Boston Red Sox offseason thread

[Joe Barrie]

If there were any questions that the Shaughnessy twisted and turned any quote from anyone made so as to fit the narrative the Shaughnessy wanted, I guess it should be clear now: http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-s...medium=twitter

Assuming that Edes doesn't also have an agenda (who knows?), I find it interesting that Epstein seems to be so forthcoming and positive in this situation. Was this the case when Epstein disappeared from the scene several years ago, and was he so fond of ownership then?

[Therwil Flyer]

Assuming that Edes doesn't also have an agenda (who knows?), I find it interesting that Epstein seems to be so forthcoming and positive in this situation. Was this the case when Epstein disappeared from the scene several years ago, and was he so fond of ownership then?

Ownership, in the Sox' case, consists of three different persons. I bet Theo has very different feelings to these three persons, as I am sure he had back then.

[Boston Boxer]

so, i guess this is the team. Certainly not "sexy", but should be a watchable team. A lot of interesting story lines this year and i much rather be the underdog. I am interested in:
- how does Lackey look this year
- how does Bard bounce back
- how is Papi heel
- excited about a full season of Middlebrooks
- the young guys should get plenty of playing time to prove thier worth (Nava/Kalish)
- do Lester and Buchholz pull thier head out and pitch like they should
- would love to see de la Rosa in the rotation

[Joe Barrie]

so, i guess this is the team. Certainly not "sexy", but should be a watchable team. A lot of interesting story lines this year and i much rather be the underdog. I am interested in:
- how does Lackey look this year
- how does Bard bounce back
- how is Papi heal
- excited about a full season of Middlebrooks
- the young guys should get plenty of playing time to prove thier worth (Nava/Kalish)
- do Lester and Buchholz pull thier head out and pitch like they should
- would love to see de la Rosa in the rotation

Don't forget Ellsbury, who has just signed for about $1 million more than the Giants will pay Buster Posey.

[Blue387]

Terry Francona interviewed about his book on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/19/169362...rbulent-tenure

They also have an excerpt of the book.

[Therwil Flyer]

So, the secret is out, Mike Napoli has avascular necrosis in both hips. According to the reports he is asymptomatic which means he shouldn't be affected too much...until his hip collapses which could pretty much happen at any time. FRom what I understand avascular necrosis is essentially bone cells dying because the blood supply to those cells is disrupted (You can read more about it here).

[Boston Boxer]

So, the secret is out, Mike Napoli has avascular necrosis in both hips. According to the reports he is asymptomatic which means he shouldn't be affected too much...until his hip collapses which could pretty much happen at any time. FRom what I understand avascular necrosis is essentially bone cells dying because the blood supply to those cells is disrupted (You can read more about it here).

ya, the poor guy cant have much of a career left with that type thing going on in his hip. He probably will be fine this year but i doubt he gets any contract after that

[SDL]

So, the secret is out, Mike Napoli has avascular necrosis in both hips. According to the reports he is asymptomatic which means he shouldn't be affected too much...until his hip collapses which could pretty much happen at any time. FRom what I understand avascular necrosis is essentially bone cells dying because the blood supply to those cells is disrupted (You can read more about it here).

Bo Jackson.

[Joe Barrie]

Bo Jackson.

Wonder why he has avascular necrosis of his hips. The first really sizeable malpractice suit award in Massachusetts was for someone who developed this condition after being given steroids for a reason I don't remember.

I hope this isn't the case here.

[Dude Paskert]

Ownership, in the Sox' case, consists of three different persons. I bet Theo has very different feelings to these three persons, as I am sure he had back then.

The whole gorilla suit thing was a power struggle with Lucchino, a major jerk who tries to take credit for things in which he had no involvement. Theo was able to leverage the recent success of the team into getting what he wanted in that case.

[Therwil Flyer]

Wonder why he has avascular necrosis of his hips. The first really sizeable malpractice suit award in Massachusetts was for someone who developed this condition after being given steroids for a reason I don't remember.

I hope this isn't the case here.

I was wondering how long it would take until the link between steroids and Napoli's condition was made. Initially, I was under the impression that it's use of corticosteroids rather your typical PEDs that are listed among possible reasons that can cause AVN. But I was told that performance enhancing steroids can possibly be linked to the condition as well.

At this point, we can only hope that he is indeed asymptomatic, as he says he is, and that his hips hold up for the entire 2013 season. That and getting a decent backup for him!

[Therwil Flyer]

The whole gorilla suit thing was a power struggle with Lucchino, a major jerk who tries to take credit for things in which he had no involvement. Theo was able to leverage the recent success of the team into getting what he wanted in that case.

A well documented power struggle that the "right" side won (as far as I am concerned). My point was simply that while we often refer to ownership, Henry, Lucchino and Werner are three different persons with different goals and agendas. So simply saying the ownership was this or that might in some cases be oversimplifying things...

[SwissRedSoxFan]

Ryan Kalish suddendly needs surgery on his shoulder and is likely out until June or so. This injury was known in September already. It seems as if the Reed Sox have a tendency to first take the alternate route and then go with the surgery. It cost Curt Schilling playing time, it did the same to Carl Crawford and now with Kalish. They need to stop trying to be smarter than the rest, when it comes down to surgeries. Kalish should have been ready for spring training.

They now signed Ryan Sweeney, which is a good thing. Sweeney/Gomes in LF. Good combination imo.

[Therwil Flyer]

Ryan Kalish suddendly needs surgery on his shoulder and is likely out until June or so. This injury was known in September already. It seems as if the Reed Sox have a tendency to first take the alternate route and then go with the surgery. It cost Curt Schilling playing time, it did the same to Carl Crawford and now with Kalish. They need to stop trying to be smarter than the rest, when it comes down to surgeries. Kalish should have been ready for spring training.

They now signed Ryan Sweeney, which is a good thing. Sweeney/Gomes in LF. Good combination imo.

Was it? Because back in November he had this to say:

"I'm ready to roll," he said, adding there was "no doubt" he'd be 100 percent for the first day of spring training

http://blogs.providencejournal.com/s...-for-once.html

Anyways, this sucks. 2013 was going to be a bit of a make or break year for him. But these constant offseason injuries really set his development back. I didn't know he was Jed Lowrie's twin...

[Dogdaze]

At this point, we can only hope that he is indeed asymptomatic, as he says he is, and that his hips hold up for the entire 2013 season. That and getting a decent backup for him!

Hopefully Napoli's hip is not an issue in 2013, but I stand by my previous post that I believe Gomez is a decent replacement if Napoli goes on the DL. I'm not saying he’ll be great, but I think Gomez will be decent, and with this team as currently assembled looking to me like a non playoff team, I feel it wouldn’t hurt us anyway if Gomez was a replacement if Napoli gets injured since we probably won’t make the playoffs anyway.

But having stated that, I would like to see the Sox get a LH hitting OF who can play 1st.

There’s really not much available though the Rockies could be a potential trading partner since they have five players that can play 1st base. Two of which can play OF and 1st.

Besides their starting 1st baseman, Todd Helton, the Rox have;
Michael Cuddyer - RF/1st – BR – age 34
Tyler Colvin - 1st/OF – BL – age 27
Ryan Wheeler - 3rd/1st – BL – age 24
Jordan Pacheco - 3rd/1st – BR – age 27

The player that would best suit our current need might be Tyler Colvin since he bats left and can play all three OF positions as well as 1st base. His 2012 lefty/righty splits were;

Colvin vs RHP hit .297/.334/.556
Colvin vs LHP hit .270/.302/.450

One potential caveat with Colvin is that he hit well at home at Coors field, a well known hitters park and not very well away, so he may not be that great of a hitter for us, though he’s still young with potential, so I believe he’d hit fairly well. His home/road splits in 2012 were;

Home: .338/.380/.652
Away: .244/.274/.413

I don’t know if were a match in trade with the Rox or if they’d consider trading Colvin but from what I’ve read the Rox need pitching. Last year for a while they went with a 4 man rotation and may do so again this year. If they do they'll need good relievers, something we might have in trade. Since Colvin is still young, hit well for the Rox, is versatile and has good potential, the asking price may be higher then we’d like, but considering that they have a need for relief pitchers maybe they’d consider one of ours in trade.

[Dogdaze]

Ryan Kalish suddendly needs surgery on his shoulder and is likely out until June or so. This injury was known in September already. It seems as if the Reed Sox have a tendency to first take the alternate route and then go with the surgery. It cost Curt Schilling playing time, it did the same to Carl Crawford and now with Kalish. They need to stop trying to be smarter than the rest, when it comes down to surgeries. Kalish should have been ready for spring training.

They now signed Ryan Sweeney, which is a good thing. Sweeney/Gomes in LF. Good combination imo.

Kalish is out yet again, I was hoping he'd platoon with Gomes, but I guess not now, such a bummer.

Signing Sweeney is a pretty good move, though I don't consider him great, he could be decent platooning with Gomes.

[SwissRedSoxFan]

Kalish is out yet again, I was hoping he'd platoon with Gomes, but I guess not now, such a bummer.

Signing Sweeney is a pretty good move, though I don't consider him great, he could be decent platooning with Gomes.

I think a healthy Sweeney is better than a healthy Kalish right now. Kalish would need some seasoning anyway, because there is still hope he can stay on the field against LHP too. In Boston that would not be the case, thats why he would be best suited to stay in Pawtucket.

Sweeney was great before he injured himself, he hitabove .300. I liked his style of play.

[SwissRedSoxFan]

Was it? Because back in November he had this to say:

http://blogs.providencejournal.com/s...-for-once.html

Anyways, this sucks. 2013 was going to be a bit of a make or break year for him. But these constant offseason injuries really set his development back. I didn't know he was Jed Lowrie's twin...

"In September, his right shoulder injury prevented him from swinging over the final three weeks of the season. However, the assumption was rest, strengthening and rehab would address the issue.
Again, it did not, and so now Kalish faces surgery at a time when his teammates will be getting ready to report to spring training. For the fourth time in seven professional years, he'll miss a considerable chunk of the year due to an injury". Alex Speier...

I guess a young player hasnt the guts to say, that he would go another way than the Red Sox want him to. It has happened multiple times so far. And I think it is a tendency, that has been proven to be wrong in the near past at least.

[SwissRedSoxFan]

Heard this: After the new Yankee/A-Rod drug scandal, the 2009 WS flag shall be put at half mast from now on, since the title was tainted from the beginning.

[Boston Boxer]

Heard this: After the new Yankee/A-Rod drug scandal, the 2009 WS flag shall be put at half mast from now on, since the title was tainted from the beginning.

i dont know who is the bigger idiot...AFRAUD for doing PEDs and roids over and over again, or the Yankees who still owe him something like 5 years and $114M.

[Boston Boxer]

what the hell happened to coach Tuck??? he just left the team (on his own according to the Sox). That sucks

[SwissRedSoxFan]

i dont know who is the bigger idiot...AFRAUD for doing PEDs and roids over and over again, or the Yankees who still owe him something like 5 years and $114M.

Birds of a feather flock together.

Still I think it's Steinbrenner. A-Rod opted out of the richest contract and Steinbrenner gave him a ten year deal without any pressure from other bidders. Hilarious.

[Joe Barrie]

Back to Terry Francona, Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College professor who writes much about sports financing, was quite critical of Francona's book in a column in today's Boston Globe. Zimbalist seems to feel that the attacks on the owners are unjustified, and that Francona lost control of the club on his own.

I have no clue, myself, but I do wonder what others think of this.

[SDL]

Back to Terry Francona, Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College professor who writes much about sports financing, was quite critical of Francona's book in a column in today's Boston Globe. Zimbalist seems to feel that the attacks on the owners are unjustified, and that Francona lost control of the club on his own.

I have no clue, myself, but I do wonder what others think of this.

I've long regarded Zimbalist as an idiot.

[Therwil Flyer]

I've long regarded Zimbalist as an idiot.

I read a paper he wrote a couple of years back and thought it was quite interesting. But I have to admit I haven't read anything recent. Any specific reasons for your feelings towards him?

But I am not sure what puts him in the position to judge ownership or Francona.