll see, but my guess is no.


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really? WOW! i would give you like -200 odds that pena is more valuable over the next 3-4 years.

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overall he's been good, but a bit lucky.

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lucky? in regards to what?

matt clement and renteria of 05 negate whatever 'luck' it is you speak of.