a700hitter

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.

There is about a month left to go before pitchers and catchers have to report. There isn't a lot of time left to finalize the roster and Ben has about 4 moves to makes. The starting pitcher is the most critical. If they are going after a pitcher of the caliber of Pat Maholm, Ben and the FO is taking a big risk on the season, and I think is unlikely that they will be in the post season in 2012. Too many things would have to break right for the team to make a run at the post season. Usually, not everything goes right.

The earliest he could be ready would be in the second half, but there are usually some setbacks. It's more likely that he will not throw a pitch for the Red Sox until September if at all.

I guess the Cubs will be ripping off SD for years, until he gets fired by SD and Theo hires him.

He's not as good now, because he has not been able to stay on the field throughout a whole season.

This is a great point. Those guys will not clog our future.

I didn't think that he was.

He also has been pitching in a ballpark that has about 12 acres of foul territory where the ball just does not carry at all at night. Also, he only throws 40 innings per year over the last 2 seasons. It's hard to compare that to Paps.

Theo hired the SD GM (the former Sox guy) to be the Cubs GM.

I hope he does, but if he has a Pap type year, he will gets Paps type money in arbitration. He's not the value acquisition that people think he is. He is a fair market value acquisition from this point on. If he remains cheaper than Paps on an annual basis, it will be because he hasn't performed as well as paps.

That's powerful, and my apologies to the FO defenders, but it is also affordable for the Red Sox. If they have a strong dominant team out of the box this season they will renew interest in this team. Combine the renewed interest with the lucrative 100 year anniversary promotions and the Sox should do very well financially in 2012 even if they blow the cap. I am harboring the hope that all this talk about cheap alternatives in the press is a clever misdirection play by the Sox FO to lower the expectations of the players agents. There is no reason that they need to act like a small market team. I realize that their expenses are out of control for 2012 thanks to Theo, but a lot of money will come off the payroll in 2013, plus the 100 year anniversary promotions should be lucrative. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet in the short term to maintain the value of the franchise. They have established a brand that has excellence as one of its hallmarks. That reputation of excellence is hanging in the balance just a bit after last season. They can spend a few extra buck and go steam rolling through the season as a powerhouse or they can go cheap and roll the dice that all of the "ifs" work out and there are no injuries. It's foolish to roll the dice for a few million when the reputation of a billion dollar enterprise is at stake.

Do you think they might be talking with Madson? Would they bring him in as a reliever or a starter?

Let me know when he is dickless. Then I will take him off ignore.

yes, Papelbon is in a very elite class. Everyone who argues against him say that he is not as good as Mo. Well, as you have pointed out, he he drives on the same highway as Mo and there are only 2 or 3 cars on that highway. That's elite. Mo is 42. Soon Papelbon will be on that highway by himself. Unfortunately, he'll be driving it for the Phillies.