Hey Alex,  Fourth option…Trade Salty & Lavarnway and sign Napoli to split time between catcher and first base?

For what it’s worth Alex, I think it’s worth noting that while Ross’s career splits are pretty equal, it is not just last year that he performed much better against RHP, but for four of the last five years there has been a significant disparity in OPS between RHP and LHP. The one year of the five where there wasn’t he mashed pretty well against both (.834 RHP/.866 LHP). In fact, in the other four years his OPS was an average .209 points higher against RHP than LHP. That seems like a significant enough sample size to suggest that he has become a hitter who has and will continue to perform better against righties than lefties, which to me lessens the value of a Saltalamacchia/Ross platoon.

I like the signing, since Ross is quite good, even though he is getting old.  For five years in a row now, he’s been an above average hitter (at all positions, not just catcher) and the numbers are good on his defense across the board (plus at throwing, receiving and framing).  To me, this definitely signals a trade of Lavarnway or Saltalamacchia, though it isn’t clear which one at this point.  I wonder if the team knows yet.

In relation to Napoli, in some ways (but not all ways) I now think he is a better fit with Boston, as long as Lav or Salty gets traded.  I wasn’t crazy about having Lav, Salt, Nap on the same team, since all three are offensive catchers.  When players have the same strengths and weaknesses, it is harder to pick the right spots to play each of them.  Now, one of the three would be a strong defender, so Farrell could use matchups and game situations to the team’s advantage.  Napoli would be primarily a first basemen on this team no matter what, but the pieces for a three catcher system fit more naturally now.

No left fielder , no right fielder, no ace, no closer, no first baseman, no shortstop…..oh lets go get catcher number 3….brilliant.

I believe that with blake swihart and martinez in the minors, lavarnway and salty are expendable IF they can get Napoli. However, I believe they should consider holding on to one of salty or lavarnway even if they get napoli. Neither of them is at their best value so perhaps they hold on to one as the starting catcher and trade him after a hot april. many possibilities to be sure

How about a solution no one is considering: Moving Jarrod Saltalamacchia to 1B. There is a lot of precedence for this, look no further than Mike Napoli.

While not the most ideal solution, if the Sox get shut out looking for a 1B it is an experiment worth considering. After all, Salty shows a lot of potential as a power hitter, but his ability to call a good game behind the plate is subpar.

If Pierzynski leaves Chicago, Salty or Lavarnway go and our new pitching coach should be able to evaluate a needed pitcher they may have for us in return.  

After hitting 25 dingers Salty is the one to trade while his value is high. Lavarnway didn’t hit wel but I think long term he will hit for a higher average with good power.

Salty to first base. Lavarnway starts with Ross backing up. Salty is a younger and much cheaper option at first base and frees up money to go after outfield help.

no-vember

Yet another reason why the Sox are the VERY DISTANT 4th team in town. Don’t see that changing anytime soon, even when KG, Pierce and Jet hang ‘em up and Brady hangs em up.

Some folks are suggesting Salty to first.  This seems like a poor use of resources — a great deal of Salty’s value is his defense.  Is his catching Yadier Molina-level?  No, but he provides above average defense at the most demanding position on the diamond.  25 homers is nice, but you need a first baseman to have an OBP over .290, and there’s no guarantee Salty would hit any better at first.  You could trade Salty for a natural first baseman who would give you at least as much value at the position.  Plenty of teams need catching.

your right that he shouldnt play 1b but he is in no way an above avg defensive catcher

Salty spent a lot of time at 1B with Atlanta and with Texas….

Salty’s defense, though much improved, still is below average.  He spent considerable time at 1B with Atlanta and with Texas.  Playing 1B might give Salty the opportunity to be more consistent with his hitting…  A productive Salty at 1B is an immense upgrade to the Sox . Make no mistake, Lavarnway is going to be a front line catcher for a MLB team and will be a very good hitting catcher. He is much better defensively behind the plate than Salty is….  Signing Ross is really a pretty smart move, if not brilliant. Putting Salty at 1B solves a lot of issues with the team.  Sox then have three serviceable catchers that gives them a lot of flxibility to match up with pitchers. Not to mention keeping them all rested.

with respect, ignorance is immense bliss. 

If you read the comments on the Braves blogs you will see that the fans there loved Ross and very upset that he is gone.

but putting Salty at 1B where he has considerable experience and is at least average with defense might give Salty a better opportunity to be more consistent with his hitting.   For the past 2 years the Sox forced Salty to forego working on his hitting to improve defensively behnd the plate.  With Lavarnway behind the plate and Ross as the primary back up, with Salty at 1B solves a lot of issues and is in my opinion the foundation of what the Sox intend on doing. At minimum it puts them in position to not put an also ran at 1B if they do nto acquire Napoli.  If they now go out and sign Napoli, it would be reasonable to think that Salty or Lavarnway is gone in a trade.  Pretty rational actions by Ben.

Hot stove isn’t like assembling IKEA furniture.  The order in which you do things is dictated by the market.  Now if they missed out on one of those other key positions because they were focusing on acquiring Ross, then we’d have a problem.  Don’t think that’s the case.

Well said and your exactly right….but I don’t see Ross as a good signing..he’s 35. His numbers are not likely to improve in the AL EAST..especially in year one of facing pitchers he has not seen before.

 I don’t see Lavarnway as big league ready. He certainly proved that last season. 

agm3 – those are good points.  Time will tell I guess. 

So far with Cherrington all we see is the shifting of the chairs on the titanic..he has not brought in one player that has improved the team…except for Cody Ross and it looks like that was a one year thing.

Could also have a carousel type approach with Salty/Lav at first and Ross/Salty/Lavarnaway at catcher.  

After checking the objective stats, you are right inasmuch as Salty’s defense at catcher is not above average.  Taking his stats from the last three years, he is around average, minus a few runs over the course of three seasons.  However, slightly below average defense for a  major league catcher with at least some offense thrown in is a valuable player.  Moreover, I just do not like Satly’s prospects at 1B.  I wouldn’t consider 35 starts at 1B back in 2007 “considerable time”, and I don’t think playing first base would cure his real offensive shortcomings: poor pitch recognition, lack of plate discipline, massive strikeout totals.
We agree that Lavarnway should be the primary catcher, and that Ross is a very capable backup.  I just think Salty’s terrible OBP and what I would expect to be unimpressive defense does not represent an upgrade at 1B over, say Mauro Gomez.  The Sox may as well trade Salty to a team that could use a capable catcher (the Nats spring to mind) and get some value from him that way.

Red Sox free agent predictions 32.0 1 Trade Jacoby Ellsbury,John Lackey and Danny Valencia
to the San Diego Padres for SS Alexi Amarista, Carlos Quentin OF and Clayton Richards LHP.
2 Trade Jarrod Saltalamachia and Pedro Ciriaco to Pittsburgh for 1B Garrett Jones.
3 Free Agents to sign Josh Hamilton OF Texas,Ryan Dempster SP Texas and Kelley Johnson 2B
Blue Jays.

Lavarnway might be a first baseman.

Signing Napoli is a must! This guy thrives at Fenway (albiet,against Sox pithing) and is a natural for the Sox,who need RH power and OBP. To get that from a catcher is like getting two players. Salty’s value has never been higher and Ross is the ideal backup. Napoli’s ability to play 1st is another asset. If Nap ends up at 1st,Lavernway comes up and shares duties with Ross. There are plenty of moves that won’t cost a fortune, to make the Sox contenders this year.

lavarnway is complete garbage…if I have to sit and watch another season of this P.O.S ..getting time at DH and starting in the majors , i’m gonna go nuts. What exactly has managment seen that tells them he’s ready…was it his .157 avg, or maybe his 13 passed balls….or just maybe its how he only throws out 30% of steals. yup seems ready …what a joke!!!

If I’m GM, I trade Lavarnway, and sign Napoli…………you can get the most for Ryan right now, and if getting a player like Justin Upton means trading Ryan, then do it………..Napoli will be 1B but is an insurance if Salty or Ross gets hurt…………..and I don’t think we can really take any of last year’s stats on any of the players, not pitchers, too seriously………..with the amount of our star players missed games, its hard to tell me what Salty’s stats would be without Ellsbury, Crawford, Ortiz, or Pedroia in the line-up………..I don’t think you can make a concrete judgement on his hitting based on last year…………in a reasonably healthy year, with guys on base in front him, if he still hits the same numbers, then I think you can go on that……………….

All of this discussion of moving Salty to 1b or trading him, why not keep them all and move Lavarnway to 1b?  Everything you read states how bad his mechanics are and how slow he is to get rid of the ball.  Move him now, while he’s young and then you have the pop of his bat still in the lineup.

Now that we have a White Sox coach on the roster. I think Gavin Floyd is bound for the Red Sox for one of our catchers plus a prospect!!!

 Wow – I guess you missed his .295 batting average, .434 slugging and 33% caught stealing numbers in 83 games with AAA Pawtucket in 2012. Its called development – whiner. Ellsbury struggled when he first came up as did Pedroia.  And since this was Ryan’s first full season at AAA (he started 2011 at AA for 55 games) I reckon we’ll give him another chance or two to adjust to the big leagues. All of the rookies cannot be Will Middlebrooks offensively. It might be nice but that just isn’t going to happen.

 Wow – I guess you missed his .295 batting average, .434 slugging and 33% caught stealing numbers in 83 games with AAA Pawtucket in 2012. Its called development – whiner. Ellsbury struggled when he first came up as did Pedroia.  And since this was Ryan’s first full season at AAA (he started 2011 at AA for 55 games) I reckon we’ll give him another chance or two to adjust to the big leagues. All of the rookies cannot be Will Middlebrooks offensively. It might be nice but that just isn’t going to happen.

 If I’m another team’s GM, or an aging players agent, I love you. You are willing to trade away promising talent for faded glory in the vain hopes that the glory can be recaptured.  Napoli hits like Josh Beckett pitches. He is average to good one year (2009, 2011) and worthless the next (2010 and 2012). And let’s not forget that Napoli is the worst defensive 1st baseman and catcher on the market. His numbers make James Loney look like a defensive all star. And you appear to want to trade low salary, Ryan Lavarnway, for high salary, medium production, Justin Upton – who doesn’t want to play in Boston anyway.  Unfortunately or not, the Boston Red Sox will be in a rebuilding year in 2013. We can suck in the guts and prepare for a roller-coaster ride of playing rookies & sophomores like Jerry Sands, Mauro Gomez, Pedro Ciriaco and Ryan Lavarnway or we can build a team of old / over paid guys like Napoli and Justin Upton.

Thanks love you too………you already have Lavarnway as promising?  Based on what?  Can’t type how many prospects I’ve heard of the past 12 years the Sox have had that were “promising”……………Napoli is a bridge to the next 3 years, that’s all, and I don’t consider 31 old, especially at first base and in Fenway Park…………you guys have to stop thinking about having ALL NINE PLAYERS take 15 pitches an at-bat, walk 500 times, hit 320, and be a Gold Glove, because that’s not gonna happen………and Upton is overpaid?  By the Diamondbacks?  Please………..you want to play Sands and Gomez, have at it…………I would take Upton now, especially if they are thinking about trading Ellsbury, or letting him walk……….Bradley is not ready yet, and Upton would be nasty in Fenway and the prime-time AL East

Trade Salty or Lavarnway, depending which the NY Mets prefer for Ike Davis. C position would be set, as 1st base. On to the next position….

trade salty and lavarnway.  salty apparently cannot hit lefties and lavarnway cannot hit a mlb level breaking pitch.

I think the fans are tired of quantity over quality!!!!!!!!!

Pats are the Atlanta Braves of the NFL….Just make the playoffs…year after year and the sheep will be happy.While other teams should be jealous of N.E. being playoff bound every year, I would prefer the Larry Bird Approach ” WE didn’t win the title-so the season was a failure”. Constantly strive to be the best…not to be good enough to get there.

I like this signing alot.!!! This guy will excel with Brady.

How long have we suffered with the defense and this is what BB worries about. ??????

that’s fine we’ll just get 3 or 4 subpar defensive players to do nothing except get hurt.and suck up money hence the quote the whole bunch of turds

People seem to forget how unproven Wes Welker was when he got here. Not everyone needs to come in here as Larry Fitzgerald in order to contribute. Just look at the Lions – all their eggs in the Stafford/Johnson/Suh basket, so they can’t build a team around them. BB knows what he’s doing.

my argument is we don’t need any more offense for defensive genius BB can’t develop draft or sign any defensiveplayers we need quality on defense we have enough on offense

this is a good sign. 4 tds as a number 3 in buffalo is impressive.

I have no problem with this move/approach. Lets see if he even makes the team. Sink the real money in the defense.

EMMANUEL SANDERS IN FOR A VISIT, RESTRICTED FREE AGENT, THE PATS WOULD HAVE TO GIVE UP A 3RD PICK

its interesting that there all these comments about how BB has dropped the ball. The reality is that BB continues to develop winning teams and other NFL coaches define their success by how they measure up to him. Put your egos aside. He knows what he is doing. Be a true fan and enjoy the ride.

SOmetimes it PAINS me to be a fan of this team. You know like when they went to their fifth Superbowl in 11 years. Or when they won their 9th AFC EAst Title in eleven years. This team was not just “making the playoffs” for the last decade. it was making it to the Superbowl four times….twice in the last four years. It was making it to the AFC CHampionship game SIX TIMES! Anyone who really is that upset can go cheer for the Jests…I hear the points about Welker. He was one of my favorite players in the last few years and he was a STUD WR in this system. However, he can not be the focal point of this offense. None of the last five SB winners had any receiver with over 100 catches. There needed to be a shift away from reliance on one guy…hence all of the WR moves so far this off season that seem to be small. Remember the smurfs? Remember when Brady’s favorite receive was the open one? I also agree that the offense is not the issue here…but most of the names floating around today are defensive and I really like a couple of these guys. We will see. It is just day three of free agency. The sky is not falling. I am not saying “In Bill We Trust” but all that man has done is win here….period. Give it time. I gave it about 20 years of watching a craptastic team before they won a Superbowl (with a couple of fun teams mixed in). The players that Bill is bringing in are part of a whole and until it is out there we do not have a clue how they will work out. I seem to recall 2006 FA when we had no real decent receivers on the roster. There were a couple of draft day trades that some of you may recall….something about some midget slot guy from Miami who might help the special teams unit a little and a washed up WR who was well past his prime….

lets hope brady actually throws some passes his way now that welker is gone

The Pats look to be quickly building some depth at a position they sorely needed. Looks like they’re going to bring Lloyd back, and with Jones and Amendolah signed, they now have 3 receivers. Not only that, they may sign Emmanuel Sanders to make it 4. Add in the tight ends and receiving threats at RB too with Vereen and possibly Leon Washington and/or Danny Woodhead if they re-sign him, that’s awesome.

Excellent points Patsfanroach. My sentiments exactly. I’ve been making those same points for the last few days. I have done so as I listen to the predictable comments from spoiled Pats fans, with short memories. I loved Welker too, and will miss him. However, ironically, if all these same fans care about is winning championships, then the best way to do that is to not let Public relations drive your football personell decisions. That said, the main reason Bill Belichick has been so successfull over the years is because he clearly doesn’t give a crap what fans think of him. That’s a good thing since the term fan is short for fanatic, and most fanatics are idiots. Do you want idiots running your football team, or Bill Belichick?

Speaking of idiots running football teams, take a look at what’s happening in Baltimore right now. They go off and sign a highly over rated Joe Flacco to an insane billion dollar contract (I know I exaggerate), and within a week they lose half the core of their team. Anquan Bolden, Paul Kruger, Patriot killer Bernard Pollard, Dannell Ellerbe, are all now GONE, and they are about to lose Ed Reed. They lost those guys in large part because of what will prove to be a really bad contract with an over rated quarterback, that the Fans down there LOVE. They should have played hardball with Flacco, and instead placated dumb fans. The result, they lost a ton of key players they cant pay, so they CAN pay ONE, VERY over rated quarterback. Yes, the Ravens just won the Super Bowl, but with that one move, they may not win another one for a VERY long time.

Here’s yet another example of what you could be dealing with in New England. Look at the Steelers in salary cap hell right now. They just lost Mike Wallace and are ABOUT to lose another big part of their Receiver core in Emmanuel Sanders (perhaps coming to New England). When is the last time you saw the Patriots manage their cap as badly as Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and most of the rest of the league?

Grow up fans. League rules are complicated and designed to ensure parity, thus forcing teams to constantly be making tough decisions like the one the Pats had to make on Welker. Remember Richard Seymour? The same fans barking about losing Welker were moaning about getting rid of Seymour too. Those same fans likely don’t have a clue whats going on with Richard Seymour right now, just a short time after leaving the Pats.

In short, the Raiders just voided Seymour’s contract because, being an old man, with bad knees, he missed half the season last year. Beyond that, he was slated to be paid 19 milion dollars next year… again, to an OLD MAN WITH BAD KNEES. Meanwhile the Pats got Oakland’s first round pick in 2011. That pick turned out to be Nate Solder. Who would you rather have right now: Nate Solder or Richard Seymour? I could drone on and on with numerous other examples like the Seymour example as to unpopular, yet smart moves the Pats have made over the years but I wont because the bottom line is this:

The Patriots over the last decade have maintained one of the longest, sustained periods of wild success in all of sports history, not just in football. Grow up New England fans. You cant win Super Bowls EVERY year. Football is a business, and that means making tough and unpopular decisions frequently. Furthermore, your team, the Patriots, have been damn good at the business end of the game as well as the game itself. That said, shut up, sit down, wait to see what happens, and enjoy over a decade of sustained greatness. That sustained greatness has allowed your team to seriously compete for a championship every year, since the man you deride so much, Bill Belichick, came here. Meanwhile, most other teams are up and down like a yo yo.

The only thing I am upset with Pats about is not the Welker deal as I feel he has been way too much alot about his contract but what I am upset with is there is some great veteran Defensive Ends out there and the Pats are yet to sign one of them. I wish the Pats would address this.