jacksonianmarch

but you have to admit that his hall of fame yrs are coming to a close. He is 35, how many more yrs can he do this for? Imagine a team gutting their farm for Manny and then have him decline before their eyes.

straight up usually means 1 for 1.

more rumors. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/archives/109355.asp Adam Jones and JJ Putz to Boston for Manny with Sexson going to SF and Noah Lowry going with Manny to the great northwest.

Cordero for WMP? HAHAHAHAHA. Man, I had to laugh that one off for a sec. Whoa, let me catch my breath. You are trying to tell me that swinging Wily Mo is worth the best young closer in baseball. Man, you are killing me.

depends on their direction. Willis is due to make a lot of money this yr. Consider that last yr he set a record in first yr eligibility and he did not disappoint this yr. He could be in double figures before you know it and the marlins may not be happy with that.

the orioles wont deal him to the red sox unless the sox wanted to add ellsbury or one of the 3 B's.

Honestly, take the homerism out of your head and think about things rationally for once please. 19 games over .500 for 4 guys is being on the low side with the yankees. You have to consider that wins for the sox starters are going to be tougher because they dont have a closer at this time and the bullpen is awful. Consider that the yankee rotation was 32 games over .500 last yr and it sucked (to put it nicely) is more an indictment on the offense and closer than anything. The sox have problems in both areas right now. At the same time, Igawa has a history of being over 200IP which is essentially what he has done for the past 6 seasons. Johnson has done one thing well in NY, and that is eat innings (over 200 for the 2nd time in 2 yrs for the yanks). As for the yankees pen being a question mark. Dude, have you seen anything the past few yrs? Have you watched the sox pen crumble or have you blocked it out of your mind. The Yankees have a lights out closer whose decline is always predicted yet perennially proven wrong. They have a league average set-up man and one of the best "utility" relievers in the game with the emergence of Proctor. Those 3 guys will have heavy workloads. Bruney will be used to supplement. In case you had your head in the sand, you would have seen how great he was in his time in NY. He was cut in Arizona because his velocity dropped by 10mph. Why? Because he developed dead arm in ST and was worked too hard early on. Then he goes to NY and starts throwing 98-100mph again and puts a 0.87ERA on the board in 20.2IP. Britton threw over 50 innings in the AL East last yr and had an era in the 3.5 range. I just rattled off 5 names that had success in the pen for the yankees last yr. Oh, and Myers was a solid matchup lefty. There is 6. How many will the yankees need out there? They are said to be entertaining the thought of 13 pitchers, so long men/mop-up/spot starters in Karstens and Rasner make the pen and voila, you have 13. That pen is stacked and then there is Beam, possibly Villone, Cox etc getting ready. That pen is loaded. As for every yankees starter over .500, well, that is more because of the offense and pen than anything else. RJ's era was 5 last yr and he was well over .500. Also, the yankees had 3 guys at or above 200IP last yr. The addition of Igawa, a perennial 200IP pitcher in japan, should make that 4. There is precedent. For the sox, you have Schilling and Beckett who will surpass 200IP barring injury. Papelbon is coming off an injury and being stretched out from closing, he isnt hitting 200 innings if his life depended on it. Matsuzaka made 200IP once in the past 5 yrs, so betting on him doing so in his first yr in the ALE is shaky at best. And the funny thing is, the one guy I would peg for 200IP easy is the perennial 200IP pitcher (when not having a freak injury or being in the pen) is wakefield and he wasnt pegged for 200IP. Call it what you want, but I think I was a lot less biased in my predictions than most.

To put that into perspective, the yankees had the 11th highest relief IP of any team in the majors. That may sound like nothing, but when you consider that the yankees won 97 games, then most of those relief innings were piled onto guys in high pressure situations. Limit the relief innings and power arms like Farnsworth, Proctor, Rivera, Bruney, Britton, Beam, et al will stay fresh and be more effective. Last season, the yankees got 98 starts and 619.7IP from their top 3 pitchers. That is fantastic at an average IP/start of 6.3IP. Then how did they end up with 510IP from relievers? How were they 11th in baseball in relief innings? Because their #4 was Jaret Wright who took the bump 27 times and threw 136.1IP. That is an average of 5IP per start. Then, they had a mishmash of other starters who combined to throw 177.2IP in 36 starts for an average of 4.9IP per start. Now if you took those 63 starts and averaged them out to 6IP per start, you save the pen 64 innings. Doesnt sound like much, but it would take them from 11th most to 3rd fewest bullpen innings pitched. Fresher pen, especially when it is filled with hard throwing power relievers is a recipe for success.

The biggest thing that this rotation can give the yankees is innings. The bullpen is going to be the strength of this team with the infusion of young power arms in Bruney and Britton and one more yr of maturation of Cox, Beam and others. If they can limit their burden, then they can slug their way and close their way to another division title. Needless to say, that rotation will not get them anywhere, but if the cardinals can win with that horrible rotation then who knows.

it hasnt been finalized yet. Of those that are, Wang 18-9 220IP 3.50ERA Mussina 15-10 180IP 3.90ERA Johnson 15-10 200IP 4.80ERA if healthy Igawa not sure here but likely 12-10 200IP 4.70ERA Pavano? I cannot even speculate. Could be anything from spectacular to being traded to being horrible.

actually, the way they broke down Carpenter's deal, the extension is 3yrs for 50mil. He was signed until 08 as it was anyway. Also, the other deals you were talking about were consummated prior to this offseason, which means they are now bargains. Padilla and Eaton are the new benchmarks. For a crappy injury prone pitcher, you get 3yrs and 24 mil. For a crappy durable yr, you get 11mil a season. How about for a 26yr old guy with Matsuzaka's rep?

so the rotation will be 73-42, 31 games over .500, with 4 guys throwing over 200 innings and all having era's sub 4.43 era's? Keep dreaming bro.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2006/12/giants_angels_m.html another day another rumor.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6238114 2 yrs 20 mil is the speculation.

WHOA, I was wrong. Padilla got 34mil for 3yrs. 11+ per yr for this chump? WOW.

I think so. Matsuzaka was offered 7-8 mil over 4 yrs by the sox. Padilla is not in Matsuzaka's class, apparently. Boras' numbers just rose significantly.

Matsuzaka's bidding just passed 15 mil a season.

Seattle met with the Sox for an hour today and will likely discuss manny into tomorrow. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ys-mlbwmblog&prov=yhoo&type=lgns#mannymariners

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/rangers/stories/120506dnsporanglede.53348e59.html 3 yrs 30 mil for a guy who had a whip close to 1.4, an era of 4.5 and he recorded his first 200+ IP season since 2003. WOW. I could see Pavano getting 10mil after a solid career yr, but this guy had a crappy career yr and got a Pavano deal. Insanity.

Does anyone feel as if this whole Manny saga is eventually going to end up with status quo and will inhibit the sox from filling all their holes?

unlikely? How about completely and utterly impossible.

probably, they are pretty high on him.

new news out of the winter meetings. With the dodgers dwindling, the sox seem to be abiding by Manny's list of 13 teams. The next on the list is the Mariners who have Putz, Rafael Soriano and two solid prospects in Adam Jones and Clement.