a700hitter

Salty is a bigger trade chp than Morales. I am hoping that Salty can get us Gavin Floyd.

Send Morales and Iggy

If they do the Iglesias for Hanrahan trade and Salty for Gavin Floyd, the pitching would be set. If Sands can handle MLB pitching he could be the swingman for 1B and OF. The team would be better than last year, maybe even competitive. On the other hand, Hanrahan could be the next Eric Gagne.

Garza seems to be a TJS in waiting. The Cubs roster as it is looks to be atrocious. They will no longer get to play the Astros 19 times, so they should have the basement all to themselves. Cubs teams throughout the years have had a few exciting players even though the team sucked. This roster offers the Cub fans nothing-- a boring losing group.

The Red Sox have not improved themselves to the point where they are sure to be competitive in 2013. They could very well be a last place team again in 2013.

Cleveland might have a better team than the Red Sox this year.

What I don't understand is all the other acquisitions when they need pitching to be competitive. Why bother with Napoli, Victorino, Drew, and Gomes if they don't intend to compete? These are not guys who will put fannies in the seats, so they are not a fan appeasement moves designed to keep the turnstiles humming while not trying to win. I just don't see the strategy.

Five years? Theo is on a 6 year plan? That would strain patience to the limit. If they lose 100 games for a second year in a row, that would be atrocious. Looking at their roster, they are a bucket of s*** and a boring one at that.

I am worried that the FO interns will be our pitching depth.

Bailey will probably give us 40+ innings and a DL stint.

Done

If the Pirates would take Salty and Morales or Aceves, the Sox should jump at it.

They should be moving Salty regardless of whether the trade goes through. We don't need 3 catchers, and it is time to give Lavarnway his shot. After Napoli is signed, the logjam becomes worse, and other teams will be sitting and waiting for us to DFA him then we will get some lowball offers.

I'm not quite sure what Theo's plan is. He had plenty of money to spend, and Jackson is his big acquisition. Even when the Cubs have sucked, they have always had some interesting players that drew fans to the ballpark. Theo has put together a completely boring roster that is destined for last place now that the Astros are in the AL. I would not be surprised to see them top 100 losses again.

I agree. LaRoche is a better hitter than Napoli and a far superior first base man. As for Fenway hurting LaRoche, I am not convinced of that. I have seen him hit a few absolute bombs at Citifield which is bigger in RF than Fenway. He crushes his HRs. I would have been fine with Napoli because of his ability to catch 60 games and he is right handed. If his physical condition is such that he will be unable to catch, the Sox should have run away from him already.

The difference in stuff between Hanrahan and Melancon is huge.

Plus, the Jays got rid of their loser of a manager.

I wonder if Soriano will sign with the Yankee for less than the contract that he opted out of.

Do we have a lot of those?

Have there been any rumors about teams interested in Marcum. It would be a huge boost to our chances if they shocked us and obtained Santana. I might actually log on for some GamePax.

What do people think of him as a starter?

The Angels logjam was not that bad. We cannot carry 4 catchers. The Angels probably could have DH'd Morales. Trumbo played some 3B last year and without Tori Hunter, Trumbo would still get OF time. They did get a nice return for Morales, and you are right that we will not get anywhere near that return for Salty. I think that a 6th inning reliever is about the best we can do. More likely, I think we get a low level prospect like Pedro Beato.

You would think that he'd do the world a favor and throw himself off of a bluff.

If they want to trade Ellsbury, they should move on that before they sign Ross. It is never good to put yourself in a position where you have excess baggage to trade. Look at the catching situation. When they finalize Napoli's deal, we will have 4 catchers. Someone has to go. Ross was just signed so he will be staying as will Napoi. Unless they are willing to let Lavarnway rot in AAA, Salty will have to go. No one will offer us dick for him. They'll wait for him to DFA him and then throw us a low level prospect. It's also possible that they trade Lavarnway. Either way, other teams know that we have to move one of them. The ruined whatever value Salty had as a trade chip.

I am not downplaying it, but a guy who has reached Lester's level of sustained success at the MLB level got there by working out all the kinks over several seasons. He maintained his success by repeating his delivery thousands of times. He has built up muscle memory that is robotic like every other successful ballplayer. I don't think that he could have strayed from his mechanics so radically that he would have to rebuild the whole thing. Usually, after achieving his level of sustained success, it is a minor fine tuning situation as opposed to a major overhaul. He should have worked it out over the course of a season. I think there is very possibly something else at work whether it be mental or damage to his arm. People think that he will regain his old stuff if he abandons the cutter. I don't think it works that way. Dick Radatz used to tell an interesting story about adding a pitch to his arsenal. He was at the height of his success when one Spring Teddy Ballgame suggested that he had the perfect motion for a sinker. Teddy Ballgame was like a walking god at Spring camp. If he talked to you, you listened. Radatz worked on the sinker all spring and it was coming along really well, but when they broke camp and Radatz reached for his bread and butter, the big heat wasn't the same. He had lost a foot off his fastball and he never regained it. He had no discernable arm injury. I don't believe that he ever had arm trouble, but his dominating gas was gone. He went from being an intimidating overpowering force to a punching bag seemingly over night. I am sure someone will research this and my recollection could be faulty on Radatz. Maybe William s suggested a slider and not a sinker, and he may have hit the DL at some point, but the main point stands. Lester's 4 seamer is not what it had been. Others have inferred that the cutter could have a negative impact on other pitchers. I am just saying that abandoning the cutter may not bring back the fastball.