redsoxfan3

I am doubting the fact that we are going to land Lee. No way in hell we should deal Bogaerts for a 34 year old Lee. Lee would be nice to have, but if it means trading Bogaerts, then count me out. With Iglesias and Bogaerts both capable of playing 3B, Middlebrooks has to be dealt in a trade before Bogaerts. I personally do not want to trade Middlebrooks, but if that is an option that will give us a legitimate World Series run this year and will allow us to keep Bogaerts for the future, then that is the best solution. Peavy and Norris are still out there. I do not want to overpay to get Peavy. I am trusting the FO in this situation, but if I wake up tomorrow and Bogaerts is no longer in the organization, I am not going to be a happy camper.

AAA depth? Nava, Gomes, and Carp having great years? Lackey pitching like an ace? Doubront pitching great these last 10 starts or so? I know we have had injuries and have succeeded against other teams, I just wanted to make a joke.

A nursing home. All of their players are old and are on the DL.

Because the hospital is playing a nursing home right now.

Hopefully it is something small. We don't need him to pull a Bailey.

Victorino out of the game. Nava in.

Do the Yankees get some sort of handicap for starting Lillibridge? I think it is only fair.

This is why Gomes has to play against lefties. They showed he is hitting .340+ in his last 10 games.

lmao, in his mind he probably thinks that. Either way, I understand the frustration, but we all know the good ole rule. If it is close with two strikes, you got to swing.

NESN Strike Zone showed it was a ball. It looked a little inside. I think he has a legitimate reason to be pissed.

Well...that was a GREAT way to start the game offensively.

I find it ironic how we traded Youkilis for Lillibridge last year, and now Youk and Lillibridge are both on the Yankees. Youk is hurt and Lillibridge is starting at 3B for the Yankees tonight. I think it will be a fun game to watch him play in. It is better to watch him on another team other than the Red Sox.

I agree, we do need to get it done. Pedroia has expressed his willingness to stay here long-term. The front office has expressed their willingness to keep him hear long term. His contract runs through 2014 with a team option for 2015, so getting this done this season is not too much of a worry. We have until the end of 2015 to give him an extension. Although, I imagine it will get done way before that. Realistically, I could see us signing him through 2020 when he will be 36 (if I am guessing right). Then before or around that time, we can evaluate his performance and go from there, but I think locking him up long-term is smart. He is a franchise player and a leader that needs to be part of this team until he retires.

I don't know if I would call him an ace. He might be the best pitcher for the Royals, but he would only have the third best ERA in our rotation (Buchholz and Lackey). If you don't want to include Buchholz because he hasn't been here all season, he still would not be our ace this year by looking at the numbers. I would consider him to be a good number two starter. He might be durable and might be reliable, but for potentially only getting him for a year and a half, I don't think it is worth giving up our best positional prospect and best pitching prospect in return. I do know that you meant one of Webster or De La Rosa. I think it is insane to trade one of those two and Bogaerts in the same package for Shields and Holland. Not to mention you want to trade two more prospects. Holland is a good, young closer, but we all know that closers come and go. Uehara has been effective. I think we can test the market for another closer/reliable arm that will not cost us our top prospects and a year and a half of Shields. I know we do not know what to expect from Brian Wilson, but he might be a realistic option to sign to be a reliable bullpen arm. He would not cost us any prospects. If I remember correctly, those instant solutions for our closer problem have not worked out. Look at Bailey and Hanrahan. Not to mention, Melancon pitched s***** here. Uehara is doing good in the closing role. I would welcome any improvements, but not in this situation. Our rotation has been strong, I don't think we have to trade top prospects for a SP who won't even be here for two years and a reliable closer. I am just thankful that you are not our GM. We would not even have a farm system. You have to think more than short-term.

I don't know if someone has pointed this out yet, and I don't know if it is a big surprise by how well we are doing, but we could finish the rest of the year with a record of 15-59 to match last season's total in wins. It is awesome that we are 20 games over and I hope we can keep playing at this level for the remainder of the year. I guess my point is that I am just surprised at how much of a difference one season can make. It has been a complete turn-a-round. People even talked about this being a rebuilding year. Well, I guess we rebuilt pretty fast. The rotation has been solid. Iglesias has been solid. The production we are getting from Nava, Carp, and recently Snyder has been great. Not to mention Uehara has been a great closer so far after the Hanrahan fail and Bailey bust.

I do not think that is all that realistic. I think Ellsbury is going to test out the market, especially being a Boras client. There is a chance we can sign him in the offseason, but to be honest, I am not all that worried about it right now. Bradley has the rest of the year to keep developing. Kalish should start a rehab assignment in the near future, barring any setbacks. Victorino is capable of playing CF. Brentz is showing he has a lot of power to compete for a position in RF. Hazelbaker might provide some competition in LF and he has some speed. Not to mention, Nava, Gomes, Victorino, and Carp are all going to be back next year. Victorino, Kalish, and Bradley can fight for CF. Worst case scenario is that Bradley proves he can take over everyday and Victorino moves back to RF. Kalish can play all three positions. If Bradley is not major league ready, then Brentz and Nava can fight for RF along with Kalish, especially since we do not know what to fully expect from Kalish. Gomes, Carp, Kalish, Nava, and Bradley all have experience in LF at the major league level. Coming into Spring Training, having Gomes, Kalish, Carp, Brentz, Hazelbaker, Victorino, Nava, and Bradley would create solid competition. Of course we would be a better team with Ellsbury, I still think we would have a decent OF options going into the spring. There are always FA options. There is the possibility of signing Choo to play RF and Victorino to play LF if we cannot resign Ells. The same goes for Hunter Pence. Carlos Beltran will be a FA and could be a short-term solution. There are other options as well. I don't think it is something to start worrying about now, especially with how well we are playing. Also, the biggest thing is finding a new leadoff hitter.

You are willing to trade our best positional prospect, one of our two best pitching prospects, and then include two more of our top 15 prospects for less than a year and a half of Shields and for four and a half years of Holland? Count me out. We all know that closers come and go. Count me in if it were a package for a 27 year old Felix Hernandez who has a contract through 2020. That is 7 and a half years of team control and an ace who will only be 34 or 35 when his contract is up. I am not against trading our top prospects in the right situation, but I am against trading out top prospects for a year and half of Shields. Bogaerts is 20. Webster is 23 and De La Rosa is 24. Swihart is 21 and Brentz and Workman are both 24. I am strongly against risking 10+ years of our future players to possibly get some starting pitching help for one and a half years and a closer for a little over four years. You are right, that offer would keep Dayton Moore on the phone, because you would have to be an idiot not to accept that. They would get a future middle-of-the-rotation starter and a player who has the potential to be an All-Star. Not to mention you are offering two of; an athlete in Swihart (who could switch positions if catcher does not work out for him), a player who is projected to be a decent future right fielder in Brentz, or a guy who projects as a set-up man in Workman (if he cannot improve on his mechanics to start regularly). I am sure the Royals love Shields and Holland, but I am sure they can forget the short-term to help benefit them in the long-run.

His numbers between yesterday and today are not that much of a difference. He increased his OBP by .006 and his batting average by .005 in the matter of that time. That is an immaterial difference. This is only his fourth season where he has played 80+ games, three in which he played 145+ and the one he had played 80 is this year, which is in progress. You are comparing this season to four others, saying that his rookie year was his worst out of the four. That leaves 2011 and 2009. 2011 was a ridiculous year for him. That leaves 2009 as the only other comparable season. He has similar numbers this year as he did in 2009, in terms of BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, and OPS+. His numbers this year are already higher than those in 2009. Also, whether it was not higher when you said that he was a disappointment is immaterial. His numbers were similar a couple days ago as they are today. This could potentially be his second best season after the season is over. The power numbers are not really an issue. We would love for him to hit 30 homers again, but with him on track to be around 60 stolen bases, hitting .300, and getting on base at .360 is more than satisfactory. Every team in baseball would love for their leadoff guy to produce like that. When you say that he is not one of the most valuable players in the league, that leads me to believe that you expect him to produce like his 2011 season on a consistent basis. That is probably never going to happen again. He might not be a Chris Davis or Miguel Cabrera in terms of power, but he is definitely one of the better leadoff hitters in the game. He is a solid leadoff hitter. He might not be having an MVP caliber season, but he is having a good season.

To be honest, I think it is a matter of team chemistry and playing with better team chemistry. I know that team chemistry will not allow a pitcher to go out there and pitch a good baseball game, but the environment in the clubhouse and having fun does a lot psychologically in the minds of the players. With playing under Farrell and the other coaches, you can see how different it is than last year. In terms of Nieves himself being the reason that the pitchers are having success, it is hard to say that he is the sole reason for it. I think he is a reason why, but it is a combination of new management and him working with John Farrell. Buchholz has always had potential to be a great pitcher. Lackey has proven that he is finally healthy, which is obviously when anyone performs their best. Lester, Doubront, and Dempster have all been starting to get on the right track. Webster is a top prospect with a lot of potential. It is hard to say anyone is the reason for the success that our pitchers are having. It has to be a combination of a better playing environment, better management, and the pitchers all reaching their potential at the same time. I don't know much about his connection with Farrell. I do know that Farrell chose Nieves over Rick Peterson. I think it was just a matter of Farrell knowing something about Nieves that he thought would work well under his management and with the players. I do know that Nieves has ties to New England as well. It was probably just a matter of Farrell felt that Nieves was the right guy for the job. I think it is hard to say that Nieves is making that much of a difference by himself, although he does deserve some of the credit. The knowledge and the experience that both Nieves and Farrell have is a plus for this team. It also helps that Farrell already knew some of the pitchers from his time as a pitching coach in Boston. This is probably just pure speculation, but I think that it is probably a plus for Nieves that Farrell was once in his position in Boston and can always get some help from him.

Bringing in Wilson would be a low risk, high reward scenario. He could be a nice arm at the back-end of our rotation if he can regain some of his 2008-2011 form. We do not need him to be a closer, unless of course he can prove that he is worthy to do so. Uehara is looking like a hell of a closer so far. He could add some value to the pen if he can prove to be a reliable arm. What is the worst that can happen? He is not able to be a reliable bullpen arm and we are exactly where we are at now with a first place team. The rotation is tricky. Doubront has not given up more than 3 ER's in his last nine starts. Obviously, it would be nice if he could start pitching deeper into games than his average that is over 5 innings per game. Lackey has been great so far. I couldn't ask for a better comeback from someone. We need Lester to continually improve. His last two outing have been steps in the right direction. If we can get consistency from him, then that will be huge down the stretch. He doesn't have to be an ace, but it would help if he can become consistent. Dempster has been okay as of late. If he is consistent and go out and pitch 6+ innings and only give up two to three runs a game like he did in June, I think he will be a decent starter for us. Webster had a decent start in his major league debut where he went 6 innings and only giving up 2 earned runs. He had a couple bad games against the Twins and Tigers. He proved why he is one of our top pitching prospects in his last outing. I think he is a decent option to fill-in the rotation when there is a need for it. With Buchholz out, I think he has came in during his last two outings and has kept us in the game. He is definitely a nice option to have for depth. Aceves' last three spot starts were huge for us. He has proven that he can come in and be an effective spot starter. Although, four of his last six starts in AAA have been pretty bad. It is hard to tell if we can count on him to be a realistic option without more consistency in AAA. De La Rosa has been pretty effective in AAA, so he might be a decent option if it were to come down to needing him to fill-in in the rotation. Buchholz has been the best pitcher in baseball when he was healthy this year. We need to hope that he can start off right where he left off. His success will be critical to the team's success down the stretch. It has almost been a month now since he last pitched. We need to get him healthy and hope he can be just as effective. In terms of trading for another starting pitcher, the way I look at it is that we should always look for ways to improve our team. Garza looks like he would be a good addition to the team, but there are always questions involved with making a trade at the deadline. What package do we have to include to get him in Boston? Can we trade for him without giving up top prospects? What happens to one of the current starters? My guess is that Doubront goes before anyone else. Lester, Lackey, Dempster, and Buchholz are probably not going anywhere. Does the reward of landing Garza outweigh the risk of potentially risking losing prospects for less than a half year of Garza? Will the move help out the ultimate team goal of trying to win a World Series? Right now, it seems like Buchholz is our number one when he is healthy. Lackey has been a great number two in the rotation. We need to count on Lester to be at least a number three starter. Dempster is a serviceable number four as of late. We need Doubront to be a decent number five. If we traded for Garza, he would be a better option than having Doubront in the rotation. It all depends on what it takes to get him.

Ellsbury is hitting .303. He has an OBP of .367. His average and his OBP are both above his career numbers. His OPS+ is also above his career average. His 2011 year was great. It would be nice to see him hit 30 HR's and get 100+ RBI's, but that realistically is probably never going to happen again for him. For the type of production that he is giving and the type of production that this team needs from him is synchronizing at the right time. He is a leadoff hitter. We do not need him to hit for a lot of power. He has 19 2B's, 7 3B's, 33 SB's, and has scored 54 runs. He is getting on base. He is hitting for a good average. He is stealing bases. His 30 RBI's are not horrible in the leadoff role. What more do you want or expect from him? You say that you are not disappointed in him not hitting home runs. You say that you are disappointed that he is having his "worst offensive season since his rookie year." He has his second highest batting average since his rookie year. He has his second highest OBP since his rookie year. He is probably on pace to reach around 50-60 SB's. He is on pace to hitting a career high in 3B's. It actually looks like he is on track to have his second best season in his career this year. His numbers at a little over the halfway mark look similar to the season he had in 2009. Aside from 2011, I would say that this season has the potential to rank as the second best season in his career if he stays healthy. He is doing everything he needs to do offensively as a leadoff hitter. I am not sure if we are watching the same Jacoby Ellsbury this year.

Someone is going have to step up offensively.

We really needed Lester to pitch a great game.

I feel like when I watch Gomes that he is going in slow motion.

Maybe one in foul territory? That first inning double was foul.