SoxSport

It boils down to money. The parameters for a Beckett deal are all laid out by the Hernandez, Lackey, etc. deals. 5 years/80+ mil. A sticking point might be an injury clause--Bay didn't want it. Lackey accepted it. So did Drew. I recall it took awhile to work Drew's deal because of it. I think they need to re-sign Beckett and VMart before the end of ST. Both are important to their near future. Buchholz isn't a sure thing--yet. Neither is Kelly. And Dice-K may be living on borrowed time in Boston. Look at the Phillies. They could have had Lee, Halladay and Hamels as their big 3. They didn't --probably because of money. It just shows how money is the limiting factor for most teams outside of NY. Hope it isn't for the Red Sox in this case--for both of those players.

You have to wonder about Cameron's age. At some point, the guy will start to slip some. I don't see a thread about Lowell. I would not be surprised if they kept Lowell in the early part of the season--as Papi insurance. Ortiz didn't hit a lick early last year, and they may want to have an early backup--especially against LHP. If Lowell can play 1B, maybe that will give VMart extra rest. Above all, they have to be concerned about Papi, and it makes sense to keep Lowell around for awhile.

So far, I think the Red Sox lucked out on Drew. He has that Boras-type inflated contract, but he has done a lot of good things in Boston. Particularly in playoff time. Tito has done a good job keeping him fresh for the late season.

I think if Beltre has a decent season offensively, they will extend him. They'll probably see how things are in 6 months. Time is on their side.

This one would seem to be a no-brainer. They don't have anybody else to catch in the next couple of years, and the guy wants to play in Boston. I read that AdGon now wants Teixeira money. That's enough to get them signing VMart fast. Especially when they can get him cheaper than Bay.

Sounds like they wanted to make a Drew type deal with Bay--which included injury safeguards. And Bay didn't want that. They are careful about long term contracts if there is an injury history. And they have been right about Vaughn, Nomar, Damon, Pedro--and even Clemens if you add in the juice factor. The media gave them a tough time on some of these guys, but not Bay. Damon has hit well in Yankee Stadium, where a decent AAA left handed hitter would look good. But he didn't last in CF--the Red Sox concern. Not at his price.

Bynum isn't anywhere close to the player Bosh is. The Celtics look like an ageing team whose starters are getting too many minutes, and have nothing left to finish a game.

Has to be Jiminy.

Moving in the pitching/defense direction was an unexpected move that caught everybody offguard. Lackey was a huge surprise, followed quickly by Cameron. We'll see how it pans out. The Red Sox have saved countless millions over the years by letting big tickets go who looked risky. They almost always have been proven right. The Mets were victimized in one of these with Pedro. They paid him 4 years for a good 2 years. Roughly $28 mil per good year. That may be chumpchange in NY, but not in Boston. They apparently saw a red flag on Bay. Time will tell if they were right. The Mets are willing to take the chance because they feel the heat in NY.

The way Pap closed out last season, he's lucky to have gotten $9.3 mil. If he declines further this year, I doubt he'll be back. I think school's still out on him. He will have to be dominating again for the Red Sox to spend big bucks on him long term. And even then, it might depend on Bard's progress. I don't think they're big on giving big contracts to closers.

The Red Sox have a history of being pretty careful about who they sign to long term contracts. Lugo comes to mind, LOL. I'm thinking of Damon, who they did not want to pay big CF money for, since they didn't see him as a CFer in two years because of his shoulder. They were right. And then there's Pedro.Right again. And earlier, Mo Vaughn. Now you have the Mets stuck with a guy who they can't even DH in a couple of years. I really hope this isn't a disaster for them. They have been through this before--taking chances on expensive long term contracts when other teams backed off. They pay guys like Pedro big bucks for 4 years just to get him, and then have to settle for 2 good years. That's bad business.

Thanks for checking on the Hobbs and Samuels thing in the SB. I thought that was Hobbs they picked on. Samuels has played well for the Eagles--they should have kept him. He has a knack for being on the ball and making the big play. Regarding a defensive coach, I think they need somebody from the outside who will tell Belichick he's nuts when he's nuts. The Patriots are too monolithic.

On this subject of defense, it has to help the pitching. And I think the Red Sox vs Yankees struggle over the years has always been about pitching. That was true in the 40s and early 50s when NY had the pitching advantage, and also the 2000 decade, when the Red Sox had the pitching advantage--except last year when the Yankees signed the top two FA starters and the Red Sox starting pitching took a dive--with Dice-K, Penny, Smoltz and a poor spring from Beckett and Lester. Wake saved them in the spring, but he is only a half-season pitcher these days. I still can't figure out how they won 95 games. Their home record, obviously. They are tough to beat at home--with the small park, the soldout crowds, etc. This year, barring injuries, they should be better. Their pitching should be much better. The lineup is deeper, and some of their pickups should benefit from Fenway , as Gammons implies in his predictions mentioned earlier.

Funny thing about media predictions. They might be called the kiss of death, because they never seem to be right. I've often wondered how all those analysts would look if they graded themselves on their predictions. LOL. But they never do, which is understandable. That doesn't prevent them from grading trades and signings, etc that teams make. And even take polls about them. None of this stuff, in my view, should be taken too seriously, since it's all basically entertainment. You make your own judgements based on the facts available, and let it go at that.

I'll be darned. The video shows Samuels was in the Super Bowl against the Giants. But wasn't it Hobbs that gave up the winning TD in the corner of the end zone? Those Patriots teams are just a memory now, anyways.And the Giants were on an incredible roll in the playoffs that year, doing everything right. You know, Belichick is beginning to remind me a little of Allie Sherman, the old NY Giants coach of the 60s, who wrecked that team by trading off their great defensive stars a bit prematurely. It took that team 20 years to recover. Trading Seymour, Vrabel et al was kind of like that, though it was worse with the Giants. Sherman was not a popular guy in NY after that. Belichick was not thinking about the leadership factor when he made those decisions.

The Angels used Pap for batting practice that last playoff game because he threw nothing but straight fastballs. He will have to find his splitter again to regain his dominance.

The kid will be the closer sooner than you think if Pap doesn't recover his splitter.

They should be significantly improved. I still can't figure out how they managed to win 95 games last year, so I don't expect their wins to increase by much.

I notice that the Boston media has been giving Belichick a going over yesterday and today. Mazz, Callahan, etc. Kraft will have to open his wallet if this is a capless year. You can't pinch pennies and win Championships in any sport these days. Those days are long gone. I also think he is overrelying on Belichick. It's time to spread the responsibilities again. He needs some other viewpoints.

I think this is a good analyis--the type that's needed in the media to get Kraft off his rump. Trouble is, you just don't see this type of criticism out there--and it's needed.

I think the Patriots should take a good look at their coaching staff. Belichick has lost a lot of asst coaches the past few years to other teams, not to mention their VP/GM, and that has to hurt some. They didn't look like they came to play in that first quarter today against the Ravens. Sure there are rookies out there, but there are enough veterans to prevent that kind of embarrassing meltdown. You have to look at their coaching. And that includes Belichick, who let a good defensive back (Samuel) get away in 08, and paid the price in the 08 Superbowl when he wasn't replaced; and who traded his best defensive lineman just before the opening of this season--which hurt a defense young in linebackers and secondary. Not much leadership there. And then there was that strange 4th and 2 on the 28 "Grady Little-type" decision against the Colts, which may have damaged team confidence. I think anybody objective at this point can say that Belichick no longer walks on water--and should not be immune to criticism. Player-wise, Brady had an off-year, but so did Peyton first year back after his knee injury. So Tom should be much better next year. Welker is a concern, because they don't have much depth after Moss. They missed Gaffney this year. Their offense looked in disarray against the Ravens, and you wonder why they didn't get Charley Weis back when they just had the chance. Moss was open on some plays today, but Brady didn't seem to notice. And they have a couple of tight ends who can catch who didn't do much. The running attack? In my view, it sucks. Maroney has had enough chances. And the other guys are retreads. I don't think this club can beat good teams any more when it counts. They are rebuilding, and the question is whether thay have drafted well enough in recent years to offset the key veterans they have lost. Kraft may have to open his wallet again if he wants any more Championships.

I think the Sox are hoping for a standoff on offense vs last year, combined with much better pitching and defense. Lots of things went wrong last year with the pitching (Dice-K, etc), and they are hoping for much better this year. The defense may be the best in Baseball this year. Hitting-wise, they may come out ahead, when you consider Ortiz was an out in April-May last year while he was kept in the lineup batting 3rd or 4th. Ouch. And the same happened to Bay during the summer. Tek was a no-show in the 2nd half. Defensively, they still have to improve at throwing out runners. You can't have teams running blind on you every game. They should improve their mediocre road record this year, but Tito may have to utilize some of that team speed better, now that they have even more of it, and play some smallball in those low scoring games on the road.

In a new stadium, you'd want stands all around. Lot of wasted money space beyond the LF wall. I"ve wondered why they didn't expand more in the bleachers and LF in the current park. I guess they couldn't buy the properties across Landsdowne st (Willams Way) in LF. Why they can't put a 2nd tier above the bleachers I don't know. Maybe something about the water table in the Fens--it's mostly swamp.