[Myrtle]

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However, I was more interested in your POV re: the Sox and their management strategy of late.

whats wrong with it?

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Your point of view or management’s recent strategy?

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the beckett trade was heralded across baseball as an obvious ++ deal for the sox

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......Agreed.

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the renteria deal is dependant on the top prospect in baseball panning out, or bringing them back top level talent. they made a bad signing and did what they had to to get away from it.

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......I’m not as sure as you appear to be that this move is a good one. There are way too many variables at this point to determine where the value in this deal truly lies. One a pure ‘on-the-field’ baseball level, I don’t like to lose a pretty good shortstop without something that resembles a par-value replacement for him. This is probably one of those deals that will be best judged in hindsight.

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the smaller deals (lorretta/seanez) have been easy winners for them.

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.......Agreed.

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so they dont overpay for damon (and please people, spare me the he isn't overpaid crap. if any team other than the NYY gave him that deal they would be laughed at) and all of a sudden the team is in a nosedive? lol, the loss of damon is a drop in the bucket compared to losing pedro/cabrera/lowe, yet they seemed to bounce back from that pretty easily.

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.......You’re entitled to your opinion that the Yankees ‘overpaid’ for him, but (and no offense intended) it is just your opinion. There are many who strongly disagree with you surrounding the ‘overpaid’ label that you tag on this signing.

To a certain degree, evaluation of this deal depends upon at what level you want to analyze it. I put more weight on its’ effect upon the lineup of both teams, and I don’t see how anyone could possibly not see that it’s a positive for the Yankees and a negative for the Sox.

And, it’s not ‘all of a sudden’ the team is in a nosedive.....It’s all of a sudden the team does not have a major league shortstop or center-fielder. Short of a Houdini-esque move by the Sox, it’s no wonder that so many Sox fans are worried.

This is different front losing Pedro, Lowe and Cabrera. That series of events is something for another string.

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sure, they need a CF, a 4th outfielder and a SS but its December for crying out loud. i am positive they had/have contingency plans for damon leaving.

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....Agreed....agreed....agreed....& yes, it is December. I am not positive that they have contingency plans for Damon leaving.

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the philosophy of the red sox ownership/front office has been stated over and over by them. to be a playoff contender EVERY year.

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...Not a bad basic mission statement, but let’s strive for some kind of balance. What I mean by this is we can’t ignore the fact that the Yankees are our primary competition in the AL East. This doesn’t mean that the Sox should be fiscally irresponsible and get caught up in a ‘keep up with the Jones’ battle with the Yankees as that, IMO, would be foolhardy and ultimately create more problems that it solves. It means that the Sox have to pick their battles, and then win them. I believe what happened with Damon was a battle that could have been won had the Sox not locked themselves into a ‘too narrow’ philosophy and applied it too broadly.

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in order to do that, you cant make signings like the damon one, unless you have 80m extra in payroll.

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...You’re going to have to explain this statement a bit more to me. What was Damon’s salary this past year with the Sox? Had he signed with the Sox for the same 13M/yr., how would that cost them an extra 80M?

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the red sox are striving to be the atlanta braves of the next ten years, albeit with a stat heavy philosophy in place of a scouting heavy strategy.

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..........I would prefer a well-balanced mix of both approaches to an exclusionary choice of one only.



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