Dojji

Because Red Sox pitchers get hurt and Yankees never do. Got it.

I don't think I made the difference out to be particularly huge. Sabathia and Lester aren't as far apart as Yankee fans like to imagine. The only clean Sabathia win is in Innings Pitched, everything else was within a reasonable margin of error last year. And moving down past Sabathia, you really run out of guys to plug in well before Boston does, especially if you use Vazquez' whole body of work, rather than just hopewishfailfully believing he'll replicate the breakout year he had in a HR-suppressing park, pitching now in the biggest HR park east of Colorado. You have no one who is going to match up directly against Beckett and Lackey. No, Burnett and Vazquez are not going to do it, and no, they are not going to be as close to Beckett-Lackey quality as Lester is to Sabathia quality. And remember, we're talking about two pitchers, not one. Hughes and Buchholz I'd consider a wash. Hughes is more likely to have problems, because he has less successful starting experience in the AL East, but honestly either one of them could be a good pitcher and I'd consider them close enough to a wash. That means that the Yankees need to make all their ground up on Wakefield and Daisuke v. Pettitte. :lol: your only real hope to carry the day in a straight pitching comparison is to lean on Wins as a measure of pitcher value (:joke:) and pray for both an absolute Hughes breakout year and a rude welcome to the AL East for Lackey. In the bullpen, I'd match Paps up against Mo without worrying about falling too far behind, and behind Mo you got problems. Robertson and Bard probably cancel each other out in terms of the upside and downside of rookie relievers, and you can say what you want about the Oki-Joba comparison, Oki has a much cleaner track record. So that leaves Ramram, MDC and Atchison v. Aceves, Marte, Mitre. I think it's fairly obvious that if there's any advantages to be found here they're on the Boston side.

sure, but if you separately analyze both facets of pitching, the Red Sox come ahead with both of them so it doesn't make much of a difference. The Yankees have the best starter and they have the best reliever but we win on overall quality.

:D :D Not only do we have an awesome rotation we have an awesome rotation for the forseeable future.

Actually Marte is much more of a question mark. Delcarmen was effective as of halfway through last season, it's been a season and a half since Marte had anything

Sounds like a potential backup.

Batting Drew third would help a lot. He can drive people in, or he can pass the inning along to Youkilis who also has both options, and he's got some speed. Martinez hitting 5th behind 2 of our best OBP guys (and our biggest walk-takers) also makes a great deal of sense.

Reddick is a far better defender than Hermida, who hasn't covered himself with glory recently offensively either. He's OK as a 4th OF, but if you're expecting anything more than adequacy out of him you're primed for disappointment. Again: NOT Saying Reddick should be in the majors. I am saying that he would improve the team at least incrementally if he were (simply that he'd improve the team more in the long run if he gets his full time to develop)

Not with a 37-38 year old centerfielder who hits on the opposite hand. Reddick's playing in the minors only because there's further he could develop, not because we wouldn't be a better team with him on the roster as he is right now.

I think that all Dipre's offseasom sarcasm aside, we may just break camp with Hulett on the roster, especially if Lowell needs to start the year on the DL.

Of course you do.

Sure, if it actually did. Look up the bonus cushion sometime. Rask only gets his cap hit up to 3.2 if he actually hits his bonuses. Pretty sure that's actually impossible now.

The contract is pretty much water under the bridge. You can't unsign it. Letting it color your impression of a player's actual performance on the ice is retarded, so I don't subscribe to it. Thomas got the start because of his role, not his contract. Timmy'd had a shutout last game, and as much as you yahoos don't want to admit it, he's still a tandem partner, not a "backup." Rask lost the start with his lamentable showing against the Lightning, Thomas won the night before, Thomas absolutely makes last night's start, that's exactly how they've done business all year and exactly how they should do it. Heck, a backup probably gets that start under that combination of circumstances anyway. Just sucks he had a bad game, but crying over him getting a start they pretty much had no choice but to give him is silly.

so when Lowell covers for Beltre... Lowell at 3B or Youk?

Lowell should get about 200 at bats this year between this and that. It'd be more if one of our other corner infielders were a LHH.

Thing is, a guy like Lowell could be a stabilizing influence on a young clubhouse like Texas'. They don't have a lot of leadership right now, they're looking to reject pile guys for it. A pro like Lowell could have been worth his weight in intangibles if nothing else.

wideman gets the blame for at least one of the goals. gotta love the knee-jerk wangst aboutThomas starting a game after he pitches a shutout and 2 games after one of Tuukka's worst efforts. If you're not going to start Thomas unde that combination of circumstances there is no point at all to Thomas.

And he's a native son And high-level SP is one of the Rangers' biggest problems And they have a good young team that's in a good position to take a chance on some big name FA to possibly put them over the tip. And since they're in an above average market they could sustain a good team if they develop their market properly (the Dallas area is probably a match for Boston as an overall market, although probably not as a baseball market)

Thanks, Jacko. No seriously. Your decision to set up camp on this issue all but guarantees that it will come out well for us in the end.

Too much time over a barrel.

Honestly, the Rangers are FAR more likely to be a big player for Beckett in particular than the Dodgers.

So, say, Lowell and Richardson, plus boston eats $7M of Lowell's money, for Ramirez? You go for that?

Everyone knew coming in that Almanzar was going to be extremely raw. He's got great athletic gifts, but whether he makes it in the long run comes down to coachability. Almanzar is not as coachable as he could be, he is therefore failing. I've seen clips of this guy at the plate. I know very little about swing mechanics but even I know that Almanzar is doing it all wrong. The tools are there, but he looks like he learned his style by watching Manny Ramirez on TV without picking up on the important detail that Manny is the one of the most fundamentally sound mechanical hitters in baseball history. There's things Manny gets away with that Almanzar is never going to have the talent to do -- he's trying to do them and he doesn't seem to be interested in listening to the people who are telling him it isn't working.

From the Rangers perspective, their future at C is Saltalamacchia and Teagarden, and their future at 1B is Justin Smoak. Ramirez is an extra piece. If they think Lowell can help them win this year, there's some logic to dealing an extra piece for him. Although to be honest, if I was the Rangers, there are definitely other places I'd look to unload a decent catching prospect before I went for Lowell. I have to think Boston was sending a lesser minor leaguer back the other way along with Lowell in that original deal.

If you were in Lowell's shoes would you retire your way out of $13M?