G-Snarls

7:30pm ET Cardinals (A. Wainwright - R) @ Red Sox (J. Lester - L) Game time Forecast: 49°F • Mostly Cloudy • 0%PoP 1. Matt Carpenter (L) 2B 2. Carlos Beltran (S) RF 3. Matt Holliday ® LF 4. Allen Craig ® DH 5. Yadier Molina ® C 6. David Freese ® 3B 7. Matt Adams (L) 1B 8. Shane Robinson ® CF 9. Pete Kozma ® SS 1. Jacoby Ellsbury (L) CF 2. Shane Victorino (S) RF 3. Dustin Pedroia ® 2B 4. David Ortiz (L) DH 5. Mike Napoli ® 1B 6. Jonny Gomes ® LF 7. Xander Bogaerts ® 3B 8. Stephen Drew (L) SS 9. David Ross ® C

Ok! Who's got the GDT? Fatcow is MIA I presume??

The one that got Rasmus and Escobar. So, pre. I hope.

And then he signs with the Yankees for good measure.

Two of them have tickets for game 6 and are hoping to see a clincher that night. I said me too... On a Carlos Beltran game winning double.

Hahaha. I will if they lose.

History somehow suggests the Red Sox will lose???? Bit of a stretch...

http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2013/10/22/BostonGlobe.com/Sports/Images/davis_texbospre1_spts.jpg

Valentine's comments: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2013-10-23/world-series-2013-bobby-valentine-says-he-could-have-done-the-same-thing-with-red-sox http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/10/21/former-manager-bobby-valentine-rooting-for-red-sox-doesn-quite-understand-all-criticism/MCANhR0rbllVFs33PrYi7L/story.html As for the 2013 Red Sox? “I picked them to win the division, the ALDS, the ALCS, and now the World Series,” Valentine said. “I’m rooting them on. The [12] guys left on that team that I managed were all good guys. I enjoyed all of them, so why wouldn’t I root for them?” And his replacement? “He’s obviously done a great job,” Valentine said. “I haven’t heard one negative thing. I haven’t seen anything weird. I really enjoyed watching the two managers in the ALCS. John is this new-wave guy, but when it came to playing Jonny Gomes, he stuck with him because Gomes gave him a better look. I love that. [Tigers manager Jim] Leyland is supposed to be the old-school guy and old-school guys usually leave their pitchers in a long time. Yet he took Max Scherzer out of Game 2 after 108 pitches. So I found it interesting watching that.” Most managers get more than one year to turn around a bad ship, which tells you how bad Red Sox ownership thought Valentine’s tenure was. If Farrell hadn’t been traded to the Red Sox, he would have had another year to turn around a 73-win team in Toronto. It’s a good thing, in more ways than one, that Farrell got the chance to come to the Red Sox, who revamped their team and spent the money they saved in the Dodgers deal almost perfectly. Farrell was able to establish himself, because up until now there were many questions about his ability to do the job. “I’d like to think that if I came back for my second year that, given the changes and improvements, I would have been able to do the same thing,” Valentine said. “Ben did a great job this offseason rebuilding the team. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. Usually a team will go after one or two free agents and hope they work out. When you’re signing seven or eight guys and they all work out and blend in together as well as they did, that’s amazing to me. The entire organization should be very proud of what they did. They should take a bow. It was amazing work.”

Me neither I just don't think any Red Sox fans likely wanted to hear from him on the topic

That said, I don't think he likely has any more 8 WAR seasons left in him

Right handed 40+ HR power bats don't grow on trees, after all

Yep He's only getting traded if it's for a package including (at least) a high quality MLB starter and a Wil Myers level OF prospect. Otherwise why bother.

Yep Most of us believe that two of the main reasons AA went "all in" last year were: 1) Bautista is going to decline soon and 2) The AL East is weak right now Well, the AL East is not so weak (there's just a different super power) and Bautista may be declining in front of us. (even if not, he's now missing tons of time) Suddenly trading him makes more sense if you can get a mega return, but at the same time our GM might care more about keeping his job and keeping fans happy in the short term

True dat You're right

The Mets themselves aren't all that high on him, according to Baseball America: http://metsmerizedonline.com/2013/10/baseball-america-mets-dont-really-consider-cesar-puello-a-prospect.html

How high are you on Puello?? Also, we would only get 1 pitcher in any such deal

The more I think about it the more I think AA might (just might) pull the trigger on a Bautista deal this winter And I'd be fine with it *IF* part 2 of the plan is landing Choo or equivalent The problem is we're more in "win now" mode than the Mets. Not an ideal trade partner.

Bautista for Travis D'Arnaud. LOL

I'm basing it purely on how many good things people have to say about him I guess. FWIW the rest of our infield defense was brutal. Not that Butter would have necessarily been able to help that much given who we were sending out there.

I agree that Farrell taking Butterfield was both one of the smartest things Farrell has done, and also most danaging to the Blue Jays

This is the dumbest Farrell was a pitching coach. Then he left for 2 years. He's been back for less than 12 months. Do you honestly think he's even the least bit responsible for the "development" and on base focus/plate discipline/etc of the Red Sox offense in that time frame? No. That was already there. He inherited a very good team. The FO bought some good veteran free agents who outperformed expectations. He didn't screw up. They had way fewer injuries than the Jays or Yankees. They were able to compensate for the fact that their one young in-house hitting prospect had a crappy year. They pitched well. David Ortiz continues to defy the laws of aging. They won a lot of games. And despite being obviously jealous I'm actually happy for him. It's a good story for 2013, whether we sour Blue Jays fans like it or not.

This is the smartest thing you've said today