Red Sox sign Adrian Beltre

[celticsclay]

I guess that I will reserve judgement once I see what we do with Lowell. If we are trading him somewhere and paying him 9 million dollars to get lost I hate the idea. Why not keep him as a backup for that three million we would "save" at either first, DH and third whenever guys need rest or are injured.

[hwangjini_1]

boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen...

i dont know how to post youtube links, but you absolutely MUST check out the video by pedroia'boys about 1/2 of the way down this sosh page.

geez louise, holy cow...in all the years i have watched the sox, i aint seen nothing like this play 3rd base for them.

until you watch this you really dont know how good a fielder beltre is and what a difference he will make to the sox in field.

with beltre, scutaro, pedroia, and youks the sox may have THE best infield defense in baseball.

enjoy the video, i did....and the sosh posts about it are fun too.

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?showtopic=52641&st=160

[Roy Hobbs]

I guess that I will reserve judgement once I see what we do with Lowell. If we are trading him somewhere and paying him 9 million dollars to get lost I hate the idea. Why not keep him as a backup for that three million we would "save" at either first, DH and third whenever guys need rest or are injured.

I agree.  I was okay with the trade for Max Ramirez, as he was fairly recently regarded as a top prospect.  However, if the choice comes down to a straight salary dump versus keeping Lowell, I hope they keep him around for depth.

[winsomme]

Do people think this team is better offensively than last year?

I'm still not sure of that.  Still some "what-ifs" out there.

I suppose they could be, with a full year of VMart, a hopefully better Papi, an upgrade at short, etc.  However, I wouldn't bank on it.

In terms of run prevention, though, they should be much better, both in terms of defense and the pitching staff.  I don't think that's enough to win in the playoffs, but in the regular season I think they'll be good enough to win the wild card again.

I agree with this completely. This Sox team will do very well in the regular season...to the point where it is going to seem like won't need an A-Gon...

the problems arise in the postseason when the pitching gets better....and we have two postseasons now where we needed....well, a big bat...

people thought we had enough offense going into this last postseason. On paper it looked like that was the case, but the reality was that we just don't have that middle of the order prensence.

And I'm just worried that this move to pitching and defense (with Beltre being the latest move in that direction) is an indicator that the front office still isn't recognizing the need for that big bat....especially at Fenway!!!

[celticsclay]

Do people think this team is better offensively than last year?

I'm still not sure of that.  Still some "what-ifs" out there.

I suppose they could be, with a full year of VMart, a hopefully better Papi, an upgrade at short, etc.  However, I wouldn't bank on it.

In terms of run prevention, though, they should be much better, both in terms of defense and the pitching staff.  I don't think that's enough to win in the playoffs, but in the regular season I think they'll be good enough to win the wild card again.

I agree with this completely. This Sox team will do very well in the regular season...to the point where it is going to seem like won't need an A-Gon...

the problems arise in the postseason when the pitching gets better....and we have two postseasons now where we needed....well, a big bat...

people thought we had enough offense going into this last postseason. On paper it looked like that was the case, but the reality was that we just don't have that middle of the order prensence.

And I'm just worried that this move to pitching and defense (with Beltre being the latest move in that direction) is an indicator that the front office still isn't recognizing the need for that big bat....especially at Fenway!!!

I think the yanks should trade us either arod or tex. They dont need both those guys. They have two we have none. Come on its only fair. We can give Charlie Zink or sign and trade Wang

[yall hate]

sox also just traded for bill hall.  more of a salary dump then anything (kotchman goes...), but hall can play all over the field and at one point was a pretty exciting guy who looked to be headed towards good things.  he didnt make it, but if he can have a bounce back year that would be nice.

Bill Hall is garbage.  Guy had a career year back in 2006 and that's about it.

However, I understand the move from the Sox standpoint in regards to it being a salary dump.

Are we sure how much money the sox are getting back from the M's? Hall made over 8 mill last year.  Kotchman was around 3 right?

seattle recieved the cash to cover his deal from milwaukee last year.  it has been reported (via twitter) that that cash would be forwarded along to us (i.e., we would be paying him next to nothing).  we would also save on the near 4 mill kotchman is going to get in arb.  we save money, that was the point of the deal

[rutzan]

to everyone waiting for a "big bat"...

well...there is none...and...there probably wasn't ever one...

Bay:

either Bay walked away because of $ or the Sox walked away because of health concerns...in either event...it doesn't matter...that ship sailed long ago...

Holliday:

Holliday turned down $85M from the Sox...they weren't paying him $120M like the Cardinals just did...

what would you want the sox to do...create a "big bat" out of nowhere...

there are no other big bats out there...

they did the right thing and completed the trifecta of turning this into a gold glove team with scutaro, cameron and beltre...all for two years so we can still be a player for FA "big bats" like Agon in the next year or two...

BTW...the Sox have some nice prospects in the farm system...

among others...

Ryan Westmoreland, OF
Casey Kelly, RHP
Ryan Kalish, OF
Josh Reddick, OF
Michael Bowden, RHP
Junichi Tazawa, RHP
Lars Anderson, 1B
Jose Iglesias, SS

[bucknersrevenge]

Saw this on another site but here's a taste of what we're in for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8IKDeH9SEg

[yall hate]

Saw this on another site but here's a taste of what we're in for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8IKDeH9SEg

the ball he threw crisp out on (around 1:30 in) was crazy.  the guy has a canon.

as I (and many others have been saying), his defense is going to make a huge difference...

[hwangjini_1]

Saw this on another site but here's a taste of what we're in for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8IKDeH9SEg

sigh. i really have to learn how to post pix and youtube here.

[footey]

great plays. He is special.

[Roy Hobbs]

Saw this on another site but here's a taste of what we're in for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8IKDeH9SEg

sigh. i really have to learn how to post pix and youtube here.

youtube is easy; you just post a link to the video (i.e., not the embedded link, but rather the simple http link).

For pictures, you post the url of the video as follows:

Code: [Select]

[img]http://url_of_the_picture_you_are_posting.jpg[/img]
If you're uploading the picture from your hard drive, you need to host it on a hosting site, such as imageshack.