Dojji

Completely irrelevant question. Also, closers do have their work cut out for them trying to make the Hall. I wouldn't call it a slam dunk. The talent is real, but the negatives are as well. He's definitely a Hall of Famer, but that PED suspension might be a factor in whether he's a first-ballot shoo-in, along with the defense and known attitude issues.

Like I said, it's a slam dunk the guy's a Hall of Famer. No one can make a serious argument why Frank Thomas does not deserve to be in Coopersdown. I just think there's some niggling things around the edges that will keep him from being first ballot.

I disagree that he's a first ballot HOFer. Great hitter, good longevity, one of the best of his generation, but I don't think The Big Hurt was ever the best hitter of his time, and he missed a ton of time with various injuries. And he loses some points by being a DH for much of his career, a lot of writers in NL towns will discount him a bit for that. I hasten to add that I rate Thomas in about the same way I rate Schilling -- great players who held their peaks long enough to be more than worthy of the Hall, but probably not the equal of the very greatest Hall of Famers and so probably not really first-ballot guys. I certainly don't think there's any chance at all that he'll outright MISS the hall, especially with the Chicago media by and large pulling for him. But first ballot I don't see.

I don't think we're really in a position where we have to count on Daisuke. If he makes good, that would make our rotation stupendous, otherwise it's merely awesome. We lose Daisuke, our rotation becomess Lester-Beckett-Lackey-Buchholz-Wakefield, still better than most or all of the American League rotations.

Please post your reasonings. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/N/Trot-Nixon.shtml http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/D/J.D.-Drew.shtml Personally, I was surprised looking back to see that Nixon's peak years, when he was the player we think of as Trot Nixon, really only lasted about 3 seasons from 2001 to 2003. They were a great three seasons, but still there were only 3 of them. We talk a lot about JD Drew's injuries, but Nixon was probably out of the lineup way more on average than Drew. if you set the standard at 130 games, which means a month of days missed over the course of the year, Nixon had three seasons where he exceeded that. Drew has 5. Also, and probably more damning to Nixon, it was very probably the injuries that forced him out of the league, while Drew has been able to perform around his missed days. Trot's final career line (barring a comeback is rather uninspiring as well, .274/.364/.464/.828. Also worth consideration: even with Drew's struggles in 2007, (.797 OPS) his performance was an upgrade over Nixon's from the previous season (.767 OPS) Why did I start this thread? It's just something I've been thinking about. We kvetch a lot about JD Drew, but I think it's pretty obvious that Theo made the right move to bring him here. What's not so obvious, but is IMHO true, is that he upgraded the overall talent and even the durability of our situation in right field by bringing in Drew over the incredibly fragile Nixon. Even if the injuries hadn't caught up with Nixon in '06 I'd still say the same, although Drew would have had to take a lot longer to grow on me. We all had a bit of an emotional attachment to Trot, he always seemed to try so hard.

Still not sure how ballpark adjustments are going to add .030 to his OBP. I do hope it happens, but I don't understand why I should expect it.

Last year, JD Drew was our best hitter not named Jason Bay. He edged Youks out in both OBP and slugging. If he does .270/20/70 and also does .270/.420/.480/.900 again, I'm not going to complain.

I wish we could count on more offensive production out of third base. Being able to move Beltre up to 5th or 6th would really help us take pressure off people.

While I agree that you can, that lefty should absolutely not be David Jonathan Drew. I'd rather see a Hermida-Ells-Drew OF with Hermida batting 8th and playing left than see Drew batting 7th.

You know that the guy who I think should be our SS is the switch-hitting Jed Lowrie. And I accept that the team needs to play that one conservatively, but it's still how I feel about it. Hermida will probably be a factor in left field to break that up if it becomes a problem. Varitek will probably show up there from time to time as well. Even if not, a lot of teams have to go R-R-R in the bottom of the lineup, if it becomes a big deal there's things we can do fairly inexpensively to fix it.

Sounds Dusty Bakerish. Hitting Pedroia 9th lengthens the lineup -- it's still crazy to do it. This lineup is fairly long as it is. You put your best hitters where they can do the most damage. Let the bottom of the lineup look to itself. Ellsbury Pedroia Drew Youkilis Martinez Ortiz Cameron Beltre Scutaro.

Not happening. Even with all else equal, they won't hit two lefties in a row especially not their two best lefthanded power hitters. And frankly, there's no need for their best hitter to be batting 6th in any case. JD Drew needs to hit 3rd, Martinez 5th, Ortiz 6th or 7th based on the matchip with Cameron or Beltre taking the other slot.

If I had to pussyfoot around every bit of reactionary hyperbole coming out of your mouth we'd be here for a long time. And yes, you have eaten your words on Pedroia, Youkilis, and for good measure, Lester as well. You're hardly alone there, lot of us did, you were just more outspoken than average about it. You've been exposed too many times on this issue for me to be particularly interested in doing it again, so don't push this much further, k?

I never said he'd bat cleanup. Not now and not in 3-4 years. That's something you're reading into my words that never had a place there. what I said was that he would be a power hitter. There is a difference. I also said he should be given a chance to prove himself before the organization spends assets on a power hitter from outside the organization. This seems to be the part you take issue with. It's also standard practice for every organization to call up their near-ready 40-man roster prospects on a replacement basis. If you're going to keep this up, could you at least have it have some kind of tangential relation to words I actually typed at some point?

I stand by that. 3-4 yeasrs from now, Reddick could be an excellent ballplayer, what's wrong with saying that? By the way, nowhere did I say he'd bat cleanup. I said he'd be a capable power hitter. Many capable power hitters do not bat cleanup. There's plenty of hay to be made by creatively misquoting me without going that far.

Who's arguing that? Aren't my arguments optimistic enough without you guys resorting to pathetic strawmen to find an excuse to give me crap?

He's gonna be the guy to replace Cameron. I stand by that.

... and this surprises you?

Not your best work there.

I'm gonna at least do Gameday Audio. It's been the best use I ever made of $15 each of the last 2 years.

OK apparently the guy's 21 and from Soviet Georgia. Nothing specific on family, In America, the chances that as 21 year old would have started a family are negligible -- in the former Soviet Union, probably a bit higher.

Any word on family? The Huffington Post blog entry was long on sensational gory photos and very short on anything about the character of the dead guy.

Thoughts and prayers to the family of Nodar Kumarst.... Kumaritsa... Kuma... Screw it. Thoughts and prayers to the family of Nodar Whatsisname. More seriously, accidents like this are always sad when they happen, I just hope some kid wasn't left without support because of this.