a700hitter

The Middlebrooks era in Boston ended when he refused to play winter ball to work out his issues.

Agreed for the most part. Except for last season when XB looked like he was out of position our shortstops have fielded adequately. The position has been a revolving door since Nomar left.

XB's fielding is a concern. In order to reach an acceptable level, he needs a lot of coaching and work. Jeter was a terrible hack in the field in the minors, but he worked at it like crazy. Nomar had Pesky as his personal coach and he took a couple of hundred grounders from Pesky every day. I hope the XB is working intensely with someone. IMO, it is a necessity.

Romine, a defensive specialist and some other prospect kid whose name escapes me.

Up the middle, they were pretty good in the infield. That is most important for a sinkerballer.

I remain hopeful about XB, but unless the FO is very confident in him, I' d rather move him for a Hamel's before he gets exposed. If they stick with XB, I have to assume/hope that he will be okay.

I haven't seen enough offensive talent from him to justify the lofty expectations. His fielding needs a lot of work. As of now, it is not adequate. The slider down and away also has been his kryptonite just like Middlebrooks. In 2012 at age 23, Middlebrooks 0PSed .835 in almost 300 PA. He was hitting balls a mile. The pitchers found his vulnerability and the guy has been spiraling toward the drain ever since August 2012. XB showed nothing at all in 2014. He got worse as the season progressed until garbage time in September. He OPS'd at .360 in August in 21 games and .426 in June in 25 games. 360 and .426! That is beyond awful. Mario Mendoza for whom the "Mendoza Line" was named had a .507 career OPS. I am hopeful about Bogaerts, but I do have reservations.

LOL! Do you have reservations about XB's hitting and/or fielding?

Yep, Mark Reynolds is his ceiling.

Bogaerts is so much better than what the Tigers rolled out at SS? I think Bogaerts has a long way to go in the field.

Jacko, once they realized that he could neither identify a slider or resist swing at them out of the zone, he was toast. With interleague play,the word has made it to the NL.

You have got to be kidding. This is a great example of why stats, especially WAR are just not the be all and end all of player evaluation. The stuff is just not there for Porcello to be considered better than a number 2. Edit: I think the guy is a solid good pitcher and he has been a durable innings eater, but he is not an ace-type pitcher. He just doesn't have the stuff. He is like Derek Lowe, not Pedro or Schill.

Middlebrooks purchased his ticket out of Boston when after looking like a blind man swatting at mosquitoes at bat for an entire season, he refused to play Winter Ball to straighten himself out. The Red Sox were throwing him a life line, but he preferred to let himself drown. The guy is an obvious jack ass with an inflated opinion of his abilities. The slider low and away will be sending him to his next career while he is still a young man.

He was an Alex Cora type player. Both were versatile smart players who were productive in limited roles.

Amaro probably has a lot of bitterness toward Howard as his signing was Amaro's most glaring and expensive mistake. The bitterness is displaced anger, but he has to stare at this enormous mistake everyday so he lashed out at the guy hoping to embarrass him. I don't really care what GM's say or how they behave. I don't care if they are drunks or whatever. I only care about what they put on the field. If Amaro had Ben's demeanor and tact, the Phillies fans should still kill him on the message boards because he has wrecked their team. I'd be even more upset with the ownership that keeps him in place. So, he told the truth about how he feels about Ryan Howard. I have no problem with that. Personally, I can't stomach all of the sanitized statements made by GM's and field managers. It drives me crazy when one of our pitchers gets beaten like a pinata and the manager says that he had good stuff in the first couple of innings but struggled with his location and got hurt by leaving some pitches up. How about just saying what we all saw. He was terrible today. He'll have to work on some things before his next start. He didn't have "good stuff"! I don't expect baseball players, managers or GMs to be diplomats. They shouldn't have immature food fights either, but sometimes it is okay to say that someone is not doing a good job when he stinks.

Poor Ryan Howard. He will just have to keep cashing enormous checks and being useless. Boo Hoo!

Porcello doesn't have top of the rotation stuff. If he pitches like a solid #3, I will be happy.

Unless he implodes in 2015, he should get a chance to crack the roster in 2016. If Vasquez blows up in 2015 and Swihart is doing well in AAA he could get his shot after the first half of 2015. If Hanigan or Vasquez hit the DL, Swihart could come up for a short stint in 2015.

I prefer to get rid of automatic outs like Ross. As you said, backup catchers are a dime a dozen so why not try another one who might actually not be an automatic out?

Although looking at his numbers, Hanigan isn't an offensive monster.

How does a .180 bat not hurt your team. Check the other thread. I was being told that other cheap back up catchers were no better. Back up catchers usually have the longest resume of teams played for. They are always available and you can usually upgrade from a .180 stick.

The best part of that deal for the Yankees IMO will be Garrett Jones. He'll play well in Yankee Stadium.

When I posted that it was time to leave Ross's Fossil buried, I was told that alternatives to a cheap .185 hitting fossil catcher were rare. No they weren't. And good riddance to that injury prone headcase Middlebrooks and his 30+ HR potential.

Sometimes these agents wait for someone else to set the market and they think that the market will go up as the supply of pitchers gets smaller. This may not be a great strategy as the pool of big bank roll teams may be smaller than the pool of available FA pitchers. As the FAs sign with big market teams like the Cubs the competition for the remaining pitchers decreases instead of increases. Then if you take a team like the Yankees out of the mix and your market can start to collapse. If I was the agent of Shields or Scherzer, I would be looking to get my guy signed first.

If they are the competition, we can get him if they want him.