seabeachfred

I don't know how that came about but somehow Henry sent the word out that Lucchino was to worry about the business end of it and keep his palsied hands out of baseball operations.....it was in good enough hands with Cherington and Farrell in control. If you run back over the years every time Lucchino tried to meddle in the baseball end of it some bad s*** happened. He needs to be handcuffed to his office and kept there.

That was me and I regret I even said that. Fact is almost all of the free agents are going to be playing ping pong this winter trying to ascertain how much money is out there and doing a round-robin team tournament before putting their name on the dotted line. What irritated me was all those names that were bandied about but when I went lurking on other teams boards I found the same thing there. All kinds of names thrown out and all sorts of questions from fans like us just what who their respective teams were after. That spoke volumes that we weren't alone out there. I just hope we can keep most of this crew together, add a couple of young rookies into our everyday lineup and keep the talent flow coming. Hell, we're the only baseball fans really celebrating this year, though truth be told when summer hit last June I would have been just satisfied with an AL East Title but instead we all got the Big Cahoona.

A total gem my friend. Jung, you hit a home run with that one. I would amplify what my friend Bellhorn said, though. The Tiger series was tougher than you might have intimated, but when you put it all together look who we had to go through to win this thing this season.....Price and Moore of the Rays, Verlander and Scherzer of the Tigers, Wainright and those tough rookies for the Cardinals. To do that took a solid effort and can you or anyone else even imagine if we had to do that with the 2012 where we would have wound up? I'd say three out vs the Rays and see you later baby.

Interesting thread guys and it proves something conclusively to me and that is we had better sign a couple of our free agents. The names Morse, Ruiz, Davis and Young do nothing for me. Morse is injury prone and stunk last year, Ruiz stunk as well, is 35 and became a problem for the Phillies, Davis is a s***** fielder and doesn't hit RH's to save his sorry ass and Young hasn't in anybody recently. Sign Napoli and either Drew or Satalamacchia. Let's try to keep as many of our stalwarts from this season together. We still have room this year for Bogey and Jackie.

Normally I would totally agree with you on what you said SK, especially your take that chemistry will figure itself out. However, in the case of the 2013 Red Sox we may have a total exception to that rule. Almost to a man they all have said they knew they had something special the first day of Spring Training when they all seemed to come together and believed they could be a team of destiny. That beard growing caper was first suggested by Jonny Gomes who already was sporting one---and before you knew it they were all letting their whiskers grow. This time the players and chemistry were interchangeable and I don't know if I will see quite an ensemble of characters again fusing together as our team did this year. I still can't get over how they over-achieved and wound up as the class of baseball. Thank God we're all Red Sox fans on this board save a couple of our misguided pals.

I have to hand it to you and others Bellhorn who can live in an endure and hopefully thrive in a cold weather climate. As you might know I lived my first 14 years in Queens and I can tell you right off I didn't like the cold then either. Some people love it but give me the sun and warm weather any time. Now if only we had the Red Sox out here.....oh, I take that back. The fans out here don't deserve them.

I got the chills just reading that, not to mention a crick in my neck. It was 84 today in sunny Southern California.

I'm sorry SoxSport but that's ********, pure ******** and nothing but ********. Low balling Napoli will do nothing but get the guy angry. He has already proved his hip is fine; he had a solid year for us and developed into a very good defensive first baseman. The idea of replacing at first with a mediocre power guy in Nava is ridiculous and I don't like to think we may get stuck with a inferior player like Loney or Morneau or Kendrys what's his name because the front office was trying to be clever by half. As for being foolish not to come back to Boston, that may be true but you have to understand it IS about the money, and just because he wants to stay in Boston does not give the Red Sox the right to take advantage of him. We have replaced good players with inferior players repeatedly in the past......Vaughn with Offerman, Damon with Crisp, Bay with Cameron. We have to stop this kind of s***. Right now we have nothing to bitch about. Our team won it all and we are all basking in their glory but it only takes a couple of personnel mistakes in roster composition to sidetrack a team. I have a friend out here, unfortunately for him a Dodger fan, who still moans about how they let sparkplug Steve Sax walk after their title 1988 season, replaced him with an over-the-hill Willie Randolph, and never won another title. That's a long time to complain about something and we don't ever want to see our team in that kind of state. Cherington has to stay smart and get those players who know how to win, and, especially, how to play in the charged Boston atmosphere.

Core chemistry is right SoxSport and unfortunately, too often teams start moving away from that much to their chagrin later on. Cherington did a bang-up job in getting the right people last winter; he must not undo that by letting people like Mike and Jarrod get away and sign guys who are not a good fit for the Red Sox.

Dream on my friend.....Ellsbury is as good as gone. There are at least two suckers out there who will fight one another to empty the bank for him. We will not.

f*** Kemp too. How the hell do you think he hurt his ankle anyway? You know, the ankle that is still sore and has still not healed? He got by loafing on a ground ball while thinking that the opposing infielder would go to first instead of home which the infielder didn't. He went home and suddenly prima donna Kemp tried to turn on the after burner and slid awkwardly as he got tagged out....f*** him and double f*** the Dodgers.

That might work IF-----there are real quality free agents available for signing with your team. With more teams signing up and extending their young players the well might be pretty dank, and whether they are over the hill or not, replacing those four players won't be easy since they are still contributing players. Your farm system sucks right now and until it starts to show some of your prospects down there doing more than they have your team will be reduced to be a pack of gun slingers going where the money is. And get this---don't you or any Yankee fan tell me they are willing to let Cano walk. That can't and will not happen. He is your best player by far and to lose him would mean no matter what mercenaries you sign the Yankees will be worse off rather than better. You cannot and will not let Cano walk no matter what you have to pay him.

What a load of ******** that vote was. How they can give it to Francona, a one and out pre-wild card folderoo and screw the guy who took a team that was toxic from head to toe and a pathetic last place team to a WS Title in one swoop is a total sick joke. It had to be a popularity contest and nothing more. If all Red Sox fans aren't just a tad pissed off by this I don't think they have a pulse. Total crap!!!!!

Keep saying it Palodios; maybe someone in the Red Sox front office will hear you. We don't need to shake things up and we certainly don't need to make a big move.

Stop trying to do us favors Jacko. You like Beltran so much, how about letting your Yankees take him. You need him more than we do. We have Brentz and others in the minors who are close to being ready while you guys don't have s*** on the farm. Beltran is going to be 37 next season, has lost speed, arm strength as well as power. He would clog up our outfield and keep two good players on the bench where they would be sulking and unhappy and we cannot afford to have that.

Trumbo would be a 250-260 hitter but would hit 35-40 homers and drive in over 100 runs playing half his games at Fenway Park and would provide good protection for Papi. One other point....he seems to save some of his biggest hits for the Yankees, walk offs and all. I would much rather have him than Morales, Morneau or Loney, and the guy can also play the outfield and in a dire emergency play third base. Still, I would rather have Mike Napoli back than the lot of them.

Oh I know that Forsyth, but I wish the Red Sox would just give Napoli that three year contract I'm sure some other team will offer him and get on with fine tuning themselves in places where they need help. Don't laugh, but I think we should concentrate on the battery. We can use an arm or two in the bullpen and then get our catching up to par. Unlike most of you, I want to see them resign Jarrod Satalamacchia. Certainly he's no Johnny Bench but he has improved markedly the past few seasons, and even our pitchers think he has improved in his game calling. He still strikes out a lot but at l east he doesn't swing out of his ass all the time as his 40 doubles and higher batting average demonstrated this season. I would sure like to see the Red Sox make a couple of moves during these GM meetings this week.

We should just resign Mike Napoli and stop talking about Belt or Reynolds or Hart or any of those inferior combinations. We know for a fact that Napoli loves playing in Boston, is great in the clubhouse, is a leader, a good defensive first baseman, a run producer and still young enough to give us three or four more productive seasons. Instead of talking about Beltran or Hudson, finish the job taking care of things in house by signing players who have already produced for us instead of guys who have been out for a year, have been underachievers or are way past their prime. RESIGN NAPOLI!!!!!!

Hey we see eye to eye on this thing. Double no thanks. The guy is going to be 37 and other teams need him a hell of a lot more than we do. Besides, look at his background the past decade. He has become nothing more than a gun slinging mercenary going where the money is the highest. He would be no real team type player with the Red Sox. His loyalty to his respective teams has been negligible, and though I don't blame him for seeking the highest payday he can get, I think he would be a very bad fit for the Red Sox. We are set in RF and have a good platoon combo in left. If Bradley is given a solid chance backed up by a guy who can hit lefties we are set out there. Besides we have guys on the farm who are close to ready and our needs are elsewhere.

This is another thing I don't get---this stuff about sending Nava packing to some other team. Hell the guy wasn't chopped liver this past season. He hit 303 and hit for fair power, played decent defense and showed versatility. He is a late bloomer and a player who knows he can't let up for a minute. Those kind of overachievers are like pearls to a ball club like ours and for those reasons alone we should not so keen on trading him away.

I still don't get all this verbiage about trading or getting rid of Jake Peavy. Yes, he has a couple of rough outings in the post season but he is still a quality pitcher who won some big games for us and would be a very good No. 4 or 5 man. Why bring in a 38 year old like Tim Hudson who best days are certainly behind him and who'se to say that he'd be an improvement over Jake anyway. If we have to jettison someone make it Dempter.

As I said earlier Spitball, the new Red Sox policy paid dividends big time for us this year and rumor has it some teams are going to be following our lead and doing similar signings themselves. Unfortunately, there are a few get rich quick teams who think that throwing a lot of money around will net them a prize in the post-season, but as you pointed out three teams were notorious for doing that recently and they hit a bad bump in the road this season. Still, one thing we all learned this season is that a good clubhouse manned by decent players who are all dedicated to winning and are not blinded by their egos can raise a team to heralded heights. It is up to Cherington to keep finding these types of players and when he does try not letting them get away.....like Napoli and maybe Satalamacchia. As for Drew and Ellsbury, Boras will make certain they go for the dollars no matter how miserable they may wind up in their new surroundings.

Not crazy at all NC84, just a feeling and an opinion. However, from where I sit we can get at least the same production and probably more from Lackey and Peavy. Then again, this is just my opinion.

Two things Mark. Choosing between Ellsbury and a new contract or Bradley as our new CF I would take Ells in a flash. However, I'm not kidding myself. Jacoby wants that big payday and we aren't going to give him what rumors have other teams willing to offer. Maybe a lot of that is hype but there are a lot of teams with a lot of money and some of them will offer the big bucks while we seem to have turned thumbs down on those long contracts and you can't say that is a bad policy considering how the Red Sox finished up this year.