Is it me or has the recent signings been a slap at Scott Boras?  Has John Henry opened up the check book for Theo to sign anyone at any price as long it is not a Boras client?  Granted, that Crawford and Gonzales are awesome and are not Boras clients.  But after the Texiera incident it now seems the Boras is out as far as the Red Sox.  Furthermore, the trade rumors of Ellsbury and Shopping Dice-k it seems we are aiming for a boras-less team.  Maybe one of you super knowledgable guys could straighten me out or tell me all of our prospects are Boras clients, but until then, I have the feeling Red Sox ownership is paying Boras back.

How does the Organization "right the ship" next year?  Do we do a little and figure the Rays are going to lose players due to Salary? Do we just play for the Wild Card?  Do we hope the Yankees stay Old?  What to do with Free Agents?  We are having a great year considering, so do we make minor moves or a few major ones? I am interested to hear what all the experts:) say.......

The Red Sox are Famous for not wanting to give that extra year or extra few millions in contracts.  Except for those who they should'nt.  Of course the Pedro non-signing proved to be a good call, but now the biggest blown call just spurned us.  Johnny Damon wanted an extra year and the Red Sox got cheap on him.  So since then we have had  Crisp, Ellsbury and Cameron..........  Should have paid the extra year.  Not to mention, you would have kept him off of th Yankees!   We lost Texieria to a few million of cheapness and that gave a WS title to the Yanks.  But here we are 5.5 games out and now claiming players to keep them from the Rays or Yanks!?!?  Why not sign Damon in '05 and Tex last year to keep these guys from going to them?  Seems a little Backwards and Theo should get a lot of the blame.  Praise him on a lot of things but he has dropped the ball too.

The main issue here is why the heck does tito rotate so many guys?  righty - lefty match ups or day-off stuff does not win you pennants.  How do you get a rhythm if you dont play all the time?  Yankees and Rays do not do this and this is why we are behind them the last few years.  Yes we have had injuries, but so have they.  What they do is get one replacement and stick with it.  No continuity in this line up.  Lowrie should be starting at 2nd until Pedroia comes back.  Kalish should be in left for the rest of the season. If glass Drew needs a day off then Hall should play.  Lowell should be our first basemen for the remainder of the year.  This is what all other teams do.  I know you are going to say we win 95 games a year so it mus work.... BS - we should be winning  98-100 games.  our shuffling the line up has in my opinion contributed every part as much as the injuries to us being this far back.  And if you use the righty/lefty thing as a reason, then Scutero should sit when we face a righty and so on.... They are major leaguers and name another team that does what we do?

95 wins is not going to get it done.  We need to Revamp the entire team or the Yankees are going to be our Daddy for the next 86 years.  Seriously though, we are fine and just got flat at the wrong time.  We are paying for not just giving Texiera 200 mil and getting that deal done.  Now we are just going to have to pay Mauer 30 mil. after next year.   And all the move Youk to third and get a power firstbaseman, I say that is nonsense.  If anything, get a Figgins at third and move Lowell to DH.  Who would you rather see at bat with a runner on second? No one can honestly say Ortiz.  Lowell is a RBI machine and clutch.  Papi is in severe decline. We will get Mauer after next season and there is your rotation at 1st,3rd and catcher.  If you get Figgins, then the DH spot would be in the rotation for Mauer, Martinez, and Youk.  Great versatility, and better speed.  And if Wake doesn't want to come back then we need to sign Lackey so the MFY don't.  A poor time to have a few bad games is all that happened and I say we are going to be fine.  Resign Bay, Wagner and Saito- get Figgins and let Lowrie have his shot ( he will hit at least .235 for less money than gonzo) and hope we are hot at playoff time next year.  Anyone who is so doom and gloom, sell me your season tickets, throw away your pink Boston hat and be a Yankee fan, You won't be missed.

Also, If not Bay then who?  Abreu would be a great option for 2 years and cheap.  Less HR but obp and deep counts plus a rocket for an arm in the outfield. Or how about .......  I can't even type his name, but the beard and Jesus look would be fun to see. Not many options and Bay is solid fit in the clubhouse already so why mess with it? I am glad I am not Theo.... He now officially has the toughest Job in New England.

I say unload the farm system now while the proven players are available.  We have the money to pay big salaries and the pieces to trade.  Get Halladay before the Yanks sweep in.  Get Gonzalez or Martinez. Empty the farm because with that pitching and Us paying Mauer 25 million in 2011 who is going to make the club?  Think it over...  Beckett, Lester, Halladay, Dice and whoever - then you have ells, pedy, youk, and vmart (in my scenario)plus going to have mauer, probably jbay. what spots are available for the guys coming up?  I say trade Paps before Bard and keep reddick and bowden and trade the rest to get halladay and vmart(or agon). Why wait for potential, get what is proven.  Plus we can rebuild the farm quick with our resources and scouting.  I believe Paps in a three team deal is a very valuable piece to the upcoming puzzle.  Am I the only one who thinks this?  Also Scutero could be a great piece with Halladay.

A sign that our front office is great is the fact that at 20-12 we feel like our team stinks.  We have such high expectations that anything short of 26- 5 is failure!  All of us would have taken 20-12 at the beginning of year, The fact that Ortiz has no HR's and our Starters have been lackluster (don't get me on Lugo!) we cannot get discouraged. We should rejoice that we are on a 100 win pace despite these things!  Ortiz may not hit 30, but he will get his average up and hit some homeruns.  Our starting pitching will get better and Lowrie will be back and Drew will get better(he always starts slow). So at 20-12 we should be happy and keep our concerns low and not blow them out into full fledged panic. Relax......until Paps comes in and then prepare for a stessful rollercoaster ride called the 9th inning. And to think, I did'nt mention injuries.

What the dodgers should do is get Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn for less than the 25 million on Manny.  Those Guys will generate ticket sales and more importantly, wins.  Dunn can play first and Abreu in the outfield.  they will generate the same  offensive numbers for you as well with the added benefit of two guys a pitcher has to worry about.  If you have discussed this already, forgive me.  But how is this a bad plan?

Do you trade pitching prospects for catching prospects?  Or do you hold on to them and sign a few short term deals with has-beens (how about Pudge?) until our catching prospects arrive?

I have always said to trade prospects for proven players, but this has not proven to be so wise in hindsight. while Santana would have been nice, the prospects are all parts of our club. So I am not sure. Now add the fact that what we would be trading for is a Catcher prospect.  Salty or Teagarden (the better of the two) are as major league tested as Buch.  So do you make the trade?  I am inclined to say yes for two reasons:

1: everyday player for fifth day player

2: Catching talent is scarcer than pitching.

Plus really skinny guys never last.

Congratulations to Barack Obama and all who voted for him.  And to the county as a whole, the peaceful (and ease of)  transfering power has always amazed me.  With that being said, is George W. Bush the next commissioner of MLB? Or do you think Bob Costas or George Mitchell is the guy?  Since Bush is now an ex-president ,  I thought I would start this debate. He did say on Larry King that he was not looking for the job and Selig may never leave.  On a side note, my daughter said Selig looks like Slugworth from Willy Wonka.......

With all the talk on Varitek now and his "handling the staff" as a major plus and also his "clubhouse presence" as another, I often wonder what is the most important and/or overlooked intangible for Baseball.  Some would argue handling the staff is tangible, but it is not a stat we can firmly stand on.  The Red Sox in the past have had teams with great players but had the "25 cabs for 25 players club house". We never won the World Series.  So My opinion is that the clubhouse presence is the most valuable intangible (MVI). What say you?

[Note by Randy Booth, 01/19/09 3:17 PM EST ] Figured I'd add this to the front page for a little more exposure.

What a bunch of bad fans we at Red Sox Nation are.  We all talk about loyalty and that players should take less "for the team". Fine, but we then cannot turn on them. Jason Varitek Has been our captain and we now want to throw him overboard.  Where is our loyalty?  Does he not deserve it? Should we be asking him to please come back?  Shouldn't he get the 20 mil for two years as a thank you and out of the Teams loyalty? We love Pedroia's loyalty, but it has to go both ways or we are just MFY Fans.  Maybe the guy was going through a divorce and that impacted his offensive stats.  Maybe he comes back and hits .255 with 17 HR's.  The clubhouse will be better with him, and it is a big factor. Ask the Yankees about "on paper" teams and how it has worked for them.  But that is what we do, plug in a guys potential .280 and say how much better we will be.  It may be true, but we should be better than that.  I am not happy with Tek's numbers, but I am more unhappy with Sox fans lack of loyalty and double standards.  I know the Boris thing clouds this, and we need to get a young guy for the future. But Jason was in the trenches with us, and we cannot turn on him.  We can, but then we are as classless as the New York Fans.

Lugo - excellent (first time with him in the same vicinity)

Baldeli - Excellent (if healthy of course)

How many teams have this quality ready to fill in?

Now, why is Dusty Brown not a candidate? Or even Mentioned ever? 84 games at AAA and .290 and 12 Knocks? can't do worse than Tek!

And Carter or Bailey are adequate as that third option.  I believe that trading Bowden or Buchholz for a catcher prospect (salty or teagarden) is not the way to go.  Surviveat that position for 2 years and either our prospects pan out or Mauer is a free agent.

Spend some money and create a buzz.  That is what the yankees do and in fact needed to do( season tickets and luxury suites).  But as for on the field, did they really improve over 2008? I say the got better defensively and that's it.  All you stat guys can respond with the details, I am a macro guy.  The bottom line is Tex replaces Abreu and Giambi and in my head those 2 guys killed us.  Also Giambi always got big, clutch hits.  His HR's always counted unlike A-rods 9-1 game solo shots.  CC and AJ replace Moose and Pettite.  Again, for 2009 are the newbies going to put up more wins?  Long term it may work for the yanks, but they did not get better than 2008.  They have as many questions as we do with health and age, and they are in no way as deep as we are.  Furthermore, What is their bullpen consist of?  With this being said, I really don't think the Yanks are the team to beat.  If I know this, so does Cash, so I am predicting they will slide in at the end (ala Tex) and sign Manny.  And with that they will slug their way to the WS.  Although Chemistry may be the X factor. Am i wrong here?

So we lost a a very good player, and to the Yanks no less. But lets look at it this way, Over Lowell, he was 8-10 HR's better and lets say 20 poins in average. For 23 mil. it is not worth it.  If we got him, all would have been happy with resigning Veritek. We now can get a catcher who can make up that difference.  We also don't have the behind the scenes fall out with his contract- Mainly Youk feeling his value is Identical and losing Lowell as a clubhouse leader.  Plus we can get some pitching with that cash.  If Papi and Lowell have bad seasons it then becomes an issue. If we get Teagarden and he hits .280 with 20 HR's, we lose nothing and have cash to spend.  I say no worries, have faith in the ownwership and management that gave us 2 World Series Championships. What say you?

Is not what Manny did the same as the blacksox? Didn't he just throw a game or an at bat to get a bigger payday? I say that is gambling or at least severely usurping the integrity of the game. Pete Rose at least bet on his team, Manny bet on his lack of play (throwing games) would get him a contract or free agency. So he was just  basically rewarded for it.  Am I the only one that sees this as the same as fixing a game? I cannot believe the Commish has not slapped a fine and suspension on Manny.  And the press seems to be giving Manny adulation instead of scorn. What’s wrong with us?

Taverez is a garbage time innings monster and for 3 innings he is a stud. put in a pressure situation he folds like clockwork. however, we have the pressure guys so he doesnt have to be in that situation. also as a spot starter he is great and I like the guys attitude.unless we are thinking of getting something solid in return and then bringing up a young guy to get major league experience in garbage time. The only problem with that is it's irregularity, Tavarez will pitch any time and is ready mentally for it. A prospect may have trouble in that position. Over all, I think Tavarez has been a good piece for us.

Santana for Ellsbury would be a monumental Mistake. We dont need to make amends for getting Papi! The deal with lester is fine, because we are trading lefty for lefty. I believe they are getting a good deal. They dont because we are giving them players we don't need/want. That does'nt make them weak players. Santana for Ellsbury doesnt bother me because we would be stuck with coco, it is length of all-stardom that Ellsbury projects. If it did go down, we lose nothing defensively, a tiny on the basepaths, and 30 points in avg. for Satana, not bad EXCEPT:

1. Ellsbury is the whole reason we let Damon go
   
2. Lester wil win 12-15 games, Santana 15-19, is this worth it ?
   
3. His (santana) contract will be clubhouse poison
   
4. Ellsbury is a 10 year great, coco a 3 year good and santana a 3-5 year great to good

Bonds used enhancers but so what.

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