a700hitter

I've asked that about 10 times. If Bard steps in and is as good as Papelbon, we no longer lock down the 8th and 9th inning as we have in the past.

I think it is legitimate to ask why the Cards have already hired a manager when LaRussa retired 3 weeks or more after Tito got fired. I don't think the Cardinals take it any less seriously. They are a top organization with 2 championships in the last 5 seasons.

I'll be her co-star.

Speaking for myself, it would be a shame if Wakefield kept playing. He will hurt his legacy and the teams prospects in 2012. Time to hang'em up Timmay. There's nothing left in the tank.

I can understand that player moves take some time to develop in the off season. There are lots of considerations. The players need to gauge the market as well as the FO. Those negotiations can be prolonged. A team's plan has to be modified at times when other teams sign your targets. I also understand that Theo's compensation is taking a long time. We really have no leverage, and the Cubs have no motivation to make a deal when they can wait for gutless Selig to come in and award us a chicago dog and some ivy to plant on the green monster. I can't understand what is taking so long on the managerial front. LaRussa retired three weeksor more after Tito got fired, and the Cardinals already have a manger in place. There are few moving parts in this process. The pool is known. There is little or no negotiation as to salary. Do some interviews. Have an internal meeting or two or three and hire a manger. People get upset when I insult the intelligence of managers as a group, but joking aside they are for lack of a better term-- a fairly fungible group.

I would take it, but what is Garza's contract? If they are looking to stay under the cap, that is a concern.

You almost got it right. I never said that leadership doesn't make a good player better. Of course it does, but leaders in baseball are rare, because it is has always been an individualized game, and it is more so today since team play like hitting behind runners etc. has essentially gone out the window as sabremetirics has dominated the sport. There's no situational hitting any more-- among other things. These were the the things that set the team player apart. The team players were the leaders. In baseball there are less opportunities for leaders to assert themselves.

I don't see this happening to any significant extent in baseball. I think a hitter like Pujols (or when the Sox had Manny and Ortiz) makes the hitters around him better, but that has nothing to do with leadership.

My point is that it is much harder to know about the type of leader a guy is in the clubhouse. Our only window into that aspect is what the players teammates, coaches and managers say about the guy. I haven't heard anything negative about Ortiz from those sources throughout the years, but i ahve heard a lot positive about him It's been written and said a lot about Jeter in the NY Press. He leads by example in how he prepares himself and how he plays the game. But he is not a go to guy in the clubhouse. He's not an active clubhouse leader. I think leadership in baseball is vastly overrated. It's a game that lends itself to individualism. You don't need someone to pass you the ball or block for you to be successful. Some of the best players in history were very selfish people. There have been very few leaders that I have seen in baseball that make a difference-- Fisk and Bench were two of them. Those don't grow on trees.

A QB could demonstrate great field generalship but be a dick in the clubhouse. Both are aspect of leadership. We can observe one and not the other.

Leadership in football is much easier to gauge, because teams are designed around their QBs. Their leadership is demonstrated on the field and most fans would make a judgment about their leadership in that context. We still don't know what the guy is like in the clubhouse. He could be a great field general, but a dick in the clubhouse.

I thought you suspected that his plate discipline was PED induced?

Do you blame him for Theo leaving?

Beltran would give the team more versatility, but he's only a year younger than Ortiz.

Maybe they are low balling him forcing him to take the Orioles offer. Of course, they'll have their toadies and lackeys in the press paint Ortiz as a selfish ingrate for not taking their offer.

During games NESN would have Heidi highlight some new concession at Fenway or on the road and seh would sample the food. She did look sexy eating the pulled pork.

No one eats like Heidi. I'll miss her.