a700hitter

Then Amaro will keep him. That is how it will work if he doesn't get a major haul.

When Craig turned his ankle in his first game, my first thought was that he might miss significant time. Afterward, I thought about whether the Sox had checked out the ankle. Our medical staff seems to miss a lot of obvious conditions. The more that I think about it I am more convinced that his down performance is directly related to the condition of his ankle. Ankle injuries can be devastating. Fred and Spud and maybe a couple of others remember Tommy Davis. He was a big prospect for the Brooklyn Dodgers who hit the majors with a splash in LA. He was a fleet footed OFer with all the tools. One season in the early 1960's, hit .340 or 350 and knocked in something like 150 runs. The next season he broke his ankle. He played for about 10 more seasons, but he never again approached being the player he had been before the injury. He could hit enough to keep a job, but he became a liability in the field. He became a journeyman playing for the White Sox, Mets, Orioles and A's and maybe some others. Prior to his injury Craig did not have the gifts that Tommy Davis had. 2014 may not be an off year for Craig. It may be his new norm.

The Phillies have COdy Asche and another MLB ready prospect to play 3B if Asche can't hold down the position. They have no need for a third base project. I agree that the Phils can't get a lot of talent in return for Hamels, but their asking price has been very high. It may be that if they can't get a major haul that they will keep him.

I don't think they have enough prospects to get 2 stud pitchers via trade. It would clean out the organization.

Losing Victorino this season has been a major contributing factor to the team's downfall.

But Marlon Byrd is giving big league production this season and he did so last year too. Middlebrooks blew up. He will fetch nothing until he shows an ability to stay healthy and produce at some level in the bigs.

If Webster gets to the point where he washes out completely as a starter, he probably gets dropped from the 40 man roster and some team grabs him in the rule V draft.

Or maybe they are regrouping for another run at last place in 2016.

This is good inside information. Get to your bookies and make some money on this!!

The kid clearly needs some help, and he is not getting it at this level. If they are going to keep him here, they need to bring in a special instructor to work with him every day. This kid is getting ruined. I saw him in Spring Training in 2013, and he looked completely different. All of his ABs were good ABs, even the outs. They are not doing him any favor at this point. He is languishing.

While managers may know more about the game and their players than we do, often times in the moment they freeze or they just can't see what others are seeing because they are the ones on the spot. That explains poor game decisions, but I can't explain the lack of good judgment in making out the lineup. There is no time pressure with that.

He may be those things, but it also appears to me that his confidence is completely shattered. It is getting reminiscent of the Bard situation.

This is a great point. Some organizations are very good at hyping their prospects and then trading them. The Dodgers and Yankees had been great at that. Once you bring the prospects up to the big club, you run the risk of exposing them and ruining their value. This is what has happened to Bradley and Middlebrooks. We couldn't get a bucket of warm spit for either of them. After Middlebrooks successful debut in 2012, the FO should have traded him and maximized that asset. They are supposed to know a guy's ceiling. The signs of being helpless against breaking pitches must have been present in the minors.

I agree, and it does irritate me that Betts is sitting on the bench so often. Let's see what he has and let him get acclimated to the big leagues. He has a very quick bat and good bat control. He deserves the chance.

Handle it yourself. It was just some advice. I don't know if you realize it, but you step into defend UN? all the time. Keep that in mind ,and don't be a hypocrite. I have no problem with you or any of the others. Our team sucks, and there is a lot to complain about, so there will be plenty of broken records from now until we see meaningful baseball again in 8 more months. You chose not to answer my question about playing Betts vs. Bradley. Do you have a preference?

And how much worse could it have gotten by going to the pen? I never said that the game wasn't on Buch, but it was pretty obvious that Buch couldn't hold a 10 run lead last night, so what could Farrell have hoped to achieve by letting Buch take the beating that everyone knew was inevitable? It was painful to watch. Farrell needs to be trying to achieve something whether that be giving guys a look to see if they can help next year or to build up someone's confidence or to help a player learn a new position, etc., but have some goal. Leaving Buch in was nothing but detrimental to Buch and team morale, which at this point still means something. Build up a winning atmosphere at the end and maybe it carries over to next season. The losing atmosphere at the end of 2011 carried over big time to 2012.

There was nothing to be gained from leaving him in so long. The outing had no chance of building his confidence. Farrell should have cut his and Buch's losses and taken him out before he had a chance to give back the lead a second time. An outing like last night's, damaged the kid much more than it helped him. Plus he used over 100 bullets. If he got him out of there after 75 or 80 pitches, maybe he'd be a little stronger the next time out. This "the season is over" mantra is ********. Pedey doesn't mail it in. Papi is still hitting his HRs. Vasquez is playing his heart out. When Craig returns, he'll be tring to win a spot for next season. Guys are playing hard and trying to change the losing atmosphere, so giving Farrell mulligan after mulligan for stupid move after stupid move is a copout. Beyond not giving the team a chance to win the game, he did nothing to help his pitcher. It was like a cornerman leaving his boxer out there to take a beating.

I am not defending him. Just pointing out that when the guy is right, he is going to shove it in your face because of the amount of s*** he gets from you and others. You need to stop whining like a wuss. Everyone here is a broken record about something. Fred is no different. Sometimes I skip over people's posts when they become repetitive. You should try it instead of getting your panties all in a bunch. I completely disagreed with him about the Drew signing. Yet, he isn't shoving it in my face, because I didn't call him an old crackpot and a broken record and STFU etc. People will treat you the way you treat them. It is as simple as that. I am not defending him. HE does pretty well at that himself. As for just criticizing XB and Automatic Out, Jr., do you remember how he felt about Drew? LOL! Plus, I am pretty sure that he is not to fond of Buch either. LOL! Let me ask you this, should Betts be playing over Bradley? He has had almost 500 major league plate appearances-- hitting .214 and OPS ing at .601 and falling.

If you all want to be angry, think about the stupidity of Farrell letting Buchholz blow two 3 run leads letting him pitch horribly into the 5th inning and over 100 pitches. What was going on there? Was he trying to get Buch a W? He didn't deserve one. There is no way that the outing was going to build confidence after the 2nd inning. It was lunacy. Everyone watching the game could tell that Buch was on a path to destruction last night. If you really want to get furious listen to John Sterling's call of Gardners homer. "Gardy goes Yardy!"

As soon as Fred makes a call, lots of posters invest a lot of time telling him why he is a nut. There is always a visceral, emotional response. I disagree with Fred about a lot of stuff. I thought the Drew move was a good move, but I didn't rant for him to STFU. That would have been stupid on my part, because I didn't know how it would turn out. I still am on the fence with XB. I am hoping that the switch back to SS turns things around for him, but again, I am not attacking him for his XB position, because there aren't any good signs yet. A lot of you attacked Fred from the get go. That looks like a mistake. Now, when it has become obvious to everyone except the willfully blind and those who can't bear the thought of Fred being right, that the Drew acquisition was a bungle and that Bradley can't hit, you are all whining when Fred serves up the crow. Last night, ESPN pointed out the futility of Bradley just as much as we did in the game thread. Also, there is some displaced anger here. Fred didn't make this team suck, so stop all your fuming.

Wow E1! What a bummer! Do you want people to feel bad if we sign Lester and Scherzer? It seems like that would buy them a lot of time to grow someone within the organization who could eventually help anchor the staff.

At least there was some excitement tonight, although the outcome seemed like a foregone conclusion with Buch on the mound even when we were in the lead. Ortiz is a hitting god. Pedroia never mails it in, and I have loved what Vasquez has done thus far. I wanted the guy to come up a month earlier. Buch and Bradley were atrocious as usual.

Don't start. We don't need it. The season sucks enough.

4 walks and 80 pitches and he hasn't gotten thru 4 innings. I hope Jeter hits one off his forehead.

If they are serious about getting Bradley on track, it is not going to happen by sending him out there game after game to fail. He is getting destroyed. He needs a special hitting instructor. Bring in Yaz, or Rice or Dewey or Freddie Lynn to work with the kid for 2 or 3 days. The kid needs help. His career is circling the drain, and I don't think I am exaggerating.