ORS

It's a good thing the Angel's philosophy is "if you can see it, swing at it" since that will help Lester lengthen his outing. FYI Halos, if you want to get on base, don't hit it to the hot corner.

Coco with the worst type of out in that situation. That f***ed the inning. He's been a bust this year. Hopefully he turns it around, but I'm not holding my breath any longer. It really sucks that he was hot as a firecracker right before he got hurt. He hasn't been the same player since.

Mikey's droppin' dubs.

OC still gets the love. That's nice to see.

http://rockcritics.com/archives/lester%20ave3.jpg WIN.

Gehrig. The best OF contest should have been by position. Williams and Ruth are the correct choices for LF and RF. Mays would have won CF, and Rose would be where he belongs, on the bench.

Even if he's hot as a firecracker at each level, he won't be up before 2010, IMO.

Nope, no PMS. I don't take well to people telling me what my point is and being completely wrong. Don't make assumptions or construct false points out of what I have said, and we'll be fine. Obviously you can't have a revolving door of impact players coming and going via FA in order to hit the supplemental rounds every year. You need some continuity. However, when the goal is to rebuild a depleted farm system, you can do it when you have some aging stars hitting the market. I think that is why we saw with the dismantling of the '04 squad. Agree with it or not, I think the goal was to build 'their' (the new ownership's) team and farm system after the championship while staying competitive. They have accomplished both goals. You were quick to hang the onus of not signing Pete, JD, and Lowe on Epstein. You would be right if the goal was simply to field a winning team in '05 and '06. However, I think the evidence points to them having their eyes on 3-5 years down the road, so, in terms of what they are trying to do, they have been successful.

Got babble? Seriously, who thinks they are just going to draft guys at random? They aren't sitting in the war room on draft day just calling the next name off an alphabetical list. Scouting, research, and signability are considered for each player. Obviously quality trumps quantity, but they are not exclusive of one another. It's possible to draft for quality, wait for it, here it comes, and have a lot of picks. Never once did I say, "just draft a whole bunch of guys and hope for something decent". I think you are going into this discussion with an ass-load of preconceived notions. Please try not to assign any of them to what I have said. I don't care what the rate is. More picks is better than less. Theo has said he wants to revamp the farm while staying competitive. He gets credit for doing that IMO.

I said that the best way to assure a good draft class is to get more early round picks. You said that wasn't true because HS players are risky acquisitions. Your refutation of my point is totally irrelevant because it refutes a point I never made. You also said that 20% (an approximation, I'm sure -- but whatever rate works fine for me) will go on to MLB. Assuming that 20% is correct, wouldn't more picks be the best way to assure you get an impact player each year? More picks means more chances to draft a player that can make it. Do you deny this?

Where have the Sox taken HS players with 9 of their first 10 picks? They have been conservatively mixing high-risk/high-reward HS players with more polished NCAA players. Sorry, but your hypothetical doesn't matchup well with their draft history. EDIT: Nice of you to state that what you quoted wasn't true while making it seem like it asserted something that it didn't. That's like me saying, "I like cookies", and your response is, "That's not true because it's July". Try and keep up.

Duke's track record in the draft is obviously better now. He's had more drafts and we are further removed from when those players were drafted so the maturation process is complete for most of them. Theo's guys are just now starting to hit the bigs, and only the fast movers at that. Time is needed to do a fair comparison. Raven, you mentioned earlier that most prospects don't pan out so we shouldn't give Theo too much credit for what he's done in the draft yet. Then you went on to list a bunch of players that have been underwhelming when compared to the hype they received. It is undeniable that the draft has a high bust/star ratio. Knowing that the attrition rate is high, what would be the best way to improve draft performance? In my view, the best way to assure a successful draft class in each year is to increase the number of early round picks. That is where Theo deserves some credit, IMO. But the 'win now' crowd doesn't have the patience for prospects.

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Aloha.

Aloha.

I think you are missing my point. Those last 3 (and Lowrie, Bard, Caleb Clay) are the types of players that can make a GM's career, if the GM is still around when they are ready for the highest level. You were quick to give Duke credit for his drafts, so I think Theo deserves the same treatment. When Theo took over, the farm system was completely depleted of impact talent because Duke used prospects like currency. Letting the big name FAs walk gave the Sox 7 extra early round picks the last two years. Early rounds are where the potential impact talent comes from. I think they made the decision to retool the farm system as soon as they won a championship. When you let one FA walk while replacing him with another, you still net a pick in the supplemental round. I think the goal was to take advantage of that loophole. They went out, spent the coin needed to put a championship caliber club together, and won it all. After that, they have some leeway with me to restructure. Like I said earlier, I think the fanboys overrate him, but the second guessers do just as bad a job underrating him. Well, at the very least, they don't read between the lines and look at the motives/long term goals that some decisions indicate.

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You like that matchup? The Tribe rakes on LHP, especially soft tossers. Kenny Rogers just got run after 0.2 IP and 7 runs. I'm expecting the worst but hoping for the best that night.

Ortiz, Mueller, Millar, and Bellhorn all say, "Hi". All key contributors to the championship, and all Epstein acquisitions. All in all though, I'd say he's overrated by the fanboys and underrated by the obsessed. I'm still not convinced that letting all the big names go wasn't a calculated move to take advantage of the supplemental draft. Bowden, Buccholz, Hansen, and others aren't part of the bright future if those guys are resigned.

Two threads, same discussion. I think it would be a big mistake to skip the chance to see what Papelbon can do as a starter. SPs are just more valuable than RPs. And, if he crosses the threshold where his value as a starter doesn't match his value as a reliever, then he can just switch back. Whoever said Papelbon's offspeed pitches won't support him as a SP is reading last year's scouting report. His splitter is both very good and consistent. And, the sliders I've seen have looked more than adequate. He's not throwing as many sliders because, well, he doesn't have to. As a SP, I'm sure he'd mix it up more.

Absolutely true. However, good injury-free SPs typically pitch about 2.5 times as many innings as good RPs, so the 1:1 ratio goes away. There are strong arguments for not fixing what isn't broken. That said, I think it would be wasteful to not see if Papelbon can succeed as a SP on this level. If it doesn't work out, he can always move back.

He did the same thing at the end of last year and in the AFL. I wonder if he's proned to very good hot streaks and subsequent abysmal cold streaks.

I'd love an explanation of how he can't hit for power if he's not leading off.

Holy psychobabble. I made an observation that he gets on base and advances a lot due to mistakes. It's just an observation -- obviously one you can't refute. I didn't even say anything bad about him. EDIT: Change of heart.

No, it isn't provoked. It would be provoked if it were taking place on a Yankee fan message board. On a Sox board, bad things said about the Yankees should be expected. If you can't accept that, then your frustration will never end.