Yes & No

I thought that we would help Ben with a few yes & no answers as to signings & trades. Hanley Ramirez - no. Too often injured. Too temperamental. We've been down this road before when he was a young Red Sox prospect. He's a west coast, National League kind of player. Leave him there. Pablo Sandoval - yes & no. I'm moderating my original no. If the Sox can put weight restrictions on his salary & get him for 3 years or less, good. Ultimately, the Panda probably stays in San Fran for sentimental reasons where they put up with his bulging belly. Chase Headley - yes. If Ben is only going after 2 starting pitchers, then money is available to sign Headley who I think is a better alternative than Sandoval & you can sign Headley for less money & years. Lou Merloni & I agree on this one. Jon Lester - yes. Lester can pitch in Boston & in the playoffs. I'm all for signing Lester at any cost. Andrew Miller - no. He hasn't proven to me that his wildness is cured. No doubt he has had a good run for 2 years, but you still see signs of wildness that make me not trust him as an 8th or 9th inning arm. Chris Sale - yes. Sale came in 3rd in the Cy Young voting. Since Stanton of the Marlins seems to be going nowhere I'd empty the prospect bin & get Sale who could be the Jon Lester of the future. His salary is only $6 million & he is under control for several years. James Shields - yes, but at the right price & years. 3 years would be max for me. If Shields gets 5 years from a team, let him go. As shown in this year's playoffs, his 200+ innings every year finally caught up to him. Max Scherzer - yes, but only if the Lester deal falls through. Scherzer turned down big money earlier this year & he may not get as good a deal now after a somewhat down year. Other NL pitchers like Johnny Cueto & Cole Hammels are options as well, but you wonder about no DH in the NL skewing their numbers, not to mention the prospects & money needed to get them. C Miguel Montero of the Diamondbacks is being floated out there as trade bait. If the D-backs picked up some of his salary, he could offer more pop behind the plate & he would be cheaper than Russell Martin. Lots of options out there. You can assume that Ben laid the ground work for several further discussions this week. It seems like we are all waiting for the 1st deal to go down, then the rest follow.