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This is infuriating. Bridge year, here we come. Derek Lee? An old injury prone player at low years and low money? Is this is new calling card of this franchise? Saltalamacchia.....youve got to be s***ing me. I called this front office cheap all year long and people on this board killed me for it. If they thought ratings on radio and tv were bad last year.....wait til this year when people stop showing up at the park. This season has PR nightmare written all over it.

Reasons to be optimistic about this team now and moving forward. First and foremost, over the next couple of years this team is STOCKED with draft picks. This team is rebuilding as we speak....and many of the players drafted over the past 4 years are playing big roles (MccCourty, Gronk, Spikes, Hernandez, Mesko, Deaderick, Chung, Brace, Butler, Volmer, Tate, Mayo, Wheatley, Crable, Wilhite, Meriweather). The talent we are drafting is developing into major pieces of this team. This team has a surplus of draft picks over the next few seasons.

According to ESPN, the Yankees Front Office has told those involved in negotiation to offer him 3 years at 15M per.....and that he is to take it or leave it. Jetes wants 4 or 5 years at a higher pay rate. Although I know it would never happen, I would LOVE for the sox to offer him 15M over 4 years to play 1B, 3B or LF. There was considerable talk about moving him to CF when they got Arod and Bernie retired, I think hed do great in LF. I would love it more than words can describe.....our own little Babe Ruth curse if you will. MUHAHAHAHA (I am evil).

All those seconds add up though. Lets say each starting pitcher on the RedSox and Yankees throw 100 pitches. Thats 200. Lets say they are 7 seconds longer than everyone. 200*7....divided by 60 (seconds) is roughly 23 minutes longer. Throw in the fact that both teams use ROOGY and LOOGYs which means pitching changes, before those changes come mound visits. All those changes/visits....well say are 3 minutes each. Well say that each team uses 2 relievers and a closer, so 3 total relievers each. Thats 18 minutes of pitching changes Throw in the mound visits.....I dont know, well say 3 minutes total for each team, thats another 6 minutes. The relievers, 2 each....if we follow the sam pattern and adjust the total # of pitches....well say 50 total pitches times 7, divided by 60 (seconds) give us an additional 5.8 minutes, multiply by 2 and you get 12 minutes give or take. Then comes Papelbon, who regularly gets fined for being too slow to the plate. We will say he throws 20 pitches at 10 seconds each. Thats another 3 minutes. If we say Rivera is twice as fast as Paps, that gives another 1.5 minutes. 23 minutes of time it takes for SP to pitch to the plate. 18 minutes of pitching changes 6 minutes of mound visits (each pitcher is allowed to have a mound visit b4 replacement) 12 minutes of time it takes for RP to pitch to the plate. 3 minutes of Papelbon time to pitch to plate. 1.5 minutes of MO time to pitch to plate. Thats 1 hour and 3 minutes of time.....just in pitching changes and the time it takes to deliver the ball to the plate. It adds up!!!!

Yankeshater213, you still have a disturbing picture on your page.

I cant believe it was NateGrey. I guess you dont know what people are capable of.

Please click on your "username" at the bottom of the main screen. This will pull up your profile. Many of you have "visitor messages" that contain graphic and or inappropriate images or messages. I saw one on Yeszir's profile earlier today and alerted him.....but it appears he was not the only target. It looks like it was done at random. Most were done by someone with the usernames of "bukake jones" and "black hat cracker". The following usernames currently have inappropriate messages/images: bsox0407 jacksonianmarch a700hitter Coco's Disciples YanksHater213 example1 RedSoxfanforlife305 VA Sox Fan suns Dipre Emmz Youk Of The Nation I am sure there are more, those are just the ones I clicked on tonight. I suggest everyone take a look at their CP and look through their individual profiles, looks like someone is f***ing around.

A batman symbol in the shape of a hammer lights up the sky.

Greinke makes me nervous. His psyche is not strong enough for this market. I think hed be a train wreck here.

haha, that was quick

At least Jeter played the position and won the award. Rafael Palmeiro was a DH who won the 1B award a few years back. Jeter might be the worse defensive SS in the AL. Its just a popularity contest.

It is in there best interest to make a huge splash this offseason. TV ratings were way down, radio ratings were way down......and I dont care what anyone says, they lost their precious sellout streak this year, at least in the place it matters, which is human butts in seats. Hell, interest on this board was way down. WAYYYYYY down compared to years past. If they nickel and dime this offseason they will risk further losing their fanbase. The pink hats have already stopped caring about Jason Damon, Gabe Varitek and Trot Ramirez. If you are going to have a s***** defensive catcher, at least bring back the guy who can swing the stick.

Am I the only one that thinks that it is unacceptable that Salty is our starting catcher with the options out there and the fact that VMART WANTS TO REMAIN HERE? Really? Salty is the best option for this team? Maybe if we are the KC Royals......spend some money and bring in a better option please, or spend some money and bring VMart back. Many of you know my stance on the front office. Lets see how my theories play out. Beltre isnt coming back. Looks like Vmart might not come back. If they dont open their wallet this offseason and this season becomes another "bridge" season, just about everything I have said about them will be on target.

Start with pitchers who slide step to the plate. A practice that has been ignored in Boston since the late 90's now (Kerrigan). Also teach them how to hold a runner on, another aspect that has been ignored in Boston for quite some time. Between Beckett, Dice-K, Wakefield, Bucholz and Lackey.....NO catcher has a shot in hell (Lester is maybe the ONLY pitcher who can hold a runner, being LH helps him with that). Varitek was always a good throwing catcher, the numbers do not show that because he had zero help from his pitchers.

Move on from Beltre. #1 priority should be VMart. #2 should be Dunn. He will play 1B and some LF since we have Ortiz signed for at least one more year. Dunn becomes the DH when Ortiz leaves and VMart gradually transitions to 1B in 2 years. Youk will do fine at 3B.

They were not destroyed by the Jets. They lost the game. Its their only loss and its a loss on the road to a very good team. A team which now sits behind us in the division standings. Pats still have an offense, its scaled down quite a bit, but it is an offense that is evolving. Would you of guessed that they would be undefeated since Moss was traded? Would you have guessed that they would have beat Baltimore knowing that they PASTED us on our home field WITH a healthy Moss in the lineup? Would you have guessed that this defense is turning in to one of the better defenses against the run? Would you have guessed that we finally have a running attack AFTER trading what was once considered our feautre back (Maroney) and Fred Taylor has missed every game but the opener? There are a couple of things that you look for in a successful team. These things do not ALWAYS result in individual statistics. 1. Defense. The pats, while looking like swiss cheese sometimes in the secondary is improving. Their run defense is starting to be talked about in terms of the leagues best. They play a team defense which means the ends and outside LB's are setting the edge. Theyre interior D-lineman are occupying the O-lineman. Wilfork commands a double team which is allowing their linebackers to roam free and make tackles. A couple of things need to improve in the secondary for them to start becoming an elite defense. The safeties need to read plays better. Part of the reason that opposing QB's are having such a high success rate is that they have a lot of time to throw the ball. The defense is starting to buy in on the team defense concept, and if everyone is doing their job, as little as it is on a individual level means that others will be allowed to make plays and hit the quarterback. The CB's are doing ok, its not their fault that WR's are running their routes, then getting open beyond their diagramed route bc of lack of pressure. The safeties are playing way too safe at this point, they need to come up and hit people, they need to make WR's pay for going across the middle. WR's are a little too comfortable right now. They ARE improving though. If safeties are playing a little safe, then maybe its time to start using them in stunt pacakges. Use them to get some pressure on the QB and let your CB's try to make plays. The linebackers, while great in the run game have a lot to be desired in the passing game. In the 3-4 defense, the OLB MUST be able to read and react to RB's and slot receivers in the flat zones. The MLB MUST be able to read and react to TE ins/outs and slants. They must be also be able to react to slant routes although the safeties also help out with the slot receiver slants. 2. Clock management. The Pats need to get the possession time above 30 minutes a game. They are at about 29 minutes a game right now. They need to get that up around the 32-33 minute range. Clock management is a sign of defense getting off the field and the offense moving the ball. Its also a sign of a team with a RB who is eating chunks of time of the clock. We have a RB to do that, we just need to get in to more 3rd and short situations which is an indication that we need to be more productive in the passing game on first and second downs. Its also an indication that we are taking stupid penalties and/or negetive gains with sacks or incomplete passes. We have enough players to use a more productive short game offensive approach whether it be running the ball, play action, screens or using the TE's. BGJE isnt Barry Sanders, but he isnt Maroney either. He always gains positive yards....whether its 1,2....or 5. Any of those outcomes are better than 2nd and 10 with a dead clock because of an incomplete pass 35 yards downfield. 3. Field position. This is an area that has hurt them this year and it should be a strength. Gostowski is killing the ball on kickoffs, but the Pats offense kills the defense at times because the opposing offense puts together a 6 play drive...only to punt the ball deep in our end. Then the offense goes 3 and out which is putting the defense right back on the field, and in s***** field position. The Pats defense then gets gassed and gives up points. The offense has to start putting together longer drives which will give the defense better field position. The defense cannot bail them out all year long, they are good and getting better but you cant rely on them all year long or they will burn out. Those 3 things are the name of the game. If you execute defense and field position the points will come. When you kill the clock the other team has less opportunity to score. Get used to 10 or less point wins, this is the way we did it in the past and it looks like this is the way we are reloading with to win in the future.

Easy boy. Im certainly not agreeing with everything that you have said. Those are just my observations. Stats do indicate trends, good or bad for the most part. The Patriots have been an exception to that rule. I think by years end they are in the top 10 in most TEAM rankings.

One thing that Id like to point out, when the pats were winning those superbowls......it was never about stats. The overal rankings looked pretty good, but this has NEVER been a team that fancied themselves on personal achievements. Just look what Bradys 50 TD's got us......nothing. What did an undefeated regular season get us? Nothing. Blowing teams out, running up the score.......Nothing. They won as a team, lets wait til the end of the season to see where their rankings are. They are improving each week.....all while putting together a 6-1 record.

Its directed towards me, and I am ok with that....I have a mini man crush on him haha. How can you not love an undrafted rookie who has put his time in, paid his dues and is running hard while getting results? Hes had a couple of games now close to 100 yards rushing. If you understood how much I loathed Maroney, youd understand why I appreciate BJGE so much. I HATED Maroney.