boston selling off assets

[smazza]

fielding definitely improved but fenway park will not let them be a great pitching/defense type team

it is tough to make over a team from the best offensive  to best defensive in one year

bosox may be going thru a transition period

[Velcro]

nice try... are you telling me nomar was having a stellar year offensively, and by removing him, we are downgrading offensively?    that logic makes no sense... Nomar was having a poor season, offensively and defensively... and as you say, its a hitters park...so Cabrera and Mienky are gonna have a field day.  Big upgrade, especially with the fact nomar was gone anyway.  would i rather have 2 gold glovers or a draft pick next year... hmm... let me see.

great move, and that makes lowe 100% better, as the infield has let him down this year.

[smazza]

Boston Red Sox owner John Henry said the team offered Nomar Garciaparra a $60 million contract a second time in March in a genuine effort to keep him, but the shortstop had no interest in it.

 

 

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"We were trying to find a way to sign him, and we never received a counter (offer) to any of the proposals we made," Henry told Boston-area reporters Tuesday, when the Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-2.

Henry also said that six days before Saturday's trade of Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs, Garciaparra's agent told general manager Theo Epstein that he had to talk the star shortstop out of asking to be traded.

"We knew from that that he didn't want to be here," Henry said.

Garciaparra is in the final year of his contract and is eligible to become a free agent after the World Series. The Red Sox came close to dealing him in December. He rejected a four-year, $60 million extension offer made in March 2003 and a $48 million offer made after the season.

Boston tried to acquire AL MVP Alex Rodriguez from Texas in exchange for Manny Ramirez. The Red Sox would've then dealt Garciaparra.

Instead, Rodriguez went to the Yankees in February and moved to third base. Garciaparra stayed with Boston and got hurt in spring training, missing most of the first half of the season. Confessing that his feelings were hurt, he said he still wanted to finish his career with the Red Sox.

 

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Henry said he thought the second $60 million offer this March showed that the Red Sox genuinely wanted to keep Garciaparra, a two-time AL batting champion.

Henry acknowledged that the second offer included "a portion that was deferred."

But he said, "I didn't think the deferral was a huge deal because we knew the Red Sox would be there and, number two, interest rates were low."

Henry said that he, Epstein, and Red Sox chief executive officer Larry Lucchino met with Garciaparra and his agent, Arn Tellem, on July 24 at Fenway Park to ask Garciaparra what could be done to help Boston and him, and why he seemed so unhappy.

The next day, Henry said, he got a call from Epstein, who was told by Tellem that "prior to that meeting he had to talk Nomar out of demanding a trade."

Henry said the trade was "extremely difficult -- he was the face of the franchise... To me, he was the most exciting player I've ever seen in a Red Sox uniform."

But Henry also said he supported Epstein's decision to trade Garciaparra.

"We believe in Theo. He thought he was doing what was in the best interests of the organization," Henry said.