Dojji

Because the Yankees are a baseball machine. They make everyone shave and behave. We're not quite the free spirited band of idiots we used to be, but we let our players express themselves.

yeah all bips are not created equal, and Reddick's bips are particularly bippy.

Only if you don't mind that guy being your right fielder. Remember the embarrassment of riches the Rangers had at catcher with stud prospects Teagarden, Salty and Max Ramirez? 2 years later all 3 of them were gone to greener pastures and they'd had to trade for a starting catcher. What the heck makes us think that we're immune to that?

*wince* We're ultimately talking about slapping Kalish directly into right field in the wake of a lost year. That has tremendous potential to backfire. I think Reddick is necessary depth for now in light of the fact that JD Drew is moving on at the end of the year. I don't think you can move either of them until one of them is proven.

Is it really that difficult? His glove tools aren't bad, his performance in AAA is good, as a technical catcher he can probably get by, but the mental stuff, the stuff everyone expects of a catcher like pitchcalling and setting the defense, which can only come with reps, is going to take time with Lavarnway. He's ready to catch now, but it's going to take time before he's ready to be a catcher. The distinction may sound small but you know as well as I do that it's fairly significant.

I didn't say that was he was ready to catch, I said that's when I could expect him to put the package together. Remember, kid started late, he has more to learn than most catchers at his stage of development. That's not saying he shouldn't play in the bigs as a catcher before then. He could probably skate on his bat for a few years until the other aspects catch up, heck it worked for Posada. Point being, Lavarnway has a ton to learn and he may have to learn more of it in the big leagues than most catchers, that's all. I think he's better suited to be a starter for a small market team that needs to ramp up to contention for a few years and can afford to let a guy like him come along in his own time, than he would be trying to play for a perennial contender that needs its prospects to be ready right out of the chute.

Frankly, the injury is part of the problem. It's beginning to look like a lost year developmentally. Not his fault surely, but still an issue. He's going to need some time to get back up to speed when he does get back, that's for darn sure.

Reddick's cameos in the big leagues prior to this season wouldn't be considered either a success or a failure by you yourself if he were a Yankee. Just not enough plate appearances there. And the thing you're conveniently ignoring is that there's nothing in his BABIP to suggest that he's going to fall like a rock offensively. Yeah there'll be some regression to the mean, he's not Ryan Braun, but you're talking a serious sophomore slump if you want to suggest the kid will go from stud to dud in a year.

Yeah, then you bring in the same reliever who blew it in the 7th, in the 8th, and still blow it. You need 3 top caliber relievers. If you don't have them it doesn't freaking matter in what order you line up the schlubs. THey'll still be schlubs.

Going forward from Reddick, I see little reason not to expect .280-.340-.460 as a baseline. That's more than enough for a good defensive right fielder playing in the lower middle of the lineup.

I don't take those minor league numbers particularly seriously because it was well documented at the time that Reddick was working on changing his hitting approach. So it's not a good indication of where he actually was talentwise. Radically improving your offensive discipline to the point that you're not made a fool of on the outside corner consistently is not easy to do. That nice walk Reddick took to help load the bases yesterday? He would have swung at those pitches last year. That's why Arietta threw them. His command of the strike zone is a lot better than in the past, because he's been working at that far more than at putting numbers up in AAA. Lest we forget, those AAA numbers came after a flat month of total suckage from Reddick to start the year. He bounced back to those numbers with a hot May and that's when he got called up. The FO was apparently satisfied with what they were seeing, and it's easy to see why at this point.

We're kinda doing the relief ace thing by default right now though, because Papelbon is holding down the closer's role competently freeing up Bard to pitch high leverage late innings. My position on closer versus relief ace is that if you're having the debate, it's because you have only one solid reliever and you'll never get anything meaningful done anyhow. You need great relievers in the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning roles regardless, whether they pitch those roles exclusively or are a more freewheeling bullpen by committee or relief ace model.. It really doesn't matter which role you fill first, ultimately you need to fill them all. One thought to bear in mind though -- the Guardians used the relief ace model in 07 with an adequate-at-best closer type, and Joe Blow got them through the Yankees, but they fizzled and died against the Sox when their relief ace, Rafael Betancourt, fell apart. They didn't even trust Joe Blow in the 9th against the Sox, and when he did pitch in that ALCS, he got shelled. So it really doesn't matter in the end, if you have to put an incompetent reliever in either the closer or the setup role, he's still going to cost you. If you're leaning too hard on any one reliever, closer or otherwise, that guy is at risk to fizzle.

Most of us have figured that out, the issue is that any one of them is still too much to pay for 2 months of an pretty good right fielder when you've got a kid on the squad who looks like the real thing.

Replaceable isn't the right word, at least not in any meaningful sense. Lester, Beckett, Gonzo and Bard are all technically replaceable -- for which I'm grateful, as all will eventually be replaced. Counting on Lavarnway to replace Saltalamacchia any time in the next 3 years is too hopeful. This is a kid with a lot to learn before he should be let to be a fulltime starting catcher for a major contender, even if he ultimately succeeds at becoming one. The bat is for real, the arm is solid, the glove isn't bad, but he's still putting the package together as a whole and that's a process that will take until he's 30 or so, like it does for any other potential catching star

No WAY you trade Reddick for Beltran. No WAY. That stops making sense as soon as this year ends. Kid is too close to establishing himself as a star player right here. You'd have to win the world series this year not to look back and regret that one, or the kid has to flame out. I don't like the odds either way.

Because leadoff hitters usually rack 'em up. Telling that so many of Jacoby's home runs are solo shots. At what point does a guy producing this much power get moved into an RBI slot in the lineup?

Although frankly if it comes to Bard being the closer, I can't say I'm not nervous about a couple things. Especially his epic mental meltdown in 07. There' a certain mental makeup you need to have to close. Papelbon, for all people hate on him for being a bit of a tard, does have it. Bard may have some demons to exorcise first IMHO.

Salty and Lavs going forward could be quite a twosome splitting catcher and DH duties. Much as I'd rather not say it though I suspect that Lavs catches on, pardon the pun, with another franchise either at this deadline or next.

I suggest Livan Hernandez because what we need is Livan Hernandez. An innings burner who won't break the bank to get. You want to send out multiple prospects for a guy who's going to be a tick above average for the Sox if that. I want to go get a bottom of the rotation guy to make sure all the innings get eaten and the bullpen is saved while we keep all of our prospects iexcept the one B- guy it takes to bring Livan to Boston. You tell me which one is a bad move.

Some actual knowledge from Alex Speier via the Soxprospects forum. linky Main point I took out of that is not to sweat the fact that he isn't catching every day because they're drilling him on his DH days. Looking around the system looks like they do that to everyone. If I had to guess I'd call it a way to develop more than one catching prospect at a given level. Also that the team thinks his defense is improving and that what he needs is experience in the minors. Actually the defensive numbers I'm seeing from Lavarnway are downright good, what this tells me is that that's not the problem. It's the secondary skills and skillsets like pitch calling, handling the D, etc. The head stuff. The leadership stuff. The stuff Varitek didn't really master until about his third full year or so as a fulltime big league catcher. Gotta get him good habits there. And what THAT tells me is that that Soxprospects.com jumped the gun projecting the guy as a DH, and that the franchise is, in fact, taking Lavarnway seriously as an actual catcher, and that the real problem isn't so much that his defense is bad, but that it's way behind his bat developmentally. That's a problem time can fix, even if it isn't pretty at first. Heck, people like to forget this, but it wasn't pretty at first for Tek either. Go look at his early passed ball numbers. Catchers need to grow into their roles.

The only reason to hold him down right now is office politics with Ortiz. Papi wouldn't want a righthanded DH type on the roster for pretty obvious reasons, especially in a year he's playing for a contract.

Yeah let's trade for another guy who dominates out west, and in the National League this time. That worked out so very well in the past. Given the sheer number of pitcher's parks in the NL West, how can you justify bringing in a guy who's a tick over average out there, and a guy who, despite good stuff, is definitely a pitcher hitters can beat, into one of the best hitters-for-average parks in major league baseball? Billingsley would be brutalized in the AL East, especially at Fenway, the same way Lackey was. Lackey was pretty much Billingsley for the Angels after all.

He's a good pitcher. I hope he remains our setup man for years to come. Not because he can't close, but because having a guy like that behind the closer makes your pen super extra deadly awesome.