Bellhorn04

I thought they could do the permanent ban thing on this site.

Yeah, everyone here is stupid and you're a genius. That's why you keep coming here, insulting people and getting banned. Your intelligence is really on display.

Pretty hard to be less mature than a guy whose screen name is 'Cano in Dodger Blue'.

The durability factor is one reason Dempster may have been a better choice than guys like McCarthy and Marcum.

Seems reasonable to me.

Lester had ERA+ of 144 in 2008, 136 in 2009 and 134 in 2010. I think you'll have to admit that 144 is pretty close to 148.

Palodios, you'd be better off using the 2007 rotation as an example of mortals. Dice-K and Wake were our 2 and 3 starters in terms of innings, and they had ERA's of 4.40 and 4.76.

Personally I think the most impressive thing about those numbers for Lebron is that they're not that far out of the ordinary for him. Even without that game he's been on a batshit-crazy run for about a month now.

Yeah, gotta agree. Results are results and those are pretty good ones.

His first outing was very impressive. 2 perfect innings, and his fastest pitch was around 100 MPH.

No, he was the final by-product of the Youkilis trade. You mean De La Rosa?

On July 31/12 the Sox were 53-51, but only 3.5 games out of the last wild card. In fact they were only 4 games behind the Angels, who had the third best record in the league. I'm not disputing that they were a s***** team. But the current playoff structure allows a lot of s***** teams to give their fans hope deeper into the season. The Red Sox will not be deadline sellers when they're only 3-4 games out of the last spot. They can't operate that way.

Mazz's statement seems pretty pointless to me, not that it's anything new for him. In 2004 we had hardly anybody who was both young and talented.

Keep in mind though, that we weren't really out of it last year on July 31, even though we were floundering around the .500 mark. Not out of it enough to throw in the towel when you're the Red Sox. A lot of that was because of the extra wild card.

Are you saying that because you think we'll be 'out of it' in July?

I thought there was a pretty big waiting list for season tickets.

Not sure you can make a valid comparison between Orioles fans and Sox fans. I think 2013 Sox attendance will depend a lot on onfield results. For the first time in a long time, Sox fans are going into a season very unsure if they have a team that has a sniff of the playoffs.

You're right, none of the potential benefits of the trade have been realized yet. Nothing is proven until a lot of games have been played.

It's anybody's guess how Napoli and Victorino will do. But even if Napoli's contract was 3 for 39, that's 2 players making 7 million a year less, and signed for 3 years less and 2 years less than AGon and Crawford. Plus we got the pitching prospects.

There are signs that AGon's contract could end up as a bad one. 6 more years at 22 per. His home run power has mysteriously vanished and his walks took a big dip last year. Something is not right with him.

De La Rosa and Webster both hitting close to 100 MPH...I know it's too early to get excited about this stuff, but it seems like the Dodgers were incredibly generous to us.

Webster reportedly throwing very hard today. Fastballs between 94-97 MPH with one hitting 99. Seems like the Dodgers sent us a couple of guys with heat...

Minor league depth signings always go over well here.

Sounds like Rubby was pretty impressive today.

Pedro Martinez: Rubby De La Rosa has chance to be ‘someone special’ 02.23.13 at 7:47 am ET By Rob Bradford FORT MYERS, Fla. — Pedro Martinez has taken to Rubby De La Rosa, and not only because the pair just discovered they’re related (cousins on Pedro’s mother side). The new Red Sox special assistant and the 23-year-old pitching prospect have been inseparable throughout camp, with Martinez constantly at the ready whenever De La Rosa might need a round of advice. And, besides bloodlines, there’s a reason for the former ace’s interest — he sees a bit of himself in the youngster. “Anything you want to do in baseball, as far as pitching, that kid has a chance,” Martinez said. “He has an opportunity to be someone special. Not just a regular player, but special. When you see someone like De La Rosa you think someone special, like a [Roger] Clemens, a Juan Marichal. You think about elite players. That’s the type of stuff he has.” De La Rosa — one of the players who came to the Red Sox in the August trade with the Dodgers — has been the talk of Red Sox spring training. While he is being limited two two-inning outings throughout the Grapefruit League schedule while returning from Tommy John surgery, and will see his innings total hover just over 100 innings in the coming season (most likely for Triple-A Pawtucket), there is an excitement in the organization regarding the righty. “He’s been impressive, not just in terms of the sheer stuff, but his ability to manipulate the baseball,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said after his team’s workout Friday. “He’s got a good feel for his changeup. He can throw his breaking ball for strikes. But we’re dealing with a set of circumstances that are different than [John Lackey's], coming off Tommy John. We’ll be a little bit more slow-paced with Rubby, but he’s been impressive early on.” It isn’t the first time De La Rosa has impressed, as was evidenced by comments made by his former minor league pitching coach, Chuck Crim, to WEEI.com’s Alex Speier early in the offseason. (That was when Pedro’s name first came up.) “Very few guys have that arm speed that Rubby has and still are able to start, carry innings and have a tremendous out-pitch,” said Crim. “I would say a guy like maybe Pedro Martinez. The throw is different, but the stuff is there. You could probably compare his actual stuff but not his [throwing motion] to a guy like that. Granted, it’s going to take Rubby a few years to have all the experience and knowledge of major league pitching, but the stuff you could probably compare to Pedro. I consider the attitude the same — the mound presence is very confident that he can get anybody out. With that guy’s stuff, who wouldn’t be confident?” And while Martinez prefers to reference the likes of Clemens and Marichal, he isn’t averse to getting in line with Crim’s analysis. “What really impresses me is his progress,” Pedro said. “He’s a young kid. Very young. The way he changed physically, and the way he improved … His velocity went from day night and day. It’s unbelievable how he changed. Also, his will to work. You rarely see a young kid like that so willing to work, and so open to work to do things things nobody expects a young kid wanting to do.”