ForeverYoung

I guess if I have to explain my joke it wasn't that good....It was a fat joke.

And that is different from every off-season how? I personally think "Cool Hand" Ben's slow playing of this off-season is going to work for us. Not only do we keep our top talent that played amazing for every month that was not named September, but we also add through trades enough players to make our BP pretty good. Papelbon was a great showman and was consistent, but Bard/Bailey/Melancon is better than just about anyone's 7,8,9 men. Not to mention when Josh Hamilton and/or Matt Cain are wearing Red Sox Jerseys next year I will have to put "I told you so" 500 times in my signature.

You are correct....just trying to make a correlation. Lackey went 12-12 last year with a 6+ ERA, Wandy doing 4-5 is above .500 winning Pct. Which is what you look for out of a #4, although Wandy is not filling the role of #4 on Astros (Or whatever the hell the new owners decides to name them). If the Astros eat enough of his contract in order to get a prospect than I don't see why we don't grab him.

Can't fix ARP Cache.

It means that when you look at the depth chart as it stands, that is what we march into Spring Training with.

We will probably be picking up Youk's club option at the end of the year, if not he will be a free agent at the end of the year. We may just pick up his option in order to trade him away to the Reds, since that is his preferred team. Jacoby Ellsbury is arbitration eligible for 2013, so if he performs like he did last year we will probably let him accept arbitration in 2013 and make a long-term deal during the season to avoid luxury taxes. Hopefully, he will accept the arbitration for 2013 to help the team, instead of making us go after him AND Ethier or Hamilton. Similar to what Gonzo and Beckett did in order for us to sign free agents. Although, it is worth noting that he is a Scott Boras client which means that he will probably not be accepting arbitration next year if he has another 30/30 or even a 20/20 year. Scutaro will be a free-agent, so dependent entirely on Iglesias' improvement this year, and whether we can field him at that position in the Majors, we may have to go out and re-sign Scutaro, trade, or bring in another FA. Big Papi will be a free agent after this, but Lavarnway will be filling that role. So this should be the last year that Papi wears the Sox uniform, unless we extend the 'Tek style minor league contract. Dice-K will also be a free agent, but I don't see the Sox signing him unless it is to a MUCH smaller contract. Lester will have the potential to void his 2014 club option if he finishes first or second in the Cy Young voting, but that is only if we decide to trade him 2014. Jenks, Miller, Padilla, Silva, Cook, etc. of reclamation projects are free agents at the end of the year but I doubt any of those will matter. With Ethier accepting a one year contract to avoid arbitration it still does not change anything, since the new contract is for 2012 and has no club options. The Red Sox front office will be watching the new Dodger's management to see if they will work out an extension or new deal with Ethier. If they do, than they will have to pursue and pay Hamilton a great deal more money. I personally would prefer Ethier over Hamilton since he is fast, hits for average and has a great opposite field swing that would allow him to smack quite a few into the green monster. Matt Cain will be our primary target in 2013, period. We will sign him if the Giants are not willing to pony up the money, and even if they do we are going to overpay for a dedicated ace. If the Texas Rangers do not sign Darvish than they will be our primary contenders for Cain, with the Yankees basically taking themselves out of contention by signing Kuroda and breaking their tax bubble. Although, the Yankees will play the Crawford game and try and drive the price up by bringing Cain in to talk.

Morales started when he was in Colorado's system, I would feel better putting Morales in to suck up innings than a proven BP arm like Bard in the rotation. Granted, Morales has never pitched more than 46 innings in a season, but I would rather burn him out than Bard honestly. Bard is an investment, a strong setup/closer that has never started, and Morales is a career middle reliever with the potential to start in spots. I could see Padilla, its a descent patchwork signing to eat innings. Lester is not a proven Ace, Beckett is at the end of his usability, Buchy as good as he is doesn't have the reliability and durability to be our future. Pure and simple we need to go out and get a distinctive arm, and that is not going to be this year.

I might be unrealistic on Dice-K's recovery, I will give you that. I have my Starting Rotation looking like this: 1. Lester 2. Beckett 3. Buchohlz 4. Aceves 5. Silva Cook will be in AAA and will be the spot/ injury pitcher, and Morales, Dubrount will earn some starts during the season. Like I have said before, I think this is a band-aid year. We patch things up and try and hope our offense carries us into the post-season, than we get real serious next Free Agent class.