ksushi

What is scary about over stacking, is you can use excess to fill other holes, but hitting is the wrong thing to stack considering the vast discrepency in value lately between hitting and pitching. You can get hitting relatively cheap, i.e. Tejada for Prior.

Damon was of great value to the yankees, but only the yankees or this mystery team maybe but they're probably one of those Boras Division teams that don't play around here. Damon is a good ball player, and I'm not going to say anything to take that away from him. But given the right circumstances Damon is replaceable here in Boston. Devoting that kind of cash over that amount of years to a guy likely to fall apart when your FO is trying to build for four or five years down the road, would contradict the strategy currently being carried out, hence the three year offer. Damon is great, the yankees will love him and the sox would have loved him... this year. You can't stray from strategy or else you never get where your trying to go, and thats why the sox didn't pursue him as hard as George did. As a Red Sox fan these are the exact signings I like to see. I want turmoil in the Yankee FO, this isn't a cashman signing, thats horse s***, this is a George signing.

I could have sworn Cla Meredith was no longer with the club. Am I mistaken? I could be, I might have just thought that because everyone seemed to give up on him. I would be really happy to learn he is still a sox.

Glaus isn't worth giving up much for since he comes with a grande contract and a .250 batting average. I ranted on that earlier but people seem to be allergic to my posts. the guy is approaching 1000 strike outs in 8 ML Seasons. 3 of those seasons he played well under 100 games and got fewer than 300 AB's, his rookie season and his two injury hampered seasons. Im just pulling that out of memory so 300 AB's might be a little generous. Glaus sucks guys. Jose Valentin can hit home runs, but do we want him? No, he just gets less respect because hes ugly.

Considering most of my posts get completely ignored you might not read this, but, I was thinking along the same lines. Having Cora step in until Izturis is ready wouldn't upset me very much if we could sign Millwood and deal Wells for him, what does concern me though is that we have a shot at Brazoban I think we have to take. A year ago people were talking about Brazoban as the second coming of Mariano Rivera, and then when he struggled this year the buzz completely died and he has no more upside apparently. I love it when that happens, people give up on prospects like that, and then they often go on to flourish in other places (a la Konerko getting traded by the Dodgers to the Whitesox as a 'Used to have potential no longer does' prospect and look how that turned out) This could be the same sort of thing. Wells doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who could bring you back Brazoban and prospects, but I wouldn't doubt that Graff and Wells could bring you back Brazoban and Izturis. That could be quite the deal. Now this was said by Neyer, and I have to say I don't completely disagree: Rob Neyer: "I don't know anything about Crisp's defense, except he got pushed out of center field by Sizemore. I'll tell you this, though: within two or three years, Crisp will be just as good a hitter as Johnny Damon. And for that matter, so will Jeremy Reed." I think Jeremy Reed is the guy we want here. This guy has quite a glove, but struggled with a wrist injury that ended up hampering his offensive contributions but he is a former top 10 prospect and is only 25, this is a guy who will catch and hit the ball from a key position who we can really get on the cheap since the entire city of Seattle wants this guy dealt. Now getting him could be curtailed if we don't make a move on Millwood to dry up the pitching market for Seattle and essentially give even more of an in on a Reed for Clement deal. Crisp is going to be expendable when the Guardians complete their deal for Langerhans of the Braves so he would be a possibilty as well. Things aren't bleak, guys. Glaus is no big deal and Damon wasn't worth that contract. We'd be hampered down the road if we gave in to some of these high priced guys who have left us in years passed. This is why Theo has always been a short contract guy, you need to turn the roster over from time to time and this is what is happening now. Pedro leaves, we get out of what could have been a serious financial burden, same with Johnny. Getting Millwood lets us do these things, we could get Izturis for SS who not only has GG caliber defense but this guy was on my fantasy team last year and he batted .330 for the first half. He fell off, but who cares thats more than you will get from Lugo and you won't have to give up Marte to bring back Izturis either because the Dodgers aren't coming off the high of getting Kazmir for Victor Zambrano a couple years back so they're almost completely sane. Someone please read this, this might be the only good post I ever contribute to this site.

Where is Millwood a risk? Millwood isn't 29 with a sub 500 winning percentage like pavano was, Millwood didn't have the injury history Pavano had. At around the same age, give or take, Millwood has established himself as a valuable asset to a teams rotation who has pitched the innings and has gotten the results. He is a lock to at least be better than Clement. You can't compare every free agent pitcher to the one s***** one that got a big deal. I would sign Millwood at 4 years with a player option for a fifth year at 9 million, that could be a steal for him if he sucks, a good option if hes happy here and does well, or an oppurtunity for him to capitalize on the market if he is great. The sox will get inventive and find a way to get this done, because if i can see how much of a must this guy has become, the sox can too. There aren't any other options out there for starters and we need to sign one or else we might get thrown into the situation where this season is going down the tubes or we are giving up a john lester or a jon papelbon just for the sake of being alittle bit competitive this season, which would suck for them to do. They need the starter and no, we are not going to sign Clemens. Put the pipes down guys, we aren't getting Tejada, we aren't getting Glaus(not a big deal to me but apparently some people actually wanted this guy), and Roger Clemens is going to sign on as part of the Astros coaching staff and will not be playing next year. Even if he was going to resign somewhere, are you comfortable waiting around for him? You're going to have to and I think with the urgency of some of the matters the sox need to address right now, they can't afford to wait until the end of january to know if this guy is going to sign anywhere, no way. Millwood is a solid option, not a pavano-esque risky option. He is good and we do need him to give us some leverage to deal certain guys for certain pieces that we need.

blockbusters don't determine an offseason

Glaus really isn't that big of a deal.

Why do you guys all want a not so durable likes to strike out a lot poor average hitting 3rd basemen who has never played first but everyone assumes is capable?

Haha, no its ok, I am an idiot and he did bat .264 and not .280. I really do make s*** up, I'm not kidding

Ok, here is the ksushi rundown on millwood and why we need him. Ok, Fenway is the best hitters back drop in the major leagues, but (this is where i start pulling things out of memory stop me if I sound like too much of an idiot) Millwood throws a pretty good sinker and has the capability to go 200 innings. That could be a guy who could be a horse for this team. There is a risk factor to signing him I agree, he has some control issues, not clement-esque control issues, but like arroyo-esque control issues where it isn't a problem really until he leaves a 0-2 slider over the plate alittle bit and it gets launched into orbit in the deciding game of a home yankees series and puts them on top, damon probably hit it too. I don't want to make him out to be pedro, he does get out of sync at times a la Javier Vazquez '04 in the 2nd half but to a lesser extent, but this team needs a potential horse who can maintain a low ERA and rack some innings. His pitch count can get high quickly at times, but if the coaching staff can succeed in doing with him what they tried to do with Lowe, they can really make a great pitcher out of him. That is, try and get him to heavily rely on the sinker and get guys to turn over on it. A lot less going for the strike outs considering he averages only 7 per nine which isnt terrible but does go for the K too often. I don't want to make it out like the phillies and braves had bad pitching coaches, obviously they didn't, leo mazzone is among one of the best of all time, but maybe thats an approach they didn't try with him. They may have fine tuned his mechanics, but he was never labelled a true sinker baller when maybe thats the way he should approach games. This season he threw a higher percentage sinkers than he had in years past, and he got results. Oh, before I forget this, he didn't have a good relationship with the phillies pitching coach I remember that. they weren't pals All that being said, I'm not concerned about him having a bad year just because his last was good, our pitching coach is quality and can keep him in sync well, and with millwood being older and hopefully wiser it will help him keep his composure on the mound. Perhaps thats something the braves didn't want to wait around on considering everyone on their roster is always an interchangable part. The question is, are you willing to take a risk that you may have an ace or you may have someone who is at least better than your 4-5 right now, and how much would you pay for it? My answer is yes, and 45 million over 4 with whatever insentives you can give to make him happy. He isn't a question mark, his ERA will be under 4 and with this team that goes a long way in how his pitching will translate into wins. We need a Millwood.

I'm probably double posting right now but at the rate people post here I might not be who knows, but good call on that one, you've uncovered my secret. I actually pull stats out of my head with out double or even single checking them. For every accurate one, there is always some ******** one that really is wrong. So, anyhoo, I like cora *whistles*

This post is useless but I just want to say that Bill Simmons depiction of Henry being confused all the time was one of the best things I've ever read. It's up there with some of the Emerson I read. Wow haha

Is terry blowing smoke saying cora can play everyday? Yes, although Cora is better than bubba crosby. Cora has good range and hands and could handle things defensivley. He hit .280 for the dodgers in 04, hes a good player, but I think best suited as a utility guy.

I would go to 45 million on Millwood, because yes this is absolutley a need.This team is one big question mark right now and will not compete if needs aren't adressed. If this newest deal for lugo goes through, I am going to be mad.

Damon could use an education. He looks like an ugly cave man except most cavemen can grunt, I'm not sure what damon was trying to do but maybe he should stick to having someone write books for him and stay away from cameras for awhile until he learns "oohh ooohh ahh ahhh" monkey talk.

Could you post something other than quotes? Like a quote and then something to say about the quote that isn't one line like "this is cool" ? We all know how to go look on sox news sites, anyone of us can find that on our own. Be original and give an opinion.

" Some of the players viewed me as a brother, but they know when you cross the line.... I taught them a lot" - Johnny Damon Like how not to sound like a complete idiot on national TV? This guy might be great at baseball, but I don't know if he could do my 8 year old neighbors homework. He sounded like an utter buffon. Not to say he won't hit well, throwing a stick at something and running is something a lot of people can do, Johnny does it well.

Millwood is 31, I would gladly give him 4 years 40 million, the same as i would have given damon. absolutley. Do you realize we didn't have a pitcher in our rotation with an ERA under 4 last year? That cannot happen again. The yanks are going to hit so well that if we go out there with a mediocre pitching staff, They will hammer us into the ground and their bullpen will curtail any impending combacks. IF beckett is hurt, schill doesnt bounce back, if we don't have a stopper, the losing streaks will really pile up on us also. Not having someone capable of resting the pen while winning a game on a regular basis is devastating in a pennant race. Wake can go long innings but cannot always keep offenses quiet, Beckett can keep offenses quiet but we won't know how much he will be able to pitch until the season starts, Schilling is a gutsy horse who I think will bounce back, but there is an 'if' factor there. Schilling in all likelihood will benefit from being able to get back into a routine, something he didn't do last year, and he will have comporable stuff to '04 and just as much guts. Thats enough for a guy like schilling, but I'm not comfortable with question marks however slight they may be. We may be able to put some pieces together, but we're stretched thin right now. That isn't good, you need depth to go anywhere over the course of a season and in the post season. Millwood would relieve some of that pressure freeing our hands to possibly trade Wells for Izturis, Lugo, or another one of the SS names mentioned and that also cuts our need for clement. Clement could then be dealt for Reed without looking back. I believe the sox need Millwood more than any other team. Anyone know millwoods ERC? He has gone 200 innings 4 times in his career and approached 200 again last season at 192, he is a good pitcher. I think we need one more pitcher to get ourselves into shape here if you assume clement and wells must go in order to fill necessary holes on the roster which are also right now holding us back.

I'm well aware of the rules when it comes to trading draftees, but once they are elligible to be dealt, I wouldn't be surprised if they were. Hansen would be a guy in that draft to be considered untouchable, not bucholz. Another hot prospect in the sox system: Tommy Hottovy. Amazing stuff had some health issues last year but a very very high ceiling on him

You can't trade a draftee until a year after the date he was signed, so yes, rule out hansen. Well, Clement, a pitching prospect and a lower level guy is way off from the bag of throw up trade. Abe alvarez could be your lower level guy, but you're looking at dealing away an edgar martinez or a manny delcarmen in this. No thanks. If we can send them Clement, Alvarez and Youk or Shoppach, I'll be happy, but that is not a good deal for them. I don't want to give up quality for Glaus. Glaus is not a fantastic average hitter, I don't know if you just wanted to pull something out of your ass or what but hes a career .253 hitter. Kevin Millar and Edgar hit .270 this year and the sky was falling. Glaus hits more homeruns but he is approaching 1000 career strike outs in 8 seasons in the league, three of which he was limited to under 100 games, two because of injury, one being his rookie season. I'm not convinced this guy has any durability or longevity. He doesn't have a great glove either, hes alittle on the stocky side and he made 24 Errors and had a .946 fielding percentage last year. That is not a great fielder. Its not horrible, it doesn't make me sick, especially at the corner where there are a lot of hard hit bobbled balls, but its not great. Glaus is not worth a lester, a delcarmen, a papelbon, or an edgar martinez. The sox realize this, they need to get a hitter now, but hitting comes cheap and pitching is very expensive in the trade market right now, so they will be able to reel someone in who won't cost them an arm with any serious upside. Thats why the Blue Jays are the front runner, because they are a bunch of farm system whores, they want to win this year so they bend over grab their ankles and let teams do what they will with their farm system so long as they leave behind a decent player to help them finish 3rd this year. The Diamond backs are going to wait around until a deal makes them, as you put it, "LONG AND VERY HARD" and they'll pull the trigger on a fleecing, and probably won't settle for anything else. That is what i would do, there are desperate teams out there, like hey, the angels or the tigers both of whom could pay glauses money and give some blue chip prospects.

I prefer Zambrano and Patterson over Prior and Patterson. Zambrano and former sox prospect Matt Murton could make me happy.

For Glaus? You expect that to bring back Glaus? That would get you a bag of throw up.

exellent commentary provided by gabekaplerluver. I have to say I agree, but for what is essentially 9 million a year, not bad does not cut it.

You'd essentially be paying him 9 million dollars with what you paid for renteria, but i suppose thats the case for all viable options right now unless we stayed in house with it. It also sort of forces your hand to trade clement for a bullpen pitcher or not at all, leaving us with stern in center field since we don't have a surplus of trading chips at the moment aside from those two. Now, lets say we sign Millwood and do this, that might not be a bad idea, I could see that making this a little bit more complete. You can then deal Clement for reed while still keeping arroyo in the bullpen, or you trade arroyo and move wakefield to the bullpen. I think millwood makes that a lot more palatable.