a700hitter

I could live with Marcum. Just give him a thorough physical by doctors that don't work for the Sox.

That wouldn't prevent them from being favorites when the season opens, but yes, they would have to win it on the field. I would rather field their team than what we will be fielding unless we make more moves.

No, but we're were horrible in 97 the year STanley couldn't catch. :harhar: what I remembered incorrectly was that we got Stanley in 96

He could make Toronto favorites in the ALE with Jason Johnson, Buehrle, and Morrow.

This reminds me of when we signed Mike Stanley in the 90s to catch, but he had an upper spinal issue (I think), and he never caught for us. We sucked back then too.

Live by the sword be prepared to die by it. UN is not "antagonistic and defensive". He is obnoxious and he has never even come close to being civil or courteous in his discourse. He's in no position to complain. Second, as to the charge of him running like a coward at the end of the season, yeah he should get called out on it. Fred shouldn't have just implied it. His "life intervened excuse" is lame. He acted like a mega ass in the off season but supposedly life intervened when the team was circling the drain. We all have lives. I lost both parents, my dog and an uncle in the last two years. My wife and I take care of her 92 year old mom with Alzheimer's, so pardon me if UN's excuse rings hollow to me. I will say this. He's not the only coward to run and hide when things went bad. All of those who abandoned the place in September should all be forced to put something in their signatures acknowledging their mistake if they ever have the guts to show up on TalkSox . They should be forced to provide a doctor's notes that says that they were incapable of posting starting in September.

I think Salty is a goner with 4 catchers. Kalish is nothing special and his body is pretty banged up already.

"Dickey Circus" Yes, it is grade school humor, but I find it funny nonetheless. I am with you in your distrust of the knuckleball. I really couldn't take watching Wakefield pitch. I have watched a lot of RA. He is amazingly consistent. Even during his best years, Wakefield was maddeningly inconsistent within games and from game to game. RA throws his knuckler damn hard. Maybe he could help Wright's development.

What do people think about Salty, Kalish and Webster for RA?

Two of the teams involved are in our division.

I forgot about Sands, but I thought he was an OFer. If he can play 1B and OF, he could be the RH bat needed.

We still need a first baseman to share first with Napoli. The starting pitching is still dangerously thin, and we have only one right handed hitting outfielder, who might as well be wearing a meat cleaver instead of a mitt, because he is a butcher in the field. We got 3 catchers in addition to Napoli who should see some time behind the plate. The smart thing would have been to trade Salty before signing Ross and Napoli. Teams now know that we're not going to carry 4 catchers. We are probably not going to let Lavarnway rot in AAA, so we will move Salty one way or the other. This drops his value. Teams will wait until we are forced to DFA him.

I have seen Fred defend himself. I have not seen Fred "constantly putting others down". I have not seen him insult any specific poster without provocation. If he has, it has been a rare occurrence.I have seen him challenge posters with whom he disagrees, but in the same breath say that if he is wrong, he'll be the first to admit it. In the post that started off the bruh hah hah he said: BTW: Please never use UN in this type of argument. It weakens your argument. He is the most abusive poster here bar none. He should have been gone a long time ago.

I agree. A guy who has had arm troubles is not worth that kind of contract. They should go for Edwin Jackson.

IMO, Ben is too deliberate at time and other teams beat him to the punch.

It must have been something that didn't translate on the boards or you were mixing me up with some other posters, but I have been taking a wait and see attitude this off season. Their hands were tied last year, so this year is the year to judge them. I think the team needs pitching. There's nothing negative about that either. Let's just move forward. There's always more agreement among Red Sox fans than disagreement. I have agreed with you more often than not in the past, so there's no reason for us to get ugly with each other.

I didn't throw stones at you first so don't go there. You went off on me a few weeks back in the middle of a baseball discussion spewing this same crap. I basically didn't even answer it, and even though I didn't engage you in the gutter, you put me on ignore because you were so angry. I was okay with that. Apparently your need to rage at people compelled you to take me off ignore.

I wasn't accusing you of being a ballwasher. I was alluding to you when I mentioned the overtired cranky state trooper pumping up his overtime. We all love them. I don't let baseball consume my life. You know nothing about my life so f*** off. As for a drinking problem, my oldest child is 27 years old and my kids have never seen me drunk, not at a party, a wedding or anything. I never drink at my home unless we are hosting a dinner party and I stay sober. In the last 10 years I rarely go to bars, so again f*** off. You know nothing about me.

Fred didn't leave not to take the heat about being wrong about his baseball opinions, so he certainly can call out people that left to avoid criticism. I give him credit for not coming back to rub everyone's face in it. As for predicting last season, most of us tried to be positive in our bold predictions rather than go into the season on a sour note, but there were a few people who cautioned that the unaddressed pitching issue left the pitching so thin that it could unravel and get ugly. I thought it would unravel after the ASB probably in August, but it happened faster than anyone thought. It's hard to predict something that hasn't happened in 46 years. That would really be going out on a limb. However, a few posters thought that it was unlikely that everything would break right for the Sox and they needed everything to break right to contend. I was very critical of an opening day rotation with 2 rookies. I have never seen that work, and I didn't think it would work for us either. Save me the Doubs did great arguments. Bard flamed out in an historic fashion, negating Doub's pleasant surprise. People knew 2012 was in trouble, but if stated too forcefully, it would have been met with derision. Back to baseball. The Tigers resigned Sanchez. They are looking pretty formidable again. What the hell is with the Cubs? They have a tone of money freed up and they have done nothing with it. They got worse in Theo's first season, and without the Astros in the NL, they will have last place all to themselves this season unless they make some moves. If Theo has a 3- 5 year plan, he should start showing some incremental improvement next season.

I agree, but Buchholz is the most solid guy we have.

I don't think our moves so far are enough to get us out of the basement. Our pitching which has been our biggest problem for 2 off seasons will not be fixed by Ryan Dempster lighting up the gun at 86 mph. Unless there are additional moves, the only chance of us climbing out of last will be if Lester turns it around and lowers his ERA by 2 runs and/or Lackey reverts to his Angels days. The rotation is still 4 question marks and Buchholz. Unless all of those questions are answered in a positive manner, we are screwed again, because our starting pitching is only 5 deep or should I say shallow. Our other chance of rising out of the cellar would be if the O's thud back to earth. We need to make more moves to make this team worth watching.

Aw you all have to f*** off and stop ganging up on Fred. Fred's posts are entertaining. If they infuriate you too bad. Let's address baseball and stop acting like bully state troopers who are cranky and over tired from pumping up their ******** overtime. Really, a lot of you FO ball washers ran from the boards like you had entered the witness protection program. Fred is hurling rocks at the FO. He has admitted to being overly critical of them, but he has also said that he prays that he is wrong and if he is wrong, he's pledged to stay and take the heat. You can't ask more than that accountability. Fred left last year in solidarity with his friends who hew felt were banned for no good reason other than having the nerve to get under others skins by expressing ideas different from those mean girl cheerleaders who gang up on posters with different perspectives. Most of the cheerleader types disappeared rather than take the heat last season. Pumpsie and Fred were dead on right last season and those who attacked them were completely wrong about their assessment of the 2012 team. They should be the one s eating humble pie right now. There were a few others who saw the cracks in the 2012 team early on, but who had to be careful about expressing it for fear of ridicule and possible banishment or worse yet, they might be accused of agreeing with a700. LOL! JUst knock it off with taking on the personalities. Keep it to the baseball. "Born into fandom" ... Seriously? Yah, that gives someone a better claim as a fan.LOL!

Now, the Cubs sound like us.

And the Cubs sign Sanchez for 5/$75.