jacksonianmarch

cant put him away

94mph, havent seen that in awhile

12 balls in 26 pitches isnt great. He really just lost it

Well, soon it is going to be about breaking the bank to keep guys like Lester, Pedroia and Ellsbury, so they wont be able to really break the bank any further with guys like AdGon and Crawford on the docket for the next 5 yrs. Eventually, a decision will need to be made.

You guys have your heads in your asses if you think we arent playing much better. We are 3 over .500 and 2 games back of TB and Baltimore in the L column with Pettitte coming through the pipe on Sunday. Plus, I am not sure you have figured out, but we actually have an ace, as well as a guy who has lost 2 games in a calendar yr (Nova) as well as a guy with a sub 4 ERA on the season in Kuroda. Plus, we actually have a pen, even with Mo out, and our offense has been dead most of the yr even though we are third in the AL in runs scored with minimal contribution from Cano or Tex. I have said this once and I will say it again, we are winning the AL East

Guy dominates at home, is Clay Buchholz on the road

You have no idea if Bard or Doubront will continue this way, get better, or worse. There is no precedent. Buchholz is not the same as he was, so he also isnt predictable. The only guys you can look at are Beckett and Lester. Lester has been decidedly mediocre the last 18 starts and Beckett goes into a shell in even seasons. It is possible that the numbers remain this bad

Well, at this time, the sox are on pace for 100 losses

You had a good run, but your GM and team president got away from what made them win 2 titles in 4 yrs. The 2004 title was a purchased title, but you purchased it with smart money (Manny was smart money) and with minor league talent (for Pedro and Schilling). But 2007 was the model that the team was supposed to stick to. Young talent coming up with shrewd signings and the occasional big signing (JD Drew). By 2012, you have DiceK, Lackey, Crawford, Gonzalez, Jenks, etc all in for more than almost the entire team sans Manny was making in that time. You need to get back to your base. The PR from signing one humongous contract goes right out the window if that player comes in and sucks. The sox were never really built to out-price the Yankees, and in order to fix this, you will have to go above and beyond where the Yankees are in terms of payroll, which just isnt feasible with the new rules going into play next yr. So, you have to get back to basics. Here are a few ways to do so. 1. The Beckett situation. When on, he is one of the best pitchers in baseball. That is fact. When off, he is a prickly prima donna who throws BP. He seems to always overextend himself one yr and then recoil the next. This is the recoil yr. In order to rebuild properly, you must get value for your players, giving guys away on the cheap will only hurt you in the long run. You may get an initial boost in chemistry with him gone, but the overall loss of talent will hurt. Plus, who do you replace him with? If I were V, I'd discipline him with a suspension and then get him out there and leave him alone. If he can run off 5-6 starts where he looks like Beckett again, see if you can get someone to take him for even value. 2. Youkilis- if the goal is to "blow it up" then you must start Youk at third the next few weeks. Push WMB into LF or the minors or whatever. You build up his value and if he can hit, you deal him away for something tangible instead of a salary dump. A .900OPS hitter is worth something, even if he proves to be that for a 4-6 weeks stretch instead of the whole yr 3. Crawford, Lackey, AdGon- these contracts are unmoveable. I'd do what it takes to get Crawford completely, 100% healthy for 2013. If he rushes back, he will injure something else and potentially be recovering from another surgery (elbow maybe) come 2013. Lackey might get some value back next yr if he shows renewed velocity and location after his UCL is repaired. If he doesnt and continues on in pinata mode, you wont have much choice but to keep him around. AdGon also needs to be kept. You have many yrs left with him, you might as well see what he can do 4. Papi- a rebuilding team does not need a 36 yr old DH. Also, at $14.5 mil, he is too risky once again to accept arb and get another big raise. Might be time to move him while his stock is high. Who gives a s*** who he moves on to. You wont get a prime prospect since, like I said, he is a 36 yr old DH, but he might fetch you some B level prospects who could fill out the back of your rotation or even blossom into a starting position player. You know he cannot do this for too much longer, might as well cash in on it now while the sox are wasting his production 5. Lester- he has been mediocre for 18 starts now. He still has the stuff, but has lost the command. You must keep him. If he figures it out and your team sinks to new lows, he will end up getting a MASSIVE haul of prospects in a deal. Or he could headline a rebuilt rotation 6. Buchholz- he needs to go to AAA. You are invested in him long term and something isnt right with him. He seems to have a followers mentality and without strong will, it is hard to come through in times of strife. It might be better for him to go to a low pressure environment for a little while, dominate and get his confidence back. He also needs to do a little more arm strengthening OR change his philosophy. His method of pitching doesnt work at 90mph, it worked very well at 95. 7. Pedroia- the heart and soul of a bruised team. He could probably fetch you the most, but whenever you rebuild, you need to rebuild around SOMETHING. And he and AdGon would be the rocks in the linep you build around. 8. Philosophy- Theo got away from the philosophy that worked so well in prior seasons when he signed Lackey, Crawford and AdGon after the deal. He preached roster flexibility, farm system and low cost signings. When he spent, he didnt spend in a way that killed the team (JD Drew comes to mind) should the player fail. He was willing to deal malcontents to make a point (Manny and Garciaparra). After winning 2 here, he took what he thought was the safe route with "can't miss" players who tied up all the resources. Now, with the new cap rules, he hamstrung the team that fell apart like a house of cards due to inefficiency and injury. The way to get back there is to do what he did early on. Signing a guy like Ross will do that for you, but they need to get even further back to their roots. Sign some high OBP guys off the FA market, even if they dont have power or average or whatever. Where are the Bellhorn's, the Mueller's, the Millar's, etc? You need to start discovering them again, guys who arent cornerstones, but fit expertly around a solid middle of the order. You have AdGon, you have a developing power guy in WMB and you have a 1 time MVP in Pedroia. You also have a guy like Ellsbury who will eventually come back and should be able to hit enough to move down in the order into a power slot. The other thing Theo did early on was expertly manuever the farm system. The sox never seemed to have the #1 farm system, but he found a way to bring up 1 prospect per yr who turned into gold. Youkilis, Pedroia, Lester, Buchholz, Bard, etc. Every yr there was one prospect that made it big. You havent seen that lately. You have Bard out of place, Doubront who doesnt look like a prime time player and other cups of coffee who havent panned out. There needs to be more emphasis on the later rounds of the draft as well. The sox seem content to make the big splashes, but the back of their top 10 round players and beyond have been barren sans Jacobs. They need to make every pick count and rebuild a farm system studded with the occasional solid prospect and filled in with s***. Overall, the sox changed philosophy and it has started to unravel. The fix is to not actually make the big headline moves. But to turn the little, shrewd moves into headline players by good scouting and development.

3 games over and 2 games back of the AL East lead. We have Pettitte coming back and Garcia out of the rotation. Our rotation is starting to get good enough to win the East and if Nova can continue to pitch well, we could be better than that. Not sure why everyone here thinks we're finishing 4th, maybe just to make them feel better. We're gonna win this division by 5 games.

Might be time to move Soriano into the closers role. Robertson just doesnt seem comfortable closing and Soriano knows how to do it. And before you guys harp on the run Soriano allowed, it was Jeter's fault. Chopper to Jeter who double clutched and threw low, so the runner beat it. He took second on defensive indifference and moved to third and scored on grounders. Soriano just looked poised out there and his experience might be what we need. Plus, Robertson was quite possibly the best reliever in baseball prior to moving to closer, and since then, he's allowed 7 baserunners in 1.2IP.

this thinking has caused the guy to be a journeyman for his entire career. He cannot repeat his delivery out of the windup. He is exactly where he should be

Josh Beckett effectively gave a huge F you to RSN tonight. Oh, you didnt want me to play golf? f*** you, we'll lose tonight. He is completely untradeable

Cano getting hot again. Uh oh AL

I told you they will win this game

Ortizaslamadingdong

what was the RFer doing?

how long before Byrd gets picked off?

touche

oh, sorry, okay yz

SO when a multimillionaire who has 35 big days in front of millions screws one of them for a game of golf, we should just ignore it because we all do it. That is a boatload of horseshit, and it is a justification.

By saying everyone does it, you are justifying it.