ORS

And Lamb (1B/COF). That's 5 OF, but Burke is utility player. I think that gives them depth they'd be comfortable with.

I think Wilson's days as an every day CF are slipping by. I'd expect Houston to slot him in COF role and move Berkman to 1B.

He was't able to train in the '04/'05 offseason due to the ankle surgery, not so this year. That is certainly an encouraging sign.

I pretty sure Taveras isn't even on the market. Sure, Houston would trade him if the package was right, but since they aren't looking to move him, anyone interested in Taveras would have to really grab their attention. That said, Plump et al are right. You want to put people on base as often as possible for the best 3/4 in baseball, and Youk and Loretta will set the table much more often than Quick Willy. The Sox don't run, so speed in the leadoff spot is much less important than actually getting on.

I've read it, but I can't give you specific page numbers off the top of my head. James is mentioned, but his name doesn't come up very often.

Sutter? He wasn't even the best RP on the ballot. Goes to show that those that write about the sport don't really know jack about the sport. Speaking of which, check out the ballots of the ESPN crew. ESPN.com's HOF Ballot Look at the bottom three ballots. Albert Belle? Dale Murphy? Lee Smith? but those voters didn't vote for anyone else. What a farce.

Small nitpick. You have to count the SB and the CS for total attempts. (11/34) = 32%, but (11/45) = 24%. That's borderline risky. Anything less than 75% success rate is wasteful IMO.

Look, I like Gammons. How couldn't I? He's a Sox fan. But his days as a credible news source, the days that got him into the HOF, have passed him by. Go read his body of work for the last calendar year. What's he got, like a 10% accuracy rating? Fact of the matter is, other than the blurb right after the trade, nothing has been made of this story. And, this is a controversial issue. If there were an inkling of this being true, the Boston media would be calling for heads, and it would still be talked about today. By itself, the Schilling start doesn't amount to a hill of beans. You were the one who said he deserved no credit for that game when others mentioned that his trend was good. And, his trend was good. He sucked in July and August, but there was a steady progression in the quality of his starts. In September/October he delivered 3 quality starts in his last 5 outings, two of which came against a playoff club. Couple that with the fact that his expected full-recovery time is about right now, and the optimism becomes justified.

I know no such thing. I find it very hard to believe that those guys went up to the plate in the first 5 innings saying, "This doesn't really matter, so I'm not going to try as hard". Especially since home field was still on the line at the time. They rested their game one pitcher, which was smart, but they still wanted to win the game, and they knew they'd have to do it offensively. Schilling shut down the starting Yankee lineup for 5 innings, spin it anyway you want, but that is what happened. Rotoworld isn't buying Gammon's story, and neither am I. Dr. Andrews, the orthopedic surgeon just about every MLB pitcher goes to see, performed his MRI and cleared him to train this offseason.

Doctors said that Schilling's full recovery would take 14-18 months after the procedure was performed on his ankle. Expecting a repeat of his 2005 performance is a bit of wishcasting by Yankee fans. And, that last start against the Yankees was against the regular starting lineup. At the beginning of the game, Mussina was the only player saved for the next game. The starters came out after the 5th when it was 7-0. Johnson and Schilling both had a similar drop in their K/9 rate, so saying it was due to decline is a bit wishcasting by Sox fans. That said, he is going to be 42 this year and the durability of his knees and back have to be a concern. Comparing Beckett and Johsnon is an interesting study. RJ logged 200+ innings for the first time in his age 26 year (2006 will be Becketts age 26 year). And prior to his age 27 year, his K/9 rate was around 7.75. Beckett's is 8.97 through his age 25 year, and he has much better K/9 and BB/9 numbers in the minors than Johnson did. Beckett is right on the cusp of his peak years. If his production curve takes off at this age, as it typically does, he will have a very good year in 2006. That combined with any decline by Johnson, and Beckett will likely have the better year. BABIP will likely be the deciding factor if they are both pitching well. The bad MRI story hasn't been confirmed by any respectable sporting news source. That story allegedly came out after Tex lost out on acquiring Beckett and it is just as likely that it is spin as it is accurate. Time will tell on that issue. If you disregard that story, Beckett is not a real injury concern. Only one of his 9 trips to the DL has been for an arm related problem, and it didn't sideline him for any appreciable amount of time.

A decent SP and a good C prospect for a 2 month rental? Only if they are clearly one good rotation pitcher away from a title run and Zito is having a good year. Otherwise, no thanks. EDIT: Actually, no thanks no matter what. If they are contending, Clement and Shoppach are likely going to be contributors. Plus, Beane will be looking for prospects, and if he doesn't get them, he'll take the draft picks. He's already got a Matt Clement named Esteban Loaiza.

Pitchers and catchers report in, what, 6 weeks? That means the third quarter of the offseason has just ended. At this point the focus should be CF. SS can be adequately handled by a combination of Cora/Pedroia/Graffanino. Let Dustin compete for the job in ST. If he's back to pre-wrist injury form, then give him the job and let Cora be the MIF bench player. If he still needs seasoning, let Cora/Graffanino man the position until Dustin looks ready. Graffanino should be kept around anyway since he's a super-sub who can play MIF and COF, meaning he could be an answer to the Trot platoon-mate situation and he could spell Manny when he needs it. None of the CF options mentioned are worth a blue-chip prospect. Reed is a former BA top-100, but I wouldn't trade either of the big arms or Marte for him. If Seattle doesn't budge from a Papelbon/Lester demand, then find a CF elsewhere. Roberts for Wells works for me, if they can get SD to understand that Woody Williams won't be pitching in Fenway with the hometown jersey on. Patterson has been mentioned as someone to acquire to get Reed, but I think he would be an acceptable stopgap, and I think that is what the options are limited to at this point, stopgaps. Another alternative is to break in a prospect. Murphy, Moss, Durbin, and Stern should all get an invite to ST and be given a shot at the job. EDIT: It seems Patterson is going to the O's. However, this makes Matos expendable, although Baltimore is probably thinking the FO is desperate to expect any rumor about a Matos trade to have them asking for the moon.

I'm well aware of what terrible pitcher he is, which is why I said he should be in the Remlinger role if they got him. This team does need a CF, and Dave Roberts can do the job for a year. If Woody Williams is the baggage and he's at low $$, then it's worth it to take so long as he doesn't get the ball when it's less than a 5-run game. Since he isn't at low $$, then Roberts is looking a lot more expensive.

I was over at mlb4u.com looking up Woody's contract, and I agree with everyone who says they don't want him as part of the package with Roberts for Wells. I thought his deal was pretty incentive loaded, like Boomer's, and the Sox could just put him in mop-up mode, a la Remlinger last year, to avoid having to pay him serious dough. But, as it turns out, his heavy incentive year was last year, and he made enough starts last year to guarantee 2006 at $5M + $66K for each start. Too much for the mop-up guy. Also, I found a link on the San Diego team page. Apparently someone doesn't like Jay Payton as this was the title of the link: JayPaytonSucks.com Scroll down and check out the poll, haha. Once you participate in the poll, you get the last 5 visitor comments. Here's the 5 before my vote:

Of course, just like how every failed hit-and-run is moronic and every successful one is genious.

Ballgame. Pittsburg slams the door right here. EDIT: I missed that one. But, I expected them to just pound it in rather than some more sandlot stuff.

Cheers Indeed!

Beautiful trickeration. 28-17, totally fooled there.

HAHA, anyone catch the Sony-HD commercial with the replay of the Cal/Stanford band play done with the old-school vibrating football game. That was rich!

Cincy is starting to fold like a cheap pop-tent in a gale force storm. Pittsburg takes over the game now.

CHEERS!! I don't think it was a horrible spot. I do think Cowher challenges that play if there was no PI call. Randle El caught it, came down with control, landed on his back with the ball in the endzone, and then it was stripped out by the defender as he was in his back. Nantz and Simms said they wouldn't get it because it was like the play in the TB/WAS game, but I think it was different since the defender popped the ball loose after he was on the ground.

Yeah, even the Bears would manage to score if you gave them 8 shots from 15 yards. Well, maybe that is overstating it, but you get the idea.

Ken Dorsey comparisons are a little unwarranted. His arm is more wet-noodle-esque than Damon's. There hasn't been a college player I can think of that compares to Young. He's a better runner than everyone outside of Vick and Tommy Frazier, but they couldn't throw the ball at all. He's a better passer than McNabb and Culpepper were coming out of college. McNair performed on the same level, but he did it against Division I-AA type talent. Young has dominated the game against Big-12, Big-10, and probably one of the best teams ever. Think he won't be able to perform on the next level? Well, most of his competition is coming from these same conferences.

Another automatic 1st down on 3rd and goal from the 17. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for Cowher's rant at halftime.

Stupid play there Big Kahuna, you just gave up an automatic 1st down after stopping them on 3rd and 11. Complete mental breakdown.