Spudboy

:D

:lol: This is pretty funny. This from a guy that thought he'd be a quality starter for the Yankees!

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/2142658/epstein-dh-were-disappointed Apparently, he thinks like a700.... Epstein on D&H: 'We're disappointed' By: Paul Flannery Print Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein joined the Dale & Holley show to offer his thoughts on the 2010 season. "We're disappointed," Epstein said. "We're proud of the way the guys hung in there and played really hard to the end, but I'm disappointed that we're going to fall short of our goal every year to get to the postseason and do some damage in October." Yet Epstein thinks that the Sox are not far away from returning to a championship-level club. "It adds up to an organization that's in really good position and not far away from a championship," Epstein said. "In fact we could very well win one next year and that's the goal." Asked if he could identify one thing that went wrong, Epstein said, "It's always hard to identify one single factor. It definitely is multi-factorial. We felt like we had a really good team, a legitimate chance to be one of the best teams in the league. We thought we had a balanced club, one of the top two or three in the league scorings runs and one of the top two or three in pitching and defense. That's the balance that we strive for. Some things went right and some things went wrong. "The way things went offensively kind of went according to plan," Epstein continued. "Given that, you can really isolate a lot of the issues to our pitching and defense where we underperformed pretty dramatically. ... Our starting pitching was a bit of a mixed bag. [Jon] Lester and [Clay] Buchholz both had dominating years. The rest of the rotation didn't really live up to expectations and then the bullpen turned out to be our major weakness." On why the Sox didn't make a move for a reliever at the trade deadline: "Not for lack of effort," Epstein said. "Coming into the year we knew we needed a third guy emerge to go with [Jonathan Papelbon] and [Daniel] Bard. ... Trust me we looked all year." On expectations for [John] Lackey and [Josh] Beckett: "To be top of the rotation type guys and pitch up to previous levels. Those are still my expectations for those guys going forward," Epstein said. "Josh, the injury really cost him. He clearly wasn't himself all year. With John Lackey, it was a mixed bag. He did some good things. He's leading our club in innings pitched and tied for the club lead in quality starts. That said, there was definitely an adjustment period for him." On the handling of the Jacoby Ellsbury injury: "Initially when he had that first injury, looking back on it and maybe it's something we learned a little bit about it, we probably could have taken the CT-scan sooner. We've already made an adjustment in our policy going forward. It wouldn't have gotten him back any quicker but it would have helped manage the perception of the injury. Jacoby took some unwarranted heat from a lot of differnet sources because it wasn't clear from the get go that the ribs were fractured. All in all it became a lost season for Jacoby. Importantly, I don't think there's any residue of this going forward." Epstein declined to offer specifics on how the team would go about the process of re-signing free agents David Ortiz, Victor Martinez, Adrian Beltre and Jason Varitek, but did say, "I have a strong interest in retaining those players." On J.D. Drew: "I think it was just an off-year for him," Epstein said. "Certainly the year he had didn't live up to expectations and didn't approach the quality of his previous two seasons." On Jonathan Papelbon: "Two things you can certainly say about Pap: He didn't perform this year at the level that he performed early in his career, especially in those peak years when he was far and away the best reliever in baseball," Epstein said. "I think you can also say he's still good and he still helps us win. It was a tough year for him at times." Epstein went on to say that the team still considers him a very good closer. On the future of the team: "This offseason presents us with a lot of challenges but at the same time, it also presents us with a lot of opportunities," Epstein said. "You have to be reasonable about everything. In a year that ends like this sometimes there's a tendency to look at all the issues and all the problems and think that you're nowhere close to a championship team. We have to completely fix the bullpen. We do have a lot of important position players that are eligible for free agency. We have to either keep those guys or replace them or some combination thereof. You can't let the way things played out this year could your judgments about what you have." For a more highlights from this interview visit Full Count. To hear the whole interview, go to the Dale & Holley audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, check out the team page at weei.com/redsox

While a great story initially, it's abundantly clear he does not have the defensive skills and can not hit MLB pitching (yet). Back to Pawtucket. He was on the roster out of need. Not because he was ready.

And, a large part of Florida's population is Hispanic. Where were they? The issue is economic. Not racial.

As Keeper said, maybe Florida can not sustain a MLB team. The state has one industry. Tourism.

I think Lackey looked pretty good tonight. All things (like his disappointing performance all year) considered.

You know VA means what she says when she says "f***" ( a word I can spell ), and not "Faaaaaaaack".

Ha ha ha. You live in Florida. The economy there has really tanked. The Rays play in an area where the economy is weakest.

And by the way, they were sold out against the Yankees recently. Maybe there are more Yankee fans there?

This reminds me of the ABA (for younger members, that's the American Basketball Association). They tried every trick in the book to promote the fledgling league. Alas, if a team is located in a market without the proper demographics, survival is difficult and doom is inevitable. Too bad, That has been an exciting team to watch for many years. Loads of young talent. And they've been very competitive for three years. Some say that building a stadium across the causeway would increase interest. Getting to a Ray's game is a bitch. And there is greater population base and higher expendable income on "the mainland". That is true, but the Rays are locked into a long term lease at the Trop, and the St. Pete area is no prize when it comes to marketing baseball either. A move to another market is needed. The lease is a problem.

I'll bite. I would have kept Saito.

Nice job getting out of that. The line drive to Hall was tagged. But everything else was good.

Buch in a mess now.

Of course he also called four balls strikes.

Manny still runs hard.

#17 tonight.

Nice f***ing grab. And shut the f*** up Joe.

it was bound to happen.

"The weather in the air is changing". OK.

Drew will go on the DL now after that dive.