ahhchon

true, but the lowest error total tejada has ever had (post rookie season) was 19 which was in a year he had 509 attempts.. guys who have never seen more than 472, let alone 500+: jeter renteria cabrera (if you don't count is 498 A in 2002, yeah i know you can't just disregard a year) nomar omar vizquel (had 475 in 93) arod (472 was max) i'm not saying that range factor is the tell all here. i'm not even promoting that 20 errors is ok. but his range does make a difference, yes he's lost a step but he's still getting to more balls than the avg ss. and don't get into the gb flyball pitching, i know... i know... i'm just saying that he's a solid, above average ss, the guy gets to 500 balls a year (ave over the past 4 years) john

i don't see how olerud will be in the hall if people don't plan on voting palmero in. john

he has a lot of errors because he tracks down more balls.. some ss's have less errors because they can't get to the balls tejada can get to. never in his career has he had less than 471 attempts while playing more than 159 games.. he's a solid ss. as for trading clement.. the orioles want pitching.. i sure wouldn't mind to rid of clements loaded contract.. if we drop manny and clement that's 30 mill off payroll! but that's just the moneyball part of me speaking. i love manny to death and we would not be able to make up for his absence. john

i understand this. i'm just saying that players do burn out and that the bandwagoning is annoying. before the sox traded for marte i bet less than a handful of players knew who he was. if he's going to be the next schmidt than delmon young is the next barry bonds.. it's silly to assume these things.. schmidt is one of the best 3b to play the game ever, it's been a long time since there is a prospect who we can say is the "new best". probably not any since puljos (2000, #1 ranked prospect), vladdy (1996, #1 ranked), further back a-rod (#1 ranked)... marte has never topped #4.. even vladdy isn't close to being called the best RF. the kid has a ton of potential and hopefully everything will come together, especially if he stays on the sox, which he SHOULD. john

i sure hope you mean the nationals are the retarted ones.. they traded wilkerson, sledge and their best (i believe) pitching prospect for soriano. basically garbage. soriano sucks and it'll show at rfk stadium, while wilkerson is going to mash homers. vidro, when healthy is superior to soriano defensively and if he was put in arlington would hit 30+ homers, just like soriano.. even if the nats move soriano to the OF it would be a stupid trade.. they'll downgrade defensively and offensively from wilkerson.. wilkerson for soriano trade would have been bad enough for the nats.. but throw in sledge and their best pitching prospect.. they let themselves get robbed. john edit: i just read the other replies, god damn you guys are stupid.. soriano is garbage, how can you guys not see this. he's awful defensively and refuses to move to the OF because he's an "all star", which means jack s*** because he sucks. he strikes out FOUR times as many as he walks.. FOUR. a 4:1 K:BB ratio.. that's GARBAGE. his OBP was .309 last year, that's worse than renteria! wilkerson last year had a .350 obp that's .041 higher than soriano!!!! his career obp is .365 and is going to mash 30+ homers at arlington.. my god, texas RAPED the nationals, not to mention that they won't have to deal with sorianos contract which is 4 million more than wilkersons (7.5 compared to 3.5, not to mention soriano is older by a year). this deal is TERRIBLE for the nats.. anyone who can't see this is blind. they basically knocked themselves out of the post season for sure (not that they've ever been there). soriano denies any rumors that he'll move from 2b, therefore making it a position where they have downgraded defensively, vidro will doubtfully move to the OF where he has only played 3 games in his career. the only option is moving vidro to 3rd where he's played 35 games, but what do you do with vinny castilla (if he's still under contract)..

QUOTE=BigPapi34;96777]It may be a stretch, but Tejada says he's unhappy in Baltimore....o.O http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2252946 yeah, real smart move trading your best player to a division rival..... what makes papi and tejada VERY GOOD friends? because they are from the same country and they made gestures to each other during the all star game? how do you guys know these crazy inside scoops.. seriously, what did ortiz have for lunch... john

again, what sense does that make? think about the reasons we got rid of renteria... we got rid of him because he was poor DEFENSIVELY, his offensive production (while not good) is not that bad for a ss, he was about average. giving nomar a contract with incentives up to 11 mill (lets say he does perform to these "incentives") will be equal to paying nomar 14 mill a year since we are eating part of renteria's contract. if nomar does not live up to these expectations or incentives (say he gets injured AGAIN and plays 60 games) we'll be paying him 4 mill a year PLUS the 3 mill we are eating from renteria, therefore paying 7 mill for a ss who is now an average offensive player and a belowe average defensive player. nomar on the sox is an absolute no no unless he's willing to sign for a 1 year contract worth dirt (like the minimum allowed for a vet). no incentives included. why in the world would you give him incentives if he's willing to sign for 4 mill a year? it's stupid. john

i'm surprised they didn't sign myers, he was really a trooper for us. he should have been resigned. john

i know, 3 years 33-36 is the top i think we should pay for damon. 4 years 40+ is really really pushing it. john

not to mention there is a huge risk signing clemens, yeah he's a horse/machine/beast but how long can he keep this up? at the pricetag of 17+ million he's not worth it. john

god damn the marte bandwagon is on full steam now isn't it.. heh. marte is good, but like many top prospects they don't make it. does calvin pickering ring any bells? how about some number 6 guys? brended harris, doug meintkewicz (made it but not big, offensively that is).. prospects, until proven in the majors are still just prospects. thinking they will be the next smitch or miguel cabrera will just make you look stupid when they flop and become a nobody. and if you're correct? well that's nothing special either, they were supposed to be very good. there is nothing stupid about this trade. we just traded an average short stop that is getting paid elite ss money for a 21 yr old prospect who happens to be the TOP prospect in the alt organization, this is atlanta we're talking about, not the yankees. by getting rid of rent we'll be saving 18 million over the course of the next 3 years. with the recent trades and additions to the red sox i've become more and more comfortable with the front office. they obviously have a plan, i'm not going to question it until they do something completely absurd. they might have taken away some good prospects, hanley and especially sanchez, but today they have just added marte and traded our backup catcher for loretta. so far so good. the red sox are going to be a very good in come 2008 if all these young stars become 75% of their ceilings. john

do you guys really want to bring nomar back? he's par with renteria defensively when he's healthy, which he hasn't been for the past 2 seasons. you'll basically be giving a guy a 1-2yr contract for 8-10 mill so he can play 120 games. remember, this is the guy who pulled a muscle leaving the batters box. bring in pokey, yeah he's garbage offensively but we'll drop him in the 9 hole. we can afford to take the hit offensively, we've led the majors in runs scored for the past 2 years in a row. IF we resign damon (3 years 33-36 MAX) we'll be looking at: damon, loretta, manny (he'll stay), ortiz, lowell, tek, nixon, youk, pokey. but i'm sure there will be changes.. john

we have a better chance at winning the world series 3 years in a row.. john

i love OC but why the hell does anyone want to bring him back so bad? @ 8 mill per i'de really rather rent for 2 more, even though i liked OC much more than renteria. his obp last year was .309 and has a career obp of .315, THAT IS TERRIBLE!!!! lugo is far superior, his obp last year was .360 and has a career obp of .340. oc is terrible offensively, if we bring him back @ 8 mill per we'll regret it, especially if it means trading marte (which the angels have no use for at 3rd) john

i know that infield grass etc is different, some stadiums have the foul territory slanted etc. i was talking about dimensions.. what are you talking about? have you met clement, olerud or renteria in person? do you know them? how can you say they have a dull personality? it's like saying someone is a jerk without ever meeting them. had a bad year because he had a bad year. for all you know he could have had a worse year in boston.. it goes both ways. i'm keeping lowell around because he's a productive player, not because he's a nice guy. people say bonds is a super jerk, i don't care, i'll take bonds on my team anyday, you'de take puljos on your team if he was a jerk too. manny, ortiz, puljos, game over, jerk or not. you guys are looking into handshakes way too much, maybe rent wasn't good with handshakes, does that mean he'll have a bad season? no john

ERA: AL east yankees: 4.52 blue jays: 4.06 balty: 4.56 rays: 5.39 ERA: NL west arizona: 4.84 dodgers: 4.38 rockies: 5.13 giants: 4.33 considering the rocky pitchers play half their games at coors a 5.13 era isn't all THAT bad. even with that it seems like mirabelli will be going up against the same kind of competition.. don't just assume that he's going to weaker pitching because it's the NL. both the NL west and the AL east were below league average last year. john

bdd is by far the worst place to get your information. this is not a personal shot at you example, i just hate that site. they are the lamest, most hypocritical sox fans and don't know jack about baseball. everything they post is to get people to read, half of it is bs. does anyone else remember when they praised the hell out of pavano, only to write about how crappy he was once he signed with the yankees? they pull that bs all the time, they suck. i understand that manny wants out, it could be due to the fact that the sox have tried to trade him since new ownership came about. but with an extra 5 or so mill saved they might not try to ship him off so much. it's probably too late though. on that note, i wouldn't give damon more than 3 years 33 mill, that's MAX. he isn't worth a 4 year contract.. we don't need anymore aging players that will not fulfill their contract, we didn't do it for pedro, i don't see why damon is an exception and i still don't see why tek was. first off, are you retarted? sign a player because they are loveable? that's probably the dumbest thing i've ever heard, thank god you are not the gm of the sox. don't get me wrong, i love OC, i was all about resigning him but i'm happy we didn't. i don't care how loveable he was.. loveable players don't help teams win the ws, he needs to be good, which he wasn't last year. i'll be surprised if renteria is much better defensively next year, maybe offensively, but not defensively. it doesn't take a year to adjust to a new ballpark. he practices there everyday and plays 82 games a year there. it's not like he plays in the of where dimensions are different, he plays short. the infield is the same in every single ballpark. john

do you have any idea what you are talking about? do you have any idea what i'm talking about? like i stated above, the gold glove is not the best way to tell if a player is good defensively or not. granted there are exceptions where one of the better defensive player wins there are just as many where someone who is not that great defensively who wins. you can use jeter as an example, though he's gotten much better in the past year he still wasn't the best in the al defensively, he won because of the market he played in. mike lowell is a good defensive 3b because he is a good defender, not because he won the gold glove. john

the only reason beane would take soriano is to turn around and trade him to another team that thinks he's gold, soriano is nothing but a crappy defensive 2b and an overrated hitter. john

until this is on espn i won't believe it.. BUT if it's true i would SURE love to have lugo, especially if last year wasn't a fluke. a .365 OBP from your ss? that's awsome, especially at 3.5 mill > 10 mill. 6.5 mill off payroll = keep manny. john

although i agree that the gold glove is not the best award to judge a players defensive ability on i'll say that lowell is a fine defensive 3rd baseman. scott rolen who has won 6 of the past 7 gold gloves (1998-2004) has a career fielding % that is .010 lower tha lowell. lowell as a matter of fact has gotten slightly better every single year when he comes to fielding, but that could also be due to pitchers that start for the fish... glaush however is a terribe 3b, his career f% at 3rd is a subpar .945 and was top 5 in k's in 5 of his last 7 seasons (98 was his rookie year). if it wasn't for his time on the DL in 03 and 04 he would have been top 5 in K's in 7 of his last 7 seasons, while sporting a .358 career Obp. it's a close call but of the two i'de take lowell for the money. he's definately going to rebound after a subpar 2005, all those saf flies (he was 2nd in the nl) will become home runs or bounce off the monster for 2b's (which he had 36 of). i really really hope that i am correct in saying that lowell had an off year, if he repeats that kind of year (offensively) than it's hard to not assume he was on roids... john

of course not... he can't even find a starting SS position because everyone is worried about the injuries, you think they'll let him roam the yankee outfield? the only way i see nomar on the yanks is playing second, cano is garbage, he's not close to what everyone thinks he'll be come. not with a .320 OBP, he really needs to take more walks to have half a chance at being this superstar yankee fans thinks he'll become. john

stop making it sound like this guy is griffy jr. he had an ankle injury, then had surgery on it. it's not like he's crippled for life. the last time he came back he had something like 9 straight at bats with HR's. this guy can obviously still hit as long has his ankle is back. john

i agree with everything you said with the exception that the big hurt is injury prone. he might be old, but injury prone is too loosely used. thomas has played full seasons almost every year. he was an absolute monster in 03. he was injured in 04 and in 05 was diagnosed with ankle inflammation. that's something that is fixed with 3-4weeks of therapy. the problem was that the injury was far more advanced than first thought and he had surgery performed. knowing that he's had plenty of time to fully rehab i don't doubt why thomas can't contribute to a team. he showed he still has PLENTY of pop in his bat when he came back last season where he had that HR tear. to chose johnny O. over thomas is nuts, especially if the risks are low and the rewards are high. john