Long Live Frank Fixaris!

Also the Sox will be in attendence when Aroldis Chapman throws, if they come away from that with any indication of signing him it makes it more likely that the Sox would be willing to move both Buchholz and Kelly in a deal for a hitter. I think Kelly is the more likely guy to be moved between him and Ryan Westmoreland because I think Westmoreland is more valuable to the orginazation and what they need in the future.

I totally forgot about Chapman. What you write makes sense and I like I said previously I did find it interesting that the Sox declared Kelly would be a pitcher right in the middle of the winter meetings.

Pending a physical Lackey is now a member of the Red Sox for 5 years and 82.5 mill

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this- ... -5-yr-deal

of course i am going to say this because i am a yankee fan but to me the lackey signing for that price, that many years, and at his age isn't a great signing.

Then Im going to assume that you don't think the AJ Burnett deal was a good signing last year correct? I mean Lackey is a year younger then Burnett and doesn't really have the injury history that Burnett does.

i do think the yankees overpaid for burnett but i also think the situation was different: the yankees had signed cc but still hadn't signed pettitte so signing aj was really a big need. they were also obviously putting a big premium on the 2009 season and willing to spend. the sox have two top starters and matsuzaka as well as buccholz and wakefield. lackey is a decent pitcher but assuming the sox have a budget, is that how i would want my team to allocate that money? probably not. if they do, as rumored, wind up spending the rest of their free agent money on beltre, an off-season of signing scutaro, lackey, and beltre seems kind of fair to middling to me.

But don't you think the signing of Lackey now allows the red sox to more willingly to move Buchholz in a trade for say Adrian Gonzalez or Miguel Cabrera would you not say that Lackey then fills a need for the red sox? I mean as is the red sox rotation while good, wasn't going to be good enough to beat the Yankees. Lackey as a number 3 is better than either Matsuzaka or Buchholz as a number 3. I think you should probably wait to see what else unfold's in the aftermath before making a complete judgement on this signing.

Well considering that the Sox were rumored to be going after Roy Halladay, Lackey is a cheaper alternative. Cheaper contract-wise and cheaper prospect-wise. And saving on the prospects still affords them the flexibility to deal for a 1B, a 3B, or a LF if they so choose (either this winter or at the deadline in July).

I'm not really on cloud nine with this signing, much like I wasn't overly excited about Scutaro. But they do make the team much better despite maybe not having the glitz and shine of a Sabathia or Teixeira type signing. And I have to disagree that an off-season "headlined" by Scutaro, Lackey, and Beltre (assuming he's the next to sign) would be fair to middling (actually, I think it would be on par with their 2006-2007 offseason acquisitions, but hopefully with better individual results...i.e. no Lugos). The addition of Lackey gives the Sox easily the deepest, strongest rotation in the league. Exchanging the parade of SS suck for Scutaro and the statue of Lowell with Beltre will give them one of, if not the best defensive infield in the league (after having one of the worst, specifically on the left side, in 2009).

The name of the game is and has always been run differential. That can be achieved in two ways...run scoring and run prevention. Run prevention is where they're really going to improve if things keep going as they have. And to be honest, it isn't coming at the expense of the offense, at least so far. SS offense has been improved. C offense has been improved (full year of VMart > year of Tek). 3B offense, assuming Beltre, is a wash at worst. The question comes in how they address LF, really. And if they end up not going with Bay or Holliday, and instead go a cheaper, more defensively oriented route such as Mike Cameron or Marlon Byrd (to platoon with Hermida) on a short term deal, I think while they'll have a drop in offensive production from LF, the net effect of all the changes is probably no less than a wash overall.

They were +136 in run differential last year. I think any possible loss of offense would be more than off-set by the improvement in their run prevention, meaning they'd still be a 93-96 win team like they've been for the better part of the last eight years. And they still have the flexibility to spend next winter when a) the economy should be better and b) the pool of high quality players will be much deeper.

You are entitled to your opinion, but I feel differently. Pitching and defense limit the amount of runs that the offense has to put up. By signing Lackey I would say they have the best #3 pitcher in baseball. A rotation with Beckett, Lester, and Lackey at the top is one that won’t have too many losing streaks. He may have had a few injuries the past couple of years but they weren’t ligament or tendon related so I have no concern there.

Looking ahead to the playoffs he would be someone with 78 innings of postseason experience with a 3.12 ERA. Who wouldn’t want that from a #3 starter? You mention Buchholz, Wakefield, and Daisuke but are they really sure things? Buchholz has a high upside, but he hasn’t consistently succeeded at the major league level yet. Wakefield is well north of 40 and makes annual trips to the DL. Daisuke is probably the biggest question mark. If he puts it together then the Sox have a big edge over other teams by having him as the #4. Lackey also gives them a safety net should Beckett walk at the end of the season.

As RedHawk stated I don’t agree that an offseason with Scutaro, Lackey, and if they get Beltre as a middling off season. Scutaro may not be the marquee name, but he got on base 73 more times than all of the Sox SS combined last season. That’s 73 more opportunities to score or knock in runs. I’ve already explained how I feel about Lackey, but as RedHawk also stated it gives the Sox flexibility to deal Buchholz if a deal presents itself. The Sox are in play for Chapman as well so that could replace any prospect they trade. I like this deal not because I’m enamored with Lackey, but because it clearly strengthens the team and opens the door to other moves.

Theo is being extremely active...

Rosenthal: Sox, Cameron discussing deal

I'm thinking that before this gets finalized, Theo makes a call to Scott Boras and basically says, here's our offer for Holliday, take it or shop him around without us as an option because we're going with Cameron.

The report says Cameron isn't signing on anywhere to be a platoon player, but given his age and Drew's penchant for sitting out 20-25 games a year, I think his role would not be unlike Coco's in 2008: a lot of starts in center, with Ellsbury getting time in all three OF positions. Basically, an outfield rotation in which Ellsbury plays ~150 games, Drew plays ~140 games, Cameron plays ~120 games, and Hermida plays 75-80 games.

Cameron would not be Bay or Holliday at the plate, but he absolutely crushes left-handed pitching, making him a good platoon partner at the very least. Check out his OPS vs lefties over the last five years:
2009: .954
2008: .951
2007: .914
2006: .810
2005: .978

And defensively, he's still good...he had a far better 2009 in CF last year than Ellsbury did. This lends itself perfectly to the tact Theo has been taking so far this winter. An outfield of Ellsbury-Cameron-Drew would cover a lot of ground and compliment a strong defensive infield well.

I think this would be designed mostly to buy time for Hermida to break out (I have to think Theo feels he can otherwise why'd he get him?), or for Kalish and/or Westmoreland to develop to major league ready. And of course, it also might give them a chance to go after Carl Crawford next winter (but that could be the Yankees strategy too, so proceed with caution there).

Cameron signed combined with a fair contract to Beltre makes the Sox a run prevention machine while keeping the offense among the top in the AL in 2010.

Cameron, Sox agree to deal

Theo's not wasting any time at all, is he? Holy crap.

Now I think he turns his attention to bringing Adrian or Adrian into town, and he's more or less done with a highly productive off-season spree.

i certainly never said i thought the pre-2006 signings were that great either. they did obviously win the world series and got a couple of good seasons out of matsuzaka, but obviously lugo was basically a bust and while drew has been productive at times i wouldn't consider his signing a clear winner over the length of his contract either. of course, we all know from years of discussing these things that it is going to fall down "party lines". first off, i am surprised the sox went for a big contract that wasn't bay or holliday. basically, those three were the only three "top tier" free agents this year anyway and personally i would question whether any of them are worth top dollar. sure, there might be a subsequent trade or signing that might color things a little differently, but right now signing lackey as opposed to spending that money elsewhere doesn't really seem like a great move to me.

time will tell. personally, i just don't see anything worth getting that excited about...yet at least.

I could run through a long list of Yankee free agent signings this decade that were busts, overpayments, or meh.

Pretty interesting take on the Lackey signing. Pretty much talks about everything talked about in this thread but added info on a player I did not know about (Aroldis Chapman) which really makes the thought of trading Clay more interesting

http://www.overthemonster.com/2009/12/1 ... ?ref=yahoo

and i never said otherwise. another teams bad signings doesn't make your bad signings any better. there is always a risk in signing a free agent, and in letting a free agent go for that matter. sox fans thought damon would be a bad signing for the yankees, but he turned out to be a very solid signing. both teams wanted pavano badly and he turned out to be a disaster. i will say, in all honestly, i did not want the yankees to sign any of the "big three" from this off-season because i just don't think any of them are true "premier" free agents. now that lackey has signed with the sox, i still don't want the yankees to sign either bay or holliday. i just don't think this is a good free agent class and i also believe that is how cashman was able to convince the upper brass to pull the trigger on tex last winter.

Fair enough. I guess time will tell whether it was a bad signing or not. I will say with Halladay getting traded and signing an extension and Cliff Lee getting traded and possibly signing an extension with Seattle this seems like a shrewd signing more for next season than this season. If the Sox lose Beckett they have Lackey, but if they didn't sign Lackey and then they lost Beckett next year there would be no viable replacement. From that aspect alone I like this deal.

Just a thought and me typing out loud, but what if Ellsbury was used in a deal for Adrian with Buchholz. They could put Cameron in CF and could sign a Nady or Ankiel to play left. Heck they may still not be out of the Bay picture in that scenario. Pipedream I know, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

I think Ellsbury has too much value to consider trading him in a package for Gonzalez. For one, he's a productive part of the lineup and cost-controlled through 2013. Gonzalez is only controlled through 2011. I think Cameron + Nady/Ankiel + Gonzalez is not enough upgrade over Cameron + Ellsbury + Kotchman to justify the cost.

The more I think about it and look at it, I don't really see them getting Gonzalez, at least not this winter. All indications are that San Diego isn't in any hurry to move him. I don't think yesterday's acquisitions of Lackey and Cameron and their potentially freeing up Buchholz or Ellsbury for a deal changes San Diego's outlook. It gives the Red Sox the flexibility to do it, but I don't think that that flexibility was why they signed those guys. They signed them to make the team better right now.

This doesn't rule out going after Gonzalez when the Pads finally decide to move him, of course. I just don't think it's going to happen before the start of the season at all. Maybe, just maybe, a wait until July gives the prospects like Kelly more time to increase their value and maybe the Sox can get a deal done without giving up their starting CF or their current #4/5 starter who could be a low cost #2/3 for them going forward.

Lackey better not cheat on his wife, she'd punch him in the friggin' dink: http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/bas ... position=0

Krista Lackey beats the hell out of Leigh Teixeira in my book, and I don't even need pictures.

But I'm throwing one in anyway.

supposedly the sox offered lackey's money to holliday first. in my opinion, the lackey signing is a better signing even if i don't think that's the greatest signing either. cashman was pretty frank that the yankees weren't going to big players this off-season because it really isn't very rich with talent. bay, holliday and damon will all wind up somewhere sooner or later but it really doesn't seem like anyone is beating down the doors to give them what they are looking for.

Doesn't surprise me that the Sox made an offer to Holliday and that it was in the Lackey range. Also not surprised Boras turned it down. Reportedly, the Cards are offering 8/128 which is well beyond what the Sox probably were willing to do length-wise even though the AAV is lower than Lackey. With the way the Sox have developed players over the last few years, and the depth of OF prospects in the system (Reddick, Kalish, Westmoreland, etc), there's no reason to lock down an OF spot for that long. Even if none of those guys progress to the point where they are everyday players in the big leagues, the flexibility to fill the spot efficiently down the road is worth the short term sacrifice.

after all that lowell is not going to texas. i never understand athletes hanging around in the off-season with an injury and not taking care of it. so, lowell will most likely be back but be back late as he recovers from surgery on his thumb.

Torn radial collateral ligament. I will also never understand how a team isn't fully on top of any injury that their players have. If it was Lowell not being totally truthful then that's crap. If he would have had surgery right after the season he would be almost healed by now as it is a 6-8 week timeframe. Texas will move on and find another bat so revisiting the deal down the road probably won't happen. In the grand scheme of things having Lowell back isn't a bad thing. Adrian Gonzalez wasn't coming here anyway. Lowell's demeanor could be another issue they have to deal with.

What horseshit. Lowell has a torn ligament in his thumb that he supposedly injured at the end of the year and he hasn't done anything to take care of it already? Can't 100% blame Sox management if the player doesn't speak up about an injury. Without the player's cooperation in diagnosis, they can only guess and can't really treat. But it is a starting to become a disturbing trend of undiagnosed injuries...Lowrie (twice with his wrist), Delcarmen at the end of the year, now Lowell. What is wrong with these guys that they're not speaking up?

I'd put Lowell on the 60-day DL to start the year and just leave him there. I don't care what kind of great clubhouse guy he is. It's a sunk cost regardless (just a $3M more expensive one than it would have been with the trade), and even without the thumb thing they felt they were better off without him. Proceed as if they did trade him at this point (except of course with any plans for Max Ramirez). If they wanted to go after Gonzalez, this shouldn't stop them. Ditto for Beltre or some other player.

What a pain.

Lowell stated on WEEI that he was upfront with the Sox from the beginning and that they knew about his thumb. They waited 7 weeks to even put it in a splint according to Lowell. Even though he said he has no problem coming back to the Sox I can’t see how it won’t be awkward to say the least for everyone involved. I don’t expect him to be in a Sox uniform come opening day.

No, it's not middling, but it certainly does not address their needs nor does it even come close to broaching what this team is capable of doing this offseason (i.e., money). I like their moves but they still need a big bat in the middle of the order--I know, I am so original in coming up with that analysis--and if the barrier to signing Bay is adding a fifth year I will move in with SF as retribution.

The thing with Theo is you just never know what he is up to. The Lackey deal came out of nowhere and who knows what he has lined up. It would not surprise me if he does nothing further or if both Gonzales and Bay are Sox next year (yeah, that is me on an optimistic high).

At this point, how does Bay fit? I just don't buy that the Sox are seriously talking about bringing Bay back at that 4/60 figure at this point...a shorter, cheaper deal maybe, but not 4/60. If that's true, why sign Cameron in the first place? A $7.5M fourth outfielder? Cameron is supposed to be a cost-effective replacement for Bay (half the price, 90% of the production), not a supplement to him.

The "source" claims to be a team one...I doubt that very much. The Theo front office doesn't leak this kind of [bleep] anymore...just look at how blindsided everyone was by the Lackey thing. I suspect it's a Joe Urbon "source" trying to fan the flames and manufacture a market for his client. With neither the Sox nor Yankees apparently interested in Bay, he clearly is going to struggle to get a huge deal. All he's got is the Mets' offer and they're not about to bid against themselves to up the deal. But if they think the Sox are about to jump back in, maybe they do up their offer. Boras is likely to try to do something similar for Holliday to get more out of the Cardinals, especially with them creating an opening in LF with the Cabrera/Vazquez deal.