jung

Except for Baltimore's Chen (at an average of 6 innings per start) and the injury riddled Jays rotation, every other 1 and 2 rotation pitchers in the AL East averaged either just over or just under 7 innings per start. The Sox top two averaged 6 innings per start. Over a full season, that adds up to 50-60 extra innings that the Sox bull pen has to pitch just contributed from 1 and 2 in the Sox rotation.

Napoli would be a nice piece but I just don't see anything here that would demand some ugly overpay. Then again I can't see any team looking at Napoli as the guy they should have to overpay for.

Jays pitching went through so much upheaval I am not sure you could really discern anything from it. Looks like Farrell didn't do much better but he wasn't working with much either.

No question Tito had a tendency to pull guys early. I cannot tell you anything about V's tendencies...lie a lot I think is about it. But you cannot rely on guys like 4 and 5 in the rotation to go past 6...can't depend on them to get outta' the 5th. So if you are pullin' 1 and 2 at 6 innings....#3 in the rotation is not likely doing much better. There is not a bullpen goin' set up to deal with that many innings. In Tito's case it seemed to me he would allow a starter to have a bad inning but as soon as he saw any trouble in a subsequent inning, the starter was comin' out. So, had a bad inning and two innings later started with a BB. As the starter you had the time it took for Tito to get somebody ready and you were....comin' out.

Just for clarity....191 over 31 starts is a shade over 6 (as in 6 and a tenth) innings per start. If you 1 is only going 6 per start, your bullpen is sunk. Seem to remember that by the end of 2011, that is exactly where the Sox pen was.....sunk and that was with Aceves pitching a ridiculous number of innings and with Paps stepping in at the end...eventually that is what killed Paps at the end.

Your right...he pitched 191...same argument...different number

Lester pitched 180 innings in 2011...far short of the expectations for a 1. Theo often rescued both Lester and Beckett in 2011 by pulling them out of games early enough to save their stats. I am sure Tito did it cause he thought that was the best way to win games and manage his pitchers but he had had a low tolerance for problem innings. About one problem inning is all you got from Tito. Funny that people want to make a case for Lester AND Beckett's 2011 when their manager (the same guy the team eventually gutted) saved both of their asses. So we can all look back now and glory in their gaudy stats built over short innings in both cases. At least Beckett went 193 innings, closer to what you would expect but still short for a rotation 1. What is the absolute distinction everybody and I mean everybody points to that distinguishes a rotation 1....innings pitched. Neither guy did the job in 2011 but at the end of the day, nobody but nobody thought Lester filled the bill better than Beckett in 2011 even though we all expected that he would. Lester barely crawled into enough innings for a 2 but was not even close for a 1.

I guess I would be OK with Napoli. So far though I have just not really been able to perceive a plan that makes sense that includes Napoli, certainly not for 4 years. Suddenly the Sox would seem to be stockpiling reserve and part time catchers. We have Salty who defensively is not better than a reserve or part time catcher. Lavs who the organization seems reluctant to commit to. Ross who would seem to have been taken specifically for the reserve roll. I cannot argue with the logic that given his age and the number of years he has played, if Napoli were a front line every day 1st baseman he would have been doin' that already. How much he practices there means little to me if his managers are consistently giving the everyday job more often to somebody else. Now if there is one team in the entirety of MLB that will take s*** in the field for a bat...it is without question the Boston Red Sox. Maybe since 1st base is a long way from the middle of the infield, they are going to put him there and hope he hits enough to take the defensive lapses. See Mike Aviles with the exception that Aviles WAS right in the most important defensive position on the field. If that is the plan I doubt there is any chance they will offer him 4 years. Maybe they will up the anti over three years enough to get it done. The one thing to remember is that if they cannot resolve the pitching issues in one off season (highly unlikely) it is not likely to matter much how much offense they are getting out of 1st base.

Lester did not take the reins as the number 1 rotation guy and run with it. He simply never was the stopper that you would expect a 1 to be. He did not have really solid (I am doing what a 1 does) performances especially when the Sox really needed them. However he did everything else and I would argue that if Beckett had been a solid 1 again, you would have taken Lester warts and all in 2011 as the 2. Unfortunately for Lester, he was the guy everybody expected to step up in 2011 and it didn't happen. As for 2012, his problem has been deteriorating mechanics. Unfortunately the Sox seemed to allow them to deteriorate to a point where you could no longer even see from the typical behind the pitcher view that the ball had any chance of even getting close to the plate. For a few games right in the middle of the worst of it, walks went nuts, he would finally be stuck where most pitchers get when that happens, eventually grooving the ball and having some rocket come back the other way. He gathered himself to some extent but you could tell just watching him that he was expending tremendous amounts of concentration to get it done. Is it any wonder that he was less distracted by ump calls during the later stretch of the season. IMO it took everything he had to pitch even just as well as he did later in the season. I don't know if they are going to have to rebuild his motion from scratch....hope not. I for one continue to believe he worked his ass off just to pitch as well as he did down the stretch. However I think the chances of going through a whole season like that are slim and none. Guy was probably exhausted after every start.

I really worry about the Sox stockpiling potential DH's for the future.....why....none of them will ever be what Ortiz has been.....not even close. Once the Ortiz era ends, the Sox should start to handle the DH position differently. If you want an aging bat at that time, go get one. If not, rotate players in as opposed to having a dedicated DH.

Surely you would expect innings to scale down as opposed to dropping off the map. You would like your ace to top 200. Your 3 would likely make you happy at somewhere between 180 and 200. You would likely be OK if you four gave you something over 165. You would be tickled pink with a 5 at anything over 150 or at 150. Your pen is going to work harder at the bottom of the rotation and that is how it should be.

Thanks for reminding me Pal. I had not really remembered that 7.07

Now I'm going to be ill.

I actually did not know what Gome was seeking. I did think that 1/$4 would have gotten it done. However I was not thinking of him as an everyday OF and it seems from some of the comments I heard today that people believe that is where the Sox are headed...kinda' interesting...not sure how you get to see him as an everyday OF against all pitchers regardless of LH or RH. That would explain both the 2 years and the $5 per year though.

Oh Brother....

The piece says 2/$10. Not bad their BC. Although I think 2/$12 would have been a noticeably overpay so BC pretty much got it right I think. 2/$10 might be a slight overpay but still not bad and surely not what Cody Ross was looking to get.

The problem is that there are not many options for pitching (what else is new). Even in cases where there might be a limited number of teams chasing a pitcher, there would seem to be enough that anybody you want you are going to overpay for. The question is who is it going to be and how much are you going to overpay. To me, if I am stuck with overpaying, then I am going to overpay for somebody that I really think is sound and healthy and somebody that I can rely on at a certain level. In other words, I would not want to overpay for somebody with so many question marks that he looks like he is wearing a Riddler Halloween costume. As we all know, we have seen overpays for guys with question marks all over the place. I would do a deal like that if it as for a second starting pitcher that I was going to sign but even at that, I would not be willing to overpay by much and I would not be doing it for a big money contract even if it was not that much of an overpay. I am tired of these guys hobbling in on a pair of crutches, getting all the money. I am way ready to let somebody else do that.

Well although I am commenting without knowing anything yet, I have to think that the two years means the per annum is very attractive to the Sox...or else why would you go two for a Gomes. So that is sounding like a nice deal for Ben.....not a big deal but still something he can hang his hat on. It's a nice follow on to the Ross that Ben did get.

Hopefully, that is how it is working out...Gomes for much less money. In fact that might be where the two years is coming from. Maybe the Sox are happy with the per year....happy enough to make two years OK regardless of how they end up using him.

Is the question whether we should get into a bidding war that could end up at 6/$100 for Sanchez? I don't think he has done anything that warrants 6/$100. There is a huge dif between 6/$100 and 4/$60. I can see it getting to 4/$60 but if somebody wants to give him 6/$100 I don't think I could justify being that team. No telling what he really wants but in his position I would probably value term. So just playing with numbers a little.....if a four year deal was not getting it done meaning I could not manage anything more than being in the game at 4 years I would probably go to 5 years and try to kick out the teams that get scared off at 5 years and then try to leak money back into the deal. I would probably end up done at 5/$80 offering him incentives in the deal at that point so that he had a way to make more if I am still battling with somebody and still feeling like I want to get it done with this guy. If I get outbid.....I get outbid.

Ross is a horrible fielder so that might be a wash. That said I have already seen Ross in LF and don't find that completely objectionable. Ross is a one man circus in RF. If they do land Gomes for less money than the reported highway robbery Ross is looking for then that would be a good thing.

I think that if V had somehow managed to stay on board, you could not have gotten anybody to come and play here. Not after the stuff that hit the media soon after V got the boot. I am sure that we were questioning V's voracity throughout the season. However it eventually became clear how often V was lying.....his lips were moving! Even when V was telling the "truth" or at least the truth according to V, he continually spoke in riddles and in V code. As I had mentioned throughout the season at least to me that is just the worst possible way to run a ball club and communicate with ball players. Oddly enough V always seemed annoyed when guys could not figure out his code. Nobody wants to do that. It is a total waste of time. Somehow V has always had himself convinced that he would be a great nightclub act. Well in fact he would be a lousy nightclub act but his insistence on bringing that approach to everything he does including managing is ridiculous. I just don't think you could get FA's to come here and play for that guy. I think the silver lining to Farrell is that at least he appears to be a straight shooter. I would think players would not shy away from playing for Farrell.

Agreed, I don't think Ross makes the Sox that much better. I also don't think he gets anything like 3/$21 from anybody. He is an OK fit for Fenway's LF. There his defensive lapses are not as deadly and of course from home plate, the monster is a welcome sight for Ross. Now if in fact he was going to sit and stew and wait for somebody to come knocking with 7/$21 in hand then the Sox would not have been able to sign him early anyway. But if they could have made a reasonable offer and if he would have accepted it, he would be a worthwhile member of the Sox for 2-3 years. I am sure we have all noticed that we are a little short of ML OF at the moment. I had thought that signing Ross early if he could have been had for reasonable money would have provided the Sox with a little protection in the OF at a reasonable cost. But, what the heck....Ben says its early...so why should I worry....... Ben says he has a plan. I just have this bad feeling that Ben's plan is Ells and two guys we never heard of for the Sox outfield....in fact, it may even be two guys Ben never heard of:D:D

15 sounds like the most somebody would have offered Kuroda even on a one year deal. I suspect that was the best he was offered and the Yanks matched it.

If I had to guess, I would guess that Ben's bosses would be happier to see Ben overpay a little bit for a value signing than overpay a lot for a glamour signing. They have the money to do that without getting hurt that much. I thought not trying to work something out with Cody Ross was an early indication that the Sox were not going to play it that way. I may be entirely off base but they sure have not done much as yet and hearing Ben talk about how early it is suggests to me that he had done next to nothing to this point. Again I could be all wet....who knows.