seabeachfred

Well it looks like Garza will be traded to the Tigers.....another possibility for us down the crapper. Maholm is close to signing with the Cubs......yet another down the crapper while Cherries Jubilee plays the fiddle while Fenway burns. Oh, that's right we now have Cookie, Millbum and Hi Ho Silva. Right, that ought to get us to the playoffs this year. I think that while we are powerless to get Prune Face to open his wallet, I believe the Boston press and media are going to have to light a fire under Henry's feet. I can't believe how cheap we've become, but at the same time we are signing up Ortiz who most likely could fall apart right before our eyes this season.

LMFAO Pumpsie. I know there is a message in there somewhere but please allow me to let my sides mend and get these tears out of my eyes. My whole body is shaking. Hell of a story. My only qu estion is Francona back managing the team again. Only he could allow a score like that without going to the bullpen.

User, I get your definition of "depth" now, but we can't stash them all in the minors; some of them will have to be on the ML roster and I just don't feel comfortable with any of those names being in our rotation, or even in the bullpen for that matter. I would feel a helluva lot better if we could come up with a good No. 4 starter and another decent reliever. As for catching lightning in a bottle, the drinks would be on me if we could pull a Yankee rabbit out of the hat as they did last year.

Well User, I would like to have some pitchers who could get batters out on a pretty consistent basis, and, sorry, Miller and Silva and now Cook aren't the guys I want to take a chance on getting those guys out. Rainout vs the Yankees on Friday night; double header Saturday at Fenway. Lester goes out in the first game and beats the Yankees, 7-3. Chance for a sweep? Sorry, not with that sad band of stiffs. See my point? You want Millbum, Hi Ho Silva or Cookie going out there and getting us that sweep? Decent pitchers were on that board at 700 pointed out and now they are mostly gone. We haven't even solidified our regular rotation and that has to come first, then we can concentrate on the depth. Unless you think these guys are the answer for the back end of our rotation, which, in this case means that maybe my optimism for this season was misplaced. We went this route in 2009 remember? It worked for a time and then came all undone. Quality over quantity every time User. Get a good No. 4 man and then we can sign these kind of fill-ins and take our chances.

Well said Station 13, but let's face it, arguing that Malholm is a better bet than stiffs like Bowden, Cook and Hi Ho Silva is such a no brainer that I thought you might even be embarrassed to say it, but glad you did. Now Maholm is not the answer to a maiden's prayer but he brings a hell of a lot more to the table than those other guys. Cook would have to undergo a complete metamorphasis to return to what he was in 2008, Hi Ho couldn't do that in a decade, and poor Bowden seems to be just an effective AAA pitcher who g ets in over his head when facing ML batters---sad to say. I could again mention Andrew Miller but my breakfast is still gurgling in my stomach and don't want to take a chance of retching. BTW, do you know how much Maholm wants to sign?

A little harsh my friend but very close to the absolute truth. Bowden might still be salvagable even though I wouldn't put money on it. Now if you were talking about Andrew Miller or Hi Ho Silva we'd really be simpatico. Why they were signed flies right over my head. Miller sucks pure and simple. He has little control and when he lets up and lays it in it is Red Sox carnage. Hi Ho is the starter's version of Snacks Jenks, unless he has lost a lot of weight lately, but I doubt if it would do much for his pitching. His last couple of years proves that. Foulke did have a terrific changeup and that made his average fastball look faster than it was. As we know pitching is mainly throwing the hitter's timing off. Foulke was good at that. These other guys, and maybe Cook is now in this ensemble, the only timing in their case is the batter timing one of their lame pitches and belting it all over the ballpark.

Cook is worth a gamble if that is all it was.....a gamble. When I saw his 3-11 and 6+ ERA last season I thought this might be our RH version of Andrew Miller, who is a real bum. You know, though, we need a little of that damn Yankee luck this season in the pitching department if this is what we can expect from the front office. Last year the pinstrippers signed Colon and Garcia and hit the jackpot while some of our expensive prima donnas like Dice K and Lackey s*** the bed. To be honest, I don't think we've caught lightning in a bottle with Cook and the immortal Hi Ho Silva, but we can all hope. Now if the team will only get serious and get us something better than these batting practice pitchers.

No matter how any of us slice it we have to control the opponents running game better this season and there has to be more emphasis to keep them from running wild on us as well as pitching effectively to keep more runners off the bases. After all we were 9th in team ERA in the AL and no matter how you slice that too, it is not a good finish for us. Shoppach could help in that regard now that Varitek is hopefully gone (keeping my fingers crossed on that), and there should be less running because hopefully Wakefield will be gone as well. It always was stormy weather when he was on the mound because it looked like the old Penn Relays when he took the hill. I think BV will stress that this Spring because he knows he has to.

Good discussions today gang. I was taken to the woodshed a couple of times but that's what forums are for anyway. It is stimulating to exchange ideas and opinions and there is certainly a variety of them around here. Here's hoping we sign a pitcher this week that can win in Boston. I don't know if it will be by the FA method or a trade and if it's the latter I sure as hell hope that we are able to keep our near ready prospects like Middlebrooks, Lavarnway and Kalish. See you tomorrow.

Hey Spitball, if Cook can throw like he did in the 4th game of the 2007 WS I might find some enthusiasm, but I don't think he will and that is most likely why he was available. I'm ok with it too because you never know, but I'm not about to write in for WS tickets just yet. I think we can do a lot better than Cook.

Right Station 13 and if you want to know why just watch his delivery and mechanics. Now you tell me how he can get movement on his fastball and snap on his curve with a delivery like that. I would have suggested he come more three quarter and develop a good slurve from the three-quarter delivery point. For sure I would have suggested teaching him the change-up, which, by the way, was Foulke's money pitch. It was hellacious and it made his fastball seem a couple of yards faster. Sometime watch his strikeout of Tony Clark for the last out in the th game of the 2004 ALCS. Two on, two out, and on a three and two count he simply blows Clark away. He could do that because his change made his fastball seem faster than it was. Bowden doesn't seem to have any of that so what can we really expect. Now I don't want to go off the deep end, but I put a lot of blame for this on former pitching coach John Farrell. First of all he should have seen that Michael needed another pitch and some realignment of his mechanics and he didn't. Then, again, I think Farrell was vastly overrated as a pitching coach so there is no surprise there.

When I heard Gammons say that on Baseball Tonight back in ST 2008 I nearly did handstands. Here we were coming of a WS Title, we had some real terrific young players really standing out like Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Papelbon and Lester and I hear Gammons say something like that? To be honest, when I saw him pitch on the computer in 2007 I was taken back by his mechanics but the guy was big and looked strong. You know, though, I really would like to see this guy stick for us and do a decent job in the bullpen. There is just something about that young man that I like.

Elk, I just said the same thing to 700 in my most recent post. Now I will be the first to tell anyone that I am not the pitching guru of the ages by any means, but did the Red Sox really think Michael could get away with pitching with that strange and barfy delivery? I am really surprised and a little shocked that they never tried to alter his mechanics. They are very bad. :thumbdown:thumbdown:thumbdown:thumbdown

SoxSport, by now you and others know pretty well that I didn't think much of Francona as a field manager. He was too predictable and his ultra conservative game plans were so easy to predict and defend against, but check this out. If we had won the World Series last fall it would have been three for Tito and that would have made him a heavy favorite for a Hall of Fame Induction, and you know what else? I would have been yelling the loudest for his induction despite my lack of enthusiasm for the guy. Winning trumps all, however, but since he is no longer with us I won't have to wish a guy the HOF when as a manager he was clearly out of his element.......in my opinion.

One of the reasons I think we will actually be better this year is that Francona is no longer in the dugout keeping our runners glued to the bases only to be wiped out by the enormous amount of double plays we always seemed to hit into. Add his miserable field managing and we may be looking at 10-12 more wins this coming season with a good field manager in the dugout and one that will take it to the opposition instead of that miserable and frustrating station-to-station mantra that we've been in. Other teams will not be able to sit back and wait for the inevitable ground ball for the DP, it will have to keep their eyes open for anything to go down because with BV at the helm it will our turn to take it to the defense.. I think the contrast this year with be very different.

I would certainly put Andrew Miller in that group as well. Except for one game last season he was pure trash and I don't know how a guy could go backwards so fast and so far as Bowden. In early 2008 Peter Gammons was calling him the best pitcher in the minor leagues---the best of any team. Well what the hell happened to him? I know Gammons is full of s*** sometimes but Bowden was rated highly by most scouts and was in every trade talk the Sox were involved in. Now we couldn't get more than a glass of lemonade for him.:thumbdown:thumbdown:thumbdown:thumbdown

I'm trying my best to keep the faith and encouraging others to do the same because for all of my bluster and some of my nasty diatribes directed at the front office you will notice that I take an upbeat mindset for this year if we will only make the additions that are needed. This is not to take anythint away from the Yankees, Rays, Jays and O's, but all of them are either getting old too, or lack pitching, or lack hitting or lack big game experience. We might not have a world beater this season but we could win the AL East if we upgrade properly and that would be a helluva improvement over our past four winlesss years.B)B)B)B)

Wishing all of you out there a happy Sunday and an enjoyable day of watchin football or basketball and knowing nothing with the Red Sox is likely to happen today. I do have a question for you guys and gals though. Do you think that this coming week we will finally sign a pitcher? I think the time may be right and except for Madson I don't think those asking prices are going down any time soon. And who fits the bill best for us? I no longer have a favorite. Who'se yours?????

Hey guys, my opinion was NOT based on any absolutist beliefs. I've read over the years that the Red Sox stressed pitching to the batter and not worrying so much about the runners. The problem comes in when you have pitchers whose delivery to home plate is slower than normal. A slide step could throw a pitcher off but if he practices it there shouldn't be much of a dropoff in effectiveness. In my coaching days I always taught both the slide step and the modified short kick delivery. The key is to keep runners out of scoring position, and, yes, you don't have to put the on in the first place but that is better said than done. If amateur pitchers can pick up those variations so should well paid and more athletic and talented Major Leaguers. Besides, as 700 pointed out, for years we have been near the bottom in the league at throwing out runners. Those deficiencies can show up over a long season and could cost us games that me might otherwise win. I hope Valentine decides to work better at keeping those damn opposing runners from having a track meet at our expense. Didn't someone steal seven or eight bases on us in one game a couple of years ago? No excuse for that, but none whatever.

Just did VA---and I'm going to try my damndest to get along with you from here on in.