Palodios

Hope he gets the care he needs, despite the bankruptcy and all that. He's kind of a big deal.

In all fairness, that's pretty nearly what happened last year! Buchholz was the best pitcher in baseball for the first half of the year. Papi almost broke the hits record -- better than HR record IMO. Iggy came in second for ROY didn't he? There were injuries, but most of the majors ones were in areas of depth.

In all fairness...

The Mets are only willing to give him one year. He could end up with the Yankees, but he's guaranteed to be pushed off SS in that case, and I think he would prefer to stick there as long as possible.

Drew can have 1/8 or 2/12. He is getting desperate now. My plan is to see how spring training goes. See the progress of WMB and XB. Give Drew time at 2B and 3B, and even 1B. RF if willing. If a 2B/3B/SS/1B/DH gets hurt, all three players immediately have spots in the lineup or DL. If everyone is healthy, and it looks like either WMB or XB needs more seasoning, they both have options left. If everyone is healthy and performing, Herrara gets DFAed, and they split time between the 2 positions until someone is underperforming or gets hurt.

Why roll the dice when you have a great opportunity to mitigate the major risks on the team? The young guys will either earn spots or they won't. I don't forsee a scenario where they are playing well, and sit on the bench. Unless ofcourse Drew is having an awesome season, and in that case, why worry? Stephen Drew is still only 30, and if everything clicks for him, he still has several prime years left.

Fred, read back a few pages to the post I sent responding to a similar post of yours. Giving players a guaranteed spot is always a terrible idea. It gets into their heads, and they don't always focus on baseball. It isn't just youngsters, it is veterans too. Look at some of the guys on this team... During their early years, Buchholz and WMB had their eyes off the baseball and onto a playboy playmate and Jenny Dell respectively. Doubront came into last offseason fat and lazy. Every player on this team had to earn their spot... if they are talented enough, they will find their way.

Losing your starting spot hurts... but Drew would be going to a losing team in the mets that will inevitably use him as trade bait. I'm surprised he didn't accept the 2 year deal considering how unusual it would be for the whole infield to stay healthy.

What could the Red Sox want from them that isn't Stanton? They have little to no major league vets, and their controlled / minor league players are probably part of their long term plan too.

As someone who asks this question frequently, I normally would agree. In this case, the report makes the claim that he was healthy at season's end, and hurt it when ramping up in January.

AL East 1. Red Sox 2. Yanks * 3. Rays 4. Orioles 5. Jays AL Central 1. Tigers 2. White Sox * 3. Royals 4. Guardians 5. Twins AL West 1. Angels 2. Rangers 3. Mariners 4. Athletics 5. Astros NL East 1. Braves 2. Nationals * 3. Mets 4. Phillies 5. Marlins NL Central 1. Reds 2. Cardinals * 3. Pirates 4. Brewers 5. Cubs NL West 1. Dodgers 2. Diamondbacks 3. Rockies 4. Padres 5. Giants Yanks over White Sox. Angels over Yanks. Tigers over Red Sox. Angels over Tigers. Nationals over Cardinals. Nationals over Dodgers. Reds over Braves. Nationals over Braves. Angels over Braves. Mostly speculation, but the Angels and Nationals seem like they are just too good to go away quietly another year. The Nationals got Fister for almost nothing this offseason, and the Angels seem like they are only one or two pieces away.

By all means, I learned my lesson in 2008-2009. I just find it obnoxious that he knows he'll keep being a Red Sox, and he knows that the team will pay him, and still we get this every year. But yes, we're running into that awkward period between football and baseball where life slows down to a crawl. Fortunately I enjoy the Olympics quite a bit, so that will keep me entertained.

How often do you have a franchise player that other teams have completely avoided during free agency, and only earned one year contracts from his own team? The only time that usually happens is when the free agent has no serious interest in signing elsewhere -- which I would imagine is the case here -- but it has been going on for five or six years at this point.

Ortiz's contract situation is getting so much press right now. I've given Ortiz the benefit of the doubt before, but he's 38 years old. Time to grow up, look at the extremely low number of players who perform into their 40s, and come to the understanding that his fate is to retire a Red Sox.

Fred, we have seen it time and time again. If you outright hand a young player a job, he is more likely to fail. If you tell him he has to earn it, he works harder for it. All of your examples were players that needed to compete for spots at one time or another. Middlebrooks was handed the job and failed. Pedroia -- one of your examples -- had to fight out Alex Cora in 2007. Jed Lowrie had to beat out Scutaro.Doubront had to beat out a mediocre group of guys like Aaron Cook, but he did end up earning the spot. He was handed the spot last year, and showed up to camp way overweight. Iglesias knew he was on the bubble so he played hard at both SS and 3B to stay relevant. Lester grabbed onto his rotation spot and never let go... but he competed with Beckett for that "#1 starter" spot for most of his career. Ellsbury? Coco crisp. There is nothing wrong with competition. Handing players a spot is ALWAYS a terrible idea, with overpaid veterans AND young players. Get as much talent as possible, and let the best player get the opportunities. That is how the game should be played.

I don't disagree with you, but it may be related to the state of that current team. They were humiliated in 2011, and their payroll was so high that their big signing that year was Cody Ross, but they needed to trade away Scutaro to make it happen. They had plenty of high tier talent, but they lacked depth. The farm system hadn't produced a whole lot of major leaguers in a few years. Adding college players instead of high school players probably was meant to speed up the rebuilding process. This was also Ben Cherrington's first draft. No one knew how the new overslot system would work out for some teams. This may have been still during the period when nonbaseball execs were making baseball decisions -- possibly basing the draft on early projections had Marrero as a top 5 pick.

I recently read an article about how they changed Lav's approach to make him more of a contact hitter than a power hitter. They also have been trying to work him out to be more athletic. It seems to have backfired. Maybe it is time to get him back to the approach that made him mash AAA pitchers.

Wasn't the 2012 draft very shallow? I remember 2011 being an exceptional class because so many players preferred to be drafted with the old overslot signing rules, thus limiting the 2012 group. The Red Sox's top picks in 2012 were Marrero, Brian Johnson, Pat Light -- college athletes with low ceilings, but high floors as well.

Rich Hill is back. It's a Shame he will never be health. 10 good innings out of him could be nice.

Jared Remy took steroids, probably because he was tired of being in his father's shadow and wanted all the perks of being a major leaguer. By the look of him... he took too many. But the other two? People drink. People get arrested. People commit crimes of passion. It happens to most people at some point in their lives, because they're human. If you don't believe me, then you don't know your friends and family all that well. The other two Remy kids weren't exactly repeat offenders with long rapsheets.

It was always going to be Dell. Middlebrooks is a 30 HR third basemen. Dell... eats hotdogs and looks pretty.

I can barely believe it, but Ellsbury has produced 100+ runs exactly one time in his career, and that was his mvp#2 season. He has come close plenty of times, but the only time he was over it, he drove himself in 32 times.

Cashman seems like he was in the same boat last year as Cherrington was in 2011 -- a guy with no money to spend, and no great solutions. Then the team's top brass blows their wad on big name players, lose a pile of first round draft picks, and hurt their own depth in the process. It doesn't seem like Cashman led the charge this offseason, too splashy and messy.

I just don't understand why people could give Remy so much s*** about the whole situation. He raised a steroid-induced scumbag, but that son probably had more opportunities in early life than most of us -- including a job at fenway park-- and he made his own decisions.

I seriously doubt it. They lost Josh Johnson already, who was supposed to be the gem of the group, and that rotation looks ugly now. Reyes and Bautista are as injury prone as they get. Their bullpen has lost several players, and their farm system was ranked today as the 24th in the league -- depleted badly by the big trades last year.