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I keep reading about the sox all wanting to get theo back. PLEASE get him back. It is like losing David Ortiz two years ago when he was asking for only 5 million or whatever. You SHOULD be willing to pay three times that much.

Uh, yeah. It probably would make them better. You can't just go giving away guys who drive in 135 runs year after year after year and not expect it to come back and bite you in the ass. It is disgusting that this conversation would even come up. This is the equivalent of giving up Terell Owens or Ladanian Tomlonson just because they say they don't like soe of the pressure. NO player should have this much power. Of course, for some reason, the Sox brass wants to get rid of his contract.. but why? There isn't anyone worth spending the money on anyway.

Please, for the love of GOD, Boston Globe, FIRE THIS JACK-ASS.

Exactly. But what the hell do you expect when you come to talksox.com? That's what I would expect if I went to spankyanks.com or whatever the site is and start laughing at their misery (it must be abbad board, cause you're here a lot). I don't expect a lot of s*** on this site, that's why I come here. I appreciate you here though.

I don't have a problem with it. But please realize this: at no point have you assumed that any of us would log onto the YANKEES message board and laugh at them for it. I feel like it is both totally appropriate and ethical to laugh at the Yankees moves on a RED SOX board, but I wouldn't be such a prick as to do it on the yankees board. I'm not saying your a prick (cause I appreciate your input and you are a regular poster) but just saying that we would have been happy if Cashman left doesn't say enough. WHERE would we have expressed that glee?

Amen brotherman, amen.

No. Cashman leaving would have made your team better. He signs chump after chump and yet you think he's doing a great job. Whatever man. You enjoy your Pavano and your Wright, your A-Rod Sheffield and Contreras. Go ahead and enjoy Cashman, NOBODY was happier when he resigned than me.

HEY LUCCHINO: f*** YOU!! I don't give a rats ass who is responsible but I am so goddamned sick and tired of this s***. What do they think sox fans are made of? Huh?!?? Should we just be happy with losing player after player, losing the heart of our team? I said last week and I'll say it again now: the one thing that made losing all of these players okay was the fact that Theo was watching out for it all. We are going to have another GM. GM's aren't hard to find. Excellent GM's, CELEBRITY GM's. They are harder to find. And for those of you who say that this wasn't about money, it was about money. If Theo didn't want to be GM because of personal reasons he wouldn't have been at the negotiating table to begin with. He would have said long ago that "This job isn't for me, I will finish up, but this isn't where I want to be." I am very, very close to boycotting the red sox right now. If they trade Manny I probably won't buy the baseball package next year. Who the hell am i paying to see? Nomar? Pedro? Manny? Damon? These people are viewing all of us as sheep-like idiots who follow whatever they put in the sox uniform. This totally and utterly ruined my evening. If you were willing to pay Billy Beane 2.5 million then pay THEO EPSTEIN THE GODDAMN 2.5 MILLION! If you're willing to pay Alan Embree 3 million a year then you better pay theo his funds. Close to a boycott. sorry for the language, I'm just pissed off!!!!!

Milledge would be a good guy to get. So would Huff. Heilman would have to be our hope for a starter for the next few years. I think he's kind of a we-can't-get-Burnett kind of option. We don't need too many youngish starting pitchers. In 3 years I want at least three of the spots taken by Lester, Papelbon and Sanchez. We can look around for more from there, but we should leave some options open.

I appreciate that you realize that sometimes you go "out there". This is no exception. The chances of the sox getting travis hafner are very, very low. He's worth a lot. Manny has said he would go back to cleveland, actually, so its not entirely crazy, but not likely. Hafner AND Sizemore AND Crisp, I don't think so. Sorry. I think the rotation of Schilling Burnett Clement Wakefield Papelbon is more solid top to bottom and is more realistic.

I like the idea too, but is Konerko THAT good? Looking at his numbers I would say no. He's a pretty decent first baseman with a great bat, but he doesn't put up anywhere near the numbers that manny does. Only one season over .900 OPS in 7 seasons over 120 games. Manny, by comparison has had 11 straight seasons over .900 and 6 of those were over 1.000. I don't think Konerko is the be-all and end-all in the replacing Manny sweepstakes. He's pretty good and was clearly the power hitter on a team that didn't really have a lot of power hitters. If Manny and Damon go and are replaced by Huff and Konerko it would be pretty good. I don't think we'll get Konerko though. I imagine it will be Huff and a few other players, with a serious run at Burnett and BJ Ryan.

I totally agree. Manny will be discontented in any other city. I can't IMAGINE what the yankees or any other rival would be like if they got Manny. The guy really is the best right handed hitter in the AL, I don't care what ARod does. I wish there was a way Sox fans could let manny know that he is appreciated and we don't want him to leave, but he doesn't seem to really notice too much. I don't want the era of Ortiz and Ramirez to end and I hope he doesn't either. I wonder if they get along personally... two years ago, when Pedro was around, they seemed pretty chummy. Now it seems a little less so. I wonder if Manny is having a hard time with Papi being so good.

It may be Bostonian's fault that Manny isn't happy, but that's too bad for him. He just needs to once and for all make it clear to management that he wants to leave and leave it at that. They will look around and try to find a deal but every time he complains it just pisses me off. The guy makes 20 MILLION A YEAR! It is very very hard to convince someone to take that contract on, even for Manny's quality. I say we keep him unless we get our money's worth. I believe Manny has been worth 20 million a year, in that he does what few others can do for less. The sox need to at least get a 15 million dollar value from him, either in young prospects for the future or in another stud MLB player. We can't get nothing for him. If we keep him and get Huff I think we will have a great team. I would also overpay for BJ Ryan; even overpaying for him would cost less than Billy Wagner and he's younger. Not quite as good but younger and cheaper. Then I would split most of the relieving duties between Timlin, Hansen and Ryan either using Ryan against Lefthanded lineups early in the game, or using Hansen and Timlin for the majority of 7th and 8th innings and closing with Ryan. I think Foulke is done and don't expect a whole lot from him.

Yeah, the problem is that if Manny gets frustrated enough he may just not put his heart into the game. The last thing I want is a "not trying" version of Manny--he already seems like he's not trying when he IS trying, so I would hate to see him intentionally looking slugish.

My thinking exactly.

Huff would be a good option. I like the idea of trying to get Burnett for 3 years (4th team option) and having a rotation of: Schilling Burnett Clement Wakefield Papelbon I don't see Huff as being enough of an offensive addition to compensate for losing Manny. In fact it will be nearly impossible to compensate for Manny regardless. If we have to replace Damon's offense too then it will DEFINITELY be impossible. Damon scores runs. Lots of runs.

So what? People would pitch around Manny to get to Ortiz all the time too. Let's be realistic here. You always end up with a situation where one player is better than the one behind or before them. Ortiz isn't as good a hitter as Manny, but he did plenty of damage. The idea is to get as many people on base as possible, the runs come after that for the most part. If you have Konerko batting 4th then he probably won't do as well as manny, but he will still do well. Ortiz may get pitched around, but that's fine. Let's jack up Ortiz's OBP to .430 and see how the sox end up doing. Pitching around a player doesn't necessarily make them useless. Its a good situation to have a player who will automatically be pitched around. There aren't many players like that in the league. I don't think there is any way that Konerko leaves Chicago though. Maybe, but I just don't see it happening. On that note, I am so damn sick of Manny wanting to leave Boston. The first few times you figure its just a "fit" thing, but now, years later, I'm just sick of it. It is, more than anything, insulting. Manny gets as many cheers as anyone in recent memory, he gets as much money as any baseball player ever has. He plays in front of a sold out stadium and is one of the country's biggest sports celebraties. When he disrespects playing in boston I feel as though he is disrespecting my home and Sox nation overall. His goddamn contract is so huge that we can't move it which is not BOSTON'S fault, it is his selfish-asses fault for signing the deal in the first place. To whine about your job when you make that much, in such a blue collar town/region, when you have gotten nothing but respect from the town and fans is insulting. I'm okay with "Manny being Manny" but when he threatens to not come to Spring Training, even if it means the sox get a bad deal then I just think he's an *******. Sorry for the cursing y'all, but its just getting really, really old.

What does that have to do with the Red Sox? The Yankees are the ones that take the weavers and Pavanos. I don't expect Theo to offer money to a guy who he doesn't think will perform well.

Maybe its Adam Hyzdu!!

If it is Damon he should have switched back to the roids he used last year, when his power numbers were actually substantial! Just kidding. I don't think its Damon, and I doubt it is Manny. Trot? Possibly. Sheffield? More likely (although how stupid could he BE?). I really doubt it is Matsui or Podsednik. But who knows???!!??

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/10/28/epstein_sox_are_closing_in_on_new_deal/ Sounds positive. C'mon Theo!!!

The sox will make a big push at Burnett. At least if they get him then people will still be saying "How about 'dem Sox chances?' rather than "they don't have a very good club, or they're rebuilding". They could sign Burnett to 4-5 years and he'd be ready to go just about when their newest generation of studs is hitting their strides. Then they could keep him (if he's the ace they hope he will be), trade him near the deadline (to help fill a hole) or just let him go. In any case, given that we lose Schilling next year and wakefield any day now I'm sure the Sox will make a BIG push for AJ. I don't think he's the second coming of Pedro, but he does have really good stuff and when he's on he can just shut the door. Hopefully Varitek would have a positive influence and he can get his head on his shoulders.

Touche, SFOC, Touche!

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Its not about the speed, its about the defense. It is so easy to just forget what defense adds to games, but a good defensive play can have the impact of a homerun on a game. Think about some of the plays that have happened in the playoffs: Houston's DP to beat the Cards, CWS throw out a sox player at third from second. Who knows what would happen if not for those plays, but they can be enough to win or lose a game. The sox outfield is NOT quick at this point. Nixon is diehard and he goes for everything like a bulldog, but he's not fast. Manny is a little quicker, but clumsy and doesn't have great defensive intelligence. He's got good accuracy but a poor arm. Damon can run well, but occasionally drops balls, can't jump very well and has a noodle for an arm. The outfield could be upgraded, which would make our pitchers more confident and unite the team a little more. Right now defense is really just the time our guys spend while waiting to hit. For other teams it is possible to play defense like a good football defense would: attacking the other team and smothering them with solid pitching, good plays in the field and the ability to make runners think twice before taking extra bases or trying to steal. The two (lots of runs and good defense) do not have to be mutually exclusive. The sox could probably still score 850 runs if they replaced Manny intelligently and upgraded Millar.