*official 2007 red sox thread*

[NT!]

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Tavarez skipped due to the rainout, good to get some rest for everyone early in the season and see the starters going deep and saving the pen.

How many losses do we give Tavarez before giving Snyder a shot or calling someone up? Personally I'd like to see Hansack get the next shot if Tavarez blows it, looks like they're trying to trade Snyder anyway (showcasing him out of the pen a lot). Hansack has picked up right where he left off last year in AAA. He's not getting any younger (he's 29) so it's time to [censored] or get off the proverbial pot IMHO.

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agreed on hansack, but i doubt they'd call him up from now until the time jon lester is ready, forcing a release (if i am not mistaken, papelbon and pedroia are the only ones left w/ options, and neither are going anywhere). with the rainouts, tavarez will only get 2(?) more starts until lester's target return, thats acceptable.

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Where are you getting a targeted return for Lester any time before the ASB? He hasn't even moved back to AAA yet. They'll be retesting him to make sure the cancer's not back around the end of April. With how disastrous the Hansen and MDC callups were last year, I'd be surprised to see the Sox rush Lester back.

Re: making room for Hansack. As I said I think the Sox will trade Snyder sometime in the near future, or if Tavarez isn't working out they may deal him. I'm still holding out hope for a Lowell/Tavarez/B-prospect for Helton deal, but that probably won't happen.

It's also pretty likely that somebody will end up on the DL before May, either for real or not, in which case I'd expect to see Hansack come up for sure. He did well in his brief ML stint and he is just eating AAA alive right now.

It's hard to judge Lester's callup last year - other than to say he has got balls of titanium and I love the kid to death - because who knows how much the cancer was affecting him. However I'd like to see him get his BB/9 under 4 in AAA ball for a while before he gets called up again. He needed 100 pitches to get through 5 innings almost every time out last year, which just isn't going to work.

I would hope (and expect) to see both Hansack and Lester this year. Probably Hansack first. If somebody gets hurt we have both of those guys who can step in and compete as MLB starters, and Hansack can also move to the pen if need be.