John lackey takes physical in Boston: deal may be imminent!

[nickagneta]

Lackey's a very good pitcher. I'd expect his numbers to get a little worse. I was looking at the "MLB Park Factors," Fenways a pretty hitter friendly park while the Angels' stadium is middle of the pack. That, plus playing AL East, would give his numbers a negative bump.

Cameron's a decent fill-in.

I'd love Adrian Gonzalez here. putting up those numbers in the worst hitting park, imagine him in fenway. yowza

Cabrera too. Look at Cabrera's numbers even though he plays 81 games in Detroit. That field is huge!!!!!!!

[Fan from VT]

Lackey's a very good pitcher. I'd expect his numbers to get a little worse. I was looking at the "MLB Park Factors," Fenways a pretty hitter friendly park while the Angels' stadium is middle of the pack. That, plus playing AL East, would give his numbers a negative bump.

Cameron's a decent fill-in.

I'd love Adrian Gonzalez here. putting up those numbers in the worst hitting park, imagine him in fenway. yowza

Cabrera too. Look at Cabrera's numbers even though he plays 81 games in Detroit. That field is huge!!!!!!!

Yeah, i wasn't even mentioning him because talks have died down. But i don't care how bad his D is, he would tear fenway up at the plate.

[Chris]

Lackey's a very good pitcher. I'd expect his numbers to get a little worse. I was looking at the "MLB Park Factors," Fenways a pretty hitter friendly park while the Angels' stadium is middle of the pack. That, plus playing AL East, would give his numbers a negative bump.

Cameron's a decent fill-in.

I'd love Adrian Gonzalez here. putting up those numbers in the worst hitting park, imagine him in fenway. yowza

Cabrera too. Look at Cabrera's numbers even though he plays 81 games in Detroit. That field is huge!!!!!!!

Yeah, i wasn't even mentioning him because talks have died down. But i don't care how bad his D is, he would tear fenway up at the plate.

Exactly.  And if his defense really is that bad, just move him to DH next season, after Papi's deal ends, and bring up Lars Anderson, or someone like that to play 1st.

[celticsclay]

Cameron in CF makes all the sense in the world. He might not have the speed to cover as much ground as Ellsbury possibly could, but he will get better initial reads and make many plays Ellsbury makes diving look rather routine. Ellsbury, with proper initial reads, can cover way more ground than Cameron, especially in center at Fenway, but you can't always count on that like you can with Cameron. Besides, Cameron's arm is much better than Ellsbury's arm and Ellsbury's deficiency in holding guys on 2nd on flies to center field because of his arm will be eradicated by sticking him in left.

Is Cameron's glove worth the bat?  Lifetime .250 hitter.

Yea this seems like a national league team right now. I kind of thought the biggest reason for our fade in the post season was our lack of bats. Not a lack of defense or pitching.

[Donoghus]

Said it before last season started and I still feel that OJ Mayo will be the best player chosen from last year's draft. Kid is amazing athletically. When he matures mentally and has his game mature. He will be great.

Good to know but can he play 3B?   

[Fan from VT]

Cameron in CF makes all the sense in the world. He might not have the speed to cover as much ground as Ellsbury possibly could, but he will get better initial reads and make many plays Ellsbury makes diving look rather routine. Ellsbury, with proper initial reads, can cover way more ground than Cameron, especially in center at Fenway, but you can't always count on that like you can with Cameron. Besides, Cameron's arm is much better than Ellsbury's arm and Ellsbury's deficiency in holding guys on 2nd on flies to center field because of his arm will be eradicated by sticking him in left.

Is Cameron's glove worth the bat?  Lifetime .250 hitter.

Yea this seems like a national league team right now. I kind of thought the biggest reason for our fade in the post season was our lack of bats. Not a lack of defense or pitching.

Except that each of the players in question would be great AAAA players, especially the pitchers.

But seriously, agree. I really doubt we'll be serious world series threats until we get that big game changing bat in the middle. But you have to be smart too. I don't think Bay or Holliday are that guy, so if you have to wait for a team like detroit or san diego to get pressured into making a trade, wait. Don't sign bay or holliday because they're available if that money will preclude you from signing a reall marquee guy next offseason or making a big money trade during the season i.e. cabrera in cash-strapped detroit.

[Fafnir]

Said it before last season started and I still feel that OJ Mayo will be the best player chosen from last year's draft. Kid is amazing athletically. When he matures mentally and has his game mature. He will be great.

Good to know but can he play 3B?   

LOL fixed that!

[celticsclay]

If we are throwing this much Money at Lackey and Cameron (7 million per seems way over the top for a 37 year old average bat). Where does the money come from for a big bat?

[celticsclay]

Said it before last season started and I still feel that OJ Mayo will be the best player chosen from last year's draft. Kid is amazing athletically. When he matures mentally and has his game mature. He will be great.

Lol hhaha i have dont that before from the game threads...
Good to know but can he play 3B?   

LOL fixed that!

[Roy Hobbs]

If we are throwing this much Money at Lackey and Cameron (7 million per seems way over the top for a 37 year old average bat). Where does the money come from for a big bat?

Unless we make a trade, there won't be a big bat this year.

[nickagneta]

If we are throwing this much Money at Lackey and Cameron (7 million per seems way over the top for a 37 year old average bat). Where does the money come from for a big bat?

You're kidding right? This team might as well be printing money down on Lansdowne with the sellouts, ticket prices, merchandising, NESN advertising income, NESN subscription income, etc, etc. This team can afford on a yearly basis to pay $10 million to another team just to have them take a player from them and pay them so the Sox don't have him on their roster.

If the Sox wanted a big bat free agent on this team they would have signed one. But they don't like the bats on the free agent market so they upgraded their defense and pitching and now have enough talent on the 25 man roster to be able to trade Buchholz and a bunch of minor league talent for a big bat.

[RJ87]

Let me start off by saying I thought the Lackey signing was great. But taking ourselves out of the running for Bay and Holliday has me a bit concerned.

As a Sox fan, it pains me to say it - but I'll be surprised if this team makes it into the playoffs as anything other than the wildcard. Even more shocked if they make it past the divisional series.

I'm all about defense and pitching. And yes, we have enough offense to get us by, but even that depends largely on whether or not David Ortiz shows up for a full season. Honestly, I think Big Papi doesn't have much - if anything - left and may become more of a liability this season than the offensive threat he once was.

The cheapskate approach to winning just isn't going to work. We say last season as John Henry called Teixera's bluff and the Spankees swept in & signed him and look at the difference he made for them last season. It's not like the Redsox don't have the money to spend to bring in another big bat - something that we need - in order to win it all. Just seems like we've decided to patch through this season, and focus on 2011 when some of our prospects may be ready.

Bottomline; it looks like its gonna be a long season.

[KJ33]

Let me start off by saying I thought the Lackey signing was great. But taking ourselves out of the running for Bay and Holliday has me a bit concerned.

As a Sox fan, it pains me to say it - but I'll be surprised if this team makes it into the playoffs as anything other than the wildcard. Even more shocked if they make it past the divisional series.

I'm all about defense and pitching. And yes, we have enough offense to get us by, but even that depends largely on whether or not David Ortiz shows up for a full season. Honestly, I think Big Papi doesn't have much - if anything - left and may become more of a liability this season than the offensive threat he once was.

The cheapskate approach to winning just isn't going to work. We say last season as John Henry called Teixera's bluff and the Spankees swept in & signed him and look at the difference he made for them last season. It's not like the Redsox don't have the money to spend to bring in another big bat - something that we need - in order to win it all. Just seems like we've decided to patch through this season, and focus on 2011 when some of our prospects may be ready.

Bottomline; it looks like its gonna be a long season.

Cheapskate?  Had Bay accepted the Sox latest offer he would have been a very, very wealthy man.  I don't think it is accurate at all to classify the Sox as cheap because of their unwillingness to pay Bay a contract worthy of an elite player.  You may disagree with their assessment of his abilities as a player, but they were willing to pay him a very good salary, just not one of the highest in the game.

Also, what would be disappointing about making the playoffs as a wild card team?  2003, 2004 (WS winner), 2005, 2008 and 2009 were all years they made it as a wild card, only in 2007 did they win the division.  Only 4 teams in each league even make the playoffs, getting in via any means still puts a team at the top of the heap.

[RJ87]

Let me start off by saying I thought the Lackey signing was great. But taking ourselves out of the running for Bay and Holliday has me a bit concerned.

As a Sox fan, it pains me to say it - but I'll be surprised if this team makes it into the playoffs as anything other than the wildcard. Even more shocked if they make it past the divisional series.

I'm all about defense and pitching. And yes, we have enough offense to get us by, but even that depends largely on whether or not David Ortiz shows up for a full season. Honestly, I think Big Papi doesn't have much - if anything - left and may become more of a liability this season than the offensive threat he once was.

The cheapskate approach to winning just isn't going to work. We say last season as John Henry called Teixera's bluff and the Spankees swept in & signed him and look at the difference he made for them last season. It's not like the Redsox don't have the money to spend to bring in another big bat - something that we need - in order to win it all. Just seems like we've decided to patch through this season, and focus on 2011 when some of our prospects may be ready.

Bottomline; it looks like its gonna be a long season.

Cheapskate?  Had Bay accepted the Sox latest offer he would have been a very, very wealthy man.  I don't think it is accurate at all to classify the Sox as cheap because of their unwillingness to pay Bay a contract worthy of an elite player.  You may disagree with their assessment of his abilities as a player, but they were willing to pay him a very good salary, just not one of the highest in the game.

Also, what would be disappointing about making the playoffs as a wild card team?  2003, 2004 (WS winner), 2005, 2008 and 2009 were all years they made it as a wild card, only in 2007 did they win the division.  Only 4 teams in each league even make the playoffs, getting in via any means still puts a team at the top of the heap.

I didn't say the Red Sox were cheap solely for not overpaying Bay, so please don't paraphrase me.

Furthermore, for a team that has the highest ticket prices in the league and do actually bring in a nice amount of revenue, there is an overall unwillingness to spend, as evidenced last season by the refusal to sign Texiera - and you can't honestly say that wouldn't have made a difference. John Lackey is a nice addition, but if you think we're going to beat NYY in the ACLS, its just not going to happen as the team is currently set up now. Like I said, I don't even believe we're going to make it past ALDS. We can still make a splash and try to bring in a great first baseman, but I just don't have the faith in management to do so this offseason. I'll be more than happy if they prove me wrong.

[nickagneta]

I too thought this team was going to go with the frugal approach this winter.

I WAS WRONG.

They have already spent close to $100 million on free agents. Once Cameron signs it will be over $100 million. The thing is, they have positioned themselves through free agency to be frugal in their approach in the outfield. Me, I believe it's because they are preparing an all out blitz for next year on a player they have admired and coveted for years, Carl Crawford. They will spend like crazy next year for Mauer and Crawford, if they are there, going so far as to try to outspend the Yankees.

But they won't be able to do that next year if they spend everything this year on Bay or Holliday. Crawford is twice the player than either of those guys and a much better long term investment. Stop the gap this year and spend next.

Besides, they have also positioned thenselves perfectly fo a huge trade. With Lester, Lackey, Beckett, Matzusaka, Wakefield and Buchholz as the starters, the Sox have the future set in their rotation for at least the next two to three years(more if they resign Beckett) and now can use Buccholz, Kelly, Bowden, Tazawa, Pimental and the other pitching prospects they have as bait in a trade for a power bat for the infield. I say expect Cabrera or Gonzalez playing for the Sox next year.