Palodios

Classic.

I hope its going to be Lester! But, if you're going with "Best" Pedro and Roger and probably untouchable.

A crazy number from NESN: 73.3% of ESPN's baseball experts picked the Red Sox this year. The previous high? 36.8%. http://www.nesn.com/2011/03/red-sox-live-blog-josh-beckett-sox-wrap-up-spring-training-in-houston.html

Spring Training is barely a business trip. Do you really want to go a full month or two without your favorite boomstick?

What is with these rumors of teams trading their ace for one or two low-level prospects?

One has a 2.30 ERA in the playoffs, one has a 2.50 ERA BEFORE reaching his prime. Seriously, just because Lester got zero run support in 2008 means very little. And "Lester chokes in the postseason" ???? He threw 5.2 shutout innings in the clinching game of the 2007 WS. At 23. In his first postseason appearance.

That's a joke, right?

Bring out the duckboats!

Does anyone know the replay of Sox game 1 will be? I'm wondering if I can just turn on NESN at 7 pm as if it was a night game, and pretend I'm watching the premier.

There is something to be said about consistency. I'm going to throw out one of my favorite statistics: QS% Dice-k -- 40%, Wakefield --47% Beckett 48%, Lester 63%, Lackey 64%. Buchholz 68%, Team 55% 45% of the time... these guys either gave up 4+ runs, or left the rest of the game to those pesky middle relievers. Its 13th in the majors, but I think that if we're going to say "They're good 90% of the time" its important to look at these numbers.

Are we talking about turnovers?

Public transportation is a mixed bag. If you're staying at a hotel near kenmore, you're absolutely golden, you can get anywhere in the city in a half hour. Late August is usually pretty hot, but sometimes it can get cool at nights-- whenever you're in New England, always pack atleast one pair of shorts and long pants no matter what season haha. There are wayyyy tooo many restarants for me to even start. Just check Yelp, or wander around, you'll find something very quickly.

The 1 extra mph lost on his pitches is probably a result of injury, and I don't think its anything to worry about long term (outside of age-related regression). I'm no expert by any means, but I do not doubt that the small range of his velocity in 2010 influenced his results. I'm wondering if he's tried to keep his velocity high to overcompensate for his loss of movement in his pitches. One interesting blip on the chart was his wild uncontrollable game against the Yankees, where he hit Cano/Jeter-- his average velocity is considerably higher, but his control went way down. I also found it interesting that he seemed to struggle the most against better hitting teams-- the most glaring of which was the Yankees. 1/6th of his innings were against the Yankees, but he gave up 1/3 of his runs in them. Take those out, and he's at a 4.69 ERA. When 5 of your 23 games are against the best hitting team in baseball, and 3 of them in Yankee Stadium, it does very little for your average or confidence. For some reason, this gives me the impression that a good deal of his problems are in his head.

Surprisingly enough, the Sox have a bit of leverage over Papelbon. He probably knows his elite closer contract is slipping away, so if the Sox claim he's injured and needs a few "AAA rehab appearances" in June/July, he very well might go along with it. And the second they move him to middle relief, his value plummets.

Joba Chamberlain and the bugs. Nuff said.

Its a little frustrating to see Aceves, Atchison and Doubront in AAA, and Albers and Wakefield on the ML roster, but I can understand this as a depth move, as long as it doesn't cost the team in April.

Lester, no contest.

That was a joke, mostly based on the recent poor performances of the starters.

I would certainly hope not. But then again, he's pitching better than our starters have lately. Also: Dice-k has looked great lately

I think its solid. Your middle infield is a little lacking for a 8 team draft, but Uggla is the 2B I've been reaching for in most of my drafts. I think many of your OF are players that are drafted too high as well. I try not to get more than 2 or 3 pitchers in the first 100 picks, but it looks like you overloaded, although that is just a difference in drafting strategy. But then again, Latos and Carpenter are already having health issues, so that might hurt you over the course of the season. Also, having a 2B/3B at Util is a waste. Go for a 1B/DH type, much more bang for the buck.

I was pretty upset when Atchison was sent down to the minors, but Francona said something that justifies it, for me atleast.

2004 is #1 no question there. I remember watching Jon Lester's no-hitter with my dad, and we actually changed the channel to something else, because it was turning into a blow-out, and then we flipped back and Remy hinted at the box score so we had to watch it. He's been my favorite Red Sox player ever since (nope, its not Dice-k or Lowrie afterall ) Favorite game live? I saw Ortiz's first home run of 2009 when he finally broke out of that nasty slump. Yeah, I'm a good luck charm!