BornToRun

You behave yourself you disrespectful young whippersnapper! And get off of Fred's lawn!

Unitas maybe. Marino and Elway are a step below.

I, for one, would welcome Carlos Santana in Boston. That kid can hit. And the greatest ever QB argument is between Tom Brady and Joe Montana. Everybody else is lower tier, that includes Peyton Manning.

What do you think ends up happening with Betts? He's blocked at 2B and a I don't foresee much of an opening at SS/3B either.

One point that's been raised and I wholeheartedly agree with: I can't wait until Big Papi pimps his Moonshots with this self-righteous ******* behind the plate.

Some Mets executive, fwiw, speculated that neither Choo nor Ellsbury would break 100 million. I doubt he's right but if that ends up being the case, and Ells is willing to take 5 years, I think we'll bring him back.

I go 2 years. Maybe put in some kind of option if it's that important to him.

I'm going to feel very smart if we sign Beltran to be our first baseman.

Yup, appears that there are serious talks occurring between the Sox and Beltran. I don't know if I it gets done though, Beltran wants 3-4 years and our OF situation is kind of crowded. If we signed him, I don't think I'd want him in right field. His old age and poor knees would be a disaster in Fenway's RF not to mention he'd force us to move Vic off position back to center. I don't think Shane would be bad as a center fielder again but I think his defense would certainly take a hit. He was probably the best defensive player in the game in 2013, I don't wanna mess with that. Bradley profiles as a solid glove in center so I think he could do an adequate job of replacing Ellsbury's defensive value at the least. I would put Beltran in left if we signed him which would mean the end of the Nava/Gomes platoon. And between Nava/Gomes/Carp, I don't see us carrying all 3 on the bench so someone has to be the odd man out. Either Gomes or Carp by my estimation given the recent report that BC has no interest in trading Nava. Is there any chance that Beltran maybe moves to first? I don't think he's capable of being a plus defensive outfielder anymore and a move to first would take some strain off of his knees. And I think his bat is good enough to replace what Napoli gave us in 2013. Just spitballing.

This I could get on board with . Personally, I'm in favor of just waiting until he hits FA. He seems to want out of Miami so I doubt an extension is signed. Also, that'd give us a decent period of time to determine how he'll hold up health wise. I just hate the idea of trading our farm for one guy after we've spent all of this time building up the next generation of young, home grown Red Sox stars. Kick the tires, of course, but don't do anything crazy. I just don't see any deal for Stanton getting done without including our best young talent.

I was under the impression that he's only got 2 years of control left. My bad. Still, he has lower body issues and when the time does come for him to cash in as a free agent, the contract is going to be astronomical. Look at the money that's been given to Pujols and Fielder and look at what Cano is looking for. Stanton is getting A-Rod money and I want no part of that. If he had a cleaner health history and a deal with Miami wouldn't certainly cost us Xander/a huge chunk of our young pitching depth, I'd be more willing to try and trade for him. As it stands now, though: He'd cost us a s*** ton of prospects to land. Xander and a few of our top pitching prospects I'd say. The price we'd have to pay him when he hits FA would be absurd and in that situation, we'd either pay out the ass and hand out one of the huge contracts we'd decided to stay away from our we'd have shredded our farm system for just 3 years. Once more, I'm not convinced of his ability to stay healthy.

He's also had a history of lower body issues and is closing in on free agency. The Marlins have made it painfully clear that they are not trading him, so to get him would require Miami getting blown out of the water. Not a chance in hell that they don't insist on X. We'd also only have a short period before he hits free agency at which point we'd have to pay something close to A-Rod money, I'd bet, to keep him. Why trade your farm for a couple years of a guy who you can just go after in free agency not too long from now? I don't want to bring him in and run the risk of losing him to another team after we sold the farm to land him. And as I said above, his injury history concerns me. He's had issues with his legs for the last couple years.

Eh. Why get prospect raped when we can just go after him as a FA? From what I hear, he intends to hit the open market after 2014 so I would just wait until then and see what the price is like.

Salty not getting the QO isn't a guarantee that he's not back next year. Just because we don't want to pay him 14.1 million dollars is not a certain indicator that we don't want him. The catching market is thin and I don't see us overpaying for McCann or signing an old and coming off a PED suspension Carlos Ruiz. I like Salty and hope he's back here for 2014 and perhaps beyond that but ignoring my own biases, he's probably the best candidate to be our catcher going forward than anything else currently on the market.

I sincerely hope that Ells gets sentimental and takes less to stay here but I just don't see it. Boras as an agent, the rumors about how much they're asking for? I think he's gone.

I think you're more of a Papelbon type as closer. You've given far too many f***s to be labeled as the Koji of Talksox.

I was reading through this thread for shits and gigs and came across this post. Please note that the scenario I posted there is pretty much exactly what we wound up getting from him in 2013.

Christ, I hope not. I go 5/100 on Ells at the most and with the rumors that he's looking for Crawford money, I don't think that gets it done. I love Ells and I'm ecstatic that his last great year in a Red Sox uniform helped us win it all but I don't think he's back unless we do something incredibly stupid.

Did I really just hear the comcast guy call Boston a "pressure cooker of a city" while they were showing Salty and Gomes at the marathon finish line?

Yeah, he really got screwed out of a GG. The one thing I thought I was going to really miss about Gonzo was his defense but Napoli came in and was amazing with the glove all year.

Also, I can't help but feel that if I ever met John Lackey in person, I would be overwhelmingly compelled to apologize on behalf of Red Sox fans for the way he was treated from 2010-12. Maybe that's just me.

I can't understand why Franklin Morales advertising what boat he is on is a good idea.

Well I wouldn't deal both but I'd at least check what the market was like. I'd rather hold into Peavy too but I'm not against seeing what interest is like.

Is anybody else still having trouble believing that we really just won the f***ing World Series?

I think, and hope, that Salty and Napoli will be back in 2014. I think we bring Napoli back on a deal that will end up being close to what the original offer was. I'd say 2/28, maybe an option for another year. Salty, I'd honestly have no problem giving 3/4 years. The money, I'm not sure. But he's just had a breakout year at an age when catchers start coming into their own, the pitchers love him and he's a team leader, and we don't have an immediate replacement ready to go. I make the QO to Ells and Drew but I don't expect either to be back. I'd go 5/100 on Jacoby at the most and I doubt that gets it done. If the FO doubts that WMB can stick, I'd be open to locking up Drew on a multi year deal and shifting X to third. Will did look improved during his call up later in the year after we sent him back to AAA. And I'm not against shopping a couple of the back of the rotation arms. see what you can get in terms of talent/salary relief for Peavy and Dempster then go from there.