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I'm not sure, but if I was Buchholz I wouldn't be too psyched about getting my call up for only one game so the rotation could be in order. I definitely sympathize with his wish to be in the big leagues. Very few players would be virtually guaranteed a starting spot one year, improve themselves in the minors when that doesn't work out, be assured a future with the club because of their elite talent, but then spend most of the following season on the AAA roster. He's done what they asked of him and there's no light at the end of the tunnel for for him until next year. Even for next year, does anyone see the Sox not trying to replicate what they did this year in terms of SPs? What does that mean for Buchholz? Would Bowden be his backup plan?

You're building your team, and filling the precious roster spots on it, out of fear for one particular scenario? That seems rash. I would rather have a hitter up who believes in the correct approach to hitting than sending Nomar in to swing wildly at the first pitch and pop out to the middle infielder. Honestly though, I don't think there's any reason why EITHER of these guys would be in that situation. Nomar's not good enough to be the backup on this team, and Bates is there as a 3rd or 4th option. Your scenario is a moot point. You have stated in the past that you don't follow prospects and don't really care about players who aren't in the majors yet. I have been following Bates since he was drafted. I doubt very much whether you have. In terms of being hypocritical, I think that guessing that Nomar was using is an educated guess. I followed Nomar, I've looked at his numbers, I'm aware of the steroid era and the anomoly of SSs who hit in the high 300s with OPS above 1.000. He's been injury prone the last few years, he was absolutely ripped in his heyday, and he played at the height of steroid use on a team loaded with other users. On the other hand, you have professed your lack of education (and interest) about the minor leagues and discussed in the past that it isn't worth spending your time on. Therefore I conclude that your determination that Bates isn't worth a bag of balls is a pretty uneducated guess... My larger point summed is this: Bates has 20-30 HR potential and is at a position of obvious need for this club currently and in the future. Nomar does not have that potential. If this team were to trade a minor leaguer for Nomar I would want it to be a SP (where they are deep) and someone without too much upside. Kris Johnson or someone like that. They have at least 5 CF/OF prospects who all block each other, but who I would not trade for Nomar: Reddick, Kalish, Lin, Westmoreland and Fuentes. Perhaps a position of more depth or less upside.

Honestly, I may be overstating my distaste for the idea of adding Nomar. I like the guy, I love what he did for the Sox and I wouldn't be TOO pissed if he came back. It just feels like a step in the wrong direction for this club. There's nothing that tells me he has great success in the clutch, nothing that says he's a great playoff hitter, nothing that says he's likely to stay healthy or to contribute much. Yeah, we all like him, he's a great Red Sox player historically, but this club has moved beyond their need for nomar.

You don't know anything about Bates a700!! Yeah, he's older than most players in the minors. He also plays for a team that is completely stacked on the MLB club. If he were in Seattle last year he probably would have started at 1B over Miguel Cairo in some games. The level of the player and their amount of MLB experience is COMPLETELY a function of how good the parent club is. Bates was a 3rd round pick and his numbers have justified his continued climb through the system. He's not Lars Anderson as a prospect, but he's not horrible either. He's made some nice defensive plays, he's had 3 hits today, and he's capable of playing the OF as well. I just don't see any value in Nomar, other than allowing some of us to go back into his heyday every time he comes to the plate. I WOULD have a problem with Nomar at the dish in a big game against the Yankees because DESPITE ALL OF THE EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, Nomar continues to swing wildly at first pitches and has never taken on the Sox philosophy of hitting. This works fine when you're juicing and capable of ripping shots into the monster, but when you're an injury prone utility infielder it isn't acceptable on a club like this. He hasn't had an OBP over .330 in the past three years.

I love the disdain that Eck has for mediocre pitchers. "Look at that lazy hanging curve ball there..."

On a team that prefers to use its homegrown players to spending millions on washed up free agents, the non-blue chip prospects are important. Being able to produce "MLB Average" or "replacement level" for minimal cost is actually a valuable thing.

1. He has a top-tier FB (12th in MLB ) (http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=4&season=2009&month=0) He has grown, obviously been conditioning, and he seems to have very good stamina. 2. His cutter is nasty and he throws it nearly 20% of the time (The only pitchers who come close to throwing that hard and who throw as many cutters are Hallady and Billingsley) 3. He is throwing his curveball on two very good plains: one is the "for a strike" curveball (starts at shoulders, crosses over plate with good movement and velocity); second starts out in the zone and ends up down and in to righties. It is a swing and miss pitch and is very effective when combined with his cutter and fastball. Fangraphs indicates that his repetoir (FB, Cut, CB, CH) is very similar to Roy Halladay and somewhat like Josh Beckett (no shock there), except that Halladay throws his cutter almost half the time and Beckett throws his pretty rarely.

As a piece of a larger deal I don't see why not... He wouldn't be the centerpiece of any big deal (except perhaps for a useless old player like Nomar) but he could be the 4th or 5th piece of a deal. Look, nobody is saying he's a great player. I just think that all of the talent this team has should be used appropriately, and throwing away a decent young 1B with power for a CLEARLY DONE MLB player isn't the direction this team should go. I simply don't see the value in Nomar a700, but I'm open to being convinced. I posted WARP totals from the past few years, but didn't hear anything about how you think those translate into positive production for the team rather than 6 years of Bates.

Nomar's last 2+ seasons: 2007: -0.2 WARP 2008: .9 WARP 2009: 0.0 WARP I don't see much future here either... Seriously, just because he doesn't have a clear shot at the Sox MLB club doesn't mean another team couldn't find a use for him (Bates).

I think I have a pretty well documented man crush on Felix Hernandez. I see plenty of him here in the northwest and think he would be a great Red Sox acquisition if they break the bank on him and if he doesn't resign with the M's in a few years. Ichiro is also a pretty "cool" ballplayer. Also, I just have a feeling that Ryan Zimmerman is the Red Sox 3B of the future, perhaps not for another 3-4 seasons, but it is just a hunch I have.

In terms of his performance, I'm not sure how one could argue with the results Theo has had. That said, he is also the beneficiary of some great luck and some fortunate bounces that have occurred under his watch. In 2004 they don't win unless Roberts steals that base. He was safe by an inch. it was that close to the Sox going home empty handed. Theo made the right deals in 2004, but it still could have failed pretty easily. Also, Theo didn't want to deal Hanley Ramirez and Anibel Sanchez for Beckett and Lowell. IIRC that deal happened while he was away from the team and was very much against the type of deal he would like to make, especially with Beckett's inconsistencies at the time. I think Beckett was probably the single acquisition that has helped this team the most after 2004 and it really isn't thanks to Theo at all that Beckett is a Red Sox. I like Theo because I am pretty sure that he understands what it takes to put a winning team on the field. I think his expectations are reasonable and will promote a consistently winning ballclub. What more could we want as fans than to have our team competing as favorites just about every October? That's a huge change from having the team eliminated by August, or having a 'miracle' run that might end in a predictable ALDS loss.

You think that the national press are taking orders from Theo? How come ESPN pushed the Manny being Manny thing? How come the Dodger fans are showing up in droves to see this guy play, despite his steroid usage, and despite his well-deserved reputation as someone who doesn't show up every day? Are the Dodgers and Red Sox in on the same spin machine? If that is the case, which I dispute, then it seems like a good reason not to get on the FO's bad side. Again, I haven't heard a SINGLE example or interview clip of Theo being unprofessional or leaking this information. I acknowledge that Lucchino and Henry have said things, but I don't know about Theo. To me, this is all a moot point. What do I care about how D-Lowe feels after cheating on his wife and going to the Dodgers after a s***** season with the Red Sox? What do I care that Pedro chose to leave the Red Sox for the extra money and years in Boston, or that Damon chose to go to NYY for contracts that they RIGHTLY should not have had in Boston? How much did "leaked' information help or hurt Pedro or Damon after they left? None, as far as I can tell.

Since nobody responded, here's to the Sox signing their 1st round pick!! :thumbsup:

I was going to ask this as well. Aside from PED usage, what makes people think that players can turn on and turn off the ability to get a .400 OBP or a .600 SLG? And if they could perform that well, why not do it all the time? I don't get the reasoning at all. A guy like Adrian Beltre could juice it up and get 15 more HRs, but I don't think he would suddenly choose to suck just because it isn't a contract year. If the tendency is to play through injuries a bit more or something then I buy it, so in terms of playing time and the natural uptick that could cause in counting stats I get it, but overall quality and rate stats, not so much.

If I understand correctly the UZR rating literally tracks balls and plots them compared to other players ranges, is that correct? Seems like a solid way to evaluate a player, so the Ellsbury number is surprising to me too (though I had seen it a few weeks ago, so it isn't newly so). This might be a case where the FO looks at the numbers and sees an imperfect measurement rather than a defensive weakness. Subjectively, Ellsbury seems like an excellent defensive CF. He tracks down linedrives and fly balls. His arm is weak but he gets to just about everything and there aren't many that he hasn't been able to make plays on. He also hasn't hurt himself with errors. It just seems like a metric that somehow under values what he brings to the table. I think if you asked the Red Sox they would say that in terms of making outs in the OF Ellsbury has elite speed and gets tremendous jumps on the ball. I think they have always felt that way about him. The numbers don't back it up, but they may have their own system that does. I simply don't remember many plays that Ellsbury has missed where I thought to myself "another CF could have caught that ball". I watch most of the games, so my sample size is nearly as large as the performance itself. Curious.

I'm not sure he will wait it out. If the Red Sox are preparing to make offers there must be a reason. If Bay had stated clearly that he was going to wait then they wouldn't prepare offers. One thing we know about this FO is that they don't like to waste time... they get pissed off whenever they end up doing that. I, for one, think that Bay would take the security of a longterm contract sooner than FA. I think that there ARE atheletes (despite what others here may say) who genuinely like playing in a place like Boston, who see it as an honor and who woul dlike to preserve the ability to do so. Bay seems like one of those guys, though obviously I don't know him at all. Finally, while the sound business strategy is to wait it out to ensure the maximum earning potential, the competing strategy is locking up as much money as possible as quickly as possible. If the Sox come with a 5 year deal of 16, 16, 17, 18, 18 (total of 85/5) with, say, a 2 or 3m signing bonus (to compensate him for the rest of the season) he might sign it as soon as possible fearing an injury or a collapse of the economy. Overall, Bay is a great player. I don't think he's ideal as the centerpiece of this offense, but I think he's a better secondary player than JD Drew has been, even though both have a similar demeanor.

Bay and his agent should see how much the Sox actually want him to play for them by how much they are willing to pay. If the Sox sign him for 18m a year then he's not a trading piece and he's not going to be someone they plan on moving. For that amount of money it is very difficult to move a player. As much as Jacksonian would love for Bay's agent to see the Sox FO as nothing more than deceitful, he should know that if Bay does what he is supposed to do on the field then he would be irreplaceable to the Red Sox. If the Sox are willing to pay him 18m then his ability to perform at 18m a year (probably 8-11 WARP) is all the guarantee he would need that the Sox wouldn't give him up. If the Yankees aren't interested in Bay then the Sox will resign him. If they "set" the market then the Sox may not and the Yankees will overpay for another player.

Hopefully for you you will feel this confident when the Sox have the highly paid SP out in the 5 inning and have guys on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out and Drew, Youkilis, Bay and Ortiz coming up. I would much rather have the Sox pen than the Yankees pen. It isn't really even close.

I think Drew flies under the radar, but I have to say that I'm really glad the Sox have him. He has produced steadily over the time that he's been with the Sox, he comes up with big hits (because he's consistent, not clutch necessarily), he plays a solid and difficult RF in Fenway, he can hit anywhere in the top 5 spots in the order, he has been able to manage a .388 OBP in BOS (in a tough league), and although his OPS of .857 is somewhat below his career averages, it is pretty good. Furthermore, in 2007 (nearly half of his BOS ABs) he had a pretty weak .796 OPS, and he managed to salvage his season with post-season performance. His 2008 (.927) and 2009 (.871) are both very good seasons. Overall, Drew has been steady and is the type of player who doesn't seem phased by pressure, good pitchers, playoffs, etc., He's a bit injured/not tough for my tastes, but overall I wouldn't call his contract an albatross the way I would have in 2007.