Dojji

Hooray!

Well that's it then, I guess they're counting on Doubront to take a step forward? Or is Miller just "in the mix?"

Or maybe he's the formal setup man, and use Bardo as the "relief ace."

If Daisuke's shoulder and Beckett's back behave this year this could be a fearsome team. The only thing that's got me truly worried about Daisuke is the fact that his k/9 is steadily dropping each year. He's got to put more hitters away on strikes if he wants to be competitive, especially with the rate at which he walks people.

He's in the pen, so both of them. They're not going to pull Tek for a relief appearance.

Uggh, I couldn't. I'd rather see what the Royals want for Robinson Tejeda, at least he's reasonably young and the price in talent and/or money won't be exaggerated by several years of closing. Aardsma and Jenks scream inconsistency, and that's not good alchemy with an AL East schedule. And as former closers both are likely to be overpaid. I could stand one or the other plus a solid setup lefty, but not both. If there's any way you could get Tejeda out of the Royals for a prospect like Che-Hsuan Lin or Yamaico Navarro, guys that are blocked here but fill a need where they're going, I'd rather go that route. I love Tejeda's stuff and hes just entering his prime, that's worth paying a little more for. That, or I try to find a way to steal Hong-Chi Kuo from the Dodgers -- not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Scrimp no. think outside the box, perhaps. Have it blow up in his face, sure but the big contract is a good bet to do that too because relievers on the whole are pitchers who don't have the talent to start.

We have a good power hitting RHH OF who's going to be on our bench this year unless we move Cameron. Crawford isn't strictly a platoon guy, but he doesn't have to be in order to be sitting against the very toughest lefthanders. We always do that with a guy with platoon struggles, if we have a strong platoon hitter on the bench. That doesn't make Crawford a "platoon player," that's just you overstressing a mismatch to make it sound more significant.

One thing I've always loved about Crawford is that he just seems like a good guy. He's been heavily involved in RBI for example, and has done a lot of good work in TB. He's a really good face guy for a franchise, probably why the Rays used him as such, and he strikes me as leadership material even for a bigger franchise like Boston. I don't mind a few jerks on the roster if we have to have 'em, I loved Pedro like everyone else for example, but it's nice to know that there's some genuinely decent folks on your team too.

George Kottaras would look pretty good in a Sox uniform right now instead of, say, released for nothing on waivers to make room for the Jerry Hermida debacle.

My posting style isn't particularly nuanced, Dipre. It's not that hard to follow along with me if you're willing to commit to a bit of basic reading comprehension. I don't expect him to mash lefties like that or put up a .900 OPS. I'm just saying, don't rule it out entirely. He has all the raw talent he'd need to hit at a very high level, the only question is is he gonna put it together this year? Remember, this is a guy who was a contemporary of Pedroia and considered just about as talented before the injury parade started, I see no reason why we can't hope for John Valentin type numbers out of him through his prime.

I don't think it's quite that obvious. I agree that just predicting him to maintain it would be silly, but on the other hand the kid has a very good offensive pedigree and has always been regarded as a shortstop with significant offensive potential -- or as a 2B with same. People accuse me of overselling Lowrie at .800 OPS. My firm opinion is that if he puts it together this year, and stays healthy, that's his floor, and we go up from there.

And Blanton wouldn't have been a fit in the longman role of our bullpen becaauuuuuuse....

Rumor sez we've agreed in principle to a 7 year extension to Gonzo starting in 2012, so counting the 2011 season in which we already have his rights, that's 8. Not the greatest math, but the logic checks out at least.

Holy crap. Well, that's one of the joys of the hot stove season. Two teams striving to outdo each other for a player's services and he takes less money to sign with a third? Unreal.

Except that none of us really thought the transition would succeed this brilliantly. I was expecting a true "return to fundamentals" and a lot of growing pains as a result as the youngsters were slowly and painstakingly crafted into a football team. Apparently I hadn't counted on the fact that a lot of the slow, painstaking crafting happened last year after a number of our defensive stalwarts went down or moved on giving these guys all kinds of playing time. I think everyone kinda suspected it might turn out something like this, if for no other reason than "never understimate what BB can get done with a talented young team." I didn't call it because I didn't want to be the one out there talking out of my posterior. It's no secret football's only, like, my third sport behind baseball and hockey in terms of what I know about the innards of it. So all I did was hint around the edges about a mobe made while there was still postseason to play for, instead of being bold enough to make a solid prediction. Should have trusted my instincts. Oh well.

Couldn't quite let this go by. Jacko, as accurate and prescient as usual in his discussion of things New England sports related.

I never ruled out this version of the Pats making a playoff run. I freely admit they vastly exceeded my expectations, I was thinking "last minute squeaker for the wild card" rather than "lock up the division" but they didn't need to do this well to do what I called -- master the short game the way the Patriots always have and get in somehow. My only point, and it's one I raised in page 1, is that the Patriots know exactly how to do what they have to do to win without Moss, and in that sense I was proven 1,000% right. If this season does nothing else, it should dispel the "Tom Brady is nothing special" stuff as the last excuses the handful of die-hard holdouts have been clinging to desperately disappear one by one. Yes he can play up-tempo offense. Yes he can run a potent offense. Yes he can do it without Randy Moss. There'll always be a few idiots in total denial, but it's time to consign them to the hopeless pile and move on. Oh and Emmz? Never mistake a young defense for a bad defense. New England's D squad may have come out the gate slow, but they were always a young, very talented group and they're in the hands of a very good coaching staff. I'll admit I didn't really see them coming into their own until next year, that just goes back to what I said about the coaches though. BB has done it to the league again. :harhar: Oh, and only a total blank-stair, straitjacket idiot fails to recognize that the short game can generate tons of offense. We were highlighting ball control because I don't think any of us saw Woodhead, Hernandez and Gronkowski stepping up the way they have, but this version of the Patriots offense is kind of the ur-example of the short game done perfectly. Less deep throws -- a lot less -- and far more running after the catch than they did with Moss. Since Brady has 5 different guys he can throw to in a given play, any of who can make the catch and then run awhile, I might even venture to say the recieving game has improved in the post-Moss era, drastically. People who called that were called delusional on page 1. I wasn't that brave, now I'm wishing I had done.

Gotta pick someone out of the AL Central. There needs to be a rule that if there's, say, a 95 win team sitting out of the playoffs and the weakest division winner has 85 wins or less, then the 85 win "champ" sits out in favor of the much better Wild Card caliber team. They still get their division pennant, but not the playoff berth that normally goes with it -- that goes to a team that wins games.

Live to serve, guys. Live to serve.

WAAAA WAAAA THE SOX AREN'T A FINISHED PRODUCT SEVERAL MONTHS BEFORE SPRING TRAINING WAAAAA!!! http://www.thewolverineblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/oh-noes.jpg

Papelbon has really massive hands.

I would have no problem running Scutaro out there except for two things. 1 There's a superior player on the bench who's better than Scutaro at all facets of the game. Lowrie's downside is about as good as an average Scutaro year. The only time he's come up with a season line as bad as Scutaro's career averages was when he was obviously still injured in 2009. If Lowrie hits up to his career averages, which factor in a lot of time in which Lowrie was banged up and underperforming between 08 and 09, he's still a better hitter than Scutaro's best year ever in 2009. And the defense is not close. Scutaro's never been a great defender, solid hands but no range, Lowrie is effective in all facets of shorstop defense, huge advantage Lowrie. And it's going to be even more dramatic now that we no longer have Beltre out there cheating towards the middle to help out the shortstops. Youks is competent at 3B but he isn't the defensive monster Beltre was, especially range-wise. 2: Scutaro's own health concerns. The fact is that the player who finished last year with multiple documented injuries, and whose performance suffered accordingly as result, was not Jed Lowrie. All known issues of Jed's injury past are in the past, this... neck and shoulder thing of Scutaro's is a sign of something bigger IMHO and we won't know for sure if it's gone until we start seeing him in action next year, there was talk last year that it might need surgery and as far as I know, he never got it. A middle infielder with problems with his neck/spine and shoulder is big trouble in the making. If I had to pick who to use conservatively and who to lean on, I'd trust the younger body out there and conserve Scutaro's playing time until I was sure he's healthy. If he WAS the starter, I'd STILL go half-and-half with Jed and Scoot in April to make sure I know what I'm getting from both guys when the pressure's still low. The fact that a .761 OPS would be among the better performances for a starting American League SS in 2010 should enter the picture as well, the standards offensively for a shortstop are very low right now, and we have a chance with Lowrie to blow the door off of them. Since it wouldn't even involve a roster move it's a chance we should go after.