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The Official 2009 Boston Red Sox Thread

Discussion in 'Other Sports Forum' started by Ray Finkle, Feb 11, 2009.

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  1. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Looks like Wagner is going to be traded after all for two players to be named later. Hopefully they're nothing useful, which I'm guessing they won't be. The Sox are going to decline his 2010 8 million dollar option but will offer him arb, so they will receive two draft picks if he signs with someone else.

    I admit I'm a little nervous about this now, especially since Wagner's agent is claiming he can only pitch once out of every 3 days or so.

    EDIT: The two players are apparently 'mid-range' MINOR LEAGUERS so they will be players like Chris Carter/Aaron Bates/middle reliever like Fernando Cabrera, players like that. Nothing good but useful.
     
  2. Brown42000

    Brown42000 Chillin

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    Per Rotoworld

    I hope this doesn't bite us in the *** like the Gagne deal did.
     
  3. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    It might and might not. But hey, I'd rather have Wagner out there with a 94ish mph fastball in a big spot against a tough lefty like Carlos Pena than Javier Lopez or Hunter Jones.

    I'm guessing Wagner will only be used to get lefties out, especially since he's still rehabbing. No way you see him in multiple innings or back to back games.
     
  4. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    The players being sent to the Mets aren't top prospect players and have been described as Double A type players. Total guess but: Bubba Bell and Kason Gabbard come on down to Citi Field?
     
  5. Boik14

    Boik14 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    God I hope youre wrong. Gabbard was total trash a couple of years ago with Texas and Bell just is not good. I was hoping for some A ball players who have at least moderate upside :no:
     
  6. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    I highly doubt those are the two players (they were the first two guys that came to my mind for whatever reason) but I can't imagine the players the Mets are getting back are anything good considering the Sox are paying all of Wagner's remining salary (around 3 million or so) and he's only pitched 2 innings in the past year. I heard the players are both non prospects. I wouldn't be shocked if one of them was the recently DFA Cabrera though, which would be a nice move by the Mets.
     
  7. Boik14

    Boik14 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Im going to guess here as well and say that we wont know the PTBNL until we know if the sox are going to offer arbitration to Wags. My guess is there has to be some kind of compensation built in to this if the Sox get Wagner for an extra year or get an additional 1st rounder out of this?
     
  8. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    It's very possible but most likely the players probably aren't named yet because the Sox have to techinically pass them through waivers first before they can be traded to the Mets. Of course they can just wait 5 days until the 31st too. But if the names got out some teams might put a claim on the players just to break balls (Tampa did that to Boston back in 2006 when the Sox traded for catcher Javy Lopez, the Sox were trying to pass Adam Stern through waivers and TB claimed him because they thought the Sox were talking to Julio Lugo behind their backs, it didn't really matter in the long run, the Sox pulled Stern back off of waivers and told him to sit out a month and traded him to Baltimore the day after the season ended).

    But your guess is possible, as a lot of times when teams make trades with PTBNL, how the player does with his new team could change the list of players the other team can choose from.

    I'm sure the players the Mets are getting will be leaked out in the next few days. Although with the media in both Boston and New York, I wouldn't be shocked if the names were leaked in a matter of hours.
     
  9. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    It looks like 1B/OFer Chris Carter is most likely going to NY in the Wagner deal. The other player is apparently nothing of anything significant.

    Not sure how Carter fits into the Mets plans as he's a 1B/OFer in name only and is pretty much defensively challenged but hey not a terrible return by any means.
     
  10. GreenMonster

    GreenMonster New Member

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    I 2nd your nervousness but he will be fun to watch non the less..
     
  11. Boik14

    Boik14 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    well I hope wags does well for you guy as he still has that blistering fastball though he hasnt been high 90's yet. The inning I saw was his first back and he was consistently 94-96mph so thats what Id expect.

    And fyi get ready for more quote of the year candidates. This guy always has something to say. he may have been the reason muzzles were invented.
     
  12. NJFINSFAN1

    NJFINSFAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    They just said on the Mets game that Chris Carter is one of the players.

    And he drove in the first run ever at Citi Field (Majors) in the exhibition game
     
  13. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    I love Victor Martinez, the guy has been great since he came to Boston. I just hope he gets more starts behind the plate.

    Man does it feel weird rooting for the Yankees, it figures that I've spent my whole life rooting for them to lose and when I root for them to win, they of course lose. Hopefully they will help us out the next 2 games. I must admit I'm worried that Tampa is back in this thing now.
     
  14. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Not sure what this means but last night Jed Lowrie hit 2 home runs in Triple A. Maybe he's finally getting his wrist back to 100% and his swing down. I still think everyone who's bashing him needs to stop and let the kid play a full healthy season before judging him.
     
  15. Skeet84

    Skeet84 New Member

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    Yeap remember how bad Pedroia struggles before he turned into an All Star
     
  16. Skeet84

    Skeet84 New Member

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    Thanks Big Papi we really needed that! Bard looked very good in a clutch moment
     
  17. GreenMonster

    GreenMonster New Member

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    Great pitching from Wake, and some nice hitting by Papi and its another Sox win. The Sox love playing at home..

    Any Papi walkoff is awesome, watch Youk try to get a shot of Papi when he comes to home plate..
     
  18. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Brad Penny was released to make room for Billy Wagner. Penny apparently asked to be released because he didn't want to pitch out of the pen and the Sox gave it to him (although I'm sure he would have been gone anyway today).

    Penny did pitch ok at the beginning of the year but was pretty worthless for the past 2 months.
     
  19. FaninPatsyLand

    FaninPatsyLand The Truth

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    To be honest, I'm so sick of hearing about Jed Lowrie. The guy has given us 1 month (think about that for a second) where he's put up better offensive numbers than we're getting from Gonzalez right now. 1 month! And he has a .438 OPS this year in limited action. Enough with Jed Lowrie.

    FYI:

    Typical. Theo better not be counting on this kid heading into 2010.

    http://www.projo.com/pawsox/content/projo_20090826_pawsox_buffalo.11cf740e2.html
     
  20. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Do you really want to base anything on an obvious small sample size of 369 total at bats? And of those 369 total at bats, a grand total of 0 were with him being 100% healthy. Remember he got hit on his wrist before he was even called up in 2008 and played the whole season with a broken bone in his wrist. I don't think it's fair to judge him on that. And even if he was 100% healthy, I still don't want to write someone off in that many limited at bats, especially since he did put up good numbers in the minor leagues and scouts never questioned his bat. I don't think it's smart to just write him off like that.
     
  21. Brown42000

    Brown42000 Chillin

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    Beckett with another bad performance but Boston gets the win. I think we are going to see games like this the rest of the way. Mediocre pitching and scoring a ton of runs.
     
  22. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    I agree. I mean a win is a win and I'm confident Beckett will be fine (his career August numbers with the Sox suck maybe he just goes through a dead arm period around this time). I'm actually looking forward to Matsuzaka's return on the 8th or 9th of September. I think he'll be decent. It's too bad we can't take Tazawa and Matsuzaka and make them into 1 pitcher.
     
  23. GreenMonster

    GreenMonster New Member

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    Great start today from Byrd. Also Wagner looks like he can still bring the heat at least an inning at a time. V-Mart is just a nice addition to the lineup, he swing the stick well with a hot Pedoria in front of him.

    Got to give some love to Alex Gonzalez too, he has been hitting pretty good the last week or so, along with stellar D as always..
     
  24. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Big series this week against Tampa. I'm glad we're going into it with Lester, Beckett and Buchholz. Hopefully we can take 2 of 3 there. We can really put some pressure and distance in the WC if we can do that. Yesterday was a huge win for the Sox as both Tampa and Texas lost heart breaking games.

    The Sox just have to keep winning series for here on out.
     
  25. BigDogsHunt

    BigDogsHunt Enough talk...prove it!

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    Well, its nice to to see this thread has returned to normalcy, thereby, discussing the Sox play on the field, and the upcoming opponents for retaining the WC lead.

    Was worried when there was actually a debate for one second over the fact that AL pitchers that go to NL teams end up facing easier hitting lineups and therefore produce more favorable stats when compared to their prior AL numbers. Sheesh, thats a given! :hi5: Night after night, NL lineups are not as demanding as AL lineups 1-9...especially AL East lineups.
     
  26. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Hey it was the dog days of August. Things get slow sometimes and you need to stir the pot a bit to keep things interesting and exciting.
     
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  27. FaninPatsyLand

    FaninPatsyLand The Truth

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    Wishful thinking right there...

    They just can't get swept. If they can avoid the sweep then they'll be playing in October.
     
  28. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Even if the Sox lose 2 of 3, we'll still leave TB up by 4 games. Texas had another tough loss last night, and with them in a double header today it could really hurt their season if the Sox can win tonight.
     
  29. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Sox recalled George Kottaras, Joey Gathright, Brian Anderson, Chris Woodward and Junichi Tazawa while DFAed Jeff Bailey.

    Also expect Michael Bowden, Jed Lowrie and possibly Hunter Jones, Josh Reddick, Marcus McBeth and possibly Dusty Brown and Aaron Bates to join the team in the next couple of days when the minor league season ends.
     
  30. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Good win tonight. Lester and Papelbon were great. Especially Papelbon. I give Francona a lot of credit for actually using his best pitcher in a big spot that wasn't the 9th, I don't understand why more managers don't/won't do it.

    Anyway it was a big win tonight, especially with Texas winning the 1st game of their DH and are winning the 2nd game too in the 8th. You could tell Francona really wanted that win tonight.

    Hopefully Beckett can get back on track tomorrow.
     
  31. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    So Brad Penny never threw more than 6 innings the whole year for the Sox but he gets demoted to the NL and throws 8 shut out innings against probably the best line up in the NL. Yeah there's no difference between the AL and NL. Can't wait to see Cy Smoltz pitch next for St. Louis and to read more stories about how he was tipping his pitches in the AL and that's why he sucked.

    Seriously, if I was a pitcher in the AL and had a bad contract year I'd sign with a 1 year deal with a NL team, dominate and then sign a huge contract to whatever team gives me the most amount of money.
     
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  32. Nappy Roots

    Nappy Roots Well-Known Member

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    not only just the AL, but the AL East is disgusting.
     
  33. BigDogsHunt

    BigDogsHunt Enough talk...prove it!

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    Per rotoworld...
     
  34. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Yeah 3 of the top 4 teams in the AL are in the East, it's almost not fair that right now a 3rd place team (Rays) in the East won't make the playoffs eventhough they have a better record than the 1st place team (Tigers) in the Central. One of these days we're going to see a sub .500 team make the playoffs, heck it almost happened in 2006 with St. Louis.

    And don't look now but in 2 years the Orioles might be pretty good too with all the young talent they're starting to develop/bring in.
     
  35. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Wow we finally win a series in TB. What year is this? It's been awhile. Anyway good to see Buchholz continue to pitch well. Hopefully the Sox continue their hot hitting in Chicago this weekend.
     
  36. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    I'm convinced that Tazawa is the younger Japanese verison of Paul Byrd. And no that doesn't give me much hope for his future, he just doesn't strike anyone out and is way too hittable. He's still young enough to turn it around I guess. I mean he could always go over to Quadtriple A and win a Cy Young too.
     
  37. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Doesn't look like Wakefield will be back this year and if he is he won't be at full strength. I love and appreciate everything Wakefield has done for the franchise, but you have to start to wonder if this is the beginning of the end for him. He hasn't been healthy for a full year since, I'm guessing, 2006 and although he's been very good in the 1st half of 2007, 2008 and 2009 he's pretty useless after the All Star break whether it's his shoulder, back, leg or whatever.

    Hopefully Matsuzaka can give the Red Sox something when he comes back in a little over a week. Having a healthy Matsuzaka for October might help a lot more than people think. Although I'm not confident he'll be any good.
     
  38. GreenMonster

    GreenMonster New Member

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    Great start from Clay last night, he looks more and more comfortable with every start.

    Sad about Wakefield, he is only 11 wins from 200 in Boston, that's pretty impressive. I haven't seen Dice-K in so long, maybe I can forget how bad he was..
     
  39. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Agreed on Buchholz. The key to him has always been confidence and getting his fastball over for strikes because his off speed stuff has always been nasty, especially his change up and curveball. He threw a lot more sliders last night for strike outs. Outside of 2 bad starts his overall performance with Boston this year has been very good. Hopefully he keeps building on it because we'll need him in the playoffs.

    I'm going to the game Sunday vs. Tampa Bay, which Clay is scheduled to start. Should be fun, never seen Buchholz live. Hopefully he gets as a W.

    And it would be nice if Texas started to nose dive and soon of course if the Sox didn't forget to bring their bats to Chicago this weekend they could have been 4 games up right now.
     
  40. Ray Finkle

    Ray Finkle Member

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    Went to the 2nd game yesterday and saw Lester pitch who was flat out nasty. Tampa had no shot at him. It was nice to officially end their season, but wow what a nose dive losing 11 in a row and 12 out of 13. You have to wonder if the trade of Kazmir hurt the team chemistry (although certainly losing Carlos Pena has hurt big time). I think Tampa will be back next year but they suddenly have some question marks on their team. I wouldn't be surprised if they shipped Upton out of town.

    Anyway the Sox seem to have really caught fire at the right time. Lester has pretty much been unbeatable since the end of May. Beckett looked pretty good his last two outings and Buchholz is starting to really look like that ace/#2 pitcher we've been waiting for. That trio could be very scary in the playoffs.

    Of course this week might be a problem going with Matsuzaka and Byrd against the Angels. I am actually looking forward to seeing Matsuzaka pitch, I hope he does well and has a chip on his shoulder and looking to prove something. Of course I'm not looking forward to see him nibble and throw 130 pitches in only 4 or 5 innings of work.

    Also I will say going to Fenway is better in the summer when college kids aren't around as those kids just go to the games to get drunk because it's the "in" thing to do in the city. I can't tell you how many dumb things I've heard those kids say around the ballpark yesterday. Oh well.
     

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