seabeachfred

Garrett Jones Spitball. Did you say Garrett Jones? How about Lyle Overbay who we just signed? There's one for you. Can't play the outfield where we need a good LH hitter to platoon with Gomes, so we now are faced with a putrid choice between front office pet Daniel Nava, a one month wonder and a five month turd, ORRRRRRR, recent Red Sox reject Sweeney who equally a waste for us last year. And Werner wonders why the TV rating are cratering or Lucchino laments that Red Sox marketing is taking a hint.:angry::angry::angry:

Six months Dupree. I saw it on all the boards this afternoon----and once again another front office scheme blew up in their faces. In early 2011 many fans were demanding that Kalish stay with the Red Sox after his pretty impressive short stay with them in 2010, but the FOU went with injury prone Drew who, as usual, turned up lame while Ryans went down to Pawtucket and severely injured his shoulder and later his neck. Perhaps had he stayed in Boston he might not have gotten hurt anymore than Ellsbury did when they stupidly put him in LF to "save his legs" in early 2010 and was sent out of action when Beltre ran into him on a fly ball that Adrian had no damn business going after. I just wonder when Prune Face and Company are going to start making decisions that don't always blow up in their palsied faces and bring misery to loyal Red So fans. Maybe this year????????? :o:o:o:o:o:o

Doc---You or I or Sox Sport, 700 Hitter, Jung or anyone who has taken a critical look at the front office's machinizations should be guilty of heresy towards our team. Just the opposite in my opinion. Red Sox fans live and die with their team and now with the pink hats and fair weather bandwagon fans now in exile or hopefully with another team, real Sox fans are chomping at the bit in hopes of regaining our balance and starting to win games in bunches again. You know, I don't even mind if they say we have to rebuild some; I would be satisfied with that if we could get some consitent talk coming from the front office but all I hear is dissonant nonsense like Werner and his worry over TV ratings, Lucchino with his constant meddling and worrying about the Red Sox brand for marketing and promotional schemes, and Henry who spends as much time with his soccer team in England and his other endeavors and has been AWOL for the disasters that have hit our team the past three seasons. To me that is no way to run a team. What the hell happend to just going out there and a commitment to winning? I think a winning team would take care of the TV ratings and promotions, sales and marketing. I had to laugh when Werner said in the book that the ratings were down in 2010 because we didn't have sexy players. We were crappy that season and that's why the ratings were down. That, plus the plethora of injuries, most of which were misdiagnosed by our incomeptent medical staff. Give us a team that competes and the TV rating will go up, the sales of Red Sox gear will accelerate, and many of the fans will not have to walk the floor at night mumbling and asking themselves what's wrong with our team. :(:(:(:(:(

Kris, Lester pitched one of his best games last August against the Yankees, a seven-plus inning 4-1 victory and his lifetime record against them is still very good. You can be as big a supporter of Dempster as you want and I hope to hell he has a terrific year but he will not be pitching that first game unless two or three other pitchers are unable to go. And when he finally beats the Yankees the drinks are on me.

Sorry Kris......not Dempster. I think the Yankees would destroy him. I think it will be Lester because he is supposed to be our No. 1 man if it isn't Buchholz---and Lester has had better success against the Yankees. I might get hammered on this but I would consider Dubrount. He has pitched very well against the Yankees in the past, very well. He just might get us off to a 1-0 start, though in the end Farrell will go with Jon.

You keep getting back to Salty and I wonder why others aren't falling in line with you on that b ecause IMO you are spot on with that Ted. Our team's ERA seems to always be higher when he catches, but aside from that his arm is only average, he doesn't block balls very well, and his leadership qualities have been in question. Perhaps they expect him to become a 30+ home run hitter and with Varitek's careful help he might get better. It happened with Mike Piazza back in the 90's but this is not meant to be a comparison with that guy. Jarrod will never be the hitter that Mike was but it is possible the Red Sox think his bat could compensate for his defensive deficiecies. I don't. As much as I talk about having a good hitting team you must have a good man defensively behind the plate.

Some of our Red Sox colleague fans think some of us are spoiled and are asking for too much from the organization, but I think just the opposite. With arguably the most rabid fans in baseball ( not arguably with me, but others), I think we at the very least expect the team to compete for something of value every season whether it is a division title, the ALCS or the WS. What we got last season was a pile of Confederate money. You are right....the majority of us will not give the front office the benefit of the doubt until they restore the team to what it is supposed to be---a yearly perennial contender. As for the book, I am starting in on the year 2010 and we all know that wasn't a great year at all. I don't blame Francona for throwing some darts at the ownership. Wasn't it Lucchino and Company who threw Tito under the bus when he left? Turnabout is fair play. However, reading the book through 2009 there was no mea culpa for the disastrous decisions Theo and Tito fastened on the team, espcially in the starting rotation during those two crucial series with the Yankees in August. Those miserable decisions were never even mentioned.

Some pretty interesting and damn good posts on this thread today but when I cut through all the various and sundry opinions the thing I am left with is that Lester and Buchholz have to perform top notch this season. No excuses, no bitching and the umpires, no breaking down, but two solid pitching performances for the season. We know they've shown they can do it in the past, they're both still young and from what I hear both are healthy and raring to go. The piss-poor medical staff we've had the past few years has to keep them in shape and also do a better job than in the past. As for Lackey, I know the guy is a gamer and a tough competitor. Don't be surprised if he comes back and has a solid season. Someone mentioned Dempster taking care of the lower echelon teams and getting hammered by most of the good teams. Could be. I think Doubrant has to show he is not some crud and is the kind of pitcher the Red Sox envisioned him to be. All in all this whole season is up in the air and starting pitcher is where it is at. The team that has that can do very well. We have to get more from these guys than we did last year or we could be toast.

Soxfan, here's one for you. If Francona had won one more World Series with the Red Sox he would have been a serious candidate for the Hall of Fame IMO. If he pulls one off in Cleveland he could still make it. That doesn't change my opinion of him as a manager. Handling players, running the clubhouse, taking the bullet for his players and keeping the pressure and press off his players, there he was an excellent manager. As a field manager, not so good. Again that is my opinion.

Well that put a gallon of cold water on my previous upbeat post but, then again Jung, you could be right. We do have some real question marks and I was under the impression that Ortiz had a clean bill of health. If he is lame when the season begins we could be in some offensive trouble. I'm just hoping that after the better part of four seasons being a MASH unit we can have a season or two where we somewhat home free. That still puts us two in the hole but right now I'd take it .

Well it's always nice to feel wanted Spitball, but I want to be more than just entertaining. On this last set-to, my statement about Lars Anderson was taken totally out of context. My take was that he was ONCE considered our No. 1 prospect, not that he was when we traded Rizzo instead of him. We all know that by the end of 2010 he was pretty much a sunk cost. Anyway, that much is over. Hell, maybe down the road User and I can actually become friendly again. I also can't wait for the Super Bowl....both for the game and the fact that it finally ends football. I getting itchy for the real sport.

That's finer USER!!!! You won't argue with me anymore and I wont argue with you. We will have peace on the board. I will not answer to any of your posts---and I expect you not to answer to any of mine. Should work out.

I like your optimism SFF!!! It is not off the wall and is grounded is some sound precepts. You have to believe that after season after season of crushing injuries, a season collapse that left the team in tatters in "11 and a dysfuncitonal season the past year, that finally Dame Fortune might finally smile on us and give us a fightng chance without a ton of roadblocks in our way. Hell, we could even win the division if Lester and Buchholz would finally put together a complete and successful season. I don't think that Farrell is that great a manager but he should be a refreshing breath of fresh air after what went down last year and maybe with Francona's book out now instead of in April, maybe the tumult will die down and the excitement and upbeat feelings will return to Fenway Park. You have a good way of looking at it and I'm slowly coming around to that myself.

What a first class turd you are. Do you take stupid pills or were you just born that way. Did your poor mom have any children that lived? What the hell inspired you to say that I said they traded Rizzo instead of Anderson "because they valued Anderson more"? What a pile of garbage!!!! Rizzo was traded because new SD GM Jed Hoyer wanted him and not Anderson. The Red Sox had nothing to say about it if they wanted Gonzales. You got that lame brain? As far as insulting o ther posters I only insult you because you attack me first. I had some problems with one other person but we no longer communicate so that problem is solved. And as far as me insulting some player or the front office personnel what damn business is it of yours? You aren't suffering from it unless you are living up to your seedy reputation of a brown nose kiss butt to just about anything the front office say or does. If you also checked some facts you would know that in 2008 Anderson was listed as our No. 1 prospect, so I was right on that. I never said he was that by late 2010. Also keep this in mind....I offered you the chance to put me on ignore so we wouldn't have to keep having this verbal combat. You refused and have kept up the diatribes and I will give it to you back tit for tat. I think you are a first class brown nose crumb and it would be good for both of us not to communicate any more, but if you insist on keeping this thing going I will be more than willing to take you on. You see I love debating with a moron.

Right again Palodios!!!! It was in 2009 that the wheels starting falling off of Lar's career, but I still remember the front office saying this was nothing more than a hiccup and looked for better things from him the next season. I think down at Double AA he got off to decent start in 2010 and then promoted to Pawtucket fell apart. If they knew that he wasn't what he was cracked up be by then I'm sure their rosy picture they might have been painting would have gone over like a lead balloon with other teams because they had scouts around and they could see what the Red Sox took so long to see for themselves. Of course, this does nothing to address our pitching woes but if I can say this about Atchison, let me tell you that the guy was a real trooper for us. There were many instances when he had to suddenly become a long man when one our pitchers came up lame. I remember one such game in Boston where Nava hit that grand slam off of Blanton, and the other where I was present in San Francisco when Buchholz came up lame because he had forgotten how to slide. Atchison pitched well that day and won for us. I just think he deserved better than he got from us.

Softlaw, you have to keep in mind that this board has members who seemingly support the front office in just about anything it does, but you also have to understand that whether it was Tito or not, he did bring home two World Series Champions. I happen to think as you do as far as the strategy part is concerned. He left a lot to be desired there, refusing to move runners, hardly ever bunting, playing his station-to-station dullsville game that usually resulted in our leading the league in rally killing double plays. Yet in his own way her served his purpose because he kept the pressure off his players, kept the press at bay and away from the team, ran a good clubhouse and took bullets for his players. In a city like Boston that cannot be taken lightly. I also think he will fail in Cleveland just as he did in Philadelphia. You give Tito a solid team and he will do just fine and that also is not just a wasted canard. Some managers actually screw up good teams. Francona won't do that with a real good team, but he will not make an average team better either because his very philosphy to is wait to see things happen and not to force them to. Notice during the last four years how when he went against Joe Madden of the Rays how the Tampa Bay skipper ran rings around him.

The point Palodios that escaped User and might have escaped you is that Anderson was still talked about as a solid prospect and was at Pawtucket flailing away and falling fast as you say. Rizzo was on the rise and no doubt would have supplanted him had the RedSox not traded him. The problem was the Red Sox brass miserably overrated a player that even posters on the various and sundry boards knew was a rhinestone. The very fact that Lars himself said baseball was only ONE of his many interests had to be a red flag to anyone who heard that. When you are a young 20-21 year old if baseball is not your first and foremost passion you're not going to make it no matter what kind of ability you have. Anderson didn't really have the ability either and he still doesn't, and for that reason the Red Sox would be dumb to even consider resigning him. I edited my post to User and substituted the word jerk for the one I used. I never should have used it, but that guy really irritates me. I don't think he has agreed with one thing I've posted since I've been here. I had a similar joust with someone on another board but he left for elsewhere. I just hope User realizes I have no use for him and puts me on ignore.

It's bad enough you an insufferable know it all sawed off little jerk, but to be full of it besides, boy you take the cake. In 2008 Anderson was rated the No. 1 Red Sox prospect and I think for a few months in 2009 he was up there too. Next time try to make sure your brain is engaged before putting your big mouth in gear. Jed Hoyer knew that Anderson was overrated and Rizzo a comer and that is why he smartly chose him while we stayed stuck with "Lazy Lars" until he wasn't worth anymore as a ballplayer than you are as a man. Now get lost and do not communicate with me again. I want no part of you.

There is more to the Gonzales story that Palodios and you know that. On paper it looked like a great trade---a power hitting, slick fielding first baseman in his prime. The problem was twofold, though. Gonzales was reputed to be still not completely healthy, turned out to be a bad fit to play in Boston and was coveted by the Dodgers with their large Mexican population where Adrian would feel more comfortable, not to mention the opportunity to dump Beckett and Crawfordd's contracts. Yes, it cost us Anthony Rizzo, but the other two players, Casey Kelly and Ray Fuentes haven't done much to elicit the ringing of Bells. Fuentes has seriously regressed and Kelly has been rather ineffective in the minors. I wish we still had Rizzo on our team because he is a definite future stalwart and it speaks to the stupidity of the front office that almost until the end they considered "Lazy Lars" Anderson the superior first base prospect than Anthony. Jed Hoyer knew better.

First of all Palodios, I'm taking the position that Stanton may be on the trading block. That I do not know and the Marlins say that he isn't, but if they decide to say we're going all out to rebuild, then I say go for it. Giancarlo is 23 years old, not even close to entering his prime and already is a budding superstar. He is worth the chance-----just as long as we are able to hold onto at least two of the four young pitching prospects we're supposed to be high on. Holding onto three would even be better. Stanton is cost controlled for a few more years yet and we have the money saved by not going the FA route to resign him when the time comes. Players like this do not come along veruy often and look at how it worked for the Tigers. Cabrera got them to a WS and a couple of division titles already and he may lead them to more. Stanton could do something similar for us. I say go for it.

If you are going big at Fenway RSF305, splurge!!!!!!!! Go through Red Sox Destinations and have the time of your life---good hotel, meeting good people and making friends, a nice lunch and reception, meeting a couple of Red Sox players and having your picture taken with them, pretty good seats, etc. What's not to like. Look, I've gone this route nine or ten times and never have been disappointed. Besides, they put you within walking distance of Fenway and further Boston is a great walking town. Most everything is within walking distance. Go for it!!!!!!!

Again Laser, just as I said to 700 Hitter, go for it!!!!! I'm just a little hesitant not to include more than one pitching prospect of the three or four good ones that they tell us we have. If you notice, those six traded for Cabrera? None of them have been worth s*** up to this time. Miller is now with us and is still a stiff in my book with his lack of decent mechanics and Maybin has been a bust so far in San Diego. The rest of the that group could be lumped into WHO ARE THESE GUYS??????? Yes, you're right--Stanton is worth it.

Stanton is a unique talent and worth a stiff price. Your take of picking any three from the top shelf and one or two from the middle rows seems fine to me except for one possible snag. I just hope we are not too anxious to deal the pitching prospects. True, we have been s***** in developing good pitching in the minors but I keep hearing we have three or four potential studs Ted and I would like to be able to keep two or three of them. Again, we would not be having this part of the conversation if those assbites Lester and Buchholz were pitching up to their capabilities.

Station 13, you hit the nail on the head. We are all aware that Gomes eats lefthanders alive. We also know he can't field worth s*** and can't righties all that well either so we need a lefty outfielder to platoon with him. I can tell everyone but the rumpswabs that Nava is not that guy and no one should be naive enough to believe the front office when they peddle that kind of tripe. It would be the same story---a month or so hot streak and then the guy would suck wind for the rest of the season. He is a journeyman and nothing more. We need to make a trade for Garrett Jones if we can.

No argument there Sox Sport. Stanton is all that and more. However, are you willing to trade two or three top prospects like Boegarts, Bradley and Barnes for him? I assure you it will cost us a mint to get him. Yes, we will get a budding superstar but it will be expensive. Then there is the problem that if he is put on the block some other team might match and raise us a better offer. I would see if the guy was available and what the Marlins would want for him. They're not going anywhere for the next few years and I hear their farm system is pretty dried up. It could be a match if he becomes available, but just understand, he will not come cheaply.