Plumpamania

.353 .394 .509 .902 131 .280 .336 .394 .729 88 .301 .355 .415 .770 98 .192 .241 .244 .485 30 .321 .376 .552 .928 146 .271 .313 .370 .682 83 That's Ellsbury's BA/OBP/SA/OPS/OPS+ for his career. Remember that OPS+ for the average MLB player is 100, Ellsbury isn't exactly breaking down doors here.

How has he taken serious steps backwards besides getting injured and not given a shot by Bobby V? Ellsbury had one good year and before that was routinely boo'd by fans for not running out ground balls, and flatly being mediocre. We've had one good season from Ellsbury he's in his last year of arbitration eligibility. If he were to repeat his performance I'd be excited as can be, but I don't see Ellsbury coming close to 30 HR again, let alone 25.

What would give up to get him? The only thing I would be willing to give up as we do this mini rebuild really for a guy like Belt is Ellsbury. Let the Giants handle Boras -- gives them the bat they want in the OF that Cabrera was and opens up 1B for more Kungfu Panda and Posey easy days, and gives us some more salary/head ache relief.

Nah we don't. We know what he can do. Rey Ordonez V2.

We all are worried about first base, but we also have to be realistic. For all the points pointed out above, why would Brian Sabean, a very smart GM, give Belt away cheaply?

But Kalish wasn't a mistake, that's just the thing. And the Reddick deal was a Cherington move. That's current front office. The kid has produced at any level he's been at, including solid OB%'s. Ellsbury is a mystery and an injury plagued player. He's a Boras client and would want at least Carl Crawford money, and we shouldn't do that. Kalish gives us a leadoff hitter that we sorely need.

.250 .282 .381 .663 .293 .315 .390 .705 Which player would you want full time? Most of us would agree player 2, but it was only his first year in the league. Aviles has hit .300 three times in his MLB career. Anyone who thinks we'll be back in the middle of a playoff race next year is I'm sorry to say, not thinking clearly.

Did everyone forget about Ryan Kalish here?

And lose.

Xander Bogaerts looks like the real deal. We need to give playing time to Ryan Lavarnway, and keep Ellsbury (Boras client, ugh), Kalish, Pedroia, Middlebrooks and Saltalamacchia tied up. All still young. And all but Lavarnway and Kalish proven.

The Yanks suck.

I'm an idiot and didn't see this thread already open about the Off-Season and will keep my ideas in here. Brian LeHair if cheap (let's be honest Theo knows our system better than anyone else outside of the current Red Sox front office) which isn't likely.

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/9/14/3332552/minor-league-prospect-report-xander-x-eliminator-bogaerts-red-sox In this report they advise that he looks to fill in to be a 3B to RF guy. http://baseballprospectnation.com/2012/07/02/scouting-report-xander-bogaerts-ss/ This one has him as a 3B by notion. The one thing however that has been proven time and time again is that scouts don't have all the answers (que Billy Beane and Oakland). Mike Aviles is a big guy for SS and has proven to be a top tier defensive SS this year. According to fangraphs the Red Sox had the third best defensive SS play in MLB last year. (http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=0&type=1&season=2012&month=0&season1=2012&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&players=0). Jose Iglesias will never hit at the MLB level as he never hit at any level in the minors. He has no track record of anything but his glove and with the failure of Carl Crawford and the move of both him and Adrian Gonzalez we need some sort of offensive production out of SS. Let's keep Mike Aviles going and then swap to Xander Bogaerts until we need another swap. Make Iglesias learn other positions and use him as our Joe McEwing.

Unless it's for Felix Hernandez or Mike Trout, agreed. What would Washington want to do trading him when Adam LaRoche is a free agent to be? I think that's too much for Swish. I love his attitude and perceived club house presence which would be needed, but he's also a product of Yankee Stadium. Swisher is going into his age 32 season, so we would be signing him for 32,33,34,35. Although over the last three seasons in exactly 100 AB's he's posted a line at Fenway of .330/.424/.610/1.034, I wouldn't want to see him at age 34 and 35 in the OF. He'd be a DH then, granted Ortiz should be retired by then, I'd rather keep that slot open for a different type of hitter, and be able to use the DH role for flexibility rather than a DH period. Any Sox fan would love Trumbo and his blue collar type approach, ala Trot Nixon, but the Halos would want at least 3 top tier specs for a guy not even at arbitration eligibility that hits 30 to 40 HR's a year. Remember Trumbo's home park has ranked as the third worst park for hitters in the last three seasons.

I'm sure we'd all love Justin Upton but not just with with Pal said, the kid has been extremely flakey and the D'backs want 5 prospects for him at last reported at this year's trade deadline. I'm sorry not a chance we should do that. That would be the Hershel Walker equivalent. If we wanted to target a guy, Felix Hernandez is always the ever present in trade talks or so it seems, and an obvious target the Yankees have as well. He's probably the only guy I'd give up 5 prospects for not named Mike Trout.

I don't think going back into spending money is the right idea for what we need to be doing. Regarding not wanting Lavarnway to be on the MLB roster, yes he did poor in his time up this year. He was also a rookie for all intensive purposes inside probably the worst clubhouse in MLB -- very hard to do much of anything successful in that environment -- Look at our MLB guys. But last year when Tito was at the helm he did a .231/.302/.436/.738. Not stellar, but much better than anyone minus possibly Adam LaRoche walking through that door. Remember we traded Rizzo for Gonzalez who we used for B prospects at best. Then we gave away Lars Andersen -- not a solution but probably a decent stop gap. The trade market will be very slim on 1B unless we make a trade for Kendrys Morales who turned in his second straight decline season (albeit coming off of a scary injury) with a .273/.320/.467/.787 line. And I'd only deal B prospects at best for him, but LAA seems pretty set with him as a DH with Trumbo in the OF. Remember Scott Hatteberg, he couldn't play 1B either and helped lead the A's back to the playoffs. His soxprospects.com profile states And let's stop kidding ourselves about Jose Iglesias. Unless we go to a full groundball pitching staff his defense isn't going to mean anything with a line of .200/.250/.250. Any one of us could grab a bat and have as much pure luck hitting as that guy. I'd take Mike Aviles any day of the week and wait for Xander Bogaerts. Iglesias shouldn't be anything more than a trade chip at this point. Let's send his happy self off to the Cubs to be with Epstein. He already recovered Rizzo there, let's give him Iglesias since we got screwed with compensation for him anyways.

I don't think going back into spending money is the right idea for what we need to be doing. Regarding not wanting Lavarnway to be on the MLB roster, yes he did poor in his time up this year. He was also a rookie for all intensive purposes inside probably the worst clubhouse in MLB -- very hard to do much of anything successful in that environment -- Look at our MLB guys. But last year when Tito was at the helm he did a .231/.302/.436/.738. Not stellar, but much better than anyone minus possibly Adam LaRoche walking through that door. Remember we traded Rizzo for Gonzalez who we used for B prospects at best. Then we gave away Lars Andersen -- not a solution but probably a decent stop gap. The trade market will be very slim on 1B unless we make a trade for Kendrys Morales who turned in his second straight decline season (albeit coming off of a scary injury) with a .273/.320/.467/.787 line. And I'd only deal B prospects at best for him, but LAA seems pretty set with him as a DH with Trumbo in the OF. Remember Scott Hatteberg, he couldn't play 1B either and helped lead the A's back to the playoffs. His soxprospects.com profile states And let's stop kidding ourselves about Jose Iglesias. Unless we go to a full groundball pitching staff his defense isn't going to mean anything with a line of .200/.250/.250. Any one of us could grab a bat and have as much pure luck hitting as that guy. I'd take Mike Aviles any day of the week and wait for Xander Bogaerts. Iglesias shouldn't be anything more than a trade chip at this point. Let's send his happy self off to the Cubs to be with Epstein. He already recovered Rizzo there, let's give him Iglesias since we got screwed with compensation for him anyways.

I'm not sure the Mets would do a deal like that after the Madoff scandal and their hardwork in shedding payroll. Not a bad idea however, and definitely one to take a look into. 1). YES! 2). Which Johnson are we talking about? I'd prefer Peavy then Haren though. 3). Which Sanchez, because if you mean Jonathan then with no offense I can't continue reading your post. Same with Edwin Jackson and Kyle Lohse, neither would fit in Fenway at all. Out of that list only Shawn Marcum interests me. 4). Swisher wants Jason Werth money. No. We had Adam LaRoche and let him go, he's getting a lot of money for a 32 year old 1B. To go from the other post. Mike Napoli at 32 went back to career norms last year of a sub .850 OPS. I'd rather let Lavarnway have at it.

I was listening to my favorite radio program "The Herd" and on Friday I heard a WEEI representative (I forget the name forgive me), say that the Red Sox need to sign Mike Napoli. This really kicked me into a full set of ideas of what the Sox should do, for the first time in years. For the first and foremost -- we obviously need a manager and after the last year here, any free agent will want to know who the skipper is first before inking on the dotted line. Between that and understanding that we do not have to spend like the Yankees to beat the Yankees is huge. I'm sure a good look at Epstein's last few signings has been gone over in detail here previously (again I haven't looked) and we need to veer away from any notion that that is a good idea. I'm just going to kick start straight into my ideas -- of course attempting to keep things logical and away from the late 90's early 00's Yankee and Red Sox fans ideas that we would get any free agent we want. Current depth chart of potential starters currently under contract for next year: C - Saltalamacchia 1B - Lavarnway 2B - Pedroia SS - Aviles 3B - Middlebrooks LF - Nava CF - Ellsbury RF - Kalish DH - n/a SP - Lester SP - Buchholtz SP - Morales SP - Lackey SP - Aceves MR - Miller MR - Dubront MR - Bard MR - Breslow MR - Tazawa CL - Bailey First and foremost, I love the depth of our bullpen. Andrew Miller, coming off of a 40.1 IP 3.35 ERA season, is one of the first guys I want in it. He was consistent, and a solid lefty to come out of the pen. Tazawa is an absolute must in the pen next year. 44 IP and a 1.43 ERA. One of the brightest spots we had last year. Craig Breslow will be our LOOGY. Felix Doubront needs to be moved to the pen as the long man. He simply wasn't good this past year. Before anyone says "my gosh he was a rookie", "he struck out a lot of hitters!" - look at the stats. Yes he struck out 9.3 hitters per 9 IP, he also walked 4 hitters per 9 IP and had an ERA+ of 89, well below average. He simply won't cut it as a starting pitcher in the bigs. I wouldn't mind seeing what he does as a long man/spot starter. Daniel Bard deserves to not be screwed with and given a full year out of the pen. Andrew Bailey was coming off of surgery and has a track record. We also gave up a solid prospect that lead the A's into the playoffs for him. Gotta give him the ball and tell him to earn it. Our rotation needs the most work, without question. If John Farrell were to return, I think we do see a change in both Buccholtz and Lester, but we still need to add some solid arms to the rotation. Our 4/5 should be Morales/Lackey. We need to add some arms here. The one guy who I'd want more than anyone else coming of availability - due to effectiveness combined with possible contract is Scott Baker. Off of Fangraphs.com, writer Brandon Warne stated the following about Scott Baker (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/scott-baker-most-underrated-hurler-in-the-bigs/): "Why exactly do I think Baker is underrated? It really has nothing to do with the fact that he plays in my backyard, to be honest. He’s just 42 innings shy of qualifying for the 1,000 innings leaderboard at B-Ref, and he has a better career whiff rate than Edwin Jackson, Ervin Santana, Chris Carpenter, and Roy Halladay. He has a better career K/BB than Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Jered Weaver, Tim Lincecum, CC Sabathia, and Josh Beckett. In my view, one or the other would be worth blowing off as veritable statistical noise; plenty of guys get the whiffs and walk a ton of guys, and by the same token, guys like Carlos Silva and Carl Pavano make careers out of not whiffing anyone but being extraordinarily stingy on the free pass. Baker, however, does both, and at least to me isn’t regarded even among the 50 or so best starters in the game. How does Baker fly under the radar? Well for one, he doesn’t have swing-and-miss stuff. He won’t show up in any of the posts we’ve had or will have this week on best pitches, and he’s not really in the discussion for any of them either. Indeed, he gets the whiffs (7.2 career per 9, 8.2 in ‘11), but he does so with almost surgical command of a 91 mph heater, and some pretty ordinary offspeed stuff. He’s also been plagued a bit by injuries, only once reaching 200 innings/30-plus starts, but three seasons out of four above 170 innings means he’s not Rich Harden, either." Yes there is some injury concern, but even at 170 IP per season he provided a solid season as he got it together in 2011 with an ERA+ of 129, but was out last season with injury. There is an option the Twins have on him next year however. But if he's available I'd want to take a shot at him. Zack Greinke shouldn't be viewed as a possibility in Boston. His mindset wouldn't work with the press nor the fan base. Ryan Dempster wilted in the AL, and proved to be an NL only pitcher. Edwin Jackson is a free agent again, but with Scott Boras in tow, not an option for our 2013 roster. Tim Hudson has an option on him, but he's a guy who might be the glue guy we need in the rotation. He has American League experience, is a proven starter, and would lead Lester and Buccholtz in the right directions. Kyle Lohse is a free agent that shouldn't even be considered for Boston. He's a classic contract year pitcher. Franscisco Liriano is a free agent going off on name only - a no touch. A big time guy flying under the radar that for the right price might equate out to what we want is Colby Lewis. Colby Lewis came back from Japan and was Texas' legit ace and big game pitcher for the playoffs. With his groundball stuff, would be a great fit for Fenway. Jake Peavy has an option that Kenny Williams is most assuredly going to decline at the end of the year and had a huge come back year and isn't on the wrong side of 32 yet. With swing and miss stuff - a good leader as well - a good fit for the Sox. Brandon McCarthy is the only other starter of name worth mentioning, but let's get him healthy after that scary incident earlier in the season. If all pitchers are available by ranking of desire: 1. Peavy 2. Baker 3. Hudson 4. Lewis Our line up needs two things that are musts. We need to resign Cody Ross and David Ortiz. Push Nava back to the #4 OF that he is and it gives us back our DH. The big name position players this off season contain: CF Michael Bourn, CF Melky Cabrera, RF Torii Hunter, RF Ichiro Suzuki, RF Nick Swisher, CF BJ Upton, C Mike Napoli, 3B David Wright (option on him), 1B Mark Reynolds (has an option), SS Jason Barlett (has an option), SS Stephen Drew (has an option), 1B Lance Berkman, 1B Adam LaRoche (has an option). The best name in the group is David Wright who we'd have swap Middlebrooks to 1B for and pay a HUGE amount for. David is a solid character guy and middle of the line up threat, but not for the price he will probably get in free agency. He's worth checking in on and driving up the price for someone else, but no -- I wouldn't want to sign David Wright. The rest of the free agents are either waiting to be severly overpaid -- IE: Michael Bourn, Nick Swisher -- or at the end of the line IE: Ichiro Suzuki, Torii Hunter. What we really need to look at is 1B (sorry Ryan Lavarnway). But there are no solid free agent options there. Which means the trade market. Like Lavarnway there are some other guys out there who may be late bloomers -- Matt Gamel should be looked at possibly from Milwaukee. But sadly there is no other market for any decent 1B. Justin Smoak with his .210/.290/.364 line is out there, but not wanted by me. I'd be fine sticking with Lavarnway. Next year won't be pretty. But if we can make the necessary changes to our rotation - keep a line up healthy it would look like: 1. CF Ellsbury 2. RF Kalish 3. 2B Pedroia 4. DH Ortiz 5. LF Ross 6. C Saltalamacchia 7. 3B Middlebrooks 8. 1B Lavarnway 9. SS Aviles Don't expect the playoffs, but to build.

BTW for here: HAHAHAHAHA Jeter's pissed and your big off season signing is Martin. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

Dipre knock it off with the common sense around here, it's Christmas damnit.

Way to give up on Salty.

David Ortiz vs RHP: .297/.416/.643/1.059 David Ortiz vs LHP: .222/.275/.324/.599 David Ortiz with RISP: .298/.409/.571/.980 Adrian Gonzalez vs RHP: .278/.377/.510/.887 Adrian Gonzalez vs LHP: .337/.424/.513/.937 Adrian Gonzalez with RISP: .407/.570/.712/1.282 To take into account the ballpark difference, and the fact that Gonzalez lead the league while hitting with RISP, Gonzalez hits 4th, with Pedroia batting 3rd.

What we have is fine, anyone wanting to deal the arm and leg for a guy who will want a contract like Carl Crawford (Jose Reyes) is retarded.

I like white baseball players (enter racism card here).