greg775

Beckham is really starting to look like a good fielder at third. He should be there for a long time. Can Lexi improve enough to be next to him at ss for the next 10 years?

A chance? He was horses***. He was given plenty of chances as Oz wrote his name in the lineup all the time. Players have to produce, especially in their first years with teams. He was simply horrific.

Danks was great. Can you imagine if we were headed to the playoffs? We'd be loving life with Danks, Peavy, Mark and Floyd ready to pitch. We would only have to rely on Thornton and Bobby in the pen instead of going with the other hacks. Too bad we couldn't get there. I'm assuming Floyd and Bobby wouldn't be shut down if we were still in it.

Some of these players don't realize how smart it is to take an offer like that. He'd have 120 million dollars which is plenty. My god. And once he retires, he's guaranteed to actually have something to do the rest of his life, like be a broadcaster, a special liason to the team, or whatever. The team will employ him forever like the Royals do in giving George Brett money for no reason. He signs that contract in Minny and he's set for life money wise and enjoyment of life wise. Hopping from team to team is overrated when you get an offer like he just got. Why leave Minnesota?? It'd very stupid of him. 120 mill is enough.

I wasn't insulted. Some people can't handle a difference of opinion. Dick Allen had a great post yesterday in the game thread supporting my position that losing to acquire a better draft pick is not necessarily a smart thing to do. But nobody responded to Dick's post. It's easier to call me a troll. I only post what I truly feel; not to "stir" people up.

I don't know why he'd play either Lilly or Fields. Isn't it common knowledge both are not part of the team's future? Fields' time has passed; Lilly is a disaster. Just play Flowers and pitch any and all young guys.

I hope "the resources they have" are creative. His contract takes away a lot of money. It'd be nice to see them dump some expensive bullpen arms to get some money back that way.

Then, Balta, I ask you: What teams would consider acquiring Rios? A lot of people on here have a high opinion of him. If we could deal Rios we'd be better equipped to acquire some other guys. Do you see any team that might have an interest in acquiring Rios for scraps?

Rude, you are assuming he'd have woken up in a Sox uniform and played some ball for us. He wouldn't have. It was a bad fit. He was a total out machine in Chicago, do you not agree?

This could be the smallest game thread ever unless I come on and we argue about "do we want to lose so we get a better draft pick?"

Would the Yankees or Mets go for Rios for scraps? Then we could make a significant trade for Granderson. I want Grandy. Any way we could trade for Bartlett and move Lexi to second? What an offensive infield that'd be with Gordon, Bartlett, Lexi and Mr. Scoop, Paulie.

Oz needed something to rant about and he picked the TV thing. It's early in college football season; AJ probably was checking on the Florida game. Big deal. AJ batted in the No. 3 hole the next day. If Oz said it was a veteran, it probably was AJ. Big deal. We all know modern ballplayers care a lot less about winning than the old days. It's all about how much money you can make and forever more will be. It's one of the reasons, along with the s*** bullpen, that we underachieved this year. No killer instinct in games against s***ty teams. Until we take the Orioles seriously and the Indians and Royals, we're gonna continue to be .500 at best. Got to bring it every night and we don't. That and the fact our relievers suck big time.

Bolt, I don't understand why you are on this Swisher kick. Swisher wouldn't have made a difference this year. If anything we may have been out of it earlier. You have to look at the whole picture. He was an ass. And as far as onfield performance, he was an out machine in a Sox uniform. I get on tangents, but you are really on one with Swisher. You might consider dumping the repeat thoughts on Swish as I finally did on Rios. Swisher was a bad fit and is not a great baseball player. I don't even think he is a good baseball player. You do.

That's a good way to put it. He looked pretty good and he worked very fast. Hope he's copying Mark in that regard. He walked five, but all five were in 2 innings. Hopefully that was just some mechanical thing as a kid. I admit he's a better option than Fred next year provided he is a quick starter. Can he pitch well out of the gate?

Badger thanks for the explanation of the incident. It's a reasonable argument you have that Oz was big-time pissed and distracted. But after the game he did lament that his bullpen is worn (it's also awful) and he wanted seven out of Freddy. I'm surprised some don't think Freddy had a good start. I thought he pitched very well. How many hits and runs did he give up in his final inning after he was toast? At this point I would prefer Hudson as our No. 5. for next year . He looked damn good today and is younger. He worked very fast which I love. He had a fluid delivery. Does he remind anybody of Peavy?

Why lol southsider? You disagree when I say we have a lot to fix? We did win today, however, finally with somebody besides Peavy starting. We ended the year at home finally winning a home series as well. A positive.

Since you keep bringing up Swisher, whom I think is a stiff, let me put in a plug for Rowand. Until Rios (maybe) we haven't had a good option in cf since Rowand. He was (is) a stud.

Another good test for Thornton today as our future closer.

If you guys like to follow the draft, fine. But there are a ton of good players out there in the top 10, 15, 20. I don't root for my team to lose ever ... not over some unknown like the draft.

He said it better than me!!! How can you argue with this? This is my position on the draft. It's a f***ing crapshoot. I could give a s*** about the f***ing draft. Thank you Dick Allen. And I still don't know what a f***ing troll is. I'm as good a Sox fan as any of you.

I'll say this at least. Pena doesn't sicken me as much as Dotel. Hopefully Pena will use that fastball next year. He should copy Soria and develop a nasty pitch in the dirt to go with the fastball.

The walks were bad, but weren't two in one inning and three in another? It seems like he lost it for whatever reason. He'll correct the problem in the future as he did today. Now it's in the s***ty bullpen's hands. You may get your wish on the better draft pick. Who cares about the draft? There are tons of good players available in round one, most who don't pan out.

Very nice play by Gordon. Somewhat routine but not bad.

OMG, Pena is in.

Dye can still hit; he's just had a horrible second half. I think he used to be a pretty average to decent right fielder but this year he's definitely regressed out there. He'll help the Rangers next year at DH.