marklmw

It is possible that Drew finishes his career with Boston ... lot's of moving parts but it could happen. Drew did look a lot better at the plate in Games 5 & 6. Boras tried to say that Drew had eye-sight issues but really? ... would that not affect his fielding as well ... he made some big plays in the field. I can see Napoli with Boston for 2 more years and Middlebrooks being moved to 1B.

IMO ... all this fear about JBJ is unfounded. Relax folks. Compare JBJ's end of season campaign to that of Mike Trouts end of season campaign ... the numbers are almost the same. No UN ... I am not saying that JBJ is going to be the next Trout.

I will be dead wrong also but here goes. Ellsbury goes, Drew Stays, Napoli Stay, Salty Stays.

Since we are talking about Roster Projections. We know that there is a good possibility that Boston's top two prospects of Bogaerts and JBJ will make the big club in 2014. One player that might make the club as well by mid season is Henry Owens. I say this because he has posted some good numbers at AA and he has a plus change-up. How much better could a number of our pictures ... such as Lester, Dempster, Peavy or Lackey be if they had a plus change? IMO ... it is Buchholz change-up that sets him apart. Most all of today's players can turn on a 95 mph fast ball but they still have to gear up to do it. The change-up is a strike out pitch ... a go-to pitch that devastates hitters and makes the pitchers fast ball 3-5mph faster.

He is a great pitcher but I doubt that they will deal with the Red Sox. Might prove too risky to pissing off their fan base. And you know that we will have to empty our farm to get him.

We won the 2013 World Series people ... we won the World Series with Salty and Ross. We can get by another season with the tandem in tack. Hopefully we can locate an young catcher or one of our catchers on the farm will develop. I am very much opposed to signing McCann. IMO McCann is not a significant upgrade and he will cost a lot of money. I would rather use the extra 3-4M per season that would be spent on McCann over Salty and use it to keep Ellsbury or towards Tanaka. Please not McCann.

Please explain to me how overpaying for any player is a okay? Especially McCann ... what are you thinking?

UN ... where is your sense of humor? What are your predictions on our 4 FA's

Sounds like Tanaka is coming to Boston soon! smiling.

Very Interesting.

This sums it up fairly well.

Dojji ... When you say people are you talking about Sox Management because obviously your statement would apply to them. This is like a very high stakes game of Acie Ducie.

24 / 3 for Salty. No need to pay more. Sox score plenty of runs and can absorb any drop off due to letting Salty go.

Were in the world are you coming up with 20M per for McCann? That is Ellsbury type of money.

Pitching to contact is pitching. When you try to strike out every hitter it runs up your pitch count, you end up walking to many hitters and puts your teammates to sleep in the field. Dice K is a perfect example of a pitcher who wanted to strike every hitter out.

Come on man! The Yankees are much to clever to sign Tanaka. The guy has never pitched at the MLB level.

Koji is 38 now. come on man. Koji did not have the resume of Tanaka either.

I would love to see the scouting report that has Tanaka as a number 3. I guess you can laugh at the team who ends up with him.

Greg Maddux

My fascination is that I am looking ahead. You cannot say that he will not be as good as Darvish. He may not be as good as Dempster ... remember that he has yet to pitch in MLB. I also heard that he has an incredible splitter ... I am thinking how cool it would be to have a starter who pitches like Koji. I like pitchers who can pitch to contact ... make three outs with 8 pitches. From what I have read Tanaka pitches to contact. Dam UN ... if I can't have Ellsbury can't I upgrade our pitching staff.

In the end even if the Sox want Tanaka they could easily loose out on him via the posting alone.

Yu Darvish signed for less than 10M per. at least 8M per less than he is worth. Japanese players do come with the posting fee but their salaries are less than full market value as a result of buying their freedom. Forbes has the Sox increase in value of 400M between 2011 and 2013. What would the increase be if they did not post 50M for Dice K.? I wonder how many conversations occur like this on the Yankee's fan site. We can't get Texeria ... too much money, we can't sign ARod or Sabathia ... too much money ... we cannot re-sign Cano ... he want's too much money. Seems like some Sox fans care more about what ownership spends then ownership. I was not on this site when the Sox signed Dice K but I will tell you I was happy they did at the time. 50M posting fee and 50M contract.

Hey Jung ... don't put words in my mouth ... I never said that 60M was funny money. You are correct about the true value of buying an investment and building its value ... when you sell it off you are paying a lower long term capital gains rate. What is great about owning the Sox is that the ownership group are having a lot of fun or you would think that they are. So what are the Sox worth now? Are they worth more after 2013 then 2012? Looking at things this way makes acquiring Tanaka all the more sensible ... protecting a valuable asset ... winning. Forbes has the Sox valued at 1.3B as of March 2013 http://www.forbes.com/teams/boston-red-sox/ Forbes has the Sox valued at 912M in 2011 http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/33/baseball-valuations-11_Boston-Red-Sox_330700.html When you look at the numbers it is uncanny how clubs are able to offset expenses and revenue. Hope that this is helpful.

So Fenway Sports Group is the holding company. My point earlier is that we do not know. It may even take the ownership group time to figure it out. Suppose that FSG is projecting a net profit of 200M for 2013 and a 60M posting fee for Tanaka will adjust this profit to 170M? Ownership says yeah lets grab Tanaka if we can for the next six years because of the following: 1. We went up against 3 teams in the playoffs with better SP than we have. 2. Lester will be a FA in 2015 and he might cost us a bundle with all monies counting against the luxury cap. 3. We can eat Peavy next season and he will be an awesome # 5. 4. We can package Dempster and his 14M ... take on 4M and pick up a prospect. Nets result 10M savings and a prospect. 5. We can sign Tanaka for 60 /6. Yu Darvish type of contract. 6. We hope that Buchholz will be healthy next season but we cannot count on this. 7. We have some good young arms to join Tanaka in a post Lester era ... Owens, Barns, Doubront, etc. Again I could be off on this but I know a little about finance and investments. If I am wrong I am wrong ... I am only trying to explain that after a posting fee is paid you are actually getting the player you are signing at a discount to his true value. If there was not a posting fee than Tanaka would probably go for 100 / 6. The circumstances are what they are.

By all accounts newspapers are really bad investments. The Globe, NY Times, LA Times ... all bleeding money. You and I and most Sox fans have no idea if a 50-60M posting fee for Tanaka or Darvish or any Japanese player makes sense. One thing we do know is that the posting fee does not count against the luxury tax payroll cap which is the only number we have been told that ownership is trying to keep under.