ksm1616 wrote:

---

God willing, Hanson, Delcarmn, Timlin (I'd just dump this guy, he's garbage, and an embarrassment to watch with that camo glove), Lopez, and the rest of our horrific middle relievers. Hanson will NEVER, I repeat, NEVER pan out in a Red Sox uniform. We need to trade him, Manny D. and possibly Crisp or Moss for some legit middle relievers, like a Linebrink.
Man Ram will be back. He is irreplaceable.
Tek is simple. Think back to August 06' when he went down with an injury for a month and a half. I believe we were in first or a game or 2 back? We finished the year in 3rd in the East. Tek can hit .150 and still be as valuable as any to this team, and more importantly, our pitching staff. No way Brown or Kottraras (both good players) will take care of our pitchers like Tek can. The best thing would to have them platoon with Tek, so they can learn how to handle the Boston staff.
Trade Bait: Hanson, Kielty, Manny D., Coco, Moss, Thurston, Lopez

Until very recently, Delcarmen has been dependable. He seems to have stretches where he has some control problems. He had a good year last season, and seems to be on the same track this year.
Your Timlin comments are very dramatic. Timlin had an up and down season last year, and I do think this one will be his last with the Sox. He did pitch some very important innings in the playoffs last year, and I see him in the same light as some of our other current options.
Another poster on this board (sorry, I forget who) said that Hanson is pitching scared right now. I agree. I'd like to see Hanson sent down to AAA and see the Pawsox pitch him in the 8th/9th of tight games for a few months to see if he can deal with it. It doesn't seem like he's been asked to pitch late in tight games for at least the past two seasons. Perhaps he's been babied a bit. But right now his body language seems more like Calvin Schiraldi.
Trading the house for middle relievers seems to fail most of the time. I'd rather work through the pain of developing them.
Manny is irreplaceable just like Nomar was irreplaceable. Sarcasm intended.
Varitek is valuable although it is hard to mask his hitting woes of late when there is little production coming from the bench and a times not enough production from the starters, Manny included. The key to the catching position on this team always seems to boil down to Wakefield. As long as he is here, we need someone to catch him, even if they are light offensively. And if Varitek is struggling that leaves us limited offensively. Does anyone know which Pawsox catcher catches for Charlie Zink? It seems that whoever we develop behind Varitek (Brown/Kotteras/Wagner/Exposito/etc.) might need to show they can handle Zink. Does anyone think that a good litmus test for handling Wakefield? Whatever the case I'd prefer a future starting catcher for the Sox to be the one to handle Wakefield so that we can end the reliance on a designated knuckle-handling back-up.