redsoxfan3

I have about 15 Red Sox hats myself. I probably have way too much Red Sox stuff, but anyways I found some options for you. Hopefully you like one of them. http://www.footballfanatics.com/MLB_Boston_Red_Sox_Hats/New_Era_Boston_Red_Sox_Navy_Blue_ACL_39THIRTY_Flex_Fit_Hat http://www.lids.com/MLB/Boston-Red-Sox/20225356 http://www.lids.com/MLB/Boston-Red-Sox/20149713 http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1734784&cp=1452345.1452682.1454548 http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11316277&cp=1452345.1452682.2016076 http://www.yawkeywaystore.com/Products/Franchise---Scituate__H0686.aspx Here are a few options that you may be looking for. I hope this helps and you can find the one that you like. Let us know how it goes. Good luck. Out of all of those, I personally like the third one the best. That one is the Spring Training cap.

It sounds like BC is content with this team the way it is, that is what concerns me the most. Basically, this team is a bunch of question marks. The talent is there, that is for sure. The thing that we have to worry about is injuries. Lester, Beckett, and Buchholz, when healthy and when they are on their A game, are arguably one of the best pitching trios in the game of baseball. The problem there is that the odds of one of them getting hurt or underperforming is very likely. That is my opinion, but it has happened in the past. I am hoping for the best, but you never know. I am confident with the offense that we have. That is not my concern. My concern is with our pitching all around. We have a bunch of question marks. Even our offense has question marks. Kalish and Crawford are both hurt. Who knows when they will return? Also, who knows if they will be able to be productive. Crawford needs to improve drastically. Who knows if Kalish will even have an impact in the majors this season? Our outfield concerns me. Youk is also a question mark. This team has nothing but question marks. Pedroia and Ellsbury have even been plagued with injuries in the past. No one knows if that will happen again. No one can predict anything like that. All I know if all goes well and this team stays healthy for the most part, we will be competitive. If not, then we will be lucky to get a wildcard spot and will probably be third best team in the AL East. I do know that there is a lot to look forward to, I just hope for the best. As fans, that is all we can do, everything else is out of our control.

Like User Name? said, Youkilis is probably the best option for a trade. It would be almost impossible to trade a guy like Carl Crawford away. Youkilis has a history of injuries, he isn't getting any younger, and he does have a 12 million dollar contract for 2012, with a club option for 2013. So realistically, it might be hard to trade him. He would be a big bat for another team as a 3B and could even be an option for a team as a DH or 1B. The good thing is there is flexibility with Youkilis, so other teams should like that. Other teams could also like his power numbers. Basically, if a team can overlook his injuries and like his flexibility and they need some improvement offensively, it might not be hard to trade him. Especially since Youk is under team control for two more years. We just need to find the right team, which is the hard part. We cannot probably expect the best return for trading him, especially if we make the move to free up some payroll. Maybe a couple of average players in return.

Good points Palodios. With the discussion regarding the bullpen. It is going to be hard to duplicate the production we got out of Bard and Papelbon. Although, Bailey and Melancon are two guys that I think, if anyone, would be able to come close to the production we got out of Bard and Papelbon. Yes, Melancon was playing for the Astros, but he was also a closer and posted good numbers. It is like he was closing for a AAA team, he still faced major league hitters. He is also in the set-up role, so there is going to be slightly less pressure than if he were to be closing. Bailey will be fine as long as he stays away from injuries. I am hoping Aceves can stay in the pen. Aceves is 29, Bailey is 27, and Melancon is 26. We have a young, but a very talented 7th, 8th, and 9th combo. I am excited about these three for the next few years to come. I hope everything works out for these guys. Bard was a decent starter in college and I know he struggled when he started for us in the minors, but he has really excelled as a reliever. I think with the experience he has as a starter and with the experience he has as a releiver that he is going to be fine for us as a starter in the backend of the rotation. It is a question mark at this point, but I don't think he can be any worse then Wake or Lackey.

He only played in 120 games last year and 102 games the year before. I am hoping that he can improve his numbers offensively. For a career .289 hitter, he only hit .258 last year. Assuming that we do keep him, we will need some more production from him. He did have 17 HR's and 80 RBI's last year. So, if we do lose him, that is true in saying that we will lose some power from a RH hitter. Who else could we trade to free up some money and still get something decent in return? Youkilis is probably the best option. Youkilis is going to be making 12 million next year. You have to look at it one of two ways. We trade Youkilis for a decent right handed hitting RF who can platoon with Sweeney and possibly another decent bullpen arm. That would probably be realistic if we can get rid of his salary. That might be able to give us enough money to be able to sign Oswalt. We would then have our 5th pitcher and, the right handed OF we have all wanted, and another bullpen arm that we could use. That means Aviles starts at 3B for the season. No one knows if Youk will be able to stay healthy the entire year anyways, we still have Pedroia, Aviles, Scutaro, the RH hitting OF, and Salty (switch hitter) as our RH hitters. We have to deal with Aviles at 3B until Middlebrooks is ready in the future, hopefully by 2013. Lavarnway may even be able to add some power to the right side of the plate, but the problem is getting him at bats with Papi at DH and both Salty and Shoppach in front of him at C. The other option is keeping Youkilis, meaning we don't know what to expect out of him with his injuries. I expect him to improve his numbers from last year. That means we probably are stuck with everything as it is. Our offense will be fine, we just have to rely on Silva, Cook, Padilla, etc. as a 5th starter until we can trade for another decent starter sometime during the season. What happens with Youk at this point if we do keep him? If he has another season where he isn't that healthy, it probably doesn't seem likely that we pick up his option for 2013 at 13 million, especially if Will Middlebrooks is ready to go. So in reality, would it be more beneficial to this team to keep him around for one year and hope to expect great numbers from Youk in the middle of the lineup or trade him and get value out of trading for him in return? At this point, it is likely we keep him, just some interesting thoughts. I want to keep Youk just as much as any other fan, but we have to look at the options as well. I am excited about 2013, with Kalish, Lavarnway, and Middlebrooks all potentially making the lineup as everyday guys. The FO will do what they fill is right, but I am sure all of things I have said is crossing their mind. I am not getting paid to make these assessments, that is their job. I just know that this year we will be competing for a wildcard spot with the team that we have. I am more excited about this team in 2013 than I am for next year.

I have been doing a lot of thinking with the pitching on this team lately. Our rotation probably looks something like this: Lester Beckett Buchholz Bard Silva/Padilla/Cook/Aceves/Miller/Carlson The 5th spot will be decided in the Spring depending if someone evolves as a clear cut 5th starter. It would be ideal to keep Aceves in the pen to have at least Aceves, Melancon, and Bailey for the 7th, 8th, and 9th. Morales, Albers, Jenks, etc. will fill-in. Miller or Padilla could be interesting to watch. Miller could be a long inning reliever and Padilla has some experience closing, so it might be interesting to see if he can be a decent reliever if he doesn't make the rotation. Dice-K will be back sometime after the all-star game. We need to hope that we can rely on Buchholz, Lester, Beckett, and Bard as solid starters. If we do get plagued with injuries, there will be possibilities to trade for someone at the deadline. Carlson could be interesting to watch as a potential starter. He has experience in the AL East and he was actually a decent pitcher a couple years ago. If he can bounce back from his injury then he might not be a bad option as the 5th starter. It doesn't seem likely that we are going to get Oswalt or Saunders. It could be possible, but probably not likely. Something interesting is if we could trade Youkilis to open up some of our salary. If that is the case, we could probably have Aviles start at 3B with Punto helping out in that position. I think Aviles could be a decent short term option for next year, and then we hope Middlebrooks is ready to go in 2013. If we can trade Youk, that means we can probably sign Oswalt. We might be able to trade Youk away for maybe a 4th right handed hitting OF and for a decent bullpen arm. That would be an interesting idea that I am sure the FO has thought about. Either way, I think we will be competitive.

So I am growing tired of fans being so pessimistic of this team. Yes, with the team we have right now, it is hard to be extremely optimistic about this season. We still have a few weeks until Spring Training starts. We are really only one starting pitcher away and maybe one or two bullpen arms away from being one of the best teams in baseball. We can still sign Roy Oswalt. Even if we don't, we have enough pieces of the puzzle to survive until we can potentially make a trade at the deadline. Chad Qualls is also an option for our pen, we have been linked to him recently. It is getting extremely old hearing about the same things. We will be a competitive team regardless. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but we haven't even finished the offseason yet. Wait until Spring Training is over and wait to see our finalized roster going into the season. We are ready offensively and defensively. We just need to make some adjustments. If you don't have anything better to do, then maybe start watching the Patriots the next couple weeks as they look to try to get back to the Super Bowl. There is some positivity with New England sports. The Red Sox will be fine when it is all said and done. If we don't win the World Series in 2012, life goes on. We will be able to compete though, that is for sure. This team will not be the worst team in baseball. Hang in there. Keep your heads up. Most importantly, keep the faith.

[start rant] I got home from work and I was in disbelief. Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda, really? I have been optimistic up until this point. Pineda and Kuroda improve the Yanks rotation. Hopefully Kuroda will struggle and age will start to become a factor with him. I really like Michael Pineda. A 22 year old with a lot of potential. That could have been huge for the Sox if we could have traded for him. In my opinion he will be a good pitcher for the Yanks for the next several years. There is a positive to this. Kuroda is off the books and the Yanks will not be competing with us to sign a starting pitcher. Jackson is still probably out of the picture because of him wanting a multiyear deal. That leaves us with Oswalt and Saunders as potential signings. I would love for us to sign Oswalt to a 1 year/8 million contract. Saunders would be there if for some reason we cannot sign Oswalt. At this point if we want to compete with the Yankees next year, we need to sign either Oswalt who will probably give us a solid of 170 innings or Saunders who will potentially give us a decent 200 innings. I give props to the Yanks. I will be waiting. Please BC, do everything in your power to sign Oswalt. The Yanks have set the bar, now go out there and match what the Yanks did. Garza is still available, but lately there have been talks that he will probably be starting the season with the Cubs. We need to do something though if we want to compete for the AL East title. At this point we will only be able to compete with the Rays. [/end rant] All I want is Oswalt, a couple more decent bullpen guys and I will still consider this a decent offseason. Also, does anyone think it would be possible to still sign Oswalt and Saunders? That could give us a rotation of Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Oswalt, and Saunders. That would keep Bard and Aceves both in the pen and we would be set with our pitching in my opinion. I would love for that to happen, but personally that is probably unrealistic.

I agree with you. I am convinced we are going to get another SP. Although, I don't think we will get Jackson because he wants a muliyear contract. Kuroda, Oswalt, and Saunders have all been linked to potential one year deals. I believe it is possible that we get one of the three. With the Kuroda talks a couple of days ago, it leads me to believe that we might be very close to working something out with him. So I agree with you in saying that it will most likely be Kuroda. I don't think that Ben is even close to being done. There are I believe about 5 weeks still until Spring Training starts. There is a lot of time left. Good post, you have some legit points. We will definitely have the ability to have an abundance of pitchers to choose from (Miller, Silva, Cook, Padilla, Carlson, Doubront, Dice-K midseason, etc.) if we need someone to fill in. That makes sense. I do think we can make the playoffs as a wildcard even if we do not sign a solid #4, although it would be a huge addition if we did. Harden and Colon are still interesting free agents. Another question. We have talked a lot about starting pitchers, who is still out there that you guys think could be a good addition to the bullpen? I have a few names that come to mind, but I want to hear different opinions.

haha, so I went on a tangent for nothing. At least I like to debate. It is hard to sense sarcasm on the internet, maybe I should have read some of his previous posts in this thread.

Thank you. So, with Padilla's deal, that makes it at least 14 minor league contracts that we have made recently. That is at least 5.6 million in minor league deals that we have dished out (assuming that they are all guaranteed the league minimum of 400K). I know some of the signings are necessary, but in my opinion that money could have went into a more reliable starter. 5.6 million is basically half of what we could probably get for Oswalt. I am still not sure what Kuroda's one year asking price would be. I remember reading $13 million somewhere. I am still not sure what Saunders asking price is. It is at least an interesting thought to me.

Padilla is a veteran, he has 13 seasons in the pros and is only 34. I think there may be more upside with Padilla than maybe Cook or Silva. I know on MLBTR that they were saying Padilla is interested in trying to take a crack at the starting rotation. Obviously injuries are a concern with Padilla. I think in the spring he will be given an opportunity to start some games, although I am hoping that we can maybe find use for him in the bullpen if he does have a bounce back year. I don't want to rely on Padilla in the rotation, he could be a spot starter if needed, but I think if anything he might be able to add some important depth in the bullpen for us if needed. I know that we have a lot of RH relief pitchers as it is, but with his velocity reaching 96, I could see him with some sort of value in the bullpen for us if he has a good spring. I see him on the same level as Silva and Cook, just another low risk starting pitcher signing, but I think he may have a better chance than Cook or Silva. That is just my opinion. We need some bullpen depth as it is. These cheap SP signings are starting to get really old though. Here is a question that I don't know much about. I am not really good with minor league contracts and the money involved. With the signings of guys like Duckworth, Haeger, Carlson, Silva, Cook, Hill, Pena, Spears, Spoone, Inman, Mathis, Spears, etc., how much are there contracts actually worth? I know some of them are incentive laden contracts, but I know there is a guaranteed amount. Are they each worth around 1 million guaranteed or is it less than that? I am asking this because we haven't really signed an actual reliable starter yet. If they are worth 1 million guaranteed, then that could be 10 million dollars we have spent on guys that are going to be in the minors/guys that we are hoping to get value out of that are considered low risk signings. I know we have spots to fill in the minors as well, but say instead of spending that money on some of these contracts, then we could have spent that money on a reliable starter. I am not sure if that logic is correct or not, but it just seems that we are making several of these cheap signings and if we keep signing these cheap, low risk players, then why not try to spend that money somewhere else on someone who will actually be reliable? I am sure it adds up. Can someone give me some insight on this? It is interesting to me.

Depth can be viewed differently by different people. From my perspective, once we have 5 starting pitchers in the rotation, then the other players that are capable of being starting pitchers would be the depth. I agree with your scenario. If we sign Saunders, then that means we have five pitchers of Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Saunders, and Bard. Therefore, Cook, Germano, Silva, Miller, et al would be considered depth to our rotation. I would not consider the acquisition of Saunders, Kuroda, Jackson, or Oswalt as adding depth. I would consider that as filling a needed spot in our rotation. Basically in short, we have the same perspective on pitching depth. The dumpster diving strategy of BC is to create competition in camp and to add depth to our rotation in hopes that one of these pitchers will be worth the gamble. I don't see any starting pitcher that we have signed this offseason as one that I want as a reliable starter in the rotation. Now if a starter goes down at some point this season, I would not mind if one of these pitchers fills in temporarily if one of them is doing a solid job in AAA, which is exactly where they help this team out in terms of depth. I am still hoping we sign someone that can actually fill in the need of one more reliable starter in our rotation. The other signings don't hurt us, but they do add depth just in case we need it. I don't think anyone wants to rely on Cook, Silva, or any of the pitchers we have signed as a reliable starter.

I thought Wakefield was done a couple of years ago, so I don't know what you mean "soon, like Wakefield." I say that Silva and Miller are more useful to this team at this point. Wakefield would take up a Major League roster spot. Silva and Miller are guaranteed a roster spot. Miller might end up in the pen, but if Silva and Miller don't have a good Spring, then they will probably both end up in AAA or as free agents. I see these as signings that BC is trying to have competition in Spring. All it takes is for one of these "useless turd" to have a good Spring and they could be valuable for this team. The pitchers we have been signing have had problems recently and all it could take is for one of them to have a bounce back year. Do I think it will happen? Probably not, but it is a low-risk, so in my opinion it is worth the chance. These signings won't hurt the team. Maholm is signing with the Cubs. Saunders and Oswalt are expensive at this point, but I still believe we sign or trade for a reliable #4. I talked to some other fans and a lot of them were worried about the Melancon trade thinking he was going to be our closer. We still went out and got Bailey. A lot of fans are worried that these cheap pitcher signings are meaining that we aren't going to go spend money on a #4 pitcher. It could possibly end up that way, but I don't think it will, just like the Melancon situation. BC is doing everything he can to make this team better without spending as much money as possible. That could mean we wait last minute (like we are currently doing) to hopefully wait to see if Saunders or Oswalt will come cheaper. Either way, we don't need to wait until next year like you said. We still have pieces of the puzzle to compete for a playoff spot.

Garza and Jurrjens are still available in trades. Oswalt, Kuroda, and Jackson are all still free agents. I don't see us getting Jurrjens. A couple days ago I remember reading that we are "not in" on him. Garza and the Tigers are talking about getting Garza, so if that happens, then both Garza and Jurrjens are out of the picture. Kuroda and Jackson are probably going to cost too much. Oswalt is probably a stretch as well, unless we can somehow get him to sign a decent one year contract. I don't think the FO likes the asking price of Saunders either. Saunders or Oswalt are probably our two best options at this point. I hope that we can get one of the two. Saunders could be an innings eater for us, which I really like. I just hope we can get one of those two guys. Hopefully the FO can make it happen and spend some money on one of the two. I hope we don't have to rely on one of Carlson, Silva, Cook, Miller, or Haeger to be able to get that #4 spot in the rotation by battling it out this Spring. Please BC, think of something to get us a reliable #4.

Not sure if this was posted yet, but the source is MLBTR. I honestly don't know much about Germano other than the stats I found on him. I don't recall watching him personally ever pitch. You can add another name to that list of cheap pitchers that are going to be competing for a spot in Spring Training. I feel like with Silva, Miller, Carlson, Cook, Haeger, and now Germano that we have too many depth guys. I think we have enough of these guys already. We have enough cheap SP, now we need to focus on signing someone who will actually be able to start in the #4 spot for us. I am not sure if we are planning on having Germano compete for the bullpen or rotation. He has done both in his career. Back in '07 he started 23 games for the Padres, finished the year with a 4.46 ERA and a 1.298 WHIP. Back in '10 he pitched 22 games for the Guardians out of the pen, finished with a 3.31 ERA and 0.991 WHIP. He obviously has played other years, but those are his two years that he had some significant time in the majors. He has been inconsistent throughout his career, with showing glimpses that he could be a decent pitcher. Not sure what his stats were like last year with the Samsung Lions. All I can say is that this is just another cheap pickup with the potential to add depth to our pen or rotation.

In addition to my previous post in reference to the #4 starter, I forgot to mention Paul Maholm. I think he would be a good addition in that role if he can duplicate his 3.66 ERA and 1.294 WHIP from last year. I know those number might increase some because he is pitching in the AL East, but if he replicates those numbers from last year, or simlar numbers, then he could play a vital role for this team in the #4 spot. He has a career ERA of 4.36 and a career WHIP of 1.424, so that concerns me a little bit. He also only pitched 162.1 innings last year. If he could somehow increase that to 180-200, keep his ERA right around 4.00 or lower, and have a decent WHIP, then he would be a good addition to this team in the rotation. That would be a good pickup since he is cheap. I would prefer Oswalt over Maholm, but Maholm is probably more realistic. We are also keeping an eye on Saunders, who would be an innings eater for sure. He could probably also keep his ERA right around 4.00. I feel that the addition of either Saunders or Maholm could round out the rotation of Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, and Bard. Like I said, I would prefer Oswalt to those two, but cheap is the way we are going, so Saunders or Maholm are probably more likely. The competition this Spring could be interesting. If we sign Maholm or Saunders, then we have Silva, Carlson, and Cook competing for the rotation as well. That would put the pressure on Bard and Maholm/Saunders. We just need to make sure we get some sort of decent #4 and I personally feel like Saunders or Maholm could be that guy (I'm ready for the criticism).

In this case I actually agree with him. I know everyone thinks whenever we make a signing that he is negative about the signing, but he is spot on. He is a guy that has been plagued with injuries that needs a huge bounce back year. He was spot on with saying that he is going to be a depth guy. This is a low risk signing.