TheMino007

Big Win for the Bruins. It is great to see Thomas finally show up night after night and carry this team. With Rask struggling a bit of late its good to see Timmy shut up all those doubters of him (myself included). Bruins need to hover around that 5 or 6 spot till everyone healthy and then make a push and get hot for the playoffs. Buffalo needs to start losing too. But then again, will there ever be a point this year were the Bruins are completely healthy?

With Pees stepping down or being fire or whatever happened to him, the team needs a new defensive coordinator. I think the Pats should promote from within with the defensive coordinator, I think Pepper Johnson should get the gig. However, for the offensive coordinator the Patriots needs to branch out and bring somebody in, b/c hiring from within won't work for this position. I hope the Pats can lure someone in like Mike Martz or something, let him run the offense, and then let Bill go back to worrying about the defensive side of the ball.

Willie Parker has nothing left in the tank. I hope the Pats pay Warren and Mankins. Mankins and Volmer are the only guys who seem to have a little agression on the o-line. They want to go out and knock someone over. The rest of the line is soft, Light flat out sucks. I hope Julius Peppers hits the free agent market.

I think Kraft will go all out and spend some money, since next year could be an uncapped year, he could be spending some big $. After the Pats were embarrassed in the 06 Championship game by blowing a 18 point second half lead to the Colts, Kraft went out and got big names, the team need WR's so he signed Stallworth and Belichick traded for Moss, the team needed to improve at the LB postion, so Adailus Thomas was signed. After that embarrassment that must of caused Kraft, I'd bet he'd let Bill go on a bit of a shopping spree, even so this team has a lot of holes. I'd take a real good look at Stephen Jackson, and you can find a 3rd WR out on the market. Defense needs a lot done. I will never know why we traded Seymour and Vrable in the same offseason that Bruschi and Harrison retired. You need some form of leadership out there, oh year, these guys are still good players too who would have made a difference this year. We are tied into old ass Shawn Springs for a couple more years, Bodden had a good year but he'll bolt for more money, hopefully the secondary continues to improve and Merriweather learns how to wrap people up and tackle. The secondary isn't the main issue for the defense, but we could use a shut down corner, something we haven't had since Ty Law (no Asante Samuel wasn't a shutdown corner). LB and D-Line is were we need the most help. We have guys in Warren and Wilfork (he better be re-signed) who can stop the run, but we need a RE, badly, a guy who can rush the passer and a guy needs who needs to be double teamed like Seymour was. TBC is a nice pass rusher coming off the outside, but we still need another MLB and since Thomas is all but gone we need another OLB. Guyon, Burgess, Woods aren't going to cut it.

I'm not wasting a top pick on Brady's successor, we have more pressing, urgent issues to address. The Pats should try to trade for Stephen Jackson, he is bound to be on the lowly Rams trade block. They need to pick up a veteran guy who can be the 3rd WR, or the 2nd WR b/c Welker could be out for a while next year or not play at all. The Pats need to improve the pass rush, badly.

Get a legit O-Coordinator, figure out what direction the Pats are going in at RB, get a 3rd WR, get some damn pass rushers and draft some. Re-sign Wilfork and Mankins. Get a vet corner who can actually still do something. Teach the damn players how to tackle. Linebackers. Erg this team needs a lot

If everyone stays healthy this team is better than last years team, but as we know that is never the case. Injuries could hit the pitching staff, and then we are croaked. Lackey is coming off of two years of less than 200 innings and injuries, Beckett is always hurt and has disappeared down the stretch run the last two years. You never know what goes on with Nancy Drew in RF, but at least we have options for the OF. I'm assuming Dice-K will have a bounce back year, but Ortiz is a mystery, the true wild card in the offense. I'm not projecting him to hit 30 homers, I predict he'll put up numbers like he did last year, except he will be more consistent and less streaky so people won't notice his slumps and streaks as much as they did in 09. You lose Beckett or Lackey for an extended amount of time and the team is in trouble. The Sox couldn't win or hit on the road last year, and with the offense declining, all the run prevention in the world won't matter when they score a whopping 2 runs a game on the road. Preventing runs is good, but you can't win a game 0-0 if you don't score any runs. 4 years of Jason Bay and Theo growing some balls and trading for Adrian Gonzalez is what this team needed to win a championship. Now granted, this defense/pitching run prevention team is great, but it is easy to see that this roster the way it is currently assembled won't be taking the Sox to the World Series. Sox are better off now than last year b/c other teams are getting weaker (Tigers, Angels) and mediocre teams aren't getting good enough to compete with the Sox (Rangers, Mariners). I'd probably have to say the Sox have the 2nd best team in the AL right now. But the buck stops at the ALCS for the Sox.

Cameron is a offensive downgrade compared to Bay Beltre is an offensive downgrade compared to Lowell A full year of V-Mart will help Scutaro will help a bit. I don't see the offense getting better

There are some things that I don't buy into this propoganda the Sox have been spreading about run prevention and that is in regard to the bullpen. Based on the way this team is built, they are going to win a lot of 3-1, 4-2 ball games. But, based on the what the pen showed at the end of last year, we are going to blow many of these games b/c we have arms that can't last the whole season. Lackey, Lester, Beckett aren't going to go 7 inninngs, 2 earned every start. And when what about when Dice-K is pitching? Guys like Delcarmen and Rameriz (to an extent) will come in a blow the game. You wanna rely on Papelbon to suck again this year? Is he trending downward or was last year just a fluke? We better who he bounces back, throws less pitches and allows less runners to reach base. In addition, this team has been babying Paps his entire career, so since we are a low scoring team, he is gonna get a lot of save opps., but he won't appear in all those save opps. So then who do we turn to, the unproven Bard? Oki? The lack of a cleanup hitter will be the demise of this team

Like I said, I care less about total runs, to me its meaningless. I want a more consistant offense that scores a steadier amount of runs on a game in and game out basis.

why not just use the actual same Green Monster then? Anyway, I remeber that drawing, that is from the late 90's early 2000's right? Right about the time when the Sox were trying to find new owners.

The Sox scored a lot of junk runs when they didn't need them. They would explode in one game and then get shut down for the next two and drop two of three in the series. Come playoff time, they didn't have a good offense, in fact it was terribe. For stretches of the year, the offense just didn't show up. Total runs is meaingless. The Sox can score 15 runs in one game, and score 1,2,2 in the next 3 games and score 20 runs in 4 games, which is a good amount. But they go 1-3 b/c they only scored enough in the first game to win. That comes from having a lot of OBP guys and not enough guys to drive them in, and that what the Sox problem last year, men left on base

100 years, in 2012 have the all star game there as a going out party for the Park. I'd love a new 42,000-45,000 seat stadium with all the new modern amentities that present stadiums have. I don't know if I would want a new stadium to be just like the old Fenway, the Green Monster, the Triangle, the limited foul space makes Fenway, Fenway and I don't think it would look or feel the same replicated in a new stadium. I don't think a new stadium is coming any time soon b/c the current ownership has put a lot of money into renevating and improving the park.

Agreed. Kotchman will be a decent starter if he starts in Seattle, but he wasn't as valuable to us. His limited position avaibility really hurt his bench value, and this team need a RHH coming off the bench. Hall's versatility is great, he can be the 5th OF, and play 2nd, SS, 3rd. I love this move.

It makes sense to put a guy in center who has a better UZR at the position and move a guy to LF who has a better UZR at that position. Ellsbury is really following in Johnny Damon's path, Damon was a CF but his UZR decreased every year he was in Boston and after 02 he didn't post a positive UZR in CF, then he got moved to CF. I know its irrelevant but I always think the two of them are very similar ball players. It took Damon four full seasons to have an average and OBP of what Ellsbury put up last year, and it wasn't really until the middle of his career that he put up the power numbers. That tangent was totaly irrelevant, but anyway, with the exception of catcher, there really isn't a weak defensive position in the entire infield

Predict the winners from each of the games from Wild Card weekend all the way up to the Super Bowl AFC WC: Patriots over Ravens AFC WC: Bengals over Jets NFC WC: Eagles over Cowboys NFC WC: Packers over Cardinals AFC D: Chargers over Patriots AFC D: Colts over Bengals NFC D: Saints over Eagles NFC D: Vikings over Packers AFC: Chargers over Colts NFC: Vikings over Saints Super Bowl: Chargers over Saints.

This year's offense is slightly above average AL offense.

Is this team as a whole better than the squad from last year, probably. Is the offense better. No, not by a long shot. A full year of V-Mart and less Varitek helps and Scutaro being the full time bat helps. But Beltre isn't a better hitter than Lowell, and there is a huge drop off in LF in terms of losing Bay and replacing him with Cameron. Cameron is the better OF, but that doesn't make him a better hitter, or even a wash. Its not even close. Ortiz is the wild card looking at this offense next year. If he can be a steady bat for the full year he can hit 32-35 home runs and be a force again. Or he could decline and hit only 20. Or he could be streaky like last year and hit 25.

1. Ellsbury 2. Pedrioa 3. Martinez 4. Youkilis 5. Ortiz 6. Beltre 7. Drew 8. Cameron 9. Scutaro Not a bad offense, probably slightly above the average run of the mill AL offense. Really wish we could have that big pat in the 4 spot and move Youk up the three spot, but that will have to wait to the trade deadline.

He is viable for 100 games a year if used right, but viable doesn't mean he is a better defensive option than Beltre. Beltre is a gold glove caliber guy at 3B, I never denied that. I still firmly believe that the offensive numbers Beltre will put up won't be better than Lowell's if Lowell played in Fenway for 81 games a year. Offense doesn't get any better, but the overall defense does with this move. Plus its for one year, I was unhappy with being tied up with this guy for three years or whatever he is looking for. He's playing for a big contract, so he'll try his best, I like the move for one year.

Exactly. No one cares about the atmosphere or the history, the only reason people have packed into the stadium recently is because of the Red Sox success

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins...s_to_ottaw.html Beregon broke his hand and could be out 6 weeks? WTF I've been saying the Bruins need to keep treading water until Lucic gets back, then Savard, then Lucic again, now its Beregon. Jesus crap can we have a full healthy team together for the whole year for at least some point? This is getting ridiculous. He is having a great bounce back year, once of his best as Bruin and now he gets a broken hand and is robbed of his Olympic Dream. If this team just gets healthy and gets on a roll in the 2nd half of the year there isn't no reason why we shouldn't make the ECF.

For one year, what the hell, I can live with it. But if this the move that puts the Sox over the luxury tax, then the Sox should really just go balls to walls and start spending like no tomorrow. Lowell will be gone in Spring Training, hopefully the Max Rameriz trade could be re-visited. For year I like the deal. Defense and run prevention is improved, and lets see if Beltre can actually hit now that he is out of Safeco for half the year.

Your the only one who seems to say that.