Tek4pres

I think that the Wily Mo case is a bit different since I don't even project Hansen to be in the same stratosphere, and since we've seen with Lou Merloni (and Lou redux, Youk) just how many options a player has before he has to be kept in the big leagues. But your point is well taken. Some here will reject the seasoning argument, but I think that it will be good to see Hansen fail first before we decide if he is ready for primetime. And he will eventually fai and give up five runs in an inning. If Derek Lowe taught us anything, it's that there are some people who can't turn it around if things start going bad. We've seen him react to success, but let's see him react to failure before we decide on his major league makeup. Going down to Pawtucket will probably be seen by Hansen as a failure in itself. I think there's something worthwhile in telling a kid like Craig Hansen, "No, you aren't good enough to be a major league pitcher yet." I'm also in favor of keeping him in Pawtucket until later in the year because it means that he'll be something that most other teams hitters haven't seen before down the final stretch of the season, but eventually professional hitters will come up with plans on how to hit him and he'll have to adapt. I have no doubt he will adapt, but sometimes those adaptations can take a while to implement. Pushing his call up until late summer might push that period when hitters start seeing the ball really well off of him into next spring rather than July

Stamina could also be a factor. We must remember that he's looked great so far, but he's been in the organization less than a year. It is much less important for him to be in Boston throwing gas in April than it is for him to be throwing well in October. Plus, it'd be great to have him in the bullpen in Boston, but he won't get the opportunity to close and be in the pressure situations that we eventually want him in with Foulke in the pen (and I'd say that Papelbon and Timlin are options 1A and 1B for the set up/back up closer roles).

I guess this means he'll be on his way to the Bronx any day now. Yankee Stadium has become a retirement farm for has been pitchers. Joking of course. I always liked Sele. I don't know if he'd be willing to accept a lesser role, but he's only making 70 grand for the year. We might want to pick him up and do what we did with Kapler (ie DL him, send him to Pawtucket for a few rehab starts) then he'd be ready just about the time the rosters expand in September. He's stuck around for 12 years and pitched in World Series. You never know when he might come in handy. Besides, with a month's rest, he might regain some of his stuff much the same way it looked like Embree had in Yankee stadium the other day when he was hitting 94 on the radar after hovering at 89-91 for us.

In light of today's news about Palmeiro, I am completely sure that if Giambi's more recent power surge has been from steroids, then he'll eventually be caught. Personally, unless I'm wrong and he is the dumbest man on the face of the planet, I'd say he's not taking them. He's been trying to pull the ball and consequently hitting most of those homeruns to right field. Given the short porch in Yankee stadium, it's not surprising that he's having more success. And in his defense, a lot of the balls haven't been tape measure shots. Even when he couldn't hit a beach ball if it was tossed underhanded to him at the plate, he still had one of the best eyes in the league. And unfortunately, I think he's finally feeling healthy enough to take advantage of his natural talents. The steroids cloud will always follow him, but only because he had so much success. Looking at the players who were caught with steroids this season we can see that it's no wonder drug otherwise Alex Sanchez would be able to hit it out of the infield. So I'm willing to say that Giambi is just seeing the ball really well and swinging the bat better than he has in a few years. It's really a shame about the steroids stuff because Giambi did have a lot of natural talent and probably had an outside shot at the hall of fame, but we won't be able to tell what was talent and what were the drugs. He'll never get any credit for anything he's done before 2005 because most feel he doesn't deserve it (and maybe he doesn't.) But at this point, I gotta respect his month of July and hope he cools off in August.

Wow! Very impressive! Really you ought to be a real GM . . . for the Yankees. This is one of the silliest trades I've ever heard proposed. Scott Kazmir has the potential to be a Cy Young candidate and he only makes $316K and Cantu is a potential Rookie of the Year candidate who also makes under $400K. The Tampa Bay front office people would have to be drinking lead paint milk shakes to give them up. Lugo and Baez they might consider dealing but not for a player in the first year of a $40m dollar contract and a utility infielder whose ceiling is so low that Emmaneul Lewis would have to crawl to get under. Beside Baez walks way too many people and has never pitched in a big market. His stats this year are an anomalie. Please go back to creating teams on your nintendo and stop mucking up the internet with silly proposals like this.

Actually I'm not saying that everyone hates him. I'm saying that giving Manny what he asked for and trading him can also help the team. I'm on record saying that I don't think giving up prospects for Huff and Cameron is a good deal. But a deal for Benson, Looper and Cameron would be a different story. It would give the Sox key pitching staffs and a good outfielder. On top of that it'd get rid of a bad contract without taking on any bad contracts. And most have only replied by saying trading Manny is stupid, everyone loves him which is an unverifiable statement that ignores the fact that we need to make changes to this team needs to make changes in order to win. If it comes down to giving up Mueller for one piece of the puzzle in Romero plus prospects in other deals, or giving up Manny (and getting rid of a bad contract) for all of the pieces, then I choose the latter. You might also want to see the Wells on Manny thread.

And my same response to most of these kinds of posts, how in the world do you know what most of the players on the Red Sox think? You may cite a few newspaper articles with a quote from Ortiz or Millar. But Millar was also the same person who was publicly drooling over playing with A-Rod in a deal that would have sent Manny to the Rangers. Most of the rest of the players are professional enough not to say anything negative about a teammate. Though I can't picture a player like Schilling being thrilled with the fact that his teammate can't give up his day off when a teammate is hurt (especially when he would have had a day off the following day to rest whatever hamstring troubles he has.) So please, anyone who wants to put up another "But everyone loves Manny" post better have quotes from a majority of his teammates saying that they'd hate to see him go. Either that or they better work in the Red Sox clubhouse.

No one can argue with you about his hitting stats, and I don't think he (or Nomar) were ever a cancer to the team. But baseball is a team sport and Manny does a lot for the team at the plate, but Manny's behaivor can't always be that popular in the clubhouse. This regime has paid extra attention to bringing in players with exceptional character and professionalism so I don't ever imagine you would hear them trashing Manny. But I wouldn't be surprised if Manny's begging out of games, wearing mp3 players in the field and frequent request for trades has worn thin with a number of the Red Sox regulars. I have said before that I don't want to see Manny go, but if he's already requested a trade and we can get a number of pieces back from wherever he goes, then I'm alright with it. Everyone knows we need a pitcher in the bullpen. Would you rather we keep Manny and give up Billy Mueller for Romero? Getting rid of Manny has the best potential of any of the deals I've heard to bring us what we need to compete this year and several years down the line.

And if Manny got hurt you'd have $20m a year down the tubes. Injuries are always something you have to worry about. But if Benson gets hurt for a year, that $5.3m is a relatively low figure, equivalent to about 1/20 your 25 man payroll. If Manny got hurt, 1/5 of the teams payroll would be paying for him to rest his hamstrings. All I'm saying is that right now Kris Benson is having a better season than anyone on our staff. He doesn't have to be the best pitcher in the league, but if we didn't have Manny, we'd have more money to go get the best pitcher in the league. Look, I love Manny too. I really do. I was thrilled to get him and still remember driving around listening to all the callers on WEEI giggling like school girls that we'd signed him. But if he doesn't want to play here, I certainly don't mind us getting three usable, comparatively cheap players in return. It restores a much needed balance back to the payroll and will pay dividends down the road. It puts us in position to have the resources and flexibility to become the best team in the league year in and year out for quite sometime.

The fact that Ortiz has improved does not prove your point that Manny made David Ortiz. He might have spoken to him about certain aspects of hitting, but there are many other guys in the clubhouse and organization who probably have had the same conversations with Ortiz including Ron Jackson the Red Sox hitting coach who I think would also get a lot of credit for working with Ortiz. So giving the trade that he asked for is not going to suddenly turn Ortiz into the same guy he was in Minnesota. And by the way, it's M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A not MinnesTODA. Buy an atlas.

Good move for the O's. Byrnes is the type of guy who, as Pete Rose said, "would run through hell in a gasoline suit just to play baseball"

Make sure you don't tie up your phone line. With analysis like that, ESPN will be calling soon to offer you the job of replacing Peter Gammons. It's completely silly to say that Manny made Ortiz. You have absolutely no hard evidence to back it up. Ortiz is a professional and will continue to be one even if Manny is granted his request for a trade. Best friends? When is the last time you asked to leave the same town your best friend was in?

Oh and one more thing about Benson, imagine seeing Anna Benson sitting in the player's wives section:http://photos1.blogger.com/img/196/2653/1024/167b_anna_benson%5B1%5D1.jpg If a guy that goofy looking can get her, he must have some game!

Everybody here is way too attached to Manny and Bronson to see the logic here. If this was as bad of a deal as you folks are saying, then why did the Mets turn it down. Benson? Not worthy of being in the Red Sox rotation? He has a better ERA, WHIP and BAA than ANY of our starters. And it's not even by a slight margin. He's a run better a game than anyone we have. He's signed for $10m less than Pavano and for one less year. Looper would come in and have the second best ERA on the team behind Timlin and the second best BAA against behind Myers. With Schilling and Foulke healthy this would give us: Starters: Schilling Benson Wells Clement Wakefield Bullpen: Arroyo Bradford Myers Timlin Looper Foulke This is a significantly better starting rotation and bullpen. Plus we'd have an above avg fielding outfielder. I say the only sticking point here is the prospects involved. But since Tampa Bay has the most to gain in this situation perhaps they are willing to make some concessions and take lesser prospects from the Mets and perhaps someone other than Sanchez from the Sox. Even if we have to give up Sanchez, I still think this helps us. It gives us a team that we can win the World Series with THIS year, plus a significant amount of savings further on down the road. Edit: Fixed a typo.

The original Looper-Benson-Cameron deal sounds a lot better. All three are very good players and none of them has a very bad deal. Money sox taken on by Sox Looper - balance of his $3.5m in 2005 plus a club option for $5m in 2006 ($0.25m buyout) Benson - balance of $4.5m in 2005, $7.5m in 2006, $7.5m in 2007, $7.5m club option in 2008 ($0.5m buyout) Cameron - balance of $6m in 2005, $6m in 2006, $7m club option for 2007 ($0.5m buyout) Ramirez - $1 million owed to him if traded (perhaps since this is done at his request, he may waive this) Max taken on: $6.5m in 2005, max $18.5 min $13.75 in 2006, max $14.5m min $8m in 2007, max $7.5m min $0.5m in 2008 Money lost by sox Ramirez - balance of $20m in 2005, $19m in 2006, $18m in 2007, $20m in 2008, $20m club option in 2009, $20m club option in 2010 Total savings- $3.5m in 2005, min $0.5 max $5.25m in 2006, min $3.5m max $10m in 2007, $19.5m in 2008 Total - $27m-$37.25m

If this happens Theo has nothing to worry about since Henry and Lucchino would both have to sign off on this well in advance before anything happens.

A-Rod, strictly as a hitter, is in the top five all time if we rate what he did before 30. Where we go from here is anyone's guess. Remember Ken Griffey Jr. had similarly impressive numbers at the time he was 30. And he was probably the best centerfielder of his generation, so the train can derail very quickly. I don't think A-Rod is hated in other places besides Seattle, Texas and Boston. Frankly, I don't see all that much hatred directed at him from Texas since it wasn't his fault they have one of the dumbest owners in the league. And really much of A-Rod's personality has been only very recently blown up into the portrait of the narcissist that we now see in him. Unlike Barry Bonds, he has had a pretty good relationship with the media before this winter, and also unlike Bonds, I think if he learned a bit more maturity and allowed some time to heal some of the things in his past, he'd be perceived as a much nicer guy.

Giving up prospects is certainly not something I can conceive of doing to get Cameron and Huff. Especially since one of them would only end up being a back up once Nixon comes back unless he moves back to the infield. Plus Cameron has been upset in NY since he had to move out of center so it doesn't make sense to me to take him on here to play left (though I assume giving his skills in the field he'd probably end up being the regular right fielder and we'd move Nixon to left. However, one thing that we have to consider is that Ramirez is a bad contract and getting rid of a bad contract is always going to yield less than you would trading the same caliber player who makes less. The Red Sox won't get a top prospect back in return. If you think David Wright will be in a Red Sox uniform anytime soon, you will be vastly disappointed. The best thing we can do is to take on players that can help us win, but who don't have a lot of money owed to them. Cameron's deal expires after this season with a club option for 2006 and Huff's deal runs through 2006. Neither are very bad contracts, both might benefit from a change of scenery. Minus the prospects, I think this is the kind of deal you have to expect for Manny. The real benefits of any deal we make involving Manny won't show up until after the season when we have more money to go out and sign a Burnett or a reliever like Cliff Politte or Scot Shields

Let's note that he's only done that in four games though. Kapler may be the answer, but he is also the same player who was hitting under .200 in Japan where I imagine he didn't face the same caliber pitcher he'll face in MLB (of course this presupposes that the Yankees don't place anyone else on the DL and have to sign the starting rotation of the Long Island Babe Ruth league champs just to fill out the staff.) If it looks like Nixon is going out for a while, you have to protect against getting Japanese Kapler instead of 2004 Kapler. If you can find another player cheaply, do it. If not, we ought to consider calling up Petagine and playing him at first with Millar in RF against righties and on the road and Kapler in RF with Millar at first against lefties and when the Sox are home. Petagine I'll remind you tore up Japan much like he's been doing in Pawtucket all season long with a .1089 OPS.

I agree with all those picks. Very smart, shrewd front offices. If the Yankees ever did switch to the moneyball philosophies (it's more than just OBP. too), I think they'd be the most dangerous team in the game. Imagine, they could field a team with only 100 million and spend the other 120 million on their farm system getting the best scouts, number crunchers, player development guys etc. It's scary. I'm just grateful that they can't do it for awhile with the huge contracts that they have.

I agree with the money concern. In some ways Manny leaving would be a huge favor. With the talent we've assembled in the front office, it'd be really something to see what we'll be able to do three years down the road when we don't have that albatross of the contract and when some of the money we've been pumping into our farm system starts paying off. The Yankees fans who hear me say this are going to say something, but it's not hard to imagine the Red Sox being in the same position where the Yankees were in 1996 with a bunch of cheap solid home grown stars filling the field and enough money to get the top veterans to fill in the remaining spots. If this happens AND we continue to fill our farm system, we can keep developing enough players to trade for all stars or replace our own starters once they become too expensive. I mean this could be just the tip of the iceberg. Getting rid of Manny would certainly jumpstart that process, though it would break my and many other Sox fans' hearts to see him go (and probably weaken our chances significantly of a repeat World Series victory this year). It feels weird saying this cause I remember when Boston was the Fellowship of the Miserable, but we're in the top three as far as smartest and most efficient front offices for football and baseball. Now if only some of it would spill out of North Station onto the two teams that play in that arena formerly known as the Fleet Center.

His numbers in July are impressive .400/.494/.667. His power isn't the same as it used to be, and most of his homers come in Coors. Of course, he'd be able to utilize the Monster in Fenway. He's a patient hitter who sees a lot of pitches (4.15 per ab this year.) Plus he's won three gold gloves at first base who works hard at becoming better. Now, there's no way I want to trade Manny, but we could do worse than Helton. Another thing I'd like to see is a list of who the potential free agent outfielders are this season. Since we'd probably have to settle for a second tier LF for the remainder of the year like Jose Cruz Jr, I think we'd want to take the money we save on Manny and reinvest it into left and of course into Damon's contract.

He can waive that clause though (like Aguilera did when he came over to the Sox for a half a season from the Twins) which, since he's the one who requested a trade, it would seem he'd be inclined to do.

Perhaps the more apt quote to tell Manny is "Don't think. It can only hurt the team"

More privacy? How about we trade him to Montreal? They never cared about baseball anyways and now that they don't have a team any more he won't even have to bother about playing. He can just hang out with the French Canadians in speedos at Old Orchard Beach. I wish he would finally understand that he sacrificed a good deal of his privacy when he signed a $20 million per year contract.