TrueFax

A Stanton acquisition precludes a Smoak or Davis trade. Furthermore, I imagine the Marlins would want Middlebrooks and Doubront and then a lot in a Stanton trade - not so much because they are going to be superstars, but because they are young and cost-controlled.

This teams need a starter "on the cusp" of becoming a number one starter, but Buchholz is not him. His FIP over the cited period of time was 3.83. While 3.83 is good, it isn't impressive. Buchholz is a number three starter.

Dallas Braden is coming off of some kind of surgery. I think it was to his shoulder? We should take a flyer on him if he's willing to accept an invite to Spring Training.

Hello, My handle is TrueFax. I'm a seventeen year old Red Sox fan residing in Arizona. I look forward to discussing the Boston Red Sox with all of you. Sincerely, TrueFax

It may not be sexy to have a General Manager that is going to very methodical and deliberate with his approach to assembling a roster, but it is something that plays out to Boston’s advantage even if it is does preclude us from signing the Kurodas and Hunters of the world. While the Red Sox have a lot of resources and should use their resources, it's equally important to use those resources responsibly. The failures of the last off-season taught us that when contracts to Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and others forced our hand in dumping Scutaro's salary to free up enough space to sign Cody Ross. As many of you have stated, it would have been nice to have both Scutaro and Ross. Unfortunately, that wasn't a possibility. I conclude that because of the date of the trade and signing, along with the return from the trade. In an off-season where we may have more money available to us than any other team, we can avoid trading off our shortstop to acquire our outfielder or vice versa. We went from playing like the best team in the league during some parts of 2011 to being among one of the worst teams in the league in 2012. If this franchise has any interest in reestablishing itself, then it cannot afford to have a myopic General Manager at the wheel. Cherington's passivity is a plus in this instance. He understands that signing every good free agent this off-season may improve this team for 2013, but it will most definitely mean compromising ourselves in the future as well. When we are evaluating whether or not the Red Sox should sign somebody, we need to ask ourselves whether or not we will actually be getting maximum performance from the player when we need it most. I hate to say it, but I don't see any of the star free agents being worth the money we'll have to shell out to sign them when we are playing meaningful baseball again. Sage advice, be patient; pray for the future. The present isn't going to bring any fruit worth harvesting.