Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

The Red Sox are running a business. They have invested very heavily in an underperforming player for six months -- time, energy, dollars. They need to get something out of him.

 

Sunk cost fallacy.

 

If he's not one of the players best suited to help them win games in the postseason, why? I'm with Rick on this one.

 

Yeah, you're both wrong. Only Rick has made a habit of it.

 

Argumentum ad hominem.

 

That's wrong.
Really, really, wrong.

The old, if I keep playing the lottery, sooner or later I'm bound to win.

 

Why are we wrong? If he's better than your other options, then yeah, go with him. If he's not, leave him off the roster.

 

There's a reason Adam Dunn has gotten 500 plate appearances this season, sucking chode at a record clip.

 

And if the White Sox had a better option, it would have been wrong in that case as well. Winning games helps the business, especially in the postseason.

 

I agree with Rick. Yeah, some teams will continue to run a guy out there when he sucks, and the Red Sox did that because they didn't really have any other options to fill out the rotation in the last couple of months.

But once you get to the playoffs, you only need three starters for round one - probably Beckett, Lester and Bedard - and four for round two. Maybe it'll slot up so that they have to use Lackey, since the other option is Wakefield and Lackey pitched better than him recently, but I imagine they'll do whatever possible to skip both.

The Sox have left Wakefield and Derek Lowe off past postseason rosters, regardless of their contract status and/or seniority with the team. Wakefield or Lackey is probably getting left off this one too; you don't need five starters in the postseason, and the Sox probably need to carry a third catcher (Lavarnway) because Varitek and Salty are banged up.

EDIT: Also, how quickly I forget because of his season-ending injury, but I think Dice-K also might have been left off a postseason roster. And their old closer, Kim, after he blew a game or two in the ALDS.

 

Playoffs are not regular season.

 

Yeah, agreed. Plus, since the White Sox were out of it around the trade deadline (or at least they thought so by their trading), you might as well play Dunn and see if he can reinvigorate his bat for the final two months, and hope you can use that to build on for a decent 2012 season.