What moves are most important

Just to get the ball rolling.

What kind of moves should we be looking for?

Depth in the rotation?

More power in the lineup?

Couple things to think about for starters-

1. Halliday will come a lot cheaper in an offseason trade then he would have in a deadline deal. Would this be a good direction to move in?

2. What to do with Tek and Lowell. Personally, I eat the rest of Tek's contract and send him packing, with the intent of looking for a catcher with strong defensive skills. V-Mart's going to catch about 120-130 games next year as well as see significant time at first. There's no reason to carry a guy as a backup who can neither hit NOR throw. I don't need Tek's intangibles or game calling ability behind the plate at this point.



Okay gang, the floor is open...

The same issues we had going into last offseason appear to be in place this offseason,what do we have with Mike lowell at this point?Ortiz was good second half but what does he really have?The catching issue is temporarily taken care of.Is our starting pitching as good as we think it is?good teams beat us consistantly all season,and not just the bottom of rotation guys either.Than there is pabs,his high wire act all season kept us on pins and needles and in the final game he fell of the wire.There is not much availble to be bought this off season,so does theo start making deals.Replacing bay could be very difficult and i got the feeling that Bay has his doubts about being back.Championship teams do not have this many issues,contending teams can and do.The only thing i hope theo does not dois more than one reclamation project,preferably none.

I love Halladay, but he'll be 33 next year.

He'll want a lot of money for a lot of years ... and how many more great years does he have left?

A lot depends on how Wake recovers from surgery.

theo said he they expect wake back.a lot of issues.

theo said he they expect wake back.a lot of issues.

I think that if Wake is healthy, we'll see something special next year.

I expect Theo to come up with back up options as usual, though.

This off season should be quite interesting.

Here's how I see the issues:

4 somewhat significant free agents: Bay, Saito, Baldelli & Wagner
3 players with an option decisions: AGon, Tek & Wake
2 players in serious regression: Ortiz & Lowell
1 positions to address: backup/platoon catcher
General: Defense particularly catcher, third base, left field, shortstop and to some extent center field.
Resources: $$ & a strong farm system


I'm sorry but I can't agree with the sentiment of a few of the earlier posts. We have a champion caliber team now and you don't make wholesale changes based on three games. All teams have questions and Theo is in my opinion the best at addressing questions. In my opinion we only need one significant move (covering Bay's offense) to address and a some comparatively lower cost issues.

RE: Holliday
I'm not a fan of signing either Bay or Holliday because of what I perceive their contract years requirements will be but, I would much rather have Holliday than Bay. First, he'll be 30 next year, not 33. He's one and one half years younger than Bay and his body type typically regresses later than Bay's body type.

On a team like the Red Sox, on base average is in my opinion (and a lot of analysts as well), the key offensive stat to look at and UZR the key defensive stat. To compare two players, wOBA (weighted on base average) is generally used because it adjusts for park effects. In 2009 Holliday had a .390 wOBA and Bay a .397. Incredibly similar. What this says is that for the most part, offensively they would have contributed approximately the same in 2009. The big difference is in UZR which measures a fielders ability to get to the ball. In 2009 Holliday had a 3.2 and Bay a -8.7 where 0 is average. That's a significant difference, it means 12 runs a year based on range alone. Holliday is an asset and Bay is a liability plain and simple. UZR doesn't measure arm strength and the effect but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Holliday's arm is significantly better than Bay's.

square something.You said that we have a championship calibre team,but you list a lot of issues,player regressions ,free agent losses etc.Also as the resident farm guy ,how good is what we have not see up,Khalish for example.One last question you are not for resighning Bay,you arent suggesting Reddick be given the job are you?

First off, I believe that we have a better team in 2009 than the Angels. If we squared off for 10 5 games series we'd win 7 or 8 of them. This happened to be a year that the other 2 or 3 happened. Shit happens. We have off season issues to deal with. Every team has off season issues to deal with. Next year it'll be Ortiz, Lowell, Okijima. The year after that Beckett, Papelbon and Dice-K (I think). It's an annual thing. Comparatively, our problems are relatively small to maintain a championship caliber team.

Second, note that I said we have to replace Bay's offense. That doesn't necessarily mean resigning Bay. In fact, it doesn't even mean a left fielder. As an example, the combination of Reddick in CF, Jacoby in LF, Hanley Ramirez at SS and Lowrie at 3B will outproduce Bay in left, Jacoby in center Lowrie/Agon at SS and Lowell/Lowrie at 3B both offensively and defensively.

In terms of Reddick and Kalish, both have the tools to be all around better players than Bay in the long run but, that doesn't mean 2010. If you use Reddick instead of Bay in 2010 then you have to compensate elsewhere. A stop gap one year left fielder is also a potential solution. Either through free agency or trade. By 2011, both Kalish and Reddick should be ready to assume full time roles and both are excellent defenders with speed and strong arms. Reddick will be a power guy, Kalish a line drive speed merchant.

Sox and Angels played each other 12 times this year. Angels won 8, Sox won 4.

If the Sox are really better than the Angels.....while there's such a big disparity in W-L (we're not talking 3 out of 5 or 4 out of 7 here).......then I wonder by what other measures the Sox' superiority is substantiated.

What we should be looking at besides W-L to evaluate teams, is the thing I need to work on.

And "**** happens" isn't a good enough explanation for me for why we let an inferior team beat us 8 out of 12 times. I don't think we're chokers. I hope the answer isn't going to be an indictment of Tito.....vs Scioscia

Maybe the Angels were just better than the Sox in '09.

I look for more than just tinkering with a championship caliber team this offseason.

The Angels were clearly the better team.

That said, what I think the Sox are missing is a heart-of-the-order fear factor; the Yankees added that with Teixiera joining Rodriguez (and got a surprising boost with Jeter's unexpected great season with the bat).

I really think that in a SMALL sample size, a middle-of-the-order threat fucks with the opposing pitcher/manager/teams' minds and is necessary for the playoffs even if it isn't a key in the large-sample-size regular season.

Even if that's statistically incorrect, it would be nice to have during the regular season.

We need a middle-order threat, a full-season shortstop, a tightening of defense, and a reduction of roles for Papi and Tek (and probably more DH duty for Lowell) in 2010.

Wake as a solid 5th starter would be a huge bonus.

The Top 3 in our rotation are all in their 20's. Nice.

No reclamation gambles next year, either, please. Penny for your Smoltz.