SchillingIsTheNatural

Its funny but a lot of Giants fans came out of the holes they live in and gave me a load of s*** about them beating the Patriots. ...turns out several of them are NY Jets fans. I think about Jets/Giants fans the same way I think about Mets/Yankee fans....they are bandwagon fans.....root for whoever is winning.

anyone see John Henry's comments?....great response, I just can't find the quote anywhere

Thats exactly what makes me vomit when it comes to the Yankees.

Fairly contradictory wouldn't you say? Claims its Yankee country....then says they are going to put the Yankees back on top....sooooo currently they are not on top?....and it is Red Sox nation? well said Hank....well said ....I'll contribute to the Yankees and go buy a Kei Igawa jersey (if I can find one)

You said you have highly talented depth behind your rotation....were you talking about Igawa, Karstens, Rasner, White, Horne, Marquez, and Sanchez??

Who? Last I checked all the Yankees talent is already checked into the rotation / bullpen. Your best prospect (Chamberlain) is going to the bullpen...the rotation consists of Wang, Pettite, Mussina, Hughes, and Kennedy. Next in line is....Kei Igawa? ...sounds like the Yankees could use some depth.

Honestly I don't think Clay Buchholz is the question mark of the rotation...I think it's Tim Wakefield. Hopefully between Wakefield, Colon, and Schilling...they can fill out the rotation this season.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/ I can't help but continue to have mixed feeling on Francona. I'll never doubt him as a person and how he handles himself but only in the way he manages a game. I have to admit his approach in the 07 postseason was a much different Francona than I'm used to. A quick hook on the pitchers and had the guts to change out Crisp in favor of Ellsbury. He resisted the urge to pitch Beckett on short rest and had the confidence to set-up a tremendous story for Jon Lester in game 4. All in all....can't argue 2 World Series championships in 4 years. I like the guys attitude and he always says the right thing. Nice to have you around Tito, you earned it.

Who is to say a bunch of those guys don't make starts this season. Fact is the Yankee rotation can never stay healthy. Wang was injured last season, Mussina was terrible and hurt, Hughes was injured, Pettite is a year older...I can see plenty of injuries coming away from the Yankee rotation again. Overall I don't think the Yankee bullpen is that strong so they won't save the team on a regular basis like the Red Sox bullpen can do. The Red Sox are replacing Julian Tavarez (7-11) and Curt Schilling (9-8) (overall=16-19)with two better pitchers in Jon Lester(4-0) and Clay Buchholz(3-1)(overall=7-1). Both youngsters are coming away with great offseason training where both players have added muscle bulk to prepare for a full season. My only concern is Tim Wakefield. I'm hopeful he can get through 180-200 innings this season. If not we are loaded in the minors to pull off a deal or another Clay Buchholz may emerge (Bowden, Masterson, Hagadone, Johnson).

I'd like to talk to the A's, but not about Blanton...Rich Harden I know he has injury issues but I find him extremely intriguing. He has some of the best stuff in MLB when on the field. I won't place him in the category of Mark Prior / Kerry Wood at the moment. Right now his price can't be extreme based on his recent problems. Another nice option: he could be a flame thrower in the bullpen if we didn't need him in the rotation.

I don't care at all about Curt Schilling in the regular season. I just want him back for the final 1-2 months and the playoffs if we make it. Certainly I would look into more options to add depth in the rotation but I wouldn't act desperate. Coco Crisp is the obvious choice to trade but you have to consider how much he increases the strength of the pitching staff. Turns out Kason Gabbard may have had a spot going into this season.

For some reason I think Sabathia is a bit overrated. I just can't pick him as a consistent elite pitcher in the league and when talking about a trade or signing him you have to value him as such for it to make sense. Sabathia seems to be hitting his prime at the present moment. Will that continue for the next 6-7 years? I doubt it. I was completely unimpressed with his performance in the playoffs. I'm more interested in looking at pitchers who are coming into there prime....like we did with Josh Beckett

Great sign for the Red Sox. This adds some depth to the corners and Sean Casey is deffinitly a good clubhouse presence. He doesn't have a lot of power but thats not why they brought him in. He can certainly get on base which is what they want.

Difference is the Red Sox won the World Series while basically underachieving. Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, JD Drew, Julio Lugo, Jason Varitek, Coco Crisp didn't perform to expectations on offense. Obviously David Ortiz and Manny put up good numbers but short of what we are accustomed to. Daisuke Matsuzaka had an up and down year. Tim Wakefield and Curt Schilling spent plenty of time on the DL. Jon Lester was doing everything he could to get up to par with others after having an entire offseason recovering from cancer. Point is...they don't need Johan Santana to win the World Series again and are favored to win the AL East. They will have more rookies coming up to make an impact this season and many of the players from the 2007 team should have a better performance in 2008. The Red Sox have the team to win 100 games. The Yankees are old and short on experience in the rotation (not to mention extremely lacking in depth). The bullpen is thin and we are talking about Kei Igawa, Mike Mussina, and Ian Kennedy fighting for a rotation spot. Assuming Joba is in the rotation.

That is amazing (if true). The Yankees have a bit of a log-jam in the outfield. Abreu, Damon, and Matsui may be up in age but they are still very good players. You wouldn't lose...anything on offense really and perhaps a little defense. Either way its not a big downgrade in the outfield if you lost Melky Cabrera. So Ian Kennedy for Johan Santana? Again who cares about the third prospect since it's not Hughes or Chamberlain. You have to be joking. Thats a weak group of prospects for the best pitcher in the game and I believe it because the Mets didn't exactly give up the world for him. The Yankees with a Santana, Wang, Pettite rotation would have been difficult to contend with. Then you only have to count on 1 or 2 of the kids being able to pan out. Instead you better hope they all contribute in a big way to have any success this season.

If Bedard gets traded the only one left is Santana and it would deffinitly be the best for last. We saw what Dan Haren was worth and perhaps what Bedard will be worth. I expect to see Santana traded within the next couple weeks. I'm still up in the air on his price since he costs a monster contract.

Roger Clemens is full of it. Instead of a calm, cool, collected Roger he was an angry, bitter, unfocused Roger. First off, he was innocent. Someone implicated him with approximate times, locations, dates, and amount of steroids used. Brian McNamee had nothing to gain by lieing. You are innocent until proven guilty but right now the proof is in favor of Clemens being guilty. If you used steroids to prolong your career to 24, 25 years then you don't get any respect. Not an inch. Most common answers from Roger Clemens: Very insightful Roger....care to elaborate? Roger Clemens also made his attempt to make Brian McNamee look like a jackass by discussing the fact he "helped him out", "I took care of him", "I treated him fairly" (as opposed to others I guess?)...and he betrayed you by telling the truth. What would he have done? What would he have told Mitchell? Perhaps the same thing he is saying now...."Never happened" This is my favorite... The guy you train with every offseason, are best friends with, and use the same trainer and you plead ignorant?? WOW. I love how Roger didn't even answer the question. Distance yourself from Andy Pettite because the world knows how close you are. Isn't B12 a masking agent for steroids? Also did a great job dancing around the lie detector test. Its good and some say its bad. Yeah, your lawyer won't let you do a lie detector. If Roger Clemens goes before a judge along with Brian McNamee and they tell this story...someone will face charges for not telling the truth. Brian McNamee has nothing to gain by not telling the truth. Roger Clemens has everything to gain by not being linked to steroids. McNamee's story could go either way and it wouldn't mean anything to him as long as he tells the truth. Roger Clemens only has one way to go so....there it is.

You have to like the Red Sox situation much more than the Yanks as far as the kids in the rotation are concerned. The Red Sox have the opportunity to ease the kids in the mix where the Yankees are relying on the kids to get them innings and wins. There are no other alternatives. If Hughes, Chamberlain, or Kennedy falter (which rookies have plenty of lumps in the beginning) then the Yankees will suffer. They don't have the bullpen power to get them out of the jams either.

Absolutely. A lot of people have said the price for Santana should be above the cost of Dan Haren which the Dbacks gave up a good number of prospects. I disagree. Because of the money involved I would think Johan Santana would be cheaper. I think you can say with 100% certainty that the front office will not part with Clay Buchholz. I'm sure they are reluctant to trading Jacoby Ellsbury. I'm thinking this trade will not happen and on that note I have a feeling the Twins don't trade him at all. It reminds me a bit of Manny Ramirez. The Red Sox couldn't get the right price for him because they couldn't replace him. The Minnesota Twins can't get the right guys for Santana so instead I see them keeping him and giving it a run this season. They will take the draft picks at the end of the season.