redsoxfan3

I could live with signing Dempster, but I think we would still need to sign one of Jackson, Lohse, or Sanchez as well to put us in a decent situation with our rotation. We would then have one of those three, Dempster, Lester, Buchholz as our top fourr starters with Lackey, Doubront, and Morales battling for the 5th spot. Morales could go back to the pen and we would be able to teade Doubront somewhere if Lackey wins the 5th spot. Guys luke Wright and De La Rosa could be used as depth later in the season if need be and if they have good seasons in AAA.

That is true, but they don't even need a CF.

Just read this. They said that there is no reason to worry about this yet, but it is bizarre that there is a delay with his physical. Hopefully this does not fall through, because I liked the signing.

I just don't see that Ellbury to Atlanta trade working out. They just got B.J. Upton to play CF, so I am not sure why they would trade for Ellsbury when there OF is set with Prado, Upton, and Heyward. I do think that with that team, that it would be a contender. If we do sign Hamilton, then Ellsbury is definitely able to get traded, but I just do not see that happening. When and if that time comes, then we can discuss it. If we do not sign Hamilton and get a guy like Swisher, we could still keep Ellsbury. Swisher can get time in LF, RF, and at 1B. He can get a lot of playing time against RHH pitching in LF and Gomes would play against LHH pitching in LF. That would offer us a lot of flexibility. I do like the addition of Floyd and Sanchez or Jackson.

Those numbers are not much different from Pedroia's numbers last year. He hit .290/.347/.449, and 15 HR's. That is pretty close to the projections. A lot of people say that he had a down year, when in reality he had a pretty solid year for someone who played through an injury for almost a month and only played 141 games. I think Pedroia could be a .300 hitter, 18 HR, 80 RBI, .850 OPS guy if he can avoid injuries. You could definitely tell last year when Pedroia was hurt. His production went down big time.

I heard a little about him after he got traded from the Guardians. He is 28 years old, but he had a solid year last year in the minors. Age is not on his side. A strong, half season in AAA could land him a spot in the majors if there is need for him in the rotation. I know as much about him as you do. I have just read scouting reports about him. It is always good to have depth, especially a knuckleballer to mix things up. I do like the minor league pitching options. We have Wright, Barnes, De La Rosa, and Webster all with potential. I don't know who can for sure, but Lavarnway and Salty are both not that great defensively. I would assume that Ross would catch Wright if he breaks into the majors. He is our best defensive catcher. I doubt Salty is still in Boston if they think that Lavarnway is truly ready for the majors. Ross and Lavarnway split time, with Napoli catching on occasion. We will probably see more of Napoli catching during away interleague games when Ortiz mans 1B. I am guessing that Salty gets traded, unless Lavarnway gets stuck in AAA.

Everything on the market is probably going to get overpaid. We have the financial flexibility to overpay someone. I know that no one ever wants to do that, but this year we may need to. There are not too many options and we are in a decent financial situation to do so. The only one I would go more than three years for is Anibal Sanchez. I would prefer if we at least got one of Edwin Jackson, Kyle Lohse, or Anibal Sanchez. Two would be awesome. Point being, we need at the very least one new addition to the rotation.

I liked Youk for most of the time he was in Boston. I did have a problem with his attitude in Spring Training. He was signing autographs after practice and was complaining verbally. It was definitely not something little fans should have experienced. He was getting mad that people were calling his name and was having an attitude. After that, I lost some respect for the guy. I heard one little kid specifically say, "he is grumpy. He is not my favorite player anymore." He does make the effort to usually sign autographs after practice, but if you are going to get angry doing so, then don't waste your time if it is that big of a deal. All of last year I was not a big Youk fan. I understand that he was a favorite player of several people, but you have to realize the circumstances. He was offered 12 million by the Yankees for one year. The next best offer was from the Guardians for 2 years at 18 million. The Guardians signed Mark Reynolds, so Youk was probably not going to be able to sign in Cleveland. The White Sox paid him 1 million to buy out the team option for 2013. He still is making all of his 13 million now for 2013, with the 1 million buyout and the 12 million contract. I give his agent a lot of credit. This game is a business and he took the best contract available. It sucks that he is going to be on a rival team, but from a business standpoint he made the right choice. The one year contract can give him a chance to build some value for the FA market for 2014. I could really care less about him going to the Yankees. It just gives me a reason to not like the guy presently, even though I respect him from his time he played in Boston.

I am glad Dempster rejected the offer. That doesn't mean he does not want to play here, it just means he will accept the first three year offer he gets. We need to sign Jackson or Sanchez. I don't care if we overpay for short term contracts. We have financial flexibility. We need at least one decent starter. Haren and McCarthy signed elsewhere. Pass on Dempster. We are not going after Greinke. I will be happy if we can just get Sanchez or Jackson. Both would be awesome, but one would be a start.

Good pick up with Uehara. If we can add Brian Wilaon and have a late inning combo of Wilson, Uehara, Tazawa, and Bailey, then that would be solid. We would also have the flexibilty to trade Bailey. Our pen could be very solid. We still have Melancon, Bard, and Aceves who we do not know what kind of production we are going to get.

Is she now? She is also the one that said that Napoli was likely to sign with the Red Sox during the Winter Meetings. What happened? Napoli was signed by the Red Sox the first day of Winter Meetings.

Not really liking the AAV, but like the FO has said, they are more worried about years. We have some financial flexibility. Since we have Victorino, I think that counts out Swisher (who costs us a draft pick). Victorino can play all three OF positions. I think that means Cody Ross is still in the hunt. He is cheap compared to Victorino, more power but not as good defensively. If we can resig Ross, our OF will be Gomes, Ells, Ross, Victorino, and one of Nava or Kalish. Not bad at all with Victotino being a switch hitter and capable of playing LF and RF. We really need to focus on SP.

I actually misread that. How do you know for sure that Bailey was not offered? Here is what NESN reported: NESN is saying that it is not clear how Aviles was decided. It could be because the Jays asked for Bailey and the Red Sox did not want to give him up, although there is no proof of that in the article. Either way, Bailey is still on the market, whether or not he was offered as compensation. Here is something reported from MLBTR: It is still the fact the FO is open to trading Bailey. We should definitely be interested in a guy like Brian Wilson. That would probably give us a little flexibility if we do want to trade Bailey.

This is the way I look at it. Buchholz is not going into the 2013 season as our ace. He does have the potential to put up solid numbers. We need to focus on getting starting pitching back on track. If Buchholz can put up ace like numbers, that would be an excellent bonus, but having him just put up solid numbers for a #2 or #3 is what we should look for. Everything else will fall in place. What is known is that we do not have a true ace and our focus should just be on having a quality rotation, not on whether Buchholz becoming an ace.

Wilson will not be a bad pickup. It is already known that the FO does not think too highly of Bailey. They already tried sending him to Toronto for compensation for Farrell. I think we should keep Bailey to help rebuild his trade value, but having Wilson around would be a plus. I would not mind giving Wilson a shot and sending Bailey's fat ass on his way.

With Hamilton capable of playing all three OF positions, this is not a bad idea at all on a short-term contract. He is a big bat that would be an instant impact in the lineup. I am not a fan of another big contract, but on a short-term deal I am not against it. Also, Lucchino already does a lot of the GM work. That is publicly known, so he is almost certain to have some sort of say with any of the deals that we make.

Ideally, I hope we sign two starters. We would have the two starters with Lester and Buchholz, allowing us to have Doubront, Lackey, and Morales all competing for the 5th spot. Doubront could be a trade chip. Lackey will be hard to shop, but Morales already has plenty of experience in the pen if he does not win the job. Odds are we only sign one starter because we have five guys that the FO already sees as capable of starting. I do hope it is two to make the rotation more competitive and to add depth. I am all for signing Brian Wilson. He has roots in New England and would probably love to play in Boston. That would be a nice addition to the pen. We have a lot of bullpen pieces already. I do agree that you cannot go wrong with signing Napoli to play 1B, signing one of or both of Swisher and Ross to play RF, signing Wilson to improve our pen, signing Drew to compete at SS, and signing one or two SP's. This is a big if, but if we can do all of this during the offseason, then I think we will have a competitive team come Spring Training. BC has a lot of work to do. With Winter Meetings starting tomorrow, he better get to work. Rumors are that Swisher and Napoli are fairly close to choosing a destination.

I love that lineup. It allows us to be competitive without getting rid of prospects. If Napoli hits 30 HR's, 80 RBI's, and around career averages in terms of OPS, OBP, and AVG, then I do not think that there will be many people upset with him batting cleanup. The big three we are still targeting are Swisher, Napoli, and Ross. Signing Napoli and either Ross or Swisher would be awesome, but signing all three would give us more depth. Swisher is a switch hitter. Ross is similar to Gomes. Gomes in LF and Ross in RF against lefties would be a plus. Swisher's splits last year were not that much different, so he could play against lefties or righties. If we had to, we could start Ross or Kalish in LF against righties. Kalish is an ideal platoon with Gomes because he is a LHH. Nava is also a switch hitter, so he might not be a bad platoon in LF. There are plenty of options if we sign all three. There is a lot of versatility. Not to mention Swisher can also play 1B. That would not be a bad option, because Napoli is better in his career against lefties and Swisher could occasionally fill-in against righties. We also have Jerry Sands who could surprise a few people this Spring. He can play 1B and the corner OF positions. We potentially have a platoon of Gomes with Nava or Kalish in LF (with Ross playing there when needed), Swisher and Ross platooning in RF, and Napoli the primary 1B (with Swisher playing if needed). I think we would be in an ideal situation. If two of Sands, Nava, and Kalish have to go to AAA, then so be it. That just gives us more depth in the minors. We can also sign Stephen Drew to compete at SS. It is easier said than done by signing all three, but it gives us something to work towards.

Sources saying we are going to tender Aceves and non-tender Sweeney and Atchison. Sweeney makes sense, but not so much with Atchison. Although, we could still resign him as a FA.

He is demanding 6/90.

This is very important. Signing positive guys in the clubhouse is good. I am not sure if this falls into the moneyball category, but definitely getting guys that will have a positive impact in the clubhouse who can hit for power are a plus. Gomes' .377 OBP last year is a plus, whether he can do that again next year is to be seen, but if we can sign these "Kevin Millar" type guys that will help this team out.

Loney will not get resigned. If we bring in Napoli to play 1B and split time with Jerry Sands, I think that could be a nice platoon. I know that they are both RH and that is not necessarily an ideal platoon, but I think that with Napoli being able to play C as well and Sands being able to play the corner OF positions that it will only help in terms of flexibility. The potential power at 1B would be a plus. Gomes is a decent addition in the OF. If he even platoons with Kalish, that gives us a LHH and a RHH. That would not be a bad platoon in LF. I do agree that we need another decent OF. Even a platoon with Nava in LF might not be bad, especially with Nava being a switch hitter. We cannot just sign Gomes and call it an offseason in the OF. We need at least one more decent OF. I am still waiting to hear if we are going after Hamilton. I know we are kicking the tires with him, but there are mixed opinions about signing him. I am still not sure one way or another. I think that he would be a good addition to any team, but I do not want to sign him to a long-term contract. If we sign him to a two or three year deal, then I am probably not going to be a against it.

I still am not sure what BC has in mind for rotation plans, but I would love nothing more than to sign Anibal Sanchez and to trade for a guy like Jon Niese. I think packaging Doubront and Salty (or some other sort of trade) to get a guy like Jon Niese would be a nice addition. A rotation of Niese, Sanchez, Buchholz, Lester, and Lackey would be pretty decent. There is no true ace in there, but there is a lot of potential there if Buchholz and Lester can get back to performing like they have in recent years. I am not saying we have to get Sanchez and Niese, but if we add to guys with the potential that they have, then I think we will have a competitive rotation.

That is very true. He also has roots from the New England area. He is from Connecticut. I am not sure if he grew up as a Red Sox fan or not, but being from New England is probably a plus for him. He has never been a pitching coach, but has 14 years experience as a minor league pitching instructor and 5 years experience as a bullpen coach. He does have some experience working with pitchers, which is a plus. It is definitely an interesting move. I am kind of thinking that Farrell wanted him because he can do a lot more with him than with a guy that already has his own ways (like Peterson), as SoxSport pointed out.

Also, I did not get to comment about the signing of Gomes yet. He had a decent year last year, and in a platoon role I do not mind the signing, but if he is our everyday starter, then I will not be too thrilled about it. I am happy we made an effort to sign a guy like Gomes. If it is true about how good of a clubhouse guy he is and he provides good leadership, then I think it is a decent signing. He has some power and that will be a plus. He puts up similar numbers like Ross at a cheaper price. I am not too familiar with his defense, but his offensive power will be a plus. The addition of Napoli and Gomes will give us decent power to hit in the lineup with Ellsbury, Pedroia, Ortiz, and Middlebrooks. I am really hoping Sands will have a solid year and will reach some of his potential. Also, it is being reported that we could resign Ross. That could mean that Ross, Gomes, Sweeney, Ellsbury, and Kalish could be our five OF's.