Lucienbel

This very well could happen. If it does, it'll be upsetting. I really hope they didn't sit around all this time and do nothing else to rectify the problem. At this point they've had a ton of time to work on all of this. Ugh.

I'm sort of surprised this is the first team we're really hearing about with that kind of interest in him. Even with two TJ surgery's, it seems like with everything that happened last year with closers and everything more people would be interested.

If this is true they should try and get away as soon as they can really. I don't know who they go after to take his place, but if the concern is that high I agree, to give him any money is sort of crazy. Not sure how much I like the plate appearance thing either. He could very well make most the season, end up right around 400 and then go down the crapper. Then they're stuck with him while he's recovering from lord knows what.

I like Garrett Jones as well....I was sort of hoping that he would be involved in the talks during the Hanrahan deal. The first base/outfield thing allows them to take a lot of different approaches in interleague play as well as just in general.

Good idea too. Granted, I'd take a wrist injury that someones already had surgery and shown they can play on over a hip issue I know nothing about.

Lovely.

Interesting that this is coming out now.....at least we have some news of what's going on. Still not really sure how I feel about him at this point, but they do need to do something. I wonder if he'll be able to catch any games at all? Or does that seem like it's completely out of the plan now?

Agreed. It really sounds like Towers should have had all the signs that Upton wasn't going to Seattle. Not sure if he maybe thought that Upton would change his mind if a deal actually ended up in place or what, but it all seems pretty silly. I can't imagine the relationship between team and player here is good at all at this point. It's clear that Arizona has always put a higher price on Upton than any potential trade partner. I wonder if this is one of those ones where they're eventually going to have to cut their losses and take less than what they wanted just to get rid of him.

To answer the rest of the question, we released him prior to him being suspended. Not sure if they knew he was using and got out in time or if they just released him for roster room, but yeah.

Exactly. He's a good option to hit behind them two largely because he's one guy in the lineup we can safely expect some average out of too. Plus, he'd never get walked with Ortiz behind him and the fact that he can run. On the other hand, Ortiz is going to need a bat behind him or else he's going to end up seeing a ton of free passes this year. I don't know if Middlebrooks is the guy you want behind Ortiz yet. If they don't end up picking up a middle of the order bat for 1st base we should all hope Middlebrooks is capable of picking up right where he left off before the wrist. If that doesn't happen, someone else is going to need to end up being a pretty big surprise.

Likely. I wish they would have backed away from him sooner and started looking at other options more seriously sooner as well. I can't really see a hip injury being a minor thing. As for Gomez, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about him. My biggest problem with that is the team loses what is potentially a big bat in the lineup. By sealing up right field with Victorino and left field with Gomes/whoever else, you've pretty much left 1st base as the only position to add a middle of the order bat. If they do end up going Gomez at 1st, someone is really going to have to be a surprise or the middle of the order ends up looking awfully weak.

I like it as well, I just wonder what the cost will be at this point. They didn't want to give up draft picks to sign guys, but at the end of the day if they end up giving up a big haul of guys already somewhat developed that seems like it will actually be worse. MLBTR has it at needing to part with "young talent and possibly a left handed reliever". He has been good the last couple of years though and his bat should play well in Fenway. I wonder what his defense at first ends up looking like after a full year of playing there. I do like the though of a 1B/OF though too, with the way the interleague games are going to be this year he could move into left with Ortiz at 1st, meaning you don't have to sacrifice his bat and that the platoon of Gomes and whoever ends up mattering a little less too.

They definitely are. I don't think they're banking so much on these players having years like they did in 2011, but more bouncing back from the bad ones they had in 2012 (those who did have bad years). It seems like Bailey and Hanrahan have a decent shot at a rebound, and the bullpen has a chance to become one of the better ones in the game. Victorino will have to prove that last year wasn't his age causing the decline... Or if it was, he has more than that left. Not the worst tactic by any means, and could potentially pan out rather well. At this point in time I wouldn't mind seeing them go the Vazquez or Jurrjens route, but I would hope neither of them would be on a major league deal. A minor league deal with an invite to training would be best. They certainly haven't done what I wanted them to do with pitching, so at the least I would like to see some backup options. My biggest fear is that they're thinking a strong bullpen will bail them out of trouble if things don't pan out well. We've seen how that's worked in the past.

Only one of those moves from Oakland you mentioned happened in the last three seasons/years.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Dempster signing either but hopefully it works out. Dempster is a sinker sort of pitcher so at the least he should have that in his favor at Fenway. Keep the balls on the ground and you won't totally get annihilated in Fenway. Not my favorite deal by any means, but I suppose at this point all we can do is hope.

I'd like to toss Oakland on that list as well. They don't really make mistakes because they don't even have the money to take the risk in the first place. The only risks they did take (in trades) paid off for them and they ended up winning the AL West.

I'd guess it would be the bottom one out of the gate as well, unless someone shows something really interesting in Spring Training. Pedroia has shown that he's more than capable of hitting in the three hole....granted, he's probably no ones top choice as a three hole hitter, the fact that he can means he's likely to slot in there. Unless Ellsbury can show that he has some pop in his bat still I can't imagine him batting third really. He would have fit there great in 2011 though.

The third base standing room isn't the worst really. I went to a Sox Yankees game in September and it was my first time up there. Wasn't the greatest, but wasn't the worst. I've never sat in right field but that'll probably be my next venture. I typically sit down the 1st/3rd baseline and rather like those seats. I'm not too keen on getting rid of Fenway, whether it could actually happen or not. Not that I don't enjoy modern amenities in ballparks, but I also sort of like the simplistic feel of Fenway. It's nice in a way. As for the commute during games at certain times of the day, it is a pain. If they have a day game and I'm busy all day and don't really realize it, I find myself always wishing I hadn't taken the train. Easily adds a solid 30-45 minutes to my travel time. I think I've been down that way in a car a whopping two times when day/early evening game gets out and both times easily add at least an hour. Traffic and commuting is by far the worst part about the park.

I typically try to stay out of things, but assuming that he signed in Cleveland is a bad thing,and assuming other GMs weren't interested in him because they thought his numbers were a part of the Yankee lineup and Yankee stadium is silly and nothing more than assuming. Tossing every GM in baseball that may have had interest in Swisher into this category is beyond silly.

Pretty sure people thought someone got shot next door when he literally dropped the ball in that Seattle game. Lots of screaming at the TV that night.

This is a difficult thing to judge. I feel the only way to really judge this would be looking at Salty v. This or that other catcher when: A. It was the same season. B. There was a comparable number of innings. In which case statistically speaking it seems the Beckett with Shoppach and Salty comparison works best. Even then, that really shouldn't mean a whole lot because that's far too small a sample. I don't know if there's a real good way to use numbers here and get a fair comparison. I think most here would agree that he isn't helping any though, based on what we've seen. At the same time, I think that just getting rid of him would solve most of the problem is very wishful thinking.

I don't know if you get rid of the All Star Game, but the fact that it decides home field advantage and the fans vote sucks. Either get rid of the fan vote and let it still decide or let it not decide and keep the fan vote. I like watching the All Star Game as it tends to be fun, but putting that much at stake on a game that is just fun is silly.

I like this analysis and a large part of this argument from each side seems to supports it. I have no doubt pitching coaches do have an impact on the team, but the pitcher also has to be willing to listen..... And I agree that money and agents probably have an impact in the way that some guys feel they really don't need to listen. When pitchers like Halladay, Lee, Carpenter and Lohse are mentioned it seems that they were all guys willing to listen, and Duncan was in a position to gain these guys attention as well..... In turn they did end up listening and look what happened. I also think the Curt Young argument also seems to sort of support this. From what I saw on TV and at games, which is of course limited to what you can see with your eyes, he was out on the mound less than any pitching coach I've seen in Boston. This very well could be because our pitchers didn't really listen to him. He could also have more success in Oakland because they're almost always young pitchers coming up through the system for the first time, which likely would have them more willing to listen. Of course, this is totally hypothetical but it makes sense. At the end of the day, it does seem that the money people make in baseball now and the way that contracts and other things on the more bureaucratic side of the game work entitle some players to not listen and really not catch any flak for not listening.

I'd also assume that he won't be right until a ways in. Hopefully he can continue to show progress through the first half to give enough confidence he will be able to turn it around. Also, I'd like to second the no pre and post game interview idea.

I'd really hope if he were able to get a major league deal it wouldn't be from the Red Sox. They don't seem to want to give major league deals to any other pitchers, so I hope he wouldn't become an exception.