RedSoxFan84

This is the guy that built that boat and had all the animals come onboard in pairs right? Oh wait... that was Noah.

Well, I'm sure that my ex (huge Tigers fan) will be more than happy about this, and will miss no opportunity to rub it in my face. I guess I'll just have to remind her that Detroit leads the league in fatties who can't run fast, if at all.

I've said previously that I support the idea of moving Bard into the rotation. I mean what other choices do we have? Even if we sign an established starter (Oswalt, Jackson, Floyd, etc), we still need Bard as our 5th starter. If we DON'T sign anyone else, then what the hell do we do if we leave Bard in the pen? We'd have the Big Three and then an assortment of minor-league quality scrubs filling TWO starter spots. I'm hoping that we bring in an experienced guy as the 4th starter and use Bard as the 5th. He has the skills to do it, especially as he gets more experience in the role. It also means that Alfredo Aceves stays in the pen, along with Melancon, Bailey, and a handful of other guys, which makes for a decent pen in my opinion. If we want to add more depth to the pen though, why not look at signing Sam Malone? He's older than he was last time he played baseball, but he seems to have got his drinking problem under control. On top of that, I once heard the late Ernie "Coach" Pantusso refer to Sam as "the best relief pitcher ever". It can't hurt to at least bring him in and take a look at him.

Ok, then that's great news. I feel a lot better about a Ross/Ellsbury/Sweeney OF to start the season with than what we would have otherwise had. I also like the idea of having Crawford/Ellsbury/combo of Sweeney and Ross later in the year, with whichever of Sweeney or Ross doesn't get the start and Kalish providing depth. Now if Youkilis can stay healthy or Middlebrooks is capable of taking over when needed, then all we really need to do is add another starting pitcher and deal with the SS spot (I still hope that Iglesias gets the job and is allowed time to work on his offensive game).

I'm no expert on Dice-K, but I honestly just don't like the guy. He seems kind of stuck-up and thinks that he's above everyone else or something. Am I wrong there? I hate his contract and I don't see him doing much in 2012, regardless of when he comes back. In all honesty, I'd be over the moon if we could trade this guy for spare parts or he goes back to Japan.

It looks that way to me as well. Middlebrooks seems like he is just about ready to be a full-time 3rd, so by 2013 he should be even more ready. Also, assuming that Ortiz is gone, Youkilis will get the opportunity to play as the full-time DH. That should mean that he can rest enough to stay healthy all season. Regarding Ross, I don't really know how to take it at the moment. What I mean by that is that while I like the signing, I don't even know if it has actually happened yet. There is a video on the Sox website that says that we have signed him, but there is also a headline that says we are only CLOSE to signing him. He also isn't listed on the teams roster or depth chart. I also just checked out another site that I look at from time to time for player profiles, and they don't have him listed on the Boston depth chart either, although they do mention in a report regarding our chase for pitching depth that we have already signed Ross. Can someone tell me what the actual official situation is at the moment? Have we signed him and it just hasn't been announced/approved yet? Or are we still in negotiations with him?

I'll probably keep a bit of an eye on the tennis for the rest of the tournament, but it is always a little less interesting when all of the Aussies are out. Hewitt is well and truly on the downside of his career, but I think Tomic and that other young Aussie, Duck-something, both have a lot of potential. Stosur (if that is how you spell it) should be good for a while yet, and one of the top women with a weird last name (Ivanovic or something I think?) is dating an Aussie, so hopefully they'll get married and we can claim her as an Aussie!

You bring up an interesting point there. There has long been debates on other forums about Rondo. Some feel that he is a really good player who would be even better if he had a bigger role on the team and wasn't the 4th wheel, whereas others argue the opposite point, that the only reason he looks as good as he does is BECAUSE he's the 4th wheel and gets overlooked by other teams due to his more heralded teammates. Personally, I'm not really sure which way to go. I think, in all honesty, that both arguments are probably true in their own ways. Playing as the 4th banana behind three potential future Hall of Famers must certainly give Rondo some more freedom. However, when you consider how good he is now in the 4th player role, it really does beg the question of how much better could he be given a bigger role? As was just said, the Big Three probably wont be around next season (at least not all three of them), so we will get a chance to see then just how good Rondo can be when he gets pushed into a bigger role on this team. Like I said in my earlier post, he's not on the same level as Derrick Rose in that he would be a superstar even with no decent teammates, but outside of Rose, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and maybe Westbrook, I really can't think of any other PG's off the top of my head who I would rather have running my team.

Yeah, if only we could land a guy like Kershaw for Scutaro. If the Dodgers agreed to that deal, I honestly would consider throwing in an arm or leg just to sweeten the deal for them. I too am hoping for a "Red Sox sign Oswalt" headline too. I signed up as a Sox fan at the BleacherReport website and I get an update on my phone whenever there is a new Red Sox-related headline. It's 2:08am here at the moment and I'm about to go to sleep, but I would be more than happy to be woken up in the middle of the night by a beeping phone with news of an Oswalt signing.

Damnit... the Sox front-office really needs to focus and pay more attention when reading emails. I told them which pitcher they should get if they insist on trading Scutaro. They got the first name right at least, but they need to read the whole email. I said "KERSHAW" for crying out loud!

Really? Even if you don't agree that Rose was the best player in the NBA last season, the fact is that he was still the MOST VALUABLE to his team of any player, and afterall, that is what the award is given for.

That sucks. So are there any Aussies, male or female, left in the tournament?

Thanks for posting the rankings for Lavarnway and Tejeda. I just read them myself and I'm pretty happy to see both of those guys make their respective Top 10 lists. There really is a lot of nice young talent coming up for the Sox.

When is that game?

I said all along that I wasn't talking s*** about anyone, or taking a slap at anyone. I just found his comments to be funny. That was all. Anyway, I don't like being accused of things that I haven't done; in this case, trolling/trying to start s***. I had a chat to User Name? and he filled me in on the back-story and let me know that there was some history between the two posters who were originally arguing, which I was not aware of. I really don't want to keep arguing about this, as you clearly have mis-read what I was saying. I'm going to chalk this one up to mis-communication and move on.

Crap. I'm not much of a tennis fan, but it would have been nice to see an Aussie advance to the next round.

Who won? Was it a close game?

So has Tomic played Federer yet?

I'm done wasting time with this thread. I'll PM you though.

I'm a Bulls fan and also a Garnett fan, and I would love to have him on my team, although it would have been nicer to have him 10 years ago. However, I just don't see him coming to Chicago. He and Joakim Noah don't get along at all, and the Celtics would have to take back Carlos Boozer as you said, which I don't think they would want to do. Regarding the idea of splitting up the Big Three though, I think it would hurt Celtics fans at the time, but it would be better for the team long-term. Rebuild the team around a guy like Rondo, like the Bulls have done with Rose. Now obviously Rondo isn't on the same level as Rose, but he's still a very nice piece to have to build a team around.

You may want to research the actual meaning of the term "trolling", and then re-read what I posted. Lets review what we have here though: A Chargers fan comes onto the board of a foreign team, in this case the Bears, and starts talking s*** about the team and its players (which is the very definition of "trolling") and that's fine. I, as a Bears fan, comment that I found his comments funny, say "Go Bears" and specifically state that I don't want to start any bickering, arguing or fighting about this topic, because I honestly don't care enough about the NFL to get into a fight over it, and somehow I'M the one trolling? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Congratulations to you though, you've managed to make this thread annoying enough to not want to post here anymore. Add that to the fact that trying to talk to either of you two is like banging ones head repeatedly against a brick wall, and I really don't have the patience to keep this up, so I'll post anything I want to ask/talk about regarding the Bears on the NFL thread. Lets just hope that the next time a Yankees fan starts talking s*** about the Red Sox on the TalkSox boards that other Sox fans are allowed to make a comment about it without being accused of trolling... on their own board no less.