a700hitter

I heard the Cubs owner is refusing to give the Sox compensation for Theo, because he realizes that he made a mistake, but JH will not take Theo back. He said that if he wants to throw money away, he'd invest with Madoff.

And a load of money came off their payroll after last season. Yet, they have done virtually nothing. People ask why would Theo trade Garza, but if he is not going to start putting together a competitive team in the next season or two, I say why not get rid of Garza while he has value.

At first, it may appear like he is a genius if we fork over a bunch of prospects, but I'm not worried that we will be parting with HOFers of the future. How would we feel if we were Padre fans and we got what we got for AGon? It has always been my philosophy that the primary use of prospects is as trading chips. Sometimes you have some real jewels and you keep them, but everyone else is a crap shoot. A very small percentage hit it big. We have no top talents in our organization, no Stasburgs, Stantons or Bryce Harpers.

They have to do a lot. They don't need to land a big fish, but they suck it hard. They have a lot of building to do. I have read that their minor league system is not great either. If they are just going to build from the draft it will take at least 5 years for them to be a good team, not a great team.

and they are doing nothing in year 1? They have to do something this off season... no?

I'd like to forget Jenks too! :lol:

Us Sox fans are antsy waiting for some moves to improve the team, but I ahve to laugh that Theo and Jed took over the Cubs and have done basically nothing. They let Aramis Ramirez walk and they signed Dejesus, but that is it. And they have one crap ass team. They are starting form almost scratch. They have one player worth watching -- Castro. I wonder if they are trying to land the big fish like Fielder. If not, they need to add lots of parts and they have a bunch of money.

I agree with you on this. I'd take Garza if we got a sweet deal on him as part of the Theo compensation. That ain't gonna happen. I don't trust that Garza has been having some arm woes. I'd rather them pursue Gio G who I think has more value.

This basically my Christmas list. It seems pretty easy for Ben to get there, but he should probably lock down Beltran first. You really only have one open bullpen spot, because we still have Jenks. We have to hope that he goes all out in his contract year.

Okay, me first. I don't think that I want a lot, and I don't think that what I want is unrealistic. 1. Package Reddick, Dubront, and a couple of other prospects for Garza or Gio Gonzalez. I'd be willing to part with Middlebrooks in the package. 2. Move Bard back to Closer after acquiring the Starter in #1 above. 3. Sign Ortiz to a 2/$24 million deal with $9 million in 2012 and $15 million for 2013. I want to back-load the contract to make some cap room for 2012. I'm not sure if this is how it works, but it is my Christmas list. 4. Sign Beltran to a 2yr/$22 million contract to play RF. We should have enough to sign him without going over the LT cap if Ortiz gets only $9 million for 2012. 5. One more good arm for the pen. No one comes to mind. This could be one of Cherry's under the radar specials. These moves would give us a very strong competitive team: Lineup: 1. Ellsbury 2. Pedroia 3. AGon 4. Youkilis 5. Ortiz 6. Beltran 7. Crawford 8. Salty 9. Scutaro Rotation: 1. Beckett 2. Lester 3. Buchholz 4. Garza/Gonzalez 5. Aceves Bullpen: Closer: Bard 8th inn: Melancon Jenks Albers Morales Miller Under the radar Cherry's Special Bench: Punto Aviles Kalish Shoppach

The Off Season Thread is muddled with all sorts of stuff. I am making this thread for everyone to post what moves you would like the Sox to make-- a sort of Christmas Present for you the fan. If you don't celebrate Christmas, let's just call it a wish list. I'd like this thread to just be a record of what each poster wants without debate or argument. We can argue about it in the Off Season Thread. This Christmas Wish List doesn't have to be realistic. It can be funny, sarcastic or whatever you want it to be. If you would like Pujols to be traded straight up for Punto with the Angels eating Pujols salary, post it. I'd like to close with saying that I hope Santa brings you everything you want, but if he does, it may not be the team I want to see.

I would just like to go on record that i do not spout my opinion as fact, but rather as truth. That is truly my opinion. :lol:

Excellent point.

and compensation for Theo is completely forgotten. The compensation we got was the full page newspaper Thank You card from Theo to the fans.

Plus the Phillies did win their division and made the playoffs.

The Angels fans will not complain if they end up in the World Series in 2012, and we wouldn't be complaining either if the Sox performed as billed and went to the WS in 2011. Quite the opposite happened. There was a giant sucking sound heard all over New England that was the 2011 Sox going down the drain at a record pace in September. As fans, we know that this team need to get better and we have been weakened in the off season thus far.

... and in the end, who knows who is wrong or right. If the team wins, the FO vindicates itself.

There are 30 teams. Some finish last. Some finish first. Not every FO is doing a great job. Are they privy to information that we don't have? Certainly. However, we are able to judge the moves they have made. It's baseball, not science. We can all have an opinion about this stuff. Your opinions about this stuff are tolerated. No one posts that you drive them nuts.

Those who criticize are making the case for doing things differently, i.e. they know better. You have a problem with the criticism. How can you say that you don't? This explanation of yours makes no sense.

Initially, I didn't like the idea of giving up a lot for Gio, but as you point out, he's not some old expensive guy on his last leg. He's young, lefthanded and cost controlled. We'd be lucky if one of our current pitching prospects gets to that point. If we "gutted" the farm for Gio and we decided after a year or two that he is not our guy, he'd probably still have some good market value in a trade, because he is young and lefthanded. He will not lose trade value unless he really bombs out. I'm on board for getting this guy even though he will cost big.