a700hitter

Ross wouldn't be a terrible choice for a platoon OFer to share time with Kalish or Reddick.

After a story like this appears in the press is when the Yankees are the most dangerous. They are probably waiting for Kuroda and the Sox to exchange figures, and then they will swoop in and give him his asking price or something very close to it.

Welcome to TalkSox, eh.

I wasn't opposed to the idea of Bard being a starter if they had kept Papelbon or replaced Papelbon with an established closer. As the roster is currently constructed, I'd prefer that Bard goes back to the pen, but that could change based on their future moves.

If the quote below is your explanation for saying the my contributions to the thread were "intended to be obnoxious", not only is it gibberish, but it is based on a false premise that I have admitted to knowing nothing about the Red Sox prospects. I have never made any such any such admission. Even if I had made such an admission, saying that my contributions were "intended to be obnoxious" is not an insult? Really?

... and you could have let it all drop after my responding comment said only "nice baseball discussion." I was giving it a pass after being called stupid and obnoxious, but you couldn't even let that go . How petty.

Kalish, who had significant MLB time in 2010, has tools -- really good speed, a very strong arm and a fearlessness in the OF. The fearless outfield play cost him 2011. His neck operation is nothing to trifle about. Hopefully, he will be fully healthy to start the season. I've always liked Reddick's arm and live bat. In 2010, he tore the cover off everything in Spring Training, but consistency has been his problem and that is the difference beween the AAAA player and the major leaguer. He definitely has major league tools to be a good everyday outfielder, but I don't know if he can go to the next step and be consistent. You can't see that at Spring Training. The other thing that you can't judge from Spring Training is heart. Pedroia has very average tools, and he is so small. When I saw him in 2006, I could never have predicted that he would be such a dynamo. Last year, no one really impressed me at Spring Training. That was partly because there weren't a lot of kids in the system that were very impressive at the camp, and in part, because i was pretty distracted last Spring Training. My brother and I had buried our dad about 5 weeks prior to getting to Ft. Myers and the 3rd day into our trip my brother got pneumonia and congestive heart failure. It was a pretty stunning and numbing sequence of events. This year he is healthy and we are really looking forward to the annual trip. I hope to see a lot of the kids that we have discussed on these boards and i will share my sights.

I like the idea too, but the market for Madson would have to almost evaporate for it to come to the point where he takes a 1 year deal. As for the notion of him converting to a starter, I have been wondering about his ability to be a starter. I think he did some spot starting for the Phillies in past years. However, the Sox can't have 3 relievers stretching out preparing to be starters at Spring Training... can they?

I have never said that I know nothing about the Sox farm system or that I don't follow the development of our prospects. I do follow them, and I have been doing it for longer than you have. It was much more difficult in the pre-internet days. You said that I intended to be obnoxious. :thumbdown Your rationalization is as you would say weak sauce. You meant it as an insult, and I took it as you intended. You think you are clever and you try to go right up to the line without going over it. That is your usual MO. You are very good at it, but this time you went over the line. I called foul and you are whining. Keep whining. I'm going to the foul line for my free throws.

I have never said that I don't follow the Sox farm system. I may not follow it as close as some like Doji. I don't crunch their numbers, but I have always known when we have hot prospects in the system and I know who they are. I just put little stock in "hot prospects", because through 45 years of fandom, more of the "hot prospects" have turned out to be luke warm.

Quoting one poster's post that states that i know nothing about the Sox system and then your adding that my contributions to the thread were "intended to be obnoxious" is an offensive personal attack. If you didn't mean it to be insulting and I am mistaken about that, please enlighten me as to the intent of your comment. Was it meant to be instructive for me? What useful purpose were you aiming for with that commentary? If it wasn't meant to be insulting, then please explain.

As the post season passes, the options become less and less and it makes people nervous. These FA players and trade targets that are coming off the board might never have been in the Sox plan, but as fans, we have considered them to be options. As they go to other teams, the anxiety level of the fans rises. They may do something that none of us had thought about. I do think that there is the danger of passing on too many of the available options and being left with inadequate options. They can't expect that any of the solutions will be cheap. If that is what they are aiming for, they are mistaken. The market is very high for pitching this off season. What is the old saying, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. They might not be able to get the value acquisitions they were hoping to get. They may have to pay market price to fill their holes. I think the goal of getting good players below value is either naive or arrogant. Everyone likes to get a good value. If there is an undervalued player available, there are 29 other GMs that would be interested. The other 29 teams have smart people too. In the end, we have to be hopeful and wait to see what happens. This team doesn't need a lot, but they do need to make a few moves. Right now, our minds are all racing with possibilities both good and bad. I like to discuss these possibilities, but others get bent out of shape about it.

If he called out players in September, but he did it in house and not in the media, then how would we know about it?:dunno:

You have always provided perspective.

No, you derailed the thread into the tangent about the Johan Santana non-trade. My remark to E1 characterizing something in his post as "obnoxious" was between he and I. We addressed it and moved on. If it had bothered you, you could have responded directly to my post, but instead you chose to tag your comments onto a post by Dutchy where he disparages my knowledge, and you went onto say that my contributions to the thread were intended to be obnoxious. I'm not playing any victim here. You are just plain wrong. I made a comment in this thread about the state of our farm system which is the subject matter of the thread. That's not sniping. Saying that someone's contributions to a thread are intended to be obnoxious is sniping and petty. But feel free to rationalize further. Your benign intentions are clear to all.:rolleyes:

I don't always agree with you, but you never confuse me.

There many times when this is not true. Some teams that make the playoffs are not very close to the caliber needed to champions. I'm not saying that will be the case with the Red Sox in 2012. If the few holes get plugged, they could be very good.