seabeachfred

We have good arms in our system Vinny but most are not ready yet--unless, that is, someone blows us away in Spring Training, guys like Bard, Bowden, Bucholz, the "B" Boys if you will. I'll be looking for it when I watch them in Spring Training the last week in March down in Florida. The fact, is , however, most of us Red Sox fans do not want to risk the front office being tempted to make Papelbon the closer again because it would be a risk to his career. He is a starting pitcher who was forced into it this past season, and though he did very well, his shoulder gave out. So as of right now we don't have a closer. The Dodgers hit gold last year, too, with Takashi Saito, but teams usually don't find clovers like that two years in a row. Gonzales??? Class act, class guy and he will do well for the Dodgers, but he is no Drew. I'm surprised you also like the Red Sox. A lot of your friends on that other shitboard think it impossible to root for teams in different leagues. Have they gotten on your case for that yet? Anyway, all we can do is wait until the season and see how this plays out. Maybe I'll even see you at a Giants-Dodgers game next season. I sure as hell know I won't see you at a Red Sox game. Have a nice day Vinny. I'll give you this. You seem to know your baseball, which is more than I can say for some of your lodge brothers.

Well it is obvious some people are going to have egg on their faces sometime late next year on the Pedroia issue, but I'm saying right now it won't be the pro-Dustin camp. Schill brought up a good point in that Loretta was hitting around 205 for the first six weeks of the season and Goonzales even a lot worse and we seemed to be doing ok. Well the hitless wonder is gone and Loretta won't be back from all reports and taking their place is Lugo who will hit better than Gonzo did with a blindfold on, and Pedroia will certainly hit better than 205 during that stretch. The kid can play, needs an opportunity to show it. He has nothing more to prove down at Pawtucket where he his 305 after missing all of Spring Training because of an injury and getting off to a miserable start in the IL. He is ready.

Jackson, that's a helluva stat to know. For me I judge a pitcher as to how he does against the Yankees. That is one reason I was never a Arroyo fan; that guy used to get eaten alive by your team. Otsuka is that bad against your boys, then, in my opinion we have to shitcan any idea of getting this guy. Now try telling Theo that; he has a hell of a lot more influence over who we get than I do.

Coco, our friend Jackson gave a pretty good scouting report on our starting rotation, but I think he was a wee bit on the underestimating side. I think we will have four really solid starters in Schill, Paps, Beck and Dice K. Wakefield ought to snap back and be better than last year, but all this is on paper. They have to do on the field. In the bullpen we are not full of dogshits as Jack said, but we do have some areas of manure in it and we must clean out the barn and make sure those types aren't going to be in there when the chips are down. There are numerous places we can go for a closer----Washington, Oakland, Pittsburgh to name three. If the Yankees are going to give Cabrera for get Gonzales, and not a sure thing as of yet, they will be depleting their depth in the outfield and with Damon and Matsui out there it isn't exactly a haven for solid defense. Take that and the error prone A-Rod, and the sloppy Cano at second and the terrible Giambroids at first and you have the making of the type of colander I can use to drain the spaghetti I like to cook three times a week. Take it from me, my pal Jackson has a lot to worry about on his end.

Coco, just registered for your other website. Hope they like a old war horse on that board and one who is sometimes crazier than a loon over his Red Sox. Thanks again. :D

Friends, I'll be the first to admit that I certainly don't know it all, and, believe me, I have made some doozies in the past. However, I will go out on a limb with Pedroia. Give that young man a solid spring of about 40-50 at bats and let him settle in and we won't have to bring this topic up again. Listen to this. He missed ALL of ST last season and wasn't in the lineup at Pawtucket until the second week of the season, and rusty as hell got off to a slow start----in the 220's and 230's. Once he got his rust away he tore through the league and actually raised his average to 305. His fielding was excellent as well. He doesn't need anymore seasoning. He has hit at the A, AA and AAA level. He has nothing more to prove down there and we would be doing a diservice to the kid to send him back down and give a two year flop like Giles a shot to take over second for the next two years. We let Loretta go and he's better than Giles in my book. Dustin's time is now. Let him play and let him show what a good ballplayer he is going to be. Again, I could be wrong, but I will bet anyone on it. I am that confident of this kid. Remember, I have seen him perform and perform well.

700, yes I am still a little on a high and you read me right, but everyone who is dissing Pedroia is making a terrible mistake in my mind. He came up last August when we were in a rash of injured players but instead of playing him steady he was yanked out of the lineup and back in, put in the ninth hole, and moved into the second hole by our hairbrained manager. Look I have seen this kid play a lot of ball and if my experience as a bird dog for three scouts means anything at all, take it from me, this kid can play. He can hit, field, and bring an intensity to the team that is badly needed. He must be given the job. He will not lose it. Let Giles and his roids go somewhere else. He is starting to resemble Brett Boone in too many many to make me want to have him around. Anyway, thanks to those of you are Pedroia fans. I really believe we will be proven right and then some.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Sorry 700, but backup plan my ass. Pedroia is ready and sometimes you have to shoot the craps and take a flyer on a young players. All teams do it but we seem to be very reluctant to. Well this is the time we have to do. It worked with Youk after the team deeked him around for two years, it will work with Pedroia and it will work with Ellsbury in 2008. What the hell to we have a farms system for anyway if we are just going to give our young players away for veteran trash. We need a closer. We don't need a second baseman, and I wish those who keep harping on Giles or signing some free agent would do me a favor and shut up. Dustin is going to be a solid player for us. Make book on it.:thumbsup:

This is getting to sound like the same old Red Sox s***; sign young players and then get rid of them or let them rot in the minors and keep patching patching and patching. Pedroia deserves a full shot at second and he must have it. Giles was absolutely crappy this year and really hasn't been good for the last two. We are starting to act like the Yankees. We talk of our prospects but don't want to let them have a chance. We kept dicking Youk around for two years before we gave him his chance. Let someone else have Giles. Pedroia is our second baseman and I will bet you he will do a good job for us. The kid can play; I have seen him play; I like the way he plays; he has been successful every step he has taken in pro ball. Leave the kid alone. Pardon me but screw Giles.

Coco, we did trade for the Angels' Brendon Donnelly who was 6-0 this past season. My only worry is that at times he didn't look like the pitcher he was the previous two or three years. I hope we didn't get him on the downward slide. If he pitches as he did most of his Angels career we will be in good shape. However, he is not a closer, just a very good seventh inning pitcher. As for J.C. Romero, he is a pile of s***, just as he was for the Twins with his rotten attitude, he was that way with the Angels last year. He was also wild most of the time and Scioscia had his fill of him. He is a disaster waiting to happen.:thumbdown :thumbdown :thumbdown :thumbdown

Well shock yourself for a surprise Vinny. Drew played 146 games for your Dodgers last year and could have played more had Grady not worried about his health and sat him a few times when he could have and should have played. He had played just about every game in 2005 when he got hit with that pitch, something that could happen to anybody, and he played a full season for the Braves in 2004, hitting 305, 31, and 93. Drew will have good backup with Big Papi, Manny and some of our other hitters, something he did not have his first year in LA except for Kent, and last year when there was a t otal power outage and your team depended on singles and doubles to pile up wins.

Jackson, you called it right again with the Red Sox minor league system. For the life of me I cannot understand how we have all these good young prospects everyone talks about and all of a sudden when they get to Triple A they're either s***** or traded away. That is one reason I am adamant about putting Pedroia at second and keeping him there. The guy has been successful at every level he has played at. We have Jacoby Ellsbury not too far behind in AAA this coming season, and Youk didn't do a bad job for us last year at all. To me the mark of a good team is to blend in the solid veterans with some young and talented ballplayers so as to keep the mixmaster going. I remember as a kid in New York the Brooklyn Dodgers were an outstanding baseball team for years but they got old at once and collapsed the first year they got to LA. BTW, don't bitch at the Red Sox getting Matsuzaka; you guys got Pettitte back and if any Red Sox tell you that is nothing to brag about, don't believe them. Andy is still a helluva good pitcher in my book.

Hey guys, Ellsbury has too much on the ball to be shucking oysters anywhere, but let's give the kid some freakin' time to further develop his skills. And Crespo, don't say June 15 for a closer. If we don't get one before that time he could be s*** out of luck by the middle of the season. The way I see it, and it is only a guess, we might have to put either Pena or Crisp on the block to get a decent one this winter. But as Crunch said, I do like our depth, not only in the OF but in the pitching department. We have the means to trade for a closer.

Riverside, you wasted a lot of your time posting those stats up for my benefit because I already knew them and you were only talking to the choir because I have been a big Jacoby Ellsbury fan since I saw him in the College World Series in 2005, but thanks anyway. Let's give JE a firm shot at AAA Ball this coming season, making sure he develops and works on all facets of his game. If he does really well, we can always bring him up, but I think for a year we can get along with what he have in the OF. That's my thinking on this anyway. :D :D :D

Can't buy what they're saying Jackson. The facts are clear. Damon was clearly the superior ballplayer this past season. Coco stunk to high heaven. Yes, they say he was injured, but the fact was when he came back he actually hit ok for a short time and got hi average into the 290's in late June when he went into his dive, culminating is that disgusting 1 for 19 All Star Choke Up in the five game debacle against your team. If he rebounds we might call it money well spent, but Crisp must rebound. Right now I would take Damon over him any day of the week. Hopefully, I will eat my words after the 2007 season.

From what reports we've heard Clement is not going to be able to pitch until July, and the whole thing with him was a bad scene anyway. After a promising start, that ball he took in the head seems to have set him back. He became a tentative pitcher and he never had the best control or the best courage out there to begin with. If memory serves me right he was yanked from both the Padres and Cubs' rotations and I would think that ought to be a red flag right there. It was money poorly spent and we should cut our losses and be done with him and this thread. We don't want Clement, we don't need him, and most of us don't even want to talk about him. One question, though? Did the Sox take out an insurance policy on this guy? It would have been wise if they had.