SchillingIsTheNatural

Not good under pressure....how about that home run derby huh?? I don't buy that and I CERTAINLY don't agree that Carlos Lee is better. Abreu ALWAYS has a better OBP, more stolen bases, hits for a good average, RBI, etc.....no Bobby Abreu is a better player than Carlos Lee....always has been

Lets not get too excited about Carlos Lee....he isn't that great of a player. I would be more interested in talking to the Phillies about Bobby Abreu. Look at the Phillies pitching rotation...its absolutly horrible. With the money we saved on Johnny Damon and Edgar Renteria we would probably be able to do a Trot Nixon/Matt Clement for Bobby Abreu. We could take on the whole Abreu deal which I'm sure the Phillies would be excited about. Another team who has a couple OFs who's contracts may be running out are the Arizona Diamonbacks. We could be talking to them about David Wells and Trot Nixon for Luis Gonzalez/Shawn Green and a prospect.

I haven't read this whole thread but I know what its about. I haven't been vocal about Johnny Damon since the move. I guess I'll say what I need to say right now: Manny Ramirez will never be a New York Yankee unless he signs a contract after his years with the Red Sox. At that point he will be much older and not close to what he is worth now so thats fine. David Ortiz will not go to the Yankees because he is one of the greatest Red Sox hitters of all time. More beloved than anyone I have ever known to wear a Red Sox jersey. Fine, Johnny Damon was an icon but not close to what David Ortiz is. He IS the Red Sox as far as I'm concerned. As for the once beloved Johnny Damon...He will need Bernie Williams as the cut off man between him and Jeter. He didn't have an arm for Fenway so this should be pretty funny. The man can cover some ground but there is some more ground to cover in Yankee stadium. He will probably overdue it and hurt himself which will be in a long line of injuries that started in 2005. If he wanted to recruit Red Sox players he should have gone to the Dodgers....the Yankees don't care about team unity or bringing players in that mesh well....they want the all-stars (and thats fine every team has a way of doing things). Mostly I just want to say go screw yourself Johnny Damon...just because you made a stupid career choice doesn't mean you should attempt to bring everyone else along for the ride.

This is an amazing deal for the Red Sox...so why would they be balking supposedly? Well for starters its probably cause the deal isn't true. Otherwise Theo is trying to drive up the price on Matt Clement.

Thats true...but his playing time would come faster in 3 years behind V-tek then 12-15 years behind Victor Martinez. It would have been nice for Shoppach to work with Wakefield and be his catcher for the next couple years. Either way its not a big deal for us cause by the time Varitek is done we will find a replacement. I have to say though...Cleveland is the worst place for a catcher trying to break a lineup. Even Joe Mauer has injury issues from time to time so I would rather go to Minnesota over Cleveland.

I'm not sure I understand where you are coming from. Alex Gonzalez and Mike Lowell were on the most recent Florida Marlins team that won the World Series. Jack McKeon said great things about Alex Gonzalez and Mike Lowell is a proven team leader. I also don't know how you can be so hard to Kevin Youkilis who always plays well when given the opportunity. He is very patient at the plate and has a tremendous eye. His batting stats between the MLB and AAA last season were excellent. At 26 years old he is at his best right now walking into his prime. Whenever Youkilis took over for Bill Mueller at third the offense never stopped...that means something cause Bill Mueller is an excellent player. To top it off you can't compare the talents of Kevin Millar vs. Kevin Youkilis...thats a laugh. I could get into a discussion of why Mark Loretta is a better player than Tony Graffanino, Alex Cora, and Mark Bellhorn but I don't want to write a book. This team will not struggle because of the offense or defense....our fate will be determined in our pitching. If Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, and Keith Foulke can stay healthy and produce as they should.....we will be awesome.

Shoppach is actually pretty screwed. I don't know how we said "thank you" to him by placing him in Cleveland behind Victor Martinez.

It could be worse...we could have Mark Bellhorn, Nomar Garciappara, and Kevin Millar

Everyone has close to the same lineup so I'll throw a curveball just to make it interesting: 1. Kevin Youkilis ® - Greek God of Walks 2. Coco Crisp (S) - I like having a switch hitter in the #2 spot, plus a guy with speed to stay out of double plays. 3. David Ortiz (L) - umm yeah 4. Manny Ramirez ® - ya know 5. Mike Lowell ® - my prediction - 3rd best hitter on the Red Sox this year 6. Trot Nixon (L) - my favorite red sox player 7. Mark Loretta ® - approach to the plate reminds me of Lowell, Nixon, and Varitek 8. Jason Varitek (S) - the Captain batting #8....best #8 hitter in the game 9. Alex Gonzalez ® - just when you think the lineup is over...A-Gonzo blasts one while going 1-5 in the game.

True there is history there. However, I think that addition of Josh Byrnes changes some things when it comes to dealing with teams. Its not our fault the Dbacks were idiots in the Schilling deal. Just the same its not our fault for being stupid and giving up too much for B. Kim. Certainly guys like Quentin and Jackson are out of the question. Those guys are elite prospects and that would be tough to do. Not to mention Byrnes watched Theo work for a while and isn't stupid. I liked Riversides idea of Mirabelli and Gonzalez. I'm not sure what to do with Gonzalez since we have Youk and Snow at 1st. I think Adrian Gonzo can play the outfield but he isn't much of a platoon partner for Nixon. I guess there is no harm in allowing him to tear up AAA until we need him. Its an idea of course.

Yea that makes sense...happens all the time in the majors. Always see pitchers beam rookies when they first get there in hopes they can end there career before it gets started. Why take a fairly easy out from the new guy when you could hurt him. Good post.

What I find amazing is that teams like Arizona and the Dodgers are deep in there farm systems. All the teams in the NL West are pretty average and having him at the top of there rotation certainly makes there chances look better. He could post 15 wins for those teams and they look at him as just someone to take off the Red Sox hands. His salary isn't THAT large in the case where they can't afford him. A couple middle prospects would probably do cause its better than us getting nothing. Should be fun to see this play out but I really want to see what Wells says after he talks to Theo.

huh?? Did the Dodgers trade him already haha??

I think that is the case with Pedroia. One reason they haven't moved him back to SS is because Jed Lowrie has looked real sharp at SS. Mark Loretta could be the player for this year at 2B then next year is Pedroia's season. He could obviously contribute this year. If they signed Alex Gonzalez he would be here for 2 years giving an ETA of 2008 for Jed Lowrie. He could contribute in 2007 at times then take over in 2008. Makes sense to me. Alex Gonzalez reminds me of Juan Uribe in Chicago. Not real flashy but gets the job done. Also bats from the #9 spot and could kill you from time to time.

Theo said he wants to talk to David Wells in the beginning of Spring Training. My guess is the conversation will go along the lines of: your worth is what you make it up until the trade deadline. If you can pitch well enough that other teams will want you then I can trade you to the west coast. If you don't then I can't get fair value and you might as well retire. The Red Sox should stick David Wells in a rotation spot that can max out his home game appearances. That way he will dominate for us and be worth something.

Well you can never have enough. You need to play the numbers with prospects. No matter how good they are...for every top prospect there are 3 that don't. Having Hansen, Delcarmen, Broxton, and Edgar Martinez sounds good. There is always room for relievers. They come and go all the time but whats hard is finding the ones that can stick around. I wouldn't be against getting a top hitter either. The Dodgers have two good hitters in Andy La Roche and Joel Guzman. The Dbacks have a bunch of good hitting prospects. We just have to see what the Red Sox do but thats the direction I would go....young prospects...hard to do with a 42 year old pitcher.

I agree he would have been perfect for the Yankees. Something about him just fits in with the rest of the team. I don't know if its the age or what but he looked destined for the Yanks. Oh well...guess Bernie is still the primary DH.

I'm more into signing young guys with potential then old farts. Guess what you say is true about all young players, not just the ones the Red Sox sign.

I was reading more about Broxton and I was wrong saying he is close to Craig Hansen. Apparently Broxton has control problem but still has a high ceiling. He isn't close to the same class as Jonathan Papelbon or Jon Lester. We declined to trade Lester for Randy Johnson and both are top 10 pitching prospects if not top 5 with Francisco Lariano and Matt Cain. If I was going to compare him to a reliever in our system he is deffinitly more like Manny Delcarmen. Two excellent pitches with big velocity....just lacking control. Craig Hansen was mentioned as a faster developing Brad Lidge and better than Houston Street.

I like Brazoban but I might be more interested in Jonathan Broxton. He has the teams best fastball and best slider according to baseball america. He was built to be a reliever and has a real high ceiling. Craig Hansen is said to be the best relief prospect in minor league ball. Broxton isn't far behind him. Since moving to the bullpen his fastball reaches high 90s and his strikeouts last season in the majors: 22 k in 13.2 innings (holy crap!). I would love to add that to the bullpen of the future.

I'll always take young arms in any deal. You can never have enough pitching; especially young talents that can develop. As far as hitters; we are only lacking at SS and believe it or not Dustin Pedroia is one of the top middle infield prospects. We could always use another though since I'm not sure what Jed Lowrie will become. There are lots of names on the west coast I would be interested in: Stephan Drew, Justin Upton, Orlando Cabrera, Howie Kendrick, Brandon Wood, Chone Figgins, Cesar Izturis, Bobby Crosby, Joel Guzman. A lot of those names are expensive but they are guys I would be interested in.

I think we should be trading David Wells for prospects. Now that Andy Marte is gone and we technically have a 26 man roster, SS is our one real weakness. I think dealing with San Diego kinda sucks cause there farm system is pretty weak. Now that Theo is back perhaps he can get more involved with Josh Byrnes. They have a real log jam at SS and 2B. They recently got Orlando Hudson and for SS they have Justin Upton, Stephan Drew, and Sergio Santos. Perhaps we could work on getting Stephan Drew somehow. Joel Guzman in LA is there best power hitter and he can play SS.

I believe Roger Clemens opened up a restaurant somewhere in Texas and he wants to be close durring operations. Meaning he would obviously stay in Texas. However, a trip by Theo may be able to convince Roger otherwise. If he was able to convince Roger to go to Boston one more season I bet that influences David Wells to want to stay. Imagine the rotation with three future hall of famers in Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, and David Wells. Not to mention the end of the rotation in Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield. Put Papelbon and Arroyo in the pen and trade off Matt Clement.

Chances are they took that under consideration. You can write an agreement a number of ways. Just like they do with contracts there are certain factors that come into play. I wouldn't be worried about the potential extra player or the cash.

I found this interesting today... Chris Mortensen mentioned Jay Cutler as the best QB in the draft over Matt Leinart and Vince Young. Apparently a growing number of NFL teams agree and many don't think he gets past the New Orlean Saints at #2. I find that suprising. Three QBs all worthy of a top 5 spot. Obviously I still don't see any of them going to Houston because in no way shape or form can they change the franchise anymore than David Carr. Still, could be an interesting development...especially if Cutler does well at the combine.