a700hitter

Who was the TalkSox poster who loved this guy a couple of years ago:

The guy (Maholm) is a step up from Wakefield if healthy, but that is about it.

This list was my first look at the FA pitcher list for 2013. If Cain and/or Hammel extend with their teams, this lt doesn't have very much to offer. For those who have been weighing in that the Sox should wait until next year to dip into the FA pool, I am not sure that it will be worth the wait. Starting pitchers Scott Baker (31) - $9.25MM club option Joe Blanton (32) Matt Cain (28) Fausto Carmona (29) - $9MM club option Aaron Cook (34) Kevin Correia (32) Jorge De La Rosa (32) - $11MM player option with a $1MM buyout Ryan Dempster (36) R.A. Dickey (38) - $5MM club option with a $300K buyout Scott Feldman (29) - $9.25MM club option with a $600K buyout Gavin Floyd (30) - $9.5MM club option Freddy Garcia (37) Zack Greinke (28) Jeremy Guthrie (34) Cole Hamels (29) Dan Haren (32) - $15.5MM club option with a $3.5MM buyout Tim Hudson (37) - $9MM club option with a $1MM buyout Colby Lewis (33) Francisco Liriano (29) Kyle Lohse (34) Derek Lowe (40) Shaun Marcum (31) Jason Marquis (34) Daisuke Matsuzaka (32) Brandon McCarthy (29) Brett Myers (32) - $10MM club option with a $3MM buyout Carl Pavano (37) Jake Peavy (31) - $22MM club option with a $4MM buyout Anibal Sanchez (29) Jonathan Sanchez (30) Ervin Santana (30) - $13MM club option with a $1MM buyout James Shields (31) - $9MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout Chien-Ming Wang (33) Jake Westbrook (35) - $8.5MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout if club declines Dontrelle Willis (31) Randy Wolf (36) - $10MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout Carlos Zambrano (32) - $19.25MM player option depending on Zambrano's Cy Young voting placement

There's nothing to like about Maholm. He stinks plus he had a shoulder injury last year.

I'm fine with him pitching at Pawtucket. The problem is that he is out of options, so someone can pick him up. I have a problem with him taking up an ML roster spot, because he is out of options.

Let's pair up the s***** right hander Cook with a s***** left hander, Maholm. At least we would preserve symmetry.

Arguing that it doesn't hurt performance to allow steals at the rate an in quantity allowed by the Red Sox is like arguing that loading the bases with no one out doesn't hurt performance, because Dice K used to pitch out of those situations on a regular basis. It's just a silly notion.

Two points: 1. At least Ben only spends $1.5 on his bag of trash. Theo spent $12.5 million on his dumpster diving before the 2009 season. ($5 million for Smoltz, $5 million for Penny and $2.5 for Baldelli). That was truly a ridiculous amount of money to spend on those moves. 2. Keith Foulke had a devastating changeup. That was his out pitch, and it was a plus plus pitch. He only threw the fastball and changeup and his fast ball was nothing special. Bowden has no plus pitches. He stinks. He should not take up a roster spot. Some day he may be a decent middle of the bullpen reliever, but let someone else train him to reach his potential as middle bullpen garbage. DFA him and take the risk that someone else wants him, and if someone else grabs him, pray like hell that our lineup has the chance to face him. This is a case where stats are used to mislead. Bowden is not Keith Foulke. The only thing the two of them have in common is that both were one 24 years old.

Millwood is better.

But by the time Bowden is the age Foulke was when he won the Rolaids Relief award he may not be throwing that hard any more. My recollection is that Foulke's velocity diminished throughout his career. Foulke also had a deadly change up that Bowden doesn't have.

Didn't Foulke throw a little harder than Bowden early in his career?

I thought the compensation was Theo's agreement not to hire someone from the Red Sox for 2-3 years.

with guys like Ellsbury, Crawford and Pedroia, Bobby V will run a lot. Unlike Tito who was math challenged to the point that he can't compute a tip on a bill, Bobby V. will know the pitchers times to the plate and the runners times and the success rate will remain very high and there will be a lot more steals. HE'll also know the those numbers on defense, and we will see pitch outs, slide steps etc.

The lemonade would have to be warm, and I wouldn't take a chance drinking it.

Some of them really stink.

They need to let go of trash like Atchinson and Bowden. No one is going to give you anything for them.

I agree completely. I hold out some hope that Benny Boy has a rabbit in his hat.

I believe that is a mistake. They risk damaging the reputation of the franchise.

But we have missed the playoffs 2 straight years already. If I am the owners and I am spending a ton for payroll, I don't think I would be unreasonable if I expected to make the playoffs at least once in 3 years.

And Bill James works for the Sox. The mistake that the Sox have made is that the point of the statistical studies was that stolen bases are not a very valuable offensive weapon. Part of the reason why was because of the risk of getting thrown out and losing a base runner. Those results of those studies would be quite different if you virtually eliminated the risk of being thrown out. The Red Sox perverted the results of those studies by applying it to the defensive strategy de-emphasizing the importance of controlling the running game. By lowering the risk of throwing out opposing runners, stealing ases became a very viable and valuable strategy for beating the Red Sox. One of the dangers of arming baseball coaches and managers with advanced statistics is that they are not a very intelligent group, and they are likely to misuse them. It's kind of like letting a chimp fly a fighter jet.