Muggah

Not a great idea, IMO. But I could see the Sox having interest in Lannan.

They really do have an interesting rotation.

Amen to that! You'd be hard pressed to find anyone (coherent) unhappy that Blunder's finally gone. He's arguably the worst GM operating in the game today--always has been. Poor Cubbies--they'll sure be sorry. My problem all along from a Sox pov is that they look incompetent in the way they've handled it. The day Blunder's exit was official they should have simply issued a press release, nicely worded, but saying in essence, "You can have him He's ruined our franchise. Good riddance."--and be done with it. That would have been the ultimate last shot for Larry---here, take him, you can have him for nothing. They missed that opportunity, and now they look bitter, stubborn and foolish.

Shoppach needs to watch his back. He's really all that stands in the way of a Putritek return. There's dozens of cases in which people have been taken out over a million dollar payday--that's essentially what this would be.

Nope, sorry, other way around.

Quite a bit of this is spot on, IMO. Good job.

Not to mention he's had, historically, bad second halves even when he was healthy. Your 120 games may even be a bit high.

Pick fights? No, not at all. I was just curious as to why you posted that disclaimer along with your prediction. No biggie.

Can't you really just say that about any idiotic prediction? "We will see." I can say the world is going to blow up in the next 20 minutes, and then just say "We will see," to anyone who questions me. Yes, theoretically it's correct, but I still sound like a babbling lunatic, don't I?

I suppose. But like Pumpsie says, let him do it somewhere else. We've seen enough of this jerkoff and his side-show antics.

Old habits die hard. It took eight years of Francona's coddling for the thing to implode. To think Valentine can un-do it in one is absurd. This season is a wash. BVs job this year is to introduce change, weed out the bad apples, salvage the salvageable, and get the team set up so hopefully with the money they've got coming off the books they can do the right things to make a run at catching lightening in a bottle next year. That's the way I see it. It's unrealistic to think this thing can do a 180 over the winter. There's just too much wrong here for that to happen.

Wakefield apologist?

Maybe because you suck and people know you're only doing it for the money and personal reasons?

It's gettin' about that time when the pollyannas and the tub thumpers go straight off the deep end again, Fred--and start making predictions crazy enough that if they talked that way at their jobs they'd be forced to sit down with the company shrink for a mental evaluation. It's like clockwork with these people, it happens every year.

This is shaping up to be like 2006 again, Fred---when they paraded the likes of Jason Johnson, Kyle Snyder, Lenny DiNardo, and a host of other losers to the mound each night in the second half and called it a 'rotation.' Look, people can dream all they like--but the cold hard truth is the odds are stacked heavily against this team being anything more than 3rd place team in the AL East. And IMHO, they'll probably have to fight TOR tooth and nail to finish 3rd. And another cold hard truth is that people are just assuming Clay's back is going to hold up, and that Bard steps in an becomes a legitimate 4th SP, and that Beckett not only bucks his past history of tanking horribly after a good year like he had last year, but comes to camp in shape and ready to completely change his attitude---which I think is crazy. I think it's far more in line with Josh's personality that he comes to camp telling anyone looking to question him about anything to go f*** themselves. With Bard, Clay, and Josh all big question marks, IMO, i think it's very possible that we could be looking at a rotation that includes Padilla, Cook and whoever else by mid-June or so. This isn't a good year for those who like to wear the rose colored glasses--not even the 'half-full' people. LOL

Plus, don't forget too, Elk, that we've been down this road before with Ben. Whether people like it or not there's a history here dating back to Oct. of 05 when Ben and Hoyer were dubbed 'Co- GMs' by Larry after Blunder took a powder. And in that case, both Ben and Hoyer were by definition 'two monkeys' working for Larry the Organ-grinder. They were props, nothing more. People need to remember this before they go anointing him 'his own man,' as it were.