Dojji

Hope so. Ethier>Victorino AINEC

For the record, FWIW, if the Red Sox decided to kick the tires on Johan themselves, I'd understand what they were trying to do. The money is huge, but it's only 2 years left, technically a short term deal at this point. There are worse gambles out there. If they actually pulled the trigger though they'd better be right.

You didn't give a single example of a can't miss FA. What you gave was an example of "didn't-miss" FA's. Johan Santana was right in the caliber of the other two when the Mets signed him. 5 years and some SERIOUS injury issues later, I'd call that one a miss. You're trying to argue history as if the guys who worked out were always destined to work out and the guys who flopped were always going to flop -- and as if any of that gave us the ability to predict or control who was going to do either going forward. It's a ridiculous attempt at an argument.

That's overstating it. But I wouldn't be surprised if Plan A is to give RDLR the entire 2013 season and at least half of 2014 in the minors to recover his durability (/add durability he's never had).

There's no reason to believe Kalish wouldn't have had the same injury in the bigs, so that's failthought. The only player for whom those diminishing returns are an actual factor is Lavarnway. Everyone else sans Sands is much too green to worry about, and I think Sands cracks the roster as an all purpose benchie.

How much of an improvement are we talking here? I mean Bruce Chen is technically an upgrade, and certainly should be available.

Shortstop is one of the weakest areas of the team, behind only catcher and SP. You trade away a position of strength to shore up your weaknesses. Not the other way around. You always put yourself in the best situatiuon you can to succeed. This is the most random sport in the world. You can play the odds but you just never know. Heck we were supposed to win the World Series 2 years ago and one of the most random things imaginable prevented us from even reaching the postseason. This is a sport where one of the biggest jobs of any GM is to make sure you're in a position to get lucky, even when you're not one of THE best teams. Because you never know. The only young player blocked in the slightest by any deal the Red Sox have made is Ryan Lavarnway. You're ignoring the nontrivial value Iggy represents sitting right where he is, as a warm body able to come up and play SS at a high level off the bench, add some speed, and unless you really think he's going to turn it around with his bat in the nest 24 months, he's exactly the player you call up in an injury-insurance situation exactly because Iglesias has so little upside over what he is right now while doing at least one really important thing really well. And if he showcases well in his cups of coffee, you might get a better offer at the end of the season than you're getting right now. Because it is absolutely unheard of for players to improve their chances to succeed in the majors for being given more time in the minors.

People are so binary with prospects. Prospects that come up are judged as either studs or Busts within 2 years. Not very realistic. And not a lot of room to admit that a guy provided some value without being all that -- those players tend to be lumped in with the busts instead. Iglesias is what he is. He was brought up with the potential to be a great player if he could prevent his bat from becoming a liability. His bat is a liability which limits his usefulness, but that doesn't mean he can't be effective as a part timer. And if he is, he's officially beaten the odds. If his play as a part timer helps us win anything so much the better. Right now Iglesias is valued correctly. He has enough upside to be Pawtucket's starting SS and a reasonable third man on anyone's shortstop depth chart. If Drew goes down I don't mind Ciriaco and Iglesias fighting for playing time. That seems to be a pretty good situation to me that neither undervalues, nor overvalues, any of the players involved. I'm not anxious to try to "fix" this situation because from what I've seen it looks like it could work.

Bogaerts isn't ready, and either way, if Drew goes down, Ciriaco is starting so having a prospect of Bogaerts' caliber on the pine is ridiculous. No way you call up Bogaerts until you feel he's ready to make the position his own. At least right out of he gate this Spring my impression of the Red Sox is that they don't feel that way. They need a plan for if Drew goes down in April, and until they know that isn't going to happen Iglesias stays put.

I have no idea who this person is .

2 years is a long time guys.

Show me one good reason why they should trade Iglesias with this injury magnet starting at the shortstop position. I mean if you'd said "Iglesias becomes absolutely essential depth at a position we've tried desperately to fill since Nomar's time" I would have let it go, but the idea that we can trade Iglesias because we have A Starting Shortstop And One Backup is ludicrous. History suggests otherwise. Heck, that's why we kept Ciriaco around last year and that turned out to be the right decision, to put it mildly.

Define "full time." If the team was convinced he'd be worth the time and money, it wouldn't be a 1 year deal. This is a gamble. Could pay off brilliantly, or he could get hurt in Spring Training and never see a pitch in a Boston uniform. Just don't pretend that we can expect to see more than about 100 games of Stephen Drew, if that. And if it turns out to be less than 80, then "full time" is at least a stretch. And if he hits for crap and can't defend the position, and another option makes itself sufficiently viable, I expect to see this gamble abandoned by late June. This isn't a signing they're going to try to count on to contend. What this signing signifies is that the Red Sox are willing to eat some money experimenting until we're ready to contend again. Which is the right move, since experimenting landed us David Ortiz. On the other hand, it also landed us John Smoltz. Two sides of that particular coin. Point here being, people need to not read too much into this signing fron a trying-to-contend standpoint. Yes they areat least failing to wave the white flag right out of Spring, but this signing will ultimately be judged by the fact that it was worth a shot, and if we get 1 year of a decent shortstop out of it, so much the better.

Don't be too shocked if the backup is Drew. His recent numbers don't reflect anyone I'd start over someone else without a fight in camp. Underwhelmed. I recognize the options were limited but I'm not going to pretend I expect great things here.

Indeed. Welcome to "a later date."

I don't think they traded for Jerry Sands to let him rot in the minors. There's your other 1B. As for pitching, I never saw an option that looked better to me than counting on the guys we have to play up to their talent. A lot of chances to really do damage to the franchise and when you're not in a position to go over the top, the only guys I even consider moving for are Greinke and Anibal and they both just got seriously overpaid.

Saving our ammunition to see what this team really is. Right now we're in a state of flux, and we're sure about literally nothing about our roster. Even Ortiz is hardly a sure thing anymore -- he'll perform when he's on the field but... No athlete is worth 25M/year. And while getting a top 5 player for 5 years or less would be a solid deal in a normal situation, Hamilton isn't really a normal situation. I'm not interested in overpaying to that extent when our core is not solid enough to take that contract and put us over the top. Signing Hamilton to make us immediate World Series contenders makes a great deal of sense. Signing him to hopefully make us an adequate team is a waste of money. People are used to seeing this team think of itself as a major World Series contender and trying to load up appropriately. The last 2 years should have convinced most of us that that's not the case anymore. We need to see the youth build up our core for several years before we should be in on the really expensive FA's again. Now is not the time.

The fact that Hamilton is what this market considered a prime FA is all the reason you need to understand exactly why Cherington is saving his ammunition. He's a good hitter. Probably at the Matt Holliday level or a little below. I wanted him if the price was right. But this is not a player who is going to wind up going to the Hall and he's not a player who will turn a bad team into a good one all by himself. And a 5 year contract for a player with his health and character concerns is just stupid, no other word to describe it.

People are being a bit overly negative here. Overreacting to a bad move. I can see why, but it's still an overreaction.

That guy is not out there. Probably never was. The only real shot there right now is Anibal, and I'm not sure how well even he's going to handle being called up to the American League East.

Boggs was exactly the guy I thought about too, and for the same reasons. Youk wasn't quite the pure hitter Boggs was, but he spent a few years as one of the best offensive players in the AL. Youk is not a toolsy guy who relies on his athletic talent to hit the ball, he's a smart, disciplined hitter who knows as well as anyone in this league how to adjust.. If he can get healthy at all, he's got a very good chance to bounce back to somewhere near his 2010 levels. I hated the decision to move him on with no real replacement in sight and I hate this. He could easilt have another 4 good years in him with the way he hits..

And you're neglecting to mention that that our record with premium signed FA's isn't much better. Between Lackey, Matsuzaka, Clement, Wells and other assorted busts, the overall results are not good when it comes to this FO and the pitchers they target.

Every deal another team makes is not a fail on Cherington's part. For the love of god, people.

So he's had one mediocre year and he's officially "done?" Come on guys, let's not be quite that naive. A bounceback year from Youk was more than possible. Youk is 34, not 90. I would NOT count on him not managing to come back to hurt us.

I strongly suspect Uehara will save more games for us than Bailey.