Dojji

but not a bad one. And he had his great moments. And he'll be remembered, which is a success all its own.

Uggh. Hermida coming back probably means Nava goes down. A definite overall downgrade based on what we've seen from the two men. There's a point beyond which you should favor the veteran over the rookie. Taking one of our best switch hitting bench bats off the roster to put a poor defensive LF with poor ability to make contact with the baseball on it is well short of that point.

He has made significant progress since he came back from his latest rehab.

Frankly, this terrifies me. I'm afraid we might bring Kyle Farnsworth to Boston in exchange for actual talent.

It's official: Ibarra signed for a reported 4.3 mil. A guy who can play catcher, outfield, 3B and 2B? And supposedly has a refined approach at the plate? And is potentially as little as 1-2 years away at the time of signing? For $4M? Score.

Yeah, Pedey's really a bit too far out to count on yet. That's why I'm hoping Lowrie can get himself ready and answer the call sometime in the next week. It depends on what Theo's looking for in a recovered Lowrie but since he's rehabbing in Paw I'd like to hope he's just about ready, and desperate as we are for a MI I'd like to think that if he IS ready, Theo won't dick around..

So since, unless something goes wrong AGAIN, Lowrie's going to be making a (probably brief) appearance back in the big leagues sometime in the next couple weeks, and with Pedey still out, it's time to ask an important question. Lowrie SS Scutaro 2B Or Scutaro SS Lowrie 2B? Pros to Lowrie starting at SS: Natural position with most of his experience there Scutaro has far more experience at 2B than Lowrie does. MLB SSS UZR/150 miles better than Scutaro's largely league-average rate -- may well be the better defensive SS Pros to Lowrie playing 2B Possibly an "easier" position for a recovering player who hasn't played in awhile Projects as a better position for Lowrie long-term Scutaro is "established" as our SS and Lowrie's return shouldn't change that before he's earned the privilege by proving himself healthy and effective. I still believe that long-term Jed still has every chance to surprise us by being a competent, healthy SS in the longish term. Yes, the injury definitely sucked and really hurt Lowrie's chances to make an impression, but I suspect all the talent he ever had is still there. And yes, I'm not stupid enough to think Lowrie will play every day as soon as he's called back up, they'll monitor him carefully and only start him when they think he's healthy, he probably starts off as the utility man, bla bla, yeah I get that. I can be a little gullible and overenthusiastic, but I'm not prepared to admit to being THAT stupid, but Pedroia's injury does give him a window to reestablish himself if he can get fully prepared in time. And yeah, I'm gonna hear the argument that he should stay in AAA, but the guy's going to be dealing with the physical stress of being a ballplayer whichever team he plays for and that's the only reasonable question about Jed Lowrie right now, at least until he gets back on the field and presents us with other ones. With Pedroia out I'd far rather have Lowrie work out his rehab in a utility role backing up Scutaro and Hall, or even starting over one of them, than starting in AAA with almost exactly the same physical rigors (more, since in Pawtucket Lowrie's the everyday guy) and letting Patterson hit for the big club. The upside for a quicker Lowrie callup seems higher to me, and we have some ground to make up.

If he landed us Chris Snyder, I'm not going to complain. We need a catcher in his prime to bridge to our guys who are at least 2-3 years away like Expo.

Honestly I get his point. If Tito needed to leave for health reasons, or even if he got a better offer the next time his contract came due, the Sox would at least go out of its way to extend him the hand of friendship and would remember his contributions to our 2 rings. They wouldn't give you a carefully-studied blank look and say "Who's Terry Francona?" I know, I know, Godwin's law, but that airbrushing thing was more of a Leninist/Stalinist USSR thing anyway.

Heck if it wasn't for NYY, the luxtax level would probably be a fair bit lower. their making a caricature of MLB's quasi honor system trying to keep salary costs under control is probably worse for the big league balance sheet than any prestige they bring to the game.

You can give an old beat up car a new coat of paint and a bit of engine tuneup and it'll still be an old beat up car

nava has a full set of options. That said, he's more dependable than Hermida and I don't want him sent down.

.. and shows every single year it has ever been on the road on its body, fender, upholstery, chassis, engine and underwork. A beat up rustbucket of an old classic Cadillac that doesn't really get the job done anymore but we still keep it around because hey, classic Cadillac.

One of the best baseball players in the league. He's got it all, power, patience, defense, contact, even a little bit of baserunning speed.

if you could come up with a 2Bman in this organization who's better than Scutaro it might be worth the experiment, if you can't do that you're taking a risk without any realistic potential to gain anything. When Pedroia played SS in 2006 one of the first things you noticed was that he was a little light in the arm department, especially throwing from the hole, and the step and a half MLB players have over college players was making a difference in the form of infield hits. That's one of the areas where playing 2B really is easier than SS and probably why he's over there. Sure, a guy can improve at throwing out baserunners, but why bother when you have another positional running sore that was as bad or worse at the time than SS that the guy can lock down forever and not have to worry about it. When you thrown in the fact that Mike Aviles was moved from SS to 2B down in KC because trying to play SS with a weaker than average arm resulted in him needing TJS, I just think the FO called this one right. EDIT: I'm on aspirin for a toothache, so if I don't find and correct all the places where I spell things phonetically, which I always do when I'm on painkillers, please understand.

Me? No, I was one of the few Manny defenders, until it was abundantly clear that the trade rumors were being driven by Manny.

He could still come play for me anyday. When the Marlins figure out that the guy who should be the face of their franchise is Josh Johnson and not Hanley, I hope the Sox are ready to swoop in with a credible offer and he can come back and play 3B for us..

Gameday audio is 20 bucks a year dude.

i have no doubt in my mind that Pedroia would have been an adequate SS, but he's a great 2B. Replacing our slapdash SS situation with a slapdash 2B situation isn't an upgrade and Pedroia is frankly an awesome second baseman, so if it works don't fix it.

Which is a pity, because it's a safe bet that the big man has 2 years of usefulness left in him, but taking that chance for large money over a 3 year extension isn't smart. The team needs to move away from the last of its 2004 core anyway now that it's 6 years later and they're all in their mid to late 30's they might as well go looking for a new DH. I expect Varitek to have his Evans-with-the-Orioles year next year as well FWIW. That will be the last of them gone. My guess is that JD Drew will be our DH next year by the ASB. Kalish is killing the ball in Pawtucket and is beginning to look a bit ready-ish. Slotting Drew in at DH would keep him in the lineup more often, although I doubt he'll like the idea much it's still sound in principle.

Heh. It's nice to see someone get past all the generic face-saving catch phrases and actually SAY something, even if it's a bit unflattering to another player I like. Realistically, I think we all know that Hanley is Jeter's successor in NY anyway.

I don't go over 2 years for a 35+ year old overweight slugger unless the deal is somehow easy to get out of. The risk is bigger than the reward

Sometimes it's time to say enough.

A switch hitting guy who can bat .300 and play both corners is useful, especially if he hits his share of line drive doubles. And if that doubles power ever matures into a line drive HR swing (see Youkilis, Kevin) look out.