Dojji

Nothing wrong with Holt, I'm glad he's here, but if you have Drew, you play Drew. I'm more interested in how they see Cecchini. He's the guy who can block Drew. If Cecchini hits the cover off the ball the way I expect him to, then you have to sit one of Pedroia, bogaerts, or Cecchini to play Drew, and THAT may not happen.

Did he suggest Nava in centerfield? Wow, I hadn't noticed that. That's absurd, he barely has the range to function at the corners.

Less of the moron, if you're going to speak this moronically. Farrell may have input, but Cheringtin is the general manager and makes the personnel moves. You are in no position to say anything to anyone about ridiculous posts.

Like the career season he had last year? Sorry once you get a sample of over 40 starts, statistical burps become much more implausible Also no way on God's green earth John Lackey gets signed through age 41. Not. Happening.

Yeah, this isn't a good time or position to either buy or sell really, we don't know what we are as a team right now, the rest of this month, plus June, are going to tell us a lot about what this team is, and we shouldn't do much until we get that answer. The Sox replaced a number of veterans with young players over the offseason, it may take a few years before those guys come into their own and start carrying the team the way the vets did. We may need to be patient through some mediocre seasons for awhile.

If this is the real Jon Lackey, I'm game for a short extension, no more than 3 years. He's been back to his career levels since he came back from TJ, if this is the real deal, and his track record makes that quite possible, then extending him makes sense. The big drawback is his age. If we extend him 3 years starting next year he's pitching for the Red Sox until the end of his age 39 season, and he's had some health issues already, making that no foregone conclusion.

120 is seen as the red line -- cross it at your own peril. Anything short of that is OK, but if you're going into an inning with 108 pitches, you'll probably see a reliever warming up, and if the guy hasn't been efficient to that point you might just take him out then. Old timers like to dismiss the pitch limts, but guys like Gil Meche would rather they stuck to the book. Trey Hillman ruined that poor man's career with a 132 pitch outing just because he hadn't let in a run yet. A prejudice is a poor excuse for destroying a pitcher.

Oh I agree 100%

I doubt it. It's human nature to forget lessons we never wanted to learn in the first place, We'll see Lucky push his tendrils back into baseball ops at some point

Also worth noting is the fact that Nava is destroying the ball this spring with a .950 OPS. Nava has done nothing to demonstrate he should be anywhere but in a big league uniform this year. The story changes based on what he does starting April First, but until then, he's a member of the team, and arguably our starting LF (Gomes' performance in the playoffs notwithstanding, Nava outproduced him handily in the regular season)

actually everything he says is pretty accurate, I'm just not sure what each sentence has to do with the last.

you are incorrect. he wasn't worth his contract, but putting up his innings is still a surprisingly important skill, if you don't have a durable rotation it puts undue strain on your bullpen. Think man. there's a reason Tim wakefield had a job all those years.

*looks it up* A 5'9" catcher per baseball reference. And given how these things tend to pad the number a little bit, that might be a gentleman's 5'9". I guess we know know what Pedroia would be like if he'd strapped the pads on. Well if he can play that's fine but you have to think that some of the larger baserunners are going to take his size as a green light to run him on a close play at the plate, so it is a concern. Hope he can take it.

that is absolutely adorable. Good for them, and I hope they stay together for as long as God permits them to remain.

Sabathia is a durable, intelligent pitcher, you don't get to 200 innings every year and ace type numbers nearly every year without both. I wouldn't count him out any more than we should have counted out Teflon Jon after 2012. Guys like that don't just dry up and blow away forever after one mediocre campaign. I think we can count on Sabathia to figure something out, and even if he doesn't, if he still logs the big innings he's still a pitching asset, not a liability. Lackey figured it out last year, and he's less talented and not nearly as smart.

Santana debuted several years younger than Lester, and CC had an extra 60 pounds adding wear to his frame. Lester is in shape and only just entering age 30, he should still have several more good years to him.

Then you'll be shocked. Prices have gone up since Verlander and King Felix both gave their hometown teams significant discounts.

I like the alternate reds. A team called the Red Sox should feature red somewhere. What I dislike is the hanging red testicle socks logo, and I especially don't like that it takes over the entire sleeve. The team is identified on the front of the jersey, and on the cap, it doesn't also need to be identified on the sleeve.

the question then being, does Jon Lester at age 36 have a fighting chance to be a productive upper middle of the rotation starter. IMHO yes, I'd say that's a decent bet.

hat trick for the matrix man last night.

That's just a stupid overgeneralization. If you had a 30 year old Curt schilling or Randy Johnson, or Andy Pettitte, or Roger Clemens for that matter, you absolutely extend them 5 years. Jon Lester isn't quite in that group, but he's got a durability to match any of them, and that's the big thing when it comes to contracts. If your guy has a long track record of durability and consistency, go for it. It might still blow up in your face, but the chance of success, and the upside in the case of success, is worth the possibility of catastrophic failure, which can occur at any point in a pitcher's career anyhow and doesn't magically increase just because a player hits an arbitrary age number people pay too much attention to raw age in statistical analysis IMHO. It doesn't mean nothing, but if there's extenuating circumstances, then you need to stop behaving as if there aren't. Daniel nava is a classic example, no one wanted to give him any credit because he debuted in his late 20's, but he debuted in his late 20's because he started his path through the minors at age 23, not because he's a scrub like most late 20's debuts. Similarly with Lester, you have a man who yes, is over 30, but also has never pitched less than 190 innings in a season, and the only time he ever missed significant time was with non-hodgkins lymphoma over 2006 and 2007. that's as safe a risk for a post-30 contract as you're going to find.

After one bad game in the spring? Come on a700 you're smarter than that.

Victorino has an even higher OBP v left and is not slow. If nava leads off against right, Victorino leads off against left.

you do when most of the guys behind your leadoff hitter aren't fast either. Unless you want to lead off with Pedroia, which I'd honestly consider, Nava's your man, at least against RHP. Against LHP as an RHH Victorino is an excellent choice (.386 OBP against LHP last year), so I could see the two tagteaming the leadoff spot until something better comes along.