a700hitter

We have a kick ass team and the whole tenor of this board is negative. That is my observation.

Not from where I sit.

Ben has no control of anything with the Red Sox.

Get the circumstances straight. You interjected in support of the person who credited Ben for Beckett. If you interject like that, it is a fair assumption that you agree with that person's opinion. maybe you should have stayed out of that one since you didn't agree with him?

We got your perspective on this trade in your first 100 posts about it. We get it, but you beat the thing to death, and if people disagree with you, you inundate them with lists of prospects and other stuff and then you go on with another 100 hand wringing negative posts. We get your point. The only thing good about your incessant obsessive negativity about the Sale trade is that it finally got you off the Pomeranz trade. Yes , perspective is needed.

Let's try sticking to baseball in this decade.

Then stop the constant hand wringing posts which are overwhelming in number compared to the optimistic posts about our team. It seems like this is a message board for the Phillies. Get some balance. You are not balanced at all in posting about this team.

The difference is that I am in control of the actions necessary to plan my own retirement. I am not in control of the Boston Red Sox. I try not to worry about things that I cannot control, but that can be difficult when it comes to the Red Sox. I have very strong emotional ties with them, but I have been able to not worry about them 10 years down the road. That is not shortsighted, because again, I have no control over any of it. With regard to your your analogy to my retirement planning, as I have said, this analogy is way off the mark, because I have control of things affecting my retirement planning. On the other hand, I have no control over my brother's retirement planning. I love my brother and hope that he will be able to retire comfortably. If he invites me to a wedding for my niece for which he spends $200 k, I would consider that to be an extravagant expense and probably not in the best interests of his retirement planning. Nevertheless, I would enjoy the beautiful extravagant wedding and trust that my brother has a good plan to retire. It is not in my control. That is the better analogy. Enjoy the extravagant party. Ten years is a long way off and you have no control over it. It is a very valuable franchise, and JH has people who worry about its long term value.

Uh, yeah it really is.

I just can't take the constant negative clutter being posted here non-stop. We have a great looking team that should be a lot of fun to watch for the next several seasons and people are fixated on predicting Armageddon in the coming 5 to 10 years. It is bad enough that we are subjected to reams of useless and pointless stats about everything except jock sizes, but the whole tenor is negative. Pete, I agree with what you have said in the past about some very unhappy uptight posters. Some of these people really need to get laid. Maybe that would bring a smile to their faces. LOL!! If a rotation with 2 Cy Young winners plus Chris Sale and 2 other 2016 All Star starters can't bring a smile to their faces, I don't know what will. They will say that they are very happy about 2017 and then follow that up with 20 negative posts about the future. Jeesh people. And we are all going to die too, but why dwell on that while you are alive and having fun. They need to get some perspective.

I have been retired for a year already and I will be turning 58 in January, so clearly I know how to plan long term. How is your retirement planning going?

You Benny Boy Fanboys need to keep track of your conspiracy theories regarding Benny's failures and your self-created stories about Benny's tremendous influence and accomplishments while he was merely a Theo understudy or a temporary co-GM. These fallacious narratives are logically contradictory.

Oh, they don't hate it in a vacuum, but nothing happens in a vacuum...right?

I really don't care to defend any GM. I have said it often here that I have very little regard for the suits that run baseball. I am a fan of none of them. However, when we have a roster full of talent offensively and pitching also, I just try to enjoy it while it lasts. You can continue to marinate in your misery about 2020 to 2025, but I have to tell you that you are a huge debbie downer.

So, Theo was Ben's puppet? What you people won't do to aggrandize Ben when you are not making excuses for him.

f*** off miserable *******. What i can read is a bunch of jackasses (and you head the list) wringing their hands over a trade where we got a top of the rotation young star pitcher in his prime at about half the going market rate. Seriously, on balance there has been very little positive posts about him and the trade. Maybe you can't read. Anyway, you miserable jerks will be unable to applaud all of the talent on the field in 2017 because your hands will be too sore after 2 more months of incessant hand wringing about the coming Apocalypse in 2021-2025.

Cherries had not authority when he was GM driving the franchise into last place, but he had authority to pull off the the Beckett deal when he was really just Theo's understudy and he was temporary co-GM with Hoyer? That doesn't follow logically. It was my understanding that Bill Lajoie was the driver of that deal.

And wake me when the world comes to an end.

2 Championships plus a division win (which has already accomplished)-- If he gets those, I am pretty sure that we will not see last place finishes in the other 7 years.

That would be better than Ben by an enormous magnitude.

Checkmate.

I think that it is really about people being butt-hurt that Last Place Benny Boob got canned. For them DD can do nothing right. He has put together the best top three rotation pitchers in a Red Sox uniform in my lifetime -- one who is extremely underpaid -- and somehow the world is coming to an end. They are like those religious fanatics who were convinced that the world would come to an end on a specific date. I just don't get it.

I waited for 45 years, and in that time there was a lot of excitement as the Red Sox almost always fielded competitive exciting teams -- finishing below .500 in a small handful of seasons in those 45 years (most of them were under crackhead Hobson). I was almost always hopeful and excited until September and they did go to the WS three times (and with a couple of breaks they could have won twice). They went to the post season 6 times. In all of that time, I have not experienced such prolonged hopelessness as those 3 last place years under Benny. In 2014 and 2015, the last excitement in those years was opening day.

It is mind boggling how many Red Sox fans have hated Price from day 1 and now people are hating Sale before he ha even thrown a pitch for us. Wow, it is no wonder why the Red Sox have to pay a premium to sign FA's and why so many players hate playing here. Hating on Sale at this point is beyond ridiculous. These are the same people probably who were cooing Anthony Renaudo and Henry Owens when they were drafted.

Cancer prevention.