a700hitter

Does anyone know if we have any insurance on this chump?

It couldn't hurt to see what he has left like the Yanks did last season with Colon. I am not recommending building a staff around him.

Fangraphs will show that he is better than many pitchers in 2012. I would like to see Bard starting in 2012. They need to add a starter from outside the organization. I wouldn't be opposed to the notion or Pedro coming back for one last go round. Sign him cheap with incentives. Let him get in shape for ST and let's see what he's got.

I was hoping they would trade him before the surgery became necessary. Hopefully, there is some insurance on this bum.

Start talking. The accountability and FO and management change issues have been almost completely decided by the owners. We need to see who the manager will be. The discussion of wish lists for next season has been underway for a couple of weeks already. Mine is posted. What's your wish list for 2012?

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view/2011_1025sox_collapse_led_to_theos_departure/

I never thought you were crazy about this, and you turned out to be right. As for Lavarnway, I don't think he could be much worse than Salty behind the plate.

Welcome to TalkSox.

You, me and iortiz and a few others are realists. People on this board criticize us and ask us to be "more measured" in our views, but we don't run the team. Those people who run the team are blowing up FO and onfield management and there will be more to come. I am pretty sure that they know what they are doing. We have been 100% right about what needed to be done management-wise this off-season, yet we are still scoffed at as being negative. Unbelievable! What we witnessed this September was the worst collapse in Red Sox history. It couldn't have been more negative. There is no way to sugar coat what happened, and it wasn't going to be addressed with a few minor tweaks. I am glad to see the owners acting with a sense of urgency and making some big changes. BTW IMO there have been signs that this organization has not been going in the right direction for a few years already. Some of us negative nuts have been posting those thoughts. Maybe if the sycophants in the press had been a little more honest and critical and openly questioned the FO all along (like they should), the FO may have examined their actions a little more critically along the way. Instead the press acted like a Red Sox PR department until disaster struck and now they are hammering them for things like conditioning, beer drinking etc. -- all of which have been issues for more than a season.

Phillies declined options on Oswalt and Lidge. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/24/phillies-decline-2012-options-on-roy-oswalt-and-brad-lidge/related/

Not pure crapola, but a missed opportunity. Those opportunities don't come along every season. When they come along, they need to be seized. The 2008 Sox were a much better team than the Rays. They never should have lost the division to them. They underperformed.

Done. I can see that you won't last long.

The 2008 Red Sox lost the Division to a vastly inferior Rays team costing them home field advantage in the playoffs and ultimately costing them back to back titles.

Average pitch count is not the issue. Francona seemed to be obsessed with getting starters to 100 pitches resulting in the frustrating frequency of starters giving up 7 runs. It seemed to me that Crack Head Washington would pull starters earlier in games when they weren't pitching well. Plus, he had a better bull pen so he could go to it earlier. I don't think average pitch count shows much. I think Ryan's influence regarding pitch count may be reflected in those games where the starters went 115+ pitches. The overall average isn't a good measure if managers like Tito are leaving pitches in to get to 100 pitches regardless of the number of runs surrendered.

Texas had 10 complete games Boston had 2 complete games

Every once in a while the MLB Channel replays the World Series clinching game in 1965 pitched by Koufax. I think there are some good shots from behind the pitcher, but the broadcast is in Balck and White.

Koufax had been racking up seasons of 300+ innings. Add to that the fact that the Dodgers were in the World Series in 1965 and 66 and he was pitching on 2 days rest sometimes. His elbow was hurting pretty bad, but he never had any structural damage. Some Doctor told him that he was developing arthritis in his elbow. Koufax quickly retired saying that he had to think about life after baseball and he didn't want a crippled arm. He retired at age 30. It was a huge shock to the sports world. I believe that if the money was as huge back then as it is now that he would have continued to pitch. He was making $125k which was huge money for the time, taking into consideration inflation and the devalued dollar, it was still chump change compared to today's salaries. He got a job immediately on network broadcasting and probably was making pretty close to what he made as a player without the health risks. He never did have any arthritis problems with his elbow post retirement. I read and heard stories that he would go to Dodgers Spring Training and throw BP into his mid-late 50's throwing in the mid to high 80's and no one could hit him.

The Mets will not even contact his agent.

You were never named by name, but lumped in with millions of others.