cp176

Scew that!! Come on!! just kidding

You explained why. That says a lot. i'm glad that you are able to justify your own positions. I'm also very happy that DD and John Henry and company are running the franchise and not you. You are assuming that Ramirez will be moved to the dh position. I actually somewhat doubt that that is likely to happen. You are also assuming that EE will want and get 5 plus years at an extraordinary amount of money to be someone dh. I'm not sure that I believe he will get that type of offer from anyone.

How do you say overmatched!!!

A lineup with EE right in the middle of it - Hanley at first - a trade for a top young pitcher would be right up my alley. I am quite content to let Mr. Henry decide how he wants to spend his money. I have faith in DD's leadership and guidance as well.

Last year was of course as we all know last year. No one was particularly excited about Hanley's left field experiment. His injury certainly didn't do much for the Red Sox faithful either. All that being said the guy has played an adequate first base and is happy physically and mentally. 26/100+ is tough to argue against. I operate on the premise of what have you done lately. i like what he has and is doing. I don't understand why anyone would want to trade him.

Why would anyone who can afford Ramirez want to trade him? His defense is adequate and 25/100 is damn tough to improve upon. Red Sox can afford him and sign EE as well if they so choose. Any of the other gaps can be filled via the trade route if need be. If anyone suggests (which they have not yet that I have heard about) that another high priced free agent signing might impact this team's ability to make solid offers to our best young players going forward, then talk of $ makes sense. It is primarily John Henry's money and fan chatter about how he should be using it is just that - chatter. If and more likely when, he decides to sell this franchise, he is going to make a huge profit. I don't think that he really shows any signs of piching pennies with respect to the luxury tax. thankfully for all of us he is not afraid to spend.

I'm really not sure that this makes much of a difference. With youth, if the talent is there, there is a certain hunger that comes along as well. We have just enough experience. I like the youthful talent.

Not bad but I always could use a few more strokes when I play in those net tournaments!

Good for you - You are experiencing the same feelings that some of us here felt in the fall of 1967. I was a junior in high school and with all of the stuff going around me at that time - school-girls-athletics - time still just kind of stood still. I could not wait for the next game.

I totally agree that we are in a position of strength now with respect to potential trades. You have to listen when people knock on the door but I don't think that we need to actually do the knocking right now. At worst we come back with the same group minus the big boy. A big loss for sure but a free agent signing of Encarnarcion would fill that gap and our young players including Bradley would continue to develop. I'm not saying that this is direction they go in at all but if it happened to be that. I wouldn't mind. I'm not a Bucksnort fan but overall I kind of like our pitching staff. I actually think that our bullpen with Smith coming back (hopefully) will not be as big of a concern as it looked to be much of this season. I realize that I have certain individual players that I might seem overly optimistic about and JBJ is another one. I think that he is just going to get better. If I was someone elses GM, JBJ would be a kingsize target for sure. The franchise is in a great place right now.

What i do know is that last year's September sucked. No meaning baseball that I really cared much about (I know - bad fan), The Giants ( apologies to New England) were awful, and my golf game was terrible. From last to first with meaningful baseball once again being played at an absolutely beautiful time of year. I'm not sure that anything in sports can rival a real pennant race in September. I get the excitement and love of all sports New England but Boston and Baseball has been, is , and always will be something very special.

Should he be the featured piece in a big trade during the off season? In the past, we have kept a number of top prospects until their value has vanished. He is an unrefined prospect who has great value right now.

He is in the best place he could be for whatever it is that he needs good luck.

Deliver "ance" me please.

Agree -

You might be talking about me I guess. I'm not whining and I'm not sanctifying anything though. He is a great prospect - no more no less. I wouldn't like to see him traded but if that happens - oh well. Bet he would provide a very good return.

Everybody always said that I could read pretty well. Do you think that it is some kind of big revelation that he made mistakes that didn't look very good at the time? My point is that he came up, he doesn't appear to be ready. Even the "typical" New England fan might consider that he is just a kid and probably doesn't deserve to be s*** on by you. Guess you are just into piling on the prospects.

Dave Roberts had just a little more experience methinks than Moncada. Putting someone with raw speed on the bases who has not learned how to play at the ml level is a recipe for disaster. Unfair to the kid. You obviously aren't very high on him. He is blessed with enormous talent. It is natural and needs to be refined. Most of us recognized that moving him up this year was an experiment. Listening to you criticize a prospect constantly for his lack of focus etc. is a little painful. You either give him time or you trade him. He is a prospect. Just a kid.

There is still plenty of work to be done with Moncada for sure but I don't think he is as far away as some of you seem to think. Give him time or trade him this winter.

Yes he would - i hope that we make a run at him.

never bet against a golden

i'm probably a little defensive simply because athletically he is a long way ahead of any other prospect plus it is a very good story. My take on him though is that from a work perspective, i have not seen nor have I heard one thing that tells me that he isn't just a very coachable hard working player. He bought a few toys with his new money. I don't blame him at all. I don't think that the fact that he has not gotten it done in his debut has anything to do with a lack of focus or a failure to work hard. I hate the not so subtle comparisons to Benintendi that people are trying to make. Beni is quite a ways ahead of Moncada evidently with respect to his hitting. They are two different types of players entirely. I'm glad. Moncada is very happy for him. When Benintendi was moved up and Moncada stayed in Portland the press as they so often do tried to make a story out of it. Non story. Moncada has been nothing but happy for Benintendi. My bet is that he will continue to work hard as he has and if the planets align we may see a powerful fast very good player some day in a Red Sox uniform. We are fortunate to have both of these kids at least for the time being.

It is what I love about the game. It is still rough and unpredictable based primarily on the people doing the work on the field. Most of them are still old school playing a beautifully old school game. My stat line would have indicated that I rarely made an error. The problem was the time they occurred. kind of luck putting- you seem to never miss until it matters. There are others who never seem to make one until it matters most.

a fish i think

I'm not spoiled by the play of Bogaerts, Betts or Shaw at all. i'm just happy that they play for us. I'm not quite ready yet to put Benintendi in with that group. I like Shaw a great deal. his power potential alone makes him very valuable. I don't know what to make of Moncada just yet. If and I mean if, he develops the potential that he has athletically, he could very easily move to the top of this list. I'm glad that you are not down on him. No one should be. Being upset I guess with management for putting him in the position that he is in I guess is a possibly.