Dojji

Nice numbers on the kid. I like.

That's a two stage question for me. I was a fan in the late 80's early 90's (Boggs, Clemens, Burks, etc) but I petered out in the mid 90's because, among other things, I was a little too depressed to really want to do anything at all, much less follow a baseball team (seriously, you guys think I'm a bit crazy -- I'm 10,000x better than I was at 16yo) When I got to college around '03, I fell in love with the team again. Gray Little broke my heart right along with everyone else's. As rusty as I was as a fan, I knew from the commentator that Pedro had already done his I'm-done celebration thingee and that he had no business still being out there. Looked for all the world like nothing had changed and nothing was ever going to. I walked away from the game after that, and honestly thought I was doing it for good. I got wind of what they were starting to do in '04 only after about game 5 of the 2004 ALCS when the murmur of what was going on overcame even my self-imposed exile. That's literally what it took to win me back after the fiasco of the prior year. When I realized that the Sox had had a chance to make another epic failure and had actually managed to avoid doing so, I was cautiously on board again. I heard The Slap over a crackly AM radio station in northern Maine, and its aftermath brought everything back. When I realized that came-changing calls were actually going against the Yankees in elimination games during the postseason, I made sure I was in front of a TV for the rest of the postseason. Because if one impossible thing can happen, maybe others can as well. Ironically, it was the fiasco of 2006 that brought me on board for the regular season. I loved that disastrous season more than I ever thought possible. I guess I find it in myself more easily to love a flawed team than one that goes out there and wins and no big deal. 2007 was still the first and only Championship season I followed from Spring Training to the last pitch. Dad was a Padres fan when he was a kid growing up out west, and when we moved to Maine he would listen to the Red Sox on the radio. He almost made an Expos fan of me because he liked (and always has liked) National League ball better, and because I grew up with no way to watch the Sox on TV but plenty of chances to watch the Spos. I guess I became a Sox fan because that way I could talk to the people around me on more or less equal footing about "my" team. Kinda shallow, sure, but I guess we all have to start somewhere. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Expos and was heartbroken when they moved to Washington. Mmm. Well, Paps just moved on, Tek moved on, Wakefield moved on, Pedro and Schill have been gone for awhile, Papi's cool for now but he's at the point in his career where I've gotten comfortable with the idea that the team will be moving on from him soon. Beckett's an idiot, Lester's a good pitcher but kinda a vanilla personality, I liked Youks better at first base, saying Pedroia is just trite, I've always been kinda skeptical on Buchholz, a lot of the other guys are unproven.. Hmm, that's a tough one. Ahh what the heck, you all know my answer. A mix of "the next one" and "the one who's currently getting treated worse than he deserves by the fans." Roger Clemens. DON'T JUDGE ME! Sorry guys, I'm a product of my generation, and was still submerged in depressed indifference during Pedro's peak. It didn't end well, either with the Sox or overall, but Clemens was a stud and I'll always remember him fondly. Can't think of one. I don't waste a lot of time hating, either at the time or afterward. Maine the bloody sock. never been. I want to go someday but the $$$$ has never been there for it. See the above answer about least favorite Red Sox. If pushed, probably A-Rod but I just don't like hating people.

Anderson is still amazingly young for how long we've talked about him. Younger than Lavarnway. Him getting it and reclaiming his potential is far from beyond the realms of possibility.

OK think for a minute. Look at his history. This guy was released by the Pirates. He was a free agent. An MLFA to be exact. Any team could have had him on their big league roster and that inexpensively, and all of them passed, so the Sox signed him as cheap insurance (emphasis on "cheap") for their minor league roster. On what team in this league,. on what planet in the universe, does that translate to becoming useful trade bait just because of one half decent Spring? I'm not sure he'd even be an interesting makeweight in a deal.

Even with Iggy in the minors, you still have one of Aviles and Punto starting, and the other backing up. You're right that there may be an opportunity for Ciriaco, but there's no great need for him. We have more need of a good righthanded pinch hitting bat.

Rogers knew his way around defensively as well. There's no shortage of competent defensive AAAA shortstops. If you want a guy who can defend multiple positions well, 1: that's why we have Punto, 2: Aviles is pretty good at that too. If you want a pure SS, just promote Iglesias who is better. Not trying to hate on Ciriaco, I can see how he could help us. I just think Iglesias does what he does better than he does it, and we already have 2 versatile infielders in Punto and Aviles. We have a glut of talent at his position so I can't see the point of promoting Ciriaco.

You know who Ciriaco reminds me of? This guy. Eddie Rogers had a heck of a Spring in 07, touched off 2 grand salamis that year IIRC. Didn't even crack the roster. I think when you're talking about having a good spring, it's more important to note the underlying stuff -- hustle, work ethic, intangibles, skillset -- and leave the results more or less alone. Spring is the least stat-driven time in all of baseball. I think the opportunity that's open to Pedro Ciriaco is the chance to fill in for Punto or Aviles if they go down and be in mind for Valentine to slip into the roster this September. So he does have something to fight for -- something important -- but there's no real way he breaks camp with the team.

You just agreed with two completely contradictory posts right in a row Jacko. Congrats.

Dumb question VA -- if they kept Lin, why bother with McDonald? And if they kept McDonald, why bother with Lin? Don't they more or less do the same thing? I like Lin a lot and would love his speed and defense on the bench wouldn't even consider Lin for that role unless I knew McD was going to get released. He and McDonald are redundant. I'd guess, and this is entirely a guess, that it's Lavarnway or Iglesias coming north in that slot. If it's Iglesias, it's because they see Aviles as a backup 2B, 3B, LF and RF who can spot at short, which is more or less the role they used him in last year. Considering the last time he was tried as a full time SS he lasted less long than Lowrie generally does before getting hurt, this is a distinct possibility. In that situation your righthanded bench hitting option is Aviles, and he's good enough at that.. If it's Lavs, then they're confident at short and the concern is about a short term cup of coffee for Lavs and the need for a quality righthanded pinch hitter and possible DH platoon with Ortiz until Crawford gets back. I suppose Lars is your other option, but we already have three first basemen on the roster, 4 counting Ross, so I don't see that happening.

I kinda don't want my point on Lannan to be lost in the other discussion so I'm going to bring it up again on the new page. Lannan is not Zito. He has some signs of effectiveness that I think might make him worth pursuing, even with the high WHIP as a factor For one thing, Lannan keeps the ball on the ground. His GB/FB rate is about 2 to 1. (career 1.9, which is an extreme ground ball pitcher). If you can squeeze Iglesias into the lineup, our infield defense ought to be tight enough to make a ground ball pitcher an asset. For another, he's death on lefthanders, which we tend to see a lot of, especially when NYY is in town. The Yankees aren't exaggeratedly lefty heavy like they used to be (or like we kind of are now) but still, neutralizing Granderson and Cano makes some sense if you can do it, and making it harder for their lefthanded pull hitters to take advantage of that short wall in NYS only makes sense. And if he does fall out of the rotation due to bad performance, with Lannan's platoon splits you have a chance at a good LOOGY. I think there would be some things to recommend Lannan if he can be gotten cheaply, at any rate. I wouldn't count on him for ace type performances, but as a bottom of the rotation guy, he's got some assets I'd consider useful.

It's one thing to give a kid a chance. It's another thing to stripmine all levels of redundancy and demand that a kid take over a major starting position. If Lin had been tried and failed, this team def has other options to go to. If Kalish tries and fails, your best bet is either Lin or a career backup type. Perhaps it's just me trying to manufacture depth, but I do not like how exposed our right field position is right now, not at all.

I just hope he makes it. They've gambled on Kalish more than I like for an unproven prospect. Half the reason I'm trying to convince myself Lin is legit is because I'm legit concerned about Kalish's ability to stay on the ballfield and realize his potential and would really like to know what Plan B is (especially with so few really interesting FA RF's these days). I recognize that dealing Reddick might have been necessary to get Bailey, but I would have thought three times before pulling the trigger on that trade and leaving a hole behind that could be filled by one Gabe Kapler type and a guy who's already had a major surgery.

Fair enough as far as it goes, at least in terms of Boston and its normal way of doing business, but if Ellsbury were a corner outfielder, if we had a hole at center instead of right, or even if we simply weren't immediate contenders, we'd be playing Lin right now. There are no small number of teams that if they had a guy like Lin, and a hole in the outfield, would trot him out there and see what they had. Cherrington needed to play it safe since he sort of inherited a contender and will be judged on that basis, so he brought in Sweeney instead. I understand exactly why he did that. But a lot of teams do take that chance, and it can pay off. Speaking of which, what the **** happened to Kalish? I'd have said to go with him if I'd known where he is in his recovery. He's a strong enough defender in right after all and I thought he had surgery in the middle of last year and he was supposed to be fine for Spring. Did something go wrong?

He really isn't. His defense is overrated (not bad mind, just not exactly a major asset) and it's been 2 years since he did anything with the stick that should impress someone. He's a good bet over starting time to give you about 1 WAR. That isn't a starting outfielder. Right now Lin's body of work isn't sufficient to mount a challenge, but if Lin goes on a bit of a run, Sweeney's going to need to have a good year and put up some distance. Maybe in a great doubles park like Fenway he'll get back over .400 SLG and make it a moot point. I honestly hope so.

Right now Aceves is the only man who's made himself an option. It might be early in spring, but that doesn't mean you can't think about the implications of what's happened so far. If things change and a guy steps up, rock on, but does that mean that in the meantime we're not allowed to think?

I don't think defense and offense is a dichotomy. I do understand what you're saying, and a player like Lin would be a concern if he doesn't provide anything meaningful on offense, especially if Iglesias is also on the roster. What you're counting on is that they stop enough runs of the opposition to make up for that, and that the otherwise extremely strong offensive roster of the team would be sufficient to cover for it. Bear in mind that as things stand right now, one of our starting outfielders is Ryan Sweeney, and another one is a platoon bat that can not hit righthanded pitching. If we had Manny and Drew in their primes my hypothetical would be an afterthought at best. But because we already have mediocricy on the corners as it is, why not stack that mediocricy in favor of something that might add more value to the team? Sweeney's already theoretically here for his defense. If you have a guy out there for the D in the first place, why not go the whole nine yards?

All I'll say on the subject of his bat is that he's 22, has been underage at each level he's played, and hasn't filled out yet. He's 6' and 180 pounds, so he isn't your typical slightly undersized Asian speedster and in terms of raw plate discipline, his is fairly good. He does need to square up the ball better and get more line drives, but that's hardly something he can't learn to do. He also had bad luck on balls in play last year. Lin's BABIP is usually in the .300 range. last year it was .271. Normalizing that puts his offensive numbers more or less where they usually are. I dunno if I'd ever expect him to bat .300 at the big league level, but I predicated my post on his ability to hit well enough that you could let his defense do the speaking for him, and that's not unreasonable to expect. I don't think he has to hit that much to be an asset. He could go the way of Lee Tinsley, and ultimately fail to hit even to the very low standards of a defense-first outfielder and speedster, that's a definite possibility, but it's not the only possibility, and there's some reason to expect that Lin can make a bit more progress with the stick -- not least because he is still so young. This is not a Daniel Nava/Tug Hulett situation where the guy has one chance to make it in the bigs and then that's it forever. In my mind Lin has 3 years (4 counting this one), from now to the end of his age 27 season, before he should start to not be taken seriously as a prospective big leaguer. And the combination of speed and defense that he can provide is tempting enough that I expect him to at least get a serious cup of coffee this year. And if he ever does show the ability to hit to a roughly .270 average? That's more or less all he'd need to do with the other assets he has, and at that point he's a starting CF. Maybe not here. Maybe he needs to be traded. But somewhere. If he can show anything in terms of progress, you can bet some NL team would take a chance on him. If he can show that progress quickly, you might get something good for him. Considering just how demanding we are of offense from our players, that might be the best case scenario for Lin -- going out there and flying around for some other market that is less desperate to be THE premiere offensive team in the league. Maybe the Cards would be interested, they seem to know what defense is and how to use it.

Sorry, I was under the umpression that since you were responding to the question I asked, you were *actually* responding to the question I asked. My bad.

Well I've got the numbers and every scouting report I've ever read on Lin on my side, they all speak of his defense with words like "polished," "elite" and "MLB ready." The minor league defensive numbers I have seen bear up that kind of assessment. So does the times I've gotten to see him in action. There's a reason the kid is being promoted through the system so quickly, and it's obviously not his bat. If there was that much of a concern about Lin's readiness, he would have repeated a level -- it's a delay the team could have afforded, he's been 1-2 years under the average age for his level all the way along. It's his glove that's earning him those promotions and it's his defense that's propelled him up through the system pretty steadily despite the immature stick. But hey, minor league numbers, scouting reports, what I've seen in action, what I've read from others who've seen him in action, the actions of the team in regard to this kid, all of this is insufficient, right? Insufficient to the point that no one is even going to consider the possibility that I might have stumbled onto something by accident and be coincidentally right. Eh, whatever. It's not like I expected anything else around here.

Wish I was.. You've got a situation where NO ONE is stepping up so the question needs to be asked.