SoxFanForsyth

For the record, I realize this was a 2010 spring training picture. I just thought it was an awesome picture under the sun of a spring training field. Plus it was used on boston.com, so I thought i'd share it. Geez nitpicky around here.

To put it into reference, pedey has 6 career IBB with 215 walks and 186 strikeouts. He may be the best player in the MLB in terms of plate discipline.

Well regardless I think it speaks wonders about pedey in that a guy like Pujols had 38 IBB last year. If he had 10 or less he would have had more k's that bb's. Not taking anything away from Pujols, just giving more credit to pedroia since he hardly gets intentionally walked

@Dipre I think Chad Finn's biggest oversight was not having Bard in the top 6 or 7. How many times did he come in last year with RISP in a tight game and get us out unscathed and maintaining the lead? He was absolutely crucial. My top 10 are as follows: 1a. Gonzo 1b. Lester 3. Youkilis 4. Pedroia 5. Crawford 6. Bard 7. Buchholz 8. Ellsbury 9. Beckett 10. Papelbon I think for the Sox to win the WS next year, those players will be the most crucial to our success.

So we just release Ellsbury? Or Reddick is the 4th OF, which would mean we'd have our top 4 OF's as lefties, which is exactly what I was saying in my original post.

Why would CF be in play? Ells isn't going anywhere. Cost controlled dynamic OF that has proven to be a solid leadoff hitter and is always a threat to steal 50+ bases and score 100 runs? Reddick would not be an upgrade over that.

Couple things. First - the Sox just DFA'd Coello, whether he gets picked up by someone else or ends up back in AAA is another story, but for now, I wouldn't count on him being one of our options. Having said that, I don't think he was ever really was an option. Second - I'm not a fan of the assumption that Wakefield just automatically has a spot. Maybe the assumption is correct, and I guess I would be surprised if he didn't end up on the roster, but I think there are pitchers who would contribute much better than him. I would much, much rather see Doubront up with the club as to Wakefield. And I think Oki and Hill will win the 2 remaining spots. Next up - The 2 remaining spots HAVE TO be LHP. There is absolutely no way that we can go into Opening Day with 2 lefties on our roster, one of which is a SP, the other of which is Oki. Tito needs options when he's facing an inning with 2/3 or 3/4 hitters from the left side. In a series against the Twins, when you're in the 7th inning with Mauer and Morneau due up, I'd love to see Doubront or Hill come out of the bullpen to mow them down when Oki has just thrown 2 of the past 3 nights. Just need more options. I think that pretty much wraps up my opinion of this. Basically, Doubront needs to take Wakefield's spot. I'm not at all a sentimentalist. I know he's done great things for the club and he's 13 wins from the club record, but I want to win in 2011, and our best shot is without Shakey Wakey. EDIT: Just saw Dipre mentioned the Coello thing, my bad for repeating.

No way the Sox sign someone to a deal that would keep Kalish down in AAA any longer than he has to be. Once he get's that full 500+ AB's in AAA, he's going to be up in the bigs. Look at it this way. Each player in their rookie season. Player A: 163 AB, .252/.305/.405, 4 HR, 24 RBI, 10 SB Player B: 259 AB, .259/.290/.371, 2 HR, 30 RBI, 9 SB Player A is Ryan Kalish Player B is Carl Crawford Obviously, that's a small sample size, but Kalish put up comparable stats to Crawford in their rookie seasons, so I see absolutely no reason to sign an OF to start over Kalish instead of giving him a chance to show what he can do.

This this this times infinity. Theo can't live in the FA pool, and his core homegrown talent is graduating to high paid players. Buch and Bard will both be arbitration eligible and will see significant raises next year. It's time for the next wave of homegrown players to step in and provide some salary relief after signing Gonzo and Crawford. Lester, Pap, Youk, Pedey, and Ells are making over $30mm this year, so the days of the homegrown cheap talent is starting to fade with those players. Given, for that group of talent, $30mm is pretty cheap, but that figure is going to increase over the next few years, so we'll need some young guns to come in and take Drew's 14mm down to $500k, or Scutaro's 5.5mm down to 450k.

Kalish jumped from AA to MLB last year with a brief stop in AAA. Give him a full year's worth of AB's in AAA (hopefully), and he'll be a 20HR/20SB guy. It's easily Kalish's job to lose. Reddick will be trade bait, probably along with Lowrie and Lars this offseason. Not saying they will all three get dished, but one of those 3 gets dished by April, 2012.

*huge image removed because it was breaking the page....sorry :thumbsup:

Theo will most definitely put an offer out there for him. Even if it's a low ball offer for 6 years, just to get Cash to have to up his offer. I wouldn't mind going 6/120 for the guy. He's a workhorse and can you imagine CC-Lester-Buch?? My dear God. That would be sick. By the time DiceK leaves and takes his $10mm salary with him, it would only be a $10-12mm increase in payroll.

That seems interesting. Wonder why we've signed him as a SP rather than a RP where he's done well. Also - we signed him to a MLB deal, and while he still has options, having it come out that he's been signed as a SP cannot bode well for Wakefield. If Aceves can come up and throw well out of the bullpen and be our 6th starter, where does Wakefield fit?

Career stats: Vs BAL: 16 IP, 0.00 ERA, 7 K Vs TB: 12.1 IP, 0.73 ERA, 14 K Vs TOR: 16.1 IP, 1.10 ERA, 16 K Damn. I'll take those splits every day of the week. He strugged vs BOS (4.34 ERA) but that's pretty much it. Solid pick up. Looking at our bullpen right now, if Aceves can come back and throw well, we'll have Papelbon, Bard, Jenks, Wheeler, Oki, Hill, Aceves. What does that mean for Wakefield? If each player is truly "earning a spot in the bullpen" then Wake should have to earn his spot too. Especially when we have Doubront getting stretched out in AAA for any spot starts.

Still, though. A 2.4% weight loss is not going to do much. He still requires clown pants and two seats on a plane.

Definitely confusing when you're reading through this for the first time and Italian tells RSFFL to say exactly what he said.

Damn you. I had this ready to post. Could be a good signing. First two years he had a 3.24 ERA in the AL East before getting hurt in 2010. If he comes back strong, I could see him sticking around.

Dude. I'm raking in my city slow pitch league. Hittin like .627 with 3 bombs. Saw some Sox scouts at the last game. I crushed a hard foul ball. I think they noticed.

Hell yeah I'm celebrating! I'll be cracking open a Newcastle as soon as I leave work.

Don't forget about Scutaro, Wake, Tek, and Oki, all of which would add up for an additional $5.75mm, so you're looking at a total of $52mm coming off the books. Take Gonzo's additional $17mm (estimated), Crawfords additional $6mm, about $8mm for arb eligible Buch, Salty, Lowrie, and Ellsbury, as well as Kalish for his first year, and you're left with $21mm to use to find a back up catcher (potentially internally), another BP arm, a backup OF (potentially internally), and a DH (I think we'll sign Ortiz to something to the tune of 2/$14 with an option. I'd say we'll probably be around the same payroll next year as we are this year. Hopefully Lars Anderson or Ryan Lavarnway can advance their stroke and become contributors if Ortiz has an off year and we don't resign him. Although if we don't sign him and he goes to the Yankees, I'd puke.

Sure there's a way. Don't ink Gonzo to his extension. But that's about it. I'd rather have Gonzo at 8/162 over Pujols at 10/300 or 8/240. I have a hard time believing that Pujols is $78mm better than Gonzo over the course of the next 8 years. Other than that, I don't see it happening unless we want a 30mm DH.

Completely different. Softball rises, baseball goes on a downward plane. That's why Kruk had a problem. Well, that and he's fat and out of shape.