a700hitter

XB batting 3 rd is a little optimistic.

People will not fill expensive seats to see AAA prospects making rookie mistakes and losing more than they win. The need a professional level competitive product to get premium prices. They know it and will act accordingly.

Agreed.

Webster is starting this weekend? What about Workman or even Doubront.

Three rookies in the starting rotation? If that happens, make vacation plans for October, because our season will be over by June. The growing pains from three starters will sink the staff and kill the bullpen. I will take any bets that if those three guys break camp as starters that we will finish under .500. Does anyone remember when the Yankees broke camp with 2 very highly rated and accomplished prospects - Kennendy and Hughes in 2008. I never count out the Yankees, but that year I threw dirt on them by the end of May. If Rubby gets some good experience the rest of the way in 2014 and works out the growing pains now then we can get away with adding one of the other guys, but not both.

Of those guys, one maybe 2 will be worked in at the major league level. If all those guys are added in with Bradley, XB, Vasquez, Rubby And Workman, they will be at the bottom of the standings again. It ain't gonna happen.

I don't think they will work in more than half of those guys next year, because they know that would result in sub .500 last place team. They will not let that happen. Why are people fixated on us getting Joc Pederson? Are we negotiating to get him? Also, Webster is not major league material. He doesn't have the command. There will be new veterans on the team next season. You can bank on that.

Ben is doing a great job!

I don't know what point you are trying to make. We are debating future strategy. Precisely, because this FO knows how to field a winner and understands the importance of winning, I am convinced that they will not opt to go the route of a total youth movement, because that would be a recipe for years of losing.

He's the best prospect that we have, but I didn't mention him because he is more than a year away. One guy is not a staff, and I am not seeing the talent in our system to fill a rotation in the next couple of years.

Have there been rumors about them selling the team?

And when will any of these guys be producing for us at the major league level. If we are looking to turn this around using the talent in our system, it will take at least a couple of years even if they live up to expectations. They need to pull themselves out of the cellar and field a consistently competitive team sooner than that. If they are prepared to go for a total youth movement, they had better be prepared to finish 4 the or last for a couple or three more years, and they had better be prepared to have ticket marketing deals like 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs and 4 soft drinks for $40. This are the kind of promotions are offered by last place teams. Maybe they can have a Bark at the Park game where we can bring our dogs. That's a popular promotion for losers.

The FO managed to build such a bad team that Diehard loyalists like us are disgusted. All they needed was a .500 team and fans like us would be walking around wearing our 2013 Championship shirts and hats with our chests puffed out. Crazy fans like us will always be with them, but a lot have headed for the hills. Look at this site as an example. Posters come and go over time, but we have had an exodus. This place has had less fights and acrimony lately than anytime I can remember. They checked out because a lot of people don't want to watch a losing team, because it just isn't fun. Pete, you and I just love baseball. If the major leaguers went on strike, I'd watch the minor leaguers. We are in the minority. Many other fans will just find other ways to spend their time, and they will not be that easy to win back. No matter what people think of our FO, they are all good businessmen and they know what they seriously screwed up.

The World Championship gives Ben a mulligan. Had Will Myers caught the flyball and the Rays had knocked us out of the playoffs in the first round, Ben would be getting his resume ready after his 2 nd sub .500 last place year in 3 years. He'll get another shot next year to right the ship, and he will have freed up payroll to spend. If he makes some good moves, he can turn things around, but I am not buying into this "right path" stuff. I don't have a lot of faith in the long term strategy or capability of the management group. WMB has lost his luster almost entirely and XB and Bradley are not looking like future stars. Maybe they are having growing pains and each of them will be productive players in a year or two, but i think that it is doubtful that Bradley will be a star. I hold out some hope for XB to be a star because he is still very young. I like Vasquez. However, I don't see any core of offensive stars coming anytime soon other than possibly Betts. Do we have a good power hitter in the organization? That is missing, and the Boston Red Sox need a some power to be successful. They will have to go outside for that. Finally, I am not a big believer in the kid starters. I am curious about Renaudo, but if he is going to be a star in the majors, it is going to have to happen soon. They have a lot of work to do, but s***ing up things this badly doesn't give me a lot of faith that their strategy is on track.

Only the farcical 1997 Marlins finished in last place the year before and after their World Championship. Let's not sugar coat this. It is historically bad.

He was a terrible manager in Toronto, but last year he was magic.

At least it will not be another 1 run loss.

Gomes has butchered 2 balls tonight. Part of last year's magic was that Goes fielded great.

They are looking for a way to lose another 1-run game.

Other than the Dodgers, what team can follow the Yankee philosophy. I don't think Ben has any unique philosophy, and he spends more on payroll than most teams. His moves worked out last year. He had the same philosophy this season and practically the same team and it blew up in his face.

He is not the SS of the future. Drew was obtained more for his glove than his bat. XB was not doing the job at SS. He couldn't move laterally and his footwork was not up to par.

His absence hurt more than losing Ellsbury. Losing both of them proved to be crippling.

and this is a unique philosophy? Does it also include letting key homegrown talent walk? The 2013 team was built on quite a few free agents- victorino, Napoli, Comes, Drew, Dempster and Uehara. They were all signed in the off season before 2013.

I think you are right about the fact that in 2004 and 2007 they were so talented that they won despite the buffoonery in the FO. Thank you Duke for 2004. I also agree with you about last year. I had picked them for 4th place. Toward the end of the season my wife asked me how I was so wrong about the team. I told her with complete honesty that I had never seen a season go so perfectly and that I did not think they were close to being the most talented team. Let's face it, if Will Myers doesn't misplay a fly ball, we don't get out of the first round. If Tori Hunter's glove arm was 2 inches longer, we get dominated in the ALCS. Instead Papi gets a clutch game tying series changing Grand Slam. In the World Series, Matheny stupidly kept pitching to Ortiz until he was down 3 games to 2. No one else was swinging a good bat in that series. Everything broke right for us and it was glorious. I was at game 6, and I will never forget it. It was the greatest event that I will ever attend. Even my attending the game was luck. A Met fan friend of mine did business with a guy whose business has season tickets. He offered my friend games 1 or 2, but he couldn't make those games. The guy then promised him game 6 if it went that far. My good friend took the most loyal Red Sox fan that he knew. That would be me.

Wow! Just wow! I don't know of I will get to that point but they can shove their reguar season tickets up their ass if Lester walks. I will not be buyong them.