ksushi

Well, him being called up isn't weird, its just that keeping him in AAA until we absolutely need him is such a luxury. He can hone his pitches, develop some cockiness, and learn what its like to have people hit against you who are being paid to beat you. Thats huge. I think he will be so good in AAA eventually he will be called up. By eventually I mean soon. By soon, I mean june. By june, I mean moon. Sorry, thought I'd throw one more rhyme in there since i liked the first one.

Didn't lowell hit a double last night? I thought he looked ok.

Offense isn't a priority at short when you have the luxury of having such a good 1-4 hitters. Gonzalez is electric in the field. Anyone who is putting him down at this point hasn't been paying attention. We have a 1B, his name is youkilis, and there isn't anything wrong with him thus far. To me, the outfield depth is great and the pitching depth is tops in the AL east if not the AL. The White Sox and A's have somehting to say about that too though. My fear is that Lowell will be a black hole at the plate. I do think there is potential for Lowell to rebound even still, but the question is, was he on a cold streak earlier in ST or is he just on a hot streak now? Somewhere in the middle? If Lowell hits .260 I'm happy provided there is some power there. Does anyone here think Nixon and Varitek aren't enough to hit behind Ortiz and Manny?

If you put Martinez on that, you've gotta add Delcarmen too. Vermilyea is likely to be offered back to Toronto. Right now our SP depth is still incredible. Don't forget that Lenny DiNardo's natural role is that of a starter. He can be called in to start in the case of an injury. To be completely honest, I expect very little from wells, but a lot from the other four currently slotted. I expect Papelbon to earn his position come late may or june-ish. The defense is very good right now and our bullpen has depth and quality arms up and down. The only move the sox might want to make come all-star break is for a third basemen, but Lowell has decided to hit lately. We just don't know yet.

They want to put him in AAA and let him dominate. Get a feel for professional hitters before bringing him up. I think at some point, him and lester will need to be called up. Someone will be underperforming and those two will make strong cases. Hansen still has a 0.00 era. Thats a joke. He's amazing. I think he needs to be on the big stage soon. Lester has had his struggles but it will be the same thing with him. He'll adjust and eventually get called up and impress.

Except I've actually got offers... haha

Thought I would make a thread apart from the other two which basically are just arguement (nothing wrong with that) but I wanted a thread to just bid the man farewell. No trade talk, no analysis just peace out. It was an awesome 3, hes a good pitcher and a good guy. Wish he could have finished here, hope if he hits the market, in a perfect world, he would find a way on the roster but that is probably a sentimental pipe dream. The guy is a class act.

First off, Id like to say I totally agree with you about the numbers part. Not everything is numbers. Numbers can only show you how much, or what has happened already. They don't show room for growth and they don't show a players tools. Which is why I love this deal. Sure, Bronson is a resilient pitcher who in a couple of years will be known as a crafty veteran. He has value, no doubting that. Pena on the other hand has a career .303 on base and in something like 800 MLB AB's he has struck out once every three AB's and walked about once every leap year. This is not a good numbers move. Looking past the numbers, Arroyo - although resilient and durable - has been an up and down kinda guy who struggles every year to be average. Not to put him down, I am an arroyo fan, but Pena is a 24 year old super talent with monster power. He does have the potential to get everyone in the Reds front office fired with his the potential he has for this season and especially down the road. This guy is a monster bat. The numbers don't tell the story, you have to watch. Second, I understand that '04 was amazing, but roster turn over happens. Pedro and Cabrera commanded more money than the sox were willing to play. The sox put a number on players based on on-field performance and not charisma or how much the fnas love them. It factors in and sometimes its not worth the money. that aside, a team needs to get younger. An aging team will only compete for so long. Trading for young pop is never a bad move, and their bringing along a great core of young pitchers so you shouldn't be upset. Theo knows what hes doing. Keep your head up, don't jump bandwagon yet. Oh, and Pena doesn't play third base, but Youkilis does, and Pena has limited first base experience, so in the event that Lowell is a black hole at the place this year, that might not be a terrible option to fall back on if Pena has any defensive pulse.

Correction, in half the AB's of an everyday player he is a 20 HR hitter. Think about what Ortiz did in 03. Hitting 31 homeruns in like 120 games or something. Pena hit 20 home runs in I think 99 games. If given the oppurtunity, that development curve that Theo talked about, well, it will curve rather drastically and over a short peroid of time. This guy is a beast.

I expect Pena to walk more this year, take more pitches and hit more pitches than he ever has before. I said that when i drafted him a little prematurely in the 10th round of one of my fantasy leagues a week and a half ago. I stand by it.

What they did to bronson was wrong, but way right for the Red Sox. Great deal, would have happened any way you look at it.

I really don't want to read your entire post, but I just want to throw out there that we also did not have Schilling, or Embree, or Pedro and we didn't have a .300 20 90 Kevin Millar either. Nor did we have anything special at SS. Granted Keith Foulke was a key piece, so were those guys I mentioned. Foulkes health is a luxury, we have bullets in the chamber, saving them for 07 is something we would like to do, but not necessarily something we need to do. Comparing 04 to 05 with the hopes of pin-pointing one reason inparticular for the drop off between the two seasons is like comparing John Goodman to Tyra banks and citing only one reason why one is more attractive than the other.

My sentiments exactly. Outside of the clever little thing I have in my profile, I really don't hate him for leaving, and the fact that he went to the Yankees only makes me a little bit sour. After the dust settled, all that matters is that he gave us a great ride and really broke out of a bad post-season at just the right time in 04 and went on to really become an icon out here. Enjoy being another face in the crowd, johnny, thanks for everything. You might want to take a class or two in public speaking. I'll root for you in the WBC next year and all the best. 6 or 7 years from now you'll be remembered as a Red Sox again anyways. It was swell.

To me, if you have lightning in a bottle like you have with Papelbon, you don't abandon it. Starting the kid in AAA after all he has done to earn his spot in the majors would be a major blow to the kid, and the wrong impression to give to arguably your best arm. He won't be in AAA, while your arguement is a semi-valid one, he has had bad numbers in ST, I think you are looking at early ST results a little to harshly. Wait and see what happens with his next start before you label it a bad spring. Guys really need to get their innings in, and get their stuff back together before really competing in a game. He will be a good SP should he be in that role, and he will be a good reliever should he be in the BP. He will not wind up in AAA unless his season stats put him there come May or June. I Don't think they will. Graffanino does have some experience at third if memory serves me correctly. Lowell has popped up on my suck-radar too. Granted his glove could be good enough to keep him in the lineup if he has any semblance of a pulse at the plate (.250 being the cut off line depending on how he hits with RISP) but I am concerned that he's lost a step and some serious bat speed. Graffanino would be welcome in the starting lineup if you asked me. He isn't going to start over Loretta, but I could see him pushing Lowell out of the way at third. And ORS, I came back from lala land saturday morning and the head ache still hasn't really left. Honestly, i know you aren't 15, stop re-living the high school days. fool, fool, fool. Who cares? I won't make the mistake of calling you out ever again, ok? I didn't mean for you to take it so personally. I say things like that rather liberally and will probably continue too.

Whats wrong with Yankees fan? My favorite member on this site is a yankees fan, one of my good friends is a yankees fan its not a big deal. Did a yankees fan kill your dog or something? Its a rivalry, not a war. *hugs george steinbrenner* *shakes hands with george castanza*

Calm down, Mr. I'm Auditioning to be a Moderator, take what I say with a grain of salt. Me calling you a fool isn't a personal thing at all. As someone who has had about 100 interactions with me on this board and others you should know that. Here, let me grab you a stool to help you off your high horse. Ah, sir, but you are forgetting one thing, Papelbon had already pitched more innings in this season than he had in one season ever in his life. The sox were trying to keep his innings down and had told him - and a couple others who had tired arms, Hansen being the only one that stands out to me - to stop throwing breaking pitches. So yeah, the guy relies heavily on his FB, but he will in a typical outing throw more breakers than he had last season in his call up. If you'll remember his innings were a concern going down the stretch, you might still be able to dig up articles on exactly what I'm talking about. I'll try but im rather busy. Putting Papelbon in AAA is absolutely a mistake. No two ways about it. I'm not terribly averse to the idea of having him in the BP, but I think he does deserve to be in the rotation. One starter will likely be traded, and Wells will be traded away for nothing if there isn't a reasonable deal out there for either Arroyo or Clement. Wells is close to burning his bridges and besides, I would rather have a 25 year old in the rotation to get some experience under his belt than give a soon-to-be 43 year old a spot for one more year before he retires. That to me, is a waste. side note- champ, you think beckett is our fourth starter? Or was that in no particular order... because he is certainly not a fourth starter on any team.

You're a fool. First off, Juan Gone has not earned any spot on the Red Sox as of yet, so hold your horses. I don't understand why people bag on papelbons secondary pitches. The guy has good secondary pitches. He is a power pitcher, they tend to rely heavily on the FB, and bringing up his ST thus far is a poor reason to throw out there. He worked on what he had to work on, got his innings and sat down. When he said he would come out and throw a good game, he came out and allowed only one hit. Yeah, essentially against a AAA team, but thats pretty impressive none the less. Papelbon should be in the rotation, forget AAA. Thats retarded. Sorry I don't have a cleaner response to this other than "You're a fool and thats retarded" but its really all I am scraping up here. You can't wait until a guy is 26 or 27 to let him get major league innings. The guy blew the minors up and now its his time to be a major leaguer. So he struggles, he is after all 25. Let him. He needs to be thrown into the fire at some point. Put him in the rotation, if he struggles take him out, if he keeps struggling limit his innings a little until he adjusts. This is how prospects are brought along. Then put him back into the fire of the rotation.

wow, i love wily mo pena. what a nice thing to see. I personally would prefer to keep arroyo and clement, but if I had to choose one I think I would actually rather give up arroyo. Wily Mo would be a huge addition.

Who pitched for the Sox today?

If anyone is interested, I've got a couple offers from a couple different people on A-rod and I will probably end up dealing him soon. If you want at him, send me an offer.

Haha i figured as much, but it was just worded funny so I had to say something.

Me being a nit picking jerk here (and probably post padding too, someone call the police :thumbdown ) but they both have good stats against opposing teams? Really? As opposed to their own team, right? Ok, sans stupid comment I actually have a question. Has anyone heard of a potential deal with Wells going to texas? I know they had scouts watching his outing last week and have interest in him. Does anyone know who might be offered? Ive looked and the only name i saw kicked around was a couple of minor leaguers I'd never heard of. Not that thats bad, I'd take a bag of balls and a foul-ball boy right now for wells.

I still don't know why everyone think Foulke's health is essential to a good season, because it isn't, but I admit it would be nice to have him healthy and get to keep Hansen in AAA for a year. Thats a luxury. I don't see why he can't bounce back. I wouldn't count him out at all, he is at least a gamer, and on guts alone will at least be half of what he was in 04.

Clement might be a first half pitcher, but I'm willing to take a chance on him. Wilson would not be a 30 - 100 guy if he were on the sox. He would hit against lefties mostly and not put up much numbers

I personally don't want to trade Clement after seeing him pitch so well in the spring. Hes throwing that sinker again and id like to give him a chance. I especially don't want to trade him for a minor piece like a platoon outfielder. Thats a bad idea. I wouldn't mind at all the Sox just dealing Wells off to the highest bidder and then going north as is. The sox only need a thirdbasemen (possibly if Lowell keeps taking a number 2 on all his AB's) but they'd have to overpay to get anything close to quality and since its not a priority right now since they do have a couple of in-house options, they will probably just wait to fix that if it becomes a problem. The most likely scenario is wells is dealt to a team in need of an SP for a low price.