jacksonianmarch

This is a stupid argument. Papelbon has been the most reliable. He's following Mariano. He might not be the best closer year to year, but he's damn reliable. Koji was a journeyman middle reliever until he found it in 2013. He had a year for the ages and followed it up with 2 good, but injury shortened seasons. Now, he looks done as a dominant reliever with even less velocity and a loss of feel for the splitter. It's kinda like the conversation I had with a few fans a decade or so ago about Gagne vs Mo. Gagne was flashy and had a ridiculous 80+ save streak. But he was out of the league 5 yrs later and Mo had another 10 years in him. The sox have to be happy they got what they did for Koji for a limited amount of time. Papelbon went elsewhere and it left a lot of people butt hurt. But he has been as reliable as they come for a decade plus now

Sabathia has really turned into the finesse pitcher we have been waiting for. He has finally turned the Mike Mussina corner. He and Tanaka at the front of the rotation looks like a good thing for us. Eovaldi has been solid and Nova has grabbed a spot and wont let go. Our 5th spot needs work. Two of the most talented pitchers on the team and in the league are struggling. Severino should be back soon and Pineda should be optioned. Both have great stuff, but both are missing something between the ears. I think Sevy is just young, but Pineda is turning into a head case. Both of them are fine if the game is moving well for them, but as soon as they see adversity, they crumble. Even the best in the biz have some adversity, the fact that both cannot get past that tells me they need to go down and get their heads straight. Green is dominating in the minors and should be starter #5 for the time being

When you lost Carson Smith, you lost a big time power arm. Something big league, World Series contending teams need nowadays. This has caused Uehara to be exposed and is going to push Tazawa to his breaking point again. You need both a quality starter and at least a reliable setup guy.

Farrell won't commit to Buch. Sounds like ERod is coming up and Buch will be phantom DL'd

Roger Clemens started out in Boston, right? Ortiz and Manny, quite possibly the biggest reasons for your 2004 series were cheating like hell. And this bombshell from Schilling. Red Sox staff ENCOURAGED PED use to recover. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/curt-schilling-peds-red-sox-encouraged_n_2638816.html So while you might think your team is full of clean angels, you're team is just as dirty as the rest

UN?, both would be awesome to have. The thing is, Correa has an ARod type upside, whereas Lindor reminds me a lot of Jimmy Rollins. I think Correa ends up being a perennial 30-40+HR hitter who hits for average and plays subpar but passable D at SS.

This offense is impressive.

UN?, where the heck you live?

You need an arm. Wright isn't a #2. Porcello is playing over his head. Kelly is Buchholz 2.0. ERod might be a solid piece in your rotation, but he isn't healthy. You need a Matt Garza circa 2010 version to add to your rotation. Not necessarily an ace, but a quality innings eater who could win 20 on your team

You guys have absolutely revamped your lineup. Pedroia and Papi are the old hat guys still plugging along on big money deals. Hanley is the big FA acquisition. Basically, everyone else is a young, cost controlled home grown guy. The crunch will only come if all the guys are on the team and if all stay productive. Benintendi will fill a void next yr after his clock chugs ahead as Holt, while gritty, isn't the long term solution. Swihart in LF is basically an experiment to make him more valuable to you, while knowing that anyone wanting him in a trade will be seeking the catcher. Benintendi is the future out there. Thing is, he might be the future somewhere else should the right deal come along. While having his stick in LF would be nice, you already have the best offense in baseball. DD isn't in Boston to roster build. That has already been done for him. He's in Boston to get back to winning, and if he thinks the sox are one piece away from a title and that piece will have to cost Benintendi, then kiss him goodbye

5 in a row, 13-8 in May and the back end of the pen shortening games to 6 innings. CC has finally gotten his stuff together after years of diminished stuff. Nova has found it again. Eovaldi has come on and Tanaka has been dominant. Sevy is recovering in AAA and should be waiting in the wings should Pineda finally get sent to the glue factory. Our games are 6 innings long when ahead, and the pen is certainly hiding some blemishes. We miss Bird as Tex has been horrendous. Tex could have been phantom DL'd to freshen him up a bit, but for now we must bite the bullet Our defense has been really good in the OF with Beltran at DH and Beltran has been lighting s*** up playing half games. Girardi really has his work cut out for him when Roidfreak returns. We have won 5 in a row and are 13-8 in the month of May. We leapfrogged two teams today and are 3rd, 5.5 behind the sox

UN?, he's like Pineda. Huge stuff that jumps off the screen. Big, physical specimen capable of running up high velocities. Knee buckling breaking stuff. Advanced changes. But brittle as glass when they max out their stuff and they suck when they pull back a little. It's a conundrum. Either go all out and know they wont last half a season, or have a durable suckbag

It's the body of work. He has been absolutely awful this yr. And in the prior seasons where he was awful, his advanced metrics pointed towards bad luck. This yr, his FIP and xFIP are all over 5. Yes, he has one bad inning. But it is an epically bad inning. ERod started throwing again. If he gets his stuff back, Clay is the one who hits the showers

IIRC, Gom was a Yankee fan with an intensely negative attitude towards the Yankees. Let him know that I share his perspective on the 2016 version

You haven't been taking your happy pills UN?. What have I told you about abruptly stopping them?

I don't see Benintendi coming to Boston this yr. The kid was just drafted last yr and yes, is mashing everything he sees. But you have two guys ahead of him for playing time and with CY finally hammering lefties like I told you he would, a platoon role isn't what you bring this kid up for. I think he sits in the minors until May of next yr, once his clock kicks up to another year and he goes from there. Although Holt hasn't been great of late, he brings a certain level of grit to your team that you need. He's the Bill Mueller type, wont put up gaudy numbers, but will totally piss off the opposing pitcher. That guy garners respect in the clubhouse and the sox have something good right now. Should he tank to an obscene level, then you might see it, but I doubt that occurs

Cost controlled or no, you need a TOTR starter (I like the acronym btw). And the FA market this offseason is so bad that it basically guarantees that any good starter you get is controlled beyond 2016, so that's a plus

Take a look at your leaderboard in the AL this yr and tell me how many guys have a snowball's chance in hell of being this good for the season. You've seen a lot of good pitchers start the yr off horribly (Gray, Keuchel, Price) and a bunch of fluky players start off awesome (Wright, Hill, Lewis, Happ, Latos, Quintana). Also, while the relievers are kicking ass, The AL's SP ERA is up by 0.2, as a league. That's a big, big margin.

LOL. UN, you are right. DD came in, shot the wad, got the big ticket purchases and told the world "we're back". Thus far, mid May, you are. Yet, you have one fatal flaw which can be acquired because of the depth of minor league talent. You have the stuff in the minors not just to get a good pitcher, but to acquire an elite one. You also don't have a AAA guy right now who could be brought up mid season and dominate a la ERod and Severino last yr. If you don't acquire a starter this yr, it would be damning. This is apparently Papi's last yr. The offense is killing it. Even without Smith (who gets TJS IMO) your pen should be lights out. But that rotation will not win you a world series. Have Price right himself, get a top notch #2 (or even someone to supplant Price as the 1) and roll into the playoffs as the favorites in the AL

His business went bankrupt. You can still have personal assets, but if your business has no assets, you can declare bankruptcy

Per WEEI, ERod is experiencing renewed discomfort in his knee and is out indefinitely. My guess is he had more than just a little patellar subluxation. He probably has persistent laxity and might need the joint tightened up surgically.

Your offense is solid....for now. You've played a bunch of teams down on their luck and have pissed all over the faces of their pitching. The state of pitching is WAY down in the AL, and with the fact that the sox are hitting on all cylinders, should propel them to the league's best offense. Thing is, there are very few offensive juggernauts who have won the title without some semblance of pitching. The sox right now have the 19th best ERA in baseball and the 10th in the AL, one spot behind the cauldron of pitching s*** that is the Angels. You will need pitching. You need Price to step up and be an ace on a contending team. You need someone behind him to stand up consistently. Porcello fell last night. Wright had been good before getting blasted by Houston, but he might be the guy. Buchholz has been a disaster. Your 5th spot is a rotating spot of suck. ERod just re-injured his knee and is out indefinitely. I think you'll see a dry spell shortly where the balls don't fall in and the sox will fall back to earth a bit. The one thing that your hot start has given you is time. Time for DD to see who has the stamina to be in this for the long haul. And time to work on a deal. You will have to make a deal for a pitcher at some point to be a true title contender.

Met him a couple times. Good guy, straight shooter, can be a bit abrasive. The thing is, he is the anti-PC. He has an opinion, he will share it, and he won't apologize for it. He is what we need more of

And he's 27. He's quite a story. Converted IFer blows out his elbow twice in the Yankees system. Was basically left for dead and climbs back throwing harder than ever. I hope he makes it

Surprising that we're actually doing it with offense. Now that we have Chapman, the original blueprint can work. The problem is, we had such a bad April that we may not recover even if we get hot