CrespoBlows

New York has two glaring holes at the back-end of their rotation, yet they're the stronger team? Amazing. What are they, gay? He's probably going to go to where his family is. That's in Houston. It's blind fandom to think that Houston is going to lowball him.

They all seem to saying that the Yankees will TRY for Clemens. No word on whether he's going to actually go there.

I penciled Sheff in at DH, I assume Cabrera will play in left, and Matsui to DH? They are headed in reverse, but they are still above average when you compare them with other pitchers across the league.

No, I think the Yankees should make this trade. Even if it makes them weaker in 2007. The Yankees will likely net two pitchers who will make an impact in 2008. Nippert is a good number three in his prime, and Medders is another good arm in the bullpen. That's a good catch for Randy Johnson. I, along with you, think Johnson will have a decent year. He'd probably have a low 4.00 ERA with the Yankees, and that could dip even lower in the NL. It's only for that reason why I think the Yankees will be weaker in 2007. Igawa, probably won't be able to match those number. Neither will Karstens.

Randy Johnson also had several other stats, that were worth a glance. WHIP: 1.24 K/9: 7.55 He's not as bad as his ERA indicated. Going to the NL, and out of the AL East, should help his numbers out. He probably could post a low 4.00 ERA in the AL next year, if he can lower his .366 BABIP with RISP. (which skyrocketed his numbers) Probably not, but the gap is not as big as you make it seem. Drew and Lugo will boost the offense. Matsuzaka will boost the starting rotation. Losing Johnson, and Sheffield makes the Yankees a weaker team. Melky Cabrera won't come close to making Sheffield's numbers, nor will Jeff Karstens. Depends how much the D-Backs are willing to eat. Then again, if the Yankees are in a position to make a trade, they'll do it. No matter, if Johnson is traded. I agree, that this is a great trade for 2008 for the Yankees, but it will be hurting them in 2007. Karstens is not a major league starting pitcher. His BABIP was .246, which indicates that he is rather lucky. He allowed 40 hits in 42 innings, even with those lucky numbers. Can you imagine how many hits he's going to allow, when his luck evens out? His K/9 rate is very low for an AL pitcher. (3.88) It would be different if he's getting a lot of ground balls, but he's not. (.48) He can't expect to live in Yankee Stadium giving up a lot of contact, and a lot of flyballs.

Shame. How can anyone support Merriman on this issue? It's about time someone called him out on this. I hope Taylor tells him, "I sent him some videotapes, so he can watch his team when he was suspended for juicing." This guy is a cheater. I hope you guys laugh the next time Bonds comes out with a one-liner.

Top 10? I'd say 15 to 20. You still have to deal with the Red Sox lack of range. Ramirez, Crisp, Pena, Loretta, and Gonzalez.

His ERA is 3.25 in postseason games.

I agree. Gonzalez is a wizard with the glove, but is he the best defender? There are probably 10-15 better ones.

The Nationals had poor pitching, yet they finished 12th in DER. The Cubs did too, they finished 6th. Ask yourself this, if the Red Sox had Cano, Furcal, and Ichiro manning SS, 2B, and RF. Where would we be ranked in DER? I direct that question to everybody.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/jeterde01.php Take a look, Jeter's constantly been awful until the last two years.

4.88, and the league average was 4.92? That would indicate that he has slightly below average range, no? And how the f*** do you know this? I'll take the words of sabermetrics and scouts over you, any day of the week.

Pedro signed a seven year deal with the Red Sox, and was pretty successful. Besides, Hampton went to Coors field, where his main weapon, his curveball, wouldn't snap. Kevin Brown was pretty successful with the Dodgers before he got traded to the Yankees. Zito should be OK. He's switching to the NL, and he's in a large ballpark. If his curveball remains effective, so will he.

Are the parks in the winter leagues, primarily hitters parks?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/furcara01.php http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/gonzaal02.php FRAA puts SS on an equal footing. They have Furcal at +11. FRAA has Gonzalez at -5. Range Factor, has Furcal at 5.00, and Gonzalez at 4.33

Watch Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Brendan Wright, or my personal favorite, Hasheem Thabeet play this year. These guys are oozing with talent, and can be had if the Celtics finish in the 1-6 area.

Please back up your statements. Pena played in 76 games, which is roughly half the season. Crisp, by all defensive standards, was a bad outfielder.

More often than not, they do. Just about every time Furcal would go into a hole and drop the ball, they gave him an error. Even if you're right, Furcal's still getting to 100 more balls than Gonzalez is.

Still can't overlook the fact that the Red Sox defense had extremely poor range which probably led to about 100 more hits, perhaps more. Pena, Crisp, Ramirez, Gonzalez, and Loretta all have below average range. Basically, what you're saying that the Red Sox could swap those players with gold glovers, and their DER would be about the same?

Why does that matter? They got to more balls than the average SS/3B, therefore, they're going to commit more errors. Furcal made 27 errors, but he's still a fantastic fielder. Why? He got to 788 balls in 2006. Gonzalez, if proportioned to 156 games, got to only 650. Furcal made 100 more outs than Gonzalez.