redsoxfan3

#20, #25, and #47. That's not too bad.

Ranked #20 and #47 according to Sox Prospects. Not too bad, so far.

Per Tim Brown on Twitter, "Starting to appear Red Sox will get Addison Reed. Three prospects in return. Medicals, details await." Definitely a good pickup, but hopefully we don't overpay.

It is almost that time of year. I moved away from Fort Myers a little over a year ago. I was fortunate enough to work at JetBlue Park for two years, and it really makes me miss Spring Training by not living in the Fort anymore. I will definitely be making a few trips there this year. Here's to a good season! We have a lot of question marks, but the potential is undeniable for 2016. We could be the best team in the AL if all of our cards fall into place. If Pedey stays healthy, Papi leaves on a high note, the rotation fulfills its potential, and most importantly, HanRam and Panda can perform a lot better, then we will be tough to beat. Like I said, that's a lot of what ifs, but let's hope for the best!

Do you guys think that the roster, as is, will compete for the top spot in the AL East? I obviously think that with the additions of Price, Kimbrel, Smith, and Young, that we are obviously a better team than last year. However, the question marks after Price in the rotation are concerning. I think signing a guy like Kazmir could really help solidify our rotation. Kelly would be able to move to the pen, where I think he would be able to excel. Also, I read some of the previous posts about Pedroia. I am probably one of the biggest Pedroia advocates amongst most of the Red Sox fans that I have talked to. He is injury prone and he saw a decline in range defensively. I think that a plan to give him days off will be a big part of him staying healthy. I also know that criticism from the media and fans from people that doubt him will only facilitate his desire to prove everyone wrong. He is a guy that should be able to play 130-140 games if healthy (hopefully giving him about 20-30 days off throughout the year). If we can get him to hit .300 with around 15 homers, and above average defense, then there is not another guy that I would want starting over him. Of course, that depends on his health. I just don't think you trade him away. He is a clubhouse leader and the heart and soul of this team, along with Big Papi. Here's to a great season ahead of us. On paper, this team will be competitive. But we heard that before the start of last season. Let's hope that this team can live up to their expectations. Happy holidays to everyone and happy new year!

I am generally pretty optimistic for this team, but it just seems like there are never ending problems. The problem in April was pitching. The problem this month is the offense. We hired a new PC and the pitching has been solid as of late. The first thing that needs to be done is to call up Castillo. Nava needs to go. I would rather experience growing pains with Castillo in the majors than have to witness Nava continuously suck defensively and strike out. Trade him for a sack of s*** to some team in Japan. I don't care, just get him off of this team. Big Papi will not be the same .300 hitter, 30 homers, and 100 RBI's. However, I fully expect him to hit .250 with 20+ homers and 75+ RBI's. Napoli needs to get back to the basics. I agree with Panda only batting LH. Holt needs to split time with Napoli at 1B once Panda is back. I fully expect Hanley to get back to his offensive production before he got injured. Pedroia will be fine. The lineup needs to be: Betts Pedroia Ortiz Ramirez Sandoval Bogaerts Napoli/Holt Swihart/Leon Castillo/Victorino Depending on how Castillo performs and Betts performance, a swap in the batting order may be useful. Please just get Nava off of this team. The team is in a slump offensively, but I think a spark from Castillo will add value. As much potential as this team has I strongly believe the offense will come around. I don't see it happening when we waste 3-4 at bats with Nava in the lineup. Farrell needs to shake things up.

Wow, this thread is a joke. Why waste your time posting this? If you want to be on the Cubs bandwagon, then go on your way. There is no need to make a new thread for it. Baseball is a game. You have true fans and then you have yourself. I am not the happiest with front office right now either, but I am not going to become a girl on her period and start making impulsive decisions. I understand the frustration with the FO, but I know that you have no loyalty to the Red Sox. You are the reason why some baseball fans are a joke. I appreciate the true fans of the game of baseball.

I could see that and maybe I am just overreacting and overthinking us not signing Lester. I would hope that we would still have enough payroll flexibility to sign at the bare minimum two SP's, but hopefully three. At one point, I have read reports on us potentially signing Lester and trading for Hamels. That was after the Ramirez and Sandoval signings. I am sure everything has to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

That is understandable. I see what you are saying. I haven't heard or read any articles from any scouts, doctors, etc. within the industry that have said that he is probably over the injury. I am sure they are out there, but I haven't done any research on it. I will take your word for it. If that is the case, I would not mind a healthy Masterson next year if he is filling in the #3 slot in the rotation.

I completely understand we are willing to go over the luxury tax. You said it yourself, only Henry knows how much his budget is for the team. The only fact that I have is that the Red Sox were all in on Lester and fell short of 3 million per year in the Lester sweepstakes. That does not look good. There are not many left handed pitchers available, let alone an ace that we are familiar with. I have no idea how much money we have left to spend. All I know is that we didn't want to bring back Lester and it does not look to promising with our payroll at this point based off of the limited sample size that we have to work with. Let me just go on record hear by stating that I am completely fine with only spending money to sign FA SP's. My proposal was just an idea of what the team could do. In my mind, we have the flexibility to trade a couple of young SP's and we have a surplus of OF's. I know that a trade is going to happen one way or another, which is why I was coming up with trade proposals. We can sign three SP's via free agency or we can trade for three SP's. I don't give a s*** how it gets done. I just think that we all know that the big priority is SP'ing.

So, according to your logic, I cannot look at something that happened last year? You can compare one year production in this scenario. Porcello had a solid year last year and Masterson's injury prone season was horrible. I took a look at their career numbers. This debate is just all subjective. I can argue my opinion and you can argue your opinion. The biggest concern that I have with Masterson is what makes you think he will be completely healthy in 2015? There is no guarantee, so you have a risk there. Is there a chance that Porcello's ERA regresses toward his career ERA? Based off of his peripherals like you stated, there is obviously that chance. In my mind, Porcello is healthy and is coming off of a career year. As of right now, that is more intriguing to me than facing the uncertainty with Masterson's health.

No kidding there are plenty of options that only cost money. We clearly lost Lester last night because ownership apparently didn't want to offer Lester $25M a year. With your theory saying we have plenty of money, that is incorrect. We do have flexibility with payroll, but it is not limitless. Trading away only two of eight minor league starting pitchers will not impact our minor league depth. Think about it logically. Trading away two minor league starting pitchers for two major league starting pitchers will not impact our depth, it will only improve our rotation. We are trading away two SP's for two in return. Once again, your logic is flawed.

Porcello's 3.43 ERA last year and Masterson's 5.88 ERA last year are reasons enough for me to choose Porcello. Not to mention Porcello's 1.231 WHIP and Masterson's 1.632 WHIP last year proves Porcello is the better option.

Sell the future? lol my proposal is not selling the future. We have eight pitchers who could all start in the rotation in AAA or go to the pen. Let me know how trading two of those away is selling the future. Marrero is blocked by Bogaerts (assuming he can improve his offense like he showed in the last couple months of the season). Cecchini is blocked by Panda and is already in AAA. There is really no room for either of them in the near future. Margot and Devers are nowhere close to the majors. We would get four years of Hamels. We would only get one for Porcello, but we only have one year of Cespedes. That seems pretty fair. I specifically said we will keep Owens, Betts, and Swihart. Also, we would keep Johnson and Rodriguez. The last time I checked, we can only start 5 pitchers and we potentially have 8 in AAA. Trading two away, having 5 in AAA, and moving one to the pen in no way jeapordizes our future. So I guess selling the future means only trading two from a surplus of pitching depth in the minors and trading two guys that are blocked for at least the next six years. I am glad you are not the GM, otherwise we would be as good as the Astros or Cubs for years to come. We need a healthy balance of prospects and veterans.

I can't disagree with that. Having a salary of $25M for Lester each year and adding Hamels' salary on top of that would be something that is likely improbable.