RealGM

I think it's a bit obvious. For those who are still on the "he helps our pitching staff" bandwagon, let me say this. To what minimal degree he may, it it no longer worth it. He used to be great defensively now it's just pathetic. Oh, and he can't hit for **** anymore.

Tito needs to man up and just go with Victor at catcher every night. We just can't afford his bat in the lineup and having teams steal half a dozen bases on him anymore. I don't care how well you can handle a staff, if you are allowing runners to take a 6 or 7 extra bases a night you are NOT helping out your pitcher.

So obviously Youk is unmovable from the starting lineup. So the options are to play him at 1st and have Lowell and 3rd while DHing Ortiz. What would you prefer tho, Lowell at 3rd or Ortiz at 1B? I think you might be forced to put Lowell at DH on the bench down the stretch if his hip is still really nagging him. A better option may include putting Kotchman at first and Ortiz or Lowell DH. What do you think?

Unfortunately I don't think Victor can/will play C every night. :/

Why not? its just a couple months...if that

Oddly enough Victor catches Beckett and Beckett sucks. Maybe it was a fluke, but I'd prefer if Tito didn't mess with Beckett or Lester.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/778846/wh ... oes_wrong/

Just ride it out this month with Tek catching Josh and Lester and Victor the rest. September hits and we have more options.

I agree with that. No need to mess with Lester and Beckett, and more often than not they can make up for Tek's black hole in the lineup. It becomes more important to have the extra bat with our other 2 pitchers + Clay (the only semi-reliable option of the 3-5 starters in my opinion).

Varitek is straight up horrible right now. I can recall maybe 1 hit he's had in the last 2 weeks. On top of that the past two nights against the Angels he has dropped 2 third strikes that have led to the Red Sox losing their lead in the game. Even worse is the one tonight is he tries to run after the ball and nearly falls over unimpeded. He's just a shadow of his former self. It's embarrasing really.

Theo has now said Martinez is the starter going forward, and Tek picked up his 3million option to be the backup. Thats fine i love Tek and what he has done for this team, and as a backup you could do worse. My question is what about him being the team captain? Can your backup catcher still hold the respect of being a captain esp in baseball where few teams even have one? If not how does he give that up and save face? It an interesting question and at this point makes me question the move to designate him as such in the first place.

Seems to me Tito saying that Victor is starting means that the Sox are acknowledging that Varitek isn't exactly the cream of the crop anymore.

However, having a mentor like Varitek for Martinez is going to be great. Tek was a tremendous catcher and if he make Martinez into one then Tek will have continued his legacy.

Also, should we sign Tek (when he's done) to a coaching position. He could probably be a good catcher coach at least and at a difficult position to play there's no such thing as too much help.