jacksonianmarch

Manny and Ortiz were/are the best 1-2 punch in red sox history. The best 1-2 punch since the Babe and Gehrig. Not having their jerseys retired is spitting on the history of the franchise. Manny and Pedro are sure fire, 1st ballot HOFers. Ortiz has a longer road ahead, but is certainly within reach. They epitomized the red sox lone WS victory in 88 yrs. They should be honored as such when they are done.

DIEHARD 2007 TOP 50 PROSPECTS 50.) Jordan Craft, P 49.) Jose Capellan, P 48.) Kris Negron, IF 47.) Mike Jones, 1B 46.) Josh Papelbon, P 45.) Jon Still, C 44.) Zach Daegas, OF 43.) Dustin Richardson, P 42.) Felix Doubront, P 41.) Tim Cox, P 40.) Yahmed Yema, OF 39.) Mark Wagner, C 38.) Barry Hertzler, P 37.) Jeremy West, 1B/DH 36.) Mike Rozier, P 35.) Randy Beam, P 34.) Jonathan Egan, C 33.) Reid Engel, OF 32.) Christian Lara, SS 31.) Luis Soto, OF 30.) Mike James, P 29.) John Otness, C 28.) Nick DeBarr, P 27.) Andrew Pinckney, 3B hey, when the top 25 come, do you guys want me to C&P the scouting reports? I will do so if I get permission from the mods here.

scout has nothing on the above. I heard baseball latino has something, you may want to check that out. I am not sure why diehard doesnt do DSL scouting reports. Pinstripes plus does. And they have fantastic scouting reports on most of the kids who have put in some time in the DSL. I havent seen anything like that on diehard. And for scaff, the scout.com experience is a pay site yet the diehard sox site is lacking something fierce. Pat Teale does the PP site and he has some excellent behind the scenes stuff. I honestly think that the stuff you send out in this link is better than what you can get for 7 bucks a month on the diehard site. You should see what is out there for you. They need someone to deliver the top 50 the right way as well as intriguing DSL players. They lack that deeply on the sox side.

I'll see if I can dig anything up for you on scout.com. Meanwhile, scaff has his s*** together on this stuff, so I defer to him.

Clemens SHOULD be in the hall as a Red Sox, but at least he has a case to go in as a yankee. He won a WS in NY, he got his 300th win in NY, but he should technically go in as a Red Sox. His # should most certainly be retired in Boston as well. It really is too bad about their rules. Rice's # should be retired as well. Hopefully his will be next yr (he should be in the hall, no doubt in my mind).

Pedro will go into the HOF as a Red Sox and if he doesnt have his # retired while a big B sits on his cap in Cooperstown, JH and Lucchino should be lined up and shot.

what will be interesting is when #2 (Jeter) and #6 (Torre) get retired, the yankees will have #1-#10 retired with 2 guys being retired as #8 (Berra and Dickey).

I know the red sox have certain policies about retiring numbers. Dont you have to be in the HOF? Either way, Bernie will be a fringe HOFer. His career avg slipped below .300 this past yr. But for 8 straight yrs he was over .300 and had 18+HR. He had 287 career HR. 1257RBI. 147 career SB. .858OPS career. .381OBP. From 96-02 (7 seasons) his OPS was above .900. In that same span he had 94 or more RBI in each of those yrs. He has the stats to justify it, but they arent overwhelming enough to get him in based on regular season alone. His postseason #s might. Playoff career leader in HRs, RBI will help. He was the best hitter on a yankee team for 4 WS wins and 5 appearances. He likely was the best CFer in baseball for a 7 yr span. He's got the 4GG's they will like to see. He never finished higher than 10th in MVP voting which will hurt him, but he made the top 20 5 times. (I still find it hard to believe he finished 10th in MVP voting in 1999 when he hit .342 25HR 125RBI for a world championship calibre team). He will get the # retired. I think he might get in on a late ballot to the HOF or even in Veterans committee.

BSN, their OF is loaded and Sori is likely to be their CF in CHC. Murton in LF, Floyd in LF, Jones in RF. Absolutely stacked in the OF. He could do well for himself in ANA where they will be without Juan Rivera for a small portion of the yr as the DH. Other than that, he doesnt project as an OFer anymore. His weak arm kills any shot of him being a RF. His horrible range kills any chance of being a CF. And his bat isnt good enough to fit into LF. It is sad really. He did have a pretty good yr last yr, the type of yr you would think he could walk off into the sunset on. He's a damn good role model, and the kids who are coming up likely grew up watching him play in pinstripes. He would be a great influence on a kid like Tabata in CF or Gardner, etc. But he has to face the facts. He's a DH or a LFer on a crappy team. The Yankees lineup is loaded. Their backups are better than Bernie. He has to face facts one day. But please, Bernie, retire. I'd love for there to be a Bernie Williams day or something where we can retire his # and officially say goodbye. Nobody should every wear #51 again in the bronx.

the team that should win hardly ever does. Who'd have thought Oregon St. would have won last yr?

except in 20 yrs he will officially have old balls.

you must have won a lottery.

Hank Bauer, a legendary marine from WWII and multi champion yankee died today of lung cancer, he was 84.

I wouldnt say he can play all 3 OF position well. David Wells could play all 3 OF positions if he was pencilled into the lineup that way, but I dont think you'd want him to. As for the deal, you had a guy who was a fan favorite in Boston and thrived under the pressure. He had a very good curve and an average repertoire otherwise, but gave you the option of pen or rotation and would eat innings in either role. After the pitching purge of the winter of 05, Arroyo was a must. Going into 06 with the rotation that they had, made little sense to send off the only real insurance policy the team had. Remember, the bullpen was shot, the rotation was filed with 3 guys who have significant recent injury history and one guy who was completely terrible the yr before (Clement). Papelbon was up there as an option and Lester was coming down the pike, but I have to believe that Francona had Paps slated to close after his solid pen stints in 05. That left the sox with a sieve like rotation with the only backup net being a 22 yr old lefty with control issues. That was the net. There wasnt anyone with MLB experience. You didnt have 3 or 4 MLB ready high ceiling prospects ready in case one failed, nothing. It was Lester, then panic. And when you have Wells, Schilling coming off ankle surgery, and Beckett who was a perennial DL stint on the mound, you honestly need to prepare for the worst. Getting WMP would have been a nice move if they had a full rotation and 3 or 4 minor leaguers who were ready for the big time in case they faltered. Getting WMP would have been a good move if there were no injury question marks and if the rotation had proven rather durable over the last few yrs. I dont think the question is the value of the deal so much as the state it left the sox in. WMP is a very good talent, but he is a talent that needs to grow and can only do so in the majors. Leaving you with a green kid who will hurt the team in the short term trying to learn the ropes of the bigs while leaving you with a gaping hole in your staff that will hurt you big time in the short term. It was a long sighted move leaving some serious damage to the short term, and that is the problem. If you want to make that deal, make sure that the short term effects are limited and the long term is huge. That wasnt the case.

you continue to discredit him now that he is gone. His career ERA in 401IP in Boston was 4.19. How would he be close to 5?

in all seriousness, good for Bronson.

actually, did Francona come out as a 12 man staff kind of guy?

I agree, Hansen will be in the minors.

sounds good! Haha.

also, ORS, we all get a little overzealous about our teams some times. We yankee fans are here to keep sox fans from going too far overboard drinking the punch. I'd only expect you guys to do the same in return.

Chamberlain had a freaky line in the hawaiian league. Power pitcher, hitting 99 who had 3BB in 40IP. It is freaky, ou dont do that by accident. That caused him to jump in a lot of scouts eyes. You talk with PP from scout.com and they will say that he was ranked 11th out of the 50 because of his injury history, but after the hawaiian league, he'd be top 6 or 7. You look at rankings that came out after that league, like BA and they have Chamberlain as #5. A freakish stat and performance with ace stuff. Betances to me when he signed was a guy with loads of promise. Now that he has grown 3 more inches, he is a freak of nature. Control, power, repertoire and 6'10"? That is freakish. Maybe I'm just into freaks, who knows.

Crespo, McCallister is a HS prospect who most scouting sites will readily tell you has a ceiling of ace/#2. I was surprised that guys with high ceilings were left in the 3rd round, but I was told later by one of the scouts that his value was 2nd-3rd round. He's a polished HS pitcher which makes him very useful, but he is still a major prospect as he hasnt learned how to use his power/polish to develop a power game. ie, he doesnt put hitters away like a power pitcher should. He doesnt have the power mentality and that hurt him.