Bellhorn04

Never underestimate the irrational optimism of major league baseball executives. Within the last year we saw 32-year old Pujols signed for 10 years at 24 million per. We saw the Dodgers take on the AGon and Crawford contracts. 25 million is not that much money to the Rangers, especially when their big left-handed bat seems headed elsewhere.

Heh heh...yep, that seems to be the way human nature works.

Probably all that's going on is that David wants at least $25 million and the Red Sox don't want to move off $20 million.

Huh? Youk was a good value at 41 million/10.25 million per year for the years 2009-2012. 13 million for 2013 is a whole other story.

No idea. The last rule change in 1969 lowered the mound 6 inches or something like that, and it made a big difference. The 'informal' way to do it, I guess, would be to pass the word to umps to tighten up their strike zones.

Different formulas have been successful. When the Red Sox won in 2004 and 2007 they had elite hitters and good to very good, but not great, starting pitching. Some teams have slugged their way to titles like the 2002 Angels. But in the postseason the balance usually tilts toward elite pitching, and this postseason we have really seen pitching dominate. Overall the balance in baseball has tilted toward pitching the last few years as runs scored have steadily declined. I wouldn't be surprised to see Selig make some sort of rules tweak to increase scoring, similar to what was done after 1968, because I think TV ratings this postseason have been hurt by the low scoring. We all like a good pitchers duel sometimes but a steady string of 2-1 and 2-0 games gets a little boring.

This World Series is reminiscent of the 1966 Series which saw Baltimore sweep the Dodgers by scores of 5-2, 6-0, 1-0 and 1-0.

jung, I wonder if this is one of those statements that we hear so often that we just start accepting it as fact without questioning it any more. I think maybe the whole notion of teams no longer being willing to pay big bucks to DH's came from the relatively small dough Vlad Guerrero got his last 2 seasons in the bigs. But consider these signings as well: Adam Dunn 4 years 56 million. We all know Dunn is a horrible fielder. About 2/3 of his starts for the White Sox have been at DH, the rest at 1B except for a handful in the OF. VMart 4 years 50 million. In his first season with the Tigers VMart had 112 starts at DH, and 32 at catcher or 1B. Yes, his ability to catch gives extra value, but he's not considered to be a good defensive catcher, and all this really does is eliminate the need for a BUC, which are cheap commodities anyway.

The farm is in better shape now. I just heard that we had 5 of the top 50 rated prospects in the latest ranking. Plus we have much higher draft picks than usual this year. I will readily admit that skepticism is warranted with regard to the ability of Lucchino and Cherington to rebuild our roster. They have to prove it.

Guillen and Valentine are both nutjobs. They should get a reality show together...'Ozzie and Bobby Go Job-Hunting'

I agree that it was epic and I understand the magnitude. But to me it's still just one season.

No, 2012 didn't happen in a vacuum. But the 2011 team won 90 games, and the fewest wins in the 11 year ownership, outside of 211, has been 86. What I meant was that I would give them a pass on 2012 *if* they do much better going forward.

You're splitting hairs, I think. Here's what Valentine said. “David Ortiz came back after spending about six weeks on the disabled list, and we thought it was only going to be a week. He got two hits the first two times up, drove in a couple runs. We were off to the races. Then he realized that this trade meant that we’re not going to run this race, and we’re not even going to finish the race properly, and he decided not to play anymore. I think at that time it was all downhill from there.” Valentine clearly proved he's a flat-out nutjob in the Costas interview. He told Costas that the Middlebrooks episode never occurred, somehow forgetting that he was the one who broke the Middlebrooks story in the first place. What a nutjob.

Personally I don't consider John Henry an idiot. And I will give him a pass on 2012 as long as he shows commitment and smarts going forward.

But if you use the Red Sox record over the term of Henry's ownership, he becomes the best in 85 years. Depends on which frame of reference you choose.

Re the Vizquel comments, FWIW: Farrell backed by Jays’ Bautista By Nick Cafardo Globe Staff / October 22, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO — Future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel claimed there was a lack of leadership, and accountability, in John Farrell’s clubhouse when he managed the Blue Jays this season. The team’s biggest star disagrees. On the eve of Farrell’s swearing in as Red Sox manager at a noon news conference at Fenway Park, slugger Jose Bautista, said he will miss Farrell and said the team’s poor record had nothing to do with Farrell’s managing. “He’s a good man and a good leader and he tried his best with all the injuries and roster we had,” Bautista said in a telephone interview. “He’s a class act. He treated me with respect and he was always stand-up with me. His door was always open.” About Vizquel’s charges that mistakes were never corrected and younger players didn’t get better, Bautista said, “I don’t know why Omar said that. And let me say this about Omar, he’s going to be a very good major league manager. He could be a manager right now, this year. But as far as what he said, I saw our coaching staff always working with players before the game trying to make them better. We have one of the hardest-working coaching staffs in baseball. We addressed those things. There’s nothing to complain about there.

I think he'll be signed, 50% for baseball reasons and 50% for box-office/good vibes reasons. As we've noted here, this foolish new wild card gives more teams a shot at the playoffs, and I'm sure no matter how good or bad our opening day roster is, we'll be selling 'shot at the playoffs'.

And you'd like Larry to invite him out for a little boat ride.

OK, so just credit/blame Henry and Lucchino for everything then. Including the ruination of Daniel Bard.

Paying a GM salary to someone to be an errand boy seems like a waste of money. Maybe Cherington is paid to be the public relations guy and a consultant on personnel matters-his opinion is sought out but not necessarily accepted. Henry and Lucchino have big egos and they have control.

What's sort of amusing is that David is talking like he'd already signed for next year, saying things like 'we'll be better next year', 'Farrell is going to be great for us' etc.

Jesus, another Carpenter.

It's interesting, the Jays are taking a lot of flak from their own fans over this Farrell thing...I think they had to get something back of apparent value. I've also heard we're getting a player from the Jays but the details aren't confirmed yet.

I'm just glad it was Aviles we gave up and not a pitching prospect.

According to Edes, Lind isn't part of the deal.