a700hitter

Would tweets from reporters show up on a Google search?

Who would back pedal about what? Do you always try to be irritating by making so little sense?

I agree. There is no bargain price for an arthritic hip. That condition is usually a signal of a rapid end. Walk away.

You most certainly made an assumption in your prior post that the FO is consciously pursuing a certain path. See your statement below. Also, see your unequivocal statement of your knowledge of the reasons for FO actions in the bold language above. You termed the reasons for their actions as "obvious". I disagree with this assumption which doesn't allow for the possibility that they are just doing a lousy job making it difficult to discern any particular strategy. You should take better note of what you say in your posts. Btw, what old paradigm are you assuming that I am stuck in? Have you been following the discussion at all. I have questioned what direction the FO is taking this off season. Getting Dempster is a poor attempt at improving for the present IMO, and they haven't made any moves to bring in pitching prospects, so I can't be sure that they are building for the future or trying to compete now. Their lack of moves makes it hard for me to conclude that they are doing either. Somehow you can read the collective mind of the FO and based on their lack of moves you have been able to divine their exact strategy regarding pitching. You must be psychic. I don't have any such certainty, but I do leave open the possibility that they are just doing a poor job. Since you can vouch for the fact that they are meticulously carrying out their long range plan, I must be mistaken.

He's always taken the ball for 30+ starts each year. He has not fared that well in the AL in 5 seasons. He could be worth looking into.

You omitted the possibility that they are just not doing a good job. I am embarrassed for you that you don't recognize that as a possibility.

And the Red Sox paid $177 million in salaries in 2012. The salary dump got them under the LT threshold of $178 million by $47,000.

I believe that you are wrong.

Talk is cheap. We may live in a world of political correctness where no one can judge anyone else. Every student gets promoted and everyone gets a trophy. However, even in this world where you can't tell someone that they are wrong because you might hurt their feelings, you don't get any awards for failed negotiations. It doesn't matter if they talked to every team about every player. They made one move to improve the organization's starting pitching which has been horrendous since September 1, 2011. They acquired Ryan Dempster. That is some miserable work by the FO IMO. Feel free to disagree and make your excuses and rationalizations. I have heard them all over and over, and I am completely unconvinced. None of you believed me last year when I told you that we didn't have the pitching, so forgive me for trusting my one instincts this time around.

Yeah, yeah. I told you that I would get back to you on this when you hit 250 posts. I have over 30,000 posts. I am very busy on this site. I can't waste my time engaging the baiting of a newbie with 5 posts. Patience.

Yeah, yeah. I told you that I would get back to you on this when you hit 250 posts. I have over 30,000 posts. I am very busy on this site. I can't waste my time engaging the baiting of a newbie with 5 posts.

Fred, I share your hope that their will be a marked improvement in our starting pitching in 2013. I have to have hope. My hope lies in that Salty will get jettisoned. Couple that with a healthy Lackey and Buchholz and there should be improvement. I have much less hope if Salty stays and we have the same group of guys except Dempster and Lackey are added and Beckett subtracted. I don't hold out a lot of hope for Dempster, but nobody else is singing his praises, and a post-op Lackey replacing Beckett is not encouraging ether. Salty leaving could raise everyone's performance.

I never said that I was looking for a real number 1 this off season. My proposal was to improve the bottom 3. Dempster was their attempt, but he would not have been my choice. I would have tried to add 2 guys to solidify the rotation, neither of which would have been #1's. There were plenty out there that moved this off season. Our starters have been stinking up the mound since September 1, 2011. Since then, we have traded Beckett away and brought in Dempster. I do think it is folly to expect a big improvement with essentially the same crew. Your opinion is different. I have said it over and over that the one hope that I hold out for a marked improvement from this group is a trade of Salty. If they keep him and he catches the majority of games for essentially the same pitchers since 2011, the starting staff will perform poorly.

Yes, those are the ones that I remember. Those statements concerned me a great deal, but I was hoping that he just was not tipping his hand. Based on his actions, I guess he was being honest. Up to this point in his tenure, I have found Cherries to be very honest. Unfortunately, I think that his assessment is a huge crap shoot that can flame out in an ugly way.

I wish you had a little more imagination. You'll never be successful as a GM with that kind of defeatist attitude. I was hoping that you had some good ideas to discuss.

What do you think they should have done?

Due to high volume, I have instituted a 250 post minimum limit for members before I will consider a reply post. Get back to me with this question when you hit 250 posts. Welcome to TalkSox, but only established members can troll me.

Me too. I have been trying to make sense of what they have done in the off season. I am having trouble seeing a cohesive plan. I can't tell if they are trying to be competitive this season or if they are looking more with an eye to the future. The payroll is bloated with uninspiring low profile positional acquisitions, but almost nothing was done for the starting pitching currently or for the future. In a prior post, I said that I believe that the explanation of their off season plan is one of three possibilities: I would add by way of explaining the third possibility that Cherington has several times said that he thinks the starting pitching is improved, and he said this before they got Dempster. I just don't see how he can believe that with much confidence. It's just my opinion, but others disagree without being specific about what they think the off season plan is.

I don't believe that I weighed in much on Sanchez. Very few deals are perfect slam dunks. If they are waiting for perfect deals, they will never make a deal. Arguments can and have been made against each of the deals where we signed positional players. There can always be arguments both pro and con made with regard to any acquisition or trade. It's not an excuse to do nothing.

I have been addressing the deficiency in our starting pitching. What do you think of Dempster? Do you think that he fixes the problem? Weren't there better options?

Bells, look at how many major league pitchers and prospects were traded and or signed by teams this off season. The list is pretty long. To say that there were no opportunities there for the Sox is beyond belief. I didn't expect them to make the number and magnitude of moves made by the Jays, but we almost nothing for today and zero for the future. Why didn't they try to pry away a pitching prospect or 2 for the future? I think the answer lies in Cherington's statements that he believes that our pitching is improved over last year. He thinks that our major league starting pitching is solid right now and he feels no pressure to build it for the future. He said the same things last year, and look how that turned out. He wasted 86% of the money spent this off season on old position players who are not that good. That is not a drop in the bucket, and it makes no sense if people here are telling me that the FO isn't trying to be competitive this year. Napoli, Drew, Gomes and Victorino are not guys that will send fans rushing to the box office. If they are not going to help the team win this year, what is their purpose. I think the FO thinks the pitching will be good and he got these low profile veterans to help him win this year. I don't think he has built a winning team as it currently stands, but he must think they can compete if he ran the payroll up to $170 million.

Good luck to your boys, coach. Hopefully, one of them will make a name for himself and you'll be able to work for a baseball program that makes more than one of the peanut vendors at Fenway.

Are you a GM of team that produces financial reports for it's investors? You are a coach. They typically have a very high business acumen and even higher intellect.

It is never about doing nothing when your business is deficient in a critical area. You may not be able to fix the problem right away, but doing nothing is not progress. You really have never had a responsible position, have you?

UN, you didn't set the parameters of your question. You didn't come close to defining the most important term in your question. I'm not throwing stones, just pointing out the flaw in your question. Boy, I am glad I have you on ignore. You really are not worth reading.