the state of pky

the state of pky is relatively correlated to the state of boston sports. However, we've entered a period where I am at a loss of words. This is the worst I've seen the sox, in MEMORY at least. I know that the sox have been MUCH MUCH worse, but that's academic. this is personal. this freaking sucks. it's gotten so far beyond anger that it's hit pity and sympathy. but they wont find it from me. I've been busy, but i've been thinking abotu this post for a while and what i want to say. so steel yourself for the ride of your life. you're entering the zone of brutal truth. And as far as you're concerned, i'm the red sox GM for the rest of this post.

contrary to all the fruitcakes out there, I'll be real up front and clear about this. I'm a big "I told you so" kind of guy. i dont mess around, so if you do, get the f out. so why no pity from me?

1. I didnt like the clement pick up. when ep told me the sox signed clement in response to the yankees even worse pick up of pavano, i said "why, he sucks." rule #whatever: YOU DONT TOUCH CUBS PITCHING. PERIOD. EVER.

2. I didnt like the coco crisp trade. whenever you trade a legit primetime prospect like andy marte, you better make the hell sure that you're getting either another legit primetime prospect back, or a legit player back. in cocoass's situation, we got dicked. straight up. coco, please remove your dick from [insert pronoun] ass.

3. I'm starting to question the ability of the front office to evaluate pitching talent. The future of the boston bullpen seems to be... undecided. hansen should be good, but got lit this year. i have confidence that he can bounce back. he's still young, but unfortuantely, unproven. delcarmen looks like he could be nasty if he can just get more consistency. papelbon is outstanding, and if he stays as a closer, he'll be great. but he needs to be a starter. which brings up the issue of the rotation next year.

schilling better not retire next year.

wakefield will be his usual self- i just hope he doesnt crack any more ribs. but, to be honest, if wakefield cant go, retires, or gets traded, mirabelli better go with him too. i'm sick of the overrating of a backup catcher. I liked the trade for cla meredith and josh bard for mirabelli because it enabled wake to be himself; unfortunately, we traded two prospects for pure shit. we knew josh bard was a decent hitter, but it hurts to see him tear it up. granted, it is the NL, so as usual, subtract a few hundred points and adjust that NL Skew back to earth.

the beckett trade... i liked it originally, and so i obvious will defend that position because we gave up two guys who i didnt were going to be that great. hanley never looked great- i felt he was overrated. i mean, i overrated him. and anibel sanchez... again, these two players are thriving in a lameass environment, AKA the National League. doesnt mean all prospects go there and do well, but if you do well in the NL, it generally doesnt mean dick, cause the AL East is a completely different animal. so get real. IF IF IF IF beckett learns how to pitch, and we've seen glimpses of his potential recently, he will be a good #1. if he does what he always does, pitching his gay little fastballs and little else, forget it. absolutely forget it. he needs to go the Johan Santana route this offseason and get a real changeup. once he does that and uses them properly, he will be BEAST. absolutely beast.

we need to pick up more starters, or develop them. i dont care. it seems the more feasible solution would be to draft and dev them because there's DICK for pitching in the FA market. that's the reality. so let the yankees continue to pick up trash liek Lidle. if you think Lidle is good, you're crazy. he's a fortunate recipient on a completely stacked team. simple as that.

my advice of the year to theo: this defensive plan this year was cutesy and nice, but I'm going ot have to stick to the moneyball philosophy on defense after seeing what it did this year. I'll take an offensive beast like manny, ortiz, soriano (more on this later) and deal with the dropoff in defensive prowess because they'll MORE than make up for the runs they'll allow. f defense. i understand that in the past, there have been SERIOUS defensive holes in the infield. the PROBLEM was not the defensive hole, it was the fact that dipsh!ts like renteria couldnt do ANYTHING at the plate. and francona insisted on batting him second. pretty sweet deal, so you have a 30+ error guy in the infield hitting .225, and hitting killing your leadoff man and any rallies to ensue. outstanding. I'll be honest, i didnt like how todd walker SUCKED IT UP at second base, but if you remember, his HRs carried us in the 03 playoffs. OBP, OPS. that's what matters. ideally you want both the offense and defense, but get real. get a life, that just doesnt happen. there's ALWAYS a tradeoff. deal. cope.

so enough with the foreplay, here's my advice. PICK UP SORIANO. PICK HIM UP, PAY HIM what his contract says, and live with his defense at 2b. why? because his 40-40 a year will lift this team to completely different heights, WHICH WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY SEEN. i understand that his plate discipline is suspect. so bat him 5th. you can bat him 2nd as far as I'm concerned, because he's such a dangerous hitter. if he whiffs, no big deal, you have ortiz and manny coming up. he would make the 2-3-4 or the 3-4-5 spot ABSOLUTELY NASTY.

extension to the advice: dont forget about Mo Pena. you bat him 5th or 6th, and then you have either the nasty 2-3-4-5, or 3-4-5-6. screw francona and his stupid little ideas about batting varitek, nixon, or lowell 5th. thanks for dick francona. how about production in the heart of the order, and then let the peons battle it out after?

OH WAIT, ONE MORE THING! ever heard of that idiot cococrisp who kills rallies batting leadoff? yeah, how about we put a moratorium on that too, and put the rightful leadoff hitter, Youkillis at 1. then you have one of the nastiest OBP players at 1, followed by the nastiest 2-3-4-5 combination. In my world (the real world) that's known as a 1-2-3-4-5 combination that'll beat your ass so many times in so many ways that you'll question your sanity as a pitcher.

so then you have your 1b, 2b, LF, RF, DH set. we need to address the SS, 3B, CF, C. well this is easy.

Catcher is Varitek, and then you bring up a prospect (oh wait, we dealt shoppach and bard, just kidding), looks like we're sticking with mirabelli... (unfortunately, i have no solution for this yet, and i dont have the constitution to go thru our farm system to find a catcher. i'm sure one exists though).

SS: move pedroia there, since Theo and co. are so high on him. he deserves a chance. i dont see them resigning loretta or gonzalez. gonzalez is an amazing SS, his defense is freaking amazing to the point of being classified as erotic, but his OBP doesnt cut it. he overachieved this year too. let another team overpay for his services. since SS is pedroia's natural position, let him have it and see what he can do. i can cope.

CF: this is awful for me to say, but we have to stick it out with coco. i dont see the sox dealing him. normally, i'd say it was a good deal for 3 mil, but seeing his average to below average defensive skills, his below average plate appearances, i've concluded that at best, coco is a 1.5 tool player. i know, it's REALLY HIGH. here's the breakdown. his best tool (1): speed. his next best tool (not saying much, 0.5): defense. and that's a stretch. he really has no idea wtf he's doing. he made ONE good catch this year, and it was only because he broke the wrong way and luckily had the speed to make up for it and get in position to make the catch. since then, i've seen him miss a ball by 5 feet, miss another ball by 2 feet, miss a ball by diving and letting it get by him. he sucks. HE SUCKS. read that one more time, HE FREAKING SUCKS. he's one of the most overrated players ever. and i have a theory. sorry, that's a misnomer. it's not a theory, this is the truth. it's all in his STUPID ASS NAME. "HAHAHA, COCO CRISP. ISNT THAT A CEREAL?!?!?!" HAHAHA. yeah. so funny. what wit, his parents gave him a weird enough name that he didnt use it and decided to choose a "better" name that completely strips him of ANY credibility. ass. get the hell out. i'd love to see a trade to deal him. i still think coco gets paid per appearance on lame ass NESN commercials. assclown. get a life. go back to AAA and figure out how to play. dick.

short version: i have no current solution for CF. the obvious thing to say would be to pick up Andruw Jones, but I dont see that happening. We're not the yankees. i dont see the sox paying that much for him. If it were up to me, i would because he's young, he's proven, and he'd be a great CF for us. but if we pick up soriano, we're not gonna pick up another expensive ass free agent. Now, if you want to argue to pick up Jones and not Soriano, let's chat. perfectly feasible, and i can see one arguing that to be the better decision. either way, you end up with a nasty 1-2-3-4-5 lineup. call it however you want. doesnt matter to me. I'm just trying to win ballgames.

3B. obviously we're stuck wiht Mike Lowell. I would go so far as to say that Lowell had a great year. he salvaged the beckett deal. mike lowell played stellar defense and was more than what i expected at the plate. I'm confident with Lowell as the 3B. BECAUSE I WONT BE BATTING HIM 5th. again, i really have to call into question the powers of deduction, logic, and reasoning that terry francona has NOT demonstrated again this year. he seems to want to lose or something. putting lowell 5th is a bad idea. maybe at the beginning of the year, when he was drilling doubles left and right that woudl have been ok, but he's come back down to earth. bat him 7,8 i dont care. he'd be great as long as he's not 5. this isnt rocket science, but believe you me, you have to be AT LEAST as smart as I am to figure that one out. maybe I should be the GM AND the manager of the team...

2B
to be clear, I like loretta. i think he's a perfect 2 hitter. i want hiim to come back. but i dont see it happening. dont ask me why, in my industry, this is what we call a hunch. if we pick up jones, we should stick with loretta. he's proven he can play here, and he has a great BA to show for it.

lineup A:
youkilis 1b
soriano 2b
ortiz dh
ramirez lf
mo pena rf (yes, he's rf, i dont want nixon on the team anymore, he sucks.)
Lowell 3b
Varitek c
crisp cf
pedroia ss

or you can have lineup B:
youkilis 1b
loretta 2b
ortiz dh
ramirez lf
jones cf
mo pena rf (yes, he's rf, i dont want nixon on the team anymore, he sucks too.)
Lowell 3b
Varitek c
pedroia ss

and that is how you build a championship lineup. more on a championship TEAM later.

as of yet, there are no solutions for improving the rotation. this is an issue I need to do more research and soul searching on. zito doesnt seem like he'd be the answer, but we need lefties. he might be the best FA available unfortunately. lester has potential, but i hate watching him go 4-5 innings throwing 98-105 pitches each time. it's torture. stop dancing around the plate, and throw strikes.

clement must be dealt to some lame NL team. you know that he'll just be amazing in milwaukee. send him to the midwest, formally know around here as "Oblivia."

more on this as my mind continues to grind away in search of a solution.

and with that said...

Thank you God, for letting the NFL start in a week.

stayed alert for patriots talk, coming up next.