a700hitter

How would you go about rebuilding the team and what would be your time horizon for getting back to being a playoff team?

He may lose votes as a backlash for his DWI, but without that, it shouldn't be close. The Triple Crown hasn't been done in 45 years and his team is going to the playoffs. Ted Williams didn't win the MVP when he won the TC, and it was scandalous-- a Red Sox writer left him off the ballot completely. That was retribution for not cooperating with the press. Unless there is a backlash for the DWI, none of the other candidates should come close.

I believe that Piersall was diagnosed as a manic depressive-- a condition that is much more difficult to manage than an anxiety disorder which may never recur after treatment. He had a fairly extensive career with a fair bit of success, most of it in Boston.

That's your answer. You said that you would give me an answer. I guess you were just being snarky. What else is new. Here's a question for you. How many players have missed time from baseball due to an anxiety or orther mental disorder who came back to be very successful reliable players for several years who relapsed to miss substantial time years later? Here's another question for you. Do you know how many major league players are under medical treatment for conditions such as ADD, ADHD, OCD, depression etc. ? I know there are enough that their medications are excepted from baseballs banned substance program if they have a prescription for treatment. There are strict privacy laws in place so we would not know. We wouldn't know if any Red Sox have been or are currently treated for any of those conditions.

Jimmy Piersall.

Fenway is a small ballpark, very cozy. It shouldn't trigger Greinke's agoraphobia.

I don't think that Nava is an average major leaguer. Even if he his batting comes to major league averages, his other tools are well below average. He can't run or throw. Getting onbase is the one major league average tool that he has. The rest of his tools are below major league average. Overall, he is not a major league skill player, so your question has no applicability.

Is there a higher percentage of people that crack up in Boston than in other places? Too much is being made of this fear.

Cards are my 3rd favorite team for being our victim in 2004. I'll root for them. I hate the Braves.

Never believe anything you see in September. It is not reliable. The kid has heart but no tools.

You need to give it up if Doji bailed on the guy.

Season just ended the results are in that's how we determine results of polls like this. Duh.:thumbdown

5 of 6 against us is nothing to be proud of. They should have swept us.

As for the A's, you don't need an ace if all of your 6 starters have sub 4 ERAs with 4 of the 6 with ERAs under 3.5. Good luck building that. As for the Rangers, Matt Harrison pitched more than 200 innings and Darvish had 191 innings. Both had ERAs under 4 and their team won aq greater percentage of games that they started than games they didn't start. That fits my definition right there. The O's didn't need a single ace, because 3 of their 5 starters had ERA lower that 3.5 and 5 bullpen guys with sub 3 ERAs-- 4 of those 5 had ERAs under 2.5. That's a lot of good arms. It's easier to build around a big ace like Duke did with Pedro. What he has done in Baltimore is much more difficult.

He pitched 45 2/3 innings. The over/under was set pretty spot on. I should be an odds maker when I retire.

He went through a very rough period, and he is apparently stronger for it as he has done very well. Being on a major league mound is pressure. He has handled it quite well. He has been in pennant races and pitched in a big market and been successful. People need to stop making him out to be a mental case. He's not. Manny Ramirez was a mental case. Alfredo Aceves is a mental case. Carl Everett was a mental case. Boston didn't affect their performance. Greinke will go somewhere else and be a top pitcher and people here are proposing to sign broken down warhorses who had off seasons. I don't get it.

Mike Lowell. I don't know if he has been mentioned or if he would be interested, but he would command respect. Guys would play for him.

He doesn't have enough major league talent to stay at this level on a good team. If he is on our 25 man roster, it will be one tip off that we are not very good again. Even Doji gave up on the guy.

I think they let him stay. We banned Red Sox fans who said that the team sucked.:dunno:

The negative things that were said about the team really understated the state of the team as all could see by the end. It was a typical case of shooting the messenger. This was a horribly flawed team from day 1. I am so glad that Cherries specifically acknowledged that the root of the team's poor performance was not injuries, but rather poor pitching, and he took responsibility for not building an adequate staff. That heartens me for a few reasons. In this day and age too many people look to avoid accountability for their mistakes. It's become a cultural thing and the main reason why our education system sucks the big one. Not only will people not hold themselves accountable, but teachers, bosses etc. are not allowed to criticize. Sorry for the digression. The good thing about taking accountability is not to have someone to blame. You can't fix a problem unless you can identify the problem and its causes. I am happy that Cherries is not deluding himself or lying to his superiors, the fans or the press. Now, he needs to fix it. Even the most negative comments about the team early on did not anticipate a last place finish, so whatever they said was completely warranted and truly understated the teams problems by a long shot. I don't know why criticism by fellow fans upsets people. We're all diehard Red Sox fans. We all want the team to do well. Frankly, some people need to grow up and realize that the criticism leveled at their team by fellow fans is not a personal insult. You are right that the pollyanas have really made themselves scarce lately. Some people take that term as a terrible personal insult, which is ironic (apologies YOTN) considering the insulting terms and ridicule used towards posters who dare to offer honest criticism. At the start of the season, I thought this team would probably stay in the hunt for the second wild card spot until late in the season when I thought the thin pitching would be exposed and collapse. I was very disappointed in the off season moves, but I thought they might have enough to keep the fans interest for most of the season. With 5 teams making the playoffs, just playing .500 keeps you competitive. You really have to suck bad to be out of contention by the beginning of August. People lost their minds when I stated at the All Star Break that the team had no shot at the division. Does anyone owe me any money or beer on that one. LOL! At that point, even I didn't think we would end up in last place and still thought we could compete for a wild card. It was really tough living through 6 months of stinking right on the heels of last September. It has been an unending nightmare. Now, that the suffering is over, I am somewhat glad that the team failed so early and was so horribly bad, because it is a wake up call. If we had been competitive for a wild card spot in September, it would have validated the FO for the extremely lousy job it had done. This failure has opened everyone's eyes to the fact that the emperor has no clothes. He needs to go shopping.

AL East is not the beast anymore. AL West kicked the crap out of the AL East this year.

It will not be close. BTW: Neither Williams or DiMaggio won the MVP in their rookie years.

The manager cannot survive a season like this.

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