seabeachfred

GOM, why do you think this board rocks in the first place? It's because it's a Red Sox Board. You won't find this kind of excitement and controversy on any other team's boards, and we're glad you're part of it, Yankee fan or not. I'm still having fits about DM and now it is in the critical home stretch. We have to get it done.

Interesting posts guys, very much so and this former US Government teacher also learned a thing or two about the law that I wasn't aware of----that is, if you guys were right. Thanks for the info. I would be more thankful, however, if Daisuke is on that place tonight back to Boston. Face it, with BorASS it is ALWAYS about the money and we all know that's the hangup, but maybe I can throw a little ray of sunshine on everything. Toby Hall, who hit very well this past summer when the Dodgers gave him chances to play, is now available and there is our reserve catcher who can catch regularly if Tek slumps or get hurt. We ought to sign him and fast. I also notice we signed Joe McEwing to a minor league contract and he is one helluva utility man who can play all over the infield and outfield and is not a bad hitter at all. Also Jason Werth, also formerly of the Dodgers, was a half-season standout for them in 2004 before suffering a severe broken wrist. We could give him a minor league contract and if he is fully recovered he is young enough to come back and have several good years for us as a 4th OF and a spot starter. Hey, always thinking of your guys. Hope my rays of sunshine helped; it helped me because I read in the paper this morning about Matsu and I needed a shot of good cheer myself.

Being ruthless is all well and good if if it is directed at the persons involved on the board but it is classless and disgusting when a person's wife and daughter are thrown into the mix and called a series of vile names. They wouldn't say those things to your face and they wouldn't say them to mine, so why say it at all? BTW, that picture on the left of your name bears a slight resemblance to one they took of me back in 1983 at the Fast Freddie Dance at Arcadia HS; even the shirt looks familiar. If it is me where the hell did you get it? We used to have those dances every year while I was the director of the Forensics Club (Speech Team), and we used to make close to $2,000 dollars every fall when we sponsored that dance. Later on when I stopped coaching that team the demographics changed quite a bit and most Asian students didn't attend dances or football games so those dances came to an end. A pity. Good handle you have, though. If your're interested, send me a private message and we can share a few more thoughts. Keep the handle, though. I like it. :D :D

Schill, I wasn't bad mouthing your post at all, just adding that it would be nice if all us Red Sox fans could be rooting for a team next season that had a decent chance of getting to the World Series, at the least, finally winning the AL East if that's all we can do. f***ed is an understatement if we don't sign DM; we would have to hope that Curt, Josh and Jonathan had lights out years so we had a threesome that could take us into the Playoffs. I'm not really counting of Wakefield for more than 10 or 11 wins, and that fifth starter---Dansack, Gabbard, Snyder, Pauley, none of them allow me to shout from the rooftops that we have what it takes to take it to the other teams. Yes, trading for a good pitcher would cost us dearly, and the crop down the road doesn't look that good at all. I wonder why so many, though, bad rap Zito. I has proven himself to be a pretty damn good pitcher and he usually gives us a lot of solo homers instead of the two and three base variety. As for Clemens, I have no clue what he's doing or even if he knows at this moment. Again, not panning your post Schill, just pissed off that I had to read it because it is very true and not the kind of news I want to hear. Maybe, they will prove us both wrong and we can sign the guy and really have something to look forward to next season.

Linda, I like to go on other team boards to get a different perspective as to how other fans feel about their team and it is astounding how many of those people also like the Red Sox. In fact, there are Red Sox fans on all the boards. The only one I have ever had trouble with is your friends over on that damn DB site. Oh yes, there was one other, that, hark hark, I got run off. I acted like some of the guys on DB and was asked to leave, which they didn't have to ask me twice. However, that board did not have a bunch of nasty and filthy mouthed posters, just a bunch of namby-pamby weaklings who always seemed to follow the company line. I never followed the company line when I was a teacher and follow no such line now.

You are right about Arroyo, at least from where I'm sitting---except when you say what he got back for him. We got back an outfielder who cannot play two of the positiions out there and has never learned to properly track a fly ball. We got a guy who would be a strong candidate to set a ML strikeout record if we ever had the misfortune to have him play a full season in our lineup, and one who is simply a terrible clutch hitter with men on base. The only consolation is that either he or Crisp may have to be traded for the closer we are going to need next season.

Julio, your Dodger undershirt is showing. But I can understand your point. You ought to put the blame, however, where it belongs. Why in hell did Di Podesta give him such a clause in his contract in the first place? I wonder if Boras surmised the FA possibilities before the 2005 season and wanted that put in his contract because of the paucity of valuable FA's in the fall of 2006? Knowing BorASS, a real and supreme douche, I wouldn't put it past him. I also agree with you---Elway was a stud.

All the same with your gentlemen if I just shitcan talk about who's available next off season? I would like to have a team for the coming year that can contend and maybe make the WS. If the Tigers and Cards can do it so should we. I only hope the FO has a backup plan if this DM deal falls through the cracks. I do not relish the thought of a bum like Snyder or a mediocrity like Gabbard being in our rotation next season unless we want to concede one game in every give we play. Bad enough we have to worry whether Wakefield will improve over his lackluster season in 2006. Barry Zito and or Roger Clemens might be our only possibilities. That is why we must get this DM deal done.

Going to the Rangers!!!!! Well it this isn't a great example of taking the money and running with it I don't know what is. He goes to a hitter's park playing for a team that can't every seem to win anything and says he's pleased to be there. Next I would expect to hear him say the Rangers were always the team he wanted to play for. Sure, and I'm the next Ted Williamss. It was all money. Then again, maybe because the last four letters of his new team, gers, is exactly like his old team, maybe he can convince himself that he is still pitching for the Dodgers, another team he always wanted to play for.

s*** Beckett, you get to watch it on TV three thousand miles away and I'm only 45 away and won't be able to watch it anywhere. Well maybe it is just as well because I would be spend the bulk of that time cursing out that greedy and rotten SOB. Keep those fingers crossed.

Yes Lugo, we get it back and with that $51 mil and the amount we were going to pay Matsu we could then try and go all out and sign Barry Zito and Roger Clemens. We'd have the money to do so. Whether the Red Sox front office would be up for that, only they know.

Lugo, the one way to really stick it to Boras is to do what Ken Williams of the Chicago White Sox does. He simply will not deal with Boras or any of his clients, and he tells his players that if they choose that bum for their agent, well then, their ass is going out of Chicago. Boras helped the Red Sox get Drew and that pleases me, but it doesn't please me at all that it had to be that *******. He's never changed and I wonder why he hasn't dropped like a rock yet. If it is true he is keeping Matszaka from talking directly to the Red Sox the team has a case it could take to Selig and maybe then we can barbeque Boras' ass once and for all.

Crunch, when the Dodgers deserted Brooklyn after the 1957 season I felt like I had been hit with a blowtorch and I just never felt the same about that team again. In fact, I really grew to hate them and all they stood for. Last fall I finally said that feeling was silly and stupid and said since they play in a different league than the Red Sox I could at least follow them. Man, you should have heard all the coal that came crashing down on me from those ignorant bastards on the Moose and Viny website. Well ******** on them; I rooted for the Dodgers when the best part of them was dripping. well never mind! Like you, though, I love the Red Sox first and foremost and it is isn't even close. In fact, I'm going down to Fort Myers the last week of March to see the team play three games, and will signing up on the Red Sox Destination Board for two or three trips next season. I sometimes wish I could spend the summers in Boston so I could see our team to my heart's content, but I would probably come home with my pants pockets turned out and broke as hell. I do see where you're coming from, though. Thanks for the post. :D :D

Well at least Crunch you have some idea of which way this thing is going and I salute you for that, especially if you will permit me to say I have no such idea myself. Right now I certainly wouldn't be my house or my garage on this; I'm not sure I would even want to wager our old dog kennel in the back yard. This soap opera has been swining back and forth the past few weeks and every day it is something new, sometimes hopeful, sometimes ominous. Maybe we should all take BoNat's advice and just shitcan this talk until after the deadline passes. It really had agitated me more than I would like.

BoNat, that is one helluva idea, but here is the problem. Matsuzaka is the itch we just have to scratch. I thought doing the same thing you were suggesting, but, as Al Pacino said in "Godfather 3",-----"I try to get out but they keep pulling me back in". I think that identifies a lot of us and the reason is simple. A lot of the upcoming season could be determined by whether we sign the guy or not. I also have no intention to go after my friend Jackson if he's proven wrong because I know as a Yankee fan he doesn't want us to have him and that's just human nature. GOM keeps getting hammered by some of you but he has put a different spin on things and at least has made me think of some of the possibilities we have if this things crashes. However, I would give those two a friendly nudge if we pull this off. :D :D :D

That would seem to be the only alternative. We'd have a wad of cash to sign him, too, wouldn't we? And maybe Clemens later on in the season? Well, it's a thought.

Jackson, easy for you to say he is going since you are a Yankee fan, but, please, my friend, say "because he might be going." This isn't a done deal by a long shot and the Boston Herald didn't exactly make my weekend with their missive that talks had broken down. As Riverside put it so aptly, if we lose the guy who the hell is there out there that we could get as a solid starter for our rotation? The ranks are a little thin to say the least, and except for Dansack who I am only going by one five inning gem, what we have in our own stable isn't encouraging me to try for World Series at this time.

Great points made Riverside, and I can tell you right now you can eliminate Snyder from that list. We don't want that KC reject anywhere near the mound next season. Hansack pitched a great five innings the last day of the season and while I don't know much about him he sure looked good on MLB TV that day. Gabbard and Pauley? Mere journeymen types to me. As for trade options, I have always thought Lieber might be a good addition to any staff. Then, again, let's sign Matsuzaka.

Bud, This past week I have been somewhat on a high since we upgraded big time at two spots where we needed to, J.D. Drew in RF and Julio Lugo at SS. no to mention Kawajima as set-up candidate. Now it looks like the lot of us Red Sox aficianados might be heading for a downer. I think the odds are now 50-50 and I'm trying to be optimistic on this score. Boras isn't going to hear what your saying and he won't hear the rest of us. He has something to prove but I have seen other agents in different sports over-reach and it led to their undoing. Boras is going to go that route some day. You know something, it came to me the other day. In the fall of 1966 I was in an Argumentation and Debate Class at Long Beach State College and one of my classmates was a young lady named Pam Boras. When in a conversation I told her I loved baseball and coached it in the summer she told me she had a young brother who was a great Little League pitcher and his name was Scott. I wonder if he was the kid that grew up to be such a royal *******?

Thanks Coco. A little optimism can go a long way. Man, has this been a ride or what? :D