example1

another stupid mistake.

That's not bad, if its the .820 OPS Giles and not the .715 one.

Is it more fair to think Chuck Knoblock in his prime, rather than Eckstein when thinking about Pedroia's upside? People were sounding disappointed by comparisons to DEckstein, saying its not Sandberg or Morgan. Knoblock wasn't a bad (small) player. I think he'll have a better glove (arm, actually) than Knobs but he could definitely be the same type of slashing doubles hitter. Any thoughts?' [edit] upon second check, he won't have knoblouch's speed (62 SBs in 1997)

I just feel like it is unnecessary to blame this bad season entirely on the FO. I think they had injuries and started the season as deep as anyone else. Imagine if the Yankees didn't have Melky Cabrera waiting in the wings. They had the right guy at the right time. Unfortunately we didn't have a great SP or RF waiting in the minors (or CF or LF at other points). Just one great outfielder and this team may have been okay. It is legitimate to be disappointed, I'm just not that pissed off about it, that's all. And I enjoy looking forward to the future and thinking about options without those discussions constantly revolving around whether or not the FO is competant or not. I believe they are aware of what they do and are likely aware of every argument and counter argument to the situations they encounter. They ultimately have to make a choice and sometimes they're right, sometimes they are wrong. If there is a longer term plan that is going on underneith that will raise the likelihood of them having a competitive team in the next few years then I'm happy. The longer term plan is to develop certain types of players, hold on to good role player/leader types and get some guys off of free agency or through creative trades with money attached.

I think the team's performance has been beastly. I don't remember the part where Theo came out and smashed people up. Look at these injuries man, its absurd. No pitching, limited depth to start the year. No amount of trade could have solidified anything concrete for this season, it would have been a lucky shot at best. Well, that's what the team started out as. I imagine Theo would say that if everyone came through to their potential than this team could contend for 1st place. They were IN first place until the injuries started and they lost their pitching staff. Again, Theo and the FO didn't do that and they're not going to sell away the larger plan because of some contingencies.

Jesus. 6 run 8th to take the lead. Papi with another exciting moment. THAT'S why I still care about this team. Way to go PAPI!!!

Lucchino was the only one he found intolerable. He had completely different relations with LL and with Henry and Warner. He liked the ownership but hated all of the added stress from his boss. Henry promoted him, hired him back and now he has quite a bit more autonomy. Have you heard many leaks from the Sox FO this year? I think its a different beast altogether.

Series against Trenton (Yankees AA team): GAME 1 Trn 3 Por 1 GAME 2 Por 10 Trn 3 GAME 3 Por 5 Trn 4 Ellsbury: 4/11 (.364), 3 RBI, 2 SB, 1HR, 4 R (in 3 games) Kottaras: hit a 2 run shot last night just an update...

Then blame Lucchino. Larry was put in charge of negotiating the deal between Theo and the Sox. Theo attempted to open negotiations during the 05 preseason. Larry didn't respond for a few months and his offer was very low. Theo was insulted and put off negotiations until the next offseason. 3 weeks before he was supposed to be resigned (10/31/05) John Henry was alerted to the boilding feud between Lucchino and Epstein; before that he through everything was fine. Henry assumed that Epstein was going to be resigned. Most of the feuding was over leaks to the media and each man feeling that he had been thrown under the bus at one point or another. On the day that Theo was supposed to re-sign with the club to an agreed upon deal, there was an article in the Globe written by Dan Shaugnassie (sp?) that contained information that only LL and Charles Steinberg could have known. That was the final straw, so he walked away. I can understand why Theo would want to be one of the top 3 paid GMs in baseball. Its just not a rediculous idea, especially given his age and the number of years that he could be with this club. [EDIT] I believe that theo's new position allows him to report directly to Henry rather than through Luchinno.

And the no-hitter... but that's neither here nor there.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Thanks, I had to get that off my chest. So much second guessing is going on here that its getting absurd. How do any of these discussions either change the past or effect any possible trades in the future? I'm willing to bet that most people would pull the trigger on the Beckett deal the first time offered. In fact, I'm willing to bet that alot of OTHER teams would STILL trade their 2nd and 5th best prospects for Beckett and Lowell. Beckett was a #2 overall pick. He's still 26 and he's LEARNING how to pitch. Nobody seems to notice that. He's about 6 months older than Papelbon, not some old man. Arroyo vs. Pena? Who cares? We have Pena. he has a lot of upside. We saw everything we were going to see from Arroyo and we shouldn't even have HAD arroyo as he signed a cheaper deal. If Arroyo was most players we would have been without him anyway and we wouldn't even be talking about Wily Mo. Instead, they convinced a guy to take less than he was worth on the open market and traded him for someone that would have been difficult to get otherwise. Seems smart to me. This team with Arroyo is still this team. Simple as that. He's a #4 pitcher at best on the Sox.

This wasn't Theo's move. He wasn't the GM when it happened, and he didn't want to make it. That said, I STILL like the move. I look forward to watching Beckett pitch. He's fun to watch and when he's pitching well he's unbelievable. It hurt when we traded Sanchez more than Hanley. Sanchez may have been the best pitcher in their system. Hanley I could take, although now he looks pretty damn good and I guess we're seeing what all the hype was about.

wow, four games worth of batting stats j/k i hope the sox made a good signing w/ this guy. they have quite a few 17-18 year old players, dont they?

Congrats to the SeaDogs for making the playoffs. http://www.portlandseadogs.com/2006scores/por9040.html There is some good talent on that team right now. Ellsbury had a solo shot.

any idea when this game is going to start again?

This team would be in a good position with another quality arm. They need to allow Beckett to be a #3 battling for a #1 position like he was in FLA. Early this season he and Schilling had a good back-and-forth going. A schmidt or Zito or someone else in that category would be nice. I would prefer they try to get Schmidt. That would allow Wake to be a #4 and Clement to be a #5. Clement isn't great, but he's an average pitcher against the stronger AL lineups. If he had been pitching in Wells' spot this year the Sox would have been better off. I know he's not that good, but c'mon! Between Kyle Snyder, Jason Johnson, Kason Gabbard, etc., there are a lot of starts where I would take Clement. I'm willing to bet that the Sox keep Clement now; especially since (although he has been effective) Snyder is a question-mark and Lester is physically a question-mark. The Sox need probably 3 starting pitchers who are not in the lineup currently. One is Wakefield, the second is (hopefully) the quality SP mentioned above, and the third available one is likely no better than Clement. The other thing this team needs badly is a strong #5 hitter. I would be in favor of getting Aramis Ramirez and paying part of Lowell's salary to move him. Hopefully the idea of "spending more intelligently" includes SOME space for intelligent upgrades that benefit the team over the long term. The biggest question for me is what to do with Coco. Should he be included in a deal attempting to get a last-year contract guy? (Andruw Jones/V. Wells/R. Oswalt (one) for Hansen, Crisp and Delcarmen?.. something like that). Should they stick with him? His arm and relatively poor CF defense keeps this team from being a truly subperb defensive team but it seems adequate if he can hit and score runs like a good leadoff hitter should. A lot of question marks.

what is there to be excited about for this guy? We're looking at a guy who has put up an .802 OPS in the minors this year and has shown very little power potential, right? He's supposed to be good defensively, but la de freaking da. I'm excited about a number of sox prospects, but this guy ain't really one of them. Someone prove me wrong... please