Dojji

Kalish isn't 4th OF material. I don't think you can get a guy for 8 figures who'll do better than he will -- at least not in right field. Left field maybe.

He'll seem to age well for awhile, then his knees will go out on him and all at once he'll be gone, much like Bartolo Colon.

Depends on if CF is also in play, which depends on Jacoby making the progress he needs to make offensively, defensively and healthwise. If CF is in play, the answer could be Reddick. If not, it's probably Kalish, and Reddick either plays 4th OF or gets traded.

Worth mentioning too, that there's a chance the Yankees might not make the playoffs next year. We have the tools here in Boston to take the division. If nothing goes hideously wrong, and the Wild Card comes out of the West or the Central, that's going to be on Sabathia's mind when he makes the call.

What this is telling us is that Aceves, who has options, is likely to start in the minors.

Yep. He's making a crapload of money right now, but he's still got an incentive to shop around for a better contract. That incentive is simple: this is the best time in his career to be going after his last really big contract. He's 30. If he opts out next year he'll be 31. If he waits through the rest of his current deal he'll be 35. No one will sign a big man like Sabathia at age 35. Not to that kind of contract Sabathia wants. So he goes out there at 30-31, when he has at least 3-4 really useful years left in him and a GM can gamble he'll keep his arm for the life of a 6 or 7 year deal before he really falls off the wagon, and he can get a nice long term deal for more money on the end of it than he could possibly get if he plays out the Yankee contract. And a pitcher of Sabathia's skill isn't going to make that much less on the market than he's making now, not with Cliff Lee setting the price this offseason. So if he can risk a modest paycut now to add 2-3 more lucrative years at the end of the deal, that's definitely something for Sabathia to seriously consider doing.

Doesn't matter. As long as you're not doing it to the exclusion of smarter uses of money, such as Latin American scouting, go ahead and try some of these guys. Sometimes they work better than you thought they would. There are a couple Australians in the big leagues right now that came from this kind of scouting after all. Similar signings such as the Flying Moanaroa Brothers are doing a decent job in the minors, and you don't need to find too many winners to justify scouting these regions lightly.

Maybe a Canadian goaltender to play catcher. I have no problem with these longshots. No one's calling Beau Bishop a sure thing, international signings are rarely sure things anyway, just that he has some skills that made a scout think he might be worth developing. You draft the best talent you can and fill the rest of the roster spots with as many of these as possible in the hopes that it nets you one or two decent players every once in awhile. That's what the minor league system is for. No one should have a problem with this.

I don't think anyone deserves to make $30M a year playing baseball only a decade after the $20M barrier was breached. Inflation hasn't hit us THAT hard?

I see the Cubs going all in after Pujols. They're a little short at the corners and in need of a real talent injection, and they have the money to pull it off. If you're looking for surprise markets, don't overlook the White Sox, Jays, Mariners and Orioles, any one of which could pony up more than they have done recently if they think it'll put their team in contention.

I was a dismal failure in the one accounting class I ever took, but that sounds right to me. Cost being an independent factor, as in you're always going to spend what it costs to start a process rolling in the hopes that it'll be balanced by earnings. Cost and profit can definitely coexist. Now if he was calling Drew as "sunk loss' then there'f be some reason to steam about it.

Please stop talking like I am referring, or ever have referred, to Nava as a superstar hitter. I like his style, appreciate a guy who can overcome a percieved lack of talent to crack the roster out of indy ball, and think of him as an adequate offensive fill-in if needed, that's pretty much it. Maybe if you'd stop reacting so hilariously every time I bring the guy up I'd get bored of it. I can't agree with 1 and 2 simultaneously anyway, because Nava's a factor in the Cameron question if only because he's our only minor league outfield depth that bats righthanded (switch hits, actually, but it's the righthanded side that's important). If Cameron goes down, Theo could go one of two ways -- call up the guy who can hit righthanded in a platoon and at least get on base, or go with maximum talent (Kalish) and have an all-lefty outfield. It's really a judgment call and either way, it's very likely Nava will be on the big league club for at least a game or two here and there depending on Cameron's health. So he is a factor, whether you consider him uninteresting or not.

In all actuality, he's right though, that's the definition of a sunk cost. The investment has been made, and now we have this guy, so the salary really shouldn't be that big a factor in the discussion. The only reason it has that other connotation is because the term generally comes up when we want to get rid of a guy, or when talking about, say, Daisuke's posting fee which we have no way of getting back.

Yeah, Kalish's availability as a replacement really takes the sting out of any concern about Drew's health. Or, for that matter' Cameron's. Add the fact that Reddick showed some signs of turning the corner towards the end of last year and Nava could at least fill in if the guy can't play for a few days, plus the fact that we just plain aren't in a position where we have to demand that Drew play at peak level anyway thanks to Crawford and Gonzalez, and I'm all kinds of not worried about Drew. He comes in and has an .850-.900 OPS season over 120 games played, all to the good. He comes in and has a .750 OPS, or misses significant time, then oh well, it was his last year anyway and we can work around that.

I'll say this on Schilling. Sometimes a HoF bid is better when you go out at the right time. The last pitch he threw was in a winning effort in Game 2 of the World Series. If there is ever a good way to end a career, winning a World Series game on the way to a sweep is that. It's better than trying to come back when you don't have it and leaving on a very sour note like many HoF pitchers do. And it cements his reputation as a dominant playoff pitcher far better than any other way that career could have ended. That 2008 contract and the medical thing? That'll be forgotten. Just one of those things where crap happens. I'm glad he went out when he did, he was near the edge of losing his stuff anyway and I had no real illusions that he'd be dominant in 2008 no matter what happened. As it is, other than a few dedicated haters he ensured he'll be remembered fondly.

Before we get too much into the doom and gloom of injuries, let's just take a second to appreciate the fact that we have some fair depth at the moment. A good replacement is all the difference between an injury being an abject disaster and a blessing in disguise. If we have injuries, we have actual solid prospects to replace most or all of the fallen, rather than schlubs C: Expo, Lavarnway 1B: Anderson, Lavarnway 2B, 3B, SS: Navarro, Iglesias LF, RF: Kalish, Reddick, Nava CF: Kalish, Reddick DH: Lavarnway That's solid. In fact that's better than solid in most of these positions. If Lavarnway can play adequate first base we have guys who we can play in every position that would probably be playing in the big leagues this year in a smaller market. The Second String Sox could probably win 65-70 games in the big leagues right now, depending on pitching.

At least the ones that survived were. A lot of the early ballplayers got hurt with injuries modern players can come back from too. As for Tito? I wouldn't be too quick to hit on his failures. The fact is that it's a whole HECK of a lot easier to catch a coach making a failed move than it is to catch him making the right move, and a lot of the time it comes down to the player on the mound doing his job. Judging a manager's job in the game is 1 part law of averages, 4 parts lighthouse fallacy. And Tito does more than enough off the field to deal with a few instances a year in which his crystal ball misfires.

I like Lowrie, but he isn't a base stealing threat, and Scutaro's 36 and only stole 5 in 150 games last year and has only cleared 10 SB once in his life. Expecting 10 between is ambitious. Also when it comes to all of Lowrie, Pedroia and Ellsbury I'd like to see them take it a little easy on the basepaths for the first couple months until we know they're 100% healthy and the extra physical risks won't do them in. And certainly Ellsbury in particular should not be sliding headfirst.

I expect them to be comfortably over 30. I never expect more than that from any speedster in a given year.

There were signs that validate that. He's been a fair bit better since he started taking his shoulder more seriously. If he doesn't let Japanese pride get in the way of his training and conditioning this year he could turn in a real solid effort. Dunno bout a 3.2 ERA though, that's a tall order for a guy who averages low 4's. Still though, even though Daisuke hasn't been what we'd hoped he'd be, he's still got a career 110 ERA+ for Boston. He's a good pitcher. Just not a $100M pitcher. The stuff has improved and his bb/9 has gone down each of the last 3 seasons so there is some room for hope. Also you're predicting a career year from Scutaro.

You've given us no reason to believe he will improve and several reasons to believe he will continue to be what he always has been -- talented but inconsistent.

I made that post open to a wide variety of interpretations for a reason. Enjoy.

Take a dump. A lot.