SoxFanForsyth

Oddly enough, we agree on something. I don't know how that happened. The Jays defense is 26th, and the Sox have slightly better hitting according to the game. I bet Tazawa got a huge bump in rating and the Sox bullpen is ranked as an elite pen (they just have overall pitching). I think the Jays bullpen is going to be suspect, but we'll see. If the game ranked Dempster as a well above average pitcher, which wouldn't surprise me coming off his year last year, and I guess they project Lester and Buch to return to form, then maybe I can see it. I think they have the Sox too high. I think they're a top 10 MLB team, top 5 in the AL. But certainly not #2 or 3 overall.

Random Post: The team rankings for MLB The Show 2013 have come out. http://www.operationsports.com/news/606724/mlb-13-the-show-overall-team-ratings-including-batting-pitching-and-defense/ Here is how the Sox fare: Team Pitching: 10th overall, 4th in AL behind TB Rays, NYY, and TOR. Team Hitting: 4th overall, 3rd in AL behind DET and LAA. Team Defense: 15th overall, 6th in AL behind NYY (1st overall), LAA, TB, BAL, and TEX. Team Overall: 3rd Overall, 2nd in AL behind DET. St Louis is 2nd overall, though the rankings were made in January, so the Cardinals may still have Carpenter. The loss of him may be enough to push the Sox to the #2 slot. Did San Diego Studios overrate the Sox, or are they actually as legit as they say? I'm curious as to who they ranked so highly to push them to #3 overall. Dempster has gotta be pretty well ranked after last year, probably Middlebrooks and Ortiz as well.

I see you've got 417 posts now. What a complete shame that not a single one of them have brought anything to any discussion.

Well, one of us is going to eat crow this year. Lets both hope it's you. Lester looked really good the other day, and even though its just 2 innings of ST, there is still reason to be encouraged, mostly because he seems to have improved his mechanics. By the way, I know you mentioned hopefully his mechanics get that extra movement on his cutter. Read the other day that Farrell said that when he opened his front leg, it collapsed his back leg and rather than throwing with his hand on top of the ball and getting that downward angle, he was throwing behind the ball and kind of pushing it. He said this flattens out his pitches and leaves the cutter in the zone longer, basically eliminating a lot of movement. Also reduces velocity because he's pushing the ball along rather than driving it down. So, reason to be encouraged that if he does fix his mechanics, he's able to return to 2009-2010 form. The fact that he pumped 93 in his first ST game is very encouraging, considering he didn't pump 93-94 very often at all last year, and he's already there on February 24th. I think you're going to be wrong here, Ted. De La Rosa and Webster had very impressive stints. Webster touching 99 and k'ing Bautista, Encarnacion, Lawrie, and JPA in succession. Wright looked really good too. So I think our SP depth is going to be better than you think. Also, Bradley looks line he could be called up at first injury and provide above average production.

I think Bradley could be a big addition this year, and could certainly help them make a playoff run by playing 120 games against LHP, not to mention if anyone goes down to injury. I say let him play, if he is overpowered, send him back to AAA, but I'd much rather see him than Carp or Overbay. Not to mention, if Ellsbury or Victorino ever need a day, your OF is going to have both Gomes AND Carp or Overbay in it. That's not appealing.

Oddly enough, after my post about Jackie Bradley, the media asked Farrell about him and he wouldn't rule out Bradley breaking camp with the Sox. I would be 100% all for him being our LF. But my original post on here got a bit overlooked because of the trade talk. Thoughts on Bradley starting the year in Boston? As a reminder, he hit .315/.430/.482 last year between A and AA. In 61 AA games, he hit .271/.373/.437. Bill James actually projected him to hit .260/.350/.420 with 13 HR, 20 SB. If you could give me that line and give him experience so that next year when he replaces Ellsbury, he's not shell shocked by the MLB experience, I'd make him my starting LF/RF vs RHP all day every day.

The trade and the post trade success are very much independent of each other. The Sox cleared 260 million dollars of bad contracts, outside of Gonzalez. The team was not winning and was not going to win with the team as constructed, and they were strangled with financial inflexibility and no upper minor pitching. The deal alleviated them from the inflexibility related to guys who were simply not performing in this environment. The deal was a brilliant deal. The capitalization of the freed up money is a completely different story. The deal is already an elite deal for the Sox. The next step is to see how they perform with these newfound resources.

Yeah, we pegged them to do well, then what happened? They absolutely sucked. They played like dog s***. There was no team chemistry. It wasn't working. Even I admitted that in August. And that's when we blew it up. Hell. Why stop at last February? If you're going to make a dumb argument, why not go all the way back to August of 2011 when they were the best team in baseball? A massive collapse and a s***** season later, and the writing was on the wall. The team wasn't working. It was 25 guys pulling in 25 different directions. So the Sox dumped the salaries, got two major prospects back, and started the process over. It was an excellent, excellent trade. How Cherrington spends the money won't be a reflection of the trade, it will be a reflection of him as a GM. The trade was monumental. Now it's on him to turn the team around. But if the team doesn't turn around, it was still an excellent trade, but Ben would just be considered a bad GM.

Here's a question - Would Bradley Jr get more out of playing 6x a week in AAA, or by playing 115-125 games for the Sox? I am really starting to move toward liking him as an option for LF. Obviously we have Gomes out there, but Bradley can play LF or RF vs RHP and give Gomes and Victorino the day off against tough righties. Not to mention he can spell some of those guys in day to day games. If Gomes plays 80, Victorino plays 140, and Ellsbury plays 150, that leaves 116 games for Bradley Jr right there. So, if he's going to be the starting CF going forward, would it be better to give him a year of experience in the MLB level over 120 games and be around guys like Gomes, Napoli, Victorino, etc? In terms of talent, I think he's got enough talent to be successful at the MLB level right now. He can probably go out and hit .265/.360/.420 as it stands right now, and play elite defense in all 3 OF positions. Thoughts?

This is all just noise. The fact is that the Red Sox were not going to win with the team as constructed, and had very little to no financial flexibility to go out and acquire that guy who would get them to the next level. We gave that team 1.5 years and in that span, learned that they didn't meld well enough to become a winning team. Certainly, the chemistry issue was exacerbated by the hiring of Valentine, but even with Francona, things weren't going right. The trade with the Dodgers at least gave them the potential to go out and field a team that is capable of winning and bolster the farm system at the same time. I think we saw just how powerful it can be to have good arms in the system just by watching games the past couple days. De La Rosa hitting 100 multiple times. Webster sitting 94-97, hitting 99. Those are starting pitchers with power arms and those do not come along very often. The Sox may or may not win the WS this year, but with the additions of the power arms of De La Rosa and Webster to tack along with the likes of Bradley, Bogaerts, and Barnes, they've certainly set themselves up for a long run of sustained success, which is something they were not going to get with the team as constructed last year.

It takes 3 seconds?!? That's kind of unacceptable.

That's 155 HR now that the Yanks have lost. And who knows how Granderson recovers from this injury. Best case he's back by May, but he could very well just be a shell of himself when he returns

I was originally a bit worried that he didn't include me on the photo, but alas, I was just not logged in. Thank goodness, I'm still part of the community!

I know some people think I'm talking out of my ass a lot especially being an optimistic fan, but when I was talking about Lester I consistently talked about how he was opening up his front leg, almost like a gate swinging open. Here's a quote from Farrell today: • On Jon Lester’s delivery: "The delivery you see now is like he was before. The lead leg was like a swinging gate, collapse on the backside, lost that downward plane. He’s made some tangible adjustments in camp. They started late last season." I haven't seen him throw at all but it sounds like he's corrected this issue, at least for now. When you have the bases juiced in a 1 run game and you stop thinking about mechanics a little bit, that's when you can tell if you've actually corrected the issue. Either way, today's outing from him was a very encouraging sign. Also, De la Rosa hit 100 today. It's February 24th.

He's gained about 10-12 lbs of muscle. Who knows how that translates. Quite the opposite of what I expected from him today. Error in the field, 2 run bomb.

Wow. Iggy. Nice!!

Don't worry, only 1 more year. Bradley's arm got clocked at over 100 mph by Perfect Game, a scouting service, coming out of HS.

Nice to see Salty in mid season form. No, no, Lavarnway needs more time....

To be fair, by the time guys like Bogaerts and Marrero arrive to the big leagues, so will the likes of Bradley and Brentz for the OF, as well as De La Rosa, Webster, Barnes, and potentialyl Owens for the rotation. It will be interesting to see how Shaw develops at 1B. I don't know if he'll develop a ton of power but he's got very good plate discipline. He could be a Youkilis type, 18-22 HR, .380+ OBP, which would be excellent.

According to the tv guide, NESN is showing the Rays/Sox game at 1:35 on Saturday afternoon. They'll also be showing it later that night as a replay, but it will be aired live on Saturday afternoon.

Mark Hamilton is going to surprise a lot of people.

Based on what? I'm sorry, are you a scout? Because every scout that I've read said that he has made huge strides at SS and is better than even money to stick. Why the hell would the Sox move him off of SS and devalue him unless they absolutely have to?? He may end up at 3b when he is in his late 20s but likely not before that. You need to update your scouting reports.

Gentlemen, Emmz and VA, lets put away our differences. Stop with the petty fighting, embrace our enemies, yes, even you Jackso. For this week, THERE WILL BE BASEBALL!!!!!!!

Early December, right after he found out about it.

My understanding is that the MRI is just to see how effective the medicine has been. As a comparison from pre-medicine to now. He still doesn't feel anything or have any symptoms. Certainly it bears watching but until he says anything other than 'its frustrating because I don't feel anything. I'm rehabbing from something I don't even feel' then I'm not going to be too worried about it