Baseball playoffs: The waning influence of money

The Padilla contract may trump everything else the Red Sox did. Although he did grab a vulture win after beaning Adrian Beltre back in July. One of the 69 chances for the Rangers to second-guess themselves this season.

 

The Astros had a good excuse for losing 107 games. They fielded a Triple-A roster. What's Boston's excuse for its 'mistakes'? We've been told this was the sharpest management team in sports.

 

So your belief is that temas in general are not smarter these days than they have been in the past?

I think Boston fell into the trap of trying outspend there problems and shifted from the philosophy that made them successful. I think the Dodgers will be the next team that will grossly overpay players at teh tail end of their primes.. I still beleive as a whole teams make better decisions than they have in the past.

 

Strongly agree.

The Red Sox are the exception that proves the rule right now.

 

The Dodgers are pretty exceptional themselves.

 

The Red Sox haven't won a playoff game since before the last election. They've spent half a billion dollars in that time on payroll. Whatever they've been doing has ultimately not been smart.

 

Until the teams with lesser payrolls start winning the world series with some level of frequency there still is a glass ceiling.

 

Actually, it would indicate something's wrong it "the lesser payrolls" were to begin winning the WS with some level of frequency. You want a system in which teams compete for the best players' services. Teams shouldn't be striving for mediocrity or the possibility of getting lucky.

 

The Red Sox wildly overvalued their three top starters, Lester, Beckett and Lackey, and locked them into big and long-term contracts, and whatever is above wildly overvalued Dice-K (really, when they signed the guy, you'd have thought they'd reincarnated Walter Johnson). Constructing a starting rotation of suck fails at any price level.
As far as the lineup goes, they bailed on Gonzalez just to dump Beckett, and are in position where they HAVE to re-sign Ortiz, because they have no other power. A lyric symphony of bad management all around.
And the managers responsible are still firmly in place.

 

I wonder whether the Red Sox will ever give a big contract to a Japanese pitcher again. He has failed large. Not even major-league caliber for any team, anymore.

 

Counting high school, Dice-K had pitched something like 35,000 innings in his career in Japan. If he'd stayed healthy, he might not have made the cover of SI, but he sure as hell would be on the cover of "New England Journal of Medicine." Just an insane investment decision.

 

Saw a post at SoSH that argued the Matsuzaka deal was good because it forced a panic move by the Yankees when they signed Kei Igawa to a $46M contract ($26M posting fee).