seabeachfred

You wonder Ted how some people here can continue to hype our farm system and keep drinking the Cherington Kool Aid in lieu of what went down this past season. Just reminder. First Bradley was a total turd. He couldn't even hit 200 for the season and struck out like someone expected to hit 40 homers. He also didn't crack 200 in ST and in his short stay with the Sox in 2013, and let's not anyone out there talk small sample crap. That's over 600 at-bats and he kept getting worse as the at-bats progressed. Webster? Are you s***ing me? The guy is as gutless as they come, afraid to let loose with his pitches and attack th strike zone and seemingly when he does he gets torn apart by the opposing hitters. Delarosa? One good game, one bad game, and a tendency to get ripped when he doesn't have his top stuff. They there is Bogaerts, this season one of the very worst and miserable hitters with RISP from game one to the end of the season. Not much with the bat, his defense was shoddy and his base running instincts sucked all to hell. It as obvious that he was a choker from that first series in April. Our farm system is vastly overrated but here's the rub. I think we have four guys who could make the Red Sox a solid team down the short road but knowing how inept our front office has been two of the last three off seasons it stands to reason they will trade the good ones and keep the duds. Blake Swihart, Mookie Betts, Garin Cecchini and Henry Owens are the four who in my opinion we must keep and eventually get into our lineup. Of course, this is only my opinion, but after the mistakes made by Cherington and the rest of his bungling brigade I would have to be in a terrible slump not to improve upon their take on the prospects they hailed and who failed miserably the past season.

Keep in mind the Yankees are also in on the Headley "sweepstakes" and if they are you have to be pretty certain that they will outbid us for him. Preferably, I would not want to go more than two seasons with him at third and he wants more than two years. I still feel Garin Cecchini could and should be our long range guy at that position but admittedly he may need one more year at Pawtucket to convince the Red Sox brass that this year's hiccup the first half of the season was nothing more than an aberration in a short career that has seen him hit well every place he has played. Go with Betts on third for 2015 and when Cepedes moves on he can move to left and Garin can take over third base. What I do NOT want to see is our putting a shitload of money on some expensive free agent position player while we scrimp with the low risk high reward ******** on the mound that has never seemed to work for us.

SFF, you've been forced to defend your take on Betts while dueling with a number of posters from what I'm seeing, but you could have ended it quickly if you had posted what you wrote above from the start. Now our less than competent front office could still trade Betts but if they don't scramble their brains they ought not to. He is the leadoff man with speed we need, he is versatile and he can hit. He is a keeper.

SFF, If we were make a big move for Cole Hamels or Jonny Cuerto you can bet your last dime that both Philly and Cincy will demand Betts as part of the deal but it won't be enough. To pry either of those ace type pitchers from their current teams the Red Sox would have to expend the list to about two more prospects. The Phillies know they have to rebuild--even a GM moron like Amaro Jr. has finally figured that one out but he has made it plain he will want three good young prospects for Hamels and that to me seems written in stone. Some team will bite on that. My hope is that we sign Lester (a pipe dream?) and keep our young players like Betts and others who might be better than what the putrid Bradley and bitterly disappointing Bogaerts showed when they get their chances to crack our lineup.

Perhaps like me you're trying to drive the memory of AJ out of your mind. Remember him? One of our addled front office's miserable and disastrous moves in a season full of them.

The Red Sox have to make Lester an offer he cannot refuse and must do all they can to make it so enticing that he decides to come back to Boston and sign a contract without his reps going to Chicago because if they do Jon is as good as gone. And if he doesn't sign with the Cubs watch the Yankees suddenly step in with their mega bucks. The front office has screwed things up big time two of the past three off seasons and this time around they can afford no more ef ups. Get it done this time around.

Yes we were Dojii and we will keep it at a minimum if some people cool it with some intemperate nonsense. Again, for the last four months we have all gotten along real well. I think you know why. Well OK, let's see what transpires from here.

Well look who has finally shown his face Ted. I guess he thinks we've forgotten his stubborn support of Drew as a good signing and how he would be a big contributor to the cause, and I haven't forgotten how he tried to combat me when I hinted that Bogey could be a choker. Of course, there's more and if we get into it he better be sure I will remind of those and other things he said before he disappeared from the board from total embarrassment.

You can't remember when ownership got involved with a negotiation? How about late 2008 when they got into the Mark Teixiera talks and blew it all to hell. Remember that? I do.

Well said BSN--it is something we seem pretty good at. If you hear of PETA closing in on any of us let me know so I can get out of Dodge.

Drunk or not, I consider this a total waste of a human life. He apparently was short on grey matter if he even had any but a guy that young snuffing out his life is tough to take, and when you add to it his girlfriend it becomes a double whammy. Like Youk much of my sympathy went down the crapper but it is still two lives dead in a stupid action on their parts. It does tend to make me feel a little vacant by such a tragedy.

Come on over to our side Jacko and apply for the GM's job. You seem to have it more in order than some of the s*** rumors I'm hearing about Cherington. Right now I have zero confidence that he will do anything but screw up things as he's done two of the last three seasons.

The Red Sox are about to make one of their biggest blunders in a large series of blunders over the past season. I'm convinced as you are that six years and $120 million for Sandoval is a recipe for disaster---maybe not the first or second year but by the third and fourth the waste of such money will be there for all to see. However, someone high up in the organization wants to make a big splash, my guess being the rotten and hateful Larry Lucchino. We need g ood starting pitching.....we can get by at third with a combo of players who will get the job done. We cannot win without two solid starting pitchers and why Cherington is so blind to this can only fortify my belief that this guy can't fart and chew gum at the same time. Woe to us if this happens.

Being paid that kind of money, he would not be platooned and if he was, which he wasn't in Philadelphia who's to say that he won't get pissed off and help poison the clubhouse. Hell when we signed Drew, as pathetic and stupid a signing as Cherington could contemplate, even Drew hardly was platooned. No way. If this is a package deal, screw the Hamels trade and go for one of the big FA. Prune Face has the money.....it is about time he starts spending it again on quality and not trash.

NS---Of course there is the flip side to money stupidity as we all should remember when they made that disgusting low ball offer to Jon Lester earlier in the year and wound up trading him and then the rest of our rotation for a bowl of cabbage soup. Stupidity comes in all shapes and sizes and you only have to look at our fumbling and bumbling GM to see that clearly. Two miserable off seasons and one good one. He had better go two for four after this one otherwise the wolves in the press, media, ballpark and on these boards will be howling for his scalp.

What I think Gomes is that the Red Sox front office is in a punch drunk state concerning their young players due to the miserable jobs turned in this past year by that hitting bum Bradley and the constant choking up by Bogaerts. Their pathetic play this year might have thrown Cherington into a panic mode and bodes ill will for us because I really think we have a real good player in Garin Cecchini who can slide into third base late next year or in 2016 at the latest. I don't want this guy blocked or sent somewhere else where he will flourish. That is why I would rather have Headey for two seasons than Sandoval for six----not least of which is the price tag which should be used to get us two good starting pitchers----I said good pitchers, not journeyman or this low risk high reward crap that has never worked for us. I just hope Cherington does no blow this thing and saddle us with mediocre pitchers and a an overpriced free agent whose stats have been actually on the slide for the past four seasons.

Good God, why are some of you out with a hard-on for Howard. The guy can't field, can't hit lefthanders, has been declining the past three seasons and has $60 million left on his contract. OTOH, Napoli is a proven winner who was curtailed this past season with a mangled hand and other assorted injuries. The guy is a perfect fit for Boston and healthy next season is a proven power hitter who plays a solid first base. We have a plethora of problems to be ironed out and one place we don't need help is first base. Please, let's move to other positions where we need to improve. Why weaken ourselves with someone, whether Howard or someone else, who might not fit in with Boston. Didn't we learn anything from Gonzales and Crawford?

Good point sk. You may be on to something and I hope you're right. It was obvious that Webster has not been on the mark as a starter, either in the short stay with us in 2013 or most of this past season. The bullpen and one time through the lineup might be just the ticket for a guy with a live arm and only two pitches he can control consistently.

BUC is not and should not be one of our main priorities but I had to choose I would take Gattis over Ross......but for different reasons. We all know Vazquez is a terrific defensive catcher, but his hitting is very suspect. Suppose, for instance, he gets off to a horrid start and is joined by two or three others who we're depending on who don't hit either (Bogaerts, Betts, Craig, maybe even Castillo) and we suddenly need hitting? Gattis has good RH power and could give us some firepower where we need it. He is not the defensive catcher Ross is but he is a better defensive catcher than Ross is as a hitter. Just so long as the Braves don't try to act like wise asses and hold us up for him. Then we tell the Bravos to go to hell.

What's all this crap about Ryan Howard? The guy had faded faster than a pair of old jeans and the Phils are dying to dump him off on someone. We have Napoli on first and don't need a first baseman next season, especially one who can't hit left handers worth a damn. I'm beginning to become more and more convinced that the front office has become totally scared shitless to give another young players full chance at a position because of what took place this season with Bradley's pathetically worthless season and Bogaerts' meltdown for most of the year. We can't become a dumping ground for expensive over the hill players. The Dodgers, Tigers, Nationals and Phillies have gone that route and none of them have won a title and only the Tigers have a pennant of the four the past five seasons. We need two good starting pitchers and we need to spend money on that....first and foremost. If we go for Hamels and we have to take Howard along with it to make the deal, then we forget that deal and sign one of the free agent pitchers. Howard should not be part of a package deal for Cole. Besides, Betts is ready to play a position and we should not shitcan Cecchini because of one half of a bad season when he has hit well the rest of his minor league career. He and Holt can hold down third if we have to go that route in order to get two solid starters and strengthen our bullpen. A healthy Pedroia, Napoli, Papi and Castillo give us a good offensive nucleus and if Victorino comes back strong we have a solid team, especially if everyone else's favorite Bogaerts comes back strong in his second year. Just hope that Cherington doesn't screw things up worse for us by trying to make a big splash.

I would be prefer Headley too. He is a much better defensive third baseman than the other two, wouldn't cost us as much and wouldn't block Cecchini for more than a year or two. I want our money used for two solid starting pitchers and not a bunch of low risk high reward turds who we have used before with miserable and disastrous results.

Sorry Bell but you have a helluva lot more confidence in Cherries than I have. I don't think he believes we need two good starters and is determined rather to go this low risk, high reward crap that has never worked for us before and won't work now. He wants to make a big splash by signing the Big Panda, whose OPS BTW has shrunk the past four years in a row. That splash he wants may be in shallow water and will result only in our getting our skulls crushed next season. The money should go towards pitching---every God damn penny of it if necessary to get two top notch starters and if we have to trade for a Hamels the GM must know who to dangle and who to keep. That is another area I don't have much confidence in him. Face it, two of the three years he has done a totally s***** job in the off season getting our team up to speed. Three out of four should punch hit ticket out of Boston. HE MUST GET IT RIGHT THIS WINTER.

Keep that last sentence ready to use again. You may need it to describe the ones running this organization.

This is strictly a minority opinion and no one knows that better than I do but I would trade for Tulo to play shortstop for us and be willing to include Bogaerts in such a deal. There is a chance I will be forced to do a mea culpa next fall and admit I screwed up low rating Xander but from what I saw of the guy this season, his ineffective fielding, his brutal lack of hitting with men on base and the way he cratered when moved to third base----all of these convinced me that I might have been right, that he was a choker. Now in his behalf it is possible that the Red Sox saw more in him that he was ready for the big time when in fact he needed another season at Pawtucket. Still I think Tulo would thrive in Boston, and as a fellow alumnus of Long Beach State I have a personal stake in wanting him playing for the Red Sox.

You might not call Jon Lester a classic No. 1 but in my opinion when he overcame his doldrums at the beginning of the summer of 2013 he became an authentic No. 1 pitcher and there can be no argument that he didn't maintain the role throughout the playoffs and WS and then well into the past season before he got low balled and traded out of town in what I think was the stupidest and most ignorant move Prune and Co. have made since they've owned the team.