Dojji

I do Iglesias for Jones in a heartbeat. Iglesias is a project, and Jones hugely improves our bench and should have a few good years left.

Actually as offensive catchers go, Napoli's not that bad. He's a cut above most catchers who are out there for their bat. His issue has always been his ability to play a full season behind the dish. He's always had the talent to be more than good enough defensively in any given game. Given the hip condition, it'd be a pipe dream for Napoli to play more than 20-30 games as a catcher, but I can def see him playing it in interleague. It would probably be the right move. And it would allow us to bat Salty for Ross in a key at bat without worrying about not having an option to finish the game if he happened to get hurt, which is a nice perk.

25 HR's. He's far from ideal, but he's far from useless. One more example of how Red Sox fans are spoiled and can't handle players that are talented but flawed. The world is divided between "all star" and "sucks." We saw the same issue with Reddick.

Hardly. He's useful, just limited. I get the impression that he's not going anywhere, so it falls to the team to get as much use out of him as they can.

Congratulations, you've proven that Matt Cassel is a better quarterback than Curtis Painter. Confirmed by the fact that Cassel led the KC Chiefs into the playoffs a couple years after his stint in NE while Painter is flipping burgers or selling insurance or something. I'm not going to pretend that Matt Cassell is some sort of stud, but he was good enough that a good team could work with him, he was a smart, reasonably accurate thrower and he grew a lot that year. he reminded me a lot of the guy Tom Brady was in his own first few campaigns, and while obviously Cassel didn't have the upside to become what Bray has matured into, he proved he could lead his team well enough to beat good teams. Painter by contrast was a disaster, learned nothing, and led a solid team deep into the cellar. The contrast goes to prove that we could have done so much worse when Brady went down that one year. Heck, if I recall correctly there were people that year who WANTED us to. Fortunately the Patriots felt they had enough talent to win and they were right. They came within a 4 way tiebreaker of the playoffs if I recall correctly. Not sure the Colts were similarly committed, since they basically tanked to get a high pick that year. Their commitment to tanking is as obvious as the fact that they kept Painter all year. No way BB does that. Cassel deserved and got his chance, but if Cassel had been that horrendous, he would have gone to the next guy. Painter was the player the Colts threw out there in order to have a warm body in the position while they tanked. If I recall Carson Palmer was on the move that year, and if they weren't tanking for Luck, he would have been a Colt. I'm fairly confident that that's the move BB would have made under the same circumstances.

Easily our best SS prospect since Nomar and before that the best we'd had for a looooooong time. Besides Nomar the only other guy I can think of off the top of my head who was that kind of shortstop for the Red Sox is Rico Petrocelli. I actually consider Petrocelli a pretty good comp with Xander, since IIRC Petro was not the best defender ever.

Agreed. If there's any platoon with Napoli at all, it's going to be with Salty. That said, given that Napoli isn't a natural first baseman, I could see then bringing in someone like Casey Kotchman as a LIDR.

I think this is the least sexy offense we've had in years. I'm legitimately worried about our ability to outscore our defensive problems this year. We've had several key offensive downgrades since the World Series.

The reason I like Jurrjens is that he's a control type with a good slider who throws in the low to mid 90's. Seems like a good combination of tools and stuff, and seeing as he's been effective in the past, I think he's one of the better remaining gambles out there. Just don't expect 200 innings.

Victorino Ellsbury Pedroia Ortiz Napoli Middlebrooks Gomes Salty/Drew Drew/Ross No law requires Ellsbury to lead off, and things flow a lot better if we lead off with Victorino. Assuming he's anywhere near his normal year, that ought to be OK.

I want Jurrjens. If he's on his game, he's a #3 at worst.

Ahh, the Curt Schilling Special. That can work out in our favor. At the very least we've mitigated the risk nicely. Now throw on a couple mutual options and there ya go.

Jurrjens please. I expect him to have a very strong second half.

ANd this is necessary, why?

I think there's a difference between a guy who seems to be an heir apparent at a position, like Lavs, and a guy who's going to fight the incumbent and multiple other prospects at his position for a roster spot in Boston like Brentz. Especially because Lavarnway came up and was generally adequate last year. Moving Brentz to first base takes a bat we already know has the talent to hit at the big league level, and moves it to a position where at the moment it's not competing with a big multiyear contract. With Kalish and Bradley in system, we're not exposing RF particularly much with a position switch for Brentz either. Contrast that with the catching position where neither Salty nor Ross are particularly secure, and most of the other catching options in the high minors are backups at best. It makes no particular sense to do anything with Lavarnway. Even if he's not in the bigs this year (and I honestly think he should be) that third catching option is frequently a necessity.

There's 2 or 3 guys who are "our future right fielder" at the moment, including Kalish, Bradley, and Victorino. That's why you might be able to spare Brentz.

... Brentz? It's not like a position change is irrevocable. There's more options next offseason than there is currently, so if we don't get stupid we should be able to simply kick the can down the road a bit. This is all predicated on not getting Napoli of course.

Not convinced that adding versatility to Brentz damages his trade credibility.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n125/lbrownie/curt-schilling-tip-cap.jpg And they managed to screw him over too, by insisting he try to rehab a shoulder that clearly needed to be surgically repaired. Gotta love that Red Sox medical staff.

it's a possibility. But how much are we even counting on Bryce Brentz right now? Seems to me that the upside is worth the risk unless we have a 5 year option waiting in the wings somewhere.

I'm a bit lost on why the fact that Brentz has a good arm makes him ineligible to play first base. I recognize that it's a waste of that particular talent, that's also all it is -- people with good arms can play first base just as well as anyone else, it's just that they can also play other positions. Since we have men at those positions, but not at first base, I'll put a guy with a gun at 1B if he's the BPA there.

You're being too quick to dismiss the idea because it isn't perfect or because Brentz isn't ready to break camp with the Sox when I've already readily conceded both points. It's still one move they can make to shore up their currently very horrendous depth at the first base position between now and draft day. And it absolutely could make a difference for the Sox in 2013. It just (and I've already bent over backwards acknowledging this) can NOT be plan A.

Who me? I'm some schlub in an armchair in Maine. Of course I don't. As I go over the internal options, though, that one makes sense. Again, the Millar comparison is off, but they did the same thing with Brandon Moss back in 2008 so it's hardly untried territory.

I still expect him to take reps at first base because the season doesn't end at the end of April. Too many things could result in badly needing a power hitter who might be able to come up from the minors and take over partway through the year for me to think it won't be tried.

I want Jair Jurrjens. He was the real thing when he came up. Electrifying stuff. I was flabberghasted when the Tigers traded that kid.