Boston RedSox 2010 performance/post game reaction thread.

[Palodios]

Lars Anderson? Dud.

 

Lars is 22, he had one bad year in development, it happens. He was pounding pitching in AA, so he got promoted to AAA recently. It really does look like he's back to being a top prospect.

[rhet]

I don't see the lapse in judgement of signing a player who has been pretty healthy for quite a few years. Its not like he got hurt from a pre-existing condition, kidney stones happen.

 

He was the best outfielder available at the time that didn't cost a 4+ year, 65 mill+ contract. The other options were Jermaine Dye who can't field, Nady who took most of last year off, Marlon Byrd who wanted a longer contract and was mostly unproven, and Damon/Crisp and the list only gets worse. Yeah, I wanted Holliday, but they chose Lackey instead.

 

Any time you sign a 37 year old to come in and be your everyday center fielder, you are taking a major risk.

[Dipre]

No, I don't think it was a smokescreen. I think the current roster can find some success, but things need to go right for it to happen, and thus far it hasn't. Over the course of a season, the roster they planned to take the field with, when healthy, is a good defensive team, despite the deficiencies at catcher. The pitchers they have slotted for the starting rotation are good pitchers. It can work, and it still may. I think they went into the season legitimately thinking the team could compete.

 

I also think the "bridge" comments are there because they recognize that there is less margin for pieces not working out and being covered by other parts of the plan. There's not much contingency in this roster. If the pitching or defense, or hell both which is what happened when the year started, don't play up to expectation, then the other parts of the team - the bullpen, the offense, etc. - aren't going to be able to cover for a deficiency.

 

As far as where the bridge leads to, I can only guess. There's a lot of time between now and then and a lot of baseball to be played to firm up what decisions could/should be made. They'll know more about what they have in the likes of Reddick, Kalish, Anderson, Wagner, Exposito, Middlebrooks, etc. to fill some of the spots that will open. Fielder and Gonzalez are free agents in the 2011 offseason. Werth is an interesting option in the 2010 offseason.

 

The signing of Lackey, actually makes some sense, albeit with some risk. When they signed him and extended Beckett, they've, barring injury, kind of nailed down their rotation through 2012 (Dice is the first to have an expired contract/control after 2012 - Lester, Lackey, Beckett, and Buchholz are all under contract/control through 2014 if you include options). They don't need to focus there. That doesn't mean that everything will work out perfectly and they won't have to address something, but it won't be an area of focus. They can put their focus on improving other parts of the club.

 

Example of a well-thought out post. Let me just add that one of the things said after the Lackey signing was that it's much easier to improve offense than pitching. That is true.

 

What exactly are we bridging to and how many years will that take? What do we have to look foward to' date=' Casey Kelley? How the hell are we going to fit him into the rotation? Lars Anderson? Dud. Igelsias? Exposito? I means its not like we have any Heywards or Stantons in our farm system. I do realize that every team does get old and dynasty's have to end and be re-built (except for the Yankees who have an unfair advantage that hurts competitive balance by being able buy World Series buy signing whoever they want) but for 150 million, this team should be performing way better and should make the playoffs. Ellsbury and Cameron still need a couple weeks to recover, so its not gonna get any better unless a move is made. Or fire Francona and that useless f*** Farrel. Their time is up if they can't turn this great pitching and defensive team around. 3 worst ERA in baseball, 2nd in baseball in errors committed. Its pathetic. We have great names with great past track records in the pitching department, so the coaching staff is to blame.[/quote']

 

The complete opposite of the above statement.

[Palodios]

Any time you sign a 37 year old to come in and be your everyday center fielder' date=' you are taking a major risk.[/quote']

 

As mentioned, every other option was just as big a risk. If you look at his stats from the last four seasons are there any real reasons not to sign him? Cameron has hit 20+ home runs in the last four seasons, and has been a strong defender. Yes, he's a bit old, but so are a lot of good players.

[Dipre]

As mentioned' date=' every other option was just as big a risk. If you look at his stats from the last four seasons are there any real reasons not to sign him? Cameron has hit 20+ home runs in the last four seasons, and has been a strong defender. Yes, he's a bit old, but so are a lot of good players.[/quote']

 

rhet, honest question:

 

Can you tell me some of the things you've actually liked about Theo and the FO?

[Jacoby_Ellsbury]

rhet, honest question:

 

Can you tell me some of the things you've actually liked about Theo and the FO?

He almost quit once!!

[riverside sluggers]

IF the sox ERA stays this high and IF the errors do continue to mount' date=' I wouldnt be surprised if Farrell gets the axed. I also wouldnt be surprised if Theo fires one of Francona's other coaches to remind him that this is unacceptable[/quote']

Umm the rotation has been looking good this past week

 

AND Ive said this couple times already. People are reading too much into Lackey's ERA. He's had 4 quality starts in 5 tries, his ERA is only up that high because of the Tampa Bay start

[TheMino007]

The rotation will be fine, its the rest of the team that will be the problem

[rhet]

rhet, honest question:

 

Can you tell me some of the things you've actually liked about Theo and the FO?

 

Sure.

 

I like Tom Werner personally. He's a very interesting, generous and affable guy. John Henry too, although he's a bit of a kook. A couple of the limited partners are real good guys as well. (Not so keen on Larry or Theo personally.) I like what they've done with the park and with the Red Sox brand. And I like their charity work.

 

As far as baseball goes, the team has demonstrated a commitment to winning and has spent money freely. Theo and his staff have done a good job in amateur scouting and player development.

 

Those are the things I like about Theo and the FO.

[Rdsxmbnt]

Sure.

 

I like Tom Werner personally. He's a very interesting, generous and affable guy. John Henry too, although he's a bit of a kook. A couple of the limited partners are real good guys as well. (Not so keen on Larry or Theo personally.) I like what they've done with the park and with the Red Sox brand. And I like their charity work.

 

As far as baseball goes, the team has demonstrated a commitment to winning and has spent money freely. Theo and his staff have done a good job in amateur scouting and player development.

 

Those are the things I like about Theo and the FO.

 

Then what's the problem here?

[Spudboy]

Then what's the problem here?

 

:lol:

[Palodios]

It looks like he has the same problems with them as I do. They are great with drafting and farm systems, but they haven't had all that much success with free agents. Although, I'm still optimistic about this season's signings while he is not.

[rhet]

Then what's the problem here?

 

Sure.

 

In my opinion, Theo is a poor judge of major league talent, he is weak strategically in assembling a roster, and he is arrogant in his defense of his mistakes. The FO trashes exiting players (off the record) and does a poor job in holding the baseball ops people accountable for wasting player payroll dollars.

 

That's the flip side of all these positive things I wrote in the other post:

 

I like Tom Werner personally. He's a very interesting, generous and affable guy. John Henry too, although he's a bit of a kook. A couple of the limited partners are real good guys as well. (Not so keen on Larry or Theo personally.) I like what they've done with the park and with the Red Sox brand. And I like their charity work.

 

As far as baseball goes, the team has demonstrated a commitment to winning and has spent money freely. Theo and his staff have done a good job in amateur scouting and player development.

[Dojji]

Honestly I think Rhet's right, or at least his argument has basis in facts, in both areas. I think though that he's overblowing the significance of Theo's mistakes.

 

The only clear mistake on the roster right now is the Lowell contract. Everyone else has at least an even chance to earn their money, and even with Ortiz you excuse the money because of how crucial he was to our World Series title in 2007, which was during the life of that contract. Maybe you add Varitek's deal to the list but only because it cost us Kottaras, and that's not really that much of a loss, a productive Milwaukee SSS notwithstanding.

[Dipre]

Almost every team in baseball has contracts they would rather not have handed out, but they're adamant about the defense of said contract, i see nothing arrogant with defending past moves, specially when, even though some of them have been horrible, a number of them have also worked, but they're often, if not always, overlooked, and the meat of this argument will always be JD Drew. Just because you don't like what a player brings to the table doesn't mean it's a bad signing, and stating otherwise is the really arrogant stance.

 

That being said:

 

Theo's regime has been extremely irresponsible with their willingness to absorb contracts at the first sign of trouble. That needs to change because it puts a burden on the payroll.

[SCM33]

They get swept by the Orioles, then we sweep the Angels......then the Yankees blow us out in game one when our "Ace" is pitching. This team is hard to figure out. All in all, disappointing. There were some positives though. Martinez is continuing to get hot, Drew is continuing to get hot and Ortiz is creeping up to the Mendoza line with another hit.

 

Beckett needs to figure his s*** out, this is unacceptable.

[Dipre]

They get swept by the Orioles, then we sweep the Angels......then the Yankees blow us out in game one when our "Ace" is pitching. This team is hard to figure out. All in all, disappointing. There were some positives though. Martinez is continuing to get hot, Drew is continuing to get hot and Ortiz is creeping up to the Mendoza line with another hit.

 

Beckett needs to figure his s*** out, this is unacceptable.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this post in whole.

[Lester82]

This is not a statement about the common sentiment on this board, but it's laughable to still read media stories that refer to Beckett as "Red Sox ace".

 

Eh, come on. Even the media should know Lester has taken that mantle, slow start to a season and all. I heard Pedroia the other week refer to Beckett as their ace, hey I expect him to say it. He's just saying the proper thing in front of a microphone, but I did kind of laugh. I thought, 'That's nice of Pedroia to call him their ace.... '

 

I simply don't see Beckett living up to this contract. I know it's easy to say now when the guy is down. But he's had one truely great year as a Red Sox and some shaky last two postseasons, another issue being the injuries he's had coming down the stretch the past two years. So some of it is unfortunate circumstance, but he is somewhat overrated as well, given the talent and hype that comes with a man of his talent and ability.

[SCM33]

This is not a statement about the common sentiment on this board, but it's laughable to still read media stories that refer to Beckett as "Red Sox ace".

 

Eh, come on. Even the media should know Lester has taken that mantle, slow start to a season and all. I heard Pedroia the other week refer to Beckett as their ace, hey I expect him to say it. He's just saying the proper thing in front of a microphone, but I did kind of laugh. I thought, 'That's nice of Pedroia to call him their ace.... '

 

I simply don't see Beckett living up to this contract. I know it's easy to say now when the guy is down. But he's had one truely great year as a Red Sox and some shaky last two postseasons, another issue being the injuries he's had coming down the stretch the past two years. So some of it is unfortunate circumstance, but he is somewhat overrated as well, given the talent and hype that comes with a man of his talent and ability.

 

Its clear you dont like Beckett. Thats fine. He is paid like an ace, and he is treated like one....not to mention he was just extended. Ace or not, they clearly think highly of him.....more so than most sox fans. Neither here or there however, since I put " " around the word ace.....basically taking a dig at the notion.

[Lester82]

Its clear you dont like Beckett.

 

Yeah, that's obvious.

 

 

 

(Btw... I understand that you didn't mean he's an ace, because clearly he's not. Unfortunately... )

[Chamomile]

Lester has obviously been the ace for years. There's a reason why Beckett's paid less than Lackey and we're lucky that Lester signed an extremely team friendly contract.

[TheMino007]

Beltre is still grounding into DP's and misplaying balls and making errors at third

[Dipre]

Beltre is still grounding into DP's and misplaying balls and making errors at third

 

You're an idiot.

 

That was a clear hit, and the man is hitting .336 with an .822 OPS.

[jacksonianmarch]

You're an idiot.

 

That was a clear hit, and the man is hitting .336 with an .822 OPS.

 

This message was approved by the Beltre ballwashing society of the Dominican

[Dipre]

This message was approved by the Beltre ballwashing society of the Dominican

 

And this message was approved by the American society of bedpan-emptying, Yankee ball-garglers.

[Dipre]

This message was approved by the Beltre ballwashing society of the Dominican

 

Btw, Y228, since you're looking at the thread, do you have any sort of defense for the Captain of the Ball-gargling Douchebag squad?

[Dipre]

NOW Beltre sucked.

[TheMino007]

That ball was a clean hit, but Beltre failed to get himself into the proper position to field the ball. He didn't get his body in front of the ball. The guy has poor fundamentals. We complained about Lowell's defensive abilities, but man, Beltre sure does suck.

[Dipre]

That ball was a clean hit' date=' but Beltre failed to get himself into the proper position to field the ball. He didn't get his body in front of the ball. The guy has poor fundamentals. We complained about Lowell's defensive abilities, but man, Beltre sure does suck.[/quote']

 

*sigh*

 

Ok.

 

Beltre sucks, Theo sucks, Papi sucks, the Red Sox suck.

[TheMino007]

Your blind faith to defend players b/c Theo brought them in is amazing.