Dojji

And some people still want to try and pretend that what Avery did is somehow not serious? I feel that there should be a distinction made between cockiness and arrogance like we see from Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Garnett or Milan Lucic. That difference is that these guys back it up on the field/ice/floor. Their open displays of emotion and their words will get them in trouble, but they can cash the checks their mouths write. Avery can't, never could, and never will. He just isn't a good enough hockey player to justify an attitude like his. Especially because he refuses to stand up, be a man, and account for himself. Players who want to get back at Avery have to take it out on other Stars players because of the way he is. I'm sure that contributes to the attitude of his teammates.

Or the stupidity of Brian Sabean.

LOL I hope we get to keep Tito for the life of Peddy's contract. Sounds like those two have great chemistry. Tito's been like an uncle for some of the younger players coming through -- especially Pedroia and Lester.

If I know Theo, he's definitely been quietly making offers to Lester and Papelbon since the offseason started. Youks not quite so sure since he's a bit older.

If you want to roll the dice on Hughes and Kennedy again the Yankees still need 1 more starter. If they sign CC, they're theoretically set. At least it's set assuming that they STILL haven't learned to go into the season with more than 5 major league caliber starters. If Cashman fails the biggest in any area it's in his creativity in lining up Plan B.

Hear hear. I'll take being bored now in exchange for being very much entertained every October. Anderson+ Lowell + $20M still in the pocket > Teixeira Kottaras + Buchholz/Bowden/Masterson >>>>>> Saltalamacchia/Teagarden/Clement + Byrd

I told you guys at the outset that I expected a slow offseason. I still believe that that's true. Now that we've extended arb to Byrd and Tek, if they both accept our offseason is finished and the question becomes about depth moves, callups, and international FA's. Unless there's an actual hole to fill Theo won't match the best price for Teixeira, CC, Lowe or Burnett. All will be playing for some team not called "The Boston Red Sox" next year. I actually expect Varitek to refuse arbitration though. He can probably get at least a 2 year deal somewhere else -- a good surprise contender might be Milwaukee. At that point it's still an open question whether Salty is a better option than Kottaras and keeping Salty's pricetag in-system.

BTW -- this really doesn't do Tek any favors in terms of courting other teams. Now anyone who wants him has to give up a pick for a guy who's maybe not all that good. If Theo really wanted to spike Boras' wheel this was a good way to do it.

#4 spot not "anchoring" the rotation.

Missing the obvious or just blocking it out of conscious thought? We do have an opening in the rotation you know.

He had a major concussion. I would have been more surprised if he could have wiped that away from his game in 2 months than I am to learn that he can't. I think that he'll gradually get his game back as his brain continues its repairs. He certainly has shown that he hasn't lost his finesse and touch, even if we only see it in flashes now. As it is he's making some nice paces and doing a lot of things to make his line better, so I'm not that worried.

And might I add, that while there's a dearth at catcher, that doesn't mean a power-hitting 3B is particularly easy to come by either. Look around the league. Other than a small handful of mostly-aging all-stars and borderline cases like Beltre and Blake there really isn't much out there at 3B, and the future of that position is Longoria and maybe Brandon Wood if he can ever stick in the big leagues. If you want an elite 3B in his prime all that's really out there are A-Rod and Aramis Ramirez, and we're the ONLY team in this whole league who's 2-deep in above average hitters at third base. Lowrie would be the starting 3B of at least 10 major league teams next year including three playoff teams from 2008. Of the teams that made the playoffs only 2 had a 3B that are definitely better than a healthy Lowell -- the Cubs with Aramis Ramirez and the Rays with Longoria. It's actually easier to find a power-hitting CF than a power-hitting 3B these days, since Torii Hunter and the corpse of Andruw Jones were on the market much of last year while A-Rod and Lowell both disappeared seconds after becoming free agents. Yeah, there's a dearth at 3B. And yeah, that's a good argument for not trading one of the better ones before he hits arbitration, and also to pay the man what he's worth. Add to that our (Sox) utter lack of a 3B prospect higher than Greenville, and it becomes even stupider to move our elite young 3Bman in his prime.

Wideman's a constant, he'd be there whether Ward was hurt or not. But I'm definitely glad to see Hunwick stand up and be counted, and Hnidy had a good night.

We absolutely need to upgrade the secondary next offseason. Once we get Thomas back our D-line will be back to adequate but we can't stop a 3rd down conversion to save our souls right now, meaning our D has gone from "bend but don't break" to "please God get a stop!" Some of us who were glad to be rid of Rodney Harrison need to rethink things I think. Apparently Mayo and Merriweather weren't as ready as we thought, but it might just be a question of the QB being able to ignore the players covered by our talented guys and go after the ones the scrubs are trying to catch up with. We definitely need to RADICALLY upgrade our defensive frontline talent and depth in ALL facets though.

Cassel did his part to get that touchdown. Moss dropped a TD twice, and he and Welker both dropped several big gains. Brady can't function when his weapons have hands made of Oleo either. Anyone manage to forget Reche Caldwell yet?

Which is why it is useless. We HAVE catchers. We don't have a 3B closer to the majors than Almanzar. Everyone above that are minor league free agents, utilitymen or players with no big league ceiling.

Because Brady never had a bad game where his supporting cast absolutely sucked and he looked off his rhythm all night. If you want to make the point that 2 straight 400 yard passing games prove nothing, then be consistent -- a bad game on the entire offense against the league's best defense also proves nothing.

This was a whole-team fail. No one deserves to shoulder all of the blame. No one's hands are clean. We got outplayed on all fronts by a good football team. That's all.

The one-liner-to-real-post ratio in this thread is very high.

If you have Masterson for long innings, that's actually a very nice well-balanced pen.

Yeah, that would be a nice place for Cassel to wind up. Just bear in mind, the Jets will probably be looking for a QB as well, and they might not bring Favre back if we have another Brett Favre Retirefest. I could live with Cassel the Eagle, I would HATE Cassel the Jet.