Dojji

Had to do it. This was a forgone conclusion about the time Lowrie got hurt again this year.

There's life beyond this September. He wasn't playing every day and I'm sure that didn't help Tek get listened to. He knows what it really takes to get there from here better than most of our current squad.

Why not? It's not like he hasn't done it before.

With his bat Lavs only has to be Piazza bad, he doesn't have to be excellent. His bat should be able to carry a weak glove. But it's not like he has a ton of experience and is proven bad. He's way behind his bat defensively from a development standpoint, due mostly to a lack of experience there prior to being drafted. That means mediocricy now, but it also means that what he is now isn't all he could be. He's by no means a finished product, much like Montero (although for a slightly different reason -- Lavs is raw as a catcher, Monty's just plain raw).

u mad

If it wasn't for the fact that he's probably effectively blacklisted after his stunt with the Nats, I'd say that might be a call for Jim Riggleman.

They haven't sucked, but have either the Jays or the Padres reached the next level as a team anytime recently? If you're going to say pitching coach as manager has had some ground broken recently on its behalf, I'd like to see some groundbreaking results, that's all.

Not that Black or Farrell have exactly excelled thus far. Still it's a thought worth thinking. I still have this fantasy that it might be Tek.

Well he could be pining for Miguel Olivo I guess. He had a down year this year but teams keep signing him to start or platoon for them hoping to get those numbers out of him.

Cruz is a weak defender anyway. Good athleticism, ten cent head. But that was just inexcusable on a potential last out of the World Series. You have to make that play.

Well it could be Crawford, but he slugged well inder .450 (nearer to .400) and he's got a good reputation defensively in left. In short, SCM, you aren't fooling anyone, so cut the nonsense.

If the Cards win it in 7, there's a new Billy Buckner.. I honestly think Cruz could have had that ball.

That was two prizefighers pounding the crap out of each other. Amazing to watch.

You can't put those numbers out there like that without at least saying what position the guy plays. For a catcher, or a shortstop, those are some pretty tolerable numbers. For a first baseman or LF, not so much.

The next time we need a manager is sometime after Truck Day. Patience, people.

I think that's still where we are. Apparently he's not up to playing fall-ball. We'll see nexct spring. We'll probably hear a couple puff -pieces this winter but I wouldn't pay a lot of attention to them until we ha ve a chance to see him on the field or not.

Here's a thought. Aceves logged enough innings this year that you could legitimately stretch him to 150 or so. It might be worth a try to make a starter of him.

Every market always looks good 2 years away because all the last minute signings and trade-and-sign deals haven't happened yet. I wouldn't count on a quarter of those guys to actually hit the market. The only guy I'd give more than even odds of failing to sign with his current team is Zack Greinke. Maybe the Dodgers are in enough disarray to let good players go, if they can't get rid of McCourt, but it's too far out to say that as if it's definitely gonna happen that way.

Not recently. You have to have a job for that. If I was getting paid what these men are paid, and had the kind of incentives to succeed that they have, I'd like to flatter myself that I'd be able to keep my priorities straight.

But his recent capital investments aren't resulting in that ROI. That means he needs to make sure he's spending money on the right things. And he may choose to wait until he's out from under some encumbering assets before he goes back on the offensive monetarily speaking. I'm not suggesting he's gonna go Jeff Loria on us, but I wouldn't expect the pedal to exactly hit the floor anytime soon. They just tried that and it blew up in their faces. So the Sox might fade back towards the pack a bit in terms of payroll for awhile. The new manager is probably going to have to work with the tools he has, even if some of them are tools in the more colloquial sense.

In all honesty, we should at least investigate the possibility of making Aceves the closer if Papelbon departs. He was the one dependable reliever we had in September despite having a workload at least as large as Papelbon's or Bard's. He was our relief ace and turnaround pitcher for most of the year, and really made a name for himself in several high-leverage situations. His low WHIP and good k/bb stats suggest that he's within the performance window of an acceptable closer. He wouldn't be Mo Rivera, but he'd get the job done within a reasonable standard. He isn't the sexy pick, but it's an idea worth investigating.

Henry is a hedge fund manager. He has revenue goals he plans for when he runs any business. Businesses that fail to meet that goal shouldn't count on an additional capital outlay. It's not the way Henry's work life has programmed him to think. He's not a pure profiteer owner, he'll spend money if the ROI makes sense, but he is still a financially intelligent man, he's had to be, so let's not pretend that he's going to let the FO milk him dry if they're not returning results.

Lavarnway from the beginning would have been a terrible idea. Ryan Lavarnway grew a lot this year, he wasn't a candidate as a starting catcher in April. Saltalamacchia is a good catcher, easily average or better among American League catchers. He's not a stud, but he's young and effective, with a strong point to his game for every hole. If he doesn't improve, he's a starting catcher. If he does, he still could become an all-star. On the whole he's fine as long as he doesn't actually regress. If we cut him, you can count on 6-7 teams competing to pick him up and give him at least a platoon role on their squads. I don't expect him to lead the league in passed balls next year now that he's not likely to catch Wake as often, and without that flaw, there's really not a lot to criticize. You don't expect your catcher to be one of your leading discipline guys, and a catcher who can hit .250, slug over 15 HR's, and throw out a third of baserunners, used to be the gold standard. It's still not that easy to find -- we've been spoiled by Tek for too long to realize this, but Salty's performance this year is pretty much what any team with a hole at catcher (like we had at the beginning of the year) hopes to wind up with when they trade a bit piece for a young project. Which is what we did to bring the kid to Boston. Far from docking the kid playing time I'm pretty sure the FO is very happy with Salty's return this year. It certainly coulda been a lot worse.