marklmw

JBJ is ready. Let him learn on the job like Puig. He is more of a finished product than Puig was this past season. We won the 2013 WS without a lot of gaudy numbers by any one player ... maybe Ortiz but Papi is back next year. Everyone take a deep breath. We will be ok without Ellsbury, Beltran or Choo.

I cannot wait for JBJ & Bogaerts to kick some butt next season. There is every indication thus far that JBJ will succeed.

Jung ... you are so so right on this. The Sox and their fans should be looking towards 2015 and not 2014. There are 30 teams in MLB ... in reality each team should win a championship once every 30 years. We have done so 3 times in 10 years. Lester, Buchholz, Owens, Barnes, Webster etc. will be a good rotation in 2015. Bradley should be fine in CF. Victorino will be playing for another contract in 2015. Ortiz might be playing for another contract as well if the Sox extend him out another year. Bogaerts will be a star ... just guessing ... Pedey will be our leader. Someone will emerge at 3B ... Napoli will hopefully be with us for 2 more years and he might be playing in 2015 for another contract. With the players we have now we can be competitive in 2014. We can also move some prospects to improve our needs. We can make deals during the season. Not only will 2014 be fun to watch our boys in Boston but also to watch our boys in Pawtucket. Everyone needs to relax. I do not want Beltran. I would like either Napoli or Hart at the right price and terms. Hart might be a better deal in the end. I one year contract and perhaps a comp pic if he leaves. The Sox are the envy of MLB.

I'll have to look at that. Hassan is a good story ... Quincy boy. BC High. Very disciplined strike zone.

Hart is Napoli. Hart played 102 games at 1B. Hart kills LHP. Carp can platoon with Hart but Hart can still hit RHP ... the majority of his HR's are against RHP. If Hart is hot you keep him in ... if he needs a day off and the SP is RH then a perfect time to start Carp. If the Sox do loose out on Napoli and Hart then there is some concern. Then Carp becomes 1B and Alex Hassan might get a look at a platoon situation. It would be very smart of Hassan to be working out with a 1B mitt this off season. The Sox will do well in 2014 no matter what happens with 1B.

It does count towards the cap ... only makes sense that it does. I was not aware that the Sox ate some of the Dodgers trade. It still was an awesome trade. I think Detroit had their own mini version by unloading Fielder. Fielder better loose some weight as he is an injury waiting to happen. Either an ankle or heart attack.

Would it not be awesome if Hoji were 25? ... I will be excited if we can get one more productive season from him. The way he throws strikes I see no reason why not. Mariano saved games for NY for the last 16 of 17 seasons. Who stays with one team for 17 seasons ... I began this discussion by bringing up how blessed NY has been for the past 16 of 17 seasons. How productive and durable Mariano has been ... and loyal too to the club. Red Sox History would be much different if we had a similar player as Mariano ... he had hitters and great starting pitchers but never a Mariano.

Bobby V was a disaster ... Farrell might have been the most important off season signing. Anyway, it is nearly impossible within baseballs framework to keep a team together. Especially a team with 4 FA's. Have you ever noticed that FA's tend to have their best seasons just before entering the FA market. Ellsbury was hurt pretty bad last year ... his hand, foot ... of course he played through it.

That was my question for Fred. They still are on the hook for 19M per on Fielder now .... that is a lot of cabbage. Kinsler is 13M per. Cano will find a team but not with a 300M contract.

Did they actually send $30M or do they just pay Fielder 4.28M for 7 years?

I can sleep well tonight!

I am with you Fred as are most Sox fans. I have Napoli at #1option and Hart/Carp at # 2. You just never know what will happen. We get Napoli and his hip does fail, we get Hart and he hits 35 HR's and 100+ RBI's. Every team is unique and the 2014 should be a nice combination of youth and experience.

Nothing is more frustrating for a pitcher than losing a strike because of poor framing. My dad is 83 and I try to watch a game a week with him. He can attest that I have been bitching about Salty's framing forever. It may not be fair to compare to Molina but this is more mental than physical. When a pitcher louses a K with a pitch that is in or close enough and then the hitter ends up getting on base or worse yet knocking a run in it is a maddening thing to deal with. When an outside pitch is brought in correctly and results in a K and retires the side it is sweetness. Molina expands the zone for his pitchers where Salty constricts the zone. In fact I think with Molina the pitchers purposely miss off the plate knowing that he will frame it as a strike.

I hear good things about Vasquez.

Through only my eyes I believed this. In fact it seems to me that Salty makes strikes balls which is the worse thing a catcher can do. I think Lester knows this for sure. It is hard to imagine that a catcher who has been catching since 10 or 11 does not know how to frame a pitch. I bet that Molina is the best and I said that he probably saves .5 off era for every game he catches.

I agree ... keep it in house and give him another year.

I believe that he threw a first pitch fast ball down the heart of the plate if my memory serves me correct ... my mind got a little crazy on that one. Pitching is as much mental as physical.

Without the Ortiz slam off Detroit's Closer the Sox more than likely loose the series to Detroit. Koji never gives up that slam.

Didn't Breslow fall apart in the WS? Who removed the Napoli thread ... I hope Fred had the chance to see it.

Ok ... I do not see Texas going after Napoli but anything is possible I suppose. Ortiz is your one in a million DH. I would rather use the DH position to insert players based on pitching match-ups. That is quite a bit of money to be spending on a DH. Even with Detroit kicking in 30M Fielder is still costing a tad under 20M per. I think that Detroit got the better of this deal

I know that I felt pretty dam good when Hoji entered a game last season.

Closers do have one advantage over the set-up man. A Closer often enters the game without a runner on base ... unless he is being asked to get 4+ outs. The Set-up man often comes into hairy situations. The last 3 outs are still the toughest outs in baseball. Closers are subject to a lot of scrutiny when they blow a save or incur a loss. I do not think that anyone would argue the fact that Rivera was a big asset to the Yankees over the many seasons that he played.

I will never question the FO of Tampa ... they seem to know when to pull the trigger. Profar will give them control for many years but it will take more than Profar to seal the deal ... do you agree? Texas would have one hell of a lineup with Beltre, Cano, Fielder. even if they did not go after Price.

We do not loose the WS to the Mets if Mariano were our closer. We do not have a one game play-off in 78 if Mariano were our closer. The list goes on and on.

They are very high on Profar ... that is why this deal was made to begin with.