Dojji

I really doubt the cost is that high, Paoldios. It depends on how the $1B lawsuit against the Wilpons goes, but until it resolves just the fact that it's there means they can't move money around to help pay for salaries. If they were just having a little trouble making debt payments that'd be one thing, but all signs point to that organization being totally stuck for lack of funds. Floating a loan from MLB is a desperate measure if there ever was one. If they can't pay their salaries, Reyes and Beltran could be moved for pennies on the dollar. I wouldn't mind sticking with Lowrie, but his odds of becoming an elite player here are lower than Reyes' IMHO. And I'd swap out Scutaro for Reyes any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

As much as I don't think SS is really a problem for the Sox, I see an opportunity to improve here for short value in prospects. Reyes plays for the Mets (duh) who are in deep financial doodoo and would like to move contracts. Reyes has underperformed his contract but still has a high level of skill and seems to be relatively healthy atm. I see a definite positive impact to the team in bringing him on board and the cost in talent shouldn't be insane. Furthermore, even though last year wasn't Reyes' best, he still would have been the American League's best offensive shortstop. The timing to load up offensively at shortstop has never been better in this league. That, and the idea of all three of Reyes, Crawford and Ellsbury plying their trade pn the basepaths for us frankly makes me a little giddy. With the financial trouble the Mets are in right now, shedding veteran contracts is in their best interest, and the price in talent may be low because of the $11M in badly needed salary relief. Furthermore, they're unlikely to be able to re-up Reyes anyway, so any return better than a sandwich pick would be seen s a positive and trading Reyes is very likely high on the Mets organization's priority. If their financial crap really hits the fan, we could seriously buy low here. If there's any chance that's true, we need to get on board and try to pick up whatever edge we can, because we're in Go For It mode right now and we may never have a better opportunity. I think it makes all kinds of sense to go for it here. Ellsbury, Crawford and Reyes combined in some order in the 9, 1 and 2 holes would be awesome to watch.

THe Japanese have their own I think.

It's happened every year since 2006, with or without leeway. It's been a question of how long it takes him to turn it on after he starts out soft ever since he started fading from his peak.

Dunno yet. Most of what separates a hall of famer from a standard garden variety good player happens after they turn 35. Lester's got a shot, but he needs to stick around and stay healthy. Ortiz doesn't have a chance. Nice peak but it was too short to put up the "countin' stats." He's basically your quintessential "good player with a few great seasons." Carlos Delgado gets in ahead of him easy. I'd say same for Tek. He was a very good catcher and there were a few years where he was a great catcher, but he wasn't a Hall of Fame catcher. As much as it scalds my soul to say it, Jorge Posada gets in well ahead of Tek. Our biggest potential surprise Hall contender at the moment is probably Youkilis, but he'll need to play well into his early 40's at a high level to get there.

If they were standing out there the whole 2+ hours I could see heat exhaustion, but they have plenty of opportunities throughout the game to cool off. No one would make them wear the helmet in the dugout after all. Range of motion problems should be something you can head off with good design. For that matter a good helmet for a summer sport should be able to "breathe" anyway.

Jobu needs a refill! More seriously, I know it doesn't apply to the current situation, since that's not how Beckett was hurt this time, but I have no idea why the league hasn't gone ahead and forced pitchers to wear helmets yet. I can't think of any reason why a good sporting goods manufacturer couldn't figure out a way to design a grilled full helmet that could protect a pitcher while simultaneously affording them the full field of vision they needed to do their jobs, and that's assuming that you couldn't simply use a visor or even keep the face open and still protect the noggin. I mean I know line-drive-to-the-face doesn't happen every day, but Murphy won't be mocked indefinitely and I think we all know that. So why are people digging in their heels?

I'd like to give Salty a good long chance before declaring him an utter rally killer. The Sox think they've fixed him, I'd like to give them a chance to see if they're right before closing the door here.

That's fascinating. That site is going in my bookmarks.

So it should be obvious those 3 tools is what I was talking about here. Since we're, you know, talking about lineup construction. God people. Give you any excuse and you'll out-picky-pointless-detail an entire bureaucratic department.

If you could find a source for that it'd make interesting reading.

What inconsistency? We have a pretty good idea where Ellsbury will be, injury notwithstanding -- somewhere in the .290 range in average. 340 range in OBP, and a lot of baserunning speed. As a leadoff package there are few players consistently better than that. I've always felt that increased likelihood of actually scoring if you do get on base is one possible factor that can mitigate a low OBP, and Ellsbury's got the speed to make that claim like few major league players, and a decent (not great but OK) on base ability to boot. Take his package as a whole and you can count the superior leadoff hitters in MLB on one hand. Unless we get some kind of injury complication I have no problem pencilling in Jacoby in the 1 hole.

I want a 5 tooler in the #3 position because that's a combination of power and setting the table for the cleanup guy with another runner when the power fails to come through. People underestimate the 3 hole as a speed position.

That's exactly why he's the guy you can move down. Anyone remember the #8 hitter that was Bill Mueller? Pedroia's offensive skillset is similar to what he provided in '03, only he does it consistently. Meanwhile even with the obvious disadvantages of lefty lefty for two guys with fair platoon weaknesses, I can't resist the siren call of loading that much baserunning ability into the top 2 spots in the order. BTW I agree with Dipre with only one exception -- I still hold to my fairly reasonable opinion that once you control for position (which you have to with a lineup construction) Youkilis is the guy who needs to bat third. I will shed not one misty tear if it's Pedroia though, because that signifies that this team is prepared to let its people run and let Pedroia drive them in with laser gap shots.

This is not a thread about the Red Sox lineup. This is a thread about your personal philosophy on how a lineup should be constructed. I'll go first to provide an example. 1: Your best combination of speed and OBP 2: Contact hitter with useful speed, to move the 1 hitter and set the table himself 3: Complete hitter. This is where the 5 tool guy goes if you have one, if you don't, your best offensive player goes here (not necessarily your best power hitter -- there's a distinction. For example, I would bat Youkilis over Gonzalez here). I also like the idea of putting a doubles hitter here over a pure slugger, especially if you have real speed in the 1 and 2 holes 4: Best power hitter 5: Best hitter who hits on the opposite side of the plate from 4. If you have Gonzo in 4, #5 should probably be one of your righties. 6-7: Offensive misfits. Ideally you want power here, but these are basically going to be the guys with something to give offensively, but not enough, or not in the right way, to hit higher, or else they could fill roles that are already being filled by another player. 8-9: Defensive players, rookies, replacements and projects. Every lineup has 'em occasionally, 8-9 are the spots in the lineup where they wind up. If you don't have to hit them regularly above 8th, then you're doing pretty well even if one regularly fills your 9 hole..

That's why I think our one-two will be Ellsbury and Crawford and Pedroia will move down in the order. He can bat in the lower middle of the order and do fine, he's mostly a hard contact guy rather than a real speed demon, and even guys like Gonzo and Ortiz can score from second on a base hit to right. Heck if I didn't think Youk was about to become the best #3 hitter we've had since Ortiz dropped off the map I'd go ahead and put Pedroia there. He's good for it. But Youk is better, and will be batting third behind the two lefthanders.

It really depends on the lineup. As long as Ells leads off though, and PA are roughly even, it's advantage Jacoby. And on a team with Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, JD Drew, David Ortiz, and Adrian Gonzalez in no particular order, a middle of the order position IS NOT GOING TO GO to a speedster with a 15 HR bat. Crawford might have batted third for the Runnin' Rays, but he will not do so here. He bats first, second, seventh or eighth, assuming the catcher bats 9th which will probably happen. He's either a premium tablesetter, a great lower half of the order hitter to keep things going after the big thunder has passed, or a kinda average middle of the order hitter with a wierd production balance favoring triples over homers. Use him where he stands out. I see 2 possibilities here: Ells Crawford Youk Gonzo Pedroia Drew Ortiz Lowrie/Scutaro Salty/Tek Or Ells Pedroia Drew Gonzo Youk Ortiz Crawford Lowrie/Scutaro Salty/Tek

Youk's offensive value isn't captured by home run totals anyway, so a low prediction doesn't hurt my feelings. It's something he does, but he's much better at the clutch double, and he's been a consistent .300 hitter since he started breaking out in 08 when he somehow managed to morph from an elite patient hitter into an elite contact hitter virtually overnight, and he's only gotten better at it as time's gone on. -- walking less, swinging more, and connecting with what he swings at for quality contact. I see a future in baseball for Kevin Youkilis as a hitting coach. You don't make that kind of radical change and improvement in your offense without learning stuff about how to hit that other people can benefit from learning.