Curly-Haired Attention-Seeker Thinks He's Mocking The Red Sox By Comparing Them To A Better Team That Won 96 Games Last Season (12 More Than Boston)

Here is a hot take:

There you have it. The Red Sox have officially given up on the 2020 season. ...

Welcome to Tampa Bay North. Say hello to your Boston Rays. The Sox might as well borrow the Cape Cod Melody Tent and perch it over Fenway next summer so we can pretend Boston's home games are being played in the Tropicana Dome. The 120-year-old Red Sox at this hour are being molded in image of the middle-market Rays.

Here is a fact:

The Rays - who stopped being a punchline more than a decade ago - won 12 more games in 2019 than the Red Sox.

When the Red Sox hired former Rays executive Chaim Bloom last October, effectively saying they believed in the Rays' model of efficiency, innovation, and common sense, Mr. Hot Take carefully avoided making any predictions of doom (because even though he's an idiot, he's not dumb). He loaded his column with quotes from others, so on the off chance things went bad with Bloom, he could safely make fun of them.

Again, the idea of the Rays being a joke was a stale gag more than 12 years ago. (But for sportswriters who think Footloose and MC Hammer are relevant pop-culture references, I suppose that's not a long time.) Over a six-year period (2008-2013), Boston won 535 games and had three postseason appearances and Tampa Bay won 549 games and had four postseason appearances. In four of those six seasons, Tampa Bay won more games than Boston. AND they never hired Bobby Valentine for anything. That last sentence alone should put all variations of The Trop Trope to rest.

Also from today's column:

The only way to establish that Betts won't stay in Boston would be to let him play here this season, then try to sign him with everybody else in the winter of 2020-21. If the Sox had been willing to match any offer — and Betts still said no — then we would know that Mookie was never going to stay here.

Because, as everyone knows, this writer has always been a strong proponent of the "inmates running the aslyum". For several decades, he has consistently written how it is key for star players in Boston to dictate all terms of their employment to management. ... In this scenario, when the Red Sox watched Mookie walk away for nothing, this writer could shake his curly hair and sagely say: "See, they should have traded him in February 2020. Idiots."

Much as we disliked him, Price was 46-24 in his four troubled seasons in Boston. He was a pain in the butt with a giant chip on his shoulder the whole time, but he came up big in the 2018 postseason ... A lot of fans are quick to say "good riddance" to Price, but his departure does not help the 2020 team. ... The Sox don't know what they are going to get from Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi. A healthy Price could have been the ace of this year's staff.

Dan, you're still judging pitchers by wins and losses? Seriously? That made little sense in 1920. It makes zero sense in 2020!

Also, let's look at the 2018 postseason: Price's ERA in the 2018 ALDS was 16.20. (As I recall, you were not impressed.) In ALCS Game 2, Price allowed four runs in the first three innings and did not finish the fifth. With the Red Sox up 3-1, Price was great in Game 5, pitching six shutout innings. In World Series Game 2, he gave up two runs in six innings, though he was trailing 2-1 before the offense got him off the hook in the fifth. And Price was masterful in the clinching Game 5: seven innings, one run, only 89 pitches.

Those two clinching games were undeniably fantastic, but you are noting two great starts, out of 103 games with Boston over four years (during which time Price was paid $123,000,000). Is that really what you want to spotlight as a admirable example of prudent financial allocation?

Also, the Red Sox would not have known what they would be getting from David Price in 2020. And a healthy Chris Sale or Nathan Eovaldi could be the ace of this year's staff. Because that's in the future, Dan. By definition, it's unknownable.

Also: For some bizarre reason, Tom Keegan of the Herald seems to be positioning himself to write a ghost story of his own:

Red Sox Setting Themselves Up For The Curse Of Mookie Betts

"The Curse of the Bambino," immortalized by Dan Shaughnessy's book of that title, showed what can happen when money, money,, money becomes more important than winning pennants.

Do you fear the Curse of Mookie Betts? Or, if you prefer, the Curse of MLB, aka Markus Lynn Betts? It's a fair question, not to mention a frightening one.

Bad karma ruled the night Tuesday and started the fade to oblivion. ...

The Red Sox won five World Series in the first 18 years of the 20th century and they won four in the first 18 years of the 21st century. ...

[T]he Red Sox did the unthinkable and traded Babe Ruth the day after Christmas in 1919. They have done it again. That's not to say Mookie is as dominant as the Babe, but bad karma is bad karma, not to be taken lightly.

Here is another fact: The Red Sox did not trade Babe Ruth.

And another: The Red Sox have not traded Babe Ruth "again". The Big Bam has been out of baseball for 84 years (and dead for 71 of those years).

Ahhh, the Red Sox went wrong many years ago by thinking that "money, money,, money" was more important than winning pennants. I see. Because the history of professional baseball is a tale of team owners paying players whatever it takes to win, win,, win.

When you look at the decades of major league baseball, you see a nearly unbroken line of management sparing absolutely no expense when it comes to securing the best players in order to grab a couple more victories.

Now that you have reminded me, Tom Keegan, I recall reading that in a book about Marvin Miller.

And so begins the slow fade to oblivion . . .