Dojji

No, man, it's a fact. Sorry to bust your bubble, but when you can't even agree on what the top priority should be in improving the team at the deadline (I saw all of those examples from various Sox fans in this forum) then you have a flawed team and need to take it back to the drawing board.

Needs to be a medium for filing complaints, like if there have been like 5 formal protests about a guy, he's reviewed and if there's a clear problem he's suspended pending a hearing -- give the teams some way to deal with a guy who's being a nut. As long as no one's able to do anything about an abusive ump but the umpire's union there's going to keep being problems.

They're making the best case possible for insant replay to take the game out of their incompetent egotistical hands.

You ask 5 different guys what we should have done at the deadline, you get 5 different responses. Our needs included a pitcher, power bat, outfielder, catcher, leadoff hitter. How many holes do you think you're going to fill at the deadline? At some point the best plan is just to play through and fix it in the offseason.

My point is more that value is definitely going LAA's way. I would love to trade for Napoli if LAA is game.

The Angels have little reason not to pull him back. They still have a couple years control of the guy. Unless Theo already has a working agreement on a trade that would involve a significant Boston asset going the other way, I don't think it happens.

NWIH Napoli clears waivers. And I doubt that the Angels let him go if claimed even though Napoli isn't a great fit in Anaheim because his raw power is a huge asset. If we could get him though, I'd be thrilled. He has enormous potential to be helpful to this team

The useless scrub cashes in. That was a quality line drive by a guy whose whole idea coming to bat is to do exactly that

I could go for Abreu at the right price. Don't like gumming up our outfield with him in 2011, but it can work out I think.

I'd go after Downs first rounder or not, if I didn't think at least a handful of teams are going to be scouting him as a possible closer. If he wants to close, nothing we offer will do to get him here, because he will not close here.

Prolly Reddick. Point is though, the franchise doesn't consider a callup a "rush" any time after a player has played for a couple weeks in AAA and has made that clear in the past. Navarro has demonstrated enough progress that IMHO he's somewhere around our #6 prospect when you combine performance, tools, age, present skill level and projectability.

The obvious trade target is probably the Dodgers. They have a ton of interesting high-leverage arms right now. I'd trade real value for Keney Jansen for example

Satellite says nothing huge and wet-looking north of about Virginia. We'll be wet tomorrow but I think tonight's OK unless it's really fast-moving.

That bush leaguer is still outhitting the epic stud that is 36 year old Johnny Damon on the year, and he's been doing it with patchy playing time that prevents him from finding consistency. Nava deserves a chance to see what he does over a couple weels of consistently starting in LF before we even seriously think about giving up on the guy. Especially because his season numbers even with spotty time are, frankly, not too freaking bad.

and what kind of career is Damon looking forward to from this point? Yeah I thought so. Kinda pointless to bring up projections when they flatter neither player. I'll take a "limited" skillset gladly when it focuses as much on excellent contact skills as Nava's does. A contact hitter with line drive gap power and decent defense in left over the monolith of awesomeness that is a 36 year old Johnny Damon trying to hit in a park built for the guy he was 10 years ago? Sign me up. Especially because unlike Damon, Nava is actually going to be here next year, and may benefit from the experience.

Damon has stolen a whopping 9 bases this year, so while he still has his good timing, the once-vaunted speed is no longer a major factor. Nava has a higher OBP and higher SLG than Damon. Neither one is a big home run hitter, but Nava puts the bat on the ball well better than Johnny Damon still does, even if he doesn't do it as well as Damon once did (but no longer does). Nava knows how to throw a baseball more than 5 feet on the fly, giving him a decisive defensive advantage. Nava is also a fair bet to maintain or improve on his offensive skills with playing time. Damon, at best, is what he is, at worst, well he is a 36 year old with a high dependence on speed, those really don't age all that well.

No he doesn't. There, see what I did? I provided just as much supporting evidence as you and asserted the opposite conclusion. Now the next person who wants to make an assertion along these lines had better come in here with supporting evidence if he doesn't want to look like a babbling idiot.

Not sure why Damon is such a definite improvement when Nava has better numbers and Damon's defense has completely disintegrated. Never acquire a player based on how good he used to be. Ever.

Yeah yeah, Drew is a woman, haven't heard that one before. Get some new material. And if Scutaro's that hurt, sit him and call up Navarro. Nothing that jeapordizes his ability to play next year if allowed to aggrivate should be tolerated at this point. We failed to learn that lesson when it was Lowell and look what happened. Playing hurt is not smart. It is not gritty. It is just a future PITA waiting to happen if you manage to be so self-sacrificingly boneheaded you manage to get things aggrivated and not be able to perform anymore.

Or unless he's hurt. What was that about a herniated disc? Also, Scutaro is playing at or slightly below his career level. Kinda hard to say he hasn't regressed when his OBP -- probably his best feature -- dipped from .379 all the way to .336. He's always been this guy, it's just that it turns out it's adequate starting SS material as well as decent utility stuff. I have nothing against Scutaro. I just think he's the safe option at a time when Theo needs to be taking a chance on a guy who could be better. Were trying to make up ground on some very good teams and we need all the help we can get.

You can't divorce the speed component from the OBP. The point of the guy in the 1 hole is to score runs, if he gets on base a bit less frequently but has the speed to score more often, that actually balances out (which is something the OBP-o-philes sometimes overlook). Ideally of course you do want the guy with the .370 OBP and the brilliant speed and 15-20 HR power as well, and while I'm at it I'd like a million dollars, a Hummer, and a lifetime's supply of bacon. He's been hurt once. Yes, it was a doozy, but it was one injury, of the lingering wrist variety. He's been over it for more than a year now, the issue that kept him out most of this year was a viral infection, you really can't call a guy for being injured when the problem is he's sick. And frankly he's been hitting better now than he was before he got hurt. You're never going to know what you have in a guy like Jed unless you turn him loose. He *has* the ability to be an effective starting SS, he's a solid defender, and there's maybe 5 shortstops in the league who are definitely better than he is offensively even if you regress him towards the mean in a bigger sample. If he falters or sucks, you not only have Scutaro, you also have Iglesias and potentially Navarro on hand to take up the slack, but Jed is quite probably the best all around SS of the 4 right now and he needs to be getting chances to prove one way or the other whether he can translate that talent into a starting job. If for no other reason than for trade bait -- if you can prove this guy's a starting shortstop, with a bat like he's got, he immediately becomes our most fungible piece. Shortstops with .350 OBP's and gap/doubles power or better are pure gold right now, the idea that we have one that is potentially available for trade will keep a lot of GM's on the phone with Theo.

Meh

.336 OBP in leadoff is not my definition of admirable, especially if it comes with no particular speed and only an average glove at short. We could have done better..