Sox aggressively looking at Dempster

[Palodios]

I didn't say that he sucked. He's good' date=' but not so good that he should not be considered as a trade chip. it's not that hard to find a good OFer. Good pitching is in much shorter supply.[/quote']

 

I don't know about you, but there is nothing I hate more than trading away a prospect that the Red Sox have held onto for years and is finally ready for the majors, only to see them turn into elite player on the cheap the month later. Reddick, Masterson, Lowrie....

[a700hitter]

I don't know about you' date=' but there is nothing I hate more than trading away a prospect that the Red Sox have held onto for years and is finally ready for the majors, only to see them turn into elite player on the cheap the month later. Reddick, Masterson, Lowrie....[/quote']If they sign Ross for 2 or 3 years, Kalish's path with the Sox will be blocked, so he becomes a valuable trade chip. Even if Ross doesn't re-sign with us, I still think an OFer is a lot easier to find than a starting pitcher.

[Palodios]

If they sign Ross for 2 or 3 years' date=' Kalish's path with the Sox will be blocked, so he becomes a valuable trade chip. Even if Ross doesn't re-sign with us, I still think an OFer is a lot easier to find than a starting pitcher.[/quote']

 

They need to either sign Ross or trade him. He's leading the majors in OPS against lefties this year, and he will cost an opposing team only 1 million if they trade for him. Risking him going to free agency would be a mistake.

[jung]

Ross is really a good ballplayer and somebody I would like to see the Sox keep. He is not some superstar though or some big money contract guy. The Sox and to some extent we make this same mistake over and over and over again. We overpay these guys and then they perform to a level that is consistent with what we should have expected. Suddenly the guy is a bum. He is no good. He is a disappointment. Well, who started that whole ball rolling downhill in the first place.

 

Wanna' sign him....fine sign him. Just don't get ridiculous and if it takes getting ridiculous to sign him then let him go. I am so sick of the Sox spending the money because they have it cause as has now been shown pretty conclusively, at some point they stop and when they stop, what ya' got is what ya' got.

[SoxSport]

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradford/2012/07/23/jon-lester-josh-beckett-have-left-red-sox-the

 

I'll paste this piece by Bradford here as well. 3 separate baseball observers of Lester said the same thing--his mechanics are screwed up. He's opening up too soon. He telegraphs his curveball, and his other pitches have flattened out. None of the observers are connected to the Red Sox, unfortunately.

[jung]

I saw the link to the piece in the game thread and while it is IMO an accurate analysis of Lester's mechanical problems, the article seems to try to make a case for this being something that will be easy to fix. That is just wrong and does Lester a disservice in the process. The article indicates that this is something that has been getting progressively worse for Lester for two years. So that is two years of muscle memory built up around a bad motion.

 

While the piece even acknowledges the very real problem of muscle memory the whole thing is written from a "see this could be easy to solve in the short run" perspective while in fact it would take a miracle for Lester to solve this that quickly. It will very likely take an offseason of work to get it done. In that sense the piece really does Lester a disservice.