As many of you know, Bottom Line Apparel is an extension of The Bottom Line blog. We're been working hard behind the scenes to take the t-shirt biz to the next level and one of the projects was a new Facebook page, specifically for Bottom Line Apparel.

We'll be adding new t-shirt design, special offers and news on a regular basis, but the page is officially up and running and we're pushing for 500 Fans before Turkey Day... but we need your help.

If you like this blog or our t-shirts... or your just want to help a fellow Sox fan... click over and become a fan of Bottom Line Apparel on Facebook.  And if you really like us, help us spread the word by telling all your friends to become fans as well.

We're giving away this awesome Youk poster to one random winner everytime we hit a 100 mark, so become a fan now and you could win a poster when we hit 100, 200, 300, 400 or 500 fans!

As always, thank you for all your support. Go Sox!

~ Rob

Peter Abraham of Extra Bases talked with Theo Epstein about David Ortiz and his $12.5 million option for the 2011 season:

Question on picking up the option and whether a multi-year deal was explored: “We’re very happy to get this resolved today in a manner that was ultimately acceptable to both parties. David is a player who is very important to our ownership and to our fans and given these feelings, the fact that he’s still very productive and the fact that there was a one-year solution built in to the contract, this seemed like not only the most likely outcome but the one that balanced all the various factors in the most appropriate manner.

"David did express an interest in a multi-year deal to us, as well as publicly. We explored that. But we couldn’t find anything that made as much sense as the one-year commitment. In the end, David understands this outcome, is very much OK with it and in the end is committed to the 2011 Red Sox.”

Question on possibility of a longer deal: “Well, we explored it and it just didn’t work out in the end. Both sides through it made sense to fall back on the one-year solution. We never say never; things could always come up that cause you to turn in a new direction. But I think at this point, the feeling is that we explored it, it didn’t work out. Both sides, for a lot of reasons, were fine going to the one-year mechanism that was already built into the contract and moving forward and happy and focusing on 2011.

Ortiz bounced back from an awful 2009 season with a .270 BA, 32 ding dongs and 102 RBI. I can see why he wanted an extension, but he turns 36 next this month and his stats against lefrties are frightening: .222 BA, .599 OPS, 2 HR, 24 RBI. That means the Red Sox are paying 12 mil for a 36 year old DH that can't hit lefties. Not good for the Sox, but they needed to make a decision here and I commend them for not extending Big Papi as a thank you for past success or because he's a fan favorite.

If you read the entire interview with Theo, it's clear that "ownership" had a major role in this decision. My guess is Theo was ready to cut bait and go after a guy like Adam Dunn, but after watching ratings drop dramatically in 2010 due to mediocre play and the loss of key players like Pedroia, Ellsbury and Youkilis, I can see when the front office wanted to keep a Ortiz around.

Bottom Line: I don't like paying Papi twice his value, especially when we have so many other holes to fill (3B, C, OF, RP) but, there's still plenty of cash in the piggy bank. I think Ortiz can give us anothe 30/100 season, but if the Sox replace Beltre and V-Mart with guys like Lowrie and Saltalamacchia... Ortiz and Youk aren't going to see many good pitches...

Before the 2010 baseball season began, we asked you guys to make your predictions for the expected starting roster. It's time to look back and see who knew their 2010 Red Sox the best.

Daisuke Matsuzaka (read original projection post here)

Below you'll find Dice-K's actual 2010 stats in RED, my predictions in italics and the Fan Projections.

I expected big things from Matsuzaka in 2010. He trained at the API in the offseason and seemed ready to bounce back from a disastrous 2009 campaign... but more injuries and inconsistency lead to another disappointing season.

Most us expected Dice-K to log 25+ games and 170+ innings, but due to another stint on the DL, Matsuzaka only logged 25 starts and 153 innings. baf092003 nailed the starts category and, to be honest, he came close in most of the categories... but he too expected double digit wins, and Dice-K finished at 9-6. Matsuzaka did have 10 no decisions this year and allowed two runs or less in four of those games, so he had a shot at 10-12 wins, but his inability to pitch into the 7th inning, means the bullpen has to step in and finish the game - and that often leads to vultured wins and NDs.

Bill M. doesn't appear to be a Matsuzaka fan. He projected just 13 starts but expected Dice-K to earn the decision in all of them. In doing so, he guessed the closest W-L record, but he was way off on the big picture.

Most of us expected Dice-K to hover around 4.00 in ERA, but he actually maned to do worse than that, finishing at 4.69...

... and we owe this guy $20 mil' over the next two years.

His walks were down from the league leading 94 he posted in 2008, but 74 in 153 innings is still not good. The result was a 1.37 WHIP, and we had three players come real close in that category.

Lastly... the Ks. After posting 201 strikeouts in his first year in Boston, Matsuzaka's walks and hits have gone up and the Ks have gone down. redsoxtalk came close with a 125 guess and was very close on the innings pitched as well, so they knew something most of us didn't. The rest of us wanted 30 starts and 170+ Ks... but I guess that's too much to ask for.

Bottom Line: redsoxtalk and Mark S. came closest overall, so we're going to send out some stickers from SoxStiCkers.com as prizes. Stay tuned for more 2010 results and prizes!

Before the 2010 baseball season began, we asked you guys to make your predictions for the expected starting roster. It's time to look back and see who knew their 2010 Red Sox the best.

Clay Buchholz (read my original prediction post here)

Below you'll find Buchhy's actual 2010 stats in RED, my predictions in italics and the Fan Projections.

In April, we watched Buchholz earn a starting spot in the rotation over veteran Tim Wakefield. After repeatedly refusing to trade him for a big bat or a proven starter, it looked like we were finally going to see what Theo Epstein had always seen in Buchholz... but even Theo had to be pleasantly surprised to see Buchholz as a Cy Young contender when September rolled around.

Judging by the Projections, most of you were surprised as well.

I expected Buchholz to stay healthy and log 30 starts, but I did not expect him to average 6.2 innings per start after struggling to stay in control for more than 5 innings in seasons past. As the chart shows, most of us predicted between 150 and 200 innings for Buchhy and the average worked out to be just a few innings off the mark. We also had five players guess the correct number of games started, so we seemed to have Buchholz sized up pretty well.

Or so we thought...

Buchholz finished with a 17-7 record, and while we did have five players guess within one win of 17, the avaerage was closer to 13. Dick H. was closest, guessing 16-8 with 28 starts. Athosgec2 was also close with 16-8, but predicted 32 starts. And elbarto32_85 (18-6) and jkargerum13 (18-8) were close as well, but weren't as close in other categories.

If a starter has 3 or 4 years of major league experience, you can usually come cloe on a W-L prediction, but after two roller-coaster years, Buchholz came into his own in 2010 and most of us didn't expect a Cy Young caliber season. Hence the 13 win average and the 3.76/1.31 ERA and WHIP averages. Coming into this season, Buchholz had finished with a 6.75 ERA in 2008 and a 4.21 ERA in 2009... no on could have predicted he'd finish 2nd in the AL with a 2.33 ERA.

But pvigean1 came close at 2.50 and 1.30. ggtroy and elbarto32_85 nailed the WHIP at 1.20, but despite allowing 67 walks, Buchholz held opponents to .226 BAA and just 142 hits, thanks to 50.8% ground ball rate.

Lastly, we look at the strikeouts. Before 2010, Buchholz looked like he had the stuff to tally 150+ Ks in a season, but his new approach induced more contact and less swings and misses, and he finished with just 120 Ks on the year. He had one double-digit K game against the Rangers in April and a few 8 K games along the way, but Buchhy typically hovered around 5 Ks per game, so our average of 158 was a little high. treeroot7 was closest at 131 and 27 starts and RedSoxTalk came close as well at 135 and 27.

Bottom Line: We had a few players with exact or close guesses in two categories, but no one guessed close enough across the board, so we're going to mail out some Red Sox stickers frm SoxStickers.com to Dick H., Bill M. and pvigean1.

Stay tuned for the next breakdown: Daisuke Matsuzaka

Brian MacPherson of the Projo is one of my favorite Red Sox bloggers. His most recent article about John Lackey is a great example of why he's so good. I suggest you read the whole post, but here are the key points:

Perhaps the biggest cause for concern [when reviewing his 2010 stats] is the way Lackey pitched to left-handed hitters, something he had to do far more often in his first season in the American League East than he had in the past. The lefties he has to face in his new division aren't going anywhere.

Lackey had never faced as many lefties (517) in a season as he did this season. He'd never allowed lefties to reach base at a higher clip (.364) than they did this season. His strikeout-to-walk ratio against lefties (1.57) was his lowest since his rookie season in 2002.

Among the lefties that gave Lackey trouble this season:

* Nick Markakis (18 plate appearances): .429/.556/.571
* Fred Lewis (15 plate appearances): .500/.600/.750
* Carl Crawford (13 plate appearances): .667/.667/1.083
* Adam Lind (12 plate appearances): .500/.500/.500
* Luke Scott (12 plate appearances): .364/.417/.636
* Bobby Abreu (11 plate appearances): .400/.455/.900
* Carlos Pena (11 plate appearances): .429/.636/1.000

[Lackey's curveball was not as effective against lefties as it was against righties.] FanGraphs doesn't break it down by lefty-righty split, but it's hard to believe it's coincidence that Lackey's curveball was measured as having the worst "pitch value" -- results of each pitch measured by runs scored or prevented -- in his career.

Maybe the solution is for Lackey to throw more changeups, a pitch that tends to be more effective when righties throw it to lefties (and vice versa) because of the way it moves. Maybe the solution is for Lackey to figure out a better way to throw his curveball to lefties.

Read the whole article here and tab Brian's blog as a must read.

Before the 2010 baseball season began, we asked you guys to make your predictions for the expected starting roster. It's time to look back and see who knew their 2010 Red Sox the best.

Tim Wakefield (read original projection post here)

Below you'll find Wake's actual 2010 stats in RED, my predictions in italics and the Fan Predictions.

Predicting what Tim Wakefield would do in 2010 was not easy. During Spring Training, Wake and Clay Buchholz were fighting for the 5th spot in the rotation, so we didn't know if Wake would be starting or working out of the bullpen.And even if he had been handed a starting role, there was a good chance that age and/or injury would limit his starts... or Buchholz would eventually take the job from him.

In the end Buchholz won the starting job, and Wakefield was asked to help the club as a reliever, but injuries to Beckett, Matsuzaka and Buchholz kept Wake in the rotation - at least part time.

He logged 19 starts and made 32 appearances total. My guess was 18 and we had four other players come within one start of the correct total - but no one nailed it. Unfortunately for Wakefield, those starts came in sporadic intervals and Timmy never really got into the flow. Hence the 4-10 record. To be fair, wins and losses are as much a reflection on the team as they are on the starter, but Wake logged just 9 quality starts in those 19 games and with the offense struggling due to injury, it's not surprising that he tallied 3 losses, 4 no decisions and 2 wins in his 9 starts with 3 runs or less allowed.

I think we all expected some high point and some low points with Wake, but no one guess even close to a 4-10 record. In fact, the average was close to the reverse at 10-6. bxtpaul guessed 10 losses, but also projected 12 wins, more starts and more innings.

Speaking of innings pitched Brian G. came closest with 143 and amazingly, our average came out exactly to 140 - so well done everyone!

Moving on to ERA and WHIP... Before the 2010 season, Wakefield's career averages were 4.36 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. Our projection average was very close to that at 4.33, but many of you predicted a higher WHIP, giving us a 1.55 average. As it turned out, Wake finished with a 1.35 WHIP and stayed right in line with his career mark. It was the ERA that jumped... to 5.34. Only Rick L., guessed an ERA over 5.00 and he jumped all the way to 6.60. Judging by his other projections, it is clear that Rick expected Wake to struggle more than most of us did, and he proved to be correct.

Lastly, we have the K totals. With 140 innings in the books, Wake logged 84 Ks. I'm proud to say I guessed closest with 86 and we had two players come close with 88... though all three of us expected him to reach those totals with approximately 130 innings - not 140.

Bottom Line: Not surprisingly, no one came close enough in multiple categories to win a prize, but we'll be giving away three free t-shirts to three random winners after the last of the results are posted... so make sure you keep reading!

Here's the deal guys... The Bottom Line is sponsoring Blogapalooza II this November and even though we have 100 people registered already, we need know there are more bloggers, writers, vendors and fans out there that should be coming to this event!

During the first Blogapalooza event this past April, I finally met some of my fellow bloggers face to face, I talked sports with writers from the Boston Herald and NESN, learned tricks to improve my blog and web traffic and made new contacts that have already helped me double business for Bottom Line Apparel.

Simply put, if you manage a blog about Boston area sports, this is your opportunity to network with other bloggers and Boston sports media members - and since it's FREE - I can promise it will be well worth the price of admission!

Not only will this be a great networking opportunity, but we'll be raising money for Kevin Youkilis Hits For Kids. You can make a donation by entering our raffle, bidding on amazing pieces of memorabilia from Stiener Sports and by purchasing a Bloagapalooza or a Yooouk! t-shirt from Bottom Line Apparel.

And once the networking, panel discussions and elbow-rubbing is done, we'll flip the switch at 5:00pm and get the party started with live music, food and drinks and the Bruins v Blues game at 7:00pm!

Click here to Register for Blogapalooza 2

Event Details: Boston Sports Blogapalooza II, sponsored by Comcast SportsNet New England, is being held again at The Baseball Tavern on November 6, 2010 from 12 to 5.

Remember to become a Facebook fan and stay up to date on all the Boston Sports Blogapalooza happenings.

Back in September, The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) announced the renaming of their annual postseason awards to comply with the wishes of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), thereby avoiding confusion between the two organizations. This allowed the BBA an opportunity to recognize some of the legendary greats of the game, naming their highest honors after them. Here are the new names for the awards and my votes for 2010.

Connie Mack Award (manager of the year)

Willie Mays Award (rookie of the year)

Goose Gossage Award (top reliever)

Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young)

Stan Musial Award (MVP)

Below are my votes, as well as the final votes from the Boston Chapter of the BBA. Leave your thoughts in the comments section!

Connie Mack Award

1 Terry Francona
2 Ron Washington
3 Joe Maddon

Tito tallied 12 votes to Washington's 6 here in Boston, but it will be interesting to see if the rest of the baseball bloggers appreciate what he was able to do with rookies and minor leaguers for most of the 2010 season. Washington deserves plenty of votes also for winning the West (and the ALDS) with Lee, Hamilton and a cast of no-names in the rotation. The Rangers could always hit, but

1 Neftali Feliz
2 Austin Jackson
3 Brennan Boesh

Feliz beat Jackson 15 to 10 among all voters. I can't disagree. Jackson was definitely impressive for Detriot, but it's hard to imagine that Texas actually started the year with Frank Francisco as the closer. Yes, the West is weak, but 40 saves as a rookie!? Feliz wins, hands down.

Goose Gossage Award

1 Rafael Soriano
2 Joakim Soria
3 Neftali Feliz

Soriano saved 27 games as a Brave in 2009, but no on expected him to become the AL best closer the following year. Soriano's 45 and Jaquin Benoit's 25 holds were a huge factor in Tampa Bay's AL East championship. That's why they rmain tied among the Boston Chapter for this award. Marioano Rivera and Sorioa were in the mix as well, which tells me my fellow voters didn't want to give Feliz two awards. Personally, I don't see how Soria didn't get more votes after logging 43 saves for a Royals team that won just 67 games...

Walter Johnson Award

1 C.C. Sabathia
2 Felix Hernandez
2 David Price
4 Jon Lester
5 Clay Buchholz

I have to be honest... I disagree with the vote I submitted. Wins play a major role in the CY Young voting, but I think there's too much emphasis placed on that category. Given a chance to cats my own vote, I managed to fall intop the same trap, and pu C.C. ahead of Felix.

Sabathia may have won 21 games, but wins are a team stat in my opinion. The fact that Hernandez was almost a point lower in ERA and lead the AL at 2.27 makes him a better pitcher. He won 13 games for one of the worst teams in baseball, lead the league in innings pitched (249.2) and innings per start (7.33), and threw 6 complete games. Oh, and he was one K shy of the league best at 232.

That's why the voters gave King Felix 24 votes, with David Price finishing second with 14 votes. Sabathia was 4th behind Buchholz, though I'm not sure I agree with that. If anything Lester should have been ahead fo Buchhy and C.C. with 19 wins and 225 Ks.

Stan Musial Award

1 Miguel Cabrera
2 Josh Hamilton
3 Jose Bautista
4 Robinson Cano
5 Adrain Beltre
6 Vladimir Guererro
7 Delmon Young
8 Alex Rodriguez
9 Joe Mauer
10 Jon Lester

Hamilton won the top spot among our voters with 45. Bautista came in second with 38 and I commend my fellow voters for giving him votes, despite the fact that he played for the 4th place Blue Jays. Bautista's 54 homers put him 15 dingers ahead of Paul Konerko (39) and his 124 RBI ranked him 3rd, just one behind Arod and two behind Cabrera.

Personally I think Cabrera was the most well-rounded offensive player this year with 38 HR (3rd), 126 RBI (1st), 111 runs (2nd) and a 3.28 BA (2nd). Hamilton finished with a .359 BA, but only logged 518 at-bats - similar to Joe Mauer (.327, 510) - and therefore, less production.

Lastly, I hate to say it but Robinson Cano was outstanding this year. He logged 200 hits (Cano and Ichio were the only two in MLB to do so) while Jeter regressed and Arod and Teixeira were all about the ding dongs.

Hamilton, Bautista, Cabrera (37), Beltre (31) and Cano (19) rounded out the top five in out vote and I don't dispute those results one bit. It will be fun to see if the rest of the BBA agrees, as well as the actual MLB MVP voters.

As always, thanks for reading. Leave your comments below.

Before the 2010 baseball season began, we asked you guys to make your predictions for the expected starting roster. It's time to look back and see who knew their 2010 Red Sox the best.

Daniel Bard (see original post here)

Below you'll find Bard's actual 2010 stats in RED, my predictions in italics and the Fan Predictions.

We all saw Daniel Bard's potential in 2009: 63 Ks in 49 innings, 100 MPH fastballs, etc. But I think most of us expected him to experience some growing pains in his first full season in the bigs.

Turns out "most of us" were wrong and Bard proved to be one of the elite RPs in the American League in 2010.

Bard logged more game and more innings than most of us expected... only Serpico0077 predicted more than 70 inning pitched - save for DickHealy who expected record-breaking numbers from Bard this season.

I predicted 4 saves and a healthy number of holds, but truthfully, I expected the Sox to be cautious with Bard and I expected better performances from guys like Okajima and Delcarmen. But when the bullpen imploded, Bard became Francona's one reliable option, and he tallied an AL best 32 holds and finished among the leaders in innings pitched.

Interestingly, most of us expected high strikeout numbers from Bard, even though no one predicted more than 70 appearances. Bard's 76 Ks in 74.2 innings gave him a smidge more than a strikeout per inning, which put him among AL leaders like Matt Thorton (81 K/60.2 IP), Joba Chamberlain (77 K/71.2 IP) and Joaquin Benoit (75 K/60.1 IP). BafF092003 and treeroot7 guessed closest with 78 Ks.

Bard's K totals were impressive, but he also walked 30 batters, which, unfortunately,  put him among the leaders in the that category as well. However, he only allowed 45 hits, giving him a .176 BAA which ranked him 2nd only to Benoit in the AL. That enabled him to keep his WHIP down below our projected average of 1.19. BillMorlock came closest at 1.09 but as we will see in the ERA category, no one really expect Bard to be as unhittable as he was.

As we mentioned with Papelbon, the ERA of a reliever isn't a very useful stat. Becuase of the limited innings, a few bad outings can balloon a relievers ERA, even when he is having a solid season overall. Though he did allow 6 homers, Bard allowed just 16 runs in 2010 and logged a 1.93 ERA. For comparison, Joba allowed 35 runs over 71+ innings and finished with a 4.40 ERA, while Benoit allowed just 9 runs through 60 innings and finished with a 0.68 ERA.

We all expected Bard to be good, but 1.93 was much better than any of our participants expected - especially compared to Papelbon's final ERA of 3.90.

Bottom Line: We didn't have anyone come close enough in multiple categories to declare a free t-shirt winner for this round, but many of you made predictions for other players, so be sure to check back through October as we breakdown the other guys.

Before the 2010 baseball season began, we asked you guys to make your predictions for the expected starting roster. It's time to look back and see who knew their 2010 Red Sox the best.

Jonathan Papelbon (read original post here)

Below you'll find Papelbon's actual 2010 stats in RED, my predictions in italics and the Fan Predictions.

As we all know, Papelbon had a disappointing season. He blew a career-high 8 saves in 45 opportunities and posted a 3.90 ERA. Until now, 2.35 was his career low, but he saved a personal best 41 games that year, while fanning 77 and walking just 8 batters... proving that ERA can be a misleading stat when talking about relievers.

Needless to say, no one was really close on the ERA, but RedSoxTalk did predict a big spike and had the closest guess in that category at 2.82.

As for the WHIP... Paps posted a career worst 1.27 mark, thanks to a career worst 28 free passes. While his K rate hasn't varied much, his walk and hits allowed totals have significantly jumped over he past three years. Those of you that guess above he Fan average 1.09 know your stuff, but it was Matt who guess closest with 1.25.

Paps stayed healthy through 2010 and despite his struggles and Daniel Bard's success, he logged the expected number of appearances and innings. I predicted 62.1 innings under the assumption that the Sox might use Bard to save a few games, either to keep Paps fresh or to see if Bard could handle to pressure.

As it turned out, the Sox stuck with Papelbon right down to the last game, so he ended up with 67 innings, which is right in line with his season average of 66 IP per year. RedSoxTalk nailed this category with an exact guess, as did Marco from my office. We had a few 68s and one 66, but as Paps can tell you - see the career worst 7 HRs allowed - "close only counts horseshoes and hand-grenades."

With 67 innings pitched, Paps tallied 45 save opportunities. Had he maintained the 90% save rate he carried into this season, he would have saved at 40 or 41 games and our Fan average would have been right on track. Instead, Papelbon was one of the worst closers in the AL, coverting saves just 82% of his opportyunities and finishing with 37 saves.

Treetroot and Pubball11 guessed it right, and since Paps is a very short list of closers with 35 saves in his first four years in the league, many of you were wise to guess between 35 and 40. Maybe next year, we'll add the blown save category to shake things up...

Lastly, there's the Ks. If there's one thing Papelbon has been consistent with, it's strikeouts. Including 2010, he's averaging 77.6 Ks per season and he's posted 77, 76 and 76 over the last three years. Interestingly, while 7 Fans predicted 80+ strikeouts, the average came in at 73 - slightly below Papelbon's normal mark.

I guess high myself, but Bryan that nailed it on the dot with 76.

Bottom Line: RedSoxTalk guess the exact IPs and was closest on the ERA. He/She was two off on saves and four off in Ks, so I deem RST the winner of this round and worth of a free Bottom Line Apparel t-shirt (see ad in sidebar).

We'll try to give way more prizes over the next couple of weeks, so make sure to check back for more 2010 Prediction Results!