seabeachfred

Did anyone show anything with the bat? I saw sports news of some other teams in Florida and they hit the ball pretty well. I wonder if Farrell is running another Boy Scout camp again this Spring. I hope not John. Get that team ready for the season so we get off to a good start this year. We have about 30 ST games to get into top shape. We need to do that. Remember, I predicted an AL East Title this season so the pressure is also on me too.

You're on call with the first part. One year is not a good overall sample especially for a rookie. My whole argument about Bogaerts was his 2014 performance and if you look it up he hit fine with no runners on base. He could easily reverse his poor hitting with RISP this season and would make my previous points obsolete. There is history behind this. I hate to use two Dodgers as an example but I live out here in So. Cal and now a lot of scouts, one of who is my daughter's Godfather. The two players were Bill Buckner and Raul Mondesi. Buckner was ripped early in his career in LA because he looked like he bulked up when men were on the bases but overcame that and became a pretty tough out with a couple more ye ars experience and he carried it over to other teams he played for including the Red Sox. Mondesi was a weird egg. He got his hits and RBI's but got them when his team were either way ahead or hopelessly behind. In a close game he was pretty inept and it followed him to Toronto and especially when he to the Yankees. I think Steinbrenner once described him as our "out man". We'll get a better picture of Xander this season.

I don't know who told you about how the teams were described but you are spot on with your analysis. Most of the mucky mucks with the fancy clothes and job titles who thought they were better than the rest of us seemed to gravitate towards the Yankees. Not everyone mind you, but pretty much on line. Brooklyn was the team of the neighborhood, the steel workers, construction personnel, barbers, plumbers and electricians, and, believe it or not you could often tell these types apart. One of the reasons I turned bitterly against the Dodgers when they moved to California is that they took on a Yankee persona. They refused to go by the "Bums" anymore, and rather than play in a baseball setting as the Giants did in SF they chose to play in a monstrosity of a football and track venue that was only good for baking clay in the heat of the summer. Those two Dodger teams bore no resemblance to one another and I am now so grateful that I was able to find the Red Sox while I was still young enough to enjoy it, and to tell the truth if the old Dodgers and Red Sox were to play today I would be rooting for the Sox.

Now that is an answer I can totally agree upon. See we can have a meeting of the minds. Sometimes, though, it seems to take teams a few years to determine that some of their players just can't cut it when the chips are down, pitchers and hitters both, and maybe the reason is the team has a big investment in that player and are loathe to give up on him.

You said it Prune Face.....CHOOSE WISELY!!!!! The Red Sox have to get his right. Moncada from all reports is a star in the making, the real deal. So let him develop his talents in the minors for two years and bring him up when he is 21-22 and put him in the lineup. As for Castillo, if he is not deemed ready to play 140 games send him down where he can play regularly. We need Betts in that lineup IMHO. He showed he could hit, we know he can run and we saw him develop into a decent outfielder. Victorino, if healthy, will win a spot because of who he is and how he plays and how he rises to the occasion. Surprise, though, might be Craig. He stunk to high heaven last summer but we have to see how he fares in ST. If he comes back to his previous best or near best, he is a solid outfielder, first baseman, third baseman who could also DH on occasion. There are a lot of story lines here and Farrell and Cherington's work is cut out for them. In the end they must pick the best players who give us the best chance to win and, therefore, have to choose wisely and not just base it on money.

Ogden, I lived in New York back then and I can tell you the Brooklyn Dodgers had a terrific baseball team---six pennants in ten years and two they lost the last game of the year. Yet they ere always looking up at the Yankees after the WS save for one year. Yes, you're right, the Yankees were the lords of baseball and as arrogant, conceited and uppity as you could imagine. Hell, their GM, George Weiss could lowball players in contract talks and say you'd make up for a lesser salary with your WS check.....and damn, if that didn't happen seemingly every year. From 1947-1964, the Yankees won the AL Pennant 15 years out of 18 and added 10 WS titles. I always got the impression that when the awards were going to be picked their guys would win because of the prestige and importance they commanded. I despised them.

Sorry but don't go Kimmi on me Kimmi. What I said not only goes for high school players but college and minor league players as well. Scouts will also tell you that some players handle pressure much better than others just as coaches will tell you that. With all due respect Kimmi, you never played baseball in competitive leagues and you sure as hell have never coached the game either. Those of us who have seen with our own eyes players who revel in key situations and those who would rather be anywhere but the plate in these pressure situations and you have them in the Big Leagues as well.

In this case I'd say you were on the right track. Minoso was definitely the better ballplayer that season, but the Yankees were the lords of baseball and who knows how many writers they had in their pockets and if some of them harbored some feelings towards black and foreigners. It wasn't so rare back then.

90% of that is very true User, but a little adjustment from time to time is certainly possible for a seasoned hitter. As for those "couch experts" you're talking about I have gone round after round with some of them (not use in this case) about their dissing of that RBI statistic. The fact is anyone with extensive coaching experience knows full well that there are players who simply cannot function as well with runners on base as they are when batting with no one on. As I told Kimmi, you ask 100 coaches with extensive coaching experiences and 90 of them will tell you the same thing. OTOH, there are those players who seem to have the knack and skill to come through when the chips are down and on this board we don't need any further proof that David Ortiz himself. Some can do it with RISP and some, like Xander Bogaerts last season, cannot. That holds true for dozens and dozens of players and we can talk BAPIP, OBP and walks vs strikeouts until the cows come home but someone has to bring those runners home and that is the rub. Some can do it better than others, some can do it a lot better than others and some have trouble up the gazoo doing it at all.

Well we will have to just agree to disagree on that one Kimmi. I think RBI's are a very telling baseball statistic. You can talk about OPB, BAPIP, walk ration and all that stuff but someone has to bring those runners home and I have insisted and will continue to insist that some players rise to the occasion under those circumstances and some do not . That is one reason I am very leery of Xander Bogaerts. As good a prospect as he's supposed to be he was absolutely horrible when coming to the plate with RISP. He hit a miserable 153 in such situations, and I have had the perspective of over 30 years in coaching and believe me, I saw that some players I had on my teams were literally shaking in their boots coming up with runners on, while there were those blue chippers who reveled to be up at the plate with the game on the line. You talk to 100 baseball coaches from high school on up and I will be you will get 90 of them to tell you the same thing I am.

His real name was Orestes "Minnie" Minoso and he broke in with the Cleveland Guardians in 1951 only to be quickly traded to the White Sox where he hit about 326 and should have gotten Rookie of the Year honors. As it was the writers gave that award to Yankee third baseman Gil McDougald who hit 20 points less and hit with less power and less run production. Go figure.

And here's what gets me Ted---and correct me if I'm wrong. Power is down nowadays. The era of 40+ home run hitters seems to be a thing of the past. You would think there would be more emphasis of going what I always called the "V" route when I was a coach. From the pitcher's box in a "V" shaped arc up the alleys in left and right center. More hitting room there and you can even wait a fraction longer on the ball to get a better look at it even though we talking about milliseconds. I think gap power is very underrated and I wish our guys take advantage of that this coming season.

I don't mind at all because with rare exceptions I don't give a rat's ass if someone thinks I act like a 12 year old. I know better and I have enough of a positive self image to have a very positive self image. As a fact, there is a lot of missives on this board that sounds as if it came from a teenager. It's a forum and we do have the right of self expression and freedom of speech. Read the Bill of Rights lately?

No quite Spud. Craig has shown that he can hit in the Bigs and did it over several seasons.......Bradley didn't hit in 2013 in a short span, didn't hit in ST in 2014, didn't hit a lick during the regular season, and didn't hit when they sent him down to Pawtucket (204). Overall he is under 200 for all that work. Big difference between the two.

If Craig returns to the semblance of a hitter he was before last season's pratfall, then I wouldn't be so anxious to get rid of him. In three previous seasons before 2014 he hit 407 with RISP, and our "wonderboy" Bogaerts hit 153 in that same capacity last season. Perhaps just to play it safety we ought to keep Alan around to be ready to bat for Bogey when and if he starts leaving runners on base by the carload as he did last season.

It's BALLwashers Kimmi---and whoever refers to them as that as a damn right to do it if that is their opinion. When someone calls someone here that name or buttkisser that is what's different. That is a personal affront to a colleague on this board. Pruney, Lizard and the Worm are in the public eye and not members of Talksox, therefore in my opinion it can open season on them if we desire to make it so.

Bravo to you Spud!!!!!! I don't like Prune Face, Larry Lizard or that worm Werner either. Somehow, whether we like it or not, we have to give them a little credit. We have three rings to show for their efforts. Hell, out here in So Cal, it seems every night the Dodger 24 Hour station keeps reminiscing about the 1988 title of theirs. Talk about sickening and pathetic.

Well I predicted an AL East title for the Red Sox this season so that ought to carry you over in a happy state for the weekend.

Right now you can hold to that idea and be on pretty solid ground because I lean that way too. I don't lean all the way you do since you tend to be a lot more pollyannish than I am, but I can tell you this.....if we have another one or two years like '12 and '14 in the next three or four years I think you had better revive your take on things. The mark would then be definitely on a very inept front office. Fortunately for both of us I don't think that's going to happen.

Then that's the guy. I knew he was associated with the Baltimore Orioles in some way. The guy was a wild man but on occasion could really pitch a gem when he had his control. On September 9, 1948 he pitched a no hitter at the Polo Grounds in a 2-0 Brooklyn victory over the Giants. Unfortunately he never could gain consistency and was out of baseball by 1951 or 52.

Yes Spitball, we have to move on.....but we must not forget how the Red Sox blew it and badly with that ridiculous low ball offer shitface Lucchino came out with last Spring. Of course I've come to the conclusion that maybe the front office didn't want to sign him after all and made a cursory offer they knew would be bettered and took the fifth. Still we need another top notch pitcher and my worry is if we wait until the TD we face two possibilities....one, we might be out of the race by then, or, two, the pitchers we covet might have already been resigned their their respective teams. Not all teams lowball their players as we sometimes do.

David Ortiz on his 12 years with the Red Sox========Three World Series Titles Red Sox without Papi those 12 seasons============NO World Series titles. Might be a good idea to at least understand that he has had to fight for every contract he has gotten since 2005 or 2006. The team owes him respect.

It will only be 15 years for me cp when August rolls around, but don't let anybody kid you....once you get Red Sox fever it becomes a itch you cannot scratch and it gets more intense with each passing year. My wife and I were comparing notes the other day. She knows that when I was a kid I rooted for the Brooklyn Dodgers, 11 years of it and got only one WS Title. I have three with the Red Sox in 14, a much better record, but four would be better. There is no way we will be as bad as we were last season and that should buoy us all up. I especially want to take care of our rivals in the division.

Well Ted, I predicted a division title and I'm not out on a limb but I will not go back on that. If three of our starters rise to the occasion and the bullpen is adequate we should have enough fire power from our lineup to prevail over what appears to be a weaker AL East this year. OTOH, that is the reason I want a trade for Hamels or Lee. We need that solid extra starter to put us over the top. I hope Ben is busy looking over those two or someone on the Nationals that could be the difference for us.

We should all be a little sympathetic to the guy. Addiction is a terrible thing and you're only one drink or one snort from going back to dependence. I also feel sorry for his wife and kids who are also suffering at this relapse by their breadwinner. A little compassion might be in order from where I sit, and be thankful none of us are drug or alcohol dependent.