jung

Thank you User I actually needed some comic relief at this point.

Loyalty had nothing to do with the Ortiz arbitration offer although I think JH did. JH wanted a major figure from the glory years around for the 100th year anniversary team. While Ortiz carries that sort of weight, neither Wake nor Veritek does. I think there is a wayyyyy outside chance we might see Wake because the pitching thing is so unsettled but I mean way outside. There is no earthly reason to insert Veritek into that same sort of situation.

Boy I am not sure that the teams are strong enough as marketeers to actually do a better job individually than the league does as a whole. By and large the teams are not great marketeers. Actually it is something of a mute point. As currently configured the teams really do not have a dog in that fight. They would be marketing against the league's efforts which would seem counterproductive. If MLB stepped out of the picture then the teams would be marketing against each other in those markets as well as against other sports enterprises and I think that would be a tremendous expenditure of team resources with little benefit accruing back to the team. I actually think it is better left like it is. It is not really an issue of MLB teams competing with each other so much as it is MLB competing against English League Football in those international markets for example or even the NFL for that matter.

Ya' I think you are right Spud. The "plan" I think is still so far for both Aceves and Bard to come to ST and prepare to be starters and if nobody else beats either out then they are the 4 and the 5 in no particular order as yet. One of the flies in that ointment is that you would expect short innings out of your 5 but would want to see something north of 190 out of your 4. If they do come north with both of them in the rotation, it could be tough to get more than 150 out of either of them. Then again maybe that is one of the places where the depth pitchers are supposed to come in.

I don't know anything about Pedroia and his brother but the Crawford piece says that all three went into this business together, the two Crawford brothers and the "friend" which is why all three are apparently on their way to court or on their way to an out of court settlement. It is fairly easy to find out who's name is identified in the ownership of a business so I suspect that is why Carl is involved. Again I am not at all commenting on the ethics or criminality of what is being alleged. Simply commenting that the whole thing sounds stupid to begin with and something Carl should have steered as far away from as he could. If I were him I would not have engaged in the first discussion of such a business venture let alone end up with my name associated with the business. As a baseball player Carl is a $21M per year enterprise. He needs this guy's $123,000.00 like he needs a hole in the head and if the whole thing was really some concoction devised so that his dad got a house and his brother got a business opportunity with the friend, I still would have steered as far away from it as possible. If he wants his dad to have a house just hire a prime contractor and build him his house. Starting a new business for that purpose if that was the purpose is just an unnecessary complication of dubious value. A $21M per year baseball enterprise that just gagged up a miserable performance should have better things to do I would think.

Padilla might roll it to first ON THE END OF HIS NOSE! Sorry could not resist. I think they might actually be walking a real tightrope here but I believe they might really be thinking dice coming back is a probability. I think dice coming back and pitching effectively in time to help is more a possibility and I would treat it as such if I were them. However seeing the way BC and V talked about it the other night I think they are in the "probability" camp. So if that is really the case, then you could extend their thinking to the guys that they are bringing in thinking one of them or two of them have to get the Sox to July or something like that. But everybody else has to stay healthy for that plan to work. Kind of an odd mix of philosophical approaches to building a team. Very solid on the front end while trying to sort of patch this backend together but I guess it is a consequence of the money they have poured into the team and maybe even what ownership sees as a team that just folded its tent last year. I think this lack of interest in spending to patch together this back end might be as much about wanting this team to overachieve as individual players to be successful as opposed to ending up with a roster that seems so strong on paper that it allows guys to look across the room and say "Well he can do it. I am going to take a bit of rest here for now. Anybody see where my beer went?"

I am not judging the criminality or even the ethics of it one way or the other. However two brothers (carl and his brother in this case) starting a small business with a third party "friend" where the friend does not provide himself with adequate protections from the two brothers is a recipe for disaster. Apparently the party suing claims the loss of the $123,000.00 that he invested which is likely chicken feed to Carl but sounds like a good deal of money to the friend. The whole thing just sounds petty and stupid and something Carl should have just steered clear of. This is supposedly a small construction company with one current active project....building a home for Carl's father????? Like I said the whole thing just sounds stupid but I am not judging the criminality or the ethics at all. Carl doesn't have better things to do?

I just read the story about Carl Crawford, his brother and the alleged swindle. While it will likely take a court case to settle this the circumstances sure sound ugly and the kind of thing you would not want to see a "smart" ballplayer involved in whether he is actually culpable or not. The whole thing sounds stupid regardless of whether or not it is criminal.

I think JH did have something to do with Arbitration for Ortiz but the "loyalty" angle is a smokescreen. JH wants some attachment to the championship years on this year's team given the Fenway 100th year anniversary.

All three....190+: No At least career average numbers: Yes with the exception of innings at least one case Bard and Aceves the answer: Maybe

Good for Oswalt...let him stay close to his home. The last thing we need is another brooding loner glaring out from his locker. Oswalt would have done himself a world of good if teams thought one of the intangibles he carried in his bag of tricks was an ability to mentor or at least provide example to young pitchers....but not this guy. If he wanted to pitch in the AL East I might be more optimistic and less critical but he will end up pitching somewhere in the NL and probably for more than the Sox appear willing to offer.

I actually think the Sox are holding onto what we would think is a pretty slim hope. I think they believe dice will be back in time to contribute in 2012. I really have a hard time with that one. OK so based on timing of events you would say that he should actually be throwing some time this year. However coming back off of TJ, pitchers really don't know what they have. Surgery has given them an arm that they have never thrown with before as professionals. They often have more stuff than they may have ever had as professionals.They have to find their control again. They have to rediscover how to control their velocity and their location. So dice will likely be throwing this year but I still question whether he can provide the Sox any meaningful contributions. He could, don't get me wrong. But I would put it at no more than a possibility. I would not put it at a probability and I would not expect that we know anything about that until July or August. Seems to me that they way BC and V talk about it they are considering it more of a probability.

Not to say that I think this is the best solution but based on what Sox have for stated intentions, does it not appear that they think both Bard and Aceves will compete for and win the 4 and 5 spots? For obvious reasons I really hope one of the "gang of 12" or however many of these guys we now have beats out either Bard or Aceves for one of the spots so that one of them can go back to the pen but it does sound like Bard and Aceves will be allowed to compete for both spots and if they win them, the Sox seem prepared to start the season that way.

Oswalt does not seem to be making teams offering him $5M priorities either. I just don't think the Sox are actually vying for his services and at the end of the day I think that is what it will take.

Nick Cafardo just interviewed said that some number of insiders have told him that Ortiz would likely win his arbitration at $16.5M. If that is true it speaks volumes to what is wrong with the arbitration process. Cafardo went on to say that it was his expectation the Sox would not make additional major changes going into ST but would "tweak" the team and get more pitching before or at the trade deadline if they thought it the right move to make.

The Sox and Cards will not in my estimation end up being the only teams vying for Oswalt's services assuming either team is still vying at all.

The only thing I can take from the Jackson signing is still only a matter of conjecture at this point as we will never know for sure what the Sox offered unsuccessfully and don't know as yet the particulars of the Nationals offer. But if the Nationals did offer between $8M and $12M and the Sox did offer $5M without a willingness to increase beyond that then I think it says something about how important the number is to the Sox relative to the importance of that player. I think an offer of about $5M without an effort or willingness to "compete" for the player from there suggests that the number for the Sox was more important than the particular player was. I am not commenting at all about whether that is right or wrong. It is what it is. I have thought that the Sox were looking for players of Jackson's calibre to fall to something like $5M and while that might seem unrealistic, neither right nor wrong but unrealistic if in fact the reported numbers are accurate then I think that is pretty close to correct. I have often thought that the numbers that get reported early on are likely accurate reflections of what is being offered but that offers begin to percolate once teams begin to feel like a player that is attractive begins to get close to actually signing somewhere. So it looks in this case like $5M set something of a floor and once Jackson's agent began to make the rounds a team or teams got the impression that he was close to signing and upped the anti to the point where the player finally did sign. I never got the impression that the Sox went after Jackson hard and I don't get the impression that they are after Oswalt hard and don't think they are likely to go after Floyd hard either.

I suppose wining rather than losing arb with Ortiz would be worth some money against the cap limit for the Sox.

Especially frustrating when they are dancing around right at the limit. If they were clearly over (like the yanks often are) you could just resign yourself to that and be done with it. From where they are today, there is no telling what a few trades one way or the other might do. I guess we will just have to wait longer but I agree....its frustrating as hell.

The Sox may not wait till mid-season. If they do get to opening day without having made a move though I think they will wait and try to understand what chances they really have to seal the deal and make the post season this year. I don't think they want to trade away pieces that could be valuable to them unless they have a real shot at the post season this year. If the "team" is not showing signs that they are playing hard and playing responsibly (two things that were really lacking last year) and winning then I don't think you will see them make a move. We often look at the September crash and want to put that in a box and isolate it from the rest of the season. However the 2011 Sox did not come back from being behind in any case where they were trailing in the seventh inning save 2 out of 63 games through the course of the year. The fact that they were such front runners should have been a real warning sign regarding the 2011 team. Not much heart or competitiveness on display when you can only muster a comeback in 2 out of 63 chances. It appears that the SP not starting that day were not the only team members that had checked out by the 7th inning. It is just that sort of thing that the Sox will likely look for this year along with the actual record in an effort to determine if trading away pieces that can help them later for a piece that can help them now makes any sense. I think they are going to be "from Missouri" in that regard this year. "Show me you are not going to embarrass the living hell out of me again" I think will be one thing JH would like to accomplish before spending big money again.

Honestly depending on what the Cards have actually said to Oswalt (likely compete for the 5 hole but could end up in the pen as the first option to the rotation based on injury to somebody or other extenuating circumstance) I still think it more likely that he ends up there than here. Boston or anywhere else in the AL East just does not fit Oswalt's apparent plan to use a 1 year deal somewhere to work his way to a multiyear deal next year. I don't think he would have much of a chance to pull off those kinds of numbers in the AL East. So there just is not enough benefit to him even as it gets close to the end of the line this year. Heck he would go to Detroit first or the Rangers first or the Cards first depending on what the Cards have actually said to him. There are likely even other NL teams that have not been in the running as yet that would offer him something like $5M if he is hanging around out there as the season approaches. With the Sox offering something like $5M Oswalt would probably under pressure of time take even less than that from some NL team. Now that Jackson is officially off the board Oswalt likely feels even more determined to wait for something closer to what he wants than coming over to face AL East teams. The Sox or any AL East team would likely have to sweeten the deal much more than has been reported to date to lure him over.

Do you think they will actually off Lannon or move him to the pen??

I do think it is interesting that the Nationals signed Jackson right on top of winning the arb case with Lannan. Almost like they took the money they won in that arb, put it with some more money and used it to get Jackson.

I think Jackson was just not somebody the Sox were going to throw $8M+ at. Don't they will with Oswalt either.

A left handed junk baller in Fenway that is kinda' mediocre....Yikes! Ball slowly makes its way to home plate....quickly makes it way to the Mass Pike. Even though you have to accept some compromises for the kind of money we are talking about Lannan making, that does seem like it would be a tough fit for the Sox.