1967, what a great year! From the start of spring training, you knew something was different. Starting with Dick Williams. When asked what his expectations for the coming year were, he replied, "we'll win more than we'll lose." It was exciting from start to finish. Young players and veterans came together like magic. What would be the excitement level if Bradley was in the outfield and Bogaerts was at short. And why not Wright every fifth day with De La Rosa and Webster coming in from the bullpen throwing close to 100mph. I know it isn't the way things are done nowadays. I'm told it's not prudent.  Let them get their at bats and build up their innings at the minor league levels. But I can dream the  "Impossible Dream".

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I imagine if we were the Marlins, A's or the such, but we already have a roster set so thers no need to rush anyone up this year and possibly waste valuable development time as well as a yearof control. Thats not to say that we wont see a couple before seasons end.

But I can dream the  "Impossible Dream".

 

live your deam

In response to Triumph-'s comment:

Dat a boy,   MR.  NEGATIVE !!!!!

Jackie Bradley swung/missed at a Jaime Garcia changeup then reached on a grounder off Garcia's glove. He's reached base six straight times.

Jaime Garcia has gotten JBJ to swing and miss at three sliders so far.

Clayton Mortensen allows a three-run double. He had given up one run in his previous 19 spring training innings before that.

If we had traded Ellsbury for Bauer and Lester for Myers...

 

C Salty/Ross/Lava

1b Middlebrooks

2b Pedey

3b Bogaerts

Ss Iggy

LF Brentz/Nava

CF Bradley

RF Myers

SP Buch, Lackey, Doub and 2 from: Morales, Bauer, DLR, Webster, Taz, Wright

The money spent on Dempster, Naps, SV, Drew, and Gomes could have netted us A Sanchez and a power RF'er or LF'er (Myers plays the other).

 

Tell me this would not have been a fantastic team to watch this year! (Even without Sanchez or a big bat and with SV in RF instead and maybe McCarthy or Marcum as another SP.)

I think 2014 is when we see JBJ and Rubby as serious team contributors with Xander and Webster in 2015... 2015 is the year (hopefully) that the Sox begin a stretch where they are in serious contention every year. I think thats Bens Plan. 2015 Papi is retired, Gomes gone, Dempster Gone, Drew gone, Ross Gone, Shane in his last year as backup outfelder or trade candidate. Its tough to go from terrible to Amazing, you need some mediocre years ie Washington, Toronto, A's ect ect.

Where would Boegarts play?

In response to BosoxJoe5's comment:

I actually want see him at 3B, WMB at 1B, Iggy at SS

i just think its funny that Middlebrooks wasn't ready last year. Nope, gotta wait till next year. Look what happend.  I firmly don't believe that the jump from AA ball to the bigs is that great. A lot of AAA players are career minor leaguers.  A year of control? Oh boy. What a disaster. Who cares?? If they can play, they can play. Period. Would you rather have JBR, XB etc learning from the likes of Ells, Papi, Pedrioa ext or whoever they have at Pawtucket? I put Webster at AAA for a few months, maybe until June.  I carry De La Rosa on the 25 man, and supplant starts with him with either Doobie or Morales or whomever, split starts or whatnot. 

Worst case scenario. Trade deadline and you ship Drew, Napoli, Victorino out and get whatever in return. If needed package Bucholz, Ellsbury(depending on production) for a stud OF(Could be a JBR type prospect). Then I make sure I bring up the "Kids" and let them play.  So much can change, but I ask, if JBR has a better spring than Nava, Sweeney dare I say Victorino, does he stay or get sent back? Shouldn't the best player stay?

In response to moonslav59's comment:

Imagine how good the team would be if we traded Pimentel for Myers.  

No offense Moon but the trades aren't realistic.  Maybe I'm wrong, but IMO Lester and Ells had significantly lower market value this winter than you think.  Plus, your starting 9 has three players who combined have less than 20 ABs above AA ball and a fourth who has yet to have an OPS above .625 in AAA.  That isn't a recipe for success of the team or for the prospects themselves.  Could you aggressively promote one, maybe even two prospects? Yes.  Can you expect success from a team with only 8 veterans on the 25 man roster? Certainly not.  Forget damage to the team's reputation and brand ... the potential damage to the young players is too much to risk.

 

As constructed this team has potential to be sneaky good.  And no, it doesn't require everything to go just right.  It only requires less bad luck than we had in the past two years (which was a bad run of epic proportions).  They have plenty of room to add salary.  If the prospects appear ready to help, they can trade vets without making the team worse.  If they are out of contention they can be net sellers with an eye to the future.  They've got a lot of options right now.  This is not my dream team by a long shot but I like the progress over the last 6 months.

In response to seannybboi's comment:

Iggy cannot hit the baseball at the ML level, barely at the AAA level. Until he can he should be buried at AAA where he cannot hurt us.

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eidlog aka EdithBunker aka 2004Idiots

Opening Day lineup-1967

12 José Tartabull CF 1 Joe Foy 3B 8 Carl Yastrzemski LF 25 Tony Conigliaro RF 5 George Scott 1B 7 Reggie Smith 2B 6 Rico Petrocelli SS 22 Mike Ryan C 16 Jim Lonborg P

In response to eidlog's comment:

problem  is all of the kids were with the team the previous year. Smith and Andrews the least.
So it would be similar but you are asking for guys to make the AA or AAA jump big difference

 

In response to 111SoxFan111's comment:
[QUOTE]

In response to moonslav59's comment:

 

If we had traded Ellsbury for Bauer and Lester for Myers...

 

C Salty/Ross/Lava

1b Middlebrooks

2b Pedey

3b Bogaerts

Ss Iggy

LF Brentz/Nava

CF Bradley

RF Myers

SP Buch, Lackey, Doub and 2 from: Morales, Bauer, DLR, Webster, Taz, Wright

The money spent on Dempster, Naps, SV, Drew, and Gomes could have netted us A Sanchez and a power RF'er or LF'er (Myers plays the other).

 

Tell me this would not have been a fantastic team to watch this year! (Even without Sanchez or a big bat and with SV in RF instead and maybe McCarthy or Marcum as another SP.)

 

Imagine how good the team would be if we traded Pimentel for Myers.  

 

No offense Moon but the trades aren't realistic.  Maybe I'm wrong, but IMO Lester and Ells had significantly lower market value this winter than you think.

Dude, the Indians traded Choo for Bauer. How much "lower" is Ellsbury's value? I'd say none. Perhaps we might have had to pay some of his contract at worst.

There was a rumor that the Sox turned down the Lester for Myers deal and then gave more prospects to get Shields- about an equal value as Lester. (They also got Wade Davis.) I'm pretty sure that a Lester for Myers deal was certainly realistic.

 

 Plus, your starting 9 has three players who combined have less than 20 ABs above AA ball and a fourth who has yet to have an OPS above .625 in AAA.  That isn't a recipe for success of the team or for the prospects themselves.  Could you aggressively promote one, maybe even two prospects? Yes.  Can you expect success from a team with only 8 veterans on the 25 man roster? Certainly not.  Forget damage to the team's reputation and brand ... the potential damage to the young players is too much to risk.

 We could have gotten a role player here and there to lessen the burden of bringing up so many prospects at once, but I don't buy the "high risk" argument about bringing some of these guys up. I never said all would come up at once, but listed what was possible.

8 Vets? The roster would have had 10 just on the pitching staff with the other 2 slots being won by Bauer, DLR, Webster, Wright, Tazawa, or maybe a vet in Bard, Mortensen, or someone out of nowhere:

Buch, Lackey, Doub, Morales, Hanarahan, Bailey, Uehara, Aceves, Breslow, Miller.

Then there would be these vets: Salty, Ross, Papi, Pedey

The only prospects would be, at most, 6-7 : Myers, Bradley, Bogaerts, Iggy and maybe 2 starting pitchers (and maybe Lava or another pitcher).

 

As constructed this team has potential to be sneaky good.

So do 24 other teams.

 And no, it doesn't require everything to go just right.  It only requires less bad luck than we had in the past two years (which was a bad run of epic proportions).  

How much "less bad luck"?

They have plenty of room to add salary.

Not really, if we are going to stay under the luxury limit. Yes, enough for a deadline pick-up (2 months of pay), but not really a lot.

 If the prospects appear ready to help, they can trade vets without making the team worse.  If they are out of contention they can be net sellers with an eye to the future.  They've got a lot of options right now.  This is not my dream team by a long shot but I like the progress over the last 6 months.

The best part of this winter is the chance we might get someone valuable in trade this July from one of our signees.

I wasn't trying to say all the kids should be penciled in for FT duty in 2013, but my point was that the team I listed would have been very exciting to watch... to me, more so than the one we have now.

 

In response to pumpsie-green's comment:

Yet the career .299 OBP guy in the minors makes the team?

(Ciriaco)

Please explain.

How 'bout JBJ?

Sure!  It's dreaming, but I like the sentiment!

I can't wait to see DeLaRossa come up!  Last years mega-star-dump trade may be the best deal of the century!  - 1/4 billion $$$   + DeLaRossa :)

This kid's development should be expedited!

In response to moonslav59's comment:

Neither has made the team yet. And of the two, Ciriaco has had much better success at the ML level

In response to pumpsie-green's comment:

Ciriaco is better than Iggy. right now.

not to mention with Ciriaco he isn't going to get much better so spending time in AAA isn't going to do him much good.

Iggy is much much younger and can still develop and get much much better so AAA is the perfect palce for him.

Red Sox management has bought long term on old Shane, paying 10 million for Ellsbury's FA ticket, gone two years on old Dumpster, and spent nearly 200 million in total labor contract and benefit costs.

While some of the players you list may need a cheap placeholder, you are correct that what Red Sox management has done is pay a fortune for an old barge full of garbage. They should have lined up one year cheap contracts for veteran placeholders, and immediately lined up the process of moving the young talent up the ranks and investing the time in the future instead of losers from the past.