seabeachfred

When three Braves pitchers went down with assorted arm injuries it seemed almost automatic that Santana would head for the NL League. However, I cannot help believing that he did so to build up his record and stats so he can go get a big contract next season. Playing in the much weaker league could help him in that regard and didn't on scout and GM insist that Santana simply did not want to pitch in the American League this season.

Hey Bellhorn, you're going to have to tell me who you are on the message board. I have what they call a pop-up blocker, whatever the hell that is, so I could not get your reply.

Well I could kick myself in the ass, or kick Noe Ramirez in the ass. That's the reliever who almost blew our game with the Orioles today. You see, I sponsored him on the Babe Ruth Team I founded back in 1973, and was a star pitcher for that club in 2008, more than 30 years since I left that team. I think he owed his sponsor a better performance than that so it is understandable that I'm both a little bit embarrassed and a little more pissed off at him right about now. Still we won that game, 6-5, and would have won against the Marlins if that criminal Britton wouldn't have blown a save and cost us the game. Today is what you would call a mixed bag.

True SK---but if Bradley doesn't hit he is not going to be in the lineup. I think he has the tools to be a solid player but he has to show it on the field. I would like nothing better than to see Bogaerts, Middlebrooks and Bradley all clear hurdles this year and have solid seasons on all ends of the spectrum but the Red Sox do not carry players in the lineup who cannot hit with some authority. If JBjr starts to hit with some consistency he is our CF; if he doesn't he may not be. There is still time before John Farrell has to make a decision and still plenty of time to see if Sizemore's comeback is a sunrise and a green light instead of a false alarm and a canard.

Forget Drew!!!!!! I'm tired of hearing about him. Let him go to your club. Hell Boras is a Yankee fan. You three deserve each other.

BTR---It's not that we have to win every damn game in ST but we shouldn't just be going through the motions as we were doing until yesterday. 700 Hitter is down at Fort Myers and from his front row seats he sees lethargy and a lack of commitment. Now the last two games, yesterday and today, we have looked like the real Red Sox, but keep this in mind. There are some friends of ours on this board who g et real pissed off as those of us who are a little miffed at what we've seen so far and take us to task for, a better choice of words dis- loyalty to the Sox. Well, glad you take it the way the rest of us do. We want to start winning a majority of those remaining games so we head into the regular season with the wind at our backs.

For a Yankee fan Jacko, you have a pretty good picture of what the Red Sox have to face as Spring Training races on. The battle is between Jackie and Grady and that is that!!!!!! Unless Shane's back really acts up on him he's in RF---the best RFer in the league last season and a better hitter right handed and that is the way I want to see him bat. Left field was a very decent platoon last season between Nava and Gomes--24 homers and I believe over 100 RBI's from that duo, though Daniel did play some RF along the way. Why mess with success? Therefore, it does come down to a battle for CF. For Jackie, remember, he tore up ST last season and flopped during the regular season. He has gotten off to a slow start this ST but he could suddenly catch fire when the season opens in a complete reversal of last year. As for Sizemore, health is a big issue. Farrell has to see clearly just how recovered he is from those two years of injuries, operations and inaction. If Sizemore wins the battle, no sure thing, we have a CF and no more real worries about a leadoff hitter since that is what he batted for much of the time during his salad years in Cleveland---that is, if Farrell goes along with that idea.

It certainly is a stronger Yankee lineup than the one they used last season. A lot depends on what they get from Jeter and how Teixiera comes back from his wrist injury of last season.

OK East Bay.....I really thought you picked out the St. Louis Cardinals when I saw ST.....another senior moment. Keep in mind, however, that in each of those ST seasons when we had losing streaks it affected our regular season with slow starts. We got off to bad ones in 2009, climbed to the lead and collapsed the latter part of the season....same in 2011. 2010 was hampered by a ton of injuries even though we wouldn't have won anything that year anyway. I'm still convinced that our miserable Spring in 2008 resulted in not being able to make that big move and finally overtake the Rays that season, their first of any kind where they made a move towards a title. Anyway, I still hold Francona responsible for blowing three division titles for us in 2005, 2008 and 2009, and his distracted persona in 2011 played havoc with the team and led to our collapse that September. Anyway, we can agree to disagree of this matter. I just think playing decent ball in ST is a positive one for getting prepared for the real thing. Thanks for the update, though.

And Farrell had better start doing it very very soon. From what RSF3 said Papi seems to be dogging it and he has done that before in Spring Training. That cannot be allowed to happen. Maybe because of his age he is taking it a little slowly but if the wrong impression is gleaned by the rest of the team what we gained last season could be lost almost from the get-go. No less a hard nosed hot shot like Jonny Gomes said that when David Ortiz talks people listen. Well that speaks volumes in that Gomes is also watching and so are the others. Time to start putting things together and start winning more of these games.

Do the Red Sox and see for yourself......or do the Angels last season.....or the Lakers before the regular 2012-2013 season.

You're there 700 and I'm not, but what you said about 2011 seems to be replicating itself so far this Spring. There doesn't seem to be as much spirit and can-do spirit as we saw last ST, and I think from what I've seen from the scored and the s*** pitchers Farrell keeps sending out there that lethargy and sleepwalking can become habit forming very quickly. You and others take it any way you want but we start winning some of these f***ing games that we're getting battered in. You just can't turn it on when the regular season begins. We seen how that worked in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2004 we started out 16-8, in 2007 we started out something like 17-7 and last year we started out 22-8. Guess how we did those years?

Middlebrooks hit a home run today and got another hit as well. I wish they would let the guy play and get the hell out of his way. We still have some people here who insist WMB needs to go and be replaced at third by Bogaerts while we either sign Drew, go with a kid at SS or trade for someone to play 3B. Just clam up!!!!!!! WMB will do just fine if they let him play. Right now none of our top hitters seem to be hitting and we haven't seen too much of our key pitchers and some of the s*** that Farrell has sent out to the mound are nothing more than glorified batting practice pitchers......like Villarreal, Celestino, Couch, Delarosa and even Workman, who had pitched total crap so far.

Good one Ted......LMAO reading that. Tell me though, do you thing this miserable ST record we have so far is going to result in another miserable start, circa 2009, 2010 and 2011? I know Farrell wants to look at the kid pitchers but some of these duds like Celestino, Villarreal, Couch and Delarosa have looked like s***, and we still do not play our regulars two or three games in a row so they can get their timing. Papi looks lost at the plate and though it is early, a slow start for him could be fatal for us. Pedroia isn't doing much either at the moment. Frankly, I'm sort of in a semi-panic mode watching the team get slaughtered by the Orioles tonight. I just think we need to start winning some games.

Well not to shake your trees my friends but if we don't start winning some God damn games pretty soon, this could well carry into the regular season. To those who keep saying that pre-season games and pre-season records don't mean anything, I say ********!!!!!! Look at 2009 and 2011.....Lousy springs led to lousy starts and late season collapses. I could say the same about 2010 because we had another lousy spring and didn't do much but that year we had a whole slew of injuries so that wouldn't mix in real well, though a fact was we wouldn't have won anything that year either, injuries or not. What I'm insisting is that lousy Spring Training record do have serious consequences and we have recent Red Sox history. Conversely, we had decent Springs in years when we started out 16-8, 18-8 and 22-8. Those years were 2004, 2007 and 2013. Get it ?????

Amazing what can happen when you pitch the likes of Mujica, Badenhop, Uehara, Tazawa and our good relievers in a game instead of the garbage we've been sending out there----and it even helped the hitters psychologically as our team went out and got 11 hits today. Again, I do not say we have to try and win every game this Spring but we should be out there winning half of them and try to build some Big Mo going into the regular season. Say what you will but we are still in the toughest division in baseball and must act and play accordingly. Finally got a Grapefruit instead of the seeds.

Well let's see if this was a mirage or whether Lackey and Lester really got to the guy and he's about to start earning his keep. It is obvious to all of you that I don't hold this guy in too high esteem but would love to be proven wrong. Let's see how he does his next two or three times out.

It could happen the way you envision it BSN but unlike Tampa Bay we do not have a stable full of young pitchers ready to step in and take over. Sure, I give Renaudo and Owens a very good chance of coming through for us, but we should already know that two other guys many here and in the front office had high hope for like Webster and Delarosa are fast proving what duds they are. As for Barnes, who really knows about him except that he is once again injured. How dependable will he be down the road? Lackey and Peavy are getting up in years, we don't know if Doubrant is going to emerge or regress and Buchholz is usually one arm around his daughter or one slip near the dugout from going on a three month hiatus No my friend we need Lester and we have to resign him.

As 700 said it is only the first week of games. However, it looks like the teams we're playing have better stiffs than we do because we're getting our butts handed to us. These pitchers we've been using should be out stealing hub caps instead of pitching because they look pathetic out there. We better start winning at least a few of these games.

To me signing Lester to a new five year contract for $100 million or a little more is as much a no brainer as I can come up with. Buchholz is a terrific pitcher when he isn't on the shelf and you know Lackey will give you everything he has. Look at the rest, though. Is Doubrant ready to match his talent with accomplishments? Is Peavy just jinxed with all sorts of injuries and will Workman really be able to cut it as a quality starter if called upon? Those last three pitchers do raise some questions, and look at the prospects. There is Renaudo and Owens who do project as quality starters for us, but Barnes is injury prone all of a sudden and I cannot stomach the thought of seeing Webster and or Delarosa in our starting rotation unless third or fourth place is our goal. No, we need Lester, a solid lefty, an innings eater, and except for his tragic bout with Lymphoma, a pretty healthy player to have on that mound. With other teams signing their best pitchers to long term contracts, the Red Sox cannot be oddballs and go the other way, especially when the Yankees are out there and willing to throw a ton of money around to sign Jon if he goes free agent. That must NOT happen. Sign the guy!!!!!!!!

Come on Dojii, even I warned you about this guy last season. He throws radar balls......when he get the ball over the plate, and that means screaming line drives all over the ballpark. He stunk is his short term with us last season, he wasn't all that good in the minors either in 2013, he got bombed when he played for the Dodgers in 2010, and he looked like s*** warmed over yesterday. Palookaville might be too good a place for him. I went around with the disappearing User Name over Delarosa all last season and since he is not here to defend Rubby Doobie I guess you can pick up the mantle. He is a mediocrity in every sense of the word and that might also describe Alan Webster who also got hit tits lit in his debut in ST and most likely will get hit around again tomorrow. Neither one of those two seems destined to do much for us because IMHO they are a couple of underachieving bums.

Well with Peavy and Lackey getting up in years, Buchholz and his health and Doubrant and his in and out performances, it would be foolhardy to let Lester walk when he is most likely the best and most dependable starting pitcher the Red Sox have. Notice most teams resign their solid pitchers; we can't be different especially when we aren't sure how the young prospects are going to turn out. Anthony Renaudo and Henry Owens I would put my money on and maybe Barnes as well, but that is not a certainty. What is a certainty in my opinion is that Alan Webster and Ruby Delarosa are what I said last year they were......a couple of over-hyped bums who most likely will never be able to cut it in the American League. Both got trashed in their pitching debuts the past few days and it is a continuance of what we saw in a small sample size of their shoddy work last year. Yes on Lester, and let's hope Clay and John and Felix make it big this season because we all know that you win with starting pitching. At least, that's my take on it.

All I can say is that we're the RED Sox and that means RED, our main color. I liked the old roadies, circa 1992-2009. They had the deep red that I love. These new road unies look fine to me.

Nava would be better in my opinion because he would hit for a higher average and if he doesn't get a walk his chances of getting on base via a hit are better than Gomes. Jonny is a better run producer with more power and is better suited IMHO for somewhere around sixth in the lineup. The problem with Nava is that he will be in a platoon situation and when he is sitting when a lefty throws we need another lead off man for that day. Too many people say they don't want Bradley thrown to the wolves in his first full season with the team and that pressure could hurt him so I won't argue that point.....at the moment. Of course, say Sizemore does beat out Jackie, couldn't he hit leadoff? He did it for a number of years for Cleveland.

Did you and anyone else around here catch the game today and see that wonder boy we got from the Dodgers who the front office extolled as a real top notch pitching prospect? You know, the immortal Rubby Delarosa......two innings, five hits and four runs. He got his nipples lit just like his ex-Dodger pal Webster did a couple of days before. Great trade that one in 2012; we dumped a lot of useless salary and three major near cancers to our team, but let's stop there. What we got back in exchange personnel wise wasn't worth a warm pitcher of spit.