a700hitter

Shame on him. You call the cops when you learn that a child is being sexually abused. You don't report it to your employer. Sorry Joe Pa, but you messed up huge and disgraced yourself and the University.

There are two groups-- those who have accurately and correctly assessed the situation and what needs to be done and those who have incorrectly assessed the situation and what needs to be done. There are those who are right and those who are wrong. It has nothing to do with optimism, pessimism etc.

As usual, you state the case more clearly and succinctly than I.

I thought the centerpiece of the VMart was Masterson. I just think that getting a couple of draft picks for a guy of Papelbon's caliber is not something I would ever celebrate. That's just my opinion.

Not a compensation pick.

I didn't see Masterson on that list. Isn't that who we traded for VMart?

Check the list of first round picks. It's not that impressive, with the exception of 2005.

Of course they weren't the worst team in the league and they did have plenty of talented players, but they also had one of the highest payrolls in baseball and they have the highest ticket prices in baseball. I can't buy 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs and 4 sodas plus bring my dog like I can in KC and some other MLB cities. No, I have to go for my lungs to get 2 tickets and often times the seats are not side by side. For all this investment by the fans and the team, the 2011 team managed to pull off the biggest September collapse in history. No small market team has done that. Taking into consideration the investment in the. 2011 team and the high expectationsn the resulting collapse made the season something we'd all rather forget-- a collosal failure. If you want to celebrate such miserable underperformance, good for you. Many others live in the real world and acknowledge that 2011 was disastrous. Proof that things really were bad is that the FO and coaching staff has been almost entirely replaced. That doesn't happen when you have had a successful season. It happens when there is a crisis precipated by failure.

Correction, Papelbon is a great closer, not just a very good closer. He's the best closer in team history. He's not Mo, but he did get to 200 saves faster than anyone including Mo. Anyone who thinks that letting Papelbon walk is a good idea doesn't have an adequate Appreciation of the stability he has brought to the 9th inning for the last 6 seasons.

The managerial search is no big deal. Take your pick from a pool of idiots and dunces and find one that can handle tjhe press. It's not a critical decision. It rarely is. A new manager is not going to come to Fenway and crack the whip on a bunch of veteran stars. It ain't gonna happen. The days of Dick Williams, Leo Durocher and Billy Martin are long over. Get a FO yes man who can make out a lineup, count pitches and give some vanilla answers at the post game press conference. That's who they are looking for and that's who they will get. There are plenty of them available. It's no big deal.

I have read that there will be no Luxury Tax limit for 2012. Is that accurate?

... Or maybe Ellsbury has matured as a hitter and he will continue to perform at very high levels. How are you so sure that he will regress. He's just hitting his prime years. If you are going to get Beltran, that would be a big replacement bat, but he will probably be more costly than Ortiz.

His plan subtracts the 2 most consistent bats of 2011-- Ells and Ortiz and replaces them with Kalish and Lavarnway. That would be 2 big bats departing. I didn't notice him bringing in a big replacement bat.

For a guy who doesn't want to blow up the team, you did just that. You got rid of the team's 2 most consistent hitters- both All Stars- and replaced them with a AAA player coming off spinal neck surgery and another guy with about 12 major league AB's. This would not be an improvement. This team would be fighting with Toronto for 3rd place. What would you consider "blowing up" the team-- a real bomb? LOL!