Dojji

Power isn't everything. He's got great contact ability, and he's already shown strong line drive gap ability, which is better than sporadic homers most of the time. If he an gain consistency with his batting average/OBP at the big league level there is no reason whatsoever he can't be a great 4th OF.

Even with that he doesn't stack up to Youk in terms of consistency. It's not as big an issue now, but as he gets older the boogeymen he's earned his way past now will reassert themselves. Might seem that way but I'm not sure it's true. He needs to put himself in position to earn a job when Drew and Cameron's contracts expire, but I'd say that as far as "make or break" goes, that's more 2012 for Reddick.

OBP in youkilis' first 3 years: .367, .400, .381. OBP in Werth's first 4 years, .340, .255, .338, .338 Yeah, Youk was a little light on power, but he was an effective and consistent corner IF. Werth was not an effective and consistent corner OF. He's exhibit A on exactly WHY you don't fuss about players, even at corner positions, who have high OBP but less than normal SLG.

Actually yes, although Youk > Werth, and Werth had more chances to break in younger than Youk and couldn't do it. The thing with Youk v. Werth is that when Youkilis did get playing time in his mid 20's, he was effective, that's not so true of Werth. Youk was just a guy squeezed out of playing time he might have otherwise earned -- Werth was GIVEN the time, and was inconsistent Also Youk has better tools than Werth all around I'm still not sure what even Youk will be at age 36 though. It's a concern.

Late bloomers are early declininers far more often than not. I am very cautious of Werth. He bhas all the hallmarks of an exception, but so did a lot of players that weren't.

I think Nava, McDonald and Kalish will be fighting it out for bench duty next year.

I'm on board the Crawford express if it doesn't cost us Ellsbury. The possibility of Ellsbury and Crawford together at the top of the lineup is a really appealing one. Even if they are both lefties, that's still a sexy, sexy one-two punch. (with Crawford, obviously, batting 2)

*applause* That looks like a pretty loaded draft. Cecchini and Ranaudo are potential impact players.

Salty makes it easy IMHO. The guy who makes the decision hard is Tek. He's looked a lot better in a part-time role and was a big help when he was in the field this year and emotionally... well it's kind of like the decision you guys have upcoming with Jeter, it's going to be a wrench not having Varitek on the team. Only if we fail to lose Tek this offseason is there any controversy at all. If Tek moves on to coaching or signs somewhere else, then it's Victor and Salty or Salty and Wagner. If he stays, it cold get complicated, if only because I think Salty's out of options.

I'm just fooling around, but you know, a guy with that kind of contact/OBP talent, if he had a great year could really stretch a lineup out. And if you take him out of SS you get rid of his primary weakness (his complete and utter inability to easily handle a ball to his right)

yeah, give up on V-Mart to 1B, besides, there's no great defensive catchers to sign anyway and V-Mart's bat, as great as it is for a catcher, isn't that impressive at first anyway..

I wonder if he can play third base...

It's been stable this year because there was no reason to do it any other way, as 3B was not in the air. However, Tito has never shown any compunction about playing Youkilis at third and filling in 1B as best he could when the situation called for it.

Beltre has been healthy and dominant at 3B all year. The year before when Lowell was hurt Youks was playing 3B quite regularly. The fact that he hasn't shifted players around when there was no actual reason to do so means rather little. EDIT: Most utterly ninja'd.

Yeah, that was Plan A, balance out both catchers at C and 1B to keep their knees fresher and hope you could get 140 games out of both bats, and use Youkilis at 1B with someone like Lowrie at third for the balance of the time or in late innings.

Mathis and Morales, mostly. That and the fact that he doesn't play well into Scioscia's preferences. He has no problem with OBP, but Scioscia likes guys who put the ball in play, advance the baserunners, go first to third, etc. and Napoli's a three true outcomes guy, which doesn't mesh well with what LAA's trying to do. You can see the results in his playing time -- it's not too many teams that combine both A: having troubles with offense and B: sticking a 20-25 HR bat with the potential for more on the bench or restricting him to halftime duty. Napoli needs out of Anaheim.

Nah, it's just that I think Napoli's the closest guy to the point where you get all the things Boston needs out of their corner infield/catcher/slugging RHH trade target. Not that he's so great, but more that he fits so many different separate needs in ONE guy, which when you start doing roster math is pretty important. With the departure of Beltre, we'll be short on RHH power. Righthanded power is one of Napoli's better positive attributes. We will be looking for EITHER a catcher OR a first baseman OR a third baseman, presming we sign V-Mart. Napoli can't help us at third, but Youkilis can, and Napoli can play either of the other two positions. We need a guy whose team might actually part with him for a reasonable ROI. I've covered upthread why I think Napoli is one of the better candidates for that. Parting with a Fielder or Gonzalez is a major franchise decision and takes a bigger price by definition. Parting with a guy who you already have 2 players who can cover his positions and whose skillset is at odds with your team philosophy... well, you'll still want a fair price, but you won't force people to overpay. Defense is one of the bigger issues with such a proposed trade, of course, and that is a weakness, but frankly we're going to lose something of our infield defense on the corners no matter what we do -- Adrian Beltre will almost certainly not be in a Sox uniform this time next year. Since I can't think of a single really decent FA third baseman other than Beltre (which is a big factor in why I think he's gone), it's going to be Youks at third next year and we bless his versatility for giving us that option. Just shore up the MI defense as much as you can and get a good backup for the 9th and call it good.

Depends on how comfortable they are going into next season with a top 3 of Jered Weaver, dan Haren and Ervin Santana. Can go either way, I suppose, but that definitely wouldn't be enough in the AL East, especially with the complete disintegration of Scott Kazmir.

it's that tendency that makes me think he'd make a good bench coach and manager

The Angels are going to be a strong contender for Lee's services. They have money and their rotation was a big disappontment this year. Expect them to be in with both feet. If Lee decides he likes the West Coast, they could walk off with him.

Not only do I think that Ellsbury is here to stay, I think that the price on Kemp would be an unpleasant surprise. The Dodgers saw what happened with Alexis Rios just like everyone else did.

You skip a step if the "catcher" you grab is Napoli. Just saying.

Theo has committed to Saltalamacchia. specifically he's committed 4 prospects to Saltalamacchia. I'm 99% certain Salty will be in the majors as one of our two catchers come Hell or high water, so you get to choose between Tek and V-Mart as the other one. I'd say the choice is fairly obvious.

Bogar wasn't the biggest reason for what's happened this year, but it's hard to deny that he's *a* reason. I know that DeMarlo Hale fully earned his promotion to bench coach, but we have an outright liability playing his best "position." Since he's established that he makes a decent bench coach, I don't think his managerial credentials would be hurt that much by putting him back at the hot corner and I think it would make us a better team. Occupying the time between Dale Sveum and T im Bogar will exaggerate peoples' opinion of his skills as a 3B coach of course, but I can't honestly think of very many situations where he's sent a runner to his easy death like Bogar has done 5-6 times this year. And he's just right freaking there, on the payroll even, all you'd have to do is relieve Bogar of his duties and stick him out there. As for who would fill the bench coach duties... well Varitek isn't doing anything significant to the team right now.

We've already lost one young catcher to our unability to let Varitek go. Kottaras would have been useful when all we had to trot out there was Cash and Molina, and he isn't sucking in Milwaukee. I can't believe we're also going to sacrifice Saltalamacchia to the same pagan idol. He's going to be here, backing up V-Mart if not starting himself with V-Mart at first I would absolutely LOVE to keep Varitek around in a coaching capacity, he's got the perfect mentality to switch into that role, and I want him around to be the next manager if Francona's health betrays him. Shift DeMarlo Hale back to third base coach (PLEASE!!!!) and install Tek as the bench coach. Or install him as the bullpen coach. But his days in the field are done.