Dojji

Hosmer's decision was a calculated risk. The Mets infiend defense was terrible all series, and Duda is well known for not having a very good throwing arm. Forcing him to rush the play created a greater than normal chance to score. Hosmer's play is exactly what good scouting allows you to pull off -- a straignt up ambush exploiting the weaknesses of the enemy team in a way that maximizes the chance to win. The Royals scouted the hell out of all their postseason opponents and holy hell did it pay off for them.

I would ten thousand times rather trade Betts than Bogaerts. The upside of a 5 tool CF is impressive but nothing compared to the potential of a 5 tool shortstop. Betts and Swihart right now are the two guys other teams are going to ask for. I don't think they'd even ask for Bogaerts because they know the Sox aren't going to be interested in moving him at all. Not until he starts getting expensive, and possibly not even then.

Oh hell. Poor kid.

If the past is anything to go on he will throw caution to the wind to pick up a top starter. It's what he always did in Detroit.

Just a note to Jacksonianmarch, Swihart does not have a bad arm. In fact his arm is considered a plus tool and his pop time is excellent. His problem right now is that in college he was a shortstop. He converted (back) to catcher after he was drafted, which has some big advantages since he doesn't have nearly as many reps on his knees, and being up to the task of a middle infield position in college says loads about his athleticism, but it does mean Swihart is extremely light on experience and has had to be a fast learner to rise through the ranks as quickly as he has. As he's risen through those ranks his athletic skills and defensive toolset have been lauded, his pop times were excellent and he's even got some base stealing speed as we saw from the 4 bases he stole this year. But every summary I've seen on Swihart, the last sentence tends to begin "With a little more experience/polish/training/practice/reps." He's a project only in the sense that he will need some coaching work done to bring the most out of his talent level, but that's true of a lot of inexperienced players. and the implication of his story as told in the prospect analysis is that Swihart has more to gain from experience alone than nearly any other catching prospect out there right now. Again, he's been a very quick learner so far so there's plenty of room for hope. Sidenote: Yes, Vazquez has a far better arm than Swihart. That's because there might be one catcher in the world with a better arm than Vazquez. Not sure how he stacks up against Yadi Molina but I'd take Vazquez over just about anyone else if he's healthy. Swihart still has as good an arm as a lot of other big league catchers and better than some. Where he could use some work is in his timing. Again, reps will help to solve this. He just needs to spend time doing his job and some good coaching with a strong catching instructor. Sidenote 2: I really kind hope to hear that Swihart's been working with Varitek, who lived for years on exacrlt what Swihart needs now. Varitek lived as a smart catcher with limited tools but excellent brains and cunning. A guy like that has a lot to teach a toolsy high ceiling catcher like Swihart, here's hoping Swihart's willing and able to learn.

Buchholz to the pen is an option that intrigues me in that it might be one way to manage him so he stays healthy all year.

He can be the better catcher of the two by hitting like a middle of the lineup bat while being a non-liability behind the plate.Kind of like the catcher Salty should have been, although frankly I think Swihart has a better chance to actually get there.

Ehh, Swihart was rushed and green in his first few months, I'm not surprised his numbers don't look fantastic over a full season. I do think he improved as the year went on and his defensive ceiling is pretty clear as an average to above average defensive catcher, which coupled with his bat out to be valuable. I still think we can't dare to trade either Swihart or Vazquez until at least midseason because we don't know how well Vazquez will hit after the long layoff. Not so much the injury, I don't think TJS really hurts hitters that much, but the lost year of reps could come back to bite him hard, especially where his offensive skills were already pretty marginal. This should have been a big developmental year for Vazquez before he went and got hurt, especially offensively. Loosing hundreds of plate appearances at an age as young as that can't help but dilute the man's ceiling, and we're counting on CV's bat to solidify into something that you can carry in the 8-9 hole without inflicting damage to the offense, so his sterling defensive potential can carry the package. If we trade Swihart, and then a rusty Vazquez can't put it together offensively, then we've just turned a strong position organizationally into a very weak one. And having a weakness at catcher is one of the hardest positions in all of baseball to rectify. I'd rather have too much depth there than too little. There's also the fact that Vazquez may turn out to be injury prone, and needing more rest than we were hoping. So until we know what Vazquez is capable of offensively and what workload he can stand, I don't think we can trade either one. We may wind up needing Swihart to be our starting catcher if Vazquez hits like a backup. I don't trust Hanigan to take over if we need to take it slow with CV. Last time we tried that he made it less than a month before he himself got hurt, given his age I can't see that not happening again.

Yeah but that's not what happened to Familia any of these times. The fact is that the Royals were an excellent team for putting bat on ball, and forcing the mediocre Mets infield defense to make plays by continuously making small contact and hustling, kept paying off in spades for the Royals. The only blown save that was all Familia was Game 1, Gordon's solo shot was the only "true outcome" that lost the Mets a lead. The rest was all on their infield (and occasionally outfield) D

Bradley won't fetch much back in return right now unless teams are fascinated by his toolset. He's still a pretty risky buy due to his early track record. One solid half year at this level though and you have an all star on your hands who would fetch you a heady return

Indeed. I actually really like the condition of the farm system, but in Boston, you have to manage both successfully, and Ben lost the confidence of the team when it comes to his work on the big league product. He could probably get a GM job in a smaller market franchise and do fine for himself based on this body of work, they're more tolerant of poor on field product while the farm is putting itself together. It worked for Dayton Moore who would be an abject disaster in a big market but is now getting a lot of credit for putting the Royals where they are.

If he's available the guy I want is Greinke. I have no problems with Price but I have a sneaking suspicion that Greinke is going to age better, if only because he's not quite such a physical outlier

That's not even the right word since a lot of teams would be very grateful to hagve 140-150m for their budget. The real issue is that we can't use our financial advantage to separate ourselves from the pack if so much of it is locked into dead-money contracts.

Pedro's contract for the time was huge. It was a major risk to take. If you can take those kinds of risks without at least one good shudder, even with a player as good as Pedro, then you either have no soul, or you're an irresponsible idiot, I'll leave you to pick.

No she's not. There's a difference between being a hypocrite and being a moderate. There's a difference between talking out of both sides of your mouth and understanding both sides of the issue. I pity you if you can't easily discern between the two.

Honestly I didn't mind bringing in Hanley. Everyone and their grandmother knows the real reason he's here is to take over at DH when Big Papi retires. It was also bring in Panda that I had issues with because it boxed Hanley into playing out of position and took away the flexibility to deal with the fallout if it failed -- and then it did fail and we're stuck with 2 bad contracts we didn't need to have to absorb.

Greinke opts out http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/report--zack-greinke-to-opt-out-of-contract-with-dodgers-201620443.html So there's one more option there for teams looking for a high quality starting pitcher. What's more if I'm looking to unload a truckload of money on a starting pitcher to lead our rotation, Greinke is suddenly my #1 choice. If I once had any concerns about Greinke they were answered weith how well he performed in the big market in LA. The only thing holding me back from just flat out saying that if they want to win the Red Sox need this guy, is the fact that 29 other teams will have people in their FO saying the same thing so this man is going to make himself a LOT of money. Pick up Greinke, add a good #3 like Wei-Yin Chen and do what you have to do to keep Eddie in the rotation. Move Buchholz down to the 4 spot and skip his spot in the rotation whenever you can, as if he was a #5, see if that allows him to maintain his health and pitch effectively. Keep Kelly and Miley in the bullpen as long relief in case you need them. Greinke Rodriguez Porcello Buchholz Chen That almost looks like a winnable rotation. It's also a very expensive rotation, but is this or is it not a major market?

He's also green, and was promoted a lot earlier than the team originally intended due to injuries to Vazquez and Hanigan. Experience should improve his defense to an acceptable level. Besides, being behind 2 great defenders defensively isn't saying a ton. After all neither Varitek nor Posada were without their flaws defensively, Varitek didn't have the best arm, and Posada had some work to do as a receiver as I recall, both were offense guys first that gradually learned in their own way to improve their defensive game and both catchers helped their team win the World Series more than once. My personal opinion is that patience with Swihart will be rewarded. The tools are there, all that is required is good coaching, experience, and not getting hurt. I think Swihart is at the same talent level as Varitek or Posada and whether he realizes that potential comes down to whether he can learn how to be a smart catcher defensively to cover for the gaps in his natural talent. He's already hitting at a very acceptable level as a catcher too so the fact that that's very likely to improve over time is exciting.

I think that you can deal neither of Swihart or Vazquez in the offseason, both for the same reason, Vazquez' TJ surgery recovery. If Vazquez can put up even a .650 OPS with his glove he's at least a fringe starter and should have some respectable trade value, but we don't know that yet and neither do other teams. And if he can't hit you're going to be glad you have Swihart and Vazquez will be a great backup. That means that the price of Vazquez is low, and the risk of dealing Swihart is nontrivial.

THere is no way -- none -- that JBJ is the center of a meaningful trade deal for a top starter. His half year is encouraging but overall right now he's a roleplayer with a bit of room to grow. you could use him to secure something useful but not a #1 starter.

that's absolute BS I'm sorry. Chen is at least a solid #2 starter, he pitched at an ace level last year, and Gallardo is a #3 and always has been. Miley's durable, but he's a bottom of the rotation guy. Both Chen and Gallardo actually pitched at a 4 WAR level last year. That's exactly what we need.

Here's an idea about how to help the rotation without going after the big names. Did you guys know that Wei-Yin Chen of the Baltimore Orioles is confirmed to be a free agent this winter? Check out his numbers, this dude is a good starting pitcher and he pitched with very good numbers in a hitter's park down in Baltimore last year. Bring him in, let Buchholz walk, go with a rotation of Chen, Eddie, Porcello, Miley, and either Wright or Kelly, whichever one looks best this Spring. That's not a worldbeating rotation but it shouldn't be a liability either. Since Chen isn't necessaril a so-called big name free agent, you might even be able to sign him for a contract that leaves you open to go for another big contract starter, either through free agency or trade. I wouldn't mind going for Chen and an inning burner with some quality like Yovanni Gallardo. If you bring in Chen and Gallardo, then the rotation of Chen-Eddie-Porcello-Gallardo-Miley actually looks pretty good down the middle, a little light on top but very stong down the middle of the rotation with a lot of reasonable to good quality 180-200 inning guys who usually keep their ERA below 4, when you have a good offense that's something you can usually get away with.

Apropos of nothbing: Did you guys know that Miley actually finished 6th on the team in WAR and second among SP's with 2.5 wins above replacement? That's not only not terrible, it's outright above average. He was our second best starter which is more an indictment of our rotation than it is credit for Miley, but he still did his job pretty darned well this year and should probably be seen as a lock for a rotation slot next year down hn the 4 or5 spot in the rotation.

gray would cost us eddie

I'll be honest, I think the team's plan right now is to break camp with Travis Shaw at first base unless something surprising happens. Shaw has looked very very good.