a700hitter

Agreed. Finally, common ground.

This poll is still open. The results are lopsided, and I think they could get more lopsided. Wakefield should not have been wearing a major league uniform in 2010 or 2011. Stupid sentimentality got the best of the FO, and it is emblematic of the fact that the FO has lost its edge in the last few years. In their early years, the FO had no sentimentality at all. They let heroes like Pedro and Trot walk, and they were right to do so. They traded Nomar when they saw that he was slipping. No one was a bigger fan favorite than Nomar, but again they were right. Wakefield was never a huge fan favorite, but he started to get close to certain milestones so they kept him for sentimental reasons plus he was cheap. Sentimentality is a bad thing in a competitive sport like baseball. It doesn't matter if the guy is cheap or expensive. Wake was clearly not major league worthy for the last two seasons. The FO got soft and sentimental, and that is always the wrong decision. Maybe Theo will get his edge back in Chicago.

Sizemore and Granderson have had 20+ HR power since they hit the majors. They didn't go from being a 9 HR guy to 30 HRs over night. Granderson's jump to 40 can be explained by the Yankee RF porch. Ortiz hit 29 this season. He used to be a 35-40 guy. He's been passing drug tests since 2003. Ellsbury's spike is more suspicious if you ask me. Ortiz power is on the decline.

I think it is just a little strange that you would suspect Ortiz of PED use for not quite returning to the form of his prime. He had a really good season, but he was significantly better in his prime. Why don't you suspect Ellsbury for his power surge which came out of the blue?

He has to have a negotiating starting point. If he asks for 2 years, they will not even offer him 1 season with a player option. I'm still not sure what you don't trust about his performance. Is it his age that makes you think he can't sustain it? Are you going down the PED road again? If you look, his 2010 season wasn't too shabby. He had trouble with lefties, but he absolutely pummeled righties. If he is taking PEDs, why would he stop now? I'm sure that he would like to play for 3 or 4 years, so if he's juicing, he'll keep doing it. Again, I'm not sure what you don't trust. It's a little strange that Ortiz hit lefties better (that's the only improvement in his game) and you go down the PED path. Couldn't we do that with everyone who has a big year? Ellsbury had the most astounding breakout season, especially power-wise. Should we be suspect of him too?

Kalish is not ready for full time major league time. We need a righty bat to pair up with him. I don't see Lackey finishing next season. I see another s***ing of the bed and him being DL'd or DFA's before the All Star break. He's really slipped, and he never had ace stuff.

Nice shot of that girl picking her nose. She'll never live that down with her friends and family.:lol:

Unfortunately, Lackey will be on the team next season barring an injury in the offseason. We can pray. The Sox will say that he is ramping up his conditioning and modifying his diet and whatever else. He'll be said to be very serious about turning things around and yada yada yada, but the truth is he is a sinking ship taking on water very fast. I expect that he will give us less next season than the last two seasons. The Mets have a similar sinking ship-- Jason Bay. His head is so screwed up playing for the Mets that it is painful to watch. The Mets will try to salvage him like we will try to salvage Lackey. The Mets have been considering plans to lower and bring in the left field fence with the hope of reviving his career. I don't think it will work. Both lackey and Bay need a change of scenery. Put Lackey in the pitchers park in the NL and he might not be a total suck bag. Fenway and the Red Sox lineup could help Bay recover. We do need a RF. Bay has a terribly weak arm, but he could be an adequate stopgap. Maybe he could platoon with Kalish. It would be a bold wacky move, but neither team has anything to lose.

These two teams made some great trading deadline acquisitions: Tigers: Delmon Young and Doug Fister Rangers: Mike Adams, Koji Uehara, and Michael Gonzalez That's what you do to try to put your team over the top.

There's nothing wrong with making predictions. They were making them on the pre-game. AJ went with the Tigers and Eric Karros went with the Rangers.

I like your list. I don't know much about Dave Martinez, except that he was a pretty heady ballplayer.

What about Duncan? He seems to perform magic on pitchers. He has turned many bags of trash pitchers into productive starters, and we have lots of bags of trash.

Plus, I really don't want LaRussa. It's Duncan that I want.

It's a wish list.

Wish list for 2012: Manager: Tony La Russa Pitching Coach: Dave Duncan Starting Pitcher: C.J. Wilson

Move him off third base. He definitely cost us a few games this season and last season.

He didn't want to sacrifice the future. Instead he opted to sacrifice the present for a nonexistent future. Theo will not be here when his draftees start making All Star teams.

Dombrowski eats Theo's lunch too.

Fister and Delmon Young were two huge pickups at the trading deadline.

You make some very good points. People who didn't see the game in the 50's or 60's just don't understand how different the game has become. Mantle was brute of a guy, but if you watched film of Yankee games back when he played you would see that Mantle didn't dig in like today's hitters. He swung harder than anyone and he would corkscrew himself into the ground on a swing and miss, but he was light on his feet in the box. They all were on their toes in the batters box. They had to be or the pitch would come under their chins. One day a few years ago, I was listening to that Bozo, Chris Mad Dog Russo criticize the quality of play he had observed watching a film of the '52 World Series. He said that the defense was not that crisp and that even the star players bailed out on breaking pitchers. I called his show and mentioned that the infields were real dirt back then, not the multi million dollar composite material in today's infields. They actually had an occasional pebble. Those infields were not tended to by PHD's. The fielder's also had smaller gloves. As to the bailing out comment, I had to remind him that they were playing day games and they weren't wearing helmets. They stayed on their toes mindful that they could get one off the old noggin if they had dug in. Today's players don't know how to get out of the way of a pitch. Those old timers knew how to avoid getting hit. Yaz swung as hard as anyone, but a pitcher couldn't hit him in the head. He said that he would move his head forward and duck under a pitch that was thrown behind his ear. Today's players dive into the pitch so early that they can't get out of the way if the pitch is thrown at them.

A lot of us give Doji crap at times when he touts some kid at A ball to be a star. I gave him guff rightly so in 2010 when he wanted to DFA Ortiz and bring up Daniel Nava. But when he is right you have to give him his due. The Red Sox should have picked up Napoli when Doji was touting him. I thought it was an interesting idea at the time. The Rangers got him and he has been a wrecking ball against lefties and he has 30 HRs in 113 games. His catching has improved to the point where he isn't that bad. He would have been a much better choice than Salty. Doji was right about the guy.