a700hitter

I just noted that he was the only first place prediction that I had read or heard until SFF brought Schill's prediction to my attention. Are you on record predicting the Sox to finish first?

Lester working at a nice pace. That is such a big key for him.

I n pre-game commentary, Bradford was wondering why Napoli had been a cleanup hitter so rarely in his career. Here's a clue Rob, Napoli is not good enough to be a cleanup hitter--for any team.

Check the thread. The terms were very specific. Who would have more greater WAR-- Youkilis for Chicago or the guys we got back for the Sox. I also gave you a win for the money that we got for Youk.

Pedroia is one of the reasons to pay admission this season.

The Youkilis trade was the subject of the sig bet.

I have a generally low opinion of managers. It not limited to Farrell. It's rare where you find a manager with an IQ beyond double digits. BTW, you still owe me on a sig bet from last season. You disappeared for months, but I didn't forget.

I am hoping that Farrell has a positive effect on Lester, Buch and John "Chicken and Beer" Lackey, but as a manager, I think we will see fairly early on that the guy is a dumbass.

You are out there on your own on this prediction. The NESN Homers won't even give them a chance at that.

I attribute it to her being menopausal and I am just generally cranky and ornery.

It's only Opening Day and even the Homers in the NESN studio can't give this group a shot at winning the Division.

^ a master of repartee.

Good riddance to the longest offseason in history.

He is intentionally a douche. I can deal with that. What's your excuse?

You are the only angry pothead that I know. Seriously, you need to chill. Put me on ignore you hypocrite.

It looks like the bad weather should hold off long enough to get the game in tomorrow.

Tough injury. He must have gone into shock pretty quickly with such a catastrophic injury.

Many have been banned, but there is only one king of TalkSox.

As a Red Sox fan living in NY for my entire life, I have had to develop some social skills. You should try that. I hear that they have self help books and seminars for nasty misanthropes.

Boy, you have worn out your welcome all over the country.

i started as a700hitter and I remain. You coward.

So, it will be okay if I throw it up to you periodically when we are arguing?

Fred, as fans, we all want hope as the season starts. I have picked up on your optimism as the season has approached. I read your posts and don't read into them preconceived notions. Last year, I let my hopes work their way into my predictions, even though I knew they were unrealistic. This year I didn't let hope cloud my predictions. I still have hope, and I did make some positive individual predictions. I am looking forward to opening day. Happy Easter!

Okay, the season starts tomorrow. Here are my predictions: First out of the box, this team will finish last for the second year in a row, possibly 4th place if one of the other teams blows up. You don't replace Josh Beckett with Ryan Dempster on a bottom 3 starting pitching staff on a last place team and your team will not improve appreciably. Lester and Buccholz should rebound and pitch well. Lackey, at best, will return to his 2010 performance level. Dempster will pitch to a 4.50 ERA and a .500 record. The starting staff will improve from a bottom 3 staff to a middle of the pack staff -- a little below the middle. I expect them to start well but an injury or 2 will hit and the lack of depth will cause the pitching to spiral downward and it will burn out the bullpen by the middle of August. The end of game bullpen will be much improved from last year's terrible showing. It will finish in the top half of the league. It will be in the top 3 earlier in the year, but injuries to the starting staff and a lack of adequate depth will stress the pen and hurt their performance. The staff will perform much worse pitching to Salty than our other catchers. Ortiz will miss significant playing time and the offense will have trouble scoring runs. Middlebrooks hits 25 HRs and knocks in 90 runs.

I thought "ignore" was for cowards?