It's all in the marketing. You want the King? Done. All the Sox have to do is use any of the players they've traded away as examples of what can happen to your team when you get an ex-Sox player. Whenever the Sox trade away players, they can make their team better. They can even become the best player on your team, and at the very least, be a spark for better production from your team. The examples are endless. Sox players seem to be pure gold when they leave the Sox.

Either the team has no idea who a player is before they trade them away, or the player decides to show the team how wrong they were about them. Either way, it's a win-win for the team that gets them.

I think that the history of this happening to teams on the receiving end should add value to any possible trades the Sox make. We should be able to give them anyone for King Felix, and those players will probably make everyone wonder why we traded them away to get the King, or anyone you can name for that matter.

It would be interesting to have a team made up of just ex-Sox players, just to see how they would do. I say look out MLB!

I'm sure not being beaten up for every little mistake, and being welcomed and appreciated for your contributions on other teams has something to do with it as well.

Stay positive please.....

In response to kimsaysthis' comment:

Really nice to see Oakland fans so happy finally having something to cheer about. They're really enjoying their run. I wouldn't mind a Moneyball championship.

Reddick was at best questionable last year as a major leaguer in the eyes of many who posted right here on this board.  Kottaras has been bouncing around from team to team for a while and did nothing when he was with the Sox.  Moss was just about out of baseball after being cut by the Pirates.

Give those three guys credit for surviving and also for all their hitting last night.  They about all had " career" games last night.

In part they brought back Bay and Bailey.  Bay was a success in Boston and Bailey will be if he can stay off the DL.

I will bet you that they don't do 1/4th as much tonight.

I think a lot of that is a product of where the Sox are.  The Sox have been contenders every year with good players and yet they trade them away in the hope of getting better players.  The best way I can explain it is like this:

Think of players abilities on a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being the best player in baseball and 1 being a schm*ck like me. :-)
The Sox are trading or releasing players rated 60+ in the hope of getting players rated 90+.  The gamble in that is that the 60+ player has a lot of room to improve - and some of them do - while a player rated 90+ is probably all ready at the top of his game so we don't see that improvement, at least in our FA signings.

And there's also the fact that we tend to remember the failures rather that the successes.  :-)

Don't go getting down on this team now, Kim.  This is going to be a long fall (ok, the second long fall in a row) but I think the FO is on the right track in getting rid of the big contracts of the players who weren't as advetised (Gonzo being the exception.  He was the collateral damage in the trade).
This team again has money to spend and I'm confident they'll spend it, hopefully wiser this time.  But even if it's not much wiser the '13 team will be better than what we're looking at now.  

Better times are a-comin'. This is the short term pain for the long term gain.  I hope!



 

In response to We can have anyone we want:
[QUOTE]

 

I think a lot of us knew down deep the Sox wouldn't recover with the same bunch of guys after last years embarrassment and losing Francona.  Extending Beckett fours years was a risk and signing CC was just crazy along with Jenks and Lackey who is probably only still around because of TJ. 

The bottom line is we need to field a team who will play hard, get on base and have a nice mix of power, speed, defense, depth and solid pitching.  Every position on this team is basically up for grabs outside of 2B and 3B in my opinion.  

Starting with pitching, I would now go after at least one of the best "like Felix" with our recent salary dump.  I would also love to sign Brandon McCarthy who I think would fit real well with Jon, Doub, Clay and eventually Barnes and company.  I don't see Lackey playing out his contract in Boston in any significant role but may consider bringing Dice back at the right price.  I also don't see Tazawa the way some do as an effective starting pitcher but that remains to be seen if we go that rout.  We don't need guys like Cook, in other words lets stop grabbing every rehab project in hopes they can help just because they happen to be cheap.

Bullpen, Padilla and Aceves have both shown their bad side which is never good for the team.  I would lose Padilla but keep Alfredo in the set up role.  In all fairness we have bounced Alfredo around everywhere which I'm sure has messed with his mind.  I'm confident we have a solid pen without hitting the market, its just a matter of finding the correct choices.

SS, This area may finally be looking up with Ciriaco, Iggy and Bogy but its a great problen to have for depth until one or more are traded.  

C, I still feel Salty and Lav should play together next season before deciding on the future.

2nd and 3B, Pretty much Middy and Pede's to keep or lose at this point but we some nice young depth if they struggle or spend time on the DL again.

1B, May just be Gomez and he may just prove to be the right move

CF, Is still a huge question mark.  I love Ells but he's all but gone of Bradley continues to grow.  Boras and the DL will probably end his career in Boston. 

R & LF, We need to sign, or trade for a big bat period.  Maybe keep Ross or sign the more versatile Swisher to back up 1B.  Kids like Brentz, Kalish, Linares should get get their equal chance but I'm not convinced any of them will be every day starters but could give us enough depth.

Manager, Bobby either needs to build respect and confidence from his players or move on.  It would be great to see Francona back for one more shot and very interesting to see if our FO and Francona could forgive, forget and learn from past mistakes.









 

In response to kimsaysthis' comment:



You mean like Bay?


Now if you were only GM for Seattle...

Hey, S5. I agree with your idea somewhat as to what they're doing. But the fact remains that the players seem to all do quite well on other teams, and I wasn't kidding about using that as part of "shopping" a player. It's really been unbelievable. I do put some of the blame on the media who can't seem to let go of anything and move on. Maybe they just don't want to. It honestly seems like they hate the Red Sox for whatever reason.

However, I think the players that have been traded/given away recently have all been players on Bobby's kma list for one reason or another. Yes, I know about the contracts, but it's interesting that all the players recently sent packing have been players he doesn't for one reason or another get along with. They complained about him, they complained about playing time, they didn't want to talk to him right away when he first came on board, and then there's the phone call about him. No team should be built around a manager.

And it's not really about worrying about how the Red Sox will be able to put a team together in coming years. I have no doubt they can do it, especially with the extra money involved, but, as a fan, you root for your team. I just don't think I like the idea of a carousel of players where you can't even focus on any of them as a fan because they're all expendable and could be gone tomorrow. If the team keeps changing, it gets harder and harder to root for guys you barely even know. And I've never heard of a team not having their favorite players somewhere on the field.

Thanks for your points, Craze. Here's some of mine:

SP  I don't think this team is any different from other teams when it comes to pitching. We just didn't have an ace this season. Some people really feel that all of our pitchers should be aces. I hope that Lackey and Lester find a place where they are more appreciated.

Bullpen  The worst move the Sox made was to blow up their bullpen, which was comparable to any bullpen, if not better.

SS  Pick a SS already. This team seems to have an inability to do that. No one is going to be perfect.

C  I'm always fascinated with the posts about Salty when Tek was abused beyond belief for not hitting well. And he was in the last year of his days of playing and a backup at that. I would have kept Shoppach.

CF  I don't even want to talk about Boras.

RF  We should definitely keep Ross. And I would bet anyone 100,000 dollars that Swisher would NEVER come to Boston. NEVER. Any contributions he made on the Yankees would be forgotten, and he would be dead to them, and booed every time he went to Yankee stadium. No star (with the fans or otherwise) player on the Yankees will ever play for their rival. Not a chance.

I have to admit, I don't know alot about the prospects, so I can't comment on that, but this team needs to keep at least some players that the fans know.

Manager  I would hate for Bobby to stay, but he will. They don't get rid of all the players he doesn't like, just to let him go. He's created his own empire where if you cross him you're gone. That's not in the best interest of the Red Sox as a team. I would LOVE to have Francona back where he belongs.

 

I wish we had Navarro back. (Aviles)
Scutaro back. (Mortensen)
Lowrie & Weiland. (Melancon)
McGuiness & Mendez. (Salty)
CC back.
Josh back.

In response to nhsteven's comment:


I thought you agreed with JBay when he said I was posting to get attention. Stop giving me attention. And btw, there's a word for guys like JBay who surround themselves with Yankee trolls because they beat up on the Sox fans he doesn't like so he doesn't have to do it himself. I can't put the word here, but let's just say he doesn't have the        to do it himself, and needs the backup. It would also fit a guy who doesn't debate posters, he just has their posts removed. I don't know any guys who behave like that.

I agree, Moon. There really seems to be a really super fast trigger finger on some of these decisions. And I thought Scutaro did a great job, and CC didn't even have a chance. Josh wasn't as bad as people made him out to be, but like CC, he could never make the press happy or Bobby happy and they would have been miserable here. I'm kinda glad for them that they got away. Who are they going to target next?

In response to kimsaysthis' comment:



I don't think I ever agreed with JBay that you want attention. Other stuff, yes. Why you brought that up is curious. No matter; it's probably a good idea for all concerned, provided you don't bring me up in other contexts, like you did recently.

And BTW, I was talking about Jason Bay, the ballplayer, who's hitting .152 for the Mets.

In response to nhsteven's comment:


I thought you were. I sure wish we had him back...and Masterson...and VMart... and...

 

RU kidding?

In response to nhsteven's comment:


Yes you did. You said you "trust him" and you'll take his word for it. And twice I had my posts removed arguing with you, which was either you or him. No one else would care, and there wasn't anything in my post that would have it removed by the forum. But your girlfriend JBay says he emails the director of the boston forums which no one else would even know because they don't run crying to him. Apparently, this director doesn't know what an       JBay is.

And moonie, I recall yesterday you saying Swisher is consistent. He's consistent alright; he strokes bad pitchers well consistently and can't stroke good pitchers consistently, especially in the PS. (I believe his career PS BA is around 130, but I would need to confirm that)

He does have a good batting eye, which supports the above.


Conclusion: He's inconsistent; in fact, going into today he's had 10Ks in his last 14 ABs; consistently swooshing.

In response to kimsaysthis' comment:


No, I believe I said I would take his word for it on a baseball matter, and, to be honest, I was just being polite in that particular instance since he & I were annoying each other via our partisan tendencies and I didn't want to escalate it.  However, you conjectured I was in cahoots with him (BTW, we're not going steady); and since you couldn't "out" me as a Yankee fan in disguise (your personal brand of McCarthyism when someone says something about the RS you don't like; do you really believe the stuff you write? Most of those posters are clearly RS fans. Maybe you're a Yankee fan trying to make RS fans look bad, LOL), perhaps this was the next best thing wrt whatever odd convolution of accusations works for you in some odd attempt to discredit someone as self-justification for a previous volley of remarks where it appears you were on the short end.

If/When they purge the NYY fans (including me), don't be surprised if you're one of the casualties, among a few others. And, no, I don't have any insider info.

On a lighter mote, Beckett had a good game tyoday. Maybe there's some truth to what KST said afterall.


But more likely (or in support of), it's the fact that the ALE is in a league by itself; and few trades are made within the division.

It would be interesting to have a team made up of just ex-Sox players, just to see how they would do. I say look out MLB!

We've given away very little over the past ten years.

Murphy has had a good year, but he is a .804 career hitter primarily as a platoon player.
Reddck has had a good year, but with a .652 OPS over his last 30 games.  And he still has a 126/48 K/W which is decidedly below average.
Masterson has had one good year.
The jury is still out on Rizzo/Kelly.
Hanley has had a great career, but we were going to have to give something up for Beckett.
Lowrie has been okay for half-season.
Arroyo a solid #3.

That's not a lot over a ten-year period.

The Players respond to the Manager. You don't fire the Players.

"The Players respond to the Manager. You don't fire the Players."

Except when the players on a very mediocre team are signed to terrible contracts that prevent you from buliding a better team. Then you have to fire the players. 

Managers are generally fired because when you have a rough season you need a scapegoat, no matter what size of the blame pie they deserve.

In response to nhsteven's comment:


Actually you are a Yankee fan in disguise. You post on a Sox board as "Nhsteven", which sounds like you're a Sox fan from NH. And you don't identify yourself as a Yankee fan anywhere in your profille or posts. Anyone reading the board would think your comments are coming from a Sox fan. But you know that, it's why you included "nh" in your name.

Everytime I'm arguing with you about something, you bring up things that have nothing to do with the argument to try and change the subject. My guess is because you know who deleted my posts, and maybe you did it yourself.

Either way, I can't imagine having a conversation with someone who deletes posts or has someone else delete posts his doesn't like. It's lame and only total babies would do that.