a700hitter

Good riddance you bum.

What do the physicals by our medical staff entail? Is it limited to "open wide and ahhh"?

And it comes at the expense of a flame out year. The cost was extremely high. Stanton was just an example. The FO gets paid to know which prospects to pump and dump and which to hold onto. They blew it. It's that simple. They could have moved these guys before the 2014 season and gotten a sweet return. If you want to give them an excuse for this, fine. I don't. And the fact is that these players lost a lot of value since opening day. Chalking it up to bad luck is a bit of a cop out, unless you also attribute the successes to luck.

I am not sure what you mean by the highlighted sentence. Are you saying that most teams do not have the opportunity to crash and burn and come in last place as the result of bringing up 3 prospects and handing them starting positions? There is nothing positive to be taken from 2014 except that Big Papi is still a beast with the bat. We traded our good pitchers and kept the trash pitchers. Our prospects blew up in our faces. These prospects were so highly touted that a package containing all of them had a shot to net us Stanton. Now, they could fetch us very little.

I think that management is going to tell him that he needs to re-establish himself if he wants to have a shot at making the 2015 roster. The guy should just be thankful that he hasn't been dumped as a throw in in a trade.

The guy is a shell of himself. He just looks completely lost at the plate.

Betts was considered to be the least major league ready of Middlebrooks, Bradley and XB as this season began. It was not likely that he would see any major league time in 2014. Middlebrooks already had major league time under his belt and XB and Bradley were deemed ready for prime time. Each of them proceeded to destroy his value by failing miserably. These were not bumps in the road or growing pains. These were major thudding failures. Betts-- a star! He has been the best of the lot and has not been an automatic out at the plate like the others. He has held his own with the bat. He is going through a normal transition with some bumps, but let's not blow him up into the next Nomar just yet. We still don't have a position for him yet. As for our pitching prospects, Ranaudo is not going to live up to the hype that surrounded him when he was drafted. He just doesn't have the raw stuff, and it is really difficult for a guy that big to have Mike Maddox like command to succeed with average stuff. Webster is on the fast track to palooka-ville. De La Rosa has shown some promise of holdng down a rotation spot in 2015. The 2014 season was not just a failure in the standings, but it exploded the myth of our deep talent in the minors. It was overall a calamity for the organization.

It is very difficult to carry platoon players on today's pitching heavy rosters. Benches are small. Basically, you need a catcher, and a couple of infielders and outfielders who can play multiple positions. If your roster experiences some injuries, the platoons go out the window and these platoon-type players are pressed into duty against both lefty and righty pitchers and then they are exposed as mediocre at best. Last season, when the team was very healthy, Nava and Gomes were the perfect platoon. This season with the injuries to Victorino and the under-performance of Sizemore and Bradley, Nava and Gomes had to play full time and as a result the stunk up the joint. I see very limited value in pursuing platoon situations. Roster size just doesn't afford that luxury.

I like to analyze what we need whether things are going well or bad. I am glad that there are a few fans who haven't abondoned ship who have the stomach to talk about how to improve the team. However, none of that helps on game day when I do like to be entertained with good baseball ocassionally. I like you am too old for a prolonged drought. I also don't like throwing away an entire season. Sadly, I have few interests beyond the Red Sox.e Red

Pal, where did you get these splits. As of today, I see his 2014 righty/lefty OPS split as .521/.512. I don't see any value there.

Lasik surgery? I think he needs to find a doctor who can do a suck-ectomy. He didn't even offer a glimmer of potential this season. He didn't have anything approaching a hot streak or a power surge in the majors or the minors this season. The only thing that will possibly keep him in the organizational mix this season is that Cechinni didn't do much to force the issue by having a very meh season. If Cechinni had stepped up WMB would have been remove from his path. As it is, Holt and Betts are better options than Middlebrooks for next season. Add to that the fact that Bogaerts may not be the SS of the future, he is a good candidate to get moved to 3rd. I just can't see investing any more time in Middlebrooks.

That's pretty emblematic of how bad the 2014 team has been. I didn't expect a playoff team in 2014, but I did expect competitiveness and some excitement. This has been a horror show wire to wire. From the opening weekend on, this has been a horrible season. Other than David Ortiz, the 2014 gave us nothing to watch. I am a bit pissed at the FO for giving us a season that was a complete and utter failure without Amy glimmer of excitement. If this was a rebuild year, it failed in that regard too. Our top prospects have proved to be major duds and extremely overrated. Our pitching prospects have looked average at best. It has been football season since mini-camp.

Middlebrooks will not be invited to big league camp in March 2015. He has played himself out of consideration for 3B. Barring an acquisition, next season the third baseman will be Holt or Betts. 2 HRs in 200 ABs with a .180 average ends the discussion. There is no hint of any potential in that performance. He has a long road back, and it will start in AAA. Another offer day with 2 k's for AOJr. He will be in AAA too.

They have me at the league minimum too and I like Middlebrooks can't play with the big boys. He's useless-- a big lug that is there solely because he has HR power, but he has 2 HRs in almost 200 ABs. He has played himself out of consideration for 2015. I wouldn't even have him at the big league camp in March.

Sizemore is OPSing .840 for the Phillies.

Will it be televised?

There is no room in our OF for a strictly platoon guy. Injuries force them to play against righties and lefties. Nava just doesn't do enough to make the cut next year.

Nava has only one useful tool at the major league level. He has a good OBP. That's a big plus and I don't minimize it. The rest of his game is substandard. The part that galls me is his baserunning judgment. For a guy who made it to the majors on hard work and little talent, I would think that his base running instincts would be a lot better. He pulls major rocks on the bases on a regular basis. He runs the bases like a blind man that doesn't understand the rules of the game. In 2013, his OBP was .385 over the full season, plus he hit 12 HRs and slugged .445. This year his OBP is down 50 pts, slugging is down 100 pts and he has only 3 HRs. 2013 was a career year, and I doubt that he can repeat those stats. At his current levels, he just doesn't do enough to warrant a roster spot next season. It is possible that he is a 4th OFer next season, but he will not take time from Cespedes or Castillo. He may pick up time from Victorino, but where does that leave Holt and Betts. Among Betts, Holt and Nava, Nava draws the short straw IMO.

I throw my fair share of rocks at Farrell, but I really can't fault him when his closer blows a save, except for the one time when he left him in to finish the inning after blowing the save and his pitch count went to 30. That probably contributed to his tired arm. I will criticize a mange for going to the bullpen if a top line starter like Lester or Scherzer has cruised through 8 innings with a reasonable pitch count and puts in the closer solely because it is a save situation. That was not the case last night. I do share your suspicion of Farrell's managerial abilities for a host of other reasons. People are repeatedly talking about shutting down Koji so that he is fresh for next season. Do we have him under contract for next season, and I just missed that fact? If he is going to be a free agent, how can Farrell just shut him down and prevent him from earning his payday for next season? Some one needs to explain how we could justify shutting him down to Koji and his agent>

Wow. LOL!! Okay so you are older. The jury is still out on the dumb f*** thing.;) How long ago were you banned?

I see that the last place Rangers cut Mike Carp. He is one of many examples of how fortunate we were as a team in 2013. Carp is at best a scrap heap type journeyman, yet he was very useful for the 2013 team. The same goes for Nava. This year our scrap heap guys performed like scrap and our kids performed like kids. Surptrise surprise!! The 2014 team was s***.

After seeing the names bandied aboit as bait for Stanton, it is pretty clear that we don't have the chips to acquire him. It is a pipe dream for Red Sox fans. We might have had the chips if XB, Bradley and Middlebrooks had stayed in the minors and had good seasons. Instead, Ben brought thme all to the majors and destroyed their value.

I think that you have aptly described Ben's strategy in a nutshell. He dumped half the team in 2012, acquired half of the 2013 championship team in the off season after 2012. Now, again he has dumped half of the team during the 2014 season. I guess we should expect a bunch of acquisitions in the off season. He has already acquired Kelly, Craig, Cespedes and Castillo. He's well on his way.

He's a free agent at the end of the season. His agent will not let them shut him down. He wants to build stats to get a bigger contract.

It's hard to get by year after year with 88 mph heat.