Dojji

Crawford and Napoli are hardly mutually exclusive, so the question of which one improves the team more is not relevant. As for defense at the corners, yes it does take a hit, but not as huge as all that, and the "hit" is going to happen anyway -- I can't think of a 3B who's worth spit on the FA market other than Beltre, and I don't think he's going to want to stick around. Youkilis is an effective 3B and Napoli has looked decent in his sample at 1B this year. Neither of them are gold glove caliber, but we're not going to be able to keep Beltre around regardless and power-hitting veteran third baseman are simply not to be had, so Youks is going to third base this offseason no matter what anyway And I really disagree about the production thing. Not only would the wall boost his numbers, but even if it didn't, if you extrapolate Napoli's numbers out to 450-500 at bats he's got a lot of seasons where he was on pace for 25-30 or more homers. If the Monster can help him get his batting average back into the .270 range this guy could be really effective offensively. And all we really need him to be is about a 6-hitter anyway, so it's not like being a member of the pack offensively at first base (and permitting Youk to be WAY ahead of the pack at third) wouldn't be exactly what we needed.

Rather promote Kalish than rely on signing Crawford. Half the league is going to be gunning for the guy and most of them are likely to be more desperate than we are. I suspect he's a Mariner next year. Seattle's GOT to make a splash this offseason and Crawford's a great fit for what that team is trying to be. This team absolutely needs two things next year: Relief help and a corner infielder. That's where the money and trade pieces need to go. I really don't like the FA targets at first base very much -- Lee is interesting but Pena rubs me wrong and Dunn is a DH and beyond that the options are not great. We may wind up accepting a substandard solution there unless we are prepared to make a real material sacrifice. What I want at corner infield is a guy we commit to for 2-3 years, after which time we review our options and see what Rizzo and Anderson have been up to in the meantime. That doesn't mean I'll get it, but the guy I want will be someone who gives us that option. Right now I think that might mean a short-term commitment to Lee, especially if Cameron starts the year on the DL or goes there for some reason and we wind up with 3 lefthanded outfielders. If he sucks, we have options, both Rizzo and Anderson have a chance to be ready by midseason if all goes well The reason I like the idea of giving up a prospect for Mike Napoli is that he's one of the few under-30 first base types who you actually know might be available. A lot of the guys better than him are much less expendable, even Gonzalez might not be on the block if the Padres think they can take another run at a pennant before they lose him. Sure, Napoli's not twisting in the wind -- he Angels could crowd him in at DH I suppose, but they have players they like that duplicate is skills so they ought to be able to see their way to making a reasonable deal As for why Napoli from a Sox perspective, I think that Napoli's got plus righthanded power that our wall would help. The wall isn't going to help a HR hitter, but it will boost doubles and BA from the right side. A few more of the fly balls that he hits when he does make contact smacking against the Monster would raise his BA somewhere around .020 or so, a critical jump for a career.256 hitter. And there is a chance that the Boston offensive philosophy might mesh with Napoli's natural style and he does a Papi. Not banking on it of course, you'd be a fool if you did, but the chance is definitely there. Scioscia likes aggressive guys who make contact and move the baserunner, which is just about the opposite of Mike "Strikeout" Napoli. Boston is much better prepared to handle a Three True Outcomes guy -- so in that sense Napoli is a better fit here than he ever was in LAA, and maybe a different look that plays into his style more will allow him to "click." So Napoli isn't the sexy pick, but in my honest opinion he's the clever pick -- if we picked him up and he played 1B for us for a full season I think we'd all be pleasantly surprised and what he came up with offensively. And if not, you're not out that much and are a year or so closer to Rizzo, so the stakes aren't huge.

On the decline does not mean bad. I'd take what Papelbon is doing even with all the hiccups right now over more than half of the other closers in the league. When people are up in arms that their closer has "only" a 137 ERA+, that's silly.

Need to reevaluate the pen, definitely. Need to overreact to one year from any relief pitcher, definitely *not*

We'll have opportunities to sign pitchers between now and then. I'm not convinced that Doubront is a guy we need to obsess about keeping, especially with Richardson flashing some nice stuff in his rookie campaign. Trading Doubront atm is trading from a position of depth. It'd depend on what we could talk out of other teams, obviously, but you always contemplate doing that if you think it improves your team. My Doubront trade scenario is something like Doubront for Napoli, although I can't blame others for not going for it. Napoli's a slugger with high power potential who I think would solve our issues at 1B but there's no denying he'd be a bit of a project.

Oh, Lin's a prospect, the big question is does he at least have enough pop in his bat to get the ball over the third baseman's head. Everything else is about as well established as a guy in the minors can be.

That still leaves 29 other teams. Lefties with #3 starter potential (which is about where I see Prince Felix) are very fungible. It's pretty easy to turn them into other players via trade since everyone really likes to have one.

I don't want to see this kid wasted on the bullpen longterm. He can start. If it'll get him into the majors and get him used to facing big league hitters, a couple years in the pen won't kill him -- heck, Curt Schilling started that way and he's probably a Hall of Famer. But longterm he's got to be seen as a starter IMHO.

Bard is an amazing pitcher, he's the best reliever on the staff easily this year. This year.

At what point do you bite the bullet, decide you're a contender and call up Che-Hsuan Lin as your defensive CF? He's the best guy in the system for the job. It's not like anyone's asking him to hit anway, he'd play everyday, and he's doing alright (not worldbeating but OK) in Portland so he's theoretically "in range."

No crap. Not a huge Mike Cameron fan. Nothing personal, I just feel he was the wrong solution for the wrong problem.

Indeed. Learn the lesson of Mike Lowell. If you've got a guy that's hurt, let him take care of the injury, 2 years of all but complete uselessness could have been averted if Mike hadn't aggravated his injury by trying to play third base on it every day for a month.

Good for RWML. If he can get it all back he'll become one of the great feel-good stories in baseball. From the sounds of it he may be able to participate in XST next year. Wouldn't that be impressive.

http://isportacus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/swine-flu-panic-button.jpg

Yes, by all means let's criticize Ellsbury for not playing hurt as often as we like, and then criticize him again for failing to play brilliantly through injury when he is on the field. Because the Truisms of Fan-Dumb must be upheld..

Why? Because Adrian Beltre broke his ribs in a head-on collision? Guy's hurt, he's hurt, you can't just "grit, guts and glory" yourself out of broken ribs. And the healing process there is slow and there can be many setbacks -- heck, if your ribs are cracked sneeze too hard you can get set back to square one. I mean, if it was a bruise or a sprain, sure, I might be right there with you, but calling a guy's toughness into question for not playing through injury when he's got broken ribs is ridiculous

Well, if he feels that way about it I'd be happy to trade for him. I'm not convinced his psychological problems would be that big an issue in a town where he would have a better chance of being "just another good pitcher in a rotation full of them" rather than being "the guy" in a small market.

Talk I expect to see. Action I don't.

No they can't, the FA market isn't going to yield the Sox 2 setup men. Yeah they can cover the salaries, but they ain't gonna find 'em.

Guillen isn't that good. If the guy carrying your team is a corner outfielder with a .743 OPs you're better off trying a few young players and attempting to catch lightning in a bottle. That said, if you take a look at what KC has coming up the pipe, it's getting a bit scary. Moustakas isn't that great, but they have a lot of very good arms and a couple interesting bats such as Myers and Hosmer coming up in the next couple years. Moore's done a whole lot of nothing in the big league roster and Meche and Guillen have bit him as predicted, but that's a huge tidal wave of youth he's accumulated down in Omaha and Northwest Arkansas. THREE different pitchers with lefthanded ace potential in Montgomery, Lamb and Duffy. Four or five different guys who could make a case for themselves as KC's top prospect. If they manage to hold onto Greinke to head the staff, they dcould make some noise in the next couple years.

So what? at the end of that trend you're still left with a quality pitcher. So what's your point? Assuming that a trend will continue in exactly that direction with no variation for an entire career is idiotic, so I really hope that's not what you were trying to establish.

OK, now for the big question: WHY did the Giants bother to trade for a guy the Royals were within 2 days of releasing outright? Oh, and the Royals' best player is Zack Greinke, and if you limit it to position players, it's Billy Butler.

Don't forget Anthony Rizzo. And I don't think they gave up on this season, they just didn't decide to sacrifice major franchise assets this year and couldn't pull a lesser deal that made an impact.

So could I, but I'd rather hold onto Ellsbury. His kind of speed is too hard to find.