ksushi

What? Sometimes I worry about this place. Its posts like this....

Starting Pitcher: Jon Lester I think Dice-K has been better according to the numbers, but Lester has exceeded all our expectations and set new standards for himself. I knew he would eventually be this good, but I didn't think he would turn the corner in a matter of months. Position Player: J.D. Drew I know Youk has been good, Mike Lowell hit the DL and is still on pace put up very good power numbers, but Drew is the story of the first half. Youk always has a first half as good as this, the power numbers are up, but seriously, he is a miserable second half player until he proves otherwise. We needed Drew to step up and earn his contract and right now, he is. He has another month like he did in June and he will be in the MVP race. With him swinging well, we can become a powerhouse in the second half with Ortiz back and Lowrie getting a chance. Relief pitcher: Papelbon Having an off year, but is still an animal. The BABIP gods haven't been kind to him yet this year, but thats what you get for running your mouth about your contract and sounding like a moron. Bench player: Coco Crisp Having one of Crisp or Ellsbury (usually crisp, so far) come off the bench late in games gives us the best OF defense in the majors late in games. I don't think you can say enough about how much that helps out our pitching staff. I think that makes Coco my MVBP. Favorite game: Lester's no-hitter That was a rewarding game. I was catching a lot of flak for my love for Lester from my roommate this year until that game. Pwned.

Mostly except for this: Its no big or anything. Just to avoid confusion.

Pap is an idiot. This story is retarded. But seriously, next time you basically take an article from ESPN.com, put it in quotes.

I'm on the fence. I think it is an O.K. call. Youkilis would be a tough guy to lose, but if anyone thinks they would remember Youk after three months of Teixiera thats a joke. I think Craig Hansen still has a ton of upside, which is why I like hanging on to him. I don't want to sell low on a talent like him and have him be the closer of the decade out in the NL. If we could build a deal for Tex around Youk I would love it. Drew, Tex, Ortiz and Manny in one line up? That is a joke. I would do Youk+Bard+Reddick for Tex pending an extension.

You a state farm rep. or something, Kilo? I'll take Utley.

Joe Saunders? Justin Duchscherer?

Doumit will not be traded. The pirates would be crazy to move him if they ever hope to be competitive again. Unless we were dumb enough to offer one of Lester or Buchholz along with a Bowden, Lowrie or Masterson with at least a couple Michael Alamanzar/Oscar Tejada types.

As bad as he has been Lugo is so much more valuable than Sexson.

Our offense sucks.

I can't believe Markakis isn't an all-star. I guess I couldn't think of anybody to take off in his place though.

JHB, you've out done yourself, sir.

yup. It doesn't have to be one or the other but thank you for pulling bits and pieces out of my post just to be your annoying self. I don't really care. You know, all I was trying to say was "I heard this, and you showed me something that made me re-think that" If you're really being this difficult about it, something makes me think you're intentionally trying to piss me off. That's fine, but it's also trolling so this thread will be lock. If you still wanna talk about this further, feel free to PM me, but there is no reason for your ******** to be polluting this thread and forum any more. Yeah, I'll take Hardy and his career .330 OBP over Reyes and his career mark of .334. Sorry that that .004 points of difference doesn't do anything for me. When did I say anything about Omar trading for Minaya straight up. Man, you really are pitiful person. Irrational behavior. Ok. Well, that is fine. Make another thread and if you want to talk about my irrational behavior in fights and crap I would be happy to do that. If you can rally some support from those various members and you guys wanna have a talk about it, we can absolutely do that. Masking a personal discussion as a baseball thing and then ambushing someone like this is trolling. This isn't the place for it. The only person who really seems to want to head down that road is you. There really is no reason for this thread to remain open. Save your pathetic personal internet vendettas for another website. I'm not interested in it. I don't think anybody is but you. Take your self-indulgent flippant ******** somewhere else.

He isn't done.... Masterson did fine, and is going to a role where he should excel if we all cross our fingers.

Yup. I think this bodes well for making a second half push to restore balance to the universe - and the AL East. MDC, Oki, and Papelbon all get lefties out very effectively. Masterson is HIV to RHH. Using Masterson in an 8th inning role (along with MDC and Oki combining to do two things: Take care of the 7th, take care of situations where a lefty shows up in the 8th) will hopefully stabilize our 'pen. In situations where a lefty pops up with 2 gone in the 8th, Papelbon takes over. I think this move helps us in the 8th and really defines the roles of Oki and MDC.

Lol, wut.

I feel like this team is taking good advantage of all that talent on the 40 man. Question: Is Sean Casey a better option than Chris Carter? Does he bring things to the table that Carter doesn't in terms of veteran presence? To me, this is a pretty veteran clubhouse as is, and I don't think I see anything on the field that Casey does especially well that would keep us from bringing Carter up in his place. I mean, other than maybe we want Carter getting more regular AB's than he would if he were up, but even though his defensive ability is almost non-existent he can DH occasionally, play left at Fenway, and a little 1B, no? Second, it's definitely apparent to me that Cora and Lugo can't hold down SS defensively and neither can swing an adequate bat, but that has been touched on already. Then there is the whole Masterson thing I've been bitching about forever (or like two weeks). Masterson would be death on righties out of the bullpen. He wouldn't have to go to his change as often, but his experience in the rotation would help him use it in rare spots, I just feel like he could be lightning in a bottle out of the pen and Buchholz has done very well in AAA this time around and has apparently taken big strides as far as FB command, or at least we hope. I think it might be time for him to try his hand in the 5 spot. It seems like the problems we're having now are fixable in-house.

Right, lets just not bother with that, cool, champ? I think Colon has some value, you disagree. Fine by me. Again, here we are with you trolling in an attempt to get someone to jump out of their shoes and make a fool out of themselves. Is this your normal routine here? I haven't really read much from you, but so far in our limited interaction, you've just been kind of a pest. Way to go. You're purposely ignoring what I'm saying to try to piss me off. I happen to be having a great day, so its not working today. I guess I over estimated Betancourts defense. Your post made me realize that. This is something I acknowledge in my previous post but you continue to be a punk and try to bait me. I really hope this isn't your usual thing, because its border line trolling. My larger point in telling about my friends dad was to express that my knowledge of Betancourts defense was largely anecdotal. But again, I try to put something out there, and you twist it to try to make fun of me. Listen, dude, this is getting pretty old. While the LOL stunt was cute and everything and I appreciate that you're really good at being kind of a douche (I'm not trying to call you a douche, it is a skill and it comes in handy) can you not be so overt about it and ruin a decent discussion? Hm? So since we can't really talk about baseball, if you're next post is just more ******** trying to troll I'll remove it from the thread and lock this baby down. There is another Lugo thread with actual valid discussion that you haven't shown up in yet that kind of makes this one seem a little silly anyway.

This made me laugh out loud. awesome.

you're missing the point. he can't play his position. we're not looking for extra-base power out of the SS spot. If we were don't you think Lowrie would be up right now? .805 OPS in AAA right now. He would be a good option. I'm not about to argue for Lugo, but how are we going to trade for Michael Young? It will hurt our defense up the middle and only be a marginal offensive improvement. You're talking about trading our top two prospects away for that? That seems like a bad idea to me.

My point in bringing up the Nomar trade was to point out the value of defense up the middle. Thats all. He was healthy enough to go 5 innings and give up 1 earnie on the 4th. :dunno: I'm not really familiar with defensive stats. Thats surprising if that is true, because I've always heard only good things about betancourts defense, including my friends dad who spent a lot of time in baseball scouting comparing his hands to vizquel. I'm not sure how much defensive metrics actually reveal about a player. Why I am even bothering to put tags around this. You're purposely annoying. It works. Yeah, for some reason I thought the Mets were lacking in OF depth. I disagree with the point about him not having the bat for the corner. I'm not going to argue for Reeds bat, but I haven't really decided whether I think defensive position should demand a certain offensive output. Reed wouldn't really be a good fit, and Betancourt is miserable at the plate, I knew that going in. I think if they were going to make a deal, Bedard would have to be a centerpiece and Betancourt would most likely factor in somewhere. Reed doesn't seem to fit. This is all meaningless speculation, though. I don't think any of this is going to happen to begin with, but I think its a little more plausible than you're giving it credit for. I'd love to give you an annoying one or two word answer right back to some of this, but I actually think I'm kind of in the mood to talk about baseball. I mean, c'mon dude, this is a baseball forum if you want to just "LOL" at people and what not, go find a chatroom or something. Besides, I don't know how you LOL@ JJ Hardy. I'd like to hear that. Honestly, I might think he is a better player than he is, but he hits for decent average and power and plays his position well. He gets on base well. Very good shortstop and I would prefer him to Reyes. Theriot is having a spectacular year, also. He has no where near the track record of Reyes or the pedigree, but he is definitely doing great this year and if you think Omar wouldn't magically swap them over night you're nuts. Though, I'm not about to be that yahoo that says he should go out and deal for the guy. In the long run, the mets might not be so bad with Reyes, but I think he is in his own head a little bit right now and he is definitely struggling with that. He's not in the game, and I think this is a big year for the Mets, they blew it last year and after going out and bringing in Santana this is a definite go year for that. They need to do stuff, and if I were them, moving Reyes would be a good start. He would command a lot of talent in return, and it would really say something to the rest of the team about the FO's intentions for this year. They want to win.

Well, tell me what is so much better about Michael Young. Michael Young is a defensive liability as a shortstop, and so far this season he isn't getting on-base as often as Lugo. He doesn't have the power numbers to be considered enough of an upgrade to justify eating Lugo's contract. There is nothing exceptional about 2008 Michael Young and there certainly is nothing about the idea of 2009 and 2010 Michael Young that has me salivating either. The guy is decent. Lugo is a smidge beneath decent. Right now, we need upgrade short, I agree, but I think that answer is in-house. We just need to have the balls to start playing Lugo off the bench.

So we should move a potential future #1 or #2 starter (and the current youngest player in AA, I believe) and a very solid offensive shortstop just so you don't have to see Lugo's face? So basically, we're looking at a knee jerk reaction trade to get a guy who is equally questionable on defense, gets on-base less, but slugs a little better and in the process export some of our most promising prospects. Brilliant! (for Texas)

Post of the year ladies and gentleman. Post of the year.