seabeachfred

Insufferable whining to you Scarlett. To some of us your pollyanna attitude reeks of Alice in Wonderland unreality, but that's fine. I can read it and roll my eyes, but you have a real intolerance for anything that sounds even the least negative. Just put me on ignore as you said you would and be done with it. The 2011 season stunk. That's my opinion. The off season so far as been a disappointment. That's my opinion. We are weaker now than we were at the end of last season. That's my opinion. We haven't upgraded to the point of being a serious contender for any kind of title next season. That's also my opinion. I root just as hard for the Red Sox as you do and I would bet I take losses at the very least as hard as you do, and will keep rooting for the Sox with all my emotion and energy, but I'll be damned if I will keep quiet if I feel the front office is trying to skinflint their way in trying now to win on the cheap. Because you never win on the cheap.

I guess you said it better than I did 700. There isn't much positive to talk about right now and that's what I was saying but there are a few people who simply don't want to hear anything negative and refuse the right of people to express a different point of view. One person says we need to wait to see what transpires. Fine!!!! We've waited for the better part of three months and we still are weaker than when the season ended. That's a fact, and yet Scarlett and some others rail and rant at anyone who brings that up. This is what the Hot Stove League season is all about and we should all be able to express outselves without being told we're negative and not real Red Sox fans. I will cheer with the best of them if and when we come up to speed and are ready to take on all comers. Right now we are not and I have the right to wonder if we are going to be when the trucks arrive in February.

Maybe we should all just respect the rights of others to express their opinons without getting all huffy about it. I don't expect total agreement and all that would do would make this an echo chamber. Some of us are more vocal than others. There were some posters making critical remarks before our bunch came back on board. At any rate, see you all later. I want to tune into the GOP Debate, or is being an ardent and passionate Republican cause for criticism as well?

Well Jacoby, we didn't make the playoffs this year in the biggest collapse in regular season Major League history, we didn't make it in 2010, and in 2009 we made a cameo appearance and were swept in the ALDS. So if you're fine with missing out again next year it will be four miserable seasons in a row. It may be acceptable to you and to Scarlett O'Hara but it's not acceptable to a lot of us. Quality players cost money and trying the reclamation route won't work any better than it did in 2009. I do not accept the Red Sox not being in the Playoffs. We are a big value team with plenty of money and we should be able to spend what's needed to win, or at least spend it wisely.

Anyone who believes the Red Sox have done what is needed to get back to the top next year is living in a dream world. Right now we are worse off than we were at the end of the 2011 season and I would like to see you VA or my fellow Dago buddy or anyone else tell me we are not. Last season was a total embarrassment for the Red Sox and should be for their fans. It's no fun bitching about it but it is equally frustrating to see what happened and the little we've done to rectify it. Killing one of the messengers isn't going to get the job done, and if we don't spend the money to get that closer, that solid starting pitcher and that RH hitting outfielder we need so badly, we can all sit back and watch other teams in October. I don't want that and neither should you or anyone else.

Hey Reck, you couldn't still be bitter at how my Lakers took your Celtics down two seasons ago, could you? Well I didn't like it any better in '08 when the roles were reversed. I still think Dwight Howard wants to play in Los Angeles and I still believe we will get him. If the Magic think they can talk him into staying there they're bigger fools than the Cavs were believing that Lebron was in Cleveland for the long haul as well. The LA Lakers will survive and continue to prosper but I would start worrying about your Celtics. They are even older than the Lakers, don't have any real young talent worth talking about and their young buck Rondo seems like an *******. Well, it may be a few years before we meet again in the NBA Finals.

Please wake up Emmz. Yes, we spent some big money last off season and a big one with Lackey the season before, but I don't call Punto, Melancon, Albers and Miller spending big bucks to upgrade the team. Right now we are worse off than last y ear. We need a quality starting pitcher and we haven't gottten one. We need a RH hitting outfielder very badly and we haven't gotten one. We need a knock out closer and at last check haven't gotten that either. We've been spending peanuts this winter and the only expenditure of funds was for resigning a DH who can't play defense and who by his signing has blocked our best RH power prospect for at least another year, and has stopped in its tracks the money we need to get the upgrades we need. Those are not suppositions, they are not bitching for bitching sake, they are FACTS!!!!!!!!!!!

Give me time and I'll think of something User. Let's be frank; we haven't really done much to upgrade the team this winter. We replaced our closer with an inferior replacement, we still don't have that fourth starting pitcher we need so badly, our bullpen is still very imcomplete, and we still need another RH hitting outfielder. I think if you look at it carefully and see how little we've done you would conclude there is a lot in which I or others can bitch about. Get me a quality starting pitcher, get me a RH hitting outfielder not named McDonald, get me a legitimate closer and you'll see the bitching stop lickity split.

I'm in agreement with you there Muggah and furthermore ever since Prune Face married his pastry tart three years ago he has had very little interest in his team. He is leaving Valentine a palsied hand with which to deal with next season. The sooner he puts the team up for sale the better. The last three years have been a pill, and now I'm hearing from our bumbling GM that he is considering a role for Varitek. What the hell does that mean? The guy is through and I thought with the signing of Shoppach that we were finally rid of the guy, even if it was three years too late.

Cuddyer would be ideal for the Red Sox. We are too damn lefthanded and it seems like there are more and more left handed pitchers coming into the American League every year. To have a lineup dominated by lefties in a park tailormade for right handed hitters is ridiculous. Cuddyer eats lefties alive, is very versatile and would give our lineup some real balance. I just can't believe the Red Sox have become that damned cheap.

Shaping up 700? Shaping up as what. I don't exactly get all warm and fuzzy with the likes of Jenks, Melancon, Albers and Morales. Sure, they may end up a pretty good foursome but nothing in their recent past makes me want to do headstands. The closer's job looks like it could end up a closer-by-committee, that is if the Red Sox didn't learn from that 2003 debacle that cost us many early season games and the AL East that year. Melancon did well for Houston but that was Houston and the AL East is a whole different ballgame. Jenks was nothing more than a overstuffed porker last season, Albers faded fast in clutch time and Morales was always worth a trip to the bathroom. I will say we are deeper now than before but I still would like to see Bard and Aceves out there in the pen and us going for a good starting pitcher. Maybe put Aceves in the rotation if that means we could avoid signing Wakefield again. I want to make that clear....No Wakefield.

Please 700, don't compare him to Willie Harris or I'll break out in hives. Punto is a scrapper but he is of limited ability. Perhaps he's more than the sum of his parts; there are players like that you know. Seems our problem was just the opposite; we had guys who were less than the sum of their parts and it all came crashing down in September. As for Melancon I know he did well for Houston with 20 saves in 25 chances but that was Houston. He didn't seem to do all that well when exposed to the pressure of Ne York so I'll wait and see what he does under the equally pressurized atmospher in Boston. I hope we got something good here. We'll see.

We were talking about pitchers Emmz. Maybe I should have made that clearer. However, as inept as Cherington seems to be perhaps he could use a little hint here and there, and maybe looking for some Bel types would actually help him get his rear end off the ground.

Saunders pitched very well in most of his outings at Fenway Park and I would certainly give him a shot. I think he might be a very pleasant surprise. Grab him and send Miller to work on a farm somewhere in Indiana.

If the Red Sox are dumb enough to trade Lavarnsway they sure as hell better get a real No. 1 or 2 pitcher that can pitch in Boston and in the AL East or it will go down as another disaster by our less than competent front office. Ryan is a budding star. The guy has a cannon for an arm, can throw runners out, something Varitek couldn't do anymore and better at it than Satalmacchia. He also has all the ability to become a solid right handed power hitter for us for a long time. It is just s***** that we are going to waste his development time by giving him the seasoning he doesn't need. This is the prime reason I thought that s igning Ortiz again was absolutely stupid.

No, you don't have to name off the low risk/high reward guys that have paid off in the last decade----for other teams, but I would like you to name those types that have paid off for us? I remember Penny and Smoltz and the disasters they turned out to be. Low risk/high reward was a canard every time Epstein tried that route and I'm not sure it would work any better with that mediocrity who took his place.

Hanley Ramirez has a lot of talent and has produced in the past, but he is a real head case and more interested in Hanley than his team. With him, it's me me me me!!!!!! Do we want to even risk someone like this on a team that badly needs to reinvent itself as a "all for one, one for all" as we saw in '04 and '07? I know I dont. Let Ramirez stay where he's at. We have enough morale problems as it is for Bobby to sort through. We don't need another one. Besides, Scutaro is a good team player and one of the very few Red Sox players who didnt crash with the team last September.

It would be swell if your turn out to be right SoxSport because we sure could use a starter like Darvish or a closer like Madson, but where is the money to sign these guys going to come from? From every indication we've seen and heard it looks like Henry is tightening his purse with such force that when he opens it moths will fly out. Still it would be nice to see one of these, or maybe both in Red Sox red next season. Right now, though, just call me a doubting Thomas on this one.

Many of us wouldn't mind looking silly if the Red Sox had a good season in 2012 if by a good season you mean a division title and or a long trip in the Playoffs, but very few of us are feeling too high right now since just about nothing has been done to upgrade the team and signing Ortiz took much of the cash we would need to add those few pieces you're talking about. How about quite a few pieces like a RH hitting outfielder, a closer, a solid starting pitcher and a couple of shut down relievers. Ain't gonna happen unless Henry reopens his wallet or suddenly Cherington gets his head on right and starts to make some good trades. In our favor is that both the Yankees and Rays haven't upgraded either but neither one of them had the collapse we did at the end of the season. At least they went off on somewhat of a high while we're still trying to dig out of that debacle called last September.

I still put all this on Cheringpuke. He is the GM and he simply could have used his brain and said NO to arbitration for Ortiz simply on the basis that he would accept it. There are at least six or seven people on this board who said there was no real market for Papi since teams are using the DH to rest regulars and have roving people in that spot. If we knew that how come bumbling Ben didn't? It is one reason I thought that when FrancoMa and Epstein were sent packing we would go out and get a new GM with no connection to the old Ancien Regime. Instead they put a retread in the position, a person who was passed over before so Theo could get the job. Some around here still believe there will be significant movement soon, but right now all we know is the Bozo Ben moves like a tortoise when things need to be done. Hell, it took two months to name a manager, we still don't have a pitching coach and we haven't upgraded our team at all. And what about the compensation issue for Theo? That closing in on three months and still nothing. I said on another board back in 2009 that we would never win anything again with FrancoMa and Epstein in control and in the last three y ears before their departure a lot people agreed with me on that. Right now it seems it would be a miracle if we ever won anything with Cherington running the show. He gives every indication that he is in way over his head and is fast looking like a complete incompentent.

Well Commenter, you hit Meh's suggestions pretty hard and you might find the one I put down a little less to your liking as well. Well it's your turn---and, please, believe it that I do NOT mean that sarcastically. This is the time of year we can pretend to me GM's and apparently you have some ideas and I would like to hear your suggestions. I get the impression that while a few of us suggest patience and caution there are a lot of us who want to see some action from our semi-comatose GM. So, it's your turn. What would you do?