2013 Red Sox predictions.

[seabeachfred]

To hit 25 homers is one thing but to strike out the enormous amount of times Salty does, and to have such a miserable OBA, and to play such s***** defense, and to call such a crappy game----he is more a liability than an asset. He would have to hit 35 dingers, get his OBA over the .320 mark and finally learn how to handle a pitching staff for him to be called a solid catcher. Maybe this season he will surprise but with our starting rotation I would like to see someone catching who could be a much more solid defensiveman and handler of pitchers. We can only hope that with two years under his belt Jarrod is finally going to get his stuff totally together and give us the complete season we need from him.

[NZSox]

Don't have time to fully elaborate, but the 2013 Red Sox are gonna surprise some people.

 

Predictions:

Lester will bounce back and look like an ace

Lackey will pitch an ERA between 3 and 4

Nap will hit 30 bombs

Ells will put up numbers similar to 2011

The Sox will get a wild card spot into the post-season

[mvp 78]

No

No

Maybe

No

No

[seabeachfred]

No

No

Maybe

No

No

 

PESSIMIST!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[reYoukilis]

To hit 25 homers is one thing but to strike out the enormous amount of times Salty does, and to have such a miserable OBA, and to play such s***** defense, and to call such a crappy game----he is more a liability than an asset. He would have to hit 35 dingers, get his OBA over the .320 mark and finally learn how to handle a pitching staff for him to be called a solid catcher. Maybe this season he will surprise but with our starting rotation I would like to see someone catching who could be a much more solid defensiveman and handler of pitchers. We can only hope that with two years under his belt Jarrod is finally going to get his stuff totally together and give us the complete season we need from him.

 

I agree with you more or less. I want at least good defense or pitch calling attached to some offense. My prediction is nothing but a gut feeling. I think Salty realizes who he is and what he is capable of and is saying to himself, "I need to do alot more offense to make me worth it, thats my only true talent".

 

His defense at least in throwing out base runners will never b that good, he doesnt have the body. His pitch calling also seems to be bad but Im willing to throw all of last year away and call it an anomaly and give him and everyone a new start.

[jung]

What about Salty's last year was an anomaly. His last year was entirely typical for him. He is what he is.

 

As for his offense, his HR's come as a result of swinging for the fences on every swing...which also leads to monster K's. He is what he is.

[Orange Juiced]

What about Salty's last year was an anomaly. His last year was entirely typical for him. He is what he is.

 

As for his offense, his HR's come as a result of swinging for the fences on every swing...which also leads to monster K's. He is what he is.

 

And I think they should move him on that basis. He is an intriguing power bat for a C that might interest other teams that have holes at that position. The Sox have a solid veteran in Ross, and a couple of very interesting young catchers in Lavarnway, Swihart, and now, apparently, Vazquez.

 

Salty is a poor defensive catcher and has, over the course of his career, a bad era (you know what I mean...pitchers pitch to a bad era with him catching), so maybe he calls a bad game, etc. All he gives you is home run power. Now that might be enough to entice a needy team to give up something valuable, and if so, I'd move him in a heartbeat.

[rjortiz]

Don't have time to fully elaborate, but the 2013 Red Sox are gonna surprise some people.

 

Predictions:

Lester will bounce back and look like an ace

Lackey will pitch an ERA between 3 and 4

Nap will hit 30 bombs

Ells will put up numbers similar to 2011

The Sox will get a wild card spot into the post-season

 

If this happens, the Red Sox will win the division.

[polelover44]

Sox will win between 85-90 games, but will not make the playoffs.

Lackey will pitch better than 2010, but only slightly.

Ellsbury will stay healthy, and be gone by the deadline, at which point Jackie Bradley will come up.

Lester's ERA will be around 3.50 - probably a bit higher.

Buchholz: see Lester.

Doubront will take a step forward and get his ERA on the right side of 4.50

Dempster's ERA will be around 4.15.

Pedroia will suffer a minor injury in May, play through it, play badly, aggravate it, and hit the DL in mid-late June.

At some point, the Sox and Rays will get into a brawl, and Joe Maddon will whine about it like the little bitch he is.

Saltalamacchia will lose his job around the All-Star break when his OBP is still under .300. Lavarnway, given a chance to start, will finally play like he's capable of.

Mike Napoli's hip will finish disintegrating (or whatever the hell it's doing), and 2012 International League MVP Mauro Gomez will be called upon to save the day.

Joel Hanrahan will lose the closer job to Andrew Bailey, who will pitch like he did with the A's.

Someone will hit Youkilis with a pitch (accidentally) on Opening Day; Youk will take exception; the media will have a field day.

[Lucienbel]

To hit 25 homers is one thing but to strike out the enormous amount of times Salty does, and to have such a miserable OBA, and to play such s***** defense, and to call such a crappy game----he is more a liability than an asset. He would have to hit 35 dingers, get his OBA over the .320 mark and finally learn how to handle a pitching staff for him to be called a solid catcher. Maybe this season he will surprise but with our starting rotation I would like to see someone catching who could be a much more solid defensiveman and handler of pitchers. We can only hope that with two years under his belt Jarrod is finally going to get his stuff totally together and give us the complete season we need from him.

 

Well put. I've always enjoyed a good defensive catcher more than pure offense, but Salty doesn't give enough defense or offense to justify his time here anymore to me. Watching him in Spring Training Saturday was interesting because from what I saw nothing had really changed. As Jung said, he is what he is. I honestly wonder if he has hit the point in his career where this is all we'll see from him too. If that is the case (and it certainly seems like it is) they'd probably be better to move him sooner rather than later.

[jung]

This is really jumping the gun and all opinion but I think Salty is not going to show much year over year improvement in a year where I suspect the MLB FO guys are probably at the end of their rope with him. If he gets to the end of 2013 without having made a marked improvement over 2012, I think the interest really diminishes around baseball and you will not find as many GM's willing to consider his upside as a significant piece to consider in a trade negotiation.

 

I suspect the Sox want to give Salty more time. However I also suspect that if the year is wearing on and looking like one where he is not going to show much over 2012, I think they will have to see if they can move him. It might be the last opportunity to cobble something together for Salty alone or Salty "&" ???? that brings something worthwhile back.

[a700hitter]

Someone will hit Youkilis with a pitch (accidentally) on Opening Day; Youk will take exception; the media will have a field day.

I can definitely see this happening.

[seabeachfred]

Well put. I've always enjoyed a good defensive catcher more than pure offense, but Salty doesn't give enough defense or offense to justify his time here anymore to me. Watching him in Spring Training Saturday was interesting because from what I saw nothing had really changed. As Jung said, he is what he is. I honestly wonder if he has hit the point in his career where this is all we'll see from him too. If that is the case (and it certainly seems like it is) they'd probably be better to move him sooner rather than later.

 

I take it Lucien that you have a pretty fair judge of what's going on and as such all you do is confirm my belief that we aren't going to see much improvement from Satalamacchia this year behind the plate, nor much in the way of a better OBP or a cutdown on his enormous strikeout total. It stands to reason that under these circumstances our starting rotation, questionable as it already is, will be at a further disadvantage having a below average receiver calling their games and handling their pitches. I only hope Lavarnway gets a chance in ST and just has a helluva good Spring and forces the Red Sox to trade Salty. Someone or some people in the front office are totally sold on this guy and have developed a severe blind spot for Jarrod. That does not bode well for us this season.

[iortiz]

Sox will win between 85-90 games, but will not make the playoffs.

Lackey will pitch better than 2010, but only slightly.

Ellsbury will stay healthy, and be gone by the deadline, at which point Jackie Bradley will come up.

Lester's ERA will be around 3.50 - probably a bit higher.

Buchholz: see Lester.

Doubront will take a step forward and get his ERA on the right side of 4.50

Dempster's ERA will be around 4.15.

Pedroia will suffer a minor injury in May, play through it, play badly, aggravate it, and hit the DL in mid-late June.

At some point, the Sox and Rays will get into a brawl, and Joe Maddon will whine about it like the little bitch he is.

Saltalamacchia will lose his job around the All-Star break when his OBP is still under .300. Lavarnway, given a chance to start, will finally play like he's capable of.

Mike Napoli's hip will finish disintegrating (or whatever the hell it's doing), and 2012 International League MVP Mauro Gomez will be called upon to save the day.

Joel Hanrahan will lose the closer job to Andrew Bailey, who will pitch like he did with the A's.

Someone will hit Youkilis with a pitch (accidentally) on Opening Day; Youk will take exception; the media will have a field day.

 

Hopefully your crystal ball is wrong on this

[Lucienbel]

I take it Lucien that you have a pretty fair judge of what's going on and as such all you do is confirm my belief that we aren't going to see much improvement from Satalamacchia this year behind the plate, nor much in the way of a better OBP or a cutdown on his enormous strikeout total. It stands to reason that under these circumstances our starting rotation, questionable as it already is, will be at a further disadvantage having a below average receiver calling their games and handling their pitches. I only hope Lavarnway gets a chance in ST and just has a helluva good Spring and forces the Red Sox to trade Salty. Someone or some people in the front office are totally sold on this guy and have developed a severe blind spot for Jarrod. That does not bode well for us this season.

 

Agreed. I think if Lavarnway starts making some good contact and can show a little pop in his bat he may force them to do something. It's really too bad Napoli won't be catching at all, it seems like the more factors (people) we could put into the equation the better a chance that we'd see Salty moved.

[rjortiz]

The Red Sox win 83 games and finish 4th. They win 76 games if they are sellers at the deadline.

[jung]

The Red Sox win 83 games and finish 4th. They win 76 games if they are sellers at the deadline.

 

Will definitely be an interesting division race in an interesting league race for 2013. We could see two teams run off and finish close to each other or the top three in the division run off in a cluster. I don't think that top AL East division cluster will be four teams deep. I am inclined to think that at most the top three teams end up in a cluster at the top with the fourth team somewhere between that cluster of three and whichever team finishes in the AL East basement.

 

Then with the other league races being what they are, if there is more than a game dif between 2 and 3 in the East I think the team finishing 3rd in the division goes home. Heck this year, everybody in the East but the division winner may end up going home.

 

The only thing I don't see is one team in the division running off and hiding. That one is hard to imagine even considering the Jays moves. I don't see them running off and hiding and I don't see anybody running off and hiding from them. Massive injuries to any one team could change things some.

 

Entirely possible to see the Sox and Yanks battling each other to stay out of the basement. However, think the O's stand a better chance of being in that battle than being in the battle at the other end of the division. Yanks won't be able to afford anybody going down in the rotation and have a ton of HR's to find year over year. Watch.....the new RF wall in Yankee Stadium will end up a couple feet beyond the 2nd base hole. Pedey will be turning around and yelling at Victorino to get the hell off his ass and the umps will be caught employing the infield fly rule only to see the ball go over the fence......mass embarrassment....Selig left befuddled as usual:D:D

[SCM33]

Saltalamacchia is going to have a darn good season (offensively of course) and make everyone feel embarrased.

 

Disagree. Oh, he'll have a good season. I agree with that, but the serial offenders will still find a way to say he sucks, no matter what inconvenient fact has to be downplayed to do it.

 

.230 25 HR's and s*** defense? Is that a good season now?

 

Is it not?

 

I am the original Salty hater. He will suck.

[seabeachfred]

The only way he can prove you wrong SCM is if he hits over 30 homers, drives in about 80-85 runs, hits around 265, learns how to handle pitchers and doesn't strike out 140 times as he did last season. Looks like you will be right in your assessment.

 

It would be nice if we were both wrong on this, though. With Ortiz out for who know how long, it would be nice to see Jarrod finally live up to the hype that first Epstein and now the rest of he front office have thrown his way.

[SCM33]

I predict they win 90 games. The pitching staff does a complete 180, everyone pitches to their abilities and career norms. Bullpen becomes a strength but Hanrahan struggles as closer.....losing Papelbon continues to haunt us.

[iortiz]

Some MLB players still perceive Red Sox as 'mess'

 

Mar 22, 2013 09:01 AM

By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff

 

Ten percent of 110 players surveyed anonymously by ESPN Magazine indicated the Red Sox are still one of the biggest messes in baseball.

"The Red Sox will be a disaster," said one NL pitcher, one of the players who responded to the question of Who is the HOTTEST Mess in Baseball?"

 

The Miami Marlins got 43 percent of the vote, the Astros 38 percent, but Boston came in third.

 

The players felt the Blue Jays should win the World Series.

 

The survey is part of the magazine's MLB preview, which hits newstands on Friday.

 

Other nuggets:

 

'Do you know of any gay players?' 5% said YES.

 

Background: The vast majority answer is NO (94.6%) with about an equal split then saying some version of 'nobody would care' or 'it wouldn't bother me, but it would be a problem for other guys' when asked to elaborate. Then there are the 5.4% who already know of a gay colleague. 'Yes, but that's as far as I want to go, even if this is anonymous,' says one NL player.

 

When asked about guns, 46% confirmed YES to owning firearms.

 

Background: More than half of those surveyed say they do not own any guns. But the other 51 respondents have a total of 258 firearms among them (5.1 per gun-owning player), for an overall average of 2.4 per player. 'Let me ask you something,' says a potential Cy Young Award winner. 'If you were rich and famous and your salary was in the newspaper every week, would you worry about your wife and kids? That's why I have guns.'

[iortiz]

Just behind Miami (still remember when some said that this team became a big market team jajaja), and the Astros? Geez!

[SoxFanForsyth]

Great. And last year, they would have called the A's and the Orioles a mess. And in 2011, they would have called the Red Sox a masterpiece. And in 2010, they would have called the Padres a mess. And in 2009, they would have called the Rockies a mess. And in 2008, they would have called the Rays a mess.

 

Point being. That doesn't bother me at all. Especially since this is an NL pitcher who has zero insight with the Red Sox anyway.

 

I can't wait for this team to surprise a lot of people. Including a lot of people on this thread and in Boston.

[SoxFanForsyth]

By the way - NL Pitcher? Hmm. I wonder who that could POSSIBLY be? *Cough Beckett Cough*

[redsoxbeatz]

Who do the Red Sox sell at the deadline if they are tanking?

[Station 13]

Who do the Red Sox sell at the deadline if they are tanking?

 

Hanrahan, Bailey. Be sure to ask the other team for a 30HR gold glove OF and its power hitting 1B prospect.

[BSN07]

Who do the Red Sox sell at the deadline if they are tanking?

 

I think it be easier to list the players they wouldn't deal,

 

Lester(still possible, less likely)

Buchholz

Pedroia

WMB

Doubront

Ortiz(at this point I think he's more valuable to the Sox and their fan base then he is to another, so it wouldn't make a ton of sense)

Vic( his is a 3 year deal, may be harder to swing and they probably want to keep him around with the youth movement that's likely to happen in the OF).

 

I imagine everyone else on the ML roster would be fair game given the right return.

[mvp 78]

They aren't trading Tazawa.

[BSN07]

They aren't trading Tazawa.

 

Ya he would be less likely. I always manage to forget about him.

[Bellhorn04]

Who do the Red Sox sell at the deadline if they are tanking?

 

With the new wild card it's pretty unlikely they'll be that far out of it at the deadline. Last July 31 they were 53-51, but only a couple of games out of the second wild card spot.