Lefty First Baseman?

[Palodios]

Kool Aid is running thick in the icy cold in the Big Bean. What was your biggest deficiency the last 3 yrs? Answer: Your rotation. What have they really not improved over the last 3 yrs? Answer: Your rotation. I dont care if you have a pen of Percival, Rivera, Hoffman, and Goose in their prime, if you are using them for 3+ innings on average a night, they will die, and die quickly. And your lineup is not better than it was last yr. And you forget, your offense was 8th in the game last yr a full 70 runs behind NY. And that was with AdGon around for most of the season. The only way the sox make the POs or contend is if the starting pitching finds its way. And right now, the only changes were Lackey for DiceK and Dempster for Beckett. Not much of an upgrade

 

The big problem with Beckett and Dice-k was that they were insanely inconsistent. Daisuke rarely broke 5 innings, and would often get lit up and pulled in fewer than that. Beckett would pitch 7 shutout innings one day, and then throw 2 innings of 8 run ball the next. Having your bullpen pitch 7 innings in a game is the real problem.

 

Lackey and Dempster are not pretty, but they pitch like workhorses.

[mvp 78]

Losing Beckett and replacing him with Dempster is a big downgrade. Defensively, this is a below average team. Chemistry will help, but I just can't see this team winning 90 games.

 

The biggest need was SP, and their staff for 2013 is worse than it has been. If Lester and Buch become top of the rotation guys again and Doubront makes steady improvement, they should be ok. I just don't think it's the most likely of scenarios.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Losing Beckett and replacing him with Dempster is a big downgrade. Defensively, this is a below average team. Chemistry will help, but I just can't see this team winning 90 games.

 

The biggest need was SP, and their staff for 2013 is worse than it has been. If Lester and Buch become top of the rotation guys again and Doubront makes steady improvement, they should be ok. I just don't think it's the most likely of scenarios.

 

Um. Beckett had a 5.23 ERA when he was traded.

[Softlaw]

The incompetence of the Crawbust contract cost AGon. Now, borken down platoon guy Napoli can't provide the overall defense or season long production that 1st base requires. The best they can do is use minor league contracts for Sweeney and/or Kotchman. I favor Kotchman, because he is an excellent defender at 1st. Neither can hit, though Kotchman is capable of a decent OBP. The Red Sox need to use AAA for OF depth and go with 4 OF'ers. The emergency smallest corner OF OF'er should be the Ciriaco, who absolutely should be on the active 25 man roster. The Red Sox OF is a mess.

[User Name]

As much as i don't like Dempster, he should be able to outproduce Beckett's 2012 bag of suck.

[Softlaw]

Dumpster outproducing Beckett's 2012 will not have any impact because it won't be by much.

[User Name]

200 IP of 4.60 ball would be a massive improvement over 123 IP of 5.23 ERA. Be realistic.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Dumpster outproducing Beckett's 2012 will not have any impact because it won't be by much.

 

If you think that the Sox aren't going to manage his starts to be against softer hitting lineups, you're ridiculous.

 

And Dempster can certainly throw to a 4.40-4.50 ERA, which is a major boost over Beckett.

 

Just to recap from last year, here are some of the starts posted:

 

Beckett: 21 Starts, 5.23 ERA.

Cook: 18 Starts, 5.65 ERA

Matsuzaka: 11 Starts, 8.28 ERA

 

That's 50 starts right there that, on average, were absolutely atrocious. Even if our top 5 go down or even underperform, we have Morales, De La Rosa, Aceves, Hernandez, etc all ready to step in. Rather than having players who are trying to rediscover their careers, we have players who are working on building their careers. That's a huge difference and a big advantage over last year.

[Softlaw]

200 IP of 4.60 ball would be a massive improvement over 123 IP of 5.23 ERA. Be realistic

 

You live in a fantasy world. Dumpster's coming from NL old pitchers retirement league dumpster and has no chance of pitching 200 innings in the AL and puttuing up 4.60 ball.

 

Soon, it will become obvious why no other teams wanted to bid 26.5 million for Dumpster

[User Name]

You seem oddly familiar. Brennan?

[Softlaw]

You seem obvious. Ben Cherrington?

[mvp 78]

Um. Beckett had a 5.23 ERA when he was traded.

 

Uh huh. If they want to get to the playoffs, they need to replace Beckett's 2011 production, not his 2012 production.

[a700hitter]

This is a major blanket comment that 1. Insinuates that we had no injures last year (Ortiz, Middlebrooks, Ellsbury, Pedroia), 2. Includes the post-August-trade record, and 3. Assumes that none of our players who had below average to horrid seasons (Ellsbury, Pedroia, Lester, Buchholz, Bard, Gonzo replaced by Napoli) will return to their career norms and become high level players again.

 

If you just take out that s*** storm we fielded from August 25th onwhen the Sox went 9-27 to end the season, and replace it with even .500 baseball, the Sox would have been 9 wins better (78 wins). Tack on the 5-6 wins from a lights out bullpen, now you're at 84 wins. And you shohld expect better health and the rebound from the complete and utter underperformance of former MVP caliber and Cy Young candidate players to get you the extra 8-10 wins you need.

I didn't make any blanket statement. I just noted the roster changes from last year and asked how much better this group will be than the 69 wins from last year.

 

In 1967, Dick Willams predicted the Sox will win more than they will lose. That was a radical and aggressive statement back then. Since then we have had very few sub .500 seasons. It's a radical thought to predict more losses than wins since 1967. Unless there are more roster changes, I am tending towards predicting a sub .500 season. I think our talent level is not higher than last season, except in the pen. Injuries will happen just like they have happened in the past few years, so we can't count on better health.

[jacksonianmarch]

The big problem with Beckett and Dice-k was that they were insanely inconsistent. Daisuke rarely broke 5 innings, and would often get lit up and pulled in fewer than that. Beckett would pitch 7 shutout innings one day, and then throw 2 innings of 8 run ball the next. Having your bullpen pitch 7 innings in a game is the real problem.

 

Lackey and Dempster are not pretty, but they pitch like workhorses.

 

you needed two IMO. Lackey prior to TJS was not a workhorse, he was a bullpen and team assassin. You're hoping that a guy whose velo was gone, his stuff was gone and his arm was shredded will return to the 200IP guy he was in Anaheim

[User Name]

As a fifth starter, they probably don't need 200 IP from Lackey though. The three guys they need at least 570 combined from are Lester, Buchholz, Dempster. The one that will make it difficult for them to reach that mark is Buch.

[mvp 78]

You seem oddly familiar. Brennan?

 

Maybe Muggah?

[User Name]

Maybe Muggah?

 

Oh true. Apologies to Brennan, i got them both mixed up. Muggah is the guy i was referring to.

[SoxFanForsyth]

you needed two IMO. Lackey prior to TJS was not a workhorse, he was a bullpen and team assassin. You're hoping that a guy whose velo was gone, his stuff was gone and his arm was shredded will return to the 200IP guy he was in Anaheim

 

But the Sox have two guys Morales and De La Rosa who can outperform Lackey and Dempster, and likely will when they get the chance.

[dupree]

But the Sox have two guys Morales and De La Rosa who can outperform Lackey and Dempster, and likely will when they get the chance.

 

If either one of Dempster or Lackey or both starts to falter then i would give someone else a chance. Morales, De La Rosa, Barnes, or Webster would all be better to throw on the mound than letting Lackey and Dempster put up Cook DiceK or Beckett numbers from last year.

[Behindenemylines]

Don't know if Overbay has anything left. But on a minor league deal I guess the Sox can't go wrong.