Zenny

Thank you, at least I'm not alone.

What's shakin', Conig?

1. Trot Nixon 2. John Valentin 3. Carlton Fisk 4. Jim Rice 5. Mo Vaughn 6. Pedro Martinez 7. Fred Lynn 8. Flash Gordon 9. Dwight Evans 10. Kelly Shoppach (I had to throw my boy in there somewhere)

Wait, mediocre stats? Top 10 in OPS last season and that's mediocre? What do you guys want, Barry Bonds at every position? The only better hitter on this team is Manny Ramirez, and that's a fact with numbers to back it up. That includes Ortiz, Nomar, Varitek and all your boys. Trot, especially from judging the reaction from you folks, might be the most underrated player in the league now. As a matter of fact, everyone's favorite catcher, Jason Varitek, can't hold a candle to what Trot produces. Trot Nixon has passion for the game, he plays every inning as hard as he can and always tries to be humble about it, for the most part. As far as the quote, would you rather have Juan Pierre or Albert Pujols? Trot knows his game is more suited to power than it is to his ability on the basepaths. To hate him over something trivial like that when he was obviously joking around is ludicrous. He does everything every manager has ever asked him to do and he's definitely my favorite player. For Sox fans to dislike the player who has given 11 years of his life to this organization, and produced wonderfully, really seems even traitorous to me.

Wow, you guys are traitors. No one talks about Trot. Local media, mainstream media, nothing. Yet, he posted a far higher OPS than Beltran last season, Trot was in the top-10 by the way, and Trot is over-rated? If anything, he's underrated by even the most die-hard of RSN and to say he is overrated when he gets zero attention and is top-10 in THE offensive category is rediculous.

f*** Roger; fat, traitor, sister-loving redneck. He can make love to his bitch Andy Pettitte down there all he wants. You know what? I hope we play the Astros in the World Series and we beat Roger's brains in in the final start of his career, at Fenway Park, to win the World Series. Talk about dramatic irony.

Well, he was hurt last year and playing on turf for a groundball pitcher is never fun. He's going to come up big in Philly, get replaced in the rotation by Cole Hamels or Gavin Floyd next season and then he'll be our new left-handed starter.

Christopher Trotman Nixon has been in the system since 1993. His fire and passion for the game (not to mention his great bat) lead the team through example. Everyone talks about the team mouth-piece, Kevin Millar, as a leader. He's not leader, he's the guy who blabs to the media, so they love him. Trot, Varitek and Wakefield are the ones who hold that team together.

Shoppach and Varitek now have the same number of homeruns (5) as each other in their respective leagues. To let you in on it, Shoppach is one of the Red Sox top minor league prospects. He's a 24 year-old right-handed catcher who had the best defense in all of AA last season and is carrying that over to Pawtucket this season. He had a bit of a rough transition period to AAA pitching in the first couple of weeks of the season, but he's been on fire lately and hit two homers tonight and has a .514 SLG% after not even having a hit for a week. That's making up production in a short amount of time. My reasoning for letting Varitek go and making way for Shoppach are as follows: 1) Shoppach is 24 and has a great deal of potential for the future, Varitek is 32 and his best seasons are behind him 2) Shoppach will only cost us $300,000 dollars next season, Varitek will cost around $10 million with what Boras is asking 3) Shoppach is the future of the franchise, while Varitek is only going to be an above-average catcher for another year, two tops. Making way for Shoppach is cheaper (we need lots of money to sign our numerous free agents), gets the team younger and gives the Red Sox something to build upon for the future of the franchise. I like what he does for the Sox present situation better than what Varitek would do for it.

Pedro is one of the best pitchers ever, the return of his sub-2.50 ERA is a must. Varitek can easily be replaced by Kelly Shoppach and there are over a dozen cheaper and better free-agent pitchers to replace Lowe. You're new here, so I have to let you in on something. I am the official leader of the Kelly Shoppach fan club. Well, we don't have an official fan club, but I'm really pulling for Varitek to leave and Shoppach to get the starting job. It's probably pissing off everyone under the sun, but I think he'll be better in the long run and will save us money now.

I'm more of an Eric Milton fan than Odalis Perez. Perez had a 5.00+ ERA on the road last season and a ~2.50 at Dodger Stadium. He'd get lit up like a Christmas Tree at Fenway. If Perez can duplicate the 3.25 road ERA he had in 2002, he'd probably be a great pick-up. If '02 was a fluke, I don't want him in a Sox uniform. Right now, Eric Milton is my favorite of them all.

Esteban Loaiza, Brad Radke, Freddy Garcia, Russ Ortiz, Odalis Perez (lefty), Kevin Millwood, Eric Milton (lefty), Kris Benson, Matt Morris

So you saw me at that game, then? LOL Kids will be kids, "Albert". They probably say "suck", "gay" and "sex" in school already. No worries. It's not like they're going to have a future on welfare because they heard someone say "Yankees Suck". Hell, I remember my first game when I was 10 and I was screaming it. That's what happens. It's a part of life in RSN, no matter if the Yankees are a dynasty or not.

Well, sir, I salute you and your service to this great country of ours. Welcome to the site. So you say you want to learn about Boston? It starts with the accent and the slang. First, you need to replace "very" with "wicked". For example, you could say to your students, "That was a wicked good kick." All "r's" will also have to be replaced by "ah's". For example, "He hit the ball fah (instead of far)." Now, combine the two and you get, "Nomah hit tha ball wicked fah." Red "Sox" now has to be said "Sawx". You also need to sample real seafood, particularly clam chowder. On your trip to Boston, you have to stop at a Legal Seafood at least once; I reccomend making a date out of it. There are at least a half dozen locations in the Boston area and it's by far the best seafood I've ever sampled. No more Rocky Mountain Oysters for you; you need to try some real oysters. Now, you need to get an Irish friend with the last name Sullivan. Everyone has a buddy, or is named, Sully. It's unavoidable. Hell, I know three Sully's and I'm dating one of them (I can't call her Sully, though, she'll kick my ass). Off the top of my head, that's all that I can think of. If you've got any questions about being a Bostonian, most of us here would be glad to help. Again, welcome.

Has to be Sandlot. It's friggin' hilarious and so true. That's exactly what backyard baseball is like, plus more swearing.

As soon as I saw Crespo step up to the plate last night, I wanted to cry. I was screaming at my TV, "Don't swing at anything! He's all over the place and if you make contact, you're a guaranteed out!" Well, I was right. Crespo didn't have any patience, he swung at the second pitch and he made the final out. He's going to be here for another month or so, but at least the line-up will be a little better when Trot comes back next week. I miss my boy Trot.

4X12 for Lowe and 4X10 for Varitek!! WTF is Scott Boras smoking! Those numbers are rediculous, they are both as good as gone.

Yeah, he's the only one on their team, though. Texas will be in the cellar again by the All-Star Break.

Folks, try to get used to the line-up without Nomar, because that's how things are going to look after this season.

I can't believe you guys are worried more about team chemistry than having arguably the most dominant pitcher of all-time on your team. So what if he complains, 9 times out of 10 (well, 1 out of 2 in cold weather) he's going to go out there and be dominant. I'm going to say it right now, if you're jumping off of the Pedro bandwagon now, there's no coming back on.

Well, Crespo isn't really a prospect, but that's off-topic. Trot should be back sometime next week at the earliest, two more weeks at the most. Nomar, on the other hand, is reportedly looking at more of a June 1 timetable as reported on FSNE a couple of hours ago. So, we'll see Kapler and McCarty out of the lineup, but the Reese-Bellhorn middle-infield will be intact for another month or so.

Exactly, Boras won't let Varitek have any discussions with the Sox until he goes on the market and gets offers from other teams. This means that the Sox would likely have to pay more, which may not be in the best interests of this franchise to overpay for an aging catcher, who frankly, has peaked already. Shoppach, by all accounts, is just as much the game-caller, preparer and clubhouse leader that Jason Varitek is and he provides superior, Gold Glove caliber defense, a smaller contract, ten less years in age and more offensive upside in the future. I like 'Tek too, but I can't understand why fans wouldn't be excited about Shoppach and his future on this team, which should begin as a starter in 2005.

What comes after Jason Varitek is Kelly Shoppach, who is a better version and almost 10 years younger. I'm sorry folks, if Shoppach produces this season, Varitek is gone and that's what I'm praying for. Nothing personal to 'Tek or 'Tek Lovers, but it's time to make way for Shopp and Shopp Lovers, such as myself.

I'm going to be on vacation all next week, so the furthest thing from my mind is going to be watching the Red Sox, but I hope they've got Boston papers down in Jamaica so I can read up on what happens the next morning.