The Official 2013 Boston Red Sox Thread

Gotcha. Yeah I'd probably go with Lilly then. There's nothing sexy about him but he won't kill your ERA or be at a risk to be put in the pen anytime soon.

 

Before this weekend his SLG % was under .450 and Carl Crawford actually had a higher SLG %. He's still avergaing about 3 HRs per month which would give him 18 HRs a year. The guy can still hit, no one is denying that, it's just his power that's the question mark and still is. If he's not hitting 30 plus HRs a year he's an overpay.

 

Should have known better. Never bet on Gonzalez, he never comes through. Plus after going like 92 for 94 over the weekend you knew he was going to hit the law of averages sooner or later.

 

After last night I'm starting to think of how nice Cliff Lee would look in a Red Sox uniform.

However his age and that amount left on that contract doesn't look too good. Unless of course he continues pitching like he has since 2008. If any team could take on that contract it's the Sox.

 

A lot of it is for show and some of that is for him to use as motivation. He's a typical "if he was on the team you root for you'd love him but if he's not you'll probably hate him" player.

I will say he's very popular among players in the MLB. You'd think with a guy that talks that much smack he would rub people the wrong way but he doesn't.

Maybe your buddies caught him on a bad day(s) (or perhaps I caught him on a good day(s)) but I've seen him plenty of times go over and sign for kids before the games and he and the rest of the roster do a nice job during ST signing for fans.

 

Yeah then I don't blame him. The majority of pros won't sign for adults for fear of them turning around and selling the autograph. A lot of pros don't even like signing for kids sometimes because they can tell the kid is only doing it for an adult, especially if they have multiple items.

 

Ah not trying to defend him by any means, because I don't know him as a person, but could be he just wants to play the game and then get home. Or if it's before a game he needs to prepare. Or maybe he just didn't like your friends....

 

And another HR. He might break 20 HRs this year!!!

Looks like Carl Crawford is slowly starting to come back down to earth now. And Beckett is feeling numbness in his fingers.

 

Anthony Ranaudo pitched very well again last night for Double A while Xander Bogaerts went 3 for 4 with 2 HRs and 5 RBI.

It seems like almost every top Sox prospect is having a good start to the year, even Barnes has righted the ship after a rough few outings.

Keith Law also posted a few days ago his updated top 25 prospects in the minor leagues (the list excluded any prospect currently in the MLB like Profar) and Bogaerts made the list at #3 (he was ranked 5 at the start of the year) while Garrin Cecchini made the list at #23 (he wasn't ranked in Law's original top 100 back in Feb).

By the way Alex Speier does a daily minor league round up over at WEEI.com which is worth checking out as is soxprospects.com too.

 

Yes I have insider. Law has Gary Sanchez at 16 as far as top 25 prospects. With the draft goes OF Billy McKinney from a TX high school, Law also says they have OF Austin Wilson from Stanford on their radar.

Law is going to have 2 more mock drafts between now and next Thursday's draft.

 

Got to take the best player available in the draft. The MLB draft doesn't work like the NFL or NBA. Players are sometimes 4 or 5 years away before that make it to the show and often times don't play the same position that they were originally drafted as.

 

Best player available, always. Law thinks there's a small chance Mark Appel could reach to them, which would be fanfreakingtastic.

I would think no matter what sport you're in you'd always take the BPA. Why reach for a lower level/ceiling player just to fit a short term need? You could be passing up a potential superstar or future trading chip.

 

But don't you have to factor in the age, contract status and talent of the current WR on the roster too? I guess it's not always like that or as simple. I mean why would the Colts or Pats draft a QB with their first pick in the mid 2000s when Brady and Manning where locked up and in their primes. So yeah I get your point.

 

I'd be shocked if Beckett retired and thus leaving $15.750M on the table. I'd guess there's probably something wrong with his arm, probably has been pitching with a bum arm for years now and he'll get whatever surgery and try to at least rehab it before simply just walking away. I mean when was the last time we saw a pro player do that?

As far as the trade, it's something that won't really be measured until a few years out but yeah even with both Crawford and Gonzalez hitting well the first 2 months of this season I still can't believe how much money the Dodgers took on with that trade. It just wasn't a smart baseball or business decision.

And the Yankees aren't the only ones kicking themselves, the Phillies probably could have packaged Cliff Lee and Ryan Howard and sent them to LA too at that time, since the Dodgers put it a waiver claim for Lee.

 

Looks like when Middlebrooks comes off the DL, Iglesias might stay with the Sox as the utility infielder thus the Sox will have to DFA Pedro Ciriaco (no big loss). If that happens I wouldn't be shocked to see the Sox send Xander Bogaerts to Triple A as he's been dominating Double A thus far. The kid is going to be a stud.

 

Very strange.