a700hitter

It will be a pleasure. I am sure that you will refrain from your cheap potshots that are your specialty.

I was looking at a list of Red Sox uniform numbers and the players who wore them, and I found something odd with regard to Ted Williams' #9. Williams broke into the majors with a bang in 1939 and he wore #9 right from the beginning. By 1943 when Williams was in the Marines, he was already an iconic baseball figure. Oddly, in 1944, while Williams was still in the Service, two catchers wore number 9-- Johnny Peacock and Hal Wagner. Both had fairly long but undistinguished major league careers. Peacock had 1 HR in 9 seasons and Wagner had 15 HRs in a 12 year career. I was shocked to see that the Red Sox issued Williams' #9 while he was away at war. I wonder if they just ran out of uniforms or if those players wanted to pay homage to Williams in some way. Regardless of the actual story, I just can't believe the clubhouse guy would have issued #9 to anyone. Those clubhouse guys loved Williams. By all accounts, he treated them great and was a very generous tipper.

I'm a must read. But maybe you can start a boycott of A700hitter.

Can he play the OF with any proficiency. We need a lefthanded OFer to pair up with Gomes.

I think it speaks volumes as to the quality of Cherries off season that Farrell and Pedro are the 2 best acquisitions. Farrell is a completely undistinguished manager whose Jays teams executed fundamentals very poorly and ran the bases like idiots. I don't think Pedro will have any onfield presence after Spring Training.

When did he go on the medication?

Naploi's hip is so bad that we are concerned that it may have degenerated during contract negotiations. Oye!!!

I applaud your action, but some around here will insult you for using the ignore feature.

Is this the type of improvement that JH had referred to earlier in the week?

Point out where I did that in this thread this morning, you delusional fool. My exchanges with OJ and SFF were respectful disagreements. Read back. None of the three of us went nuts. You jumped in and went nuts. Go take a nap, fool. ^ Wow, I am pretty sure that you need to see a doctor.

Just go back and look at the anger you spewed. To say it was hate-filled would not be an exaggeration, because you use the word hate in the post where you called me ridiculous, sleazy and dishonest. Martyr act? I am laughing at you, because you are obviously emotionally stunted, immature and unstable. However, if you can't keep it civil you should take a break until you can discuss things in a civil manner since we are just discussing sports. Your crap mucks up the thread, and it displays for everyone that you are a total loser. Save yourself the further embarrassment.

I think he can be an ocassional spot starter, but I don't think he is a great option if we have to hand him the ball 15 times. We can differ, but that's my opinion. He's never performed well outside of the role as swingman.

So, I don't get baseball. You threw around the term "small minded" in your last post. Now you call me ridiculous, sleazy and dishonest. Seriously, what a jackass. First of all, you misrepresented what I wanted and expected the FO to do this off season, because you are intellectually too lazy to look back to see what I recommended from the beginning of the season. ^ This s*** you are spewing is overboard. Go take your meds or eat something to stabilize your blood sugar. Just go away with this jackass nonsense.:thumbdown

We continue to disagree about the quality of our depth. You like it. I am underwhelmed by it. I think 2 injuries to any of our starters would devastate the 2013 team. Maybe De La Rosa has a break out year, but no one is predicting that.

Let me get this straight. Adding Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle and RA Dickey to Brandon Moorow is only an improvement for the small-minded, but the addition of Ryan Dempster as you put it "did a fair bit to strengthen our rotation." You've got to be kidding.

Injuries to any 2 of our pitchers will sink this ship. It doesn't have to be Lester or Buchholz. We don't have depth that can take the ball every 5th day for 10-15 starts. The rest of your post is a hopeful statement. Spring is the time for hope, but there are no trends by any of these pitchers which would lead someone to be encouraged, so I can't get to the point to conclude that our pitching is significantly better. I don't buy into the "addition by subtraction" theory. We read a lot of that theory after 2011 when we replaced Lackey and Wakefield who had been horrible in 2011. The addition by subtraction theory didn't work out well in 2012, and I suspect that it will not do much better in 2013. We have added Ryan Dempster to one of the worst staffs in all of baseball since September 1, 2011. That's not going to cut it. The other addition is Lackey who only one year ago people argued that his absence would benefit us in 2012. He was part of the addition by subtraction argument for 2012. Now, people are trying to sell me on Lackey being helpful in 2013. I'm not buying.

I was hoping for moves that would make this a respectable team, possibly competitive for a second wild card, but at the least, I was hoping for some meaingful games at the beginning of September. I was under no delusion that this team would return to prominence in 2013. However, in light of their off season moves, I think respectability will be a stretch. I have not set my self ip for frustration. Those people who think this will be a competitive team are setting themselves up for disappointment.

Yeah, I don't get baseball. It wasn't my plan to build the top of the rotation, because those guys are rarely available. So, tell me smarty pants what we have done this off season to strengthen the rotation other than get Dempster. I have my doubts about his prospects for success. Other than that, what did we do? Put Lackey on weight watchers?

I wasn't pointing at you or anyone in particular. I was just noting the sentiment that takes over the board right before Spring Training starts. Afterall, we all need hope.

This is the part of the off season after all of the moves have been made where we try to convince each other that we have a good team.

I disagree. Their efforts were misdirected. If they wanted to field a competitive team, they needed to strengthen and improve the starting pitching. They did not. This is a 79-84 win team most likely. If everything breaks right, maybe 88 wins. If there are one or two injuries to the starting pitching, it will all unravel again like last year. This team may sniff the second wild card, but it will be an uninteresting team that will have trouble staying over .500.

Does anyone, with the possible exception of his mother, care about what Steven Wright thinks?

Winning is every teams goal, but this roster doesn't shape up as a winner.

None of the guys we got will sell tickets. With the lack of interesting players, they will need to win to sell tickets.

I can't imagine what moves Henry could have been alluding to. I don't think we will be adding help to the starting pitching. There is little left from which to chose. Plus, Cherries is on record saying that he thinks the starting pitching is much improved.