FredLynn

Pretty funny. The season hasn't even started yet, let alone concluding the offseason with whoever DD manages to sign, and some of you guys are already surrendering the ALE to the Yankees. Kidding, a bit, of course. The Yankees do look strong, but a lot can happen. If somehow DD manages to sign both Hosmer AND Martinez AND Price comes back strong and healthy AND Porcello looks more like the 2016 version we will be competitive. Point being, its far too early to write off the season as wild card contenders.

Well what did you really expect his attorney to say? "Steven punched his wife in the mouth so hard that her teeth bounced across the kitchen floor like Chicklets"? As you said, something closer to the truth will eventually be uncovered.

Disaster for the Red Sox.....the Tigers should start printing World Series tickets immediately.

I read that he is only considering the Dodgers and the Yankees. I am not sure that I would mind him signing with the Yankees as long as they are responsible for his whole contract or close to it. It could easily hobble their ability to sign other players for years to come.

I read in the SF newspaper today that Stanton is holding out waiting for the Dodgers to make a push for him. He grew up near LA (or in it) and would love to play for his hometown team. Fine by me; too rich a contract. We need to make a run at Abreu and/or Santana and get one more decent SP. The rest of any improvement has to be made by the current underperforming players.

I prefer the term "potential cliff". Overall, its a dumb idea anyway. Too much can change in the period of three years to postulate baseball Armageddon for this team.

As was pointed out below, we do not have the money to make a competitive offer for him. Second point, having "major heat" on his fastball is not good enough in MLB. You need location and a mix of offspeed stuff as well. Third, he is not going to be both a pitcher and a DH. No player in MLB assumes both roles, because of the work involved in preparing to play each role. Finally, I know he comes with a good scouting report, but a lot of guys from Japan did well over there and failed over here. Remember Matsusaka? He had a good year or two, but overall was a disappointment. Its not a given that Ohtani will be a star over here.

Allowing HanRam to DH is kinda pointless. Why have a DH who cannot hit? I don't expect much of an improvement from him this year, and he wasn't very good last year. He is a wart upon his team.

Pass on Hosmer. He isn't enough of an offensive upgrade-I think his career OPS+ is just 111 or so, vs JD's 130. JD can DH; HanRam can either play 1B or be traded for a can or two of beans and sign Santana as well.

Swihart isn't going to HAVE a future if he cannot learn to hit the baseball.

You just never know....you can't take a minute you are living for granted: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21331438/roy-halladay-40-dies-plane-crash-gulf-mexico

If Price has a stellar season next year and wins 20 games or whatever, nearly everyone on this forum is going to want him back and write about what a smart contract was offered to him. Such is the fickle nature of Sox fans. Its always "what have you done for me lately". And rightfully so.

And while we are at it can we give the Yankees one of our former managers, Bobby Valentine?

The point is that the team cannot count on Pedroia ever being a regular second baseman again, especially with his style of play. Sure, its worth a try-if not for his playing career just to try to delay the need for a new knee. Management is going to have to find a different solution at 2B for next year.

Having had microfracture surgery (shoulder) I can say that for me at least it was useless. The cartilage that is formed is of poor quality. I would think that it being exposed to repeated trauma that professional athletes subject the new cartilage to means an even lower success rate. Probably time for Pedroia to hang them up. Here is one article that supports what I believe to be true: "This research review in the Journal Arthroscopy reviewed 15 higher quality research papers that had been published about the effectiveness of microfracture. These studies usually compared the outcomes (how well patients fared) of microfracture to other cartilage repair techniques. Their conclusions? The majority of the studies reported poor clinical outcomes and two reported no improvements in the treated patients. Small-sized lesions and younger patients showed good results in the short-term. However, treatment failure could be expected within 5 years even in patients with small cartilage lesions. The upshot? When you look at the high quality studies published on microfracture, despite its widespread use, it doesn’t work well. So why are we still performing this surgery? "

A Klingon.

First of all, injuries happen. There is no guarantee Price is going to make it through the full season; there is no guarantee Sale will make it through the season either. The Yankees were without Pineda all year. Yes, he is erratic at times, but he has the potential to be very good. Second, Wright was hardly anything to Wright home about (so to speak). His ERA was 4.70 from mid June on in 2016. Who knows who will be healthy and who will not; my post dealt with the current (2017) year. And the fact is that the Yankee pitching was almost as good as ours and their offense was better. I am not EXPECTING the current roster to make a huge leap in performance. Maybe they will; maybe they won't. I would not count on it. If I am DD I am looking for upgrades in the power department, which is our weakest link.

The Yankees finished with an ERA that was just .02 RPG worse than us, and they averaged nearly half a run per game more than us and 50 OPS points better than us. The Sox are comparable in pitching, but we lag in offense, primarily because our SLG was 14th in the AL. In order for us to compete with them next year we are going to have to add power to the lineup-or depend on the existing players to improve. We aren't that far off. But if improvements offensively are not made somehow its going to be a long season.

Yup. But THIS YEAR, despite the fact that we finished in first place in the ALE again, the Yankees had a more well rounded team than we did because not only could they pitch, but they could actually hit the baseball. The Sox have a ways to go to catch up to them in the offense department. While the Red Sox went out this year with a wimper, the Yankees, to their credit, fought to the end and nearly ended up in the World Series. So I would offer a begrudging congratulations to the Yankee fans here, along with hopes that DD can find more players this offseason who can actually hit the baseball.

Varitek as bench coach? I think he is likely managerial material, if he wants it. He was always incredibly well prepared for the game, though towards the end of his career his physical skills were no longer there. As for Butterfield, I agree: he was not a bad coach. A bit aggressive at times perhaps, but when you have speed you can be aggressive. He can tone it down if instructed to do so.

His issue was lack of pitch recognition: he could not recognize a slider and as a result swung at pitches a foot off the plate sometimes. Word gets around......

No, I wouldn't fire him either. But I do hold him accountable for not addressing the glaring need for a power bat at the trade deadline.

Hey-I thought he should have been fired for two years running. I just don't see it happening. His team won the ALE with a lot of guys underperforming and with Price gone for nearly the whole season. If I were the GM I would fire him as soon as the Sox get eliminated by the Astros. But its not going to happen.

Farrell will be back. Teams that finish first usually do not fire their manager for it.

Three. The Bruins open their season tonight.