SoxSport

If Diva gets $16.5mil to play next year, Henry should jump in Boston Harbor in his best suit.

I think Papi's attitude is a symptom of what went wrong with the Red Sox.

Oswalt has become too picky on where he wants to pitch. And he probably wants too much money. Aside from his back issues, I don't think he was the same pitcher in Philly as Houston. Has lost some of his heat with age.

Yes and no. Yes, you need a lights out guy in the bullpen to finish close games when needed. The rest of closing can be handled by any decent pitcher. Closers have agents, and agents look at saves to determine salaries. Saves are overrated. Most of them can be handled by cheap pitchers. But you need that lights out guy to handle the tough one-run saves. That's the way baseball used to be played--before the fantasy save stat. As for setup, that's less important. You don't need a lights out setup guy. You have a close game, you stick with your starter, or bring in your closer--who can throw more than an inning because he is used only in 1- or 2- run situations. Using a setup guy to automatically pitch the 8th and a closer to automatically pitch the 9th because of the save stat is a waste of bullpen. As a footnote, can you imagine a "closer" and his agent kicking and screaming if he wasn't used in a 3-run game--and deprived of a save? LOL

Yeah, we're all a bunch of idiots wasting our abilities here. If you don't have anything better to do, you are in trouble.

I think bullpens are overrated. Your best pitchers have to start and throw innings. Traditionally, pitchers worked their way out of the bullpen into the rotation. That's the way the Rays do it.The old fashioned way. Look at their saves numbers--in the high 20s for Farnsworth? That shows flexibility in how they use their pitching. They use their starters into the late innings if warranted. Working your starters on pitch counts is the route to an overworked bullpen.

Considering they had lousy luck with their pitching last year--plus they were also pretty inept in their choices, except for Aceves--they are bound to get lucky this year with one or two surprises. I think they should be in the top 5 AL teams. If not, they underachieved again.

There's a lot of stuff done in the FO that doesn't hit the sports pages. It's a complex job. Picking the right players is a turkey shoot. No team has a patent on getting it right. The Yankees eat millions in old contracts every year nobody talks about.

I think once the Ortiz situation gets settled, if Oswalt is still around, they might consider him again. If he isn't signed by mid-Feb, his price tag is bound to drop. Of course, you never know if the Yankees might "swoop in" and give the media more fodder to promote them. I don't know if their starting pitching looks that great. They had some luck last year. I'll take Lester-Beckett-Buchholz if they can stay healthy. That's a big "if." Luck, again.

I think they need Ortiz' bat in the lineup. They have Crawford who needs an aboutface this year to get back to his career norms. They also need a healthy Youks and AdGon. And it isn't clear that Youks will be able to hold up at 3B. There are enough lineup questions to pay a 36yo DH $12 mil another year. But if they have to pay him $16mil, Henry should be forced to sell his yacht for granting him arb in the first place. As for pitching, what they need is for that top 3 to earn their pay--which isn't always the case. And for those new bullpen guys to come through. I don't know if throwing any more money at what's out there in pitching will make them any better. They also need a change in the easygoing atmosphere on the team--which presumably is why Bobby V. was brought in. At some point come spring training, the Bobby V. smiles will end.

Yeah. there are better options. Old DHs outside of Boston aren't that popular. What about Ordonez? Bet he can still hit. Trouble with Papi is Henry has an umbilical cord tied to him. Expensive cord.

ha. The Cardinals, last year's winner, aren't even mentioned. They'll miss Pujols less than you think, and are getting Wainright back. And then there's the Giants... The big spenders get all the attention...

And I doubt those market numbers mentioned above are very accurate these days. The main market value of a MLB team is now the local TV revenues. Plus the luxury boxes. The Dodgers, for example, are on the market for around $1.3billion? Most of that is the value of their local TV contract. That's what caused Cuban to withdraw. He saw most of the appreciation was built into the asking price. The same is true for the Angels, who just signed a huge TV contract with Fox, netting them an extra $100 mil per year. The growth of team TV revenues (both network and local) has been enormous the last 10 years, and tracks the increase in players' salaries. And it will probably keep growing. So the Dodgers still look like a good investment to me--as long as fans can pay their cable bills. And Arte Moreno's Angels are right there with the Dodgers now with their cable package. If you factor in local TV revenues plus luxury boxes, you can get the real value of these teams. And the ones that are on top are from NY, LA and maybe Chicago 3rd. Philly and Boston are up there, too, but not as high. Keep in mind the base value of all the teams is pretty much the same, give or take for the size of the stadium and the luxury box receipts. And they share in network TV revenue. The big difference is the added value due to the local cable TV revenue.

I think Bard and Aceves will have first crack at the starting rotation. The other guys are there for insurance--in case Bard doesn't hack it or is needed in the bullpen. There is always an outside chance somebody will surprise, but you can't count on that. The other factor is the Ortiz arb case. If Papi wins, you wonder if they'll cut him and save the $16.5M. It's unlikely, but an option. That would free them to trade for a salary dump pitcher, or even sign Oswalt if he's available. They can cut Papi before the start of the season in spring training. The arb contract is not guaranteed until close to the start of the season.

No. The major revenue advantage comes from local cable TV revenue, which isn't shared. That's why the Yankees have a $200+ million budget for players. They have their own local cable network in NY which generates more revenue than anybody else. More than the Red Sox' NESN. It's their new local TV contract in LA that got the Angels' Pujols. The Sox can't compete with the NY and LA markets in local TV. They also can't compete in stadium revenue vs NY. Fenway is too small.

pretty useless list.

Haven't heard about this one, but these guys live under a microscope nowadays, and they make so much money they are vulnerable to exploitation. The big money has been detrimental to the players in a lot of ways.

Ha. That gets the trolls out. Heck, everybody's got a limit. The Yanks have been really leaning on that guy. You wonder about what age he cracks.