example1

Easy call in hindsight, many good baseball minds missed this one. Their asking prices weren't the same. Do you know what the A's wanted for Gio? Conjecture. Aviles is near the team lead in RBI and fangraphs has him as the second most valuable player on the team this year, behind Ortiz. Obviously this can be disputed. Perhaps you should find the other half of Sox fans who think Saltalamacchia deserved to be on the All-Star team and see whose argument wins the day. You both have good points, but as long as there is viable disagreement I can see why you would stick with Saltalamacchia. I'm confused... is the problem with this team its pitching (especially Lester and Beckett, who weren't going to be replaced) or the culture? Insofar as LL was responsible for Valentine, yes, he bears responsibilitiy. I think there are plenty of managers who could have come in and earned the players trust. Bobby V doesn't seem to have done that. He's a likable enough guy but I'm not sure the experiment is working.

Had you heard of Zach Stewart before the Sox traded for him? I hadn't either, but he was at one point the Blue Jays best prospect and has been involved in a few good trades. He's only 25, is cost controlled until 2018, and has a few really good starts under his belt at the MLB level (along with some very poor ones) to complement pretty good minor league numbers. I would argue that Cherington is ahead of the curve on this discussion, actually. The addition of guys like Mortenson, Malencon, Stewart, etc., all show that he values cost-controlled young pitching pretty highly. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will be the next generation pitching staff. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Buchholz gets healthy and returns to form as a good pitcher, Doubront remains viable, and Barnes progress through the minors pretty quickly. One more decent SP from the minors (Britton, Ranaudo, etc.,) and the Sox will be in much better shape for a big FA acquisition after 2014.

Blaming BC for his inability to spend money on top of poorly spent money seems a bit absurd. He's blamed for not pushing the team way over the salary cap for whom? Oswalt? Do we really think that Oswalt would have this team in 1st place? Edwin Jackson? The payroll flexibility--as discussed by Jacko--is a very real problem faced by both the Sox and Yankees. The penalty for being over the LT become prohibitively large in a season or two and the rewards for being under it are so enormous that teams are scrambling to do that. It's not something that could have been anticipated but is now the reality. So I don't hold BC accountable for not getting a more expensive SP to complement the already overpriced stable of SPs they had already. BC gets complete credit, in my book, for all the things listed by Jacko. Ross, Scutaro and the entire bullpen--which is much more challenging than it appears... especially when you have no closer and no setup guy. I'd say he gets an A in creating a bullpen from thin air, and they actually have some pretty good BP pieces to move forward with.

If the team would be unwatchable without Ortiz then they must be damn-near unwatchable now, right? I mean, Ortiz only bats 1/9th of the time and doesn't play the field. Lavarnway had 21, 22 and 32 HR the last 3 years at combined minor league levels. He's got Middlebrooks-like power with better OBP potential. His biggest problem is he isn't a great catcher and he can't run. He will cost 2% of what Ortiz does. They can re-use that money elsewhere.

Okay, I've looked through some of the historical records. It is worth noting that the Sox will probably not go into sell-now mode. It probably isn't even reasonable for them to be sellers, because a) it wouldn't be economically advantageous and from a macro-view, they aren't actually out of anything at this point. * 2.5 games out of the wild card * significant injuries all year * underperformance that is reasonably likely to turn around Cherington isn't going to just turn into the Mets suddenly (even if many of us believe they should be sellers). Finally, it is worth it to realize that being .500 at the ASB is not traditionally indicative of being out of it. In fact, many teams find being .500 as an indication to NOT be sellers at the deadline. In recent history, the 2007 Rockies and 2005 Astros were either .500 or under .500 and went to the WS. I realize that new playoff rules have changed things a bit, but I do wonder whether the new rules mean that ANY TIME the Sox are battling for the Wild Card they should just give up, because it all comes down to one game? Obviously that would be a silly strategy. The first few weeks after the break will speak volumes about what direction the Sox should go. If they win some games and get close to the WC spot, they will likely push through to the end. If their SP continue to suck and they lose more, they might turn on a dime and try to revamp for 2013 and 2014. Will be interesting to see... and perhaps painful to watch.

I would be open to this idea. Opening the discussion around Lester would probably have most teams willing to offer at least something good in return, especially teams in the win-now mode.

Two douches. Teixeira has owned Padilla in just about every meaningful way possible, but they are both douches.

Maybe Ellsbury for one of those pitchers, not both though. Seattle isn't totally stupid.

You've quoted this article in a few different places but I haven't seen actual suggestions from you. Felix isn't happening. The Red Sox DO need some energy, but that energy needs to be the right energy or it will just be a waste of prospects. Cafardo's column was bordering on "do a trade for a trade's sake".

Valentine needs a mouthpiece? When did he learn that subtlety?

He would be one of the better trade pieces the Sox could be willing to move. The combination of his good performance on the field and his brother being taken #12 overall makes his name more recognizable. Should only trade him for someone who is going to be around for awhile.

This is the truth, though the five year comment from jung is a bit off. It's more like 2-3 years before the contracts disappear. I'm still on the Gonzalez bandwagon, I just have no explanation for his power outage. In his last 16 games he does have an .850 OPS with an OBP approaching .400. His ABs look better. That's more like him, though his SLG still leaves something to be desired. I don't think there's any doubt that the Sox will need to let Ortiz walk next year. They can't afford him and have adequate replacements. They need to get that payroll down so they can actually invest in pitching as necessary.

Hopefully the Sox haven't hired you as a consultant. Reddick is gone. Regarding the "fanbase" argument re: trading Ortiz, this isn't a huge deal. The fanbase has seen every single player go from the 2004 team except Papi, and the feeling of having a winning team is much better than the feeling of having a successful Papi. The fans will get over it... hell, they would have to eventually, he's in his late 30's and players just get old and move on.

They probably shouldn't keep Ells though. Bradley is almost ready and will cost a fraction of the price. The whole Crawford situation is so damn disappointing. There really needs to be a contract clause that gives teams some ability to escape horrible contracts when the player literally can't get on the field. In the NBA they have something like that. It's one thing if the player is just bad, but it's another if they literally can't get on the field. Hell, even something forcing the team to pay 25% of his contract would be a relief and ensure Crawford wouldn't go hungry. Geez.

That the pitching sucks AND the offense is inconsistent/untimely?

Christ. Will he ever get healthy?

I would be more than comfortable with Iglesias playing at SS. His bat won't play but there have been a few plays lately that I told myself "Iglesias would have made that play." So, should the Sox look to start bringing up the remaining youngsters Iglesias and Lavarnway? Trade Shoppach?

You prefer to do surgery with a chainsaw rather than a scalpel? That's fine. I think it is worth noting that the pitching staff has come back around to being at least decent, and that the offense--which everyone wants to pat on the back and say "good job, keep going" hasn't actually been as good as it might seem. When we break this down to the component parts, it is obvious. Gonzalez and Pedroia have stunk, Ellsbury and Crawford have been non existent. That's four of the top five offensive pieces on the team. Yes, other players have stepped up, but imagine how the team would do if they had all four of those guys producing AND had performances like this from Salty and Ortiz, etc.,