Palodios

Unless Ellsbury has some kind of injury that no one knows about, he won't accept it. How about we make a bet? If Ellsbury takes the QO, I'll buy you a ticket to any non-Yankee game you want next season. If Ellsbury rejects the QO, you lose the right to post a game thread in 2014.

Last time they went on a spending spree they picked up that Sabathia guy, who turned out to be pretty good. I'd be more worried about seeing them do some damage in free agency if it weren't for the sheer number of players they might end up losing, and the lack of good options available. Worst case scenario, they resign Cano, Kuroda, Granderson and grab Tanaka, and a few top notch relievers. 300- 400 million bucks, and they end up with a team not significantly better than last year's.

The whole thing just gives me a headache. Why bitch when someone calls a guy with a 2.20 ERA an "ace" because he doesn't have the innings? It is just a pet peeve of mine because of the sheer consistency of people arguing about the term -- even for very very good seasons.

I have no idea why, but this logic is unacceptable on this forum. I don't think I have ever been ripped so hard as the time I considered Liriano a #1, the year after he started the first game of a playoff series with the twins. For some strange reason "Ace" is a term that only applies to the top 5 pitchers in the majors at any given time.

It seemed to me that there was a level of expectation for older players to get hurt. What has killed them the past few years has been when that their younger/middle-aged guys, like Banuelos, Pineda, Granderson, Texeira have gotten hurt. Then on top of that, their entire aging core seemed to fall apart over that same span (Ichiro, Youk, Jeter, Sabathia, Rivera, Arod), all while losing a significant number of free agents in the process.

Remember when they had claimed to have no interest in signing Crawford, had dinner with him, and never made an actual offer? I do agree that sometimes the AL East can seem like a chess match haha

Man you really love Kansas City. These ideas are silly -- Ben isn't selling the farm for anyone, especially not a guy with only one more year of control, or a guy who has been very injured for the past few years. Championships aside, the Red Sox are truly in a bridge period. You don't give up on the best farm in the majors for guys like Cargon or Shields.

And yet no one defends the dicek signing.

First of all, Napoli has not missed a game because of his arthritis. Second of all, he was a catcher. He did not miss 126 games. Catchers get more days off than other guys.

Cots is the widely accepted source of information around here for contract information. We're referring to Peavy. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al-east/boston-red-sox/

He has to pitch 250 innings in 2014 for the option to vest.

This argument is just plain dumb. 60 million isn't going to just come out of nowhere, the owners still need to pay for it.

The Red Sox have one of the best farm systems in the major leagues. If they are going to do well in 2014, that will because Bogaerts turned into a monster at the plate, Workman turned into an top reliever, Webster has started lighting the world on fire, or Middlebrooks hits 35 home runs. Tanaka would be nice, but sometimes you need to make sure the team has room to grow -- I wouldn't be upset if they signed him, but I doubt he goes anywhere under 120M total.

I get the feeling Tanaka goes to the Yanks. They have the money, and their starting pitching sees a large dropoff after Sabathia/Nova, especially if they lose Kuroda to retirement/Japan. They also seem reluctant to empty the farm, or dump their draft picks, so Tanaka is the more talented guy they can add.

Yes. Honestly, I'm not picky -- just not 110 million for McCann.

The more I think about McCann, the less I want him here. A 30 year catcher who had a .690 OPS last year, and a .790 OPS this year doesn't seem worth 80 million. Tanaka or McCann would be nice, but all of the free agents available right now have plenty of concerns. Short term deals seem like they work much better, because you're signing players with something to prove, and working for a new contract for the next year. I would like to see the Red Sox hand out 4 qualifying offers. If Salty rejects it, grab A.J. Pierzynski for one year. When Ells rejects, take a look at Cruz, Granderson or Beltran. If Drew rejects, go inhouse. If Napoli rejects, pay him more money. Take a look at the top-tier players in the bargain bin, and overpay for the ones who look like they could make a comeback. Johann Santana, Roy Halladay, Shaun Marcum, Josh Johnson. Same thing for relievers -- Hanrahan, Bailey, Lindstrom, Frasor, Madson etc. People laughed at this strategy last year -- and for good reason-- but I would like to think the Red Sox's scouts are good enough to know which of these guys are fool's gold.

The real question is -- now what? Do they try to re-sign him this offseason? Is 5/100 going to be even remotely close enough for him? Do they sell high after an amazing World Series performance, when other teams are probably drooling to see Lester on their roster for a deep postseason run? Or will they wait until midseason/next offseason and see what happens? And ofcourse, the big question is -- if Jon Lester hasn't proven himself to be a legit ace, what more does he need to do?

I was about to make a similar thread, with the token title "Can we talk about Jon Lester?" We can talk about Victorino's game 6 heroics, or Papi's grand slam, but these playoffs were Jon Lester's show. With 12 teams in the playoffs, there wasn't a player that made as significant an impact as Lester. He beat Sachez, Moore, Wainright, Wainright. He pitched better than David Price, Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke, Scherzer. Verlander was untouchable, but the Tigers went 1-2 in his games. The only game Lester was a 0-1 shutout one-hitter.

Werner tried to start a "Let's go Red Sox" chant, and the crowd ignored him.

One of the announcers pointed out that none of the Red Sox had off-field issues this year, or substance-abuse/ legal troubles. Mostly true, except for Brentz literally shooting himself, and Britton's DUI.

Timely hitting was their problem, IMO. Winning game 2 in extras would have been a back-breaker for the Rays, and the offense did nothing off a solid performance from Lester in game 7.

I just heard that Mike Napoli led the majors in UZR, and went to run and check. What? Seriously? Re-sign the man.

I simply couldn't believe it. Tickets were around $50 for game 1 of the ALCS on stubhub. Game 6 was around $200.

Is Lester on any of these boats? I haven't seen him at all anywhere.

The problem is that it isn't Red Sox fans. People who haven't watched a game all season come out for the World Series and just want to light stuff on fire and flip over cars, and use it as a reason to get utterly hammered.