Lucienbel

He makes sense for them at the least. If they picked him up and the rest of their rotation could get closer to performing like they have in the past they'd be a decent team. Assuming Lohse would perform good as well.

I'd have to agree. If he fills in for injuries he won't be bad, but beyond that he just becomes another question mark. He has the pitch assortment where theoretically he could start, but if he could hold up over time and do it well is an entirely different question.

As for the pitching, whether or not Lester can meet some people's standards at this point is kind of null to me. While we do need a guy that can pitch to a high standard, we need four other guys without so many question marks who can perform as well. If Lester fills out nicely it's a bonus, if not that's just another person we need at this point.

Interesting view point. None the less, I think we do need to scrutinize and not assume. Assumptions obscure the truth, and while I don't believe we'll ever get the full truth of who used and who didn't, we should still try our best to do so. Maybe it is hard to believe Pedro put up those numbers when he did, but until he is proven a steroid user he isn't. I don't think that letting people have a pass when they played in that era is a good idea. We should try our hardest to get to the bottom of who did and who didn't. Even if a few slip through, at least we're still sending the message that this sort of thing is unacceptable.

I'd say there's a very good possibility of this. I think a lot of people are writing him off as just another knuckleballer+going to the AL East= disaster. While he is a knuckleballer, some of Dickey's success is definitely in the fact that he isn't a traditional knuckleballer...he has some decent velocity on his fastball and can throw other off speed pitches decent. At the very least, he's capable of adjusting to hitters (maybe not long term, but in a given game) better than most knuckleballers are. He's got a couple of extra outs if he gets himself in a jam.

I'd love for us to get a chance to actually be the ones on that end of the ball against him.

90 wins may be a bit much. I still have faith that this team can do well if everything falls right for them, but 90 wins may be a stretch. With that said, I'm getting excited for Spring Training. The offseason always seems so long and I can never keep myself amused enough without baseball. Whatever this team ends up being, I am happy that they'll be more fun to watch than last year. In general it seems like the club house will be a lot more positive. That always makes for a more fun to watch team.

Top three for me, in this order would be: 1.) Ted Williams 2.) Pedro Martinez 3.) Carl Yastrzemski At first I was sort of iffy on where to put Yaz and Pedro, but every time I look at Pedro's numbers and the fact he put them up in the steroid era I'm amazed. There are times I don't think he gets enough credit for that still.

Dickey may/may not have a hard time in the AL. He's definitely at more of a disadvantage with the small ball parks in the AL East, and he's definitely at a disadvantage because these guys have seen the knuckleball a lot for pretty much as long as they've been in the league, minus last year. With that said, Dickey looks a lot different out on the mound than Wakefield and I'd give him a better chance of success than Wakefield have. It'll be interesting to see how quickly age starts effecting his fastball and if those smaller ball parks will change his approach at all though. As for Wright, I'd agree that we don't really want to see the scenario that would bring him up. Granted, at a glance his 2012 numbers were rather solid, especially with all that moving around (though maybe that helped him ). He's an interesting thought, but I'm not really sure he'd be the kind of guy this team wants to go with in the future. They definitely did screw up with the starting pitching, and as it's been said before this isn't the first off season they screwed up on that either. Last year it was the same exact way. While their weren't a whole lot of great pitching choices on the market this year, it would have been nice to see them go with guys like Jurrjens, Marcum, or some other depth options. Jurrjens and Marcum are two guys that have a lot of upside that could have been had pretty cheap. As for LF, I laughed when they signed Sweeney again. I understand Kalish went down, and with poor timing toward the back end of the Winter too, but Sweeney? The kid lacks ability in the first place, and he broke his hand punching a locker. It's one thing to punch something because your playing bad and you're upset, it's entirely another to break your hand while doing it so you can't play at all. While I don't think Nava is really the solution we need to platoon with Gomes, I still personally would take Nava over Sweeney any day.

Correct. I was thinking sample size in a strictly statistical sense...sorry, hadn't looked at the other numbers in this thread yet. As for run of the mill every day usage of the word "sample size", I'm certainly not going to disagree with you. I've seen enough where I want him gone.

It'll be interesting to see how the outfield turns out. Victorino is definitely an improvement over the ever rotating mess that was out there before, even if he doesn't play spectacularly. Gomes replacing Ross's production should be the interesting part. He has a good shot at that happening, especially if he ends up with the same home field fortune that Ross had last year. However, it will be interesting to see what they do against right handed pitching. The bullpen has definitely improved for this season and I have a lot more faith that they can stay consistent. Plus, there's some options on ways to do things that didn't exist last year. If something bad happens they'll likely be able to band-aid it for long enough.

These are typically times I laugh, get up, and get another beer. It's very hard to watch, yet so comedic at the same time. Must be even more fun to watch for the opposing teams fans. I still think the sample size statistically we have of Salty is too small to really pass any judgements number wise, at least when it comes to his handling of pitchers. None the less, anyone with two eyes can tell his defense is bad. Countless times has he not been able to find the ball as mentioned above. He's missed his fair share of easy to make plays at the plate. I'm really hoping that Lavrarnway can show something in Spring Training that at least gets Farrell and the rest of the organization thinking. Edit- Not really sure what the "they need" at the end there was.

Exactly. I think I said it earlier in the thread, but once Youk left it was over for me. I'll always appreciate what he did in Boston, and he was a fun player to watch....not too many hitters like him out there. Different season, different times. And as others have said, it's hard to blame him for taking a deal worth that much....doubtful many other teams were offering that kind of money.

I don't know if the argument that one guy got past the most rigorous testing out there validates saying PED testing is pointless. There will always be a few people to pass through the most rigorous standards of anything without people noticing, it happens in every facet of almost everything. However, I do think there is credibility to the financial argument. Having an impact on someones lively hood and lifestyle would assumably be a good deterrent.

Completely agreed and well put. While Aceves and Morales have shown that they can spot start I don't think there's a whole lot more to it than that. If someone in the rotation goes down for a start or two Aceves and Morales will be good options. If someone goes down for a long time I'm skeptical they could hold it down. With that said, if Lester or Buchholz go down or don't pitch up to par, I'm even more skeptical of what these guys would do in the rotation (not saying they'd take Lester or Buch's slot necessarily, but if they're pitching bad and then Aceves or Morales has to come in for Lackey or Dempster or someone like that for a bit it could get real ugly again).

Agreed. Guy never really struck me as someone who would have done that, kind of just figured he was having that break out year everyone thought he was going to have. Whether these records go on to prove anything or anyone is punished is to be seen, but this really isn't the kind of publicity that the sport needs and it's too bad to see that this is such a question. Feels like there was a lot of these stories this year, but maybe that's just because some of the names involved this year were actually guys I've heard of.

It does seem to have screwed some guys. Wouldn't blame it all on that though, also a Boras client. It's interesting though, it seems the new FA rules have done something to Boras clients.....they aren't worth as much as he thinks and a draft pick. I'm interested to see how this plays out. I'm still sort of surprised the Nats bit on Soriano.

They most certainly are a bubble playoff team, and an expensive one at that. The point is, it takes a long time to clean up the s*** show that happened at we're probably lucky that we were able to get rid of the players we did to the Dodgers in the first place. Tossing money and prospects at every guy the MLB network calls good isn't really the answer though either. Just trying to earn my mental midget title right now. Emmz already said she was Larry so I guess I'll settle for one of Larry's cronies.

Agreed here. Stanton would fill a hole the Red Sox have had recently by giving them one very reliable Superstar quality outfielder. Plus, with his power he'd tear Fenway up. This is a tough trade. Now doesn't seem to be the right time for the Red Sox though it may be the only time he's available. There's still a lot that needs to be seen with how the Sox shape up prospect wise and how the guys we've signed perform. Personally, I don't think it's the right choice for this reason alone. However, they may end up looking different by the All Star break and depending on how things shape out, I'd be more or less inclined to go for it then if it could happen.

The week long T pass is a good idea if you're staying a few days. You'll basically have limitless trips around the city, and most everything else you'd probably be interested in is walkable from the T stop. The shuttle to the blue line is also probably the way to go. As for hotels, before I moved here we would stay at the Holiday Inn in Brookline. It's a straight shot up the street to Fenway from there. Not exactly sure what rates look like as my Dad travels and we'd just use his points, but if you book it early enough it shouldn't be too bad. I find my biggest expense when going to games is drinks typically..... There's no where cheap to buy them around the park. If you go with 3-4 people it's very easy to double your food bill in drinks alone without even noticing, and that's before you even get into the park. If you're not big on the alcohol that'd probably save a lot of money.

I don't think that is 100% the teams fault then either, probably just the individuals that are doing it as you said. They've gone out and picked up some guys that do exactly what you said when referring to small ball. I'd beg to say that some of the patience and fundamentals left this team when all those "superstars" got plugged like that and so they just went out there and tried to hit one out every time. Seems silly, but definitely seems like what a lot of guys were doing the last few years. Agree completely. This is a good strength to build to as it's something fairly reliable at home games.

Great point. Any while I agree that the Red Sox don't small ball a whole lot or build their team around small ball, it really doesn't make a ton of sense for them to do that. With the way Fenway is, you don't really have to get creative to score runs. The ball gets out of the park pretty easy there and they build their team to that. Farrell showed in Toronto that he wasn't afraid to run and small ball in the right situations too. Personally, this was one of the things he displayed better up there when he was there. With Ells and Victorino the Red Sox will be able to do the same when the situation warrants. It just seems that in Fenway it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to run into outs when you have such a good place to swing hard most times.

Great point. Any while I agree that the Red Sox don't small ball a whole lot or build their team around small ball, it really doesn't make a ton of sense for them to do that. With the way Fenway is, you don't really have to get creative to score runs. The ball gets out of the park pretty easy there and they build their team to that. Farrell showed in Toronto that he wasn't afraid to run and small ball in the right situations too. Personally, this was one of the things he displayed better up there when he was there. With Ells and Victorino the Red Sox will be able to do the same when the situation warrants. It just seems that in Fenway it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to run into outs when you have such a good place to swing hard.

If that. The bullpen probably looks better on paper, but they need a really big year out of Dempster and to hope Lackey comes back. Toss in the fact that Lester needs to perform as the guy we've been waiting for the last two years and Buch needs to stay healthy, and it's a whole lot of hoping it works out. It'd really suck if pitching killed this team three years in a row.

Pedro had good mechanics and is really knowledgeable about how to get batters out at an individual level. I agree, wouldn't be bad to have him in the dug out too.