a700hitter

lol!!!

They'd have to blow the Yankee offer out of the water to get Jeter to consider it. They are already offering 3/$45 million. Sox might have to go to 4/$66 million. I don't see it happening. If he could still perform offensively, I'd support it, but he looked bad last season.

I think your package could be a winner for Az. I'm not that high on Upton, because he like his brother seems to be struggling a bit to raise his game to the next level-- star level. I am concerned that he doesn't get there. According to every scout, the potential is there, so I'd be willing to part with the package you are suggesting. They should all be good major leaguers, but none of them are irreplaceable in the organization.

I agree with your assessment. I don't like moving a major league arm like bard either, and I'm not crazy about moving Ellsbury either. His value is too low right now. I like the packages you proposed. My main reservation about Upton is whether he has the same attitude as his brother. We don't need that headache. Thanks for sharing.

Seriously Example, your opinion is as valid as anyone else here, and you are very knowledgeable about the game and the Red Sox organization, so why do you defer to what the FO will do? Yes, they should know better than us, but sometimes they are wrong and we're right. We are allowed to disagree with them. They will not revoke our Red Sox Nation memberships.

No system would be perfect, and you asked me for a systematic approach that would work 100% of the time. No such system exists when evaluating talent, and I think you have intelligence enough to know that. The system the Sox are employing in the Theo years is not yielding results that are as good as that of many other teams-- that being the measure of performance. Litmus test? Edit: BTW my argument was based in fact. It was perfectly logical and consistent. Everyone else was all over the map trying to argue with the infallible one and failing, hence the name-calling and personal attacks against me commenced. As for this issue. Stop being such a [ATTACH]719[/ATTACH] and offer your own opinion of one of the packages being rumored.

I thought Theo was hot for Felix and he was a perfect fit for the Red Sox? What the hell happened?

Werner says 2011 will not be a bridge year. Glad to hear that. He also acknowledged that Theo made a mistake (hmmm someone hols him accountable for something) when he said 2010 would be a bridge year. If he was honest, he would have called 2010 an organizational botch job. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2010/11/werner_blows_up.html

There are times when certain moves can portend of bad things to come in a season. In 2008, it was a good thing for Sox fans and a bad thing for Yankee fans when the Yanks opened the season with two rookies in the starting rotation. It was a sign to me that the Yankees were just rolling the dice on the season, and two rookie pitchers in the AL East were bound to go down in flames. I almost never stick a fork in the Yankees until they are mathematically eliminated, but in 2008 I stuck a fork in them by mid-May. Last year, I would have deemed it a throw away season if Casey Kotchman had been the Sox everyday first baseman. I feel the same way about Salty being the Sox 2011 starting catcher. If that happens, make vacation plans for early October, because we will not be watching the Sox in the playoffs. It's not even Thanksgiving, but I am making that call right now. If anyone accuses me of hindsight on this next October, I will find you, kidnap you and have this post tattooed on your chest.

Catching everyday in Texas after June is really grueling. Not everyone is an iron man like Pudge. Catching in Texas has to take a huge physical toll.

Everyone fails occasionally. That doesn't mean the failure is just the whim of fate. There is still accountability for the failure. What don't you get about that? Just because no one can succeed 100% of the time doesn't equate with lack of responsibility for failure when it occurs. Did you get 100's on all of your tests in your life. When you did get less than 100%, the explanation wasn't bad luck.

Why don't I just tell you my thoughts on how to construct a team that never loses. It can't be done, just like there is no formula to guarantee a good bullpen. Just because there are no guarantees for continual success in any aspect of life doesn't mean that performance can't be evaluated. While no GMs' record is spotless with regard to bullpens, Theo has had a spottier record than many other GMs, IMO.

You disagree with Theo on this? So do I, but I am hoping that it is just negotiation posturing. Last year Tito said that he would be comfortable with Kotchman playing 1B everyday, and then he was traded.

That point can be debated. We'll have to see how that prospect pans out for the Nats before it can be fairly judged. The Twins did improve their team with the move and they did it by moving a guy who is blocked at the ML level by Mauer. He had nowhere to go with the Twins. Maybe they could have gotten more for him. I don't know, but he had no future with the Twins.

I'd prefer that you just discuss the issues of sports and not your perceptions of me. I don't come on here saying that I picture you playing baseball in wooden shoes after visiting a hash bar. Let's leave those personal perceptions out of it. The only part of my post directed at you was the "behind enemy lines" paragraph. The Red Sox are not a small market team. They are one of the elite franchises in all sports. They have plenty of revenue and they spend a lot of it. The problem is not how much they spend, but how they spend it. If teams like the Twins and the Rangers (which combined don't have the value of the Sox) have enough flexibility to fine tune their bullpens and rosters during the season, but the Sox don't, that doesn't add up for me. I don't expect the team to win every season, but when they don't win, I am not satisfied with the sole excuse being injuries. That just shows a lack of analysis. As someone who has been an ardent Sox fan for 45 years, I just can't latch onto that convenient excuse, and I am surprised that so many otherwise knowledgeable fans here take that view. It is something I would expect from the Pink Hat crew. BTW: I have never advocated that anyone be fired, not once... since Grady Little, but he had to go. I would have demoted Bogar to 1B during the season, but Ididn't advocate firing him.

I would have considered a plane crash to be an act of god, unless someone from the FO was piloting the plane and pilot error was involved. Whether the FO should have done more is a legitimate topic for discussion. That is a completely different discussion than whether it "could have" done things to improve the pen. The answer to that question is clearly yes. The Twins did it. Certainly the case for doing nothing was stronger at the trading deadline than in April. IMO, the bullpen was in bad shape when it left ST, and management knew it. I think they believed that a lot of the deficiencies would not be exposed because they expected more quality starts from the rotation. When the rotation started slowly, all of the warts of the bullpen were there for every one to see. I thought the problem should have been addressed early. Others disagree. The decision not to act contributed to the poor finish of the team. I think I am just stating fact in that regard,

All GMs are faced with these issues. If Theo has been presented with an uneven playing field, it is certainly one that is tilted in his favor. He is working for one of the premier franchises in all of sports. The fact that he has more advantages than most GMs should also be taken into account when evaluating his performance.

It is the highlighted portion of the question, that made me think it is snark. I am on record about some of the things I would do for 2011, and my opinion about 2010 have also been stated before.

More psycho analyzing? I may be wrong, but I don't think I have thrown around the word blame very much. There needs to be accountability whether or not there are explanations. What I read on this forum, is that we didn't make the playoffs because of injuries. That is how people are summing up the season. When I point out that our bullpen sucked as well as our defense (at the pitcher position in particular) and those issues are not related to injury, I am told that the bullpen failure was completely unforeseeable and the pitchers' fielding was Farrell's fault and we are well rid of him. When I go on to point out that the lousy bullpen was evident very early on when there was plenty of time to make adjustments, I am denigrated by being told that it was no great prediction on my part, but that it was basically too late to do anything in April to improve the pen without sacrificing the future. I point out that the Twins lost there All Star closer and they did a very nice job of building a solid pen, I am told that the Twins paid too much. It seems like there is one rationalization after another. When I have refuted all of your excuses, you guys see fit to characterize me as some meanie or hater. How juvenile. If you all weren't so intent on proving me wrong and just looked at the facts, you might realize that there were a lot of organizational failure last season, and that's why we didn't make the playoffs. For all the praise Tito got (and I love the guy) he bears some blame, because his coaches did a s***** job right down the line. They let the fundamentals in the field and on the bases go to hell. And yes the FO is accountable too. Injuries were a major factor in the teams' performance, but they did a poor job with building a bullpen and with shoring up an OF that needed shoring up in the first week of April when Cameron's abdomen tore open. They dropped the ball in certain aspects. That's all I am saying. Somehow, the "prove a700 wrong crowd" has turned that into me completely blaming the FO. That's just not true. The fact is that the injuries were not the only negative in our season. That's what I am saying. If you people don't agree with my view on this, that doesn't justify personal attacks and negative characterizations. That's really low rent stuff. If any of you have the stomach for it, maybe you should be assessing Theo's track record for building bullpens. I don't think it is that great but what do I know-- pointing out the facts regarding his record just makes me a hater ... Right? Finally BSN07, with regard to your crack about living behind enemy lines, how many Yankee fans do you have to endure during your daily life? I deal with them everyday, and the whining about injuries and bad luck is met with disdain. I don't even try it down here, and in those rare cases where a Yankee fan offers it to me as an excuse, I just say that injuries are part of the game and not an excuse. I will not whine to them.

Is there really a question here or just snark? One of the things I like about Theo is that he does stand up and take accountability. Since you are weighing in against me on this issue, but you have not asked me a serious question, I have a serious question for you. Theo is no longer the new kid on the block. He has an extensive body of work that we can judge. My question to you is how do you assess his track record in building a bullpen without all the qualifiers about bullpens being inconsistent etc. All GMs are faced with the same frustrations about relievers. How does his performance rate against his peers.

Does he have any dog in him like his brother? We don't need that.