Boston Sports Discussion - Page 9

nepg · 03-03-2011, 09:26 PM

The biggest surprise out of all of the Celtics moves is that none of the new white guys are wearing Ainge's #44.

ElectricEye · 04-28-2011, 10:55 PM

I've been such a bad baseball fan this week with all this Bruins excitement(I've come to really enjoy hockey this year, although I don't know much about it) and the draft. Red Sox have things together a little bit now though.

nepg · 04-29-2011, 12:32 AM

Bruins "excitement"? No. Anxiety. I'm soooo tired of them drawing the Habs in the playoffs. I'm probably going to be a terrible baseball fan for most of the season. I'm just not able to get into the Red Sox with the way they put their 2011 squad together... Makes me a little sick.

ElectricEye · 04-29-2011, 12:35 AM

I really don't get up in arms about baseball players and money. It's whatever. Baseball is basically capitalism...it's not fair, but it's not going to change(not to imply capitalism is bad haha). I really like watching Gonzalez hit.

Nandoss · 04-29-2011, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElectricEye

I really don't get up in arms about baseball players and money. It's whatever. Baseball is basically capitalism...it's not fair, but it's not going to change(not to imply capitalism is bad haha). I really like watching Gonzalez hit.

I would love to see Crawford hit...

ElectricEye · 04-29-2011, 09:49 AM

He's doing a little bit better from what I've seen. Put some good swings on the ball lately. He has some mechanical issues right now from what I gather.

Nalej · 04-30-2011, 09:59 AM

Yea, CC has been playing much much better as of lately.
His average is still crap but only bc his start to the season was epically terrible
Ellsbury and AGonz are on friggin' fire right now...
We're not where we want to be but we're playing good baseball now.
So that's a plus.
Hopefully Dice-K's injury isn't serious. He's been on fire!

Bring on the Heat! Bring on the Fliers!

ElectricEye · 05-02-2011, 01:42 PM

So how do you guys feel about the UMass football thing? I'm intrigued, personally. We've had threads on here before about how Boston College will just never really truly take over the area and establish themselves as our college team. I live like ten minutes away from Gillette, so going to some of those games for short money has some appeal to me. It will be interesting to see if they can build a program here.

Nalej · 05-12-2011, 10:28 AM

Haven't heard much about it, honestly.
I'll be rooting for them regardless. Penn State alum or not!

So what's good with Lackey? Besides sucking, I mean.

Where do the Celtics go from now?
We need to trade for D.Howard!!! (pipe dream, I know)
Starting C and a backup SG is what we need IMO

Jvig43 · 05-12-2011, 02:33 PM

We need to murder Jeff Green is what we need to do. That trade ruined our season, back to back games Green turned it over with second left with the score tied to give the Heat break aways to win it. I ******* hate that guy.

Nandoss · 05-12-2011, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nalej

Haven't heard much about it, honestly.
I'll be rooting for them regardless. Penn State alum or not!

So what's good with Lackey? Besides sucking, I mean.

Where do the Celtics go from now?
We need to trade for D.Howard!!! (pipe dream, I know)
Starting C and a backup SG is what we need IMO

It's awful seeing this former Pawtucket guys like Masterson doing well in other teams and the guys we got in place of them sucking...

C's need to get younger and undo the Perkins trade. Nenad is awful, and we simply dismantled our bench. Jeff Green and Delonte West add nothing from the bench and are not going to be even close to good as starters in the future.

proshoota25 · 05-12-2011, 06:29 PM

don't hate on jeff green, he doesnt deserve it, especially when the guy put up near 15 ppg on a playoff team out west for the last few years. dude came into a tough situation with much, much less minutes and an offense that revolves around 4 players

danny ainge said on WEEI today he is willing to trade a member of the big 3 if they receive a good, young player in return. also said paul pierce could possibly come off the bench.

if im danny.... I try to trade ray's expiring contract/jeff green/big baby for Rudy ***, who would work so well with Rondo, and is evident that the Grizzles dont need him to be successful in the playoffs

proshoota25 · 05-12-2011, 06:45 PM

dismiss the big baby comment, hes a free agent

nepg · 05-12-2011, 07:43 PM

I'd rather have Jeff Green than Rudy. Green isn't the problem. The problem is that they're old and injured in the front court. Green is the perfect player for the team, but they had to give up Perkins to get him...

nepg · 05-12-2011, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nalej

Haven't heard much about it, honestly.
I'll be rooting for them regardless. Penn State alum or not!

So what's good with Lackey? Besides sucking, I mean.

Where do the Celtics go from now?
We need to trade for D.Howard!!! (pipe dream, I know)
Starting C and a backup SG is what we need IMO

Lackey was always a horrible fit for the Red Sox. I chalked that one up as a failure from they day they signed him.

I don't even remember what they got for Masterson...all I remember is hating it and then having a ****** bullpen last year (oh yeah, V-Mart...still hate hit).

ElectricEye · 05-12-2011, 07:48 PM

FWIW, I still really like what Green brings to to the table....as a starter anyway. He obviously just wasn't comfortable here coming off the bench. Interestingly enough, someone crunched the numbers with him playing with the Big 3 or at least two of them, and they were MUCH better.

As far as the future of the team goes; I think it's time to blow the thing up...in a year, anyway. One more year of the Big 3, one more possible playoff run, then we start putting some chips into the Dwight Howard thing.

ElectricEye · 05-12-2011, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepg

I don't even remember what they got for Masterson...all I remember is hating it and then having a ****** bullpen last year.

Victor Martinez. It was actually a fairly good trade, as much as I like Masterson and as nice as it would be to have him right now. It's real small sample size for him and he was on the chopping block before this season even too, so it's not like we lost out on a major player for two years. No telling where he would be if he was still with us either, maybe in the bullpen as a second setup guy.

nepg · 05-12-2011, 07:54 PM

Masterson would still be in the bullpen for sure, but that's just the Red Sox for you. Having Martinez just kept them from doing the right thing with catcher and other positions. They keep chasing bats at C rather than just swallowing that 9 spot and getting someone who can anchor the position and keep runners honest. They're so deep, they shouldn't ever worry about that 9-spot because they can pinch-hit for it whenever they need to, but they still keep chasing bats and giving up valuable arms.

ElectricEye · 05-12-2011, 08:04 PM

Victor Martinez was also brought in to help us attempt to win another World Series, which we were serious contenders for twice due in no small part to his offensive contributions. That's worth a bullpen arm and a 50/50 prospect(Hagadone has been pretty meh and is always hurt). Vic also played close to a .900 OPS for a year and a half catching and was great with the pitching staff(Buchholz still misses him). More than worth it IMO.

They even addressed the future preemptively and brought in a guy to develop to play the position next year, mostly for what he projects to do in terms of managing the game and throwing runners out(Salty has very good defensive tools, but hasn't converted them). The guy they brought in hasn't worked out so well, but at least they went for it and addressed the need.

I'm not losing sleep over that one, personally. I'm still mad at the team going Salty of Russell Martin, but Theo had a weirdest boner for Salty and hopefully he learns from it Lugo style.

Jvig43 · 05-12-2011, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nandoss

It's awful seeing this former Pawtucket guys like Masterson doing well in other teams and the guys we got in place of them sucking...

C's need to get younger and undo the Perkins trade. Nenad is awful, and we simply dismantled our bench. Jeff Green and Delonte West add nothing from the bench and are not going to be even close to good as starters in the future.

Jeff Green yes, but Delonte absolutely beasted for us during the Heat series. Idk how anyone could say other wise, he was our energy off the bench and he made Huge pay after play to keep us in it.

Nandoss · 05-13-2011, 06:55 AM

I used Masterson only because he is the only name I could remember. The guys we traded aren't doing that well actually, but that wasn't my point. I'm just frustrated that we are not developing our guys anymore. We either ship them out for veterans who are on their way out of the league or they stay in a limbo and fade out without ever having a chance to come to the big show. I mean are you telling me we have no more Pedroia's, Bucholz or Elsburry's on our farm system. And we need a catcher who can be good defensively and also help our pitching.

Now I don't like Green or Delonte coming off the bench, and think they are serviceable, at best good, starters. It was an awful trade for this year and maybe it can prove to be a decent for the future, but for now it simply turned our bench in non-existent. Our guys are already old and you make them have to play 40mins a game. This playoffs loss I put completely on Ainge's back. West and Green are not good coming off the bench, and from the rest only Davis is good enough to be on the team.

ElectricEye · 05-13-2011, 09:31 AM

We've got plenty of talent coming down the pipe and have done an excellent job player developing players. Last year, we put out a big league ready stud reliever who just might win the closing job. This year, we're finally seeing the fruit of the long development process of Jed Lowrie. Kalish is waiting in the wings to be a 20+ HR power/good defender with regular playing time in a few years and is a valuable asset in any potential acquisition. Hell, we just brought up the pride of our system, our 21 year old short stop prospect for the future.

That's not even getting into the plethora of talent we have down on the farm that's a few years away and how we basically destroy the draft every single year. We're doing one of the best jobs in the business of player development right now, you just wouldn't know it since we have 6 guys who have played in All Star games under contract and playing fairly well in our lineup and a starting five we've invested both a lot of player development into as well as money. The only "trade for veteran players" we've made in the past two years has been the Gonzalez trade(which was a bargain. One upside A baller and a pitcher with stuff that doesn't project to allow him to continue to dominate as he goes up levels) and then the Vic trade(which again, fine, none of those guys were anything we can't get over). Hell, last year we even managed to do the opposite of what you said and trade Manny Delcarmen for a legitimate pitching prospect.

So yeah, with all due respect, that's a self created illusion that doesn't have any basis in reality. We have the luxury of not having to force up any players or promote aggressively like other organizations due to the kind of spending power we have for the big club. It's true we haven't had a homerun in regards to a prospect in awhile, but that's a both a function of being successful record wise and luck.

Nalej · 05-13-2011, 12:18 PM

I like D.West and J.Green on this team. I think with the late season trade and injuries, they never got into a comfy rotation.
Especially Green who wasn't used to coming off the bench.
West was amazing spelling Rondo and Green had his moments.
I still think we need a starting caliber center. How we get one, I'm not sure.
Another shooter, a la JR Smith/Reddick would be nice to have as well.
We would have a back up unit of West/Shooter/Green/Baby/Kristic

Nandoss · 05-13-2011, 12:33 PM

I never said that there was no talent or that the Red Sox draft badly or even that they don't develop talent well. On the contrary they certainly have one of the best farm systems in the MLB. The thing is, in the past year or two I've seen more prospects going out them being given a chance.

ElectricEye · 05-13-2011, 12:39 PM

But it's just really been Casey Kelly and Justin Masterson. The rest of the stuff we've traded has been high probability flame outs and most of them have done just that. We're actually extremely cautious about trading prospects, even. I'm amazed we found a way to keep Kalish through to Gonzo deal. I really don't think we've pushed out any real prospects in a trade since...ever really. Maybe the Josh Beckett deal, but that led to a World Series title, so I'll go ahead and say that one was with it.

The only real piece we've lost is Anthony Rizzo, who is currently dominating AAA and will likely get called up to the Padres soon....but in exchange for one of the five best hitters in the game, I can live with that.,

Doc Rivers signs a 5 year extension. I'm really surprised. Pleasantly, though.