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Gomes and Victorino are liabiliities. Gomes is a defensive liability and should not be used except as DH. Victorino is an offensive liability and should not be used. Starting outfield should be Bradley, Ellsbury, Nava.

Watching the SF/Cin game and wondering about the availability of Dave (Spaghetti) Righett,i whom I loved as a pitcher even if he was for the Yankees, as a Pitching Coach. Understand he is pretty much unlikely to move from the Bay area. But this made me wonder about what the Red Sox are going to do about a pitching coach for next year. Based on the results this year where the Sox pitching staff was in the bottom four in the American League in nearly every area there have to be some changes. Some suggest that the next Manager should be allowed to select his own coaching staff. It seems to me that a really good Manager gets the best out of the staff he has whether they are coaches or players. Bum Phillips used to say about Don Shula something like: "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n." So who would you like to see as the Red Sox pitching coach for 2013? I think what Righetti has done with the SF pitching staff is pretty amazing. Sox should at least give him a call.

The Sox starting pitching next year will not be good enough no matter what they do to support having any sub .250 hitters in the starting lineup. Therefore Lavarnway, Iglesias, Valencia, Loney, Nava, Saltalamachia can not be starters. Maybe you can keep Salty if you can not find another catcher who can do better.

The Red Sox paid his previous Japanese team a substantial amount of money in order to negotiate with Matsuzaka. If they do not offer him a contract does any team that wants to negotiate with him have to pay the Red Sox to do so? How exactly did that work?

How about a poll on how many days after the last game BV is told he is done? I vote for two days. I have always felt that the sign of a good manager is his record in close games and extra innings. That is about the only time that a manager has to make real decisions. As such Showalter has got to be American League Manager of the Year. Can not think of any other manager who has done so much with so little. Interesting to think that Francona, even though he led the Red Sox to two World Series, was never Manager of the Year.

Pawtucket coaches need to stress fundamentals with their young players. They need to create more plate discipline and the ability to sacrifice bunt. Red Sox used to have great plate discipline. Now very few of them have it. Pedroia, Ellsbury and Ortiz are pretty much the exception. Ross and Saltalamachia suck at it.

I wonder who scouted Iglesias? What could he have possibly seen to justify paying him as much money as they did? From Magadan"s comments it is obvious the kid has no idea what he is doing up at the plate. I thought BV should be given a chance to return in 2013 to finish work teaching fundamentals to the players but he just will not learn to shut up. And removing Iglesias to give Lester some runs was really the limit.

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"Ciriaco is plummeting back to earth. He's just not that good." Check the numbers. He has not plummetted any more than the rest of the team. Meanwhile his numbers offensively and defensively for the left side of the infield are pretty close to anyone else who has played there for the Sox this year. His fielding percentages may not be as good but they are not bad and his hitting is the best. He needs more bat discipline but he is still young.

I am not sure what the issue is. As far as I am concerned Ciriaco is the starting ss next year. I thought he should have been this year. He is a better fielder and hitter than Aviles and certainly a much better hitter than Iglesias. I see no reason to look elsewhere for a ss.

Cherington and Henry are both in Seattle but "nothing is going on"? They must have needed travel miles.

Since the Pawsox made the playoffs via wild card should the called up players be sent down so that they get playoff experience? It may be the only chance they have to get playoff experience for a few years.

I like BV but have been very disappointed in him lately. I think he will do well with young players. He talks too damn much. Managers have not much impact on most games but can effect close games and BV's record in close games this year really sucks. To a certain degree he has not had the bench or bullpen to win those games but he also has not taken advantage of all the resources he has.

Something has to be wrong with the way Sox pitchers get ready to start the game. Is there a mound in the bullpen? The starting pitcher should have some kind of strategy of which pitches he needs to have ready against the opponent and be concentrating on having those pitches available when he faces batters. Between the bullpen prep and the mound warmup he needs to have those pitches mastered. I have seen both pitching coaches out in the bullpen watching the starting pitcher get ready. Are they just out there socializing? Make sure the starting pitcher is ready to pitch. Iglesias finallly got a chance to start and went hitless. Why is it the Red Sox bring up players and then give them the worst possible chance to succeed? They bring up pitchers to start against the Yankees and Iglesias to hit against Weaver. Is it trial by fire? Why not start players in the best possible chance to succeed? Iglesias would have had a better chance against the KC pitching but sat on the bench. And why did Valentine not sacrifice bunt in the 8th and 9th innings when the leadoff batters got on? I lost a lot of respect for him as a manager when he failed to do that. Both Ellsbury and Iglesias could have advanced runners.

Was not Iglesias called up? If so why isn't he playing? Valentine seems to not want to play him. These games do not count for anything, Valentine needs to be told to play the youngsters to see if they can handle big league pitching or the closest to it that KC can put up there.