jacksonianmarch

Lohse is the definition of an NL pitcher. If he left the friendly confines of Busch without a Dave Duncan disciple keeping him in check, he'd be a mess.

He's had a recurrence of his nerve impingement and is expected to require another procedure, this time it'd be career ending. Hell of a career for a kid from New England.

Lol

I think Lavarnway will steal the job away in ST, even though ST is basically meaningless. The sox brass and I am sure John Farrell will try everything in their power to justify Salty losing his job. I know for a fact that throwing to a s***** game caller and a s***** blocker leads you to having less confidence in your catcher and worse production. Salty is a 1b playing catcher. Lavarnway was a butcher in the minors but worked hard enough to where all reports put him in the average to slightly below average category. That's much better than Salty, who is effectively wearing oven mitts behind the dish. After seeing Posada slip to absolutely abhorrent defensive levels his final few yrs in the Bronx then seeing the difference a guy like Martin made, I have confirmed my initial experiences. A great defensive catcher is worth more than a solid offensive catcher who sucks defensively, and that is taking into account no offense from the D catcher. If he can hit too, then its a bonus

Go for it. If the collection box nets me a 7 figure payday, you can tattoo anything you want on my back. I've never had a tattoo, so it's a clean slate my man.

The sox have had a change of philosophy. It started in August with the mega trade. They brought Bill James back in. They have a very highly rated farm system and they havent spend the entire winter trading it away for guys who likely wont work in the Bean. They did go out and sign 3 guys to high money contracts who likely were overpaid a little (until Napoli's hip crumbled during the physical) to bridge the team to when the rest of the crop comes up. It should be enough to keep the team interesting, but won't be enough to keep them in contention. That being said, another season like last with the team languishing in last place from the ASB on would be horrendous for business, so it made sense to give sox fans some hope. But their major change of philosophy has been to avoid signing guys with draft pick comp, avoid major deals involving prospects who are highly likely to contribute at the big league level, and avoid the seriously long contracts for players with questionable capacity to handle Boston. The change wont be felt completely until 2014, IMO, when Doubront, Barnes, Webster, and De la Rosa will all be seriously contending for major spots on the sox team out of ST and guys like Bogaerts and Bradley will be sliding into starting gigs on the offensive side. I see the sox bridging 2013, growing in 2014 and contending in 2015. If they hit like they did during the 00's with their prospects, the sox could be on a sustained championship run come the second half of this decade

I used to give a s*** about spring training, then I watched as Enrique Wilson lit up ST, won the starting 2b gig then proceeded to suck moosecock against everyone not named Pedro for the rest of the yr. It is nice to catch one game or two, and I really watch it to see the kids trying like hell just to stay longer in big league camp and maybe latch on to a job. But watching guys like Cano and Granderson just get their work in or CC get his tits lit when he's trying to get up to velo just isnt worth it anymore. It's nice when it's going on to know that the regular season is just around the corner, but its not worth watching anymore

I like how most everyone here is level headed about his decision. Those who think he's an ass for picking the Yankees, he was offered the most money in terms of AAV by the Yankees and he is offered a chance to win right away. I think it was the Guardians who offered him a 2yr $18 mil deal, but if he has a good yr in the Bronx, he'd make more over the next 2 yrs AND the Guardians arent winning s*** for another 3-4 yrs. And let's all be honest here. For the sox fans responding here, if you were offered $13 mil for one yr to play in the Bronx, you'd sign on in an instant. Hell, if someone offered me $1 million to tattoo the Red Sox logo on my back in gigantic print, I'd do it. Let's not be hypocrites here

So the Astros turned a lame Lance Berkman with an expiring contract into Jimmy Paredes, Max Stassi, Brad Peacock, Kyle Weiland, and Chris Carter. They must be ecstatic

Ah, well Pettitte did not make the list at all, even on the pitchers side

He probably doesnt like being a Yankee either. But he has 13 million reasons why he'd take the Yankees money

Apparently Pettitte and Kuroda weren't top 90 in the FA pool. Laughable

Belle's money was mostly paid by insurance. The Yankees are hoping ARod goes down the Belle path way

I'll own your sig too. Want in?

A healthy Pronk in Yankee Stadium would be ridiculous. Alas, a healthy Pronk became extinct after 2007

You are right. I am sorry.

I think that was last yr my friend. I didnt take you up on it.

This again. I see. I want to entertain a sig bet, one that lasts a month and the sig will politely read either jacksonianmarch's bitch or SoxFanForsyth's bitch. My bet is that the Yankees finish with a better win % than the sox, yours is the opposite. Put your sig where your mouth is my friend!

This whole PED thing is pretty funny, though. I had read another doc's opinion that IGF-1 isnt delivered orally, so while the spray may contain massive amounts of it, it isnt absorbed and is likely just dissolved in the stomach. These guys are trying to cheat but are only getting placebo effect

I'm stating the truth. Mariano, Joba, Jeter, Gardner and Pettitte are healthy and will be healthy headed into the yr. We retained Ichiro and Kuroda. We have a kid who can replicate Martin's defense.

finally? He admitted it already dude. Cat's been out of the bag for 3 years now

Yes, they have subtracted. They have also improved in some areas that you are conveniently leaving out. #1- their SP was very good last yr and that was with CC struggling with bone chips in the elbow and Pettitte only making 12 starts (freak ankle injury and started the season late). They also saw a big step forward for Phil Hughes, who put up better numbers than the annointed one (Buchholz) but is somehow expected to involute into a firebomb and die. We also saw David Phelps emerge as a true big league rotation candidate. We saw Ivan Nova take 1 step forward in learning how to set up and put away hitters, and 2 steps back in that he threw less strikes and gave up more HRs. Yes, their SP are a year older, that being said, our geriatric club started 45 games last yr. I say that it is highly, highly likely we see them start more than that. Add in a second yr for Phelps, a contract yr for Hughes, and a fully healthy season from CC and I dont think it is even close in terms of SP. #2- their RP was very good last yr, and we lose Soriano but gain a healthy Mariano. Say what you want about Rivera, he was heading for another standard Mo season last yr before he blew out his knee. His arm should be fine. Throw in a healthy yr from Joba, who finally started looking like his old self towards the end of the yr as well as a healthy yr from Aardsma, another full yr from Robertson and Logan and the cadre of pen arms behind him, the Yankee pen will be formidable again. The biggest reason why their pen will be formidable is the fact that they will get a ton of innings out of their SP. Last yr, only Seattle and the Bombers had their starters eclipse 1000IP. With a full yr of Pettitte on the horizon, that looks more likely than not. #3- the offense will take a small step back without Swisher. We brought in Ichiro which won't completely offset the offensive loss, but defensively and speed wise, we upgrade significantly. And for those who forgot, we will have a healthy Brett Gardner back in the lineup. You know, the guy who had 10.7WAR from 10-11 but missed all but 16 games in 2012. Youkilis should be able to replace the ARod we had last yr. Obviously, he cannot replace the ARod during his prime, but last yr's ARod had an OPS of .782. Once Youk got out of the poisonous Boston environment, he put up an OPS of .771. Jeter is coming off ankle surgery, which is a concern. It'd be even more of a concern if he was still limited. Well, he isnt. The guy is back on the field performing his normal baseball activities. While I doubt he can sustain a .300+AVG, he should be good enough for above average production for the entire yr, as usual. We should also see improvements from Granderson. You brought up Martin, but he was a terrible hitter for most of the yr. He had some power and walked a good amount, but his OPS was barely over .700 and it was driven almost entirely by his HRs. We can replace the defense with Romine, and we shouldnt see too much of a slide offensively since there wasnt far to go in a downward trajectory. Overall, I expect the offense to put up 800+ runs like it always does. I think the sox offense will be in that vicinity too, although they're not nearly as complete as you think they are. Overall, our pen can keep up with yours because they wont be overworked and have the personnel to go head to head, our offense should be a tick better than yours, and our starters are head, shoulders, knees and toes better. It aint close

Suspensions can only be given for flunked tests, though. The union will have Bud's head if he tried to suspend him. That being said, if they did suspend him somehow, they should just never put him on the DL

LOL, wow. You cannot think of 5 teams in the AL that are better? You dont think the Yankees are better? WTF planet are you on man?

Why does he still suck so bad? I wouldnt put him on the DL, allow the 50 days to expire from the suspension and then bring him back. He needs to do more roids if the ones he's on caused him to hit like a POS