Dojji

Of the options, I like Beltran. I think he'll kill the ball when we play NYY at NYS. And he's a great all around player when healthy.

Waste of $5M. I'd rather deal him and invest in a replacement utility guy, or have Navarro on the roster to play utility.

In consecutive sentences, no less.

I think Manny is a possibility, but I'm flat stinking broke and I don't believe in gambling. A short 1 year commitment to Manny makes all kinds of practical sense if you can get past the emotion of it.

So sort of like Ramiro Pena, then, who you ridiculously overhyped.

http://www.soxprospects.com/players/britton-drake.htm Really had a breakout year this year after weathering several injuries in the previous few. Scouts say he's hitting the mid 90's and he had a dominant year in Greenville at age 21. Starting to generate some serious buzz again. Probably needs to be brought along a little gently in terms of workload and innings limit, but the talent is there. What do people see from this guy 3 years from now? Good power LHSP? Late inning LHRP due to injury and workload concerns? Bloody stump where his left arm used to be?

They did nicely with Dunn.

Sounds to me like the D-Backs' commitment to GFIN back when they first came into existence is still biting them in the butt. That's a team in debt, my friends, and finances are going to dictate their moves for a long time to come. On the other hand, they have hardware in the cupboard because of it and some of the most exciting playoff ball in baseball history, I'm pretty sure Zona fans still don't regret it.

Well we have a nice stable of midlevel guys to get something done that not too many of us would weep to part with but would benefit teams with weakness in their positions.. Luis Exposito, Che-Hsuan Lin, Yamaico Navarro, Stolmy Pimentel, guys like that. I wouldn't deal Felix Doubront for a triviality because he's an immediate option for the pen but he's expendable in the right deal. Ditto for Ryan Lavarnway who even if he can't stick at C has positioned himself as a very promising 1B/DH prospect because of the bat. We've got some pieces we can deal that we can afford to part with, in other words.

He was a rookie playing in the bigs for the first time after tearing through AA and AAA. A rough start is not that surprising. Especially because he wasn't exactly playing every day. Moreover, every sample we have from Navarro suggests that he struggles at first, and then adjusts and comes back much stronger his second time through at a given level. I don't think there's any particular reason to doubt Navarro's transition to MLB at this time. I think his ceiling is at least somewhere in the Cristian Guzman range

Mahay? Plznoplznonoplz.

THey keep trying stuff like this, eventually something's gonna work.

My first reaction is to reject the idea, but the more I look at Willingham, the more that looks non-terrible.

Probably traded. We have no holes at second or third and shorstop has 2 strong candidates other than him, and we need relief help. Besides, young shortstops are one of the more fungible assets on a team. Just about everyone is interested if they're going around.

So would that mean that YN is second on the chart right now behind Lowrie if we move Scoot?

No, it should be Yamaico Navarro. No question in my mind... Of course it should be Lowrie. The Sox brass have sent every signal they possibly could this offseason by shopping Scutaro aggressively that they think Jed Lowrie should take over the shortstop position in 2011. If he can't, Jose Iglesias makes one heck of a fallback option, but Lowrie is clearly Plan A. They actually have some nice depth in short right now between Lowrie, Iglesias and Navarro. We already know about the first two. I know everyone always underestimates the heck out of Navarro but he's a viable option who could be ready to play by midseason, and the fact that he's blocked five ways to Sunday kinda reinforces my point about depth. When you're stuck behind guys who are as talented and as ready as Lowrie and Igelsias, it's time to get traded, so I expect to see him shopped for an established relief arm before the end of the offseason. If Scutaro's moved, he might crack the roster as a utility guy, but I suspect he'd be more valuable to another team. I could see the Royals accepting a deal that brought him over, there are other teams smarting at short who wouldn't mind giving a 23 year old shortstop who has a solid half year of AAA under his belt a chance to impress them too. And that's assuming Boston would mind. So in my mind, we have 3 young shortstops in that mix any one of which could turn into at least an above average player, that can only be a good thing.

Why not? He's coming off a pretty danged decent year out west. If you can't get power, go for speed, and we know Coco can play here defensively. There's more positives to taking a look, especially if Coco's healthy, than there are drawbacks.

Eesh, I don't know about Ordonez. Something about him just triggers my "Don't Go There" alarms.

There is one former Indian we might look at. Coco isn't a power hitter though. He does get on base and run, at least when he's healthy he can. If the pickings are that slim, work him in with Ellsbury and Cameron in CF/LF. He can hit a little, and is great defensively.

Guys, they're going to start Kalish in the outfield, or run Cameron out there until he gets hurt then call up Kalish. Either way, the answer is Kalish.

Kalish. That surprised no one did it? More seriuously, I think RK is in a great position to take the next step next year. He's not that far from effectiveness as it is, if he can get his average into the .275 range and get a couple more over the wall over a full season he could be quite a fine asset for the team If the issue is next year, the answer may be Reddick. Like Rizzo, he had a crap first half (not helped when we kept jerking him around between AAA and MLB), and then bounced back strong in the second half. He does need at least the one more year of development, but his ceiling's where it always was and he's gaining consistency. If that fails, no real good FA's but you can probably make a trade. Any number of OF's move around in a given trade season, some of them pretty decent, and it's one of the easiest kinds of acquisitions to fit into a team in midseason if Plan A doesn't work out.

I'd rather sign Werth and have Drew in left field.