Spitball

Thank you, UN.

You are an excellent addition to this forum, Kimmi. The Sox added two of the best offensive components available with Sandoval and Ramirez while they upgraded their biggest positional holes in the process. They built a starting staff that is a gamble but a sure bet to consistently produce ground ball outs. If problems evolve, they have a deep farm system to bring up youngsters or to trade for solutions to those problems. As I see it, the Red Sox are in a good position to win the AL East. Once in the playoffs, the hottest team will advance. Outside of Bumgarner this season, aces Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and James Shields pitched 57 1/3 innings, allowing 69 hits and 42 earned runs for a 6.59 ERA. In my opinion, the Red Sox are strategically positioned to return to the post season.

Papelbon is in decline. If he is earning his pay check, why are the Phillies having so much trouble trading him?

This certainly could be true on occasion, but generally it would not be more likely than a rule. Small sample sizes, for example, would be reason to draw a wrong conclusion. Generally, an opinion backed by a strong statistical argument is hard to declare a "wrong conclusion."

I have been a baseball fan since 1962. By 1964 and at the age of eleven years-old, I had a pretty serious grasp on the game of baseball and especially the Boston Red Sox. My family and I went to lots of games in the early 60s when you could just walk up to Fenway and get box seats for about $5.00 each. As a kid, I played baseball and whiffle ball almost every day. I was also a voracious reader on the subject. I read The Sporting News cover-to-cover each week. It was 99% baseball stories and statics in the 1960-70s and was known as the Baseball Bible. I had hundreds of baseball cards and studied them. I had hundreds of statistics (Hr, RBI, Avg, W-L, BB, SO, ERA) memorized. I have always loved baseball. I still watch virtually every Red Sox game as well a others I can get on my MLB television package. For me, it isn't about embracing the statistical side and dismissing the visual side. They both totally enhance each other. It is like a scientific study. I make observations, draw conclusions, and look at the statistics to support my opinions. Baseball isn't just a passion, it is a lifelong study. To me, statistics are necessary on a baseball board. It comes down to using hard evidence (statistical facts) supporting a reasoned judgment versus someone expressing an opinion based on just more opinion.

After starting his career primarily as a starter in Japan, he had 32 saves with the Yomiuri Giants in 2007. He had 13 saves with Baltimore in 2010. In Japan and in the USA, the guy has kept his WHIP around or under 1.00 through his career.

Which town?

As an adult, I would run every morning to buy coffee at the Tie Up. Did you grow up on Harrison?

My parents bought the airport in the early 1970s. A guy named Milton owned it until then. I used to go to the Market Basket as a kid to buy five packs of baseball cards for me and The Boston Globe for my parents every morning.

That is interesting! You must live near downtown. My parents also owned the airport on Maple Ridge. Our cottage was fire lane 15 on (I think) route 35. When I was a kid, we spent every summer there in the 1960s. As an adult, my wife, kids, and I went there every summer in the 1980s through the early 1990s.

Where in Maine? My parents owned a cottage in Harrison, Maine, on Long Lake from 1961 until about 2007. When I graduated from college in 1976, I moved to Portland and worked at Tower Publishing on Middle Street in the Old Port.

I had similar experiences except I started following the Bruins more closely during the Bobby Orr era. I could watch practically every game on channel 38. Of course it was a fuzzy UHF picture that required a lot of twisting and turning of that little round antenna that was attached to the back of the television. Are you from Massachusetts? I graduated from Masconomet in 1971.

Thanks, cp. I very much enjoy your contributions. Building a team around high priced pitching is not necessarily a prescription for success. Otherwise, the 2011 Phillies, 2014 Dodgers, 2014 Tigers would have been champions.

I look at the contract the Nationals just gave Max Scherzer and realize the competition for starting pitching is at a foolishly high level. I would have been very concerned if the Sox had paid that much for that long. The guy is going to be making $35 million in the sixth and seventh years of the contract when he is 35 and 36 years-old. I don't think the Red Sox rotation is that far behind anyone in the AL East. With the possible exceptions of Cobb and a healthy Tanaka, there isn't a true ace in the division. And an ace doesn't guarantee anything in the post season. Take out Baumgarden's ace statistics and this year’s post-season saw Kershaw, Lester, Verlander, Scherzer and Shields pitched 57 1/3 innings, allowing 69 hits and 42 earned runs for a 6.59 ERA. Red Sox 1. Clay Buchholz 2. Rick Porcello 3. Wade Miley 4. Joe Kelly 5. Justin Masterson Orioles 1. Chris Tillman 2. Wei-Yin Chen 3. Bud Norris 4. Miguel Gonzalez 5. Kevin Gausman Rays 1. Alex Cobb 2. Matt Moore 3. Chris Archer 4. Jake Odorizzi 5. Drew Smyly Yankees 1. Masahiro Tanaka 2. Michael Pineda 3. Nathan Eovaldi 4. Chris Capuano 5. CC Sabathia Blue Jays 1. R.A. Dickey 2. Mark Buehrle 3. Drew Hutchison 4. Marcus Stroman 5. Aaron Sanchez

Especially if the Bruins fall out of the playoff picture. Florida trails them by only four points for the last spot and has played three fewer games.

Pitchers & Catchers report-February 20 First Workout-February 21 Position Players report-February 24 First full workout-February 25 I haven't decided if I will make it to Fort Myers this year. I figure A700 is going, but is anyone else going? I can't wait to hit the reset button and start again. I see lots of reason for optimism.

I don't think there is a clear ace in the Eastern Division. The Red Sox have a very competitive batting order, decent infield and outfield, and I like their catchers' abilities to frame pitches. The Red Sox have retooled and prepared to contend. This isn't the Theo era, but that ended with the LA trade. I am happy with the Red Sox.

I hear what you are saying, but Pedro had been having trouble in late innings all season. Little had left Pedro into 8th only 5 times all season, and his numbers were clearly less dominant in the late innings and especially after 100 pitches. He had lefty Embree in the bullpen ready to face Matsui. I was shocked when he left Pedro in the game. Why did Little deviate from the seventh inning formula he had used with Pedro all season?

Would those guys have been considered home run hitters ten years ago?

In 1941, Ted Williams hit .406, but Joe DiMaggio won the MVP when a Boston sports writer left Williams off his ballot. If he had at least given Williams a 10th place vote, Williams would have won the award. In 1942, Williams won the Triple Crown but Yankee Joe Gordon won the award. In 1947, Williams again won the Triple Crown but lost to DiMaggio by a 202-201 vote. I think politics often play a large part of the voting. Williams did not have a very good relationship with the media. Yastrzemski may have broken the hearts of the Minnesota media with his incredible performance in the final series of the 1967 season when the Sox and Yaz won the pennant on the last day of the season.

I will never forget this game. He was amazing.

Pedro was amazing! We might never see another like him. He should have been on more ballots.

I think Porcello for Cespedes is a head scratcher until you realize the times are changing. During the steroid era, pitching was a scarce and precious commodity. Today, power hitting is the scarce commodity. This year's major league .700 OPS is the lowest since 1992. During the steroid enhanced era from 1996 to 2006, the majors OPSed .762. Cespedes is a rarity today because he has power. There have not been many power hitters available this winter.

I think we need to agree to accept the fact that most of us are Red Sox fans. We have differing opinions, and that is what makes a forum work. If everyone has the same opinion, then there is no meaningful discussion. I enjoy greatly Fred's rants but usually agree with User Name. I happily consider them both friends. Baseball is a passionate sport...especially Red Sox baseball. When I graduated from college in the 1970s, I moved to Portland, Maine, and took a job at a publishing company. I would regularly stop into a store on Congress Street before work for a cup of coffee and a Table Talk pie. The crowd there would usually be discussing Red Sox baseball. Some of the crowd included Yankee fans. This was before the internet and baseball forums. The discussions would almost always get very heated, but we all recognized our mutual need to express our baseball opinions. We all accepted and respected our differences. I hope we all can continue to discuss and respect each other here. If we all have to agree, the discussions will become boring.

Who? "No small number of closers have made more money than Papelbon" would indicate that there is a significant number. Please name the "No small number." At the time Paps signed with the Phillies, it was the largest contract for a closer. Maybe you have a different measure of "more money."