ksushi

decent with the glove? his name is breathed in the same breath with the best in the majors.

I haven't heard any manny trade rumors. The one thing this team is missing right now is an ace pitcher with no question marks around him, thats something thats nearly impossible to get your hands on, but don't look for manny to be moved unless we get one.

I think to get Broxton you'd be talking about wells plus somebody. Think of it this way, if we needed a SP, lets say we only had four and we were looking to compete, would you give up Jon Papelbon or Craig Hansen to get David Wells? I doubt it. If you say yes, you're insane. The for Brazoban fell apart which is why we have Tavarez, Broxton would be a Wells and Ellsbury sort of thing or something along those lines.

an ultimate player. very respectable. good man.

I don't know if we really over paid that badly so don't get too excited. Marte is big, but in Theo I Trust. If Marte turns out to be a 30/100 guy in 07, then we overpaid big time, but I don't think thats the case. I would have loved to keep Marte, but Riske is better than Mota and Shoppach for Bard doesn't matter at all, its a complete wash because of how unimportant a role either of those guys would have with the Sox. So it isn't like we traded Marte for Jim Edmonds who would give us great numbers for maybe 2 years, we traded for a 26 year old who hit .323 on the road last year and .270 in one of the best pitchers parks in the majors. I fully expect his offensive output to be very comporable with Damon's next season, its his defense I worry about. Whether we overpaid, we'll find out eventually.

I dont expect the sox to take a hard run at Zito to be honest. I think the Sox will sign Mark Mulder. I know this is forecasting way in advance but i do this sometimes. This is a ksushi patented prophecy, I called Renteria when Nomar rejected the extension and I called Ortiz's first 40 homer season in the offseason coming off of his 31. Other stuff too but no need to list, I'm sure you all know how amazing my talents are... I jest. Seriously though I think Mulder will be signed by the Red Sox next year. I guarentee it.

I think Shoppach was in the deal to make up the difference between Riske and Mota, Riske clearly being batter, and Bard was a spare part. The Guardians covetted Marte and we needed a centerfielder, they polish our bullpen, we'll give them a good defensive catcher and it evens out the lopsidedness of Crisp for Marte straight up. Crisp for Marte straight up is tough to swallow IF Marte's arm troubles and his bad recent numbers turn out to be nothing. I think they are nothing, I think Marte is a human home-run machine with a great glove.

MDC is not the kind of player who would be included in a deal as a player named later no worries there.

Actually, the M's interest in Marte was very little. They specifically wanted Papelbon in any Reed deal. Crisp is not the best option we had. To be honest, I'm not so sure our best option didn't sign with New York just before Christmas. Granted I hate aging expensive players, I might take that statement back but thats the mood I am in right now. Coco Crisp is not the super hero coming in to save the day. People seem to think this guy is the answer to everything and the key to the division. While he is a good lead off hitter, he plays terrible defense. He gets bad jumps and has bad instincts in CF and has trouble breaking back on balls hit behind him. I think maybe Michaels would have been the way to go, all things considered. We could have kept marte, and given up only Mota. Michaels hit .300 in 105 games last year and he plays much better defense than Crisp does. I don't know, I just am not sold on Crisp being the best option available. For the record though, I am happy this trade got done. It took some coming around, and I really was attached to marte, still am, but we kept MDC, and its not like Crisp is 36, he's 26. Riske's 0.96 whip went a long way in making me happy also. When the deal officially gets announced, if Riske isn't in it, my whole opinion on this deal changes completely. edit, just want to throw this in to add insult to injury, there was a reporter from cleveland on EEI last week talking on the Big O about Crisp the first time we thought he was coming to Boston and he said not to expect much of Crisps arm and that at times it would seem to be just as bad as Damon's.... so yeah... about that arm.

Reed is better defensively and Coco really is pretty bad in the field. Giving up Marte is tough, but the Sox have shut him down apparently because of arm problems recently. So, I take that to mean there may have been some substance to the rumors of him needing tommy john surgery but the jury is still out on that. Comparing him to JD at this point is unfair. The Sox went in the direction they did because JD was going to be declining and expensive so they opted to go with whatever contingency plan they could throw together. IMO, I would have persued Reed. He's a better player. He has all the offensive upside and much better defensive skills. While Coco is more proven at the plate, Reed seems to have much more room to grow. Ofcourse now it comes down to cost, I would rather give up a hitting prospect than a pitching prospect so if the price of Reed were Lester or Papelbon, I probably would have turned to Coco too. Coco is a hard working player so maybe he even improves defensively. I'm not crazy about the deal, but its better than giving up MDC too. I don't think Mota for Riske is a wash, I think Riske is an all out upgrade over Mota. I think Bard is a downgrade over shoppach, but with limited role shoppach was looking to play with the Red Sox, does it really matter? Yeah, Marte for Crisp is lopsided in their favor. There are, however, in every deal the Sox do, factors we don't know about. Marte could be close to needing the Wonder Surgery, or maybe the Sox have little confidence he will come out of this slump he has been in since late July. We don't know yet.

Tavarez could definetly make that move, but I think Papelbon might be better suited for that than any of them. Its yet to be seen what Hansen can do, but papelbon might assume that role should foulke s*** the bed.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think they can do that. I mean, sure theoretically thats a good way to do it but who do you yank from the rotation to make a spot for him? I don't think the Sox look to limit innings, especially not when hes going to be 25. They were careful with him last year because he used to be a relief pitcher and he had thrown a lot of innings already. I think they're confident with him in the rotation. I highly doubt Seanez will be dropped off the roster. I have no idea who Breslow is, but I assume Dinardo will be on the roster too. I don't see whats wrong with 12 pitchers. I'd prefer to have Seanez on my roster than Willie Harris to be honest. Seanez had an excellent year last year and he could be a very valuable additon.

wells is not going to be on the opening day roster and arroyo will be in the bullpen before papelbon. papelbon isnt going to get the kevin youkilis treatment. he proved last year to be a very good pitcher and he will be on the opening day roster. i dont know what youre missing.

What are you talking about? Right now Papelbon is slated to be in the rotation. He will be with the big club from opening day on in some capacity.

Well, it most likely has to be stemmed from the prior injury so that really is the only limit you need.

Its probably not any injury either, if Mota gets hit in the face Clement-style with a ball, they're obviously not going to compensate the Guardians for that. It has to be an elbow specific injury stemming from the same injury that landed him on the DL last year. If they're manager runs him out there until his elbow is in shambles, I doubt the sox would compensate for that either.

Eh, probably means I won't get to watch a Sox game at my house all year. Cool.

The only rumor I've heard today is Manny Delcarmen, Marte, Mota and Shoppach for Crisp, Riske and Bard. Thats a terrible rip off and I hope it doesn't go down. Someone said way up there that Snow should get ready to play 100 games I think because the person implied youk doesn't have enough power... doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Youkilis fits well into the lineup and plays a decent 1st base and I think will get the bulk of the playing time. He's a fine hitter. God, who was it who said we have the worst infield in the league? Christ, when are people going to stop banging their heads against the wall if the Sox don't have ever big name and over the hill future hall of famer in the bigs. If you want that, go be a yankees fan. The Red Sox have what looks like it could be the best defensive infield in the majors with or without Alex Gonzalez. Alex Cora is every bit the shortstop he is, as I see it the only upside to Gonzalez is he was an all star in 97... right. At this point its yet to be seen what Youkilis can do in a full season with the bat, but there haven't been any indications that he won't handle that job anything less than smoothly. The only problem people seem to have with him is he is an old name, boo hoo we're bored with him. Mike Lowell has come back written all over him, but even if he doesn't bounce back like some people think he is still a huge upgrade defensively over Bill Mueller, and thats no knock on Bill Mueller because Mueller is pretty sure handed himself. Lowell is a great guy to have playing third though, and if he is the guy we have to take on to get Josh Beckett, thats fine with me. Maybe the Sox should deal Varitek for Jeff Bagwell and sign Mike Piazza cause he was really funny in those 10-10-220 commercials. Those were great, I bet he'd be awesome.

Yeah and Kearns middle name is DL and he doesn't play CF. The Reed talks died down because the M's want Lester for him. Michaels would likely only cost us Mota. Mato's as far as I know has been discussed as a fourth outfielder, people need to realize as a fourth outfielder Mato's has a ton of value. He's a fourth outfielder now in Baltimore, and they have a need at second base with Roberts being a question mark right now. Graff for Mato's? You can't complain about that.

The Guardians I don't think really want to do a deal. Giving up Delcarmen would be horrible. Thats too much. I'm pretty sure this gets done too though. Don't get me wrong, if it gets done with Delcarmen, thats to much unless we get a Garko or a Miller back in return. I do think though that a Coco Crisp for Marte and Shoppach deal will be floated around for awhile and I think that might be something the Guardians do.

MC, getting mato's would be a perfect move. In case you hadn't noticed the Sox are backed into a corner. Simple supply and demand. Supply on CFers, low, demand in Boston for one, very high. So what happens? Low supply high demand? Price goes up right? Yes. Exactly. Get Mato's as your fourth outfielder or as a contigency in center. Then go back and resume talks with the Guardians under the premise that "Hey, we're comfortable with Mato's" just like the yankees did with Crosby. It works. Then if the Guardians don't pan out, turn to Michaels. Worst case, you have Mato's in center for one year. Big whoop. Everyone already seems to think we're going to finish in third anyways, so why spend prospects to finish in third?

Yeah, teams don't do big money deals like this without first inspecting the package. I really think he must have passed his physical in clevland, either that or Shapiro is shaking the sox down for more, in which case you just hang up the phone. I don't know why people are so hopelessly in love with coco that they still want to keep this deal alive if we have to keep bolstering the package. If we have to put Delcarmen in a deal without a subsequent upgrade of Clevelands package it just isn't worth doing. I think most people agree that the rational thing to do right now is pull the trigger on Mato's, begin talks about Michaels (and yes one of them will be a backup since both of them are currently right now backups) and cover your ass. Go after Coco, but you can't allow yourself to be backed into trading away young inexpensive pitchers with a lot of upside for... Josh Bard? Maybe David Riske if Shapiro is in a good mood? Forget that.

Where are you getting that information. A baseball team doesn't do million dollar deals that directly affect their teams performance without making sure they aren't getting damaged goods. I'm sorry but you must be wrong.

Yeah, maybe another low level prospect coming our way, or drop shoppach out and give us Josh Bard, freeing our hands to sweeten a wells trade with good ol' kelly. edit - someone mention timlin on the 3rd page. bad idea to trade him but beyond that... you can't trade him since he was an FA this year. Gotta wait till june, but it will likely still be a bad idea in june. Thats the bullpen equivalent of trading Tek.

erm.... I assure you they did give each player a physical. I have no idea what aoyu are talking about.