a700hitter

He really didn't address the pressing need of the team which was starting pitching. Morales is on our roster and had been in the rotation. It was a nothing move by a GM who still hasn't done anything big.

Yet plenty of teams made plenty of big moves, but no one was taking Cherries calls I guess.

If all he does is swap out Breslow for Albers, he essentially has done nothing to reinforce the team down the stretch. That's it, pure and simple. It's no different than the off season. Nothing. People want to get excited about a move so they are happy with any s***. We are so starved for any action. They didn't need Breslow to put Morales in the rotation. They already have Miller as a lefty in the pen. If this is all they were going to do, they should have been sellers.

God forbid that I offer an opinion about a kid after watching him for a week in Ft. Myers-- probably longer than most scouts watch a kid due to time limitations-- and I am battered with insults about not being a scout. If watching the games makes you a scout, then I am most certainly a senior scout.

Whether it will be a good move will depend on who does better the rest of the way. And no one has answered for me who will piggyback on Doubs when he hits his innings limit. That was supposed to be Morales who also on an innings limit. I am not happy with a deal just because we made a deal. Everyone else is getting guys for bags of balls. The Yanks got Ichiro for no major leaguer, a couple minor league slugs and they don't even have to pay him.

He's arb eligible. He'll have to pay him $3 + million.

Melancon gets optioned back to AAA where he will resume having a sub 1 ERA.

Good point. Breslow is making almost $2 million and he is arb eligible.

I thought Morales was going to piggyback on Doubs when he reached his innings limit? Who will take his spot now and who will step in for Morales who will be limited in innings? Morales has already thrown more innings than he has in a 7 year major league career.

I like Breslow, but everyone else is getting guys for $1 store rejects. We gave up a guy from our roster that has been doing pretty well. If they had to give a guy from the major league roster why not part with the 8.59 ERA of Melancon?

Albers #'s are better than Breslow's. WTF did we add?

For the sake of accuracy I have corrected Cafardo's tweet.

What a dope.

They say Cliff Lee is available. Also, Dempster can't cost much at all. Are you seeing what teams are giving up in return? Nothing earth shattering. There are no Will Middlebrooks type names getting exchanged.

And Cherries is getting very confused: "What do I do!! What do I do!!"

The Dodgers will not miss either one of the guys that they gave up. And the Red Sox aggressive move is...?

It's just spin to keep the Kool Aid drinkers thirsty.

The Dodgers are really wheeling and dealing. They have already added HanRam, Brandon League, and they are making efforts to get Victorino and Dempster too. That is a pretty good makeover. We will get someone like Randy Wolf or worse.

All the good deals pass by Cherries. He seems very indecisive.

Wow, this some chronicle of failure. Branch Rickey used to say that it was better to trade a player too early than to late. Players do change, skills deteriorate and they need to adapt. Coaches, managers and other players know when a guy has lost a few clicks off his fastball. Beckett has lost a few, and they ain't coming back. He may transition into a different type of pitcher, but Beckett as a hard thrower is history. Lester seems to be headed down a similar path as his velocity has been clicking down for the last 2 years and it is reflected in his decreasing strikeout numbers. Alarmingly, Lester is showing less of an ability to adjust to his diminishing skills than Beckett. It may be time to move him in the off season. Expecting players to perform up to career norms is part of the folly of sabremetrics. I think that it is more true that players who are performing above career norms will regress to those norms, but not the other way around. As for the chronicling of the signings of injured players, it really does lay bare the incompetence of the FO. As you point out, Lackey's elbow problems were known. He was a TJ surgery in waiting. Carl Crawford's wrist problems had been ongoing for a few years. How do you invest $142 million in a guys and not know this. If you buy an expensive used car, you test drive it, take it to your mechanic to be checked, and you get a copy of the damn Car Fax. They either didn't get the Car Fax on Crawford or they didn't care about the recurring wrist pain. As for AGon, that was truly drunken sailor stupid. They threw a boatload of money at a guy with a bad shoulder that had just been operated. I was thrilled when they got him, but I was really concerned when I read that he had just had shoulder surgery. He is getting power hitter money. 25 HRs, and he will probably not reach that this season, is a dime a dozen for first baseman. They could get 30 or so HRs from LaRoche for about 20% of the cost of Gonzo. Performing at a high .700 OPS (where he is now) or a low .800 OPS is not worth $22 million/yr.

It could be about Ortiz's heel. That's much more concerning.