Bellhorn04

He's as gone as a player still under contract can be. I just hope it motivates him to have a big season.

Yes, Youkilis is the one guy I agree on. But that was back in 2005.

The guys you mentioned are all pretty low-tier. I thought we were talking about bigger prospects than that. Wilson's WHIP at Pawtucket last year was 1.50. Not exactly lights-out.

TwitterPete Abraham @PeteAbe If there is a baseball god, Jose Iglesias will hit. He's putting on a show in the infield this morning.

Encouraging results for Napoli February, 16, 2013 10:05 AM ET By Joe McDonald | ESPNBoston.com FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Boston Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli got positive results from Thursday’s hip MRI and now he’s able to slowly begin baseball activities. Prior to the Red Sox officially signing Napoli during the offseason, it was discovered during a physical that he had avascular necrosis, which is a serious hip condition. He arrived at camp earlier this week and had another MRI taken on Thursday to make sure his hip did not get worse. “Nothing got worse, it stayed the same. It’s what we wanted,” Napoli said Saturday morning. Before this condition was discovered, Napoli was originally slated to sign with the Red Sox for three years and $39 million. He ultimately settled for an incentive-laden, one-year deal worth $5 million. On Saturday, he said he’s not nervous about his situation. “Not really,” he said. “The doctor showed me that this medicine is going to work and I felt good about it and it did everything we thought it would.” Even though he’s been cleared to play, he’s not going to rush back. “I’m not gonna just get out there and have a full go,” he explained. “I’ll progress into things. I’ll increase my treadmill work, start taking ground balls and go from there.” Napoli added he’s relieved the condition did not worsen and he’s looking forward to playing with the Red Sox. “It’s exciting,” he said. “I want to get out there and do what everyone else is doing out there. I still have a long way to go. I’m going to take my time and get ready.”

Likewise.

Give me an example of a prospect who kicked ass in Pawtucket and got stuck there.

Lavarnway's offensive numbers in minor league ball are the reason.

I think Dice K's arm got blown out in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He was decent in 2007 and 2008 and after that 2009 WBC, which he was MVP in, he was injured or garbage for 4 years. We got double-screwed by Japanese baseball on that one.

If a prospect kicks ass at Pawtucket he's going to get the call up. But there really haven't been too many legit prospects kicking ass at Pawtucket in recent years. And Lavarnway and Iglesias just didn't show enough when they got their opportunities last year.

The discussion on Papelbon is actually pretty interesting. It suggests that he might be worth that kind of money if his value was maximized by his manager.

Possibly...but this is not a team that even likes to hint that it's throwing in the towel on the year...they wouldn't even do it last year till they were stone cold dead in August.

I'm not getting the feeling that the Sox are committed to Iggy being the future shortstop at all. We heard rumors that he was involved in the trade talks with the Pirates.

Heh...there isn't much actual baseball news these days but people can still find things to argue about and get pissed about.

Maybe, maybe not. He hasn't started a game since June 21, 2011.

Somebody has to get worse though, right? I think you could make a case that the Yankees and Rays got worse, and that the Orioles did nothing so their record should be worse this year, considering all the one-run wins last year.

Seems like a fair assessment at this point. Though I actually think it might be an interesting team in some respects. Even if not, the discussions here will always be interesting.

Ace is always a matter of semantics, that's why arguments about who is an ace always go off the rails. I find that a lot of people are only comfortable using the term ace to describe someone like Pedro, Verlander or Sabathia who are probable Hall of Famers. So let's throw out the term ace and just talk about Hall of Famers. Anyway, I'm in 100% agreement with your points about Lester.

But this all started with jung's contention that Lester has NEVER been a #1.

Early words on Ortiz are encouraging. He arrived in camp today and says he feels 90%. Peter Abraham says Ortiz seems to be moving around well.

Some of Lester's other comments from that interview with Rob Bradford are more encouraging with regard to his attitude. "It took me a couple of weeks to filter through everything. I think you could really throw any and every one of those words into my offseason and into spring training and into my season. I've never been on this side. I've never had to prove myself. I'm using that as motivation and go out and prove to myself I am who I am. I think you could really honestly put any one of those words: driven, motivated, pissed off, ready to go, whatever you want -- in front of my name and that will describe how I'm feeling. I'm ready to get the season going and go back out there and prove those first four or five years of my career weren't flukes."

I'd say that for the years 2008-2011 Lester was a 'near-ace' though I would agree he was never a true 'ace' as people seem to define that term. For an AL East pitcher to put up 4 consecutive seasons of around 200 innings a year and to never have an ERA above 3.47 is outstanding. Very few teams in baseball had a '#2 starter' over that period who was better than Lester. As for the shut up and pitch part, yes I agree.

Maybe because it's sexy. :dunno:

Pollyanna response: 'Well, at least it wasn't aimed at his head, and I'm sure he learned a darn good lesson.'

Yes, and Tek's handling of the pitching appears to have been more of a plus than any physical defensive problems were a minus. I can only assume that the Sox think that Salty has improved enough as a handler of pitchers to give him the starting job again this year. Hopefully Ross will catch 40% of the games or so. That will give us lots of data to compare the two and see if Salty is in fact getting better.