a700hitter

I don’t give him a free pass. Big surprise there. He stuck too long with the ill- conceived pipe dream of Bard as a starting pitcher even though Valentine was not so subtle in questioning the wisdom of the move. Bobby V is a lot of things that people don’t like, but one thing that he is good at is talent evaluation. The young dopey Ben should have heeded that wisdom. The second big mistake that Ben made was not backing Valentine when the Youkilis matter happened. They should have backed Valentine and told Pedroia to pipe down. History has shown that Pedroia can be an ass, and he was acting like one in that situation. I loved Youk, but he was toast. Bobby V as a top talent evaluator knew that Youk was toast and he was setting the stage for his benching as well as sending a message to the rest of the team’s sacred cows. Once management through Valentine under the bus they set the stage for additional player uprisings. They set the stage for disaster. You can’t throw the manager under the bus before camp breaks. It was a poor decision to hire him to lead that team, but they gutted him before opening day. His players never liked him, but he never had problems like he had in Boston, which had a very large contingent of primary donas. Ben let the situation get out of control, and he did nothing to right that ship. It was a very talented group, but Ben let the cancer take hold and helped it to metastasize.

Marrero is our best fielder, but he will not make the team. I guess that Nunez would be an improvement over Devers at 3rd and if Devers spit in the batting order comes around with the game still on the line, Nunez is not an automatic out like most defensive replacements. Where we miss Pedroia most is in the field. He is still a top defender. Swihart is still not an MLB catcher— not even close. If he is our backup catcher, get ready for the opposition to have lots of runners in scoring position. He has hit well and run well this spring. This is the highest his trade value has been in years. Maybe DD can get a nice return for him.

devers looks especially shaky going toward the line.

Yep! A seasoned pro.

I had forgotten that Ben was half of a puppet— only controlled on the bad moves, but his non puppet half accomplished everything good.

Walker is a subpar fielder.

I had noticed your roster. It is similar to mine in that it is heavy on the pitching.

He was handed a team that was stacked with talent who many favored to win the AL East in 2012, and he managed to dismantle that pitching staff by low-balling Jon Lester with a 4 yr/$70 million offer and then he traded him. He gave away Lackey too who went onto help the Cardinals to 2 NL Championship Series and the Cubs to a World Championship.

If Ben had a philosophy, it was hard to discern. Was his philosophy to build the franchise through the draft by getting high first round picks for finishing last, but not drafting any viable pitching talent while having the highest payroll in baseball from offering big contracts to below average talents and never giving a long term contract to a blue chip pitcher like Scherzer or Lester. Is that a philosophy, because that was his record? And now Ben has no team building philosophy, because no team will take a chance on making him a GM. The only bad thing he didn’t do was to set fire to Fenway... and that would have probably been a plus.

I'd go for Lackey or Dickey.

Basically, we would have to give away Bradley to get the Mariners to take Castillo?

or a hitter.

It is early, but his velocity was down.

[h=1]Phillies, Jake Arrieta Agree To Three-Year Deal[/h]By Connor Byrne | March 11, 2018 at 3:58pm CDT The Phillies have reached a multiyear agreement, pending a physical, with free agent right-hander Jake Arrieta, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports on Twitter. It’ll be a three-year contract for the Scott Boras client, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. Both Nightengale and Jon Heyman of FanRag previously reported that the Phillies and Arrieta were headed toward a deal.

How do you guys feel about your teams? My team is very heavy on the pitching without any big stick and no closer. if anyone needs starting pitching, i have plenty to deal: Kershaw Bumgarner Severino Price Pomeranz Santana Odorizzi Cobb Matz.

You have made a fundamental mistake with the facts that invalidates your entire argument.

Not thrilled with Porcello’s performance today against the collection of meatballs that Showalter brought to Fort Myers.

He’s not good enough to start in the majors. That is why he is still in the minors. He is at best a 4th OF in the majors. That is why he is stuck in the minors. If a team thought they could pencil him in as a starter, they would have dealt him and eaten some of the contract. $4-5 million is a reasonable price for a starting OFer, but there isn’t a team that thinks he could hold down a starting job.

Yaz with a base hit. That has a familiar sound.

I am not comparing DD to Theo who clearly knows how to build a team in all aspects including pitching. Ben could never figure out how to draft or build pitching. Ben just doesn't cut it as a GM. He blew his shot in spectacular fashion. He managed to finish last 3 times while choking the budget for years after his departure with huge FA busts, and he left the organization completely bereft of pitching. His record and legacy is indefensible.

I am just saying that GM's blow top picks. i am not relying on one year anecdotally. i am also not giving DD great pats on the back for nailing the #1 and 2 picks, but he did nail it and every other GM had a shot at Miggy too as an amateur FA and he nailed that too. When he had the high picks, he rebuilt his organization in 2 years. Ben s*** the bed in 2013 with Trey ball. In years when DD didn't have high picks like that, he turned them into Scherzer and Miggy. The GM job over-matched Ben who was a very poor leader.

Checkout the 2006 first round.

Bogey has looked like s*** on breaking balls 3 times today -- 3 k's and 1 against a lefty!!! Trade him for Machado while he still has a high value for his "potential".

If he was the hot talent that Ben thought he had signed, $9 million/year shouldn't make every other team blink. i am sure that the Red Sox would eat a potion of it. He is just not that good -- AAAA

Look at the history of the first round. Plenty of GM's have whiffed on high picks. i don't care where he drafted. Landing AGon, Beckett, and Miggy in a 2year period is building a great foundation for a team.