The Youkilis Delusion?

[SoxSport]

Blowing up is not what the Red Sox need. They have had major injuries at 2 outfield positions and are using filler players. They also have a logjam at 3B, and a marginal SS. Pedroia has been hurting. Gonzo has lost his stroke.

 

They need to resolve the logjam at 3B by trading Youks. They also have 1 or 2 extra outfielders.

It's about time they pulled the plug instead of playing guys like Youkilis and McDonald to increase their trade value. They should also finally get Iglesias up playing SS when he's healthy again. The kid can't hit much worse than half the team is hitting right now, and will be a real defensive spark for the pitching.

And how about Lav? Tell me about it.

 

There really isn't much more they can do. It's tough to trade overpriced players. Getting a pitcher like Garza without trading Lav or Iggy or MBrooks would help the pitching.

[SoxSport]

Mentioning Lavarnaway brings up another question. Is Salty the answer behind the plate or do bring Lavarnaway up and see if he is the long term solution and if he is' date=' deal Salty. I definitely think you brink up Kalish. The outfield is a mess right now.[/quote']

 

Here lies the folly of letting prospects sit in AAA for too long. They can't trade Salty because Lav hasn't played enough games in Boston to establish his value. I think the front office hasn't shown the right judgement keeping prospects in AAA for "experience" while playing marginal veterans with no upside. The result is Pawtucket leads AAA while the Red Sox are in last place.

[redsoxrules]

Blowing up is not what the Red Sox need. They have had major injuries at 2 outfield positions and are using filler players. They also have a logjam at 3B, and a marginal SS. Pedroia has been hurting. Gonzo has lost his stroke.

 

They need to resolve the logjam at 3B by trading Youks. They also have 1 or 2 extra outfielders.

It's about time they pulled the plug instead of playing guys like Youkilis and McDonald to increase their trade value. They should also finally get Iglesias up playing SS when he's healthy again. The kid can't hit much worse than half the team is hitting right now, and will be a real defensive spark for the pitching.

And how about Lav? Tell me about it.

 

There really isn't much more they can do. It's tough to trade overpriced players. Getting a pitcher like Garza without trading Lav or Iggy or MBrooks would help the pitching.

 

Iglesias brings nothing to the team in terms of hitting .

[SoxSport]

Iglesias brings nothing to the team in terms of hitting .

 

so what?

[redsoxfan3]

Iglesias brings nothing to the team in terms of hitting .

 

That is true, but Youk and D-Mac bring almost nothing in terms of hitting as well. I would rather get rid of both D-Mac and Youk . I could deal with Iglesias as our starting SS. I think that Aviles would be a great utility infielder. He could give Pedroia and Middlebrooks days off on occasion and could maybe play every 5th game or something at SS. I know we have Punto as well and he had a solid night last night. He is a solid defensive replacement and can sometimes get hot offensively. I like having two utility infielders. That still allows us to have two catchers and five OF's.

[jacksonianmarch]

The sox are waiting for the Youk run to occur. The 2-3 week stretch where he hits 6-8HR's, has 20RBI and hits .350 with an OBP over .450. Once he runs across that run and looks good again, he's being traded. Until then, it's a lose-lose

[Station 13]

The sox are waiting for the Youk run to occur. The 2-3 week stretch where he hits 6-8HR's' date=' has 20RBI and hits .350 with an OBP over .450. Once he runs across that run and looks good again, he's being traded. Until then, it's a lose-lose[/quote']

 

Don't see how that's going to happened with Middlebrooks around. Best is just to get anything back for him, pack him with a reliever that's a surplus right now and team would not ask so much of his salaries picked up.

[FredLynn]

so what?

 

So he belongs in the minors until he can learn to hit the baseball in some marginal way. We cannot afford a black hole of this degree in our lineup. He would be a nearly automatic out with no power when he does luck out and make contact.

Remember a few years ago when Epstein tried to sell us on "run prevention" as a means to winning games? He went out and got Mike Cameron and moved Ellsbury to LF. How did that work out?

You gotta score runs and pitch well to win games. The defense stats are nice to look at, but right now the difference between the top rated AL team in fielding percentage and the lowest rated team is .012. Its overrated. Give me great pitching and good hitting any day over someone who is good defensively but is a black hole.

[redsoxrules]

so what?

 

If you cant hit you don't belong in the majors

[vjcsmoke]

So the question is what can we get for Youkilis. What the Red Sox need the most is either a Corner Outfielder or more starting pitching. I am thinking they are not going to get any immediate help unless there is a team with matching needs who happen to have a veteran they'd like to exchange salaries with the Red Sox. But in that case it is likely to be a bad contract, but we don't need any more bad contracts with the albatross of Carl Crawford still with the Sox.

 

Honestly, if we could dump Crawford's contract and Youkilis, I'd be willing to take nothing back in return but single A level prospects. Not likely going to happen even if offered unless there's a team that thinks Youk and Crawford will take them over the hump into the playoffs.

[jacksonianmarch]

you cannot deal Crawford. Not at all

[FredLynn]

Truth is, its getting close to the time to admit that, as Bob Ryan said, the Red Sox are not very good this year. Thats just looking at it objectively. So planning for next year and the year after is in order. And that does not involve surrendering any of our prospects; it involves obtaining more prospects because the more we have the more likely it is that one of them will pan out. Also, its nearing time to think about dumping the deadwood on the team as quickly as possible. We all know who that is. We won't get much in return, but at least we get rid of the leeches on the roster.

Not quite there yet (giving up on the season), but its close. Getting close to July and we are still in last place two games under .500 and our pitching, overall, stinks. Lose Beckett for a couple of months=season over. Get 10 games behind the leaders=season over. Fail to make a move in the next couple of weeks=season over. This team is on the precipice and our FO has its version of baseball ops constipation.

[SCM33]

So the question is what can we get for Youkilis. What the Red Sox need the most is either a Corner Outfielder or more starting pitching. I am thinking they are not going to get any immediate help unless there is a team with matching needs who happen to have a veteran they'd like to exchange salaries with the Red Sox. But in that case it is likely to be a bad contract, but we don't need any more bad contracts with the albatross of Carl Crawford still with the Sox.

 

Honestly, if we could dump Crawford's contract and Youkilis, I'd be willing to take nothing back in return but single A level prospects. Not likely going to happen even if offered unless there's a team that thinks Youk and Crawford will take them over the hump into the playoffs.

 

Answers:

 

1: Nothing.

2: Not happening.

[jung]

At 3 for 34 and 0 for his last 18, all the Sox can hope for is a team is willing to pay part of Youk's salary. Even if he goes on a mini-run, it won't change anything at this point.

 

Crawford's contract is in my view unmovable. The contract itself is that bad.

[Bellhorn04]

At 3 for 34 and 0 for his last 18, all the Sox can hope for is a team is willing to pay part of Youk's salary. Even if he goes on a mini-run, it won't change anything at this point.

 

Crawford's contract is in my view unmovable. The contract itself is that bad.

 

The only way you can trade Crawford is for another bad contract. I think the Angels would consider a Crawford for Wells swap.

[FredLynn]

The only way you can trade Crawford is for another bad contract. I think the Angels would consider a Crawford for Wells swap.

 

Crawford is overpaid, but you guys have given up on him too soon IMO. I think he is going to contribute in a positive way to the team, once he is healthy.

[jung]

I think he is going to contribute in a positive way to the team, once he is healthy.

 

Yea but that is not setting much of a mark for a guy making $20M a year. He could hit the mark you have set for him easily and still be hideously overpaid. I don't think anybody thinks he will continue to be the colossal flop he has been so far. However he has got so far to go to even begin to scratch the surface of a $142M commitment over seven years and has already burned through a year and a third contributing close to nothing.

 

What is a guy that depends on his legs to contribute going to look like at the back end of these seven years? By rights you would have expected CC to contribute most effectively at the front end of this deal not the backend and he is burning through the front end pretty quickly. I don't buy the "he will supplement speed with power as he ages" argument.

 

CC could easily hit the "contribute in a positive way once he is healthy" mark and still be the worst way to spend $20M a year anybody ever heard of.