Bellhorn04

Also, too bad about the demise of Shaun Marcum. SoxSport, not so much.

The 2012 starters had the worst ERA in franchise history, at 5.19.

Carpenter was Red Sox property for about a month. We got him in the trade with the Jays for Farrell, then waived him.

Lee's contract is $25 million for 2015 but there is a $12.5 million buyout for the 2016 option. So if he bombs in 2015 he could cost you $37.5 million for one year.

A-Rod and Jeter didn't get better defensively as they aged, but A-Rod didn't get worse and Jeter didn't really start to deteriorate until he'd been playing for a while.

Yes, it would be very enjoyable, I have to admit. I'm tired of Boras and I'm tired of hearing about how he's the best at what he does blah blah blah.

The really sad thing about 2003 was that Timlin and Embree were both outstanding that postseason. I didn't even realize how good they had been until I looked at the numbers afterward. Grady obviously should have had those numbers right in front of him.

Wow - crafty little f***ers, aren't they? The Sox beancounters are obviously convinced that The Rivalry is alive and well even when the two teams miss the playoffs.

Shifts will be around until we see some upswing in offensive numbers again.

FWIW here are their career ERA+ and 2014 ERA+: Kelly 111 91 Buchholz 109 72 Miley 103 86 Porcello 98 116 Masterson 94 63 A #3 should have an ERA+ of around 100, all else being equal, which it isn't of course. Based on the above numbers it's a motley crew indeed, especially considering how wildly erratic Buch and Masterson have been.

LOL you really are too much Fred.

I think the future approach will depend a lot on ongoing results.

Getting shuffled around in limbo like that must be a weird feeling.

Vazquez hit .275 in AAA ball and .240 in his MLB stint. I think he can muster a .235-.240 average.

Hanigan is signed through 2016.

But again, you have to look at his age and how young he was when he started. He's only around the same age as guys like Webster and Rubby.

It's just that there's no logical reason to predict that a guy who had a 3.43 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP last year is going to suck this year.

Those numbers are reversed. If you're going to use advanced metrics, Porcello's WAR last year was 3.1 (FG) or 4.0 (B-R). Capuano's was 1.0 (FG) or 0.0 (B-R).

The Rays, who aren't known for throwing money around, signed him to a 3-year contract for $10.75 million after 2013, so they must have seen things differently.

As Jacko already said himself, it would have made a lot more sense for the Yankees to go in on Lester.

Shields would make more sense. But of course we have no idea what the plan is.

It's interesting that there hasn't been any buzz at all yet about offers to Scherzer or Shields.

I thought Detroit would be in big on Scherzer but who knows?

Well, there's overpaying and there's overpaying. It's not going to kill most teams to overpay their productive players by 10% or 20% or whatever. But some contracts are so disastrous that they handicap even the wealthiest teams (A-Rod, Crawford).

Here is the current 2015 projected payroll for luxury tax purposes. Some of the salary figures are different from what you find on B-R or Cot's, because these are the AAV-Average Annual Values. Also note the extra costs added on at the end. $22M H. Ramirez $19M Sandoval $16M Napoli $16M Ortiz $13.75M Pedroia $13M Victorino $10.25M Castillo $9.5M Masterson $9M Uehara $7.5M Buchholz $6.2M Craig $4.75M Mujica The 12 total: ~$148M 4 Arbs with MLBTR projected 2015 salary: $12.2M Rick Porcello $4.3 Wade Miley $2.0M Tazawa $1.9M Nava I'll assume about $20M combined. Total: ~$168M for these 16 players, not counting pre-arb players. The 24 Non Arb Players Currently on the 40 Man Roster: Bogaerts, Kelly, Betts, Holt, Vazquez, Bradley, Workman, Ranaudo, Barnes, Cecchini, Escobar, Wright, Hembree, Middlebrooks Brentz, Britton, Butler, Coyle, Swihart, E Rodriguez, Layne, T Shaw, Weeks, Gustave If we do not sign any more free agents, these 24 players should cost about $15M. Total in salaries: ~$183M Add: $10.1M for Player Benefits & $3.9M Dodger payment. TOTAL: ~$197M