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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.

This guy needed to go. It seems to me that one of his responsibilities should have been to ensure that starting pitchers were going out to the mound ready and the results indicate that he was not doing that. Also, there have been many calls to get rid of Beckett because of his attitude. The cost of doing that would be very expensive. It would be more productive to get rid of Beckett's attitude. Hopefully a new pitching coach could do that. One consideration might be to figure out how much it would cost to trade Beckett - how much of his contract would they have to eat - and put that amount into incentive for Beckett.

Having been in a similar situation many years ago I agree with those who chided the player and management on this issue. The player should have been told by management that if he had an issue with the Valentine comment that he should have taken his issue up with Valentine and it should have ended there. Management should not be encouraging players to complain about Valentine behind his back and players need to learn that they will not be allowed to complain about him behind his back. Management needs to protect the chain of command.

Sweeney had to hit the door with his hand cause he missed it three times with his bat.

If Crawford bunts Ellsbury over to third he then scores easily on Pedroia's fly out and the game is over in nine. I had hoped that Valentine would insist that the players develop small ball skills and that he would use them. Apparently that has not happened. Maybe if he has one more year and some real management support it will happen next year. My complaint about Francona is that he was a one note manager. Only knew one way to play and the team reflected that. No small ball. Concentrate on the batter and ignore the runner at first who goes to second and then third and scores easily. And why didn't McClure and Francona take action to straighten out the pitching staff last fall? Were they not aware of what was going on? McClure really has to go

I like Valentine but he almost cost the Sox that game yesterday. Top of the sixth, score 2-0, Ellsbury leads off with a double. Does Crawford but him over to third? No he hits away and a guy who can not possibly hit the ball to the right of the diamond lines to Jeter who knocks the ball down and Crawford is safe at first but Ellsbury can not advance. Then Pedroia also does not bunt but at least flies out deep enough to advance Ellsbury to third. But Gonzales grounds into a double play ending the threat. Why is it the Red Sox have been historically unable to do the little things that make for a succesful team such as sacrifice bunting, holding runners, etc.?

Trade Beckett, Sweeney, Aviles, Shoppach, Melancon, and Ellsbury. There is a guy in the Cubs' management who might be willing to take Beckett. Ellsbury only has one more year before he is gone. Time to get something for him is now. Aviles can be replaced by either Ciriacco or Iglesias. Bring up Posednick or trade him. I would even consider trading Ortiz. His grandstanding and complaining really bug me. Sox need players who appreciate being on the team instead of players who think the team should appreciate their being on it.

The guy is a consumate professional with not many good years left. He deserves to play on a team of his peers and have a chance at a world series ring.

This is a lost season. No one will trade anything for Lester, Bard, Matsuzaka, Lackey or Beckett as they are significantly overpaid or mental cases. We already have a surplus of starting pitchers what we need are starting pitchers who are good. We need someone who can straighten out the ones we have. Obviously McClure has not been able to solve any of the problems. Get someone who can make the starting pitchers we have effective again.

His record for the last two years as a set-up man is 3 wins and 11 losses. And he has 4 saves out of 16 opportunities. He doesn't seem to be very effective any time he comes in.

He needs to get his head on straight. Has cost too many mistakes with stupid plays - throwing the ball to the catcher with two outs instead of getting the easy out at first, balking in the winning run, walking three in the first inning. He is obviously not comfortable out there starting. If I remember correctly he also had problems in the past coming in in pressuse situations. Was only effective coming in with no one on.