jacksonianmarch

The rangers need young pitching and the sox dont have it. A pitching rich team is a likely destination if he is to get moved at all. The rumor is Bonderman for Tex straight up.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/printedition/ny-spyanks314954810oct31,0,5248755.story?coll=ny-sports-print Could be a ploy, but Cashman says that he already has an acceptable deal on the table, he just will look for something better. Sunday is the deadline to exercise his option, and it looks like they really want to get this done by then.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003332080_mari31.html Might as well fit him for pinstripes right now.

It was his first full season as a starter since the minor leagues, which finish on September 1st for the most part. He should at least get another yr.

I disagree with needing to have max production out of the typical offensive positions. The sox have 2 grade A hammers in their lineup. You dont need another one. What you need is to make the rest of the O strong enough to make it impossible to get around the hammers, to continually be on base, and to drive in runs throughout the lineup. Having a lopsided lineup will not work pitchers, which will keep them fresh when they have to face the hammers. The sox were the best in 04 at pitches per plate appearance. That forced starters out of games earlier and they feasted on the weak MR. It also caused the sox to see tired starters, which made for easier scoring against even the best in the game. That doesnt happen if you have 3 1.000+OPS guys and a bunch of scrubs. If you have Ortiz and Manny plus 7 other guys with a .800OPS, the lineup will be deadly. No dead weight, just production all around and the lineup will do what it did 2 yrs ago. If you want to stratify the offense based on which positions need O, then you will create an offense even more reliant on the middle of the order. The 2004 team was reliant on papi and manny, but they could get the job done around them too. Last yrs team couldnt. That was the difference. Make the moves to improve the OPS of 1-9 and the teams O will become legendary again.

Man, that guy was such a cock. Oh, he's dead? What a great guy.

that is awesome. Thanks.

again, no they cannot. A dead bottom 3 makes your team a national league team in a die hard AL league.

agreed. All you have now is who is signed for 07 and that doesnt look very good. Opening day is only 5 months away :thumbdown

How much would you give him? 13 mil a yr for 4-5yrs?

The red sox as is are not even in the top 8 in the AL in my opinion. But there is a long way to go in this offseason, and the top team is flawed at best, so they dont have a lot of work to do to climb back in.

he is now a FA. Heard it on ESPN radio, do not have a link yet. Will get one when it is available.

My guesses 1. Zito- NYY. This is only if the yankees do not land a starter via the trade route. If they do, then I think he lands in NYM land. 2. Schmidt- I see this guy in Seattle. I think he'll get a good offer from the sox, but he will get a great offer out west. 3. Soriano- Angels or Detroit. I would pick the angels. I just dont think the tigers could absorb the 15-20 mil he will command a season. 4. Matsuzaka- the yankees need 2 young front end pitchers and I think this guy will be target numero uno for them. 5. Carlos Lee- Houston or Chicago cubs 6. Gary Sheffield- many rumors, but I wouldnt be surprised if he is packaged with a minor league pitcher like Clippard for a guy like Bonderman or Prior if the yankees lose out on Matsuzaka. 7. Pettitte- an option for the sox if they want to add a lefty to their rotation with postseason experience, but if I were a betting man, I think he'd stay in houston or go to texas. overall, I think the sox will set a hard cap on what they will offer to these big guys and in the end I think they will go via the trade route or via the cheap route to fill their holes. There are no perfect examples.

call me traditional, what can I say. I have always viewed players based on traditional stats with the added caveat of knowing if they had speed or not and if they made contact or not. Less scientific, maybe, but I have always been a feel kind of guy when it comes to evaluating players.

if you look at the championship yr, they didnt have another middle of the order bat with a .900+OPS. They had a continuous flow of players 1-9 with an OPS over .800. That made the entire lineup dangerous from 1-9. THAT makes a lineup. Not having 3 guys in the middle who can mash and a scrub crew surrounding them.

I hate those sabremetric values. I look at it based upon his position in the lineup. If he was leadoff, then a .345OBP is fair, and his OPS and SLG arent as useful. As the 2 hitter, I think you need to have a .800+OPS because you need to be a run producer as well, in front of the big run producers. As a 2 hitter, he isnt worth his salt.

the biggest problem is not that Manny and Ortiz lack another big bat. Their biggest problem is that they lack the continuity in the lineup that they had 2 yrs ago.

I am speaking theoretically here.

the guy will have a good role on this team so long as the other spots are filled. You dont need a superstar at every position. Thing is, if you had a Youk at every position, but had Manny and Papi on the team as well, the team would be damn good.

His bat just looked real slow last yr. He couldnt hit anything square either. He looked like he aged very quickly, which is something that you dont recover from very easily. And fatigue should not be an issue, when he gets every 5th day off.

1b Nomar .872 Huff .813 Aurilia .867 2b DeRosa .813 Soriano .911 Aurilia .867 3b Huff .813 DeRosa .813 Aurilia .867 A. Ramirez (if option declined) .912 SS Aurilia .867 Lugo .871 (in tampa as full time player) CF Cameron .837 Edmonds .821 Matthews Jr. .866 RF Alou .923 Bonds .999 Lee Shannon Stewart or if you trust him, just keep WMP. Not many guys there to fill the holes. 2b, ss, cf needs fixing. Vtek is gonna get worse most likely, but he has the huge contract and he is the capt, so he isnt going anywhere. If you have faith that Crisp will bounce back and WMP can carry the load, then so be it. But you cannot take that chance as well as break in a rookie 2b and not get Lugo for SS.

True, but the problem is not youk's position. It is at 2b, ss, rf, cf, and c (as well as many pitching departments). I think packaging youk to get a .900OPS 1b will still leave you with problems. I am going to put together a list of FAs at each position who have a .800OPS or better just to get a sense of what is out there. Give me a sec.