a700hitter

Francona will have less patience tonight. He'll yank him after 5 runs leaving the bases loaded with no one out.

Too bad, he could have helped.

Why would you bother if as you said you would play Nava over Damon?

How's the weather looking?

That would be really interesting.

I don't think he is being traded, so he'll have his shot next spring. Right now, I'd prefer a seasoned professional in the lineup when the season is on the line over the next couple of weeks.

I guess you are missing the point that we only care about how Damon will do in the next month and possibly the playoffs. Nava is a marginal major leaguer. If we need to send a player to the minors before we expand the roster, he'll be the first one out the door. Damon, for at least the next month or so, is a major league player who brings more to the table than Nava for the next couple of months. That's all the FO will care about if Damon comes--- the next 2 months. This is not a move for the future. It's a here and now move, a rent-a-player move. Damon will immediately improve this lineup. Nava has been pretty useless since the middle of July. The bloom is off his rose. He's a bush leaguer.

....and again you are basing this on 100 ABs? Brian Daubach looked like a perennial All Star in his first 100 ABs, and Daubach's career is 100 times better than anything Nava could dream about. You need to come to grips with the fact that he is a small player with a very limited skill set. He had a nice story and he's got a few great memories. I was at the game when he hit the Grand Salami. It was a thrill, but he is little more than a AAA guy who can come up in an emergency. That's his ceiling. There's also a reason why contending teams such as the Yanks and Tampa want to add Damon down the stretch. Do you think that it's because they think that players like Nava and McDonald are better than Damon? Both teams have Nava and McDonald types in their organization. I wonder why they want him?

What evidence have you presented? Do you have splits on the times from home to first, home to second and first to third for both players? Has Nava demonstrated the ability to steal bases? Nava has 1 major league Home Run. Is that what you are going to use as a basis for your conclusion that he has more power than Damon? He doesn't. What are you basing the fielding comparisons on... a small sample size of Nava in LF? He breaks very late on balls consistently. What have you got as support? 120 ABs where he is barely comparable and his numbers are still sliding from his hot start. He is this generations Morgan Burkhart. Look him up. Burkhart had a better power swing, but other than that they are the same guy. I expect that Nava's career will follow the same trajectory as Burkhart's and not even approach Damon's worst season.

It is just such a ridiculous comparison. Damon runs faster and steals bases, has more power and catches flies better than Nava. It is just a ridiculous notion. There is a reason why the Sox put in a claim for him to block him from Tampa or the Yanks. He's still good. He's not great, but making out a lineup card, I think you would be hard pressed to find a manager who would pencil in Nava over Damon this season. I know that you feel that you discovered Nava and take some sort of pride in that, but he is at best a marginal major leaguer who will be lucky to play on a major league roster for parts of the next 2 to 3 years.

He has some bitterness about the way things ended. He probably wants to be wooed.

Because Damon still has superior skills to Nava.

... and Tito, but he doesn't count either. I don't know why you wouldn't want to improve the batting order for the last month of the season.:dunno: I guess the opposing manager from the team we are chasing doesn't count either.

I agree that Damon is not the player that he used to be, but he is still better than Nava. I think Joe Maddon agrees with me. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2010/08/maddon_stay_in.html A number of Red Sox players want him to come to Boston too. I don't think they want him back to go to dinner.

Nava might be a better value at this point, because he makes nothing, but he is not a better player than Damon in any respect with the exception of throwing arm. Damon is a better overall offensive player who sees more pitches, has more power, and is still a better base runner than Nava. Damon is still better at running down fly balls. Nava's instincts in the field are just not very good at all. Next season, unless he decides to hang them up, Damon probably have a starting job somewhere. Nava will never have a starting job with anyone. The team that gives Damon a starting job will not do so if the likes of a Daniel Nava can outproduce Damon for the league minimum.

He will help the lineup. This will be more than a novelty. People underestimate what this guy's value is to a lineup. He has over 2,500 hits. If he can find a place to play for the next 3 years, he'll have a really good shot at 3,000 hits and that puts him into the Hall. Please let's not try to put Nava into Damon's class even at age 36. It's just not credible.

Talk to any one that ever played in the majors and they will tell you that after the first week of the season you usually have one ache or pain or another for the remainder of the season. They are never at 100%. They get paid a lot to play. They have a staff of trainers and doctors that get them ready to play every day. If players started sitting out with every cramp, well you would have a roster full of Drews. The fact is that because today's pitchers are huge wusses that can't throw more than 100 pitches and relievers can't throw more than 1 inning, you need to carry 12 pitchers leaving you with about 3 guys on the bench. With today's thin benches, teams can't afford too many Drew's. Although I must admit that he has been surprisingly durable this season. Scutaro has had the disc problem since the beginning of the season. Are you suggesting that he should have been taking time off when the only alternative would have been Hall at SS? Taking time off will not correct his disc problem. It would be just as likely to recur next season if he takes the rest of this season off. He has been our best option at SS all season. I'm glad that he has sacked up and gone out and earned his money. Otherwise, we would have really been in a fix.

He has a bulging disc in his neck that pushes on the nerves to his arm. It is excruciatingly painful. He had a pain shot in his vertebrae for relief, but the provide partial temporary relief at best. As Spud has described the condition, it is a ticking time--bomb. I have known people with the condition. It is really amazing that he has been able to go out and play every day with this condition, unlke wusses like Drew who sits out with minor muscle and menstrual cramps. http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/red_sox/index.php/2010/08/12/in-game-notes-lowrie-providing-relief-for-scutaro/ http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view/20100824marco_scutaro_thrives_while_playing_through_pain_not_short_on_toughness/srvc

The fact is that Scutaro was counted on only to be the # 9 hitter. We were hoping that 2009 was not an aberration and that Scutaro would not return to his former utility status. He did not. He's done better than most people expected in the leadoff spot. He's also gutted it out playing a very demanding position every day with a herniated disc in his neck that has caused the muscles in his left arm to atrophy and given him problems just gripping the bat. I was not a big fan of signing him, but I do admire what he has done on the field despite that injury. As for Lowrie, it will be huge progress from him if he can play the utility role next season without going on the DL. He's not going to start at SS unless Scutaro flops.

Rays win 4-3