a700hitter

$13 million for one year is a worthwhile investment and gamble at this point. If they wait to see what he has and he performs like an ace or a solid # 2 the price will go up to 2 years $30 million. Look at what the Unit is getting from AZ coming off back surgery and he's 3 years older than Schilling. $13 million is a good price and a worthwhile gamble. the three 26 yr olds in the rotation have never struck out as many as 200 in a single year and only Beckett has won as many as 15 games in a season, so let's not get ahead of ourselves with these guys, and let's keep in mind that Bucholz and Lester are unproven quantities. If Schilling outshines this young staff and leaves the FO will have egg on its face once more. The market is what it is and bums like Lilly get long term contracts at $10 million/year. An aging Schilling is worth at least $13 million for one year. He's not going to be the Schilling of '05 because his ankle is healed. His problem has never been his arm.

Good starting pitching is at a premium. There just aren't that many available. $13 million gets you a # 3 starter today. It would be a mistake to let Schilling walk for what will turn out to be a bargain price.

Papelbon was awesome in his first appearance. He didn't dial it up on every pitch although he was generally throwing pretty hard. There were a few pitches where he dialed it up and you could hear the loud pop of the glove all over the ballpark. He faced the middle of the order including Utley and Howard and struck out 4 of 6 outs. He simply overmatched them. Murphy is making an early bid to be the 5th OF. He looks good in the field and he's been productive at bat. The back of the pen is having problems. Piniero doesn't have a clue what he is doing. MDC is picking up where he left off last year, and Hansen is nowhere to be found. With thisback disc problem cropping up, the FO may end up looking foolish in refusing to move him for Helton or in a package for Chad Cordero.

Righht now wPiniero command is off completely. He has no idea where he is throwing the ball. I don't think he'll be the closer when they break camp, but he'll be a serviceable srm on the staff. Romero, on the other hand, will be this year's Seanez. He just stinks.

It's kinda sad that you can't see your team in Tampa. Spring Training is a lot of fun. It's not about w's and L's. It's about the veterans getting in shape and getting their work done. It's about seeing kids that you've read about and watching them try to keep pace with the big boys. Gom if you don't like my observations put me on your ignore list. Too bad that your team seems to be falling apart with injuries already. I didn't get a chance to see the afternoon game, but I have a few observations about the nightcap. Most of you saw Dice K on the mound, but I'm not sure that you know that he went right out to the pen after his second inning of work and got in a lot more work. This guy just loves to throw. He was out in the pen for some time. Ellsbury's triple was worth the price of admission. He swung the stick with some authority, and the kid can flat out fly. I don't know how his speed compares to Crisp, but to my eye it looks pretty close. As far as his arm goes, he doesn't have a gun, but it's a lot stronger than Damon's limp noodle and Crisp's pop gun. Pedroia seems to be getting more comfortable with each game and each AB. I was surprised to see Lowrie. I didn't think he got an invite this year. I saw him last year, and I can tell you that this kid is not shy about swinging the lumber. I don't know his stats, but I'd be surprised if he draws a lot of walks. I heard on the radio that some fan was giving it to Drew at this afternoon's game. He yelled that he's no Trot Nixon and shouldn't be wearing his number. Red Sox fans are a tough lot.

Ellsbury is a burner. Is he has fast as Crisp? It's hard for me to tell. I haven't seen Ellsbury run enough. I thought he looked a little overwhelmed in his first AB, but he just stood there so it was hard to tell. He put a good swing on his RBI single. He swung with more authority than I expected. Hearing about Pedroia's weight loss I expected him to look thinner. He's definitely in shape, but he must have really been chubby last spring. By time I got down here last spring, he had been sent out so I didn't see him. Lugo should hold down the SS position, but he will make the average plays look a little difficult. There's a stark difference between him and Gonzo who I realized waqs special from my first spring game last year. He made everything look so easy. When the ball was hit to SS with 2 outs last year, I would run to the bathroom or the fridge cause the inning was over. This year there will be a bit of trepidation this year ... at least initially until we get used to him. I didn't see Romero. The first night I was down here only with my wife, and we left after Breslow pitched. Today my son is coming in, so Sat, Sun and Monday we will see full BPs and the whole game. Youk is in the best shape of his career. I hope he doesn't think he is a power hitter now. In BP, he seemed to be trying to knock everything deep, but I didn't see anything leave the park. I think he still has warning track power. Also, the conditioning hasn't made him any faster. I was talking to a guy during BP and we were swapping stories. I found myself sitting behind him because there a couple of guys sitting in my seats. I thought they were japanese press, which is all over the place. It's really hard to figure out how many people are follolwing Dice K, because they are not congregating in one spot. They are in different parts of the stands and the field. Anyway, the guy I was talking to told me that one of the guys in my seats was Dice K's agent. My new buddy told me he spoke japanese. When the two guys got up from my seats to leave, the said goodbye to my buddy. A couple of minutes after, my new buddy says "hey Larry" I turn around and it's LL. To my surprise, Larry stops and comes over and says hello to this guy. Long story short, this guy has been conversing with people in the know, and he believes they will extend Schill, but he told me that he had them pissed off in a major way a couple of days ago. The game started and I got shooed away and back to my seats. I didn't even get his name, but I'll be looking for him tonight. It should be a mad house tonight with Dice K pitching.

I vote that he is an elite pitcher.

This kid looked horrible at 3B on Wednesday night. He's got a lot of work to do in order to hold down a defensive position in the majors. Scott White, on the other hand, looked nifty around 3B and he hit a bomb of a HR off the Northeastern kid today. Does anyone have any info on him?

He did put his career and health on the line by pitching in the 2004 post season and agreeing to that experimental procedure. It shouldn't be forgotten that he pitched most of the year with Novocaine shots in that ankle. He laid it on the line like few athletes ever have. Also, the FO owes it to the fans not to have to many heroes from that team walk away.

The most viloent part of the swing is the rotation of the torso. You cant hit with a bad oblique. You've got a better chance with a bad wrist.

Just because a guy doesn't have Home Run hitting power doesn't make him fall into the category of scrappy. Harold "Pee Wee" Reese may not have hit a lot of HRs, but he had good power for a middle infielder in his day. He hit 20-30 doubles and a good number of triples. He was a pretty good run producer as well. Reese regularly stole 20-30 bases each year. Rizzuto was very fast although he wasn't allowed to do a lot of stealing in the Yankee lineup. Both of these guys had tremendous quickness in the field and great range. Rizzuto won an MVP when the league had DiMaggio and Williams. Reese wasn't a scrappy SSon the Dodgers. He was the captain. These guys may have been small, but they were supremely talented. I would liken Pedroia more to a Billy Martin. Martin was scrappy.

He'll probably win too, because fanboy, mancrushing Yankee fns will stuff the ballot box. That would be travesty. Where the hell is Larry Bowa. How in the heck could he be left off.

If anyone is going to be in Ft. Myers from Feb 28th to March 5th PM me.

Here's my team: P: Kaat C: Bench 1B: Hernandez 2B: Maz SS: Belanger 3B: Robinson OF: Clemente OF: Mays OF: Yaz

Bellhorn wasn't a midget, and when he made contact he had legit pop.