a700hitter

After Bradley's "I'm lost" comment, maybe the organization lost some faith in him.

XB will make it in the Bigs as a starting player. What remains to be seen is his ceiling. WMB is another story. I am not sure that WMB is a big league starting player. How much rope do we give this guy while we also have a SS and CFer learning the ropes? Bradley is a big league fielder and eventually will probably do enough of offensively to justify being a starter. If we are going to carry a substandard bat into the future, it is imperative to upgrade the lineup somewhere else. We need to be mindful that Ortiz will not be here forever and right now, he is our offense. Last season, he had a supporting cast of Ells, Naps, Pedroia, and Victorino. This year, the supporting staff is stripped down to Pedroia, Naps, and Victorino. All the rest are meh, and unless 1 or 2 of the kids get on track and start producing, we don't have enough offense to provide the consistent results to be successful.

^ Agreed.

We would lose a draft pick for retaining our own player? Also, I thought that the draft pick would not be an issue after May. Weare less than 2 weeks from June.

I had agreed to disagree in response to your first post.

I wouldn't mind having Drew on the squad. We need depth, and he is a pretty solid player at a critical position.

I am not being hypocritical in the least. I am not defending my nasty behavior. As for stepping off, may I remind you that you engaged me in this debate. Edit: MVP made a comment. I made a comment. We each made a single comment -- no soap box. Not surprisingly, you chose to engage me and then accuse me of soap boxing. LOL!!

The "he made me do it defense" is rarely successful because it is not a good excuse for bad behavior and nastiness is not good behavior.

He can't hit any pitching. He might be worth keeping around if he would drive 25 out of the yard each year, but he has not been a power threat up this point this season. He had to be benched in the playoffs last year. It could be that he is just isn't very good. His ceiling could be -- Mark Reynolds.

We have a difference of opinion on that, but nastiness is not positive.

Yay! Victorino is back in the lineup! I guess that his scan was clean. Also Holt is up and playing. What was the corresponding move?

It's time to figure things out and start winning.

There is no better option due to a lack of planning, not because there were not better options available when putting the team together.

It's cathartic -- a very positive way of releasing emotion. It's much more positive than snark or nastiness.

I agree. Panic time is usually too late for meaningful action, and the conversation at panic time is usually just a post mortem. This is the time to analyze the team and figure out what is wrong with it if anything. Some people think we need to sit back say nothing and wait for Ben to tell us what is wrong with the team. Unfortunately, none of us are on his speed dial. Those same people don't tolerate analysis of FO moves after they are made, because we are not qualified to comment. Let's just shut down message boards altogether under those guidelines. LOL!!! This team is not playing well. We don't need advanced statistics to tell us that. We also don't need advanced statistics figure out what is wrong with the team. Buch is horribly under performing compared to 2013. The 3 kids haven't figured out how to hit big league pitchers so we are fielding half of a batting order every game. Victorino can't stay on the field and his presence is crucial. We may need an additional reliable bat. That's about sums it up.

The one stopper will keep them competitive by avoiding prolonged losing streaks.

The good news is that we have also avoided lengthy losing streaks. As long as we can avoid losing streaks like last year, we should hover around .500 and be within striking distance. A couple of winning streaks would put some distance between us and the rest of the division. I just don't see us going on a winning streak until Buch starts pitching better and one of the kids start starts to figure it out at the plate. Also, Victorino is a must.

Another bat is needed and we have to hope that Victorino doesn't miss too much time.

Men on first and third with one out and he PH the old slow catcher who makes contact most of the time. WMB most likely would have k'd or hit a flyball giving us another shot at getting the runner in from 3rd.

Last year to my amazement, Ortiz got pitched to most of the time. They didn't stop pitching to him until the 6th game of the WS. Managers are a very stupid slow learning bunch.

The Big Papi # is misleading, because he isn't getting challenged most of the time.

That could be a broken wrist for XB. I am surprised that he is staying in the game.

Dempster got 2/$26 and he was a dog. Lackey will cost at least the same.

The Sox offerd him a multi-year contract at the end, but he declined it, because he wanted to go out as a Yankee. The Yankees used that as leverage. Koji doesn't have the same loyalty to the Red Sox that Mo had with the Skanks.

I don't think your concern is at all paranoid. Lester's value is going up as he continues to pitch well. He is at the top of the FA pitcher class. The Sox have not showed any recent inclination to pay market value for long term contracts. Also, the Yankees and the Dodgers will open their wallets for the. Guy and when they do, Ben will fold his tent and go home. I think that our window for retaining Lester will be closed if we don't do an in-season deal. As for Lackey, the minimum wage clause was merely a part of negotiations. He never expected that the clause would be implemented. A guy at the end of his productive career is not going to want to play for pocket change. I expect a lot of posturing by him to get out of the deal. He has a lot of capital right now as he is our second best pitcher and he was instrumental in winning a world championship. He is going to expect respect (I.e., $). There is no way that he plays for us for the minimum next season unless it is coupled with a back ended 2-3 year guaranteed deal for big bucks. It will be a very complex negotiation and it is possible that we might lose him. As for koji, he will be 40 next year and the FO has consistently demonstrated a reluctance for multiple year deals for relievers, so it is very Possible that we lose him. Those who think this is paranoid thinking will be the first ones rationalizing the loss of these guys if it happens.