Dojji

Yeah well, I smartened up a little at least, I'm not proposing allstardom until the guy at least debuts now. Seriously -- a player who can hit like Lavarnway would have a prayer to make all-star as the DH, as a catcher, he'd have to flame out or get hurt to fail to reach that milestone at least once.

I know I would. Starters are valuable. Lefthanded power starters even more so. Guys like Bedard do not grow on trees and are worth taking a few risks to keep around. I know the guy supposedly has character issues, but he's been about what you'd expect for us so far, and the upside reward if he can pitch a healthy year for us would be exciting. Our rotation next year without Bedard has a question mark at the end, since we're not sure what we expect from Daisuke. Right now it looks like Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Lackey, and one of Miller or Wakefield. Now Miller looked pretty good last night, and has definitely showed progress and signs of far greater consistency for us than he's ever shown before, but earmarking a regular rotation spot for him is a stretch, and as for Wakefield, his best use is as emergency depth. We could definitely make use of one more good quality starter, especially a power LHSP. And with Miller in the wings (pretty sure we keep him, there's an option in his contract IIRC and a guy who's 7-1 mid 4's ERA would be silly to let walk) we're well protected in case he spits the bit or can't get the job done. So if you can get him to sign, I would definitely do it. He is a man who can help us going forward if he wants to stay. Just don't earmark him mentally for more than about 150 innings, and handle him with a bit of care. These are things we can do here with our depth, so I don't consider that a bar to holding on to him.

There is one person I would trade Jacoby Ellsbury for. That person is Matt Kemp.

Definitively proving that the last few weeks were definitely a slump, and not any kind of regression to the mean.

What is the job of a starting pitcher? is it to dominate? Or is it to do enough to win the game?

Thome is lefthanded, so he's not a great fit for Boston's pinch hitting needs. Lavarnway is a better matchup for that.

Save your breath, Palodios. You're not going to get the last word here, and there's nothing left in terms of a meaningful point to the discussion.

http://www.fashion-hound.com/files/Image/russel-digging-hole.jpg

Centerfield's an issue at some point in the undistant future.

If Theo personally sees it as a step up, does that change your impression?

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-9011301 Well.. umm... Huh. My guess is that Cashman becomes available before Theo does, but... well, it's just enough of a new challenge and a prominent role in rebuilding a new organization that I'm even slightly worried that this could happen.

And next year?

Sure, why not? A lot of players are streaky like that. Coco Crisp had a run like that every year. Your point is...?

Robinson is more talented and a better prospect than either Kalish or Reddick. I would rather have parted with either of those two for Bedard rather than Robinson.

As I understand the mechanics of the deal that brought Bedard in, we briefly controlled prospect Trayvon Robinson from LAD, before flipping him for Bedard. The more I think about it, the less sure I am that that was definitely a winning move. Trayvon's a stud and we'd control him beyond this year. He might have been a candidate to claim a role in right field or even center, since he's a switch hitting 3 position guy, and he would have helped our lefty-righty balance on that basis. With the DH spot open and right field possibly up for grabs, he really wasn't "blocked" in any meaningful sense here either. Reddick would have given him a run for it, but he coulda won that footrace. So I'm basically curious where you guys come down on that. I know Bedard's been really useful now, but I'm left with the thought that we coulda had 6 years of Robinson, and are probably only going to get a couple months of Bedard. It's a tossup at best and if this kid really takes off in Seattle of all places, it's going to look a little bad for us going forward.

Why? It doesn't have to be. His season numbers are more than tolerable for a catcher. I don't know what you think you're accomplishing trying to put words in everyone's mouths, but it's getting really offensive.

We're fans. Rationality and consistency are optional extras.

Good hitters have bad months. Even great hitters have bad months. I agree, let's see where he ends up. if Salty falters, we can try Lavarnway. Depth is good.

Other than first base, third base, and the corner outfield spots, the range Salty's performing at right now, between .750 and .800 OPS, is good enough to be a non-problem in any other position. Heck, check Tek's stats, other than 3 really good years in the heart of his prime, that's about where he performed at. The fact that he can probably improve on it with reps and experience is only icing on the cake.

Whoa. I'm having an out of body experience here. Usually, I'm over there where Emmz is, having my words thrown into my face and continuously digging myself deeper and deeper trying to win the point.

Emmz, anyone else would have stopped digging at about this point.

And I don't see why that can't happen. It's obvious he's made some developmental progress over the course of the season and he's not far off the .800 OPS mark on the season as it is. What you're dismissing as unlikely really isn't that farfetched

Stop complaining about Aceves. This is part of what we use the guy for. if you're not going to pitch Bard, you're not going to pitch Papelbon, and Miller's part of your rotation, then your bullpen is pretty much Morales, Wheeler, Albers and Aceves. We used 3 of those and have Albers available if we need the 7th inning tomorrow. It's all good.

Our cleanup hitter gets it done again.