a700hitter

I understand Gomes wanting to play everyday. Players need that kind of confidence, but the organization needs to realize the limitations of its players if it is going to be successful. Cherries is kidding himself if he thinks that Gomes is anything more than a good platoon player. Pairing him with Sweeney is also foolish. Sweeney would not even be at an MLB camp if Kalish wasn't injured again. No other organization wants a slow outfielder with 1 homer in his last 500 plate appearances. The hardest thing he hit last year was the door with his hand.

It's propaganda to try to generate interest in an inferior team with no exciting players. Valentine was a problem last year, but he was not the reason for Bard sucking. That was Bard's doing. Bobby V could see early on in Spring Training that Bard was not up to the task and he offered him a way out. He asked him flat out if he was up to it and whether he wanted to pursue being a starter. Bard should have taken that as a sign that a veteran talent evaluator like Valentine didn't think he had it, and he didn't have it. It became more clear with each outing. The kid stubbornly insisted that he could do the job, and he s*** all over himself. Cherries was committed to the experiment, and Bobby V had just had his balls cut off over his comments about Youkilis, so he was not in a position to pull the plug on the experiment unilaterally. I still feel believe that he left Bard in that game against Toronto to s*** all over himself so badly that the team had to send him to the minors out of sheer humiliation. If you remember, Bard just thought he needed to straighten out a few things before his next start. The kid was clueless. He couldn't find anything for the next 3 months in the Bullpen in AAA and then back in Boston.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/2013/02/17/for-jonny-gomes-red-sox-are-opportunity/FLopHuZLZTwUINcAEHZsnK/story.html This article about Gomes also discusses Sweeney and Nava. When these guys are your OF options, you don't have a very good team. Gomes is a second rate player and the others have trouble making it to second rate.

I think Middlebrooks is more valuable at 3B than 1 st. First baseman are easier to find than good tird baseman. Iglesias, Bogy and Marrero will have to force the issue and get a break to earn a starting spot at Fenway. Unless he gets injured, third base is Middlebrooks' position for the next few years.

The Jenks' contract was a beauty. I was at Yankee stadium for what I believe might have been his last appearance. There were only a handful. I swear that he was so fat and out of shape that he got winded taking his warmups.

I think that there is probably validity to this. IMO the computer age has added to society's intellectual laziness and together with texting it has caused a big decline in social skills.

I am pretty sure that Williams mentioned all of those nicknames in "My Turn At Bat". If you do a word search for the other nicknames with the book title, you might be able to get page cites.

Like Papelbon in 2011.

All of his nicknames are in the second paragraph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams http://books.google.com/books?id=UjF4uWnhRmMC&pg=PA213&lpg=PA213&dq=my+turn+at+bat+%22teddy+ballgame%22&source=bl&ots=3J2dfUL7D4&sig=VsW8kFEQpqI54Ij00Bgwf_9QCRo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DZIgUZSSMIPf0gGMz4CgAg&sqi=2&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=my%20turn%20at%20bat%20%22teddy%20ballgame%22&f=false

Yeah, nothing good can come from that for the Red Sox.

It's a pointless exercise of nationalism that proves nothing. Any organization with a substantial investment in a pitcher should deny permission to participate in the tournament. Pitchers should not pitch fr anyone other than their employer team for the duration of their contracts. I am convinced that Dice K ruined his career by going all out in that stupid tournament in 2009. The Red sox were fools for granting him permission when he was under contract for another 4 years.

I don't think Morales and Aceves are realistic options for anything beyond some spot starts. They are not good options for a rotation spot, IMO.

the fact that this keeps making the Spring Training report makes me believe that the staff is pretty ticked about this.

Did anyone get an email from Stubhub regarding the changes to their fees etc. for selling and buying Red Sox tickets. It looks like there will be an additional $1.50 per ticket fee for MLB that comes off the top before the 15% commision is applied against the purchase price. On the good side, the buyer's fees will be stated up front in the costs and not added later at checkout.

I don't get all the negativity about Lavs bat. I thought he was supposed to be the real deal with the bat, and the problem was going to be getting him a position because he was weak offensively. This is why I never put much stock in prospects. Fortunes change overnight with kids, and our organization seems to be wrong more than it is right with evaluations. Anthony Renaudo anyone?

This is good news. There's no need for him to go behind the plate with all the catchers that we have, so that should help. We need 25 bombs from him this year.

I don't share that opinion.

I don't think it is accurate to say that the $12 million is entirely attributable to Crawford. Even if it were, the $40 million difference between Dice k and Crawford is not insubstantial. Also, we only had to suffer through less than 2 years of Crawford. Dice K was screwing up our rotation for his final 4 years.

Aceves is pitching in this year's WBC. I hate it when our pitchers play in that stupid pointless tournament.

Worst contract in Red Sox history-- Dice K. $102 million for 1 mediocre year and 1 good year. It dosen't matter that half of it went for the signing rights. It was still $102 million. It makes the Yankees contract with Carl Pavano look like a bargain.

This declaration from Larry L is bizarre. I really think this FO is clueless. They are cutting the margin of error so thin, despite spending $160 million, that they need to lower the expectations of the fans because they must realize that this can spiral down the drain like last year if they get a few injuries.

I think they have all but given up on him. They'd prefer to try to achieve some level of respectability this season and not throw in the towel than to give some of the kids an opportunity.

Yep, I agree. I don't know who they think they are fooling. It's not a good team, and that will become evident pretty quickly once the season starts. Band aids like Napoli, Drew and Gomes are not going to help. Bandaids for the pitching was the direction that they needed to go, but didn't.

It doesn't make much sense to me. After this season, the window may be closed on Iggy because he'll be getting pushed by Bogy and then Marrero. This was the time to see if he could play at this level. We're not going to win anything this year. They should have given the kid a shot. Basically, I think that his window is very very small right now. He'll have to hit like crazy at AAA and take the job from Drew if he wants to be part of this team's future in 2014 and beyond.

Youk will bash us on the field.