Mailbag?

Wow, my Bottom of the Ninth faithful have really come out in full force (4 comments…). I have decided to make a pseudo-mailbag with all of your comments, criticisms, complaints and cuestions. (I tried to stay with the "c" themed alliteration, how do you feel about that?) Now if I can only think of a name for it…Ball Bag? Too provocative. Touching all the Bases? Nah, Chad Finn has that covered. By the Beard of Zeus, I've got it! Fielding it Cleanly.

Onto the Reader's Digest version of the comments:

BoSoxSnoopy wrote: We need a gun slinger behind the plate, What to do there?

Well Ms. Red Sox Joe Cool, I have to say that I agree and obviously the stalwart Jason Varitek isn't going to cut it this time around. There are some options, both via trade. Obviously Texas has an onslaught of catchers, and the best defensive catcher out of the bunch is Taylor Teagarden. He would add some pop when behind the dish, but his arm strength is nothing short of 'holy shit'. The other player (for me) would be Chris Ianetta. He has a plus arm and is said to work well with pitchers. He is also a RI native to boot and what better team to play for than the hometown Sox!

Bradrowe29 wrote: I think you're mad with some of these predictions. I think they get a Nick Johnson or Hank Blalock and swing Youk to 3^rd. For SS I think you're looking at Lowrie, Crosby, or maybe Scutaro.

Bradley, the price of being omnipotent was just one of the perks that come along with making stark-raving assertions like I did in my last post. The Red Sox ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT sign Nick Johnson if not because a stiff Aprill breeze will land him on the 60-Day DL or because he's a shell of the player he was when he was on the Yankees. As for Blalock, I'd say go after him hard…If it were 2003. His batting avg. in 2009 was .234 and OBP an abysmal .277. I'm almost inclined to say Varitek can do that, but we know better. My shortstop scenario was clearly a wet dream put to paper (or keyboard if you will) but to think we would get Bobby Crosby who has only hit above .240 once in his 7 year career would not behoove the Sox. Scutaro had a great year but he's just shy of 34 and last year was most likely his peak year. On a side note, the fact that you would bat Nick Johnson in your lineup that included Matt Holliday, Kevin Youkilis, and Victor Martinez is serious cause for concern and should probably be checked for Swine Flu.

Julia wrote: Ryan-I think trading Buchholz would be a mistake. He proved that he is a quality pitcher. If Wagner wasn't mulling retirement I wouldn't be concerned with trading Paps. Bard is not yet ready to be the regular closer. Trading Ells? You're crazy!

Finally! A baseball mind and questions worthy of debate! While you have a VERY valid point that Buchholz is a quality pitcher, I ask you this, What did this team lack more than anything? A middle of the order bat that other teams feared. Bay, Martinez, and the Youkka are all class hitters but to say pitchers' feared them is a stretch. Unless Theo has some real magic up his sleeve, Buchholz HAS to be part of the deal to obtain said Bopper. The "big-bat" makes the complimentary pieces MUCH better, you know that. Not to mention that the Quality starting pitching in this market is actually pretty plentiful (Webb, Duchscherer, Harden, Lackey). As for Bard, it's a fair assessment, but with Paps going to command more money via arbitration this trade scenario I concocted would be a solid all-around "baseball trade". His BB/9 ratio elevating is very scary for a closer, and personally I'd rather have someone coming in throwing 100mph with movement and the ability to throw his secondary pitches for strikes, than someone throwing 95mph and flat and being unable to hone in his breaking pitches. With regards to Ellsbury, I said I didn't think it would happen but it would free up about 6 million dollars for the "Amazins" and in this economic climate, KG said it best, Anything is possible.

Shelley wrote: This post is 150% crazy talk. Bay will get re-signed unless the money situation gets ugly. Pap will be back. Ells is going nowhere. Buch showed value beyond trade bait. Lowell will also be back since he has a year left on his contract.

Shelley, Shelley, Shelley, where fore art thou Shelley? If we go from June 25^th (trade to the Cardinals) forward I will argue that Holliday was unquestionably the better player (.353BA 13HR 55RBI). He is faster than Bay, has a stronger arm, and while Bay may edge him in RBI's wherever he goes, If Holliday gets 81 games at Fenway I'm sure the HR's will be dead even. This is THE perfect time to trade Pap if there was any. And with Bard nipping at his heels and his fastball laughing as it blows by him. Papelbon could be a piece to acquire us the Masher we need anchoring our order for years to come. You've seen what the addition of Mark Teixeira did for the Yankees. Gonzalez would do essentially the same thing only he doesn't hit from both sides of the plate. Buch COULD be back next year, but notice how Theo said "Pencil him in", in his Press Conference. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but that seemed to be a red flag. Let me ask you a question. Do you think the Red Sox need to get younger and more athletic? If yes, what part of that statement does Lowell fit into? If no, change your answer to yes and you should probably change hobbies.

Well then, That was a raging success! Let's do it again sometime shall we? As always feel free to send me comments/questions on Facebook or Twitter, and if you get really excited about something you could even dig up my email and send one there…Keep the feedback coming.

Stay Tuned

Ryan