jacksonianmarch

Lol. I don't need to pretend, unlike the guy who's on his 4th SN in 4 days. I'm pretty sure my prior post about you is accurate. Have you spent any time in jail?

You're a sad, sad person.

I've seen 3 in discussion for the first round/supp rounds. I'd say the draft is much deeper with OFers.

I'm seeing John Denney being named as the top catcher as well. They both sound pretty similar except their handedness when hitting. Both sound like guys capable of sticking to the position. I've seen McGuire going mostly in the first half of the draft with Denney projected as high as 13 and as low as 32 to the Yankees

If he goes to FA, it's gonna shrink down to 6 yrs $150 mil and I doubt anyone beats that. They are giving Boras the $25 mil per season he wants while giving Robby a $6 mil raise for 2013.

The only thing anyone can gather from ST is on the pitching end and it is stuff. By the end of ST, you should get a good gauge as to what velo they are working at and if their breaking balls are moving. That's it. I dont care if a hitter smashes 15 homers or goes 0 for spring.

He's obsessed with anyone who engages him in conversation and poses an opposing viewpoint. He's obsessed with being argumentative and being right....similar to all of us here. His methods are his issue and likely why he'll pop up regularly and be banned frequently

Nice selection, lol. Last yr, he broke his ankle on a freak play. That's s*** luck, and he started the yr late. He didnt pitch in 2011, so that really makes your quote sound even better, lol. Pick and choose how you want to, he was highly effective in 12 starts against major league teams, then was highly effective in 2 post season starts, but let's not make any concessions when they might not work for your point, lol. Dempster's only experience in the AL was getting shitstomped in Texas for a half season. But yeah, they're similar, lol Nice selectivity. See, Kuroda did it for a whole season. He didnt completely f***ing implode in April and didnt need a few weeks off due to an esophageal disorder. And Kuroda also gave 219.2IP. Also, dont mention the fact that Kuroda had a much lower walk rate a higher K rate, but yeah, there were "tit for tat". LOL I left off the Hughes back issue just like I left out Doubront's barking shoulder and his massive innings jump. And Doubront had better peripherals? On what f***ing planet? He had a higher K rate, congrats. He also had a walk rate that was nearly double and a K/BB that was 1.2 points higher. Better peripherals my ass! He had better peripherals than Doubront That's subjective any way you slice it. And, unless father time hits at the same time as a complete stroke of luck hits the sox end of things, your 2-5 will be markedly worse than ours

The only way the sox retain Ellsbury is if he has another mediocre injury plagued yr. If he goes off and repeats 2011, he will make Hamilton's contract look like pocket change

I call serious ******** on that one. Prove it. Lots of pen arms are guys who have shobby injury histories coming out of the rotation. I agree there. Having guys who can prevent fires by going 6,7,or 8 innings is more important The #2-5 are comparable? On what planet? Kuroda was lights out last yr. Pettitte was solid as well, albeit in his freak injury shortened season. Hughes would have been your best pitcher last yr and he's our #4. And John Lackey coming back is all of a sudden a win in the #5 spot? Or is Doubront your #5, the guy who shows up to camp obese after a middling rookie yr? Pen guys get injured just as much, if not more than starters since their routines are not as scheduled and typically they are players who had issues with durability and health when in the rotation.

BSN, I am flattered by his obsession for me, really. That being said, we're going to take a negative on the catcher's side overall, I havent stated anything to the contrary. I think we could potentially match what Martin gave offensively last season from the spot. Dutch is talking like Martin put up MVP numbers. The guy barely eeked over the Mendoza line last yr

Wasnt Houk a manager of the Yanks too?

Why would you value a team with the pen vs the team with the starting pitching? Makes little sense since theoretically, your starters should be in the game for twice as long as the relievers

So wait, we are applying a video game to real life? You know in 2012, I hit 58HR with Mark Teixeira, so that might be relevant never.

There is zero chance Cherington allows Bradley's clock to start before June 1. Makes zero sense. If they wait 2 months to see if he destroys AAA, they'll gain an extra year of control

Hey Dutch, I stated offensive numbers for a reason. I also pointed out that Martin's OPS was heavily influenced by his HR total and how hollow his home runs were. Defensively, we'll lose a lot. We can replace the defensive skill with Romine, but game calling and familiarity is definitely a drop. We won't need much to equal his offensive contributions

I wouldnt put Granderson in the young category, and now that Cano is 30, he isnt young either. The Yankees have the catcher's position as the only one I'd fully expect to be manned by a sub 30 yr old player.

I wouldnt say blocked at all. The fact that Ellsbury has Boras and is in his walk yr opens up a spot for Bradley, presumably next season. Also, your LFer is Johnny Gomes, signed for 2 yrs, who is best used as the RH portion of a platoon. Bradley isnt blocked at all by Victorino, as a matter of fact, if Bradley pushed his way onto the club, he'd be your starting LFers vs righties this yr. Middlebrooks was going to get significant time last yr regardless. He'd either have played 1B after AdGon got dealt or for Youks had he been dealt away in a more amicable fashion. Bogaerts has nobody in front of him. Drew gives you a solid professional on a 1 yr deal. If Bogaerts proves ready, they'd trade, bench or release Drew when the time comes. Remember, I think the sox are probably going to be in contention into early July, then lose ground enough to be out of it. That means, that the prospect game could start come the ASB. But they have to resist the temptation to bring up kids who arent ready.

a700, I would actually be slightly please with their direction, though. I believe Bradley and Bogaerts will be above average (or more) regulars in the bigs. Prior administrations would be parading them out in ST and into the season when they werent ready. They have bought their prospects some time.

Interesting tidbit on Russell Martin and his "offense". Martin's slash line was .211/.311/.403 Martin's near .200 IsoPower was driven almost exclusively by his 21HRs (he only hit 18 doubles and no triples) Of those HR's, 14 (a whopping 67%) were solo shots. 6 of them resulted in the Yankees breaking a tie, or taking a lead from being down. Therefore, 15 of his HR's were in effect, meaningless in terms of the game itself at the time they were hit. For a guy who was previously known for handling the bat well, he had more K's than hits (95K, 89H). His OPS dropped 58 points with runners on base, while his RISP numbers were nearly identical to his line for the season. The only thing that actual led to his stats not being completely embarassing offensively were his walks and his second half. He was horrible the first half of the season with a .179BA and a .648OPS. He redeemed himself by having a .242/.321/.456 slash line after the ASB, but bolstered by a lot of those meaningless HRs. I know his bat had some scare to it, but when you look a little bit past these numbers, it's hard to say that anyone would be that much of a downgrade offensively. The guy jacked up his OPS with HR's when the game was either in hand or leaning in one direction. He walked at a good rate too. That's it. He didnt hit doubles, struck out a ton, and shrank when a batter was on base. I think we can replicate some of his numbers with the guys we have in house, since you cannot really do much worse

Thats the guy he was heading into being, especially if his power came around. That was until injury

The latest mocks have the sox taking Clint Frazier, a HS OFer from Georgia or Bobby Wahl, a RHP from Ole Miss. Frazier has been in the top 10 now for a month, but no SRs on him. Bobby Wahl is a big RHP capable of hitting the high 90s with a plus slider and developing change. The 3 Yankee first rounders have seen a lot of change, with NY mostly attached to prep players

The one interesting thing about their farm, though, is that Cherington will have to make some tough decisions. The sox system contains little depth, but it has a handful of guys who could be all-star caliber players. If Cherington picks the wrong guy or ships off a future All Star for a short term fix, then he'll sink the boat

It's really how they spend that money over the next 5 yrs, because with those bears of contracts on the books, they'd be overspending to stay competitive while having horrendous contracts getting towards a point where production per dollar was dropping like a rock. I think we can all see the sox bridge plan is afoot and if their team ends up melding and winning, then its a bonus. Napoli initially got a 3 yr deal, Victorino a 3 yr deal, Gomes a 2 yr deal and Dempster to a 2 yr deal. You have Lester for 2 more yrs, Ellsbury for 1, Pedroia 3 more, Ortiz 2 more and Buchholz for as many as 5 more yrs. Every single player on the current sox roster could be gone within 3 yrs (Buch's last 2 yrs of that 5 are options). This gives them incredible flexibility. It also allows the sox to bring their prospects through slowly while also giving the fans enough interest to keep them around. It also lends more to the sox previous mantra of loveable teams that came up short. But all the while, there will be a plan. Money freed up to chase a big FA. High end prospects to potentially build a winner around. And flexibility to let some bad players go without having to keep their asses around due to contract length. I like their plan and I think that, if done right, the sox will be World Series contenders after 2-3 yrs.

While the troll is a troll, he brings up a good point. Romine hasnt been good from AAA up. In his defense, he has had a grand total of 69 AAA at bats and has been injured for the last 2 seasons. His last healthy season, he hit .286 with an OBP over .350. As he gets bigger, he should hit more homers, so I am expecting him to eventually be a Russell Martin clone from his Dodger days. .290/.360/.400 slash line guy