Dojji

Fred, Jackie Beradley Jr. is not a base stealer. He does not have the speed, and he does not have the instincts. If you expect a base stealer from JBJ you will be disappointed. Period, end of sentence. Just because Ellsbury was a fantastic base stealer does NOt mean one has to steal bases to succeed as a CF. Holding JBj up to the standard of Ellsbury in any way is ludicrous, I don't care who Ellsbury plays for or what he does next year, that is not a standard that should be asked of Bradley, and if any expectations of "elite CF speed" from JBJ are disappointed, that is the fault of the idiot fans who put those expectations on him in the first place.

The big impact of Ells definitely being gone, is that I don't think we can go into the season with 3 LF's. One of Gomes, Carp and Nava need to move on and be replaced with a backup CF type in my honest opinion, for maximum depth and ability to handle the kind of attrition a full 162 exacts from a team. I'd love to see what the Royals' asking price was for Jarrod Dyson. As a righthanded platoon partner for JBJ and a speed demon off the bench, Dyson would make a ton of sense for this club. Doesn't hit much, but he does boast a .335 OBP against LHP which with his elite speed makes him interesting in a platoon/roleplaying mode and his speed makes him a possible Dave Roberts redux..

If by "less steals" you mean "less than 10," I roughly agree with you. People need to get the "speedy CF" idea out of their heads when dealing with JBJ in particular. people seem to think that "he's not as fast as Ellsbury" still allows them to set him up in roughly the Coco Crisp range. That's not going to happen. JBJ is a good defensive CF because he's smart and positions himself very well, but he does not have top end speed, heck, for a CF he's downright below average.

JBJ will never steal 20 bases in the big leagues. I'd be surprised if he was ever allowed to run 20 times a year. He stole 9 bases last year combined between AAA and MLB and was caught 7 times. This man can not beat AAA catchers on the basepaths, he should be tried only very conservatively against big league catchers. JBJ is a smart defender with great athleticism at the corners and decent in the middle but he doesn't have elite speed, and the power potential remains to be seen as well. All we know is that he's got really good plate discipline. Which is a really good place to start. The rest is up in the air. I've said this before but my comp with JBJ is David Dejesus. That's probably a disappointing name for some people who want to expect Mike Trout or something, but David Dejesus was really solid in his day, boasted a lot of doubles power if little home run power, and as long as he could hit over .270 was borderline elite as an on base hitter. That's a package we should take out of a rookie if we can get it. I get that with Ellsbury gone all hopes swing ti JBJ but honestly I feel that isn't fair to him. He's still got a ton of leaning to do about how to be a big leaguer, and the tools package isn't close to Ellsbury's -- he's going to have to be a lot smarter and more selective to produce at the same level, that's just a fact So it won't do to overrate him and set ourselves up for disappointment, and if you predict a 5 tool guy out of JBJ, that's exactly what you're doing.

I think we got the catcher we needed. When i was arguing with the Hanigan crowd someone challenged me to come up with alternatives to Hanigan that were not rookies, Pierzynski was the first good idea I stumbled across, and as I kept looking, the only real option that made sense (if you assume that the team was never that serious about McCann). That told me this had a chance of happning. I'm not really all that surprised. The plan at this point isn't hard to identify -- they'll go after another veteran to split starts with a rookie next year, and then look at which of two young catchers or youngster and backup makes the most sense.

Nice tidbit. Good find.

A common sense move, a lot more likely to happen than an acquisition of Hanigan. AJ may not be the most liked catcher out there but he's a good pro who hopefully helps us transition in some of the younger guys. All I ask of the GM is to understand what he's thinking when he makes a move, and it's pretty easy to see that Pierzynski is a short term stopgap to give our young catchers a bit more time to develop. The biggest thing it signifies is that Dan Butler is NOT in the picture next year and the focus will be on Vazquez and Lavarnway splitting catching duties in AAA.

Just don't. There is no particular reason why this is in reference to any of the particular free agents over any other.

I' not underestimating the Yankees. I figure I have them estimated pretty well. The Rays are the better team as things stand right now.

The Yankees aren't our only or even our principal rival for the division next year, I expect more trouble out of the Rays than the Yankees.

Salty and Ells are going to be the two areas that hurt the most. That said, I think we may be losing WAR in a couple other areas. For example, it's unlikely that victorino repeats the career year he had here. And we don't have Napoli in fold yet.

you don't bring in a Dexter Fowler for insurance. He's a starting caliber CF and nothing he's done belies that notion. I'd send JBJ the other way happily for Fowler, and so would most of this board I'd think. All the tools and a strong OBP, going to a park that strengthens his weakest attribute (batting average). Sign me up. Securing and extending Fowler would be a fair sized coup for Cherington.

How many options at catcher do you think actually exist? there's definitely more catching jobs than there are catchers worth half a damn.

That's why I'd love to see them bring in Omar Infante to back up our infield. that's a guy you can rest Pedroia in favor of without causing a lot of anxiety. He's probably going to get starting money to play 2B somewhere though.

True. Just because he plays through it doesn't mean he isn't adding wear and tear to his body.

But if he's back to his old form this year, next year he could add about 33% to that contract very easily. Pay him 1 year 20M, and he'll find someone to pay him 3-4 years at 20M AAV after this year if he regains his value.

When was the last time Willie Bloomquist played centerfield? And it's not MY whinefest. I have no problem going young up the middle as long as you've got veterans to play backup. I'm responding to other peoples' concerns.

who says you're not developing them to be a catcher on the team? It's not like Ross has many years left to him. Kid looks good, he takes Ross's spot after this coming year, backs up the guy who is the future going forward, or even surprises you by making himself part of the future. Kid doesn't look good, Hanigan's probably still out there for a midseason acquisition.

I just don't see why bridging the year with Butler or Lavarnway, and Ross or another veteran, is such a scary proposition.

I'm personally kind of curious if one of those options is bringing in Curtis Granderson on a short term value-builder deal. That would shock a lot of people, but on a short term contract Granderson would make a ton of sense. He's the right age, the talent is all still there, and he's coming off a lost year. it's a thought worth thinking.

I'm no stranger to getting attacked. It's a legitimate pragmatic concern with a player who's about to enter his age 30 season, especially given Pedroia's body type and there's no reason for anyone to rail against someone for bringing it up. If age and off-peak performance is damning when we talk about extending Ellsbury, then it's at least a concern when it comes to Pedroia.

They will have no problem finding a home for betts as things stand right now. You have a ton of guys right now in this league who really should be utility men, playing 2B because of the absolute dearth of talent at that position. I can think of at least 10 teams desperate for real talent at the 2B position. Makes what we have with Pedroia all the more satisfying. That said, I am a little concerned about the fact that Pedroia's offense has dropped slowly but surely each of the last several years. Guys with his body type have to abuse themselves so hard to play at the top level, and Pedroia's no exception here by any means, that they wear out all the faster. Get Pedey into his early 30's and we might have a few unpleasant choices to make. I hope not, but that's the way things are trending right now. Just saying, it doesn't have to be exactly Betts, but having a backup plan at second base wouldn't be the worst thing, not by a long shot. And you have to at least consider the possibiility of when the right time would be to move on from Pedroia altogether. It's not next year, but it's not "never" either

Then that's where you look to upgrade. What you don't do is saddle yourself with 2 over 30 catchers with their own built-in flaws perpetually just because you're terrified of rookie catchers making rookie mistakes. That is failthought personified in my honest opinion. There has to be some point at which you swallow hard, take a deep breath, maybe even a stiff drink, and brace yourself to hand the reins to a young catcher for a few years. Otherwise, just exactly where the hell do you think all the veterans came from?

I see the Sox crossing that bridge when they come to it, to be honest. A move to the outfield isn't out of the question, a move to another infield position either, and to be quite frank about it, Dustin Pedroia will be defying his body type if he's effective much past age 34. he's already sliding gently downhill -- still very very solid, but nowhere near his MVP form in the last 2 years. His run of dominance might be shorter than we hope, and in that case I'd be glad to have a guy like Betts either in the wings, or playing another position on the team, able to slide over if needed.

The fundamental difference is that we have Ross to help cover for any adequacies his junior partner shows. In order to get the same advantage in center at the moment we'd need to shift Victorino out of a position that's nearly as tough to defend as center, at least at Fenway, and one which he won a Gold Glove while playing. In order to fix that, we need to jettison one pretty decent player (Carp/Gomes/Nava, all highly worthy) or espose the infield even further by carrying 6 outfielders. I've also been loudly calling for bringing in a stout utility man to cover for any rookie issues at SS/3B while those players are developing in place. It's the same thought process, the only difference is we're approaching the two situations from different angles (in CF/SS we have the rookie but are in need of veteran help, in C we have a veteran, and a glut of rookies, none of which excite, but any of which could be adequate if they are worked with and patience is shown in their development).