jung

The point is not whether to give up on Bard or not. People are penciling him in as part of the pen and that makes as little sense as giving up on him. He was awful in Pawtucket...awful up here....just plain awful as he neither had command nor velocity. On top of that by the end he just looked defeated...almost looked like he was afraid to throw the ball. He may come back but I would at this not be penciling him into anything but continued recover project. The Sox would probably count themselves lucky if opposing managers did not start to bean Sox hitters just seeing Bard sitting out in the bull pen.

I wish Bard was showing progress at least by the end of last season but in truth it did not look like he had found a thing by that point...could barely find the plate...ambulances still standing by to cart off hitters. Occasionally would nurse the ball over the plate to finally get a strike and generally saw it wiz past his head coming the other way. Have to see how he pitches this spring but there is just as great a chance that he is just done as there is that he contributes anything in 2013.

I suspect the Sox will try to put something together around Ells in order to get some real pitching that goes out beyond 2013. I would not be surprises to see Felix in that package. All things considered I don't think Felix will ever be more than a #3 rotation guy. I would be willing to give that up if we got something worthwhile in return.

Well so far it looks like it is half way to a typical Sox team, only short on offense and with even weaker pitching than normal. So I see the point. True there is no sense in getting angry over it. Clearly it is not even half a job done at this point. If BC were to stop right here the Sox would have trouble winning as many games as they won last year. However, i have noted for a long time that this is more than a one year fix. How far will they get this year? I don't know. Maybe BC is only interested in a certain number of these one year pitching deals and Haren was just not one that he was particularly keen on. Back problems are funny in that they are unpredictable. Yes Haren pitched with his so far. So what. You can sign him for one year and see him just as easily sit a big part of that one year just because he got up out of bed funny one morning and whoops....not pitching for awhile. Maybe what is notable here is that BC avoided Oswalt and his back issues as well. Could just be a red light for BC and pitchers and thats that. I probably would have preferred that they avoid Napoli and found a different way to get some RH power. The Sox are going to be bumping along with a left side of the infield made up of young guys. WMB has not been an accurate thrower from 3rd. Iggy is a defensive phenom but is also young as is the guy right behind him. Anyway the Sox may just need a big net over there at 1at and Napoli is passible at 1st but not better than that. I happen to think the Sox are going to have to build around young guys coming up from the system and I am less inclined to anything that impedes progress in that direction. Although I don't really expect anybody to like this idea I probably would have gambled on Melky Cabrera for cheap and dumped LaRoche into first base regardless of it costing me a draft pick. Sure there is nothing exciting about Cabrera or LaRoche but frankly there is nothing about Napoli worth getting all worked up about either. Victorino just looks like a means to an end to me. Payed to much for him but I sort of have myself convinced that the only way the Sox really have to do something serious about starting pitching is to build a trade package around Ells. So maybe that is the right thing to do whether they had Napoli or Cabrera and LaRoche. Starting pitching is the one piece that you just can't go and conjure up and no matter how you siice it, without starting pitching your goose is cooked. I just hope to God that this is what the Victorino deal is about.

The extra year gives them more time to get some pitching together. I think that plus some number of B's will likely be the dif between 2013 and 2014. Unless the do something with Ells in a package that brings back pitching early enough to do something with it for the 2013 season, what pitching moves they make now will likely be intended to just get them through the 2013 season. I don't expect them to really have enough pitching until 2014 unless they do succeed with an Ells package.

I don't know that people are turning on Ells. He is what he is and what is first and foremost at this point is a guy on the last year of his deal as a Boras client...as such he is not going to sign an extension. He is going to go FA and he is very likely to be offered more money than the Sox will offer. So you either get nothing for him if you wait to long or get something for him while you can. I don't think the Sox can or will build enough team to really make a run in 2013. So you get the most you can while you can.

I have not kept up to Giants interest in Wilson. I think he is a real fan favorite out there. Have the Giants done anything the last couple days that suggest they are not going to try to bring him back or conversely something that suggests they want to bring him back?

Well, "we expect Ells to have a huge season" is exactly what you would say if you were trying to move him anyway.

Well if they sign Hamilton I think the Sox will be thinking as much about how they build their 2014 lineup than how they build their 2013 lineup. They would have Hamilton and Ortiz right in the middle of the lineup through 2014. They should be able to build more team around those two guys for 2014.

Just show up healthy...Victorino was not wearin' a Sox uniform last year so I really don't care about whether it is meant to excuse it or explain it. Just show up healthy.

It appears safe to say that BC has been active during these meetings. Of course it is possible that he was able to strike quickly because the brass was available to give the nod. I still think that LL really ends up with a box that he has to check for a deal to go through and if it is a really big money deal, JH has a box to check as well. But just based on the amount of actual activity you would have to say the BC must have been working the phones pretty hard.

I don't know if I wanted to know about Victorino's hand. Now being used to excuse last season performance. With our luck it is STILL an issue and he is headed into surgery. All we will hear is that "the hand was known by the Sox to be an issue".

I think the Sox would get decent value for Ells if traded now. In the first place he will likely be part of a package and while it might be nice to wait to just before the ASB, Ells tends to run into things that are studier than he is, other players, walls, what have you. If he gets dinged before that ASB next year, the Sox are going to get nothing for Ells. If they are going to get ripped off for Ells, then they don't make the trade. However if it comes down to nits and nats which is frankly more likely than half value, I would deal Ells now rather than risk seeing him hit the DL and end up getting nothing for him. While his injuries may look like flukes who cares...he has to many fluke injuries, tends to end up with big bone or big joint injuries like shoulder and takes a long time to come back from them. Ells may at the end of the day be to the Sox what Julian Edelman is to the Pats, a wonderful player that just cannot stay on the field enough. I do agree though and would no doubt take the risk of injury and hold on to Ells if I could not strike a deal that was at least fair market value for him.

And what money are the Yanks going to use to do that?

I don't know what Spier's point is. "Ells trade is not inevitable". Maybe so but it would sure seem highly likely at this point. Especially since the trade pieces the Sox have taken individually won't get the Sox very far. Ells is on his last year...Salty is....well....Salty though he is catcher...sort of and Felix is still in development. Kalish....maybe we should rename him "the shoulder". Hopefully he is finally ready to play. But you wrap two of them up in a bundle with Ells, and ya' got somethin'.

I was alarmed at WMB's throws from 3rd last year. That is something that should have developed more fully by now. Guys make better throws more consistently than WMB in AA. Now there is a chance that he just did not get it last year. There was much he seemed to just not get last year that may be immaturity. But the kinds of throwing mistakes he made last year were not even under pressure.....just sloppy. Occasionally he made poor throws under pressure as well but for the most part when his throws were errant he just flung it over there. I don't like his throwing motion from 3rd at all. There are times when he steps and throws the way he should but mostly he prefers that upright stance....throw across his body which makes him look like he is trying to make a second baseman's throw from 3rd. He needs to get rid of that altogether because I have no idea where that is coming from. When he thinks the play is going to be really close, I mean really close he will s***-can that throw for a more traditional 3rd base approach but the other throw is what he uses most often. Napoli is not a zero over at first but he is not ready to dig out the number of WMB throws that Loney and Agons did last year.

Well, Ells is not signing an extension and I don't see the Sox winning whatever competition there is for him. So, while my initial reaction was pretty bad, they need somebody like Victorino if they are going to say goodbye to Ells this year. Even if they get Hamilton, they still need somebody like this if Ells is outta' here. If that is what is going on then I would think that sounds like a more thoughtful approach to trying to get outta' the mess they are in than I would have given them credit for.

Well right now it is not much of a ball club. It is not today as good a ball club as it was the day before they made "the trade", as bad as that team was. That may be OK though. There is much to do for this to be a ball club instead of a disjointed bunch of names. It has surely been more a disjointed bunch of names than a ball club the last couple of years.

Pitchers are definitely going to cost a fortune. So far I don't think the everyday player money is all that out of whack. Napoli and Victorino were both overpays. Napoli maybe not as much as Victorino. However if in fact the Sox are going to package up Ells to ship him off in trade then this move was pretty necessary. I would not wait on Ells if I were the Sox. He is just to likely to be injured during the season and then where are you. If I could package him up now in a really good deal for a pitcher I would think that was pretty darned good.

Don't know about Drew but I fully expect Ells to be gone now.

You cannot compare Victorino to Cameron. Cameron had nothing left when he showed here...NOTHING. There is a point there but just not as extreme as using Cameron as an example by any means. That is one of the concerns with Victorino...both losing physical skills and mental focus at a rate that belies his age. I would more likely believe that the Sox are going to try to package up Ells and move him putting Victorino either in RF or in CF depending on who else they get. That makes this deal make perfect sense. I wonder if they are going to do that if they try to grab up the next OF before packaging up Ells with somebody or if they do that deal first. However I believe that is likely behind this deal. Ells and Salty or Ells Salty and somebody is something we have talked about here. I would even think that a good play here in his last off season before Ells runs into some player that looks like a brick wall again.

Moving Ells in some combination is the only way this makes sense. That I would believe as Ells is not going to sign any kind of an extension and moving him before he gets hurt again might be the best thing to do. Probably have to package him somehow with only one year left on his deal and if you are really going to try to get something for him. However the Sox do have some other chips to play with.

BJ Upton....28 HR's that's why and HR and total base numbers that have continually been climbing each year. Clearly the Braves think those numbers will continue to climb from where he is today at age 28. HR power or increasing HR power is traditionally what rings the cash register for hitters. That is why Agons contract was while not as bad as CC's still bad with diminished HR power. AGons was actually hitting them at an even lower rate in LA after he went there. Be interesting to see how he starts the year just to see what happens with the guy.

There is a chance that the added benefit for Victorino is not protection for Ells leaving after 2013 but for Ells being injured again in 2013. Victorino does play CF and I have never liked the way Kalish looks in CF. Depends on the next OF the Sox hire although that guy probably just got more expensive as well.

My point is not that the speedy guys will automatically run into outs. My point which I repeated was that they will not run be cut free to run regardless of their speed because the incentive is to great not to take the bat out of the bopper's hands. I also suggested that sometimes you can make it work with one guy batting in the usual 1 hole and a second that is far down in the order because that guy does not have a bopper to wait for. However I was anticipating the Sox would already have a speed guy down in the order...maybe not. 3/37.5 seems laughable for a guy like Victorino. Here we go makin' the market again. Probably just turned Swisher into a $16M player.