a700hitter

To start with get Crawford. Greinke is being shopped. If they get Greinke, that could lead to moving Dice K to a west coast team for a bullpen piece or two. There are plenty of avenues and possibilities to build a very strong team in 2011.

There are moves that can be made to make the 2011 team not just competitive but elite. There are many avenues to take through trades and free agency, and I am confident that they will do what needs to be done. They realize that their fans will be watching the 2011 team, not the future. Teams that are building for the future at the expense of the present don't have as many fans watching or going to their games. The Red Sox owners and FO cares about keeping the ratings and attendance at high levels. It is their bread and butter.

That is just not acceptable when they charge the highest ticket prices in baseball and have so many other lucrative income streams.

You still don't understand me. I have always been cynical about pronouncements by the FO. I don't care about what they say. It's just PR. I care about what they do.

Not worth a separate discussion thread.

Who? Why? And who cares?

Ain't gonna happen in 2011. If he is a starter for the 2011 team, the Sox will be watching the play offs, not playing in them..

Are these projections for a season at AAA?

Would it be worth losing VMart if the Yankees lose out on Lee? http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/texas-rangers-could-make-offseason-splash-for-cliff-lee-victor-martinez-111210

Screw him. Trade for Beltran.

Here's the Mets dilemma with Beltran and certain of their other stars. I have heard a few different estimates regarding the number of tickets they need to sell to stay afloat, One figure that seems reliable is the threshold of 7,000 fewer per game ticket sales. If average attendance falls by more than 7,000, the word is that the owners will be kaput (a technical, legal financial term). They expect to lose fans, so they desperately need to pare payroll to match the decrease in revenue. Right now they are engaged in a big push to sign up the season ticket holders before December. They are offering a very attractive package of no cost perks for the fans if they commit in November. The package includes meet and greets with players and coaches, on field batting practice and other good stuff. About the only thing they are not offering is for the fans to manage the games. After November, they should be in a good position to project revenue loss. With regard to selling off parts, they need to have a very good handle on how much additional revenue loss will result. If they dump a couple of stars and ticket sales go down an additional 5,000 per game, that would not make sense. If they are going to dump Beltran, they'll need to trim almost all of his salary for the move to make sense. They have no interest in getting anything other than window dressing-type talent in return. If the deal makes no financial sense, they'll look for a real prospect at the trading deadline. The Sox have the dough. They should take $15 million of his salary and send the Mets a ball boy. Alderson would drive Beltran to the airport.

Will our hitters have more success against Lee if the Yankees overpay for him? After we dropped the second nuke on Japan, I don't think any of the Japanese thought; "the Americans really screwed themselves. The overpaid for that second bomb by a lot". I don't understand why people are wishing for a long expensive contract with the Yankees. It's not as if it would cripple the Yanks even if he died the day after signing the contract, and our guys would still have to face Lee and Sabathia about 8 times a year for several years. They are going to face Lee, not the Yankees ROE.

His pay will hold up much better in Texas because they have no state income tax. That's his real concern.

The Mets are motivated by money at this time. If no other team will pony up $17.5 million, than offer less. A prospect would be superflous. He'll go to whichever team takes the most of his salary. There's no need to add a real prospect.

Manny has been a better hitter than Dunn every year of Dunn's career except 2010 when Manny was injured, but I guess that 2010 is all that matters. For my money for one season as a DH, I'll still take Manny. He can't hit 10 mile bombs, but he will not strike out 200 times either. Also, you could probably get Manny for about $6 million for 1 season plus some incentives. Dunn is a multi -year deal for much more.

The Mets are in financial distress. If the Sox don't take his salary, they'll find another team that will if they can.

It's a 1 year deal. If we take his salary, the mets will take any warm body, maybe even a couple of cold ones.