a700hitter

Teahen is very good, Sweeney is a great hitter, and Dejesus isn't bad, neither Grudz. If Sweeny can stay healthy and the rookie Gordon comes throught, they'll be better than they have been in years.

Too much negativity, even for me.

This is an embarrassment.

It's good to see Pedroia start of with a solid hit, but his excitment, inexperience, and lack of speed got him thrown out at 2nd.

I am so glad that we got rid of him and spent all that money for 4 years on Drew.

Opening Day should be a National Holiday. Nothing is more emblematic of American culture.

Teams usually change personnel first. That is what they are doing this year' date=' and the FO has opened the treasury for Theo and he has spent freely. If they don't compete again like last year and there is another August meltdown, I think he is in danger. They might give him one more shot, but I would not be surprised if he got canned or demoted. I actually criticize very few things about the team. However, I do have my pet peeves, and I do tend to beat them to death sometimes. I really like the top two-thirds of the lineup, but I am concerned about the bottom of the order. They'll need to step up if we are going to win. I am very concerned about the bullpen. That could be the Achilles heel of the team. I like the top of the rotation a lot, but we need a 5th starter to make the rotation formidable. Although I have criticized the bench as not being deep, I think it is adequate to get through the season barring major injury. Finally, you may be shocked to know that I think Pedroia should be okay. I don't have a problem with him, nor am I rooting against him. I just think it was a very poor management move to give him the job without competition this spring. When the team is putting so much into this team, I would have had a better backup option. If this guy starts slow and crumbles under the pressure, the FO will have to concentrate its efforts on getting a second baseman. If they had a better backup option, they could just concentrate on building the pen. I hope you think this is a balanced view. I think it is. Apology accepted. Enjoy opening day!

Only three things 1. Now that I know the details of your employment it is obvious to me that you don't know what it is like to work for a company that is intent on profits. I didn't drop the Fortune 100 on you looking for your respect. I dropped it on you because big companies are all about profit and their operation is not nearly as public as a major league ballclub. Boards of Directors know that losing market share will eventually result in lower earnings and lower share value. Baseball clubs know that losing games and not making the playoffs will hurt the value of the franchise. If they lose, when they think they should be winning because of the resources invested in the team, they will change people in their baseball operation if they are serious about making money. 2. I haven't backtracked one bit. Please explain. 3. Stop whining about my criticisms of the FO. Like you said, this ownership group does not care about fan criticism, so I am not hurting there feelings. As for you, if you are coming here to be uplifted, maybe you should consider listening to a motivational tape or practicing some self affirmation therapy. 4. If you think that criticism of the FO based on Johnny Damon is irrational, then you must be delusional. BTW the Boston FO was widely criticized ouside of Boston last season, or didn't you seem to notice, and they weren't getting much positive attention nationally this offseason with regard to the Drew signing. 5. Please make a better effort not to put words in my mouth.

I am picking them to win the NL Central.

LOt's of people passed on Vlad. He ended up being a bargain. WIth Tek, I really think they could have gotten that done for only three years. Who else was after him? The Yankees had Posada.

The bullpen is weak except for close. Gom will look like a genius if the 40 year olds go down with injuries.

If they don't make the playoffs this year, it will be only 3 out of 5 and two years in a row out of the money. Not making the playoffs at $130+ million and $160+ million will be checkmate for Theo.

They were the better team because they had the better starting pitching. Pedro would have negated that advantage. Clement embarrassed himself and the whole Red Sox organization with his meltdown in game 1. Think about it. Our game 1 starter in the playoffs had been banished to the bullpen by the Cubs in the stretch drive in 2004. What was the FO thinking? This doesn't even make sense. I wouldn't have signed him with the expectation that he would blow his arm out after 1 1/2 years. Did they sign Clement with that expectation? I'd rather have 1 1/2 years of Pedro than Clement. You never know when a pitcher's arm is going to fall apart. Don't give the Red Sox FO so much credit because it happened with pedro' date=' because it happened with Clement too. I am not saying that they should have paid him whatever he wanted. They should have paid him market value. The Mets established the market. The Red Sox should have matched. As for the fact that you would rather have Dice K than Pedro, I would have said that I would rather have Pedro in 1998 than Clemens, but that doesn't mean that I agreed with letting Rocket walk. Pedro and Dice K are not mutually exclusive. We have three very high paid pitchers right now. I don't know how they view Theo's performance' date=' and neither do you, but they were clearly embarrassed by the performance of last years team and JH was talking about building the team aggressively soon after the season was over. This puzzles me, because you are a fan, not part of management. It doesn't matter to me that they are good enough to sell seats. As a fan I don't want them to max out their profitability at the expense of the product on the field. If they want to max out profits, let them fire a few VPs. ...and that direction was Coco Crisp? Bad direction especially since the direction included the not insignificant fact that Damon makes the Yankees much better. I am not calling for his head. I am stating what I think will be the outcome if this team doesn't make the playoffs. That's a prediction not a condemnation. Again' date=' you are putting words in my mouth. You just can't help yourself. Selling seats doesn't matter to me. In fact, I wish the demand for tickets was less so I could get better seats to more games. Selling seats only matters to me because it gives them the resources to put out a superior team. I've made no secret of my anger when the FO, past and present, would play the poverty card by telling us they couldn't spend like the Yankees while they were selling every seat in the house for the highest ticket prices in the league. That was BS and too many fans believed it. I hope everyone realizes that it was BS after this off season's spending spree.

Agreed. I would not rush him to the majors, especially in the heat of a penant race in Boston.

We have to turn the tide against KC as they have won 5 of the last 6 against us, or something like that. But it's a new season and the team is healthy so we should sweep.

You constantly misstate my position. First of all' date=' Foulke was a good move. Without him we're going into our 89th year without a championship. Second, there was absolutely no reason for the FO to know that he would break down after one year, but in my mind his mental state had as much to do with his collapse as his physical state. His arm is still healthy and he's not that old. He finished strong last year and Cleveland was prepared to throw a nice piece of change at him. You can't blame the FO for not predicting when Foulke would just give up. He was the right man for that 2004 team and Theo gets big kudos for bringing him in after he extensively courted him. Are you saying that you think Theo screwed that one up? Please notice that I have asked you what you think instead of assuming what you think, as you do with me. Do you think that my criticizing some moves of the FO is some sort of blanket condemnation of the FO? Again, notice I am asking you, not assuming. I give them credit for the good and great moves, e.g getting Schilling, Foulke, Ortiz, Beckett, Matsuzaka, and finding Papelbon. Unless I do nothing but uniformly praise the FO, it seems (notice the use of the word "seems") that you think I am totally against the FO and that's just not true, but what would be the point of me posting that David Ortiz was such a great acquisition? Who would debate or discuss that? BTW the resigning of Varitek that you mention as a good move is debatable. How much good service have we gotten from him since he re-signed? If they were banking on Pedro going down, they should have been aware of the long track record of catchers in their mid-30's declining precipitously. That seems to be the case with Tek too. I for one think the money would have been better spent on Damon.

Damon is also an excellent leadoff hitter who is a baserunning and basestealing threat. Drew is not. That in addition to the fact that Damon has similar power and average and he is dependable and sturdy. These are significant advantages for Damon. The biggest value that Damon would have had if we kept him is that he wouldn't be on the yankees. There haven't been too many good available CF's available the last couple of years.

Honestly, most of us just lost interest in this argument several days ago, so no inference can be drawn from others not chiming in.

Crisp is swinging the bat pretty well lately.

That is the purpose' date=' but the Red Sox don't need to be as patient because they have more resources than most teams. Yes, I am still turning cartwheels over luxury of the picks we got for letting Damon walk to the Yankees. :thumbdown I don't consider age 32 to be old for a an All Star major leaguer. If it is, maybe we should consider dumping Papi after this season even though his power is increasing every year.