MANNYHOF24

Well looks like middlebrooks rebroke his right wrist. Jesus, f*** this. Edit- looks like it was his right wrist, he broke his left wrist last year. Why can't our players ever stay healthy #ihatemylife #anyonewanttobuymytickets, #gobruins

Can someone give me a scouting report on Devon Marreo at SS? What if we shift boegarts to 3B, middlebrooks to 1B put Marrero at SS and Pedy at second for the next 5-10 years. What is the possibility of this happening?

I bet Buchholz misses the first month of the season

Just finished the book, loved it. Reading the chapters from 04 to 08 made me so nostalgic for good baseball.

Oops this thread already exists, my bad.

Now that the lineup, rotation and bullpen appear to be set, it's time to get out the crystal ball and make some predictions about how the season will play out. Season outlook: I think the new and improved Red Sox bullpen is going to go along ways in covering up some of the weakness at the end of our rotation. I am feeling optimistic about the team right now, and believe question marks will swing in our favor this year. 1. Red Sox will win 94 games and win the AL east in a close race with the Blue Jays. 2. Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz will return to form and both be in the top 10 in CY young voting. 3. John Lackey is going to pitch 200 innings, win 13-15 games and have an ERA slightly under 4. (3.95) 4. Ryan Dempster struggles early, pitches well as the season moves along, wins 12 games , 200 innings 4.30 ERA 5. Doubront takes steps forward goes 15-10 with a 4.10 ERA. 6. Ellsbury has huge MVP year, bats .320 with 23 HRS, 115 runs scored and 88 driven in. 7. Pedroia bats over .300 hits 20 homeruns and drives in 85 runs. 8. Ortiz takes a step back, still hits 25 homeruns batting .280 with 95 RBI's. 9. Napoli plays 145 games hits .275 with 35 homeruns (20 over the green monster) 10. Stephen Drew hits .290 with 14 homers and plays a solid SS 11. Middlebrooks cracks 30 homers and drives in 100 runs, (his first of many 30 and 100 seasons) 12. Victorino is somewhere between the allstar and terrible player he was last year, 13. Salty will be traded for pitching help at some point this season. 14. John Farrell returns Boston baseball to the way it should be, the circus like atmosphere filled with bafoon managers and overpaid egotistical *******s is completely gone, and we can finally enjoy our baseball team again after 3 years of misery. 15. Red Sox will have best bullpen in baseball, which turns out to be a huge reason why the Red Sox rebound this season.

How Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester go is going to determine how successful the staff is. What I am hoping is that Lester can put up 16-18 wins with a 3.50 ERA and 220 innings. I am also hoping that Buchholz can put up a sub 3 ERA with 15-17 wins. If those two things happen, I believe the back of the rotation will be good enough to get the Red Sox to the playoffs.

Sounds like Napoli will agree to 1 year deal. I would love that deal.

I bet the Dodgers will win 89 games and make the second Wild Card. I still see San Fran as the team to beat, especially if TL bounces back.

In this day and age of reporting, we would have heard something. This deal is getting done.

Even if the Sox sign Napoli, it's taken so long and so much has been raised about his hip that I won't even be remotely excited about this move.

Celtics still second most talented team in the East, IMO. Terrible start, but with Bradley back the team is starting to find it's identity. I feel like they are easily the deepest team in the conference. Pierce and Garnett have showed no signs of slowing, the role players will find their consistency at some point. The Knicks had nothing against the Celtics defense in the second half of tonight's game. They live and die by the three point shot, which spells death against good teams eventually.

Sanchez is a mediocre pitcher with less upside then Lester or Buchholz. They wouldnt wise not to invest Pedro Martinez money over 5 years. I'm sorry I think the best option for 2013 is to hope they hit that upside. It's not unreasonable o think that they will. I just feel like there was no real number 1 starter out there that would have fulfilled your desires.

This is such a ******** topic...from 2008 to 2011 Lester's highest ERA at Fenway was 3.67. He had two years with a sub 3 era. 2012 is an aberration for Lester until he proves otherwise. Also he had one start where he gave up 12 runs in 3 innings. That skews his stats pretty badly.

Ellsbury Pedroia Ortiz Napoli WMB Victorino Gomes/Kalish Lavs/Salty/Ross Drew Not too bad... I really think we ought to push for Swisher or Ross, and package Salty, Kalish, Iggy and more for a quality arm. I really hope that's the plan.

I want marcum... We are also still probably going to deal Salty. I doubt out pitching is set.

I have faith he will, from May 30th on he pitched close to Ace level. The big question for me is Lester. If he can somehow some way regain his 2009-2010 form, the rotation could actually be very good.

If he sox add another quality starter, get swisher and possibly sign Stephen drew I think that's a contending team. It also gives us a ton of depth and versatility. CF. jacoby Ellsbury 2B Dustin pedroia DH David Ortiz 1B Napoli/swisher 3b middlebrooks LF swisher/Gomes Rf victorino C salty/lavs/Ross/Napoli Ss-drew Lester Sanchez Buchholz Dempster Lackey

Lester Buchholz Dempster Doubront Lackey I still think we should trade for an upgrade over Doubront. I would still go hard after Sanchez

Sox sign Dempster 2 years 26.5 million.

Glad we didn't go 5 years. Hopefully we can still have a chance at Swisher.

Lord Snow for prez

That's not the question though...

Count of hands, who would rather have had Youk at first for one year 12 million rather than Napoli for 3 years and 39 million?

The Red Sox can support a 170 million dollar payroll. They are not even close to done yet. Can't you wait and see Ben's full plan play out before you make rash judgements?