a700hitter

I am underwhelmed by the talent pool of our minor league pitching. Only Barnes intrigues me, and he has to prove that he can dominate at AA before I get excited about him. He'll be turning 23 this June, so his development has not exactly been on a super fast track. The other 2 guys don't spark my interest. DeLarosa is probably a bullpen guy. Webster is probably little better than Zach Stewart. The guy gives up way too many hits in the minors. I don't see him making it with us at all.

BTW, I said 50 years, not 60 years. If you are going to pick nits, at least be accurate when you do so.

So, you were arguing to just to argue. I wasn't getting defensive, just pointing out your very ineffective technique of arguing irrelevancies and picking nits. I was just trying to help you communicate better. I am sorry if you took it the wrong way.

Really lousy answer. I didn't ask you what a Bridge Year is. I asked what the bridge will look like. Who are all the young talented guys that we are waiting for and when will they arrive? I am extremely interested in any young pitchers who can hold down a rotation spot in 2014. What kind of team will the Sox be in this bridge year? At least you acknowledge that some moves need to be made in a bridge year, or do you want to back away from that? By team friendly, short term deals do you mean moves like the ones made last year for Aaron Cook, Ohlendorf and Carlos Silva?

Not at all. Interest in the team is very low right now. Did you check in on game threads in late August and September. Even the looney Sox fans weren't interested. Whether it is the lowest interest in 50, 40, 30 or 10 years is really irrelevant. What is relevant is that interest in the Sox is not high right now and tickets go on sale tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how the sales do? You like to argue irrelevant non-foundational statements, and I have no interest in finding data to support something irrelevant. BTW, don't you live in Seattle or some other far away place? So, how could you gauge interest in the team in Boston? It's low. No one talks about them and no one has anything good to say about them. It's been a really long time where I have seen such disinterest in the team. I think it will be reflected in the advanced ticket sales until they make some moves. As for making things up, I read your "Bridge Year" post. What do you have to support that claim-- any stories, FO interviews or statements, or is it just your gut feeling based on nothing but your own projected feelings? ;)At least my opinion is based on my interaction with other Boston fans (friends, family and co-workers) in Boston and other observations during my frequent travels to Boston.

What kind of Bridge are we talking about-- a last place bridge, and .500 bridge? Talk of a Bridge Year causes me a problem, because without saying more, we don't know where the bridge is headed or the timetable for completion. At this point, it is just a term to provide a convenient excuse for failure in the off season and the regular season. If this will be a bridge year because the FO will eschew overpriced veterans in favor of building a young core for the future, most people could understand and support that. That would probably also involve sending some current veterans away in trades for prospects. Most people could probably support that too. A lot of people liked the Lester for Myers idea. However, we are not seeing any building for the short term or the long term. We are seeing a lot of nothing. That doesn't help today or the future. If I am going to believe this is a bridge year, I have got to see some activity, some building towards that purpose. Doing nothing would not be a bridge year. It would be a throw away year.

It's amazing how you always seize on irrelevant portions of a statement or argument.

A 46 year low?

Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 am. The interest in the team is at a 50 year low. The ticket lines should be very short.

Good relievers can get plenty of saves on lousy teams. Look at the number of saves accumulated by Joakim Soria for lousy Royal teams. Edit: I don't see the correlation to being on a winning team.

Saves are not his only consistent number. Plus, he got 38 save for an 81-81 third place team from a terrible division in 2012.

I don't think he has made as much as KRod, and he is much better than KRod.

He hasn't gotten to Mo money yet.

Papelbon was as consistent and reliable a reliever as anyone in the game not named Rivera. He's never had an arm issue after 2006. The guy is a stud closer and the Phillies paid the price for a stud. Last year, we had a psycho and a lame fill Paps spot, and as some of us predicted the end of games were like bad horror movies.

If Bailey stays healthy, there should be enough arms to get by provided the starters can stretch out beyond 5 innings. Deep innings from your starters can cover up a pen's weakness and keep the reliable arms fresh.

We should have offered them Zach Stewart.

Other than Bailey (who hasn't pitched more than 45 inn in the last 3 years) who are our reliable late inning guys? I'll go with Tazawa and Miller (as alefty specialist), but that is not close to being a deep pen.

I don't think Floyd's price will be very cheap. I'll bet he gets $8 million + per year.

The bullpen in late inning and close game situations was the worst in the league in 2012. It was a horror show.

It would be pretty sad IMO if the FO doesn't recognize that starting pitching is their biggest need. Second tier pitching would be a big improvement, because their staff is very poor and incomplete.

No other team is going to give us anything for him unless he re-establishes himself. I saw almost everyone of his outings when he came back from Pawtucket. He was brutal. He was also brutal for about 2 months in AAA. Did you see him in September. Based on what I saw, it is a real longshot that he can be salvaged. If the Sox plan on him as being anything other than a middle reliever, that would be poor planning IMO.

It is more likely that this move means that Morse will play 1B and LaRoche will walk.

I am not out on a ledge yet, but I am not going to want to hear any excuses if we come out of this with just some dumpster diving. I am not big on excuses, because they are just loser's laments. There will be arguments that they were patient and that there were no short term fixes and yada yada yada. Just excuses. Doing nothing doesn't help in the short term and I fail to see how it helps build for the future. If they decide to reuild, then trade you aging valuable big ticket guys like Ortiz and ... Oh, that's right we don't have any of those guys. Doing nothing doesn't help now or later. I am holding out hope for moves this weekend after the non-tenders.

Agreed. Other than Bailey, I don't think any of those guys will fetch more than a PTBNL. As for Bard, after watching him September, I am fairly convinced that he is through-- no command and his velocity is down about 5-7 mph.