Dipre

Son of a bitch. We agree 100%.

Awww hell no. I have access to Presidente, and i'm going back to DR in the summer anyways. Betting that Kalish and Iglesias will both be full-time players in 2012 would be my pleasure.

Orioles about to come to terms with Vlad Guerrero. That's going to be a darn good offense, specially if Weiters breaks out.

Mike Cameron would be more of a DH vs lefties/5th OF. The actual 4th OF should be Darnell McDonald, who can't hit for as much power as Jones, but should play better overall D and add an element of speed to the bench.

I need Advil.

Where does the article say (or anyone) say that Lowrie won't get a shot at the SS position? That's what i don't get. I see perfect logic in Tito viewing Lowrie as the utility man, and i'll detail the reasons. First, let's establish this: Lowrie is a better utility player than Scutaro because he can play first base and has a better arm (Scutaro's arm is accurate but weak) for playing third. Seeing as the entire infield is coming off surgery/injury, what about any of these scenarios: 1) Gonzales is not on spot to start the season, Lowrie plays first. 2) Pedroia has problems with his foot, Lowrie plays second. 3) He outperforms Scutaro by a wide margin or he is injured, Lowrie plays short. 4) Youkilis has problems with his thumb, Lowrie plays third. All of the above are likely possibilities, and all four of those guys will likely be rested regularly throughout the season, giving Lowrie ample opportunities to play, and making his ability to play around the infield much more valuable to the team (in the case that there are complications). If he's meant to be the regular shortstop, he'll earn it, but in the meantime, there are so many question marks that his versatility is extremely important. I've said this before, but the most underrrated aspect of baseball is a deep bench, and having a guy who can produce at any IF position is golden.

What about Jesus Christ? I hear he may be traded during the deadline, and the Yankees have the money and the prospects, and since the Yankees get what they want (See: Lee,Cliff) why not go out and get Jesus Christ? I'm sure he could make your pitching staff infinitely better.

I don't get why you guys are so friggin' stubborn about this whole Lowrie issue. He will have the opportunity to win the starting SS job, but he has to earn it, and the article does nothing to dispel that notion. The FO obviously sees something we don't, as does Tito, but even then, they're not discarding the possibility in the least. Why is it such a problem that he may have to win the job? The team owes him nothing, and everyone else has had to work and show they deserve the roles they have, so why should he get a free pass? It's also misleading of you to say that he could only see time at SS, since the entire friggin' infield is either post-surgical or coming off injury, so he'll get plenty of AB's to go around if he does start the season as the Utility man. Jesus Christ, the guy is not the next Derek Jeter or Hanley.

First off, for some reason Ital thinks he's black. Second, these situations have a way of working themselves out.

My guess is that they'll go with two lefties (Okajima and Hill are my guesses) plus the three-headed dragon, Wheeler and Wakefield. Doubront and Miller at AAA for spot-starter, lefty BP duties respectively.

What i mean by that, by the way, is that they'll probably go with Wake as the 7th BP arm.

13 position/12 pitchers is the usual model of 25-man roster construction.

My God Soxsport, it's 2011. The league has changed, complete games are no longer the norm, too much scouting, too much international talent, the preach of patience. The game has changed, and there's nothing we can do about it. For the love of God, stop beating that horse. As for the bench, i think the Sox should carry both Darnell and Cameron plus Lowrie/Scutaro and Varitek. Darnell can play better D than Cameron right now and is head and shoulders better than Nava because of his D and ability to hit lefties, even though Nava is probably the better pure hitter.

Yes you can Ital. And f*** you RSFFL.

At 93, he'd probably be sacrificing velocity for a bit more tail, but i remember reading that Papelbon's fastball seems to naturally tail toward's lefties wheelhouse, which more movement may help fix. In general, sacrificing K rate for control and groundballs seems like a good idea to me. (Dragon Punch © Dipre, 2010)

Control, splitter and control.

Or we could talk about any of these things:

Funny how people don't "Catch on" to details when it doesn't help their arguments. If Pavano was genuinely interested in returning to the Yankees, why did he immediately jump on the Twin's two-year offer and didn't go back to let the Yankees make a final offer (which FA's usually do), oh that's right, because, as it was reported before in every media outlet in the universe, he always intended to return to the Twins (which is what he will do), and is the exact same thing you'd be saying if you were on the opposite end of the argument. Disingenuous much? And it's funny that you, the guy who pretends to know exactly how the Sox FO thinks, is lecturing me about humility. Just throwing this out there: Pavano re-signing with the Yanks was less likely than Papelbon returning to the Sox. Just sayin'. It wasn't going to happen, it did not happen, so what is your point? If a report comes out tomorrow "Sox considered Manny Ramirez" i'd say exactly the same thing.

Wait, so you just admitted that the possibility exists that they may re-sign Papelbon, and that the point that they may re-sign him depends on overall pen performance? Nice, i rest my case. By the way, it's not that i don't read my posts, but you just contradict your statements. Look at the post above for proof. First: "NO WAY IN HELL THEY RE-SIGN PAPELBON", Second: "Well depending on the rest of the 'pen, they may re-sign Papelbon", then: "NO WAY IN HELL THEY RE-SIGN PAPELBON". Sorry, hard to keep up. Also a couple points: The "stomping your feet" comment in my last post (which you ignored and went fishing for older posts) is directed at your negative to admit they may re-sign him. Simple as that.

Holy s***, what the f*** are you talking about? Where did i mention you disliking Papelbon in my previous post? I was talking about you discounting the possibility of his coming back as if it was a 100% certainty. You asked me for a scenario in which Papelbon stays, i gave you a scenario in which Papelbon, stays, and your counter is once again pretending to know the value the Red Sox have or will place in Papelbon. Let me re-say it: The possibility that Papelbon comes back exists, it's unlikely, but it exists, you're just arguing for the sake of arguing, because you don't know the FO's line of thinking or how much money they would be willing to spend on Papelbon based on his 2011 performance, you also don't know how Bard and Jenks will perform, or how interested the FO would be to keep all three of them together if they all dominate. There are a number of realistic scenarios in which Papelbon could stay on the Red Sox, i'm not saying he will, or advocating for him to stay, which is another reason to ask: Do you read through my posts? Everyone else seems to get it.

Pavano is not a fit with the Yankees, and you should know this Y228. Not only because of the backstory and the bad press it would generate, but because he'd be a bad fit for the stadium. He generates a good amount of groundballs, but his inability to strike people out, plus his HR/FB% (which is over 10 for his career, and was over 10 last year) don't seem tailor-made for Yankee stadium. He also has a fairly significant platoon issue in the power department (.453 SLG% vs lefties last year, .455 career). Seems like a recipe for disaster to me in that stadium, magnified by the Red Sox current lefty-heavy lineup.