Re: Peter Abraham on Fixing the Sox for 2013
posted at 8/17/2012 7:15 PM EDT
In Response to
Re: Peter Abraham on Fixing the Sox for 2013:
• David Ortiz made a pretty good case for returning in 2013 at the same salary when he was playing. His case got even stronger once he went to the DL. The Sox lineup is not remotely as dangerous without David. Peter, a disciple of Softlaw checking in. Your first bullet point, is that alright to say without harrassment from the Black Panther Party or Eric Holder, is 100% correct, which reflects poorly on the racist fans who, for years, have wanted "that money spent elsewhere". I'm happy for David, because ownership has used Red Sox fan animus to put the GM's office into the hard line approach. Now, most Red Sox fans will be meek over the winter and management will have to temper it's hard line approach. It's really simple, Ortiz has earned his golden parachute and/or one welfare year contract, whereas Crawford, Ellsbury, Beckett, Wakefield and Varitek did not. Ortiz is the only veteran Red Sox player who has produced at a higher league level for every contract year. Disrespected, you betcha! Pink hats are still slobbering over Ellsbury, who has a problem showing up for work, even though he's in his twenties. Ortiz is an easy case. A year later he is no longer worth the arbitration pay raise because of age, high miles and recent injury status. During the window for FA negotiations for the Red Sox, if Ortiz passes de facto physical test, offer Ortiz a 2 year deal at base 8 with maximum CBA allowed performance options. Likely that Ortiz won't be able to deliver over 2 years, but he's earned the golden parachute. If Ortiz isn't able to recover from the injury, offer him a lifetime services/consultant contract of some sort. • It's easy to understand why Red Sox players don't like playing for Bobby Valentine. He has his own way of doing things and he's not particularly interested in propping you up emotionally. He wants to be their manager, not their friend. But what did the players think was going to happen when they got Terry Francona fired? The Red Sox weren't going to hire Francona's bench coach or one of Francona's friends or a young Francona. They were going to look for the anti-Francona and that's Valentine. The players created this mess and invited Valentine in. If they liked playing for Francona so much, they shouldn't have had the worst collapse in the history of baseball and disrespected the guy at the same time. Francona said on his way out that he felt like he lost the clubhouse. Did the players think ownership didn't hear that? The players' player lack of leadership is 100% the problem. You have used a lot of words, but you are correct that it's not about the manager. • The Sox have an interesting decision to make with their catchers. Jarrod Saltalamacchia is hitting .229 with a .285 OBP and that negates his power to some degree. It's also tough to ignore that the team was 26-16 when Kelly Shoppach started. Salty clearly was nothing more than back-up catcher and back-up first baseman. You are 100% correct on the fact that Salty isn't cutting it in the starting catcher role, which is why a very smart Daniels put him in the Texas dumpster. Now is probably the time to see what Ryan Lavarnway can do. Then a good decision can be made. Actually, they should already know what Lavarnway can do. They should have moved on from Salty (trade plus he has an option) and cheaply extended Shoppach to a short term contract, and gone ahead with Lavarnway's sink or swim test. • The people at Pawtucket say that Jose Iglesias is making better contact in recent weeks and looks much more comfortable at the plate. But it's worrisome that he has only 11 extra-base hits all season. Mark Belanger hit .228 and helped the Orioles win a lot of games with his glove. But at this point, Iglesias may not hit .228. The reality is that all a top fielding SS has to do to earn his starting keep is possess good fundamentals on bunting/sacrifice and making contact with the right swing to proficiently move runners up. A SS who kills rallies, with his glove, gives pitchers confidence and changes the W/L record more than the box score slash line of a UIF'er like Aviles. Most fans look at SS as a hitting position, which is why the incompetent InEpstein and Cherry continue to keep trying to find slugging at the position. They times they, by default, ended up with good fielding SS, they didn't have a clue what it brought the team. Between Iglesias and Ciriaco, the Red Sox don't need to spend big on a SS, and they need to write down Punto, over the winter, and trade Aviles for a farm scrap. Who cares that Aviles can hit it over the green wall between his minor league OBP, he can't make the tough plays in critical game moments, at SS. Aviles has more value traded than as the UIF for the Red Sox. • Would love to see Ryan Kalish play a bunch of games this winter in the Dominican Republic. Bet that would get his career on track. Kalish missed an entire season or more, and has very little consistent time and position in the majors. Barring further long time out from injuries, Kalish will end up, worst case, a capable platoon OF'er. I think he will end up with a career that includes several seasons as a MLB season starting OF'er. • Wonder if Jon Lester and Tim Lincecum, two 28-year-olds from the state of Washington, ever talk? Lester is 6-10, 5.20 with a 1.37 WHIP over 24 starts and 147 innings. Lincecum is 6-13, 5.45 with a 1.50 WHIP over 25 starts and 140.1 innings. Maybe Lester should grow his hair long and Lincecum should get a crew cut. Can't hurt. Lester's issues are a fragile confidence. Due to Beckett's lack of leadership, Lester has not responded well to being the stopper. Lester will return to his better form, already had a good last start, once Buch is officially the quiet but top Red Sox starter and Beckett is long gone. I'm not worried about Lester, but Tim pitches in the NL and is very slightly built and has not shown Pedro like talent in the AL. I'll bet on Lester, over Tim, over the next 3 or 4 years. • Attention Red Sox: An easy way to improve your public image would be to ask Josh Beckett to take down the novelty bottle opener that says "First Class White Trash" hanging from his locker. It shows up in every TV interview he does. Of course, somebody in the organization would have to come up with the moxie to ask Josh to do something first. Beckett represents The Problem, as the failed players' leadership. However, it's his poor work ethic and failure to make he and his fellow players individually accountable that is The Problem. He is the antithesis of Schilling. But to pick on his bottle opener speech is both PC and intellectually weak. Why not timidly tread on the IPOD songs you hear coming from Carl Crawford. Beckett is that white trash that Obama referred to in his racial slur ,"they" cling to their Bibles and Guns. Unfortunately, Beckett isn't clinging to his Bible like he clings to his guns. • Kevin Youkilis is hitting .198 since the All-Star break. Wonder if the Yankees would sign him on the cheap over the winter as A-Rod insurance? Right idea, wrong profile. The Yankees would be better off singing Ortiz, if they want to sign a one year DH/backup 1B contract. Much better value and fit, and less of washing up. Youk, as much as I like what he brought to the Red Sox, is now washed up as a starter. At best, he's a platoon guy and the Yankees can find a better A-Rod insurance fit than Youk. • Here are four moves to fix the Red Sox for 2013: No. 1: Trade Josh Beckett and $20 million of his remaining $31.5 million to the Braves for shortstop pospect Tyler Pastornicky. Right concept, at least No. 2: Trade Jacoby Ellsbury for a starter. How about Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers? Ellsbury is going to impossible to sign, or exceedingly costly. Get pitching back now before it's too late. Ellsbury is going to be "impossible to sign" because he's not worth/value what the market will bring, which will be less than Crawford. When the Red Sox got the surprise career year, after AGon was brought in, they should have traded him last winter for J. Upton type of profile. Yes, blocked prospects and Ellsbury for 2 years plus high draft compesnation would have done that trade. No. 3: Sign free agent James Shields (assuming the Rays don't pick up his option). He can handle the AL East. Shields is a bum. He has high miles and the Rays are sticking him in their dumpster for reasons beyond his market value. He'd fit right in to the Red Sox Country Clubhouse. No. 4: Release John Lackey. Or trade him for whatever you can get, maybe somebody else's bad contract. Eating $30.50 million would sting. But it would be worth twice as much in positive publicity and send a clear message to the fan base that it's a new era. Beckett needs to be gone over the winter. Lackey will need to be able to pitch marginally so he passes the de facto physical. Then will be the time to do what you are correclty stating. This creates a rotation of Lester, Buchholz, Shields, Billingsley and Doubront. Make Franklin Morales a long reliever/spot starter. Rotation should not include Little Game James and/or Billingsley: It should be: Buchholz Lester Doubrant One year low single digits veteran/farm One year low single digits veteran/farm One year low single digits veteran/farm x 4 for depth Bettern to spend base 10 to 12M on 4 or 5 veteran pitchers, plus allowed performance incentives, than to spend on bums like Shields and Billingsley, to return to the Lackey method. Felix is the only pitcher good enough and young enough to take on multi-year big contract status. No, there isn't a Schilling 2004 or a young Bekcett 2006 out there. Why not text message the Phillies on Cliff Lee? That was a joke;)
Posted by TrotterNixon
i didn't know they piled sh1t this high.
