Hot Seat #68 - BoSox34

[HollywoodLeo]

Rules for the Hot Seat

This is something we are continuing on with. One nice aspect of being a smaller forum is building a solid community and getting to know many of the forum posters and here is your chance to get know one another even better!

In The Strike3Forums Hot Seat threads, you may ask the one in the Hot Seat (in this case, BoSox34 up to 3 questions. The questions can be about baseball, movies, relationships, whatever.

Please keep the questions appropriate and know that the person in the Hot Seat can refuse to answer any question he or she feels uncomfortable with. You may ask questions for the next week, then the guy in The Hot Seat will answer up to three of your questions.

If you would like to have a chance to be the next one up, post that you would like to and BoSox34 will select from the ones interested for who will go next. Or, he'll just select whoever the heck he wants.

Timeframe involved: Just so we know how we are going to do this ... the person in the Hot Seat will be there for about one to two weeks. Questions, such as this thread, will be open for one week and then we will close the questioning so that the poster has time (up to one week) to get some answers together.

Questioning will close Friday, January 9th. Answers will then be opened until Friday, January 16th..

[Kingdom]

1. Assume Brad Penny stays fairly healthy for the season, what's his final line for 2009?

2. Rank the following from best to worst:
Jon Lester defeats cancer.
Jon Lester defeats the Rockies.
Dustin Pedroia wins MVP.
Yankees sign AJ Burnett.
Hanley Ramirez has turned out to be a great SS.
Manny Ramirez and his unGodly half season with the dodgers.
Finding out that Boston's playoff Kryptonite is Bossman Junior Upton.

3. What player did you want most or still want most this offseason if you could sign anyone?

[realmofotalk]

I can answer the first question. Penny's line for 2009: 86 mph fastball, 3 trips to the DL, 2 rehab assignments, and 5 setbacks.

[Kingdom]

You didn't read it then.

[Foster]

1. What has happened to Kentucky Wildcat Basketball?

2. Is there a lot of BoSox fans in the bluegrass state? Whats the most favourite team than?

3. And a Steelers fan in the south? May I ask how this comes about?

[browntown653]

1. Since I just read through Leo's opening post for the first time that questions can be about relationships...bestow the users of this forum with some sage relationship advice.
2. Best 5 movies you saw in theaters this year? And why did you like them so?
3. You have to kick one user out of this forum from the following: redsrbetter, Kingdom_of_Zito, missionhockey21, DirtyKash, HollywoodLeo. Who's out and why?

[ljshorty89]

1) Find me something positive (from a Red Sox perspective) about 1986 World Series Game 6

2) What are your 3 best and 3 worst movies of all time?

3) Preferred Jim: Boeheim, Calhoun, Leyland, Rice? (if you don't know one or more, look them up)

[TheRollingStoned]

1. What are the benefits.. of Ben Affleck..and Matt Damon.. being Boston socialite celebrity people..?

2. Do you ever wonder out loud.. alone in the bathroom.. God! if only Al Reyes.. didn't throw inside like a little ninny...and completely destroy Nomar's wrist..and mental state... but if he was still great... would we have managed the big comeback against the yankees..and won? And while you're in the bathroom.. thinking things like this over.. do you ever wonder why women always ***** at us.. about leaving the lid up and saying we're lazy... YET AREN'T THEY LAZY FOR ALWAYS *****ING CAUSE THEY HAVE TO PUT THE SEAT DOWN? HAVE THEY NEVER HEARD OF.. HYPOCRITES?

3. Let's say you were makin' a movie... some epic film that you intend to be awesome..and make loads and loads..of cash. Do you choose to hire... Tom Hanks... Tom Cruise... Will Smith...or me to be the main star? Why?

[cjkalt]

1) What would you give up from the farm for Hanley back?
2) Don't you think John Smoltz is better than Penny for the #5 Rotation spot
3) Why do you think the Red Sox haven't started Bay extension talks?

[DiamondDave]

1) The term honor is thrown around a lot by many people, yet in my personal experience I have seen the definition of honor being warped to meet personal agendas. What do you consider as your personal definition of what honor truly is and what it means to you?
2) Of the professional sports that many people consider filled with "non-athletes", which one do you think that with practice, you could compete in (considering your skills, dexterity, mental attitude, etc)?
3) With the recent monetary expenditures of the Yankees, much talk has resurfaced about the 'advantage' gained by their ability to spend without a second thought. Let's revisit the idea of salary caps in baseball. Would you be for or against salary caps, ceilings, etc and what plan or fix would you stand behind, if you are behind one?

[BoSox34]

1. Assume Brad Penny stays fairly healthy for the season, what's his final line for 2009?

2. Rank the following from best to worst:
Jon Lester defeats cancer.
Jon Lester defeats the Rockies.
Dustin Pedroia wins MVP.
Yankees sign AJ Burnett.
Hanley Ramirez has turned out to be a great SS.
Manny Ramirez and his unGodly half season with the dodgers.
Finding out that Boston's playoff Kryptonite is Bossman Junior Upton.

3. What player did you want most or still want most this offseason if you could sign anyone?

1.) I'll say this, if Penny can win 8-10 games for us this season with an ERA around at least 4.00, I'm happy with this signing given it's length and value. I believe he can add solid insurance at the least for our rotation this season. I always love these low risk, high reward type deals for any team. This team has enough foundation that we're not requiring Penny to come in and throw like the former ace he's showed himself to be in the past, although don't get me wrong, I'd certainly take that side of him

2.) Your first four believe it or not, I will keep in the order you asked.

A. Jon Lester defeats Cancer (One's personal life is always the most important)

B. Jon Lester defeats Colorado (the game he pitched was brilliant)

C. Dustin Pedroia wins the MVP (Gotta love the little guy, especially given his numbers in accordance to the position he plays)

D. A.J. Burnett signing with the Yankees will hopefully come back to bite them in the ass because of his health concerns previous to last season. Nothing like watching a potential Pavano part deux.

E. Manny Ramirez and his ungodly second half with the Dodgers really doesn't all bother me, I was just glad to get him and his antics out of Boston. While I'd be lieing if I said I wouldn't miss his production, I will not miss the constant split he and spitefulness brought to the Red Sox locker room. As long as Bay can put up numbers similar to last season, I'll find very little reason to miss Manny, if not for just the fact I won't miss his attitude.

F. Hanley Ramirez becoming the ungodly force and the pioneer for the MLB's future and potential poster child. It hurts me, because any Boston fan always knew the potential he had, unfortunately all we kept hearing was how doubtful it would be if he could ever put it together enough to make it past AA. Needless to say, I still cry myself to sleep at night thinking of what might have been. Hell, who needs AA when you can annilate at the major league level?

G. U-turn goes here, and I'm not even going to cite his name...

3.) To be honest, there really isn't any left that I would really want given what we would have to pay to get them. I like Lowe, but I would not even top the Mets offer of $36 million over 3 years, which Lowe rejected. And I laugh at the fact that Scott Whora's and Lowe are seeking $16 million per, yikes! My offseason, in terms of FA, went down the drain when we let Tex sign in NY. Theo will dab in a few FA's and we will likely bring by Tek for 1 to 2 years, but any other significant moves will likely come through trade.

[BoSox34]

1. What has happened to Kentucky Wildcat Basketball?

2. Is there a lot of BoSox fans in the bluegrass state? Whats the most favourite team than?

3. And a Steelers fan in the south? May I ask how this comes about?

I don't want anyone to think I'm skipping them, but Foster hit a sensitive spot in terms of UK Basketball, so I had to immediately jump to his set of questions

1.) What has happened to Kentucky Wildcat Basketball? That's a very good question you ask, and one that I'm about to have a very long answer for. We start with Tubby's last 3 years at UK, where we had fell off in recruiting substantially in terms of marquee talent, the kind we're used to here.

Tubby began to grow lazy in the world of recruiting, only landing one top recruiting class his whole tenure here at UK. And while, he had many players whom were solid talent or even no names, come along and develop in to elite players later in their collegiate careers, that spark of success seemed to dwindle and so did UK's name on the national front. It got to the point that many top recruits, would state the fact that they didn't want to come to UK for reasons of style of play. Tubby ran a very slow down based game that many modern age recruits didn't like because it didn't allow them to show their talents, which most one and done's seem to care about the most.

Tubby eventually saw the writing on the wall, he and his staff (which our AD Barnhardt had wanted Tubby to fire and he refused because of the deep fall of in recruiting) had recruited Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas hard, knowing that he would need them to satisfy the UK fans and Alumni pushing for his resignation. After the early signing period passed without either signing, I believe Tubby saw that he couldn't chance losing out on them and dealing with the back lash, therefore he began to flirt with Minnesota, and by that seasons end, had left for the Golden Gophers. Which as you can see, is perfect for him. Funny thing is, he never took his UK staff with him to Minnesota, yet wouldn't fire them while at UK, ironic isn't it? Don't get me wrong though, Tubby was a great man and a perfect pioneer for our University, but his complacency made it evident it was time for him to move on.

Now on to the Gillispie era, and boy did the honey moon end quick when we lost to Gardner Webb. Big Blue Nation was pumped when Gillispie came along, he had done miraculous jobs at both UTEP and Texas A&M, winning Coach WAC coach of the year in 2004, winning Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2005, 2007, and winning SEC Co-Coach of the Year along with Bruce Pearl of UT last season. Not to mention his well known prowess as a great recruiter, and UK had seem to have found the perfect formula.

When UK came out last year and lost to Gardner Webb, Big Blue Nations erupted, mainly out of utter shock at first rather than disgust. Then as losses to San Diego (which actually turned out to be a very good team later in the year), and the horrible 40-point defeat at Vanderbilt, Gillispie continue to felt the unrelenting pressure. Big Blue Nation was constantly on the edge of it's seat but Gillispie had some marvelous moments as well, such as going 12-4 in SEC play. You also have to consider that our deadly SG Jodie Meeks didn't play most of the year as well.

It's taking time to rebuild the talent loss we had to endure under Tubby's former regime his last few seasons, also going along with Gillispie still being a young coach and I believe, still learning a few things as he goes along, the VMI loss was an testament to that. But he has shown some brilliant moments as a coach, watch both UT games last year, especially the second one when we were without Meeks AND Patterson, we lost the game but we nearly defeated them. Not to mention he has been sensational in recruiting bringing in the likes of Patrick Patterson, DeAndre Liggins, and Darius Miller thus far and has another top 10 class coming in next season. So don't sleep on us too much longer, next year or atleast by 2010 we should be exploding back on the national scene and making some noise

2.) Most of my baseball loving friends also are huge Red Sox fans, BoSox Nation is real popular around my area of the Bluegrass State but not nearly as popular as the Cincinnati Reds because of location. The Reds are a hop, skip, and a jump from my location (near Louisville).

3.) Are you kidding me? The Steel Curtain of the 70's and the likes of Rod Woodson, Greg Lloyd, Levon Kirkland, and even a little Kevin Greene in the early to mid 90's. They are up there in terms of prestige with the 49ers and Cowboys, what's not to love?

[love_that_reefer]

You forgot to mention that Louisville is better

[HollywoodLeo]

Dude.

You're supposed to wait until all the questions are asked over the course of the week, and then answer them in the new thread I post at that point in time.

[BoSox34]

My apologies, I had a few very interesting questions that I was anxious to answer. Also, I wanted to answer as many as possible without getting overwhelmed but I will wait to answer any further questions.