ahhchon

of course you'de take papelbon, you're a sox fan. my bias wants me to do the same thing. but if i was thinking of the future i'de go with zumaya. the kid is absolutely filthy, i'm not sure if he's reached his ceiling but he is damn good. yeah, papelbon has slightly better numbers (7 er is the biggest difference really, papelbon 1 to his 8) but his k/9 is MUCH higher and he's FOUR years younger. 4 years ago papelbon couldn't crack a AAA roster, let alone a MLB roster. also, we must remember that zumaya is a middle reliever. he's called in, usually to face big bats. it's true that middle relievers usually pitch against better hitters. closers sometimes get it a little easier (obviously not by choice), they happen to land across the bottom of the lineup and that could easily be a 4-5 run difference. honestly, it would be a very difficult decision, but in the end i think i might go with zumaya, for the future, the 4 years is pretty huge. the kid is 22, that's just great. john and yes, i'de take liriano also, i wish i didn't drop him in my money league.. oh well, it was to pick nick johnson off waivers, so far it has been worth it but it still bugs me when i drop good prospects.

that's right, but the problem is that verlander and zumaya are MUCH closer to that upside than paps or hansen are right now. there is no arguement, verlander is more important than papelbon right now and zumaya is more important than hansen. i love our boys but the facts are the facts. john

not really. peavy is still the pitcher i'de want for the rest of the season. pretty even trade so far and it would be heavily in your favor if peavy started to get some run support. it all depends on the kind of format your league has. john

look what i started.. no yankee fans were bitching about the sox "buying".. i stated that i wouldn't like getting clemens because it would feel like we are "buying" a championship.. the sox usually are not the team to go out there and sign the biggest bat on the market (other than manny). i just think it would feel like we are buying a championship, much more than signing a player off free agency. it's a 15 mill 1/2 year rental. john

losing oswalt would absolutely cripple houston. john

how many times do i have to say this, the guys on weei are terrible. my mother could report on the sox as well as they could. you could have a obp clip of .310 and they would think you are a good player because you bat .300. anywho. the sox don't need too many changes. we have a very solid team, one that is capable of winning it all with the staff/crew that is rostered. signing clemens would be terrible. i wouldn't be happy with it. i would feel like the yankees, i would feel like we are purchasing a championship. 15+ mill for a 1/2 season rental. that is silly to say the least. right now our most important need is a starter. papelbon would have fit that perfectly, but with timlin out right now it's going to be hard to work him back to the role. they are trying with hansen but i'm not too comfortable with a sept callup having a rookie (if he comes up) be our 5th. either way i'm happy with the direction of the team, we are winning games, making decent comebacks and pitching seems to be holding together. sit back and enjoy the rest of the summer games boys. it's much more fun to win a 7 game series than to sweep teams in the playoffs anyways. that's why we keep guys like clement and dinardo () john

you're right, but it's too early to say that papelbon is MO.. he's not mo, he might NEVER be that good. he's that good now, but mo's been doing it for a decade. A DECADE. above average closers are dime a dozen. i can easily think of 5-10 relief pitchers that would make good closers on squads right now.. to simplify it: all you need is a guy who has a good k/9 ratio. (i know there is more than that....) last year the brewers, rockies and a's had no closers at a point (or garbage ones). 3 kids got promoted. you might have heard of them. fuentes, turnbow and street. all who are considered above average -> very above average closers. the same is being done to mike gonz this year (pits) and coffrey (sp). john

webb has been on his way to something special for years now.. if he played on the yankees or sox he would have been called the next kevin brown without all the bs. john

i would be upset if we signed roger clemens.. complete attempt at purchasing a championship. john

this is probably one of the worst ideas ever. a guy who can eat 150+ quality innings is hard to come by and that's what papelbon is. hansen is a closer, he's been a closer all his life, not that i doubt his abilities, it's just the fact that papelbon will make for a better starter and hansen will make for just as good of a closer. i'm not satisfied with this, mainly because we are under utilizing papelbon. closers are dime a dozen, quality starters are not. john

and that's where i step in john

dontrell willis will most likely not put up numbers like he did last season again, let alone in fenway park. john

there is no way in hell he's not a first ballot HOF. john

that's probably some of the dumbest stuff i've ever read in my life. if you played futbol at a high level you would understand that scoring a goal is no easy task. imagine hockey was played on a field the size of a futbol field and there were 4 forwards and 6 defenders. how often do you think they would score? john p.s.- you do use your hands in futbol, a lot more than you think.

izzy isn't even on my top 5 list after rivera and paps.. ouch. turnbow or lidge (yeah, i know he's awful right now): for the money they are probably the best bang for the buck. street and fuentes are also great deals. john

i hope that's not your starting rotation order. how could you put papelbon in front of becket and schilling? as of right now schilling is still your #1 guy, 2 would be becket, 3 would be clement, 4 would be wake and 5 would be papelbon. people forget that wakefield is a solid 4 or 5 and clement is a solid pitcher. you don't just throw a guy who's still a prospect into the rotation and start him ahead of a vet like clement. john

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/subscriptions/mlbtv.jsp it's worth every penny if you're a fan of baseball. never miss your favorite former sox players or favorite non sox players games. never miss games from young budding rookies. never miss games that will go down in history. john

most of that is incorrect. in his past 3 starts zito has pitched 20.2 innings, given up 2er and has k'ed 14 while only giving up 12 hits and 12 walks. zito for lester in a heartbeat. lester is still a prospect, zito is a proven horse, a guy who will go out there for 34+ games every season, give you 200 innings and an era from 3-4. granted at this point such a trade would be questionable since zito's contract will be up (not sure it would be worth losing a top prospect). the reason i don't see theo trading lester is because he is expected to be up next year and we wouldn't get enough years out of the 3 pitchers in return. john

like i said "granted it was against KC".... did you watch the game though? probably not. when was the last time you actually watched a pitcher you talk about pitch? probably not often, you read the numbers across the line and you think you know a good pitcher from bad pitcher. john

he wouldn't need 150 pitches per start. if pedro pitched in the dead ball era they would rename the categories k/9 to pedro martinez. he wouldn't have needed 110 pitches let alone 150. john

nolan ryan is vastly overrated. his highest era+ was 142.. that's lower than pedro's career average which is 166. ryan would not have put up the numbers he did if he pitched during the steroid era. most of the big bats today are fastball hitters and at the speed he was throwing he would have given up more walks and more dingers. john

are you mentally retarded? i'm not sure if you even warrant a reply. of course the guy is not pedro of the old days, no one is and ever will be. the closest thing we've seen to pedro of his old days was santana in the 2nd half of his cy season, that's the closest thing. pedro is pitching fantastic. if you have actually watched more than 1 mets game (probably the one the other day when wagner blew the game against NYY) you would see that pedro is a different pitcher. john

this thread needs to be closed. i watched the tigers game today. granted it was against the royals but the kid was in control. CG 3 hitter, 7k's and only one BB given up. his control is fantastic, he blew batters away. john

well jake peavy is finding his groove again. he struck out 16 tonight in 7 innings of work. absolute filth he threw today. too bad he's in line to get the loss since smoltz hasn't given up any runs yet. john

Game Date ......... Win..... + ...... # HR'S ... + ... # Runs Scored ....... Total ........5/22.............. __1_...... + ......... ___0_ .... + ......... _6______ ........... ____7_ ........5/23.............. ___0...... + ......... ___2_ .... + ......... __5_____ ........... __7___ ........5/24.............. ___1...... + ......... ___3_ .... + ......... _____8__ ........... __12___ john