It sucks that Damon is gone, and its even worse that he is in a Yankee uniform, but if they can get this guy from Seattle or Coco Crisp, plus Clemens, we'll be saying Johnny who? Clemens, Schilling and Beckett is a better lineup than whatever the Yankees top three starters will be, though Schilling and Beckett are if because Schilling wasn't too hot last year when he was able to pitch and Beckett has been injured for quite a bit of his career.

Even a Beckett, Schilling, Wakefield, Arroyo, and a Papelbon rotation is a good bet to outperform what the Yankees have right now.

On the other hand:

Damon CF
Jeter SS
Rodriguez 3B
Sheffield RF
Giambi 1B
Matsui LF
Posada C
B. Williams DH
Cano 2B

That speaks for itself.

On the OTHER other hand:
~Sheffield, Giambi, and Posada are all injury risks and in their decline phases.
~They still don't have any depth and they don't have any prospects ready to contribute.
~They still have noone tradeable if anything goes wrong. Zero flexability.
~There's a good chance their starting pitching will be aweful. See below;
#Randy Johnson is another year older (43), and I think we can all agree he was nowhere near dominant last year, and with no excuse, either. He wasn't injured (apart from the lack of cartiledge in his knees.) I'm not saying he'll be worse this year, but a 3.80 ERA is not what a World Champion team wants from it's ace... especially with these guys filling out the rotation.
#Mike Mussina, at the age of 37, is now coming off his second straight year of nagging injuries and a ~4.50 ERA. it's safe to say he won't be better this year.
#Chien-Ming Wang is not a savior. he's the Taiwanese Jake Westbrook... if he's lucky.
#Carl Pavano... just a question mark... a big one.
#Their 5th starter. Shawn Chacon or Jaret Wright... the Red Sox have 8 guys right now I'd pick before either of these two.
~They signed or traded for 4 big bullpen names, but;
#Farnsworth has a history of fucking up badly every other year and he's due, especially now that he has a long term contract.
#Villone is a bum. I'll go one further, he's an old bum who won't be able to get his ERA below 5 next year.
#Myers is a great left specialist, but all he can do is face lefties.
#They actually signed Dotel for 1 year and $3 million even though he won't be ready untill the All-Star break, and there's no guarentee he'll even be good when he gets back.


...Anyway, maybe they'll go nuts and sign Kevin Millwood and fuck themselves up even more long term.



I'M SO BITTER!

is it possible the sox are switching from a offensive-minded team to a more defensive one? it doesnt make that much difference with the players in the field, but their pitching looks very good-- then again, maybe the pieces just happened to finally fall completely into place.
and I have this feeling that the sox aren't as screwed with position players as it appears..
let us not lose faith in manny, ortiz, trot, and varitek- especially varitek, I think his influence will help make anyone who the sox bring in better.

Oh, I don't think they're screwed at all... once they make some moves.

what do you think are their weakest positions?
(it's awesome that this topic has turned into a red sox discussion and that it's the only thread rated popular in the sports forum)

Right now? CF SS and 1B, obviously.

At 1B, it looks like they're still trying to pry Troy Glaus away from the D'Backs, but someone reported that he agreed already to go to Toronto... then again, the guy that reported it was the same guy who said Beckett was going to Texas, so... maybe there's still a chance. If not, they'll probably just sign J.T. Snow. His agent says that the Red Sox are one of 3 teams trying to sign him, and he didn't mention the other two.

At SS, if they can't get Tejada... and they almost definately can't with what the Cubs are rumored to be offering... they're looking to trade Wells to the Dodgers for a prospect that they can flip to the D-Rays for Julio Lugo... maybe.

IN CF... who knows... as long as they don't trade Marte for Crisp, I'll be fine.



And I'm really hoping they "lose out" on the Kevin Millwood sweepstakes. I don't know what they could be thinking there.








I had a crazy hallucination last night where they traded Wells for Lugo; Arroyo, Grafinino, and Manny DelCarmen for Troy Glaus; Clement, Shoppach, and Jermaine VanBuren for J.D. Drew; Trot Nixon for Jeremy Reed; and Manny for Bobby Abreu and Aaron Heilman... all before signing Roger Clemens and coming in right at budget. It was a good dream. :cry:

Sooooookay...


JT Snow signed for $2 million to back up Youkilis at 1B. Solid move.

Millwood got way too much money with the Rangers, and it turns out the Red Sox really didn't make a big offer. Very good to hear.

There are still rumors about Wells being flipped for all sorts of guys. Hopefully they can work a way to get Lugo for SS for him.

The Sox still really want Reed... and now they may be willing to start pulling some triggers because...

**************************************************
******Manny says he doesn't want to be traded.*****
**************************************************

God Bless his crazy mother fucking Dominican heart....

Against RHP:

Lugo
Loretta
Ortiz
Ramirez
Nixon
Lowell
Varitek
Youkilis
Reed

Against LHP:

Lugo
Loretta
Ortiz
Ramirez
Lowell
Varitek
Youkilis
Nixon's platoon partner (Jason Michaels of PHI?)
Reed




... Okay, whatever... I'm still using guys that aren't on the team... I need to look through this thread to see how many line-ups I've had. :roll:

I'm happy the sox got Snow, he's an awesome player and a good guy in the clubhouse. I bet the sox can trade wells to some team for a good SS in the next month. If they pull it off, those line ups look damn good.

Okay... so... I'm pretty sure noone but me even check in around this place anymore... I'm still making this post though. For me, you know.


They pulled some triggers... I can't say they made great moves, but they did something.

They traded power hitting 3B prospect Marte... fuck it... he never got a uniform... never played a game for the organization at all... I'll pretend he was never on the team..

They traded Edgar Renteria and $11 of his salary, Guillermo... fuck it... I'm stopping again... he was never on the team... let me combine all the trades into one, okay?


The Red Sox gave up:
*Edgar Renteria (A SS who never would have succeeded in Boston)
$11 million over 3 years... chump change, really
*Hanley Ramirez (A SS prospect who has never lived up to hype and has started to plummet down prospect rankings)
*Anibal Sanchez (A fireballing young pitcher who never acheived anything past A ball... he's great, but guys like him aren't all that rare.)
*Doug Mirabelli (backup C yadda yadda)
Kelly Shoppach (C prospect. He's never going top be a star, and Boston was never going to let him just be the backup to Varitek.)
* 3 PTBNL type minor league pitchers. Whatever.
*Another $1 million in cash

The Red Sox get:
*Coco Crisp (Even if he only hits as well as he did last year he will be one of the top 5 offensive CF in the league. And his defense in CF... well it should be as good as Damon's anyway. Also, he's cheap and young.)
*Josh Beckett (Cheap. Young. Star. Ditto.)
*Mike Lowell (You know, you know.)
*Mark Loretta (Not bad.)
*David Riske (solid relief guy. Not spectacular, but very solid.)
*Josh Bard (backup C. Yadda yadda.)


And they signed a great defensive SS in Alex Gonzalez... who can't hit, I'll admit that... So...


CF ~ Potential upgrade... at least a wash.
1B ~ Defensive and offenisve upgrade.
2B ~ Defensive and offensive upgrade
SS ~ Defensive upgrade... offensive downgrade
3B ~ Defensive upgrade... potential offensive upgrade, atleast a wash
LF ~ Still Manny
RF ~ Still Trot
C ~ Still Varitek

Pitching is much better, too.


They're still going to trade Wells... for some prospects... maybe to the Dodgers, who knows.

I feel.. pretty good when io put it the way I put it.

I feel great about those trades as well- great breakdown of what the sox lost vs. what they got. I just wonder what kind of stuff they'll get for wells. i just can't wait for my southern california friends to be happy they got wells, then watch his mediocre performances. What have the yanks done to shore up their pitching? I haven't been really paying attention, but as far as I know they've concentrated a lot on offense, but not much on their pitching.

we might regret losing Marte a bit... who knows, though.

But, yeah, the Yankees.... haven't done a thing with their pitching since I last posted about them. There's nothing they can do, really.

Ofcourse they have Jaret Wright and Mike Mussina coming off the books after this season.. and Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Andy Pettite, and Brad Radke are all free agents next year... so... they'll restock next year anyway.

Okay, it's time for Justin's Super Amazing Pre-Season Wrap-Up And Flawless Prediction Post... (that is mostly just so he has it written down somewhere)

Frist the wrap-up portion of the program:

Wells decided that he didn't really want to be traded. Then he decided that he did want to be traded if he wasn't the #2 starter. Now he's backed off from that, too. He's staying. He might begin the season on the DL.

Arroyo signed a 3 year deal with a bit of a hometown discount. Now he has a new hometown. Should be a great trade for the Red Sox, though. The 7th starter for Wily Mo freakin' Pena? Crazy delicious.

They picked up Hee-Seop Choi off waivers and will stash him in AAA until they need him. Solid.

Graffanino is on waivers and will either be traded or released this week.

Now the Red Sox roster and some predictions. I do these every year. I try not to be too optimistic. I'm guessing that atleast one of Youkilis, Lowell, Nixon, and Gonzalez don't live up to my predicted numbers for one reason or another, though. Also, I assume no major injuries in the prediction, but someone will go down.


Name/AB/AVG/OBP/SLG/HR/RBI/R/2B
Coco Crisp/650/.315/.370/.490/20/80/120/47
Mark Loretta/575/.300/.365/.440/15/80/105/35
David Ortiz/605/.310/.410/.610/50/155/120/40
Manny Ramirez/550/.295/.395/.600/40/140/115/35
Trot Nixon/450/.280/.370/.500/15/75/70/25
Jason Varitek/465/.280/.360/.485/20/70/70/30
Mike Lowell/520/.275/.345/.475/20/90/80/40
Kevin Youklis/450/.275/.365/.410/10/65/70/30
Alex Gonzalez/520/.255/.315/.445/20/65/70/35
Wily Mo Pena/350/.265/.335/.550/27/70/50/20
Alex Cora/235/.240/.305/.345/5/30/25/10
Josh Bard/130/.225/.290/.355/1/15/10/7
J.T. Snow/250/.270/.345/.375/5/35/30/13
(Other players who will get ABs: Dustin Pedroia/Willie Harris/Adam Stern/Alejandro Machado/Hee-Seop Choi)

I'm not going to predict the picthers. It's too hard. Here they are, though

S1:Curt Schilling
S2:Tim Wakefield
S3:Josh Beckett
S4:Matt Clement
S5:David Wells
S6/LR/SU:Jonathon Papelbon
MR:David Riske
MR:Rudy Seanez
SU:Julian Tavarez
SU:Mike Timlin
CL:Keith Foulke

(Other guys who will get innings: Craig Hansen/Manny Del Carmen/John Lester/Lenny DiNardo/Abe Alvarez/Edgar Martinez/Randy Beam)


~~The AMAZING Division Predictions Where-In Justin Doesn't Bother To Even Out Wins And Losses Throughout The League~~

AL East
BOS 97-65
NYY 93-69
TOR 83-79
TB 75-87
BAL 65-97

AL Central
CLE 98-64
CHI 92-70
MIN 85-77
DET 69-93
KC 52-110

AL West
LAA 93-69
OAK 92-70
SEA 78-84
TEX 77-85

NL East
PHI 91-71
ATL 85-77
NYM 80-82
WAS 76-86
FLA 56-106

NL Central
STL 97-65
MIL 85-77
CHI 81-81
HOU 75-87
CIN 70-92
PIT 65-97

NL West
ARZ 86-76
SD 77-85
LA 72-90
SF 71-91
COL 62-100

Dang, you're crazy, but you like the Sox, so you're cool.

haha.

No, really. I've been doing this since I was... maybe 12. Usually it's on a piece of notebook paper, though. :lol:

Alright... here's my Patriots Day report.

Ummm... it;s only been two weeks and it's too early to know anything with confidence, but...

Anyone else have "Game 1 before his first AB" in the "When will Nomar go down first." pool?

Bronson Arroyo has hit more HR then he's given up.

The Tigers might end up a little better than I thought, but I still think they'll be below .500.

The Mets will fall apart.

The Royals really are as bad as their record.

Roger Clemens will play somewhere this year.

On the Red Sox... all of them.

Pitchers:

Jonathon Papelbon is the closer. He is going to close all year. He is going to have 40 saves and win Rookie of the Year. He's fucking electric. Grade: A

Keith Foulke still has some work to do to get get back to being a reliable set-up guy. He's also still hurting a bit. Grade: C-/B

Mike Timlin still has some gas left. They should be able to limit his appearences a little more this year to keep him fresh for the end. (I'd also like to add here that Mike Timlin has had the greatest career of any set-up man in history. Congratulations Mike.) Grade: B

Julian Tavarez is absolutely fucking nuts. He punched a man in the face for sliding into home during spring training... but he's a fantastic set-up man. I expect him and Timling to put up very similar numbers. Grade: B

Rudy Seanez looks pretty bad so far... has never done well in the AL... but it's only been a few innings and I've seen some nice curves... and he has had a solid career so far. Grade: D+

David Riske... back injury. Out untill May. Grade: INC

Jermaine Van Buren got called up. I don't know how I forgot to mention him before. Crazy motion. He's a little wild. Set the cubs minor league record for Saves in one season last year... major league ready, but I'm not sure if he'll be used much while he's up. He'll be sent down with the return of David Riske. Grade: INC

Lenny DiNardo will get a few starts while David Wells is out with injury. He could probaby be a very decent back of the rotation starter for any team in the league, but he'll probably be sent down when Wells comes back. Grade: C

David Wells made a start that he wasn't ready to make because he gets bonuses for every start game started. He's back in the DL with shakey knees and should be kept out for the next month, but might force his way back in 2 weeks. Grade: Asshat

Matt Clement had one good game and one bad... I'm sure he hasn't lost it entirely... I predict lots of good games and lots of bad games averaging out to... a little better than league average. Grade: C+

Tim Wakefield is Tim Wakefield is Tim Wakefield. Grade: Tim Wakefield

Curt Schilling is back. Bitches. Grade: A

What's that you say? Josh Beckett is winning the Cy Young this year? Grade: Fucking 'Ay!

Craig Hansen is working on an unorthodox "2-3 inning every 3 days" schedule in AA. Officially this is to refine his secondary pitches. Unofficially they are trying to see if he can start. In a bizzare ripple effect, if Hansen is capable of starting, Jonathon Papelbon could stick at closer for a few years.

Hitters:

Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz speak for themselves.

Coco Crisp broke his finger, but he looked great before that. He'll be back at some point this May.

Mark Loretta looks good batting 2nd and he looks good fielding 2B.

Trot Nixon tweaked his groin... what's new... but on the upside he made a quick recovery and started mashing again today.

Mike Lowell looks... pretty good.

Kevin Youkilis has been absolutely amazing in the field and has done a very good job leading off with Coco out.

Alex Gonzalez... uhhh... has looked good at SS.

Wily Mo Pena has made some ugly, ugly plays in RF... but he's 24 and atheletic and I still think he'll learn to play a nice RF. He's hit pretty well.. he still strikes out too much, but I think he's learning to take some pitches and get some walks... and of course he kills the ball when he mkaes contact. Goood God.

Alex Cora hasn't been able to show anything... who cares.

Josh Bard caught a complete game by Wakefiled and that's all I'm asking from him.

Adam Stern has shown that he deserves to be the Red Sox 4th outfielder next year. They might send him down before Coco comes back, though, and they certainly will after. Untill then he starts against righties.

Willie Harris is going to come up whenever Adam Stern goes down. He's a prototypical 25th man and has done a pretty good job of that in his career. If he comes up before Coco is back he'll get some starts against righties.

Dustan Mohr is probably going to be traded or DFA'd when Coco comes back. He'll start in CF whenever Stern or Harris aren't untill that point.


Umm... I went a little overboard here...