seabeachfred

If they're patient and will wait a year they will not only have a LHH catcher but one who can hit RH too, has power and is better all around than the one we have now. Name is Blake Swihart and we had better not trade this guy. He is no Bradley or Bogaerts, two miserable disappointment, but a real top of the mark player. He is compared favorably with Buster Posey and that's good enough for me.

Well if you posters on this board want contrast, you got it!!!!!!! Seems my friends 700 Hitter and Palodios have contrasting opinions of Beckett. Safe to say that you can take any position on him you want and you wouldn't be far off accurate wise. Josh always seemed to pitch well when I was in attendance whether it was in Boston, at Yankee Stadium or Anaheim, and he must have beaten the Yankees six or seven times I saw him pitch against them......and he never lost to them with me there. So I have nice memories of him. Having said that I also know he was kind of a dick weed with a very grating and irritating personality. Well you can't have everything---gotta take the good with the bad.

Though it wasn't mainly his fault, the fact remains Ted is that Kershaw seems to have trouble "winning the big one", and maybe we all should once again take the time to praise and remember what Curt Schilling did for our team the four years he played for the Red Sox. He had no trouble winning many "big ones" as his 11-2 post season record bears out. Come to think of it, isn't that the all time best record for post season pitching marks?

Thank God NS that you don't out here in So. Cal and have to listen to all the ******** propaganda that these Dodger fan acolytes keep sputtering day after day on their new TV station where 70% of the people in the Los Angeles area couldn't and still can't get that station on their sets. Seems Time-Warner wanted to charge X amount of money for other cable networks to carry the Bums and those cable companies said no. Think the greedy Dodger brass bastards stepped in to help their fans get to watch their team? Think again. I know people who follow the Red Sox in the East have the Yankees as their No. 1 enemy, but out here, though I put the Yankees on top, they still have to share top billing with the Dodgers on top of my s*** list. I don't know when, most likely tomorrow or Thursday but you can bet your last dime that one of the shows on that Dodger station will be another repeat of their "illustrious" 1988 season, about all they can talk about when it comes to winning anything but some division titles. And let's see them try and attempt to buy a WS with their money this winter. Hey Magic Johnson, to me you're no longer a Laker but a Dodger stooge so go f*** yourself. And their hated rivals, the Giants just on their series. Eat your hearts out Magic and your greedy no good bastard cohorts.

No one was happier that the Dodgers lost than I was.....that you can take to the bank, money one or blood one. However, let's not hang this on Kershaw. Pitching on short rest he took a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning and had only allowed on hit. A see and eye single off Dee Gordon's glove that Pedroia would have had in his hip pocket, a bleeder just out of the reach of SS Ramirez to put runners on first and second. A foot or so either way and it would have been two outs. If there is blame to go around put it on the Dodger offense who once again failed miserably with RISP and on the bases generally. Well the consolation is that when I tune into the Dodger TV station I can keep hearing them talk about 1988 for another year. Screw them.

Well Lackey did the job, just as he did for us all last season during the post-season. Good to see the Dodgers lose---I really don't want to see them in the World Series but it is out of my hands. I wonder if they will come back with Clayton Kershaw on short rest as they did last year. My guess is they will.

You're absolutely right Jacko and glad you made the post and added what I should have said in the first place. Scioscia likes to steal, take the extra base, play for a run or two and is not adverse to trying a bunt and run and squeeze play. The power game is not his and, though strange for me to say it, I think he may have been hamstrung with the kind of power team he has because he cannot do those things he likes to do with the talent he has. I know good managers are suppose to adapt to their personnel like your Girardi does and Maddon as well, but I think Scioscia may be wired differently. I'm making no more predictions about the playoffs because if the Big Red Sox Man in the sky were to judge my talent there I would heading for purgatory the first day after I was called home.

I see where you're coming from Youk, but from where I sit deep in LA County Dodger country the thought of having that team in the World Series gives me hives and elicits the temptation to head for the john to heave up my lunch. We get the Bums 24/7 out here on their station and you can't believe the propaganda ******** that their personnel, front office, and hangers-on spout, and all they talk about is their glorious 19 f***in' 88 WS Title. A bunch of front running arrogant bastards. So cut me a little slack. I wouldn't mind either Baltimore or KC in the WS but let's have the Giants in there again or the Cards. At least they know how to play the game right and dollar signs don't materialize out of their asses as the multi-zillionaire owners of the LA team do.

The Angels fans have been bellowing on the sport-talk shows how Scioscia has pretty much lost it and cannot understand some of the things he did in the just concluded ALDS---even my wife. I think most of it seemed to center on Mike's insistence on playing the slumping Josh Hamilton over a couple of younger players who performed well during the Angels' hot streak this past summer. Like most managers Scioscia has a tendency to be stubborn when it comes to personnel matters, and in this case his insistence on playing the slumping veterans over the rookies and second or third year players----something he has done continuously during his managerial career with the Angels. You may be sick at looking at his face Ted but I would take him over Farrell in two shakes of a monkey's ass. Still, I think the criticism coming Mike's way is justified in light of the just finished results.

Good for you Thunder because you're winning for both of us. I can't believe how off I've been in these games. My only saving grace is that I had the Giants beating the Pirates in the WC and winning the series against Washington (which they now should). Wrong as can be with the A's vs KC in the WC, miserably wrong in my call for the Angels against KC, and pretty pathetic in thinking this year Detroit would get it right. They didn't, but I'm glad the Orioles took them even though I predicted otherwise. Keep up the good work Thunder.

There seem to be no end of the plethora of miserable and inept managers in the game today. Williams is the latest of that pathetic bunch. That move was praised by the acolytes at the end of the game but it was a dumb move pure and simple. The Giants seem to know how to win in these types of pressure packed series and the Nats once again as they did the last time they were in the post season are s***ing the bed. And this Harper phenom is pretty much in Bogaerts place as a s***** hitter with RISP----a real choker.

No efen way we take Howard!!!!!! If he is part of any deal then it has to be off and done with. He is fading faster than a pair of old jeans, can't hit lefties, can't field and is expensive. This is nothing like a Beckett-Lowell deal of late 2005. Stay the hell away from Howard. We don't need him and I don't want him. We have enough strike out and choke artists as it is.

Carter, see if you can take down the Dodgers again tonight. That was quite a comeback by your boys last night, especially against the best pitcher on the planet. Everyone knows I can't stand the Dodgers but if anyone downloaded the LA Times this morning you would see that they actually accused Kershaw of choking big time. Very classless on their part. Wainright got nailed too. Both teams seemed to have their hitting shoes on and pitchers aren't machines......they can go south any time and last night was one of them. See that's what I despise about the fans and supporters of the Dodgers. They are a rotten bunch of front runners and as soon as something go against them they are quick to point fingers. As for the Angels, few may disagree with me but I have said repeatedly that the type of team the Angels put together is not the kind of team Scioscia likes to manage. He can't run, bunt, hit and run the way his teams did five or six years ago. They are built to slug it out and they might get hot in KC and start doing that, but I think most people know that in the Playoffs it is pitching, defense, a good bullpen and timely hitting in that order that usually settles the hash.

That the Royals are up 2-0 against the team with the best record in baseball this season is kind of a shock, but as I told my ardent Angels fan wife, they are not out of it and could come back even though it looks pretty tough right now. I did notice and brought to her attention that the last week or so the Halos did not play all that well. Perhaps they were de-compressing after running up a very hot summer, but Playoffs are a strange animal. Face it, except for maybe one or two seasons since the Yankees ended their dynastic run of four titles in five years, there has not been a clear cut favorite for the title heading into the post-season. It is the reason baseball is such a great sport, the best in my opinion. You never know what is going to take place in these playoff runs.

I don't want to shoot my friend down but that will never happen. It will take too much money for FA and trades that will cost the Red Sox some of their prize pets and we know they will hold onto their pets and be unwilling to put down the real money for the solid players they need.....as in pitching. You just watch!!!!! They will do some dumpster diving this off season and try to sell it to the public as pulling the wool over the eyes of those they thought they fleeced while it is they who will wind up with egg on their faces, and the worse of it is that we have a few here and on other boards who will swallow it hook line and sinker and gag on the Kool Aid. It sure would be good, though, to see that kind of team on the field.

d-money, take it from me if you wish but Wainright is a choker of the first order. He will cough up the game tonight as he has coughed up most of the big games he's pitched in the playoffs. The guy simply cannot hold a lead when he gets one against a good team. We saw it last year against us and, believe me, nothing will change this season either.

Too early to say that Doj. If the Halos come back and win tonight I think they will take the series, though I will admit the Royals' win last night was a big one for them and could loom even bigger as the series switches to KC.

Dupree, good to see you were able to get away and post on the board today. You nailed it with Lowrie, but when you mention Holt I don't think they want to play him at shortstop. He will play some third, outfield, second and maybe a little at that position. I just think the Red Sox had better have a Plan B for when Bogaerts screws up again next season. Oh yes, he may come around and be the player the Sox predicted he would be, but his pathetically weak hitting with RISP all season was a total blazing red flag for me. And he isn't that great at shortstop or third base for that matter. Just want to have short covered just in case. And for the record, I am not a big fan of signing Pablo Sandoval either. He swings at almost everything, can't run and will be too expensive and the years it would take to get his name on a contract would block not only Holt but Cecchini and a couple of young third sackers we have in the system. Yes, pitching must be the key for us next season and all this ******** from Cherington that me may not need a No. 1 or 2 tells me he wants Red Sox fans to watch other teams on TV next fall too. Well that's bogus for me because the Sox have been out of the playoffs four of the last five seasons and I want us in next year. Quality pitching will get us there, not the kind of dumpster signings that he is hinting at.

I guess it wasn't on this board but on others I was a strong Lowrie fan. I think injuries and the fact the Red Sox underestimated and undermined him cost them a player that was a good fit for the Red Sox. The guy is no Ozzie Smith but can play short, third and second and, unlike some "phenom" we had at shortstop most of this year, Jed has proven that be can hit when it counts. I also think he would love to come back to Boston. I wouldn't diss him completely, but will say he will not end up here because in his own words he said money will be the motivating factor as to where he goes and with John "Prune Face" Henry hold onto his wallet for dear life that matchup will not take place.

Well St. Louis Carter, your team can do something about it.....again, even though your guys aren't hitting as well this year.....JUST BEAT THE @#$%^&* DODGERS this time around as well. I'm getting sick of reading in the papers and watching on the tube this sickening lover affair that these bastard front running fans out here are bleeding for the damn Dodgers. Don't let them advance....stop them cold. Keep them out of the WS at all costs. BTW, just in case you aren't aware of it, when I came back from the WS last October there wasn't one Dodger fans I met that wasn't rooting for my Red Sox in the World Series. Not one!!!!! They all wanted us to win, or better yet, wanted your guys to lose. I was gratified at the time but came to realize it wasn't any love for the Red Sox that propelled their attitude but their sickening jealousy that they had that the Cards made it from the NL and not them.

Station--what you saw last night were two teams fighting tooth and nail and playing for all they were worth for their respective teams. Along with that, however, you saw two of the shittiest managing jobs in baseball this season. Ned Yost was pathetic......He knew his bullpen was lockdown from the seventh inning on with three solid relievers but also had to know that if he had to go to his other bullpenners before the seventh he was in serious trouble. First of all, if that was certain then why take out Big Game James in the sixth when he had only thrown about 86 or so pitches? And then put a guy in who pitched miserably in the few innings he threw this season? The result was carnage as the A's exploded for five runs and maybe the game. His team got the s***** Yost off the hook. Let me tell you and others this.....if he manages like this against the Angels, Mike Scioscia will eat his lunch and skin him alive because he can't carry Mike's jock in the dugout. If Yost was pathetic then Bob Melvin was out and out putrid. He has the lead 7-3 in the eighth and Jon Lester is running of fumes. He gives up a run scoring single to make the score 7-4 and there is a runner on with one out. Time to get a fresh pitcher in there. Hell on TV you could see he was laboring and getting his pitches high. No, though, not Melvin the morbid. He keeps Jon in there to get pounded for two more runs until it is 7-6 before he takes him out. It eventually cost him the game. When all is said and done it comes clear through to me that while there are a few Scoiscias, Maddons, Showalters and Bocheses managing there are a helluva lot of Yosts, Melvins, Farrells and Venturas who stink up everything theuy seem to touch.

Well this season was a pile of s*** Rician no matter how you looked at it. Just one more blemish on a season we'll all be happy to forget as the months ebb on by.

That's pretty much my opinion too Spud but the fly in the ointment is that Prune Face is loath to spend money on top quality pitching. Hell, he let Lester go, he let Lackey go, and now he is going to ante up for pitching? I personally think Cherington, under orders from Lucchino and Henry, will go dumpster dumping for the likes of mediocrities like Masterson and his ilk and then try and get the fans to drink the Kool Aid as they attempted when they let Bay walk after he hit 36 homers and drove in 119 runs in '09 and then tried to convince us that we'd be better off with the fast fading Mike Cameron, who never could hit and suddenly forgot to field. Hope I'm incorrect but I think I saw Prune Face Henry's true colors when he refused to ante up for Jon Lester. The blunder may haunt us for the next half-dozen years.

That's right Jacko, right on the money. Our problem is that Cherington may have been spooked by the way our rookie hopefuls played this season and is leery of trying to give any more young players a shot at a regular position----which I think is stupid. It is our problem that Bogaerts was a total choker this season and s*** the bed when the team stupidly signed Drew. As for Bradley, he is a bust. Cannot hit and will not hit and his terrific defense is suited only as a fourth or fifth outfielder for defensive purposes. Here's the problem though. You and I know, or should, that the AL East is winnable next year for both our teams. If we get two good pitchers we could be in the race....you get a slugger and a pitcher you're in it too. The key is not to give away the young store for a year or so of heavy experience that could turn out to be sour. I for one want to hold onto Swihart, Cecchini and Betts but we aren't going to go FA for two pitchers, only one in my opinion and that means a trade for the other. I can't see us not having to give up something like Betts to get that pitcher. Anyway, at this moment that's the way I see it and unlike you guys our owners have shown they can be real cheap bastards when it comes to resigning our free agents.

I have a high regard for Cecchini and believe that within a year he could be an effective third baseman for us for years. I don't want to spend a ton of money on Sandoval when we need that money to get pitching, and, as you said, I want no more of our prospects blocked. It's just too bad the rookies for us this year played so damn poorly. Bogaerts was a choker and a disappointment while Bradley was a total bust. Headley for one year would be fine though I think the Yankees will outbid us for him if they want him even though they know A-Rod will be back next season.