a700hitter

It looks like another boring day in an interminably boring Hot Stove season. So, I am going to post another poll out of total boredom. Tomorrow is February 1st and pitchers and catchers will report in 2 weeks. Some of us are still waiting and hopeful of the Sox making a significant roster move or two. Others have given up hope of that prospect. Some think we are just fine the way we are. Oswalt and Jackson are still out there, and there have been contradictory reports about them for a couple of weeks. The FO raised everybody's hopes with the salary dump of Scutaro, because it was reported that the move was meant to clear payroll to obtain a pitcher. We anticipated that a pitching move would be coming soon, but we still don't have a pitcher. This will be a 2-day poll. Just a snapshot of what we are thinking at this moment. No 20-20 hindsight for this poll as circumstances change. P.S. E1, you never vote in these polls. At least you never comment in the threads. We won't hold it against you if you are wrong.

Not highly improbable at all. However, the competition has gotten better, so our guys will have to perform better just to keep pace.

I swear to god that sometimes we debate and argue about nothing. Check out the what I have bolded in your post above and check out the quote from my post that started this whole discussion: I think we are saying the same thing, unless you think they will be significantly better. I don't think they will be significantly better or worse. I think we need to significantly improve to keep pace with and surpass the competition. I just don't think we have done enough to be significantly better.

I think you are right on about this. The only area of significant change and upgrade is with the coaching staff and other management functions. If we do materially better with this current roster, it will be due to those changes, because the roster has not improved at all.

The 2011 Red Sox didn't massively under perform. We led the league in runs. Our offense was a powerhouse. Ellsbury had a breakout season and Ortiz was consistently excellent from beginning to end against lefties and righties. Scutaro had one of his best offensive seasons and Salty performed better than most expected. Beckett had one of his best seasons in a while and Lester was a little off, but not by a lot. We performed very well in the pen in the 8th and 9th innings, and Aceves was a huge shot in the arm. I don't know where you are seeing this massive underperformance. It just wasn't so. The portions that underperformed like the back end of the starting pitching has not been significantly upgraded. I am looking at talent coming in and talent going out and that looks like a net decrease or about the same as last year. You accuse others of engaging in conjecture, but it is you that is engaging in conjecture, and I don't think you have a solid basis for it at all.

If fat Miggy Cabrera can play full time at 3B, it can't be too physically demanding. Youk needs to come in 20 lbs lighter to take the pressure off his back.

Looking at Ben & Cherries first off season at the helm and acknowledging that the off season is not finished, at this point, IMO there has been a net decrease in talent on this squad. At best, it is the same.

I am not really conjecturing about anything. I'm not predicting injury or good health or under or over performance. I am simply looking at the talent added and lost since last season. At best, we come out even after looking at the personnel changes. I think that we are a slightly less talented squad, because our infield depth is not good and we don't have a true every day SS. If we didn't improve, I don't know how much better we can expect to perform. How can we project that a team with slightly less talent than the squad that finished 2011 will improve to 95-96 wins? I just don't know how anyone gets there. Add to that the fact that the Yankees and Angels have improved, the Rays have kept their young staff together and they have one young kid poised to break out. The Rangers look strong again and the Tigers have made significant improvements too. It doesn't add up to me that we should expect a better outcome than last season-- without conjecturing about performance or injury.

We haven't improved. What we have added and lost doesn't add up to any talent improvement, so we are relying on better health to make the improvement to a playoff team, but the competition has made significant improvements in their rosters.

It is irrelevant to to 2012 pitching staff whether he gets a team friendly deal extending beyond 2012. So you are saying definitively that the net improvement in the starting pitching due to Bard moving into the rotation will exceed the negative effect of him being moved from his spot as the 8th inning guy? And do you think that difference will be significant?

No one disputed Bard's awesomeness as an 8th inning guy which was his role in 2011. Moving him out of that role results in a huge hole in the pen. Melancon has not done anything close to what Bard has done as the Sox 8th inning guy.

I'll buy off SFF with some Red Sox tickets.

The last audit of TalkSox revealed that I have been right 98.7 percent of the time. The last time I was wrong was in 2006 about Pedroia, but few people thought he'd win an MVP, so I ha some company on that one. FYI: I also predicted the Super Bowl score in the head the last time we ran that contest.

If Aceves goes into the rotation, I think that would weaken the pen more than it would strengthen the rotation. Doubront is a long shot, but the best shot on the list. Other than Padilla, the rest of that list has virtually no chance of contributing anything of significance in my opinion. You mention Julian Tavares as an example, but by the time Taveras was pressed into duty in 2007, he had spent 14 seasons in the majors and he had been a starting pitcher for 3 seasons for some crummy teams and he did show some ability to eat innings and win as many games as he lost. He spent most of his career as a reliever and was good enough to stay in the majors for 17 seasons and stay healthy. Silva and Maine are bums. Cook is injured beyond repair. He has nothing left. Miller is a bust. Padilla is the only shot. He's the only one of the sorry bunch that might do something, but he hasn't been healthy in 3 years. You are still not saying how the much the decrease in the quality of our bullpen (resulting from moving Bard) will offset the improvement Bard brings to the rotation. I don't think Melancon will be close to the weapon in the 8th inning that Bard had become. It really comes down to the delta between the improvement to the rotation brought by Bard and the decline experienced by the bullpen by losing Bard. I just don't see that as being significant. Finally, I think the addition of a starter easily could be the difference between a 95-96 win team and a 90-91 win team that misses the playoffs.

Jackson is a whole lot better than the garbage heap of Silva, Cook, Maine and Padilla. I have no doubt about that.

Injuries and health issues can't be predicted. There is absolutely no good reason to believe that there will not be an injury to one of the top 3. We don't know what caused Buch' s back fracture and whether it can be a chronic problem. We don't know if Beckett stays healthy etc. Looking at the makeup of the staff, assuming health or injury, I agree that Bard could be an improvement over what was in the 4th slot last year, but we just don't know. He could just as easily blow up. He's an unknown at this point, but I'll concede that he should be an improvement. That still leaves you with TBD in the 5th spot if we don't make an acquisition. Additionally, you are not saying how the much the decrease in the quality of our bullpen (resulting from moving Bard) will offset the improvement Bard brings to the rotation. I don't think Melancon will be close to the weapon in the 8th inning that Bard had become. It really comes down to the delta between the improvement to the rotation brought by Bard and the decline experienced by the bullpen by losing Bard. I just don't see that as being significant. Even the top 3 stay healthy all season long, a black hole in the 5th spot from day one would be even worse than what we had there last year.

Benny Boy needs to go to Oswalt's home and walk in there with a $10 million contract and tell him he has until the end of the meeting to sign. If he doesn't sign, the Sox need to tell him that the offer is off the table and they will go in a different direction and they will announce to the press that they have no interest in Oswalt. That will cause his market and leverage to shrink dramatically. An approach like this is the only chance the Sox have to land him IMO. Ben, get the hell off your couch, buy a plane ticket and go see Oswalt. One of us will drive you to and from the airport. You are not going to make this deal talking on the phone. Get going and get it done.

This is disturbing. Why can't he just pack it in? http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120129/COLUMNISTS0317/301290050/John-Torres-Wakefield-plays-waiting-game?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|p

I am planning to be in Boston in April for the Yankees (4/21), in May for either the Orioles or Cleveland (haven't decided yet), in June for the Nats, July for the Yanks and August for the Royals. Long Island isn't solid Yanks or Mets, but probably more Yankees at this point. It used to be more for the Mets.

You get charged for an hour but only get 50 minutes.