ksushi

Yep, I think if the sox are going to grab up a reliever this offseason, which they should, its gotta be taveras. Hes a valuable guy who isn't hector carrasco and will pretty much shore up the bullpen for next year.

It was his first call up to the major leagues, you can't expect the guy to mow people down. He was their pitcher of the year for the minor leagues, why did we get him for nothing?

My vote goes to Hansen. Hansen if kept in the closer role will be the best closer in baseball two or three years down the road. He is that good. He has an intimidating build and throws very hard. He has pin point control and a nasty slider, his sinker will turn him into a quality two inning guy down the road because it is filthy. filthy. So yeah, I think Hansen will begin the year at the major league leven because I am sure he will impress in spring training. I think he will begin the year in a setup role and might be around to slam the door in the ninth inning after the all star break or sooner depending on how beastly he decides to be this year.

Doesn't mean hes setting a trend or anything, when you strike out as often as he does 37 really isn't saying a lot.

He looks like a guy who is pretty damn close to major league ready.

Wait, what is unsettling about a deceptive delivery?

We don't know what we gave up yet.

I don't think that the phillies would have any interest in trading Abreu here for Clement or Nixon. I don't think throwing youkilis in makes it any more attractive to do so either. Throwing Abe Alvarez in might make it less attractive for them, a half blind pitcher who tops out at like 83. Kidding, but seriously, to land abreu would take much more. If they rejected Wells for Abreu, they won't accept youk and clements contract and nixons bad back all in one deal. Break it down into pieces though and something could work out. Perhaps a package like Brandon Moss, Jed Lowrie and Clement could work. We won't give up any more untouchables, like lester, delcarmen, pedroia, etc. but is Edgar Martinez untouchable? Bullpen pitchers are available regularly, and if we can move Arroyo into the pen perhaps we could use Martinez as a heft bargaining chip.

Beane said last year he had no interest in Arroyo or Shoppach, they were offered in a deal with Hanley for Hudson that was rejected.

slightly more reliable source: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2242891

what do you see in him that points to him being so good? just what you hear on espn and various articles on sites talking about how hes the mets best prospect?

Well, I don't think that comparing him to beltran makes us trading manny for him any more palletable. To be honest, I could careless what he hits in double A. He doesn't have power, he doesn't even have a gap bat, I haven't heard rave reviews about his defense, but i havent heard its bad either all I have heard is that the Mets like him. Who cares? PS. Randy Ruiz is hitting .349 in double A at the age of 20, and who the hell is he? More importantly, who cares? You can't judge a prospect by how well they hit alone. Milledge might be the next ricky henderson or something, but he isn't. He isn't the next Beltran either no matter what he hits. Hes supposedly a five tools guy but I only see him as maybe a 2 tooler with a bad attitude.

See this is very interesting to me. The Sox and Yankees for the past couple years have been spending spending spending, and buying up all the wins that they can. Since about 2001. This entire time, all the other teams in the AL East have pretty much been locked in the cellar. The Division Title is all but given to the Yankees and Red Sox to fight over(advantage yankees thus far). Now, after all this spending the sox and yankees both have (had) old teams with 40 year olds in the rotation and the bullpen and beat up players playing in the outfield, and not much youth to be spoken of. Both teams have come to a point where the spending only took them so far and this was it, the yankees seemingly in a depper hole than the redsox. In the past year - two years the sox have begun revamping their farm system to inject some youth into a team that really was headed towards a big time drop off if it kept spending so much money on the old guys. The yankees have now begun doing the same thing starting with this offseason. Both teams (advantage red sox) look to be able to have youthful and revamped rosters in the next 5 years, stocked with talent again. The sox sooner than that because some of their talent is really knocking on the door now. Now, with that said, it seems like the Blue Jays and the Orioles instead of being patient and waiting for the sox and yanks to skip a beat in this process, have already gotten right to work digging themselves in a hole of their own with long contracts for old guys. Trying to buy with the sox and yanks when the sox and yanks are stocking up their farm systems and shifting into high gear for the long haul. The Jays and O's seem to have royally screwed themselves, especially if the O's land nomar, they're following the footsteps of the sox and yanks alittle too late. They'll get shut out of winning this season, and just when they think they will see daylight with these signings, the sox will be bringing up lester and hansen will likely be in full bloom with delcarmen a year along and ready to do some serious pitching. This doesn't bode well for them at all. This offseason might look like its full of big splashes from them but really all they are doing is stock piling pride by winning the off season pissing contest and when it comes time to play ball the sox and eventually the yankees will be fully reloaded ready to keep winning divisions and slugging it out in ALCS's. How can they not see how badly they are screwing themselves? Do they not see the sox and yankees being serious contenders down the road for whatever reason and just think that buying a few high priced guys right now with some risky contracts will pay off for them? PS I also really like how things are going to work out with the red sox vets, just as wake and schilling and timlin are ready to ride off into the sunset, they will be here just long enough to mentor some of our young beasts like Delcarmen and Hansen and Papelbon, I think that is very very valuable, I like how this team has a core of successful veterans who have played various roles and known a lot of success and are all great club house guys to be bringing these young kids a long. I think that will pay dividends in the kind of maturity and toughness that these kids will pick up from them.

I agree, his velocity has dipped alittle bit and torre did come out and say recently that he isn't concerned about the guys health but how valid is that? I mean even if he was he wouldn't try to ruin the guys pay day by saying "well to be honest I did work with flash all year and yeah hes getting old alright" So its respectable of torre to say that for a former player of his and probably a friend of his, but I don't think flash is healthy, and I dont think he will be dominant again.

No thanks, on reyes. I didn't know he needed TJ. Hes 35, thats a huuuuge difference then the wade miller thing. Wade Miller was what, high twenties? No way on the 35 year old guy. His stats don't matter if he can't pitch.

erm, so why would he be an option?

Yeah, I didn't know he was an FA, but that is an option. I like Taveras alittle more than Reyes. I don't know i haven't checked but Reyes is the 35ish year old guy throws hard usually an ERA low 2's? Wouldn't it seem like he would command a better market then he is?

I don't like Lastings Milledge, I don't want this trade to send Manny to the mets. Milledge had a lot of problems with violence and things I don't really know a lot about in high school and hes got an attitude problem, but beyond all that stuff in like 300ish at bats for the St. Lucie Mets he hit 4 home runs and drove in like 30ish runs and hit less than 20 doubles. I think he hit about .300. I think thats accurate i looked it up the other night, i guess if you're motivated you can check me on that. Especially the at bats, I don't remember it might be more than that. Thats all well and good, but if hes supposedly such an amazing prospects, I want more production than that. No way do i give up manny for him. I don't want Milledge to be the focal point of any deal with the red sox let alone a deal for manny.

Everything i am seeing is pointing to Farnsworth headed to the bronx. One name that i don't think is being kicked around enough is Julian Taveras. Maybe the sox chase him down if they lose out on farnsworth.

I dont think it will come down to dollars considering farnsworth isn't exactly in command of a Scott Boras like contract. Besides I think when it comes to getting the pieces to the division title puzzle, the sox will want to match the yankees.

Nothing printed as of yet, I assume that by the time its FG block at school there will be something up somewhere if EEI had it right. So far I've heard it twice on EEI, so I think this is legit. I'd be happy at this addition. And yeah, this does seem like it points to the Sox FO's lack of confidence in foulke and how high they are on these bullpen prospects.

2.19 ERA last year and only gave up 5 bombs. Thats useful. Why isn't he more expensive?

Yeah, I know I heard that too but that makes sense then because if the yankees are close then the sox should probably swoop in. I don't think the yankees have given up on Gordon. I think that Mariano wants him back in the pen, hes said it publically and I think they're trying to get that done.

I just heard on EEI that the Red Sox are close to signing Kyle Farnsworth. I think this a big step for our bullpen granted Farnsworth doesn't revert back to his wild all over the place ways that he was known for when he was with the Cubs. He throws gas and has a good slider. I watched him on TBS with the Braves a lot this season after he got traded there and I liked how he approached batters. He would throw 92 and 93 mph for his first couple fastballs (probably a trick he learned with Mazzone, I dont remember him doing that before atlanta but I also hadn't seen much of him) then he would go to his slider for the out pitch, if he missed, he would blaze a 98 mph fastball down the pipe and he got two guys looking at that one, and got the 3rd out on the slider. I was impressed then, I didn't know why he had been shipped around so much.

I don't know, I think the price tag on Zito will be very high. Hudson and Mulder didn't go cheap last year and I don't expect beane to let Zito go either. I think if we were to trade for him it would have to be Arroyo, Shoppach and Lester, or more. Lester Delcarmen and Shoppach maybe. I'm not willing to pay that for Zito. No way. The guy doesn't exactly throw heat, and all his pitches look different out of his hand which is why hes been hit so well in recent years. He added a slider last year, but thats the same story. He has terrible deception, and an 87mph fastball isn't the crazy heat that lets you get away with having no deception. Yes, his curveball is gorgeous, but its HUGE. You know right away when its coming, and the fact that he really only goes with one other pitch, that 87 mph screamer, means that hitters are ready to watch the curve and ready to bang the high heat up and out. Look at some of the home runs hes let up over the past couple seasons since hes really been hit, theyve all been on high fastballs. When you have a curve like his you throw your heat up high to try and get the hitter off balance and cause some hesitation because a fastball up in the zone looks just like a curveball until it doesn't drop. That will make guys way late on your gas. However, when your curveball doesn't look like a fastball out of your hand like Zito's that trick is hard to pull off and guys will recognize that fastball so quickly even if he could throw 90 it wouldn't matter. Its not like he gets absolutley lit up, its just that I think Lester is a future ace, and I think Zito is a really good #3. We've already dealt Sanchez this offseason so I'm not too keen on losing another hot pitching prospect especially not lester. The Beckett deal would lose a lot of its thunder lester was dealt too. You have to admit the thought of Beckett Papelbon and Lester heading up the front of any rotation is scary, and then you learn the average age of them all will be 25. Zito is ok, when he gets hot, he will put together some pretty starts. His curveball is a work of art, but his fastball is on slow motion. I'm not willing to make Billy Beanes job easy for the next five years by giving him Lester and/or Arroyo and Delcarmen. I would rather just say Manny stays in Boston and we don't really make anymore deals aside from maybe alittle something for Overbay.