Up until the mega-deal last year, we were 9 games out of the WC with 35 games left. Still a chance to make the PS, albeit a slim one. So, unless management decides to blow up the roster again, and we are looking at .500 ball at the AS break again, don't count the Sox out.

The roster is pretty much cobbled together, but there are guys, Gomes, Vic, Dempster and now Sweeney, with something to prove. Like anything else, they have to believe in themselves. Heart is the one intangible that seems forgotten. 

Allibike does it once again. He pretends to be a concerned Red Sox fan and chums out some bait behind his fishing boat and behold he gets a school of irritated fans to follow and grab the bait.  The fish never learn. The other boats in the harbor are owned by Schumpeter, Georom, and Softlaw.

In response to Alibiike's comment:

Up until the mega-deal last year, we were 9 games out of the WC with 35 games left. Still a chance to make the PS, albeit a slim one. So, unless management decides to blow up the roster again, and we are looking at .500 ball at the AS break again, don't count the Sox out.

The roster is pretty much cobbled together, but there are guys, Gomes, Vic, Dempster and now Sweeney, with something to prove. Like anything else, they have to believe in themselves. Heart is the one intangible that seems forgotten. 

+1

and you wanna talk about people with something to prove?? how about the underachievers who were on the roster last year?? Pedey, Ells, Lester, Buch, Bailey and Bard among others. Then you have guys like Drew and Lackey who are trying to re-establish their value. No one is expecting big things from us this year. This is the perfect preamble for some good baseball. No lofty expectations, NO Bobby V to make any situation worse and invite drama. Just Guys with grit and pride who are determined to break the conceptions people have of them. IDK about you guys but i'm glad we're low key this season. Looking forward to hearing about baseball and not secret text messages or dysfunction.

In response to mef429's comment:

In response to Alibiike's comment:

Up until the mega-deal last year, we were 9 games out of the WC with 35 games left. Still a chance to make the PS, albeit a slim one. So, unless management decides to blow up the roster again, and we are looking at .500 ball at the AS break again, don't count the Sox out.

The roster is pretty much cobbled together, but there are guys, Gomes, Vic, Dempster and now Sweeney, with something to prove. Like anything else, they have to believe in themselves. Heart is the one intangible that seems forgotten. 

+1

and you wanna talk about people with something to prove?? how about the underachievers who were on the roster last year?? Pedey, Ells, Lester, Buch, Bailey and Bard among others. Then you have guys like Drew and Lackey who are trying to re-establish their value. No one is expecting big things from us this year. This is the perfect preamble for some good baseball. No lofty expectations, NO Bobby V to make any situation worse and invite drama. Just Guys with grit and pride who are determined to break the conceptions people have of them. IDK about you guys but i'm glad we're low key this season. Looking forward to hearing about baseball and not secret text messages or dysfunction.

Valentine's negative influence aside, on what rational and logical basis do you expect significant improvement from most of those guys? Ells had a single very good year; thats unlikely to be repeated. Lester has lost velocity off his fastball and when that happens its rarely regained; Buchholtz has a long history of being unable to finish the season without missing a lot of time; Bard has gone off the deep end and shows no signs of returning to form. I do expect Bailey and Pedey to do better, but the rest of those guys? There is hope, but there is also reason. I HOPE they shine this year, but reason and logic tells me not to expect it.

I'll feed the beast by saying the competition will be weaker in 2013.  The Rays lost Shields and Davis for some nice prospects, but who are not likely to be big contributors this year.  The Orioles had a great season, but are they a great team, with a +7 run differential?  The Yankees always find a way to win 95 games, but now that he's gone I can say that I think Russell Martin was a big factor in their staff success, and they will be playing without some key contributors in recent years in Swisher, A-Rod, Soriano & Chavez.  The Blue Jays are obviously much better, but are they 20+ wins better?

I don't know if the Sox have a chance, but it's hard to see anyone running away with the division.

In response to slomag's comment:

I'll feed the beast by saying the competition will be weaker in 2013.  The Rays lost Shields and Davis for some nice prospects, but who are not likely to be big contributors this year.  The Orioles had a great season, but are they a great team, with a +7 run differential?  The Yankees always find a way to win 95 games, but now that he's gone I can say that I think Russell Martin was a big factor in their staff success, and they will be playing without some key contributors in recent years in Swisher, A-Rod, Soriano & Chavez.  The Blue Jays are obviously much better, but are they 20+ wins better?

I don't know if the Sox have a chance, but it's hard to see anyone running away with the division.

These teams aren't starting from where we were at the end of last year either.

The Rays have up and coming SPs to fill in the voids- not 100%, but well enough to be better than us on paper.

The O's will still be tough.

The Jays will improve.

The Yanks are the Yanks. They will not settle for missing the playoffs. They will be active at the deadline, if not before.

Replacing Beckett and AGon is not going to be easy. On paper, we are worse at this time in the year than we were last year.

In response to moonslav59's comment:

In response to slomag's comment:

I'll feed the beast by saying the competition will be weaker in 2013.  The Rays lost Shields and Davis for some nice prospects, but who are not likely to be big contributors this year.  The Orioles had a great season, but are they a great team, with a +7 run differential?  The Yankees always find a way to win 95 games, but now that he's gone I can say that I think Russell Martin was a big factor in their staff success, and they will be playing without some key contributors in recent years in Swisher, A-Rod, Soriano & Chavez.  The Blue Jays are obviously much better, but are they 20+ wins better?

I don't know if the Sox have a chance, but it's hard to see anyone running away with the division.

These teams aren't starting from where we were at the end of last year either.

The Rays have up and coming SPs to fill in the voids- not 100%, but well enough to be better than us on paper.

The O's will still be tough.

The Jays will improve.

The Yanks are the Yanks. They will not settle for missing the playoffs. They will be active at the deadline, if not before.

Replacing Beckett and AGon is not going to be easy. On paper, we are worse at this time in the year than we were last year.

Do the Yankees have anything worth trading?

They have a good farm, but seem dedicated to keeping it in tact.

On aggregate, the offense looks better (based on your OPS thread).  

Actually, you should have seen my OPS thread last winter. My guess is the projected OPS of our players last winter was better than this winter's projected OPS.

I never thought Beckett deserved the hatred he received, but his results were what they were - 14 team losses in 21 starts.   Pitcher x will be an upgrade over his 2012 results.

Again, I used the same logic last winter when talking about how easily it would be to upgrade over the 2011 Lackey, Weiland, Wake, Miller and others.

When Papi went down last year, we were one game out of the wild card.

With all the injuries, it was pretty amazing how close we stayed in it for a while, but losing Papi and Middlebrooks and the AGon trade ended all that. (Plus Ellsbury never really recovered.)