How do the Sox improve this off-season?

[MBz]

Out of the 8 teams in the playoffs which one had a #1 starter better then Lester?  Sabathia possibly?  Lester was probably the 2nd best starter in all of the MLB playoffs, he didn't pitch great, but he pitched good enough for a win.  The bats failed the Sox this year.  You can win a championship with Lester, Beckett, Buchholz and Dice-K as your rotation.

[hpantazo]

Out of the 8 teams in the playoffs which one had a #1 starter better then Lester?  Sabathia possibly?  Lester was probably the 2nd best starter in all of the MLB playoffs, he didn't pitch great, but he pitched good enough for a win.  The bats failed the Sox this year.  You can win a championship with Lester, Beckett, Buchholz and Dice-K as your rotation.

I disagree, I think you and many other people overrate the red sox rotation. It has been inconsistent all year and never reached a high level of performance in the playoffs, but yea, the bats were terrible on a whole other level.

[MBz]

Though I do think Beckett is over-rated, I think Lester is a legit number one, as I've said, I feel as if he may have been the 2nd best pitcher in the postseason, if you disagree please name a better pitcher.  Other then Sabathia and possibly Cliff Lee, I cannot think of anyone.

[Bankshot]

Steps to actually do something next year....


1. Sign a big bat... (u lose manny and dont add any1 to replace him? Bay is good, but definitely no manny).

2. Get rid of MatsuKAKA...

3. Bring in another Ace(if possible)


I'm p'ed off cuz once we lost the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes, we didnt do $#it afterwards. I would have been fine adding sum1 like Abreu, or something. The Red Sox came into this season with "Oh well, let's see what happens" attitude. They didnt accomplish Diddly squat this year. Failure for everyone on the roster(top to bottom), and failure for the entire staff(top to bottom).

I agree. Where are all the people who said we didn't need Halladay?

Still here, we lost because of the bats not because of our pitching.  Lester, Beckett and Buchholz all pitched good games.  We need a bat.  Plain and simple.

They lost the first two games because of hitting, but the bats came alive in game 3.  It was pitching (Papelbon) that ended the Sox season.

[MBz]

Right but it wasn't starting pitching that lost us game 3.  Papelbon and Wagner lost it.  Victor Martinez was more important to this team then Halladay would have been.  They needed that extra bat.  We were only going to be able to get one of them or we would have gotten rid of way too many young players.  I'm extremely glad they didn't go after Halladay because they need prospects now to make a trade for a middle of the order bat.

[hpantazo]

they should have gone all out and signed Texiera, moved Youk to third, put Lowell out to pasture, and then trade prospects for Halladay. You have to take the chances to win while you can. Saving up prospects for rainy days and to ensure you are above mediocre doesn't cut it in boston, it's titles or bust.

[moiso]

I agree with MBz's posts.  The pitching is good enough all around.  We have a bunch of good hitters but no great hitters like we used to have in Manny and a younger Ortiz.  Texiera would have made a huge difference in this team.  
I don't think Drew and Lowell are problems either.  They are both pretty clutch.  If we can upgrade, fine.  But its not necessary.  I'd rather upgrade the dh spot.  Get a scary hitter to replace Ortiz.  I was hoping for Dunn last offseason.

[moiso]

they should have gone all out and signed Texiera, moved Youk to third, put Lowell out to pasture, and then trade prospects for Halladay. You have to take the chances to win while you can. Saving up prospects for rainy days and to ensure you are above mediocre doesn't cut it in boston, it's titles or bust.

Baseball isn't like basketball.  The Sox have the money to compete for a title every year, so I wouldn't give away too many prospects for a short term solution.  The potential King Felix move was intriguing if we could sign him long term.

[yall hate]

they should have gone all out and signed Texiera, moved Youk to third, put Lowell out to pasture, and then trade prospects for Halladay. You have to take the chances to win while you can. Saving up prospects for rainy days and to ensure you are above mediocre doesn't cut it in boston, it's titles or bust.

it has already been discussed ad nauseum.  He was always going to go to NY.  NY was always going to have an opportunity to match whatever the Sox offered, and barring a truly stupid offer from the Sox the yanks would have matched.

So people should just forget about Tex.  it wasnt going to happen.

[MBz]

they should have gone all out and signed Texiera, moved Youk to third, put Lowell out to pasture, and then trade prospects for Halladay. You have to take the chances to win while you can. Saving up prospects for rainy days and to ensure you are above mediocre doesn't cut it in boston, it's titles or bust.

Though I do agree about Teixiera because he was what this team needed, a guy who was going to hit 300 and hit 40 homeruns and be a real game changer in the middle of the line up but as yall hate said, we never had a chance of getting him.   I still disagree on Halladay though.  His trade value was way too high especially for the Jays to give him up to someone in the division.  Buchholz would have definitely have been involved in the trade and look at how impressive he got over the course of the year.  He may not be a #1 pitcher, but he definitely has the talent to be an extremely good #2 pitcher.  Then we would have had to give up other high level prospects like Bowden and Reddick which would not have been worth it.   Baseball is a sport you must build from within by using your prospects.  You can only make so many trades and free agent deals.  

[Vermont Green]

Not sure if anyone will actually get to page 7 of this thread but I think we need to give the Sox a break on Teixiera and Sabathia.  28 other teams didn't get them either.  NYY can outbid anyone and it appears that both kind of liked NYC.  The only reason both didn't just come right out and say I want to be a Yankee is so they could get as high a bid as possible out of them.

The NYY are going to be bidders this year too for starting pitchers, for outfielders, and for any decent relievers that are available.  Our best bet is to try and get a stud at first or third, along with of course a SS although I have a hunch we will see Lowry there next year (there just aren't any SS studs available I don't think).  I don't think that the NYY will be bidding up the price for 1B, 3B, and SS, they seem pretty well set at those positions.

[dark_lord]

[Quinn]

Matt Holliday?
I know he's an outfielder, but if we can't resign Bay, he'd be an EXCELLENT option, and he'd fill out our lineup really well.

[yall hate]

Matt Holliday?
I know he's an outfielder, but if we can't resign Bay, he'd be an EXCELLENT option, and he'd fill out our lineup really well.

Doubt it...Look for the Yanks to give him a monster deal

[Quinn]

Matt Holliday?
I know he's an outfielder, but if we can't resign Bay, he'd be an EXCELLENT option, and he'd fill out our lineup really well.

Doubt it...Look for the Yanks to give him a monster deal

One can dream...
There aren't any stud free agent starters, which is the problem


John Lackey.
but he's old.