S5Dewey

Did that moron just say that the back end of the bullpen has been a problem for Boston???

Oh, say it aint true. Do we have ESPN tomorrow too?

God. I hate these Sox/Yankees ESPN games. :-(

Oh. Now they're going to blow Girardi for a while. UGH

They need to just blow him and get it over with!

I'll take Door #2, Monty.

This goes back to something I alluded to a while ago. I don't see anyone out there who would make a big improvement to the team who would be available at the price we'd be willing to pay. You just know that the other GM's are showing up on DD's doorstep wearing masks and carrying guns, ready to rob him. Don't let it happen, DD!

I don't disagree with this post at all but I'd also like to add a few caveats for a GM looking for a player. 1) Never sign a (position) player with physical issues (like WEIGHT!) to a long term contract regardless of how well he's played in the past. Being a professional athlete means performing at the highest level and as we all know, wear and tear on the body is like age. Sooner or later it will catch up with you and there's a very good chance it will happen during the duration of that contract. 2) Do not sign a player just because his playoff stats are significantly higher than is regular season stats. Playoff stats are a notoriously SSS. And even if you believe in 'clutch' always remember that this player has to help get you to the playoffs. [As an aside, I'd rather have a player like David Price who can get you to the playoffs but has a history of failing there than a player like Sandoval who is mediocre in the regular season but has a history of good playoff stats. But maybe that's just me.] 3) Look at trends. With the exception of a one year anomaly, Sandoval's OPS had been in decline ever since 2009 and had leveled out in the mid .700's. That's nice, but it's not BIG MONEY nice. This signing had "Bad Idea" written all over it right from the beginning.

Yes, I agree with what he said. It was textbook "make an appearance and say nothing". I find questions like, "How does hitting that HR make you feel" are a waste of time and insulting to everyone. I mean.. what's he going to say other than what he says? Unfortunately it's what they're expected to do. My issue is with how abruptly he walked away from the NESN guy, who obviously had another softball question or two to ask. IMO it was "cheezy" of him to do that, like he has more important things to do than to talk to reporters.

IMHO JH probably does have enough money to buy anyone he wants to but it's also a business to him. I keep thinking that his bean counters have a good idea of how much added revenue making the PS brings in along with the added revenue from every step along the way. He then weighs that against the cost of obtaining certain player(s) and makes his decision. To paraphrase Tony Soprano, "It's business. Nothing personal"

Me too. And when it's too obscure for Spud it's too obscure. LOL

It's looking like that's the plan. That's why Devers has been moved to Pawtucket - to get him ready for MLB pitching if need be, and if things keep working for the Sox at 3B Devers can stay in Pawtucket.

In a bizarre sort of way I almost feel sorry for Sandoval. I don't believe he intentionally allowed himself to get into this position. He obviously worked hard to get his weight back under control before this season and I believe DD when he talks about how hard Sandoval worked to get his game back together. He's now just paying for the abuse he heaped on his body in previous years and it's affect on his ageing. In my mind his problems are self-inflicted so it's hard to feel sorry for him. OTOH it has to be frustrating for him to have worked as hard as he has and yet to be suffering the public humiliation of where his career is and why it got there. In the eyes of the public he's always going to be the guy who ate himself out of baseball. But, of course, that $48M and the lifestyle it will afford him will salve a lot of wounds.

I never have understood how a pitcher can allow that to happen. Can't every ML pitcher throw a strike when they have to, even if it's a middle-of-the-plate meatball pitch? When the pitcher throws a strike in that situation anything can happen from a HR to a K but when he throws a ball outside the zone he KNOWS what the outcome will be. His only saving possibility at that point is that the batter swings at a bad pitch and that's an unreasonable gamble to be taking under those circumstances. He HAS to be pitching to contact... doesn't he??? That situation is no time to be nibbling & hoping that he doesn't miss the plate by a couple of inches or that he doesn't get a bad call from the umpire. In that situation the most important thing is to throw a strike.

I wish I didn't agree with this post... but I do. :-( It seems like every time he does something good his next act is to find a TV camera and preen for it. Then last night after the big win over the Yankees he was absolutely rude to the NESN guy interviewing him. He gave stock answers to a couple of questions - which is ok with me, they all do that - and then ended the interview by proclaiming that he was 'out of there' and left the NESN guy there alone. Kudos to NESN for trying to put the best face on the situation. Like Spud, I hope he does very well for the Sox this year because they team needs for him to do well, but I'm getting tired of his me-me-me schtick.

I agree that I'd prefer to have Young back too, but in the end it may come down to whether Young wants to come back to Boston or possibly be a starting OF'er for another team.

Want to see how these guys go broke? I did just a quick search and found these listings of what some of them spent their money on. [And just so I don't run afoul of copyright laws, everything in bold below came from this website: http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/athletes/athletes-bankrupt/ Mike Tyson However, he had spent almost all of it, frittering it away on extravagances like mansions, luxury cars and pet tigers. Michael Vick Everything seemed to be smooth sailing for Michael Vick until he went to prison for his participation in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring in 2007. The prison sentence sidelined him for almost two years, and during that time he lost his regular NFL salary and all of his endorsements, including a lucrative Nike sponsorship. The lack of income, combined with his own financial mismanagement, forced Vick to declare bankruptcy from federal prison. Kenny Anderson In addition to $8500 monthly child support and alimony payments to [his first wife], Anderson was also supporting six other children and two other ex-wives, as well as making monthly payments on his mother’s house. He also owned eight cars and an estate in Beverly Hills, and gave himself a $10,000-a-month allowance that he referred to as “hanging out money”. At the time of his bankruptcy filing, he had $41,000 in monthly expenses to pay. Jack Clark (yes, OUR Jack Clark) When Clark listed his assets in the filing, he cited 18 luxury cars, including a Ferrari, a Rolls Royce and a Mercedes Benz. He owed money on all but one of them. Apparently, Clark quickly got bored with his collection, and when that happened he would just get rid of the ones he no longer cared for and replace them with new ones. The habit ended up costing him his home, which was worth more than $2 million. Derrick Coleman Coleman earned over $87 million in his 15-year career, so many people were surprised when he filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in March 2010. In the filing documents, he listed $1 million in assets, including a Bentley, five fur coats and $3,000 worth of jewelry. His debts totaled more than $4 million, which he owed to almost 100 creditors, including American Express, Verizon and even Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. Scottie Pippen Pippen’s successes on the court couldn’t stop him from losing career earnings worth $120 million, including over $4 million for a corporate jet that was grounded just months after he bought it. He sued his attorneys for $8 million for failing to monitor the purchase, and he won the lawsuit. However, the jury ruled that Pippen bore plenty of responsibility for the purchase himself, and he was awarded only one quarter of the reward that he sought. Antoine Walker When he filed for bankruptcy Walker claimed assets of $4 million and liabilities of almost $13 million. The filing lists a $2 million house in Miami with a mortgage of almost $4 million. Walker’s problems stem in large part from gambling. In 2009, he was arrested and charged with writing $800,000 worth of bad checks to three Las Vegas casinos. Tony Gwynn During his sixth season he filed for bankruptcy, citing bad investments, poor accounting and $1 million in back taxes. At the time of the filing, his assets totaled approximately $700,000, while his liabilities totaled over $1.1 million.

It's not surprising that some players who suddenly come into millions of dollars by playing sports eventually go through bankruptcy. Many of them never had a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of so they have no clue how to handle money. They remind me of the old story about a man who squandered millions and then said "I spent half of it on wine, women, and song. And the rest I spent foolishly". But that doesn't mean they all do. Some of them make good investments while playing and some are just able to retire very, very comfortably. The one I immediately think of who doesn't fit that profile is Curt Schilling who made some terrible investments, but that's another story. In addition, many of them stay involved in their sport after retirement. With the proliferation of sports networks and the desire of networks like NESN wanting to get retired players on board as color men there are always jobs in broadcasting. Then there's coaching and speaking engagements. The opportunities are endless for ex-players to stay in their sport without playing and still get paid for it. I don't look to see Ryan Dempster in a food line in the near future. It's just that his firewall is a lot thinner than it used to be. He can still live better than most of us can, and stay involved in baseball while he does it. Is there a downside to that????

In the current vernacular..... WORD!

I'm so friggin' envious of you. There is no "geriatric softball' in my neck of the woods.

Everyone seems to agree that there's usually a certain transition period when a player goes up a league. The thing we may forget is that that period may be longer for some players than others and consequently we sometimes give up on a player too soon. I see it as possible that we gave up on Shaw too soon. It was justified at the time because he'd had one season (spread over two years) of sub-par performance and as a large market team we can't always wait for players to develop. Another player whom many gave up on is JBJ. C'mon now..., without revisionist history, how many of you really were clamoring for a trade of him when he was hitting around .200? IIRC you can count those of us who wanted to keep him - if only for his defense - on one hand. If DD had been listening to the fans JBJ would be playing for someone else now. Now we're looking at Marrero and Lin. Marerro has been around a while and has developed the rep of 'good glove, no hit" who's carrying an unexpected ML OPS of >.600. I'm not claiming that .600 is acceptable for a 3b but it's more than expected. Is it possible that his transition period is still going on and he'll be at least respectable? And then we have Lin with the OPS of almost .900. If someone says that's not sustainable I'm going to agree, but this start reminds me of that guy who's currently playing Lf for the Sox (minus the hype). Do we give up on him when he comes back to earth like Beni did? I'm in no rush to make a bad trade to fill our issues at 3b when we're in 1st place and we have two guys getting the job done now, and fortunately DD isn't either.

Yeah. Cliff was the cooler of the two of us.

That's what I see as the problem. There are 3b out there who could be had, there are some whom we would want, and some whom we'd be willing to pay the asking price for but nobody who fits all three criteria. Since this situation probably isn't going to get any better as we approach the TD we're probably going to overpay for someone we don't really want or we're going to go with our in-house options. I like Door #2 better,

Ugh. I went to school with a Cliff. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

I don't see Lin/Marrero being a black hole defensively at 3B. They're both serviceable. The problem at 3B is the lack of offensive production. If Devers can't hit at the ML level then we may as well keep Lin/Marrero there. For a talent like Devers it's not as simple as just bringing him up to see what happens. It's a longer term thing. If the FO is right and he's not ready he'll have to be sent back down and possibly burn an option year. If the FO doesn't think Devers isn't ready I'm going to defer to their judgement. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, but IIRC a player has to be on the 25 man roster for 45 non-consecutive days in order for his stay to qualify him for an option year if he gets sent back down. That's part of the reason why they held off as long as they did on bringing Beni up last year. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the same thing happen with Devers. Bring him up early in August. If he surprises the FO and hits well then keep him here, and if he can't hit then send him back down for as long as it takes for him to not spend that 45 days on the 25 man roster, then bring him back up on Sept. 1 when the roster expands. It's also worth mentioning that Beni was ahead of where Devers is now offensively when he got brought up.