Dojji

Then you really don't disagree with me and are just generally being an ass. OK. Sure it gives some cheapies, it also takes away its fair share of line drives that would go in other parks. How many times have we all seen that line drive that hits the wall so sharply it bounces back to the infield? Most of the time that's only recorded for the distance it actually travelled, from home plate to off the top of the wall, and the fact that it would have cleared any other wall in the league isn't even put down for posterity. Fenway's about average for HR's to left. Which is, of course, an improvement from Petco. I still think that Fenway will help Gonzalez much more in the doubles and AVG departments.

Umm yes he is. An elite power hitter he isn't, but before the injury he was consistently at or over the 20 HR threshhold and hovering between .470 and .500 SLG. For 3B, that counts. He's at least as much of a power hitter as, say, Mike Cameron.

people expecting a vast jump in homers from either Cameron or Gonzalez are going to be disappointed. Higher AVG and scads of doubles is another matter though. This is a decent AVG park for righties, and the most doublicious park in the league. Both Cameron and his dead pull ways, and Gonzo's ability to drive it the other way, should be big helps for them. Use Mike Lowell as a template. His HR count didn't go up at all, and that's only partly due to his health. His AVG, doubles and RBI all shot up though, and it led to some of the best numbers ever put out by a Red Sox 3B. For one year anyway. I'm pretty sure most of us would take a version of Adrian Gonzalez that hit .300 and clubbed 40-45 doubles even if the HR numbers didn't rise. And to be fair, Fenway probably suppresses HR's to right less than Petco does, and certainly suppresses them to left less than Petco does.

The Dodgers have a good core of youth, solid prospect depth and no obvious holes, I'd be surprised if they did that much. We'd be doing much the same if we were in any other division. The most you'll see them do is maybe trade for a better second baseman. Or maybe go after Felipe Lopez.

But a lot of older outfielders and a lot of tied up money. I think the Mets are in a much better position, and the Angels have Kendry Morales.

If Pujols leaves St. Louis. he *will* be a New York Met. I called it on Santana, and I'm calling it on Pujols.

I think you're focused a little too much on contract. Once on the team, contract isn't that big a deal. if players are getting roles based on what their contract is rather than what their talents are than past a certain point that's the mark of a bad manager.

Konerko or Berkman would be a good short-term fix, as long as their respective teams don't ask the moon. On the whole I'd rather deal with the Chisox since Houston's a lot more likely to be needlessly stubborn about it.

Go ahead -- I don't mind. It's like the concept of Pedroia being the backup catcher. Funny to consider, but it'll likely never come up.

Can't really see that going well for NY, but stranger things have definitely happened. I think a lot of the league's lefthanded sticks just felt some holiday cheer.

Yeah, I wasn't responding to just this one thing though.

I dunno, I'm guessing we've all thought that at least once in the meantime. not worth the necropost tho. Personally I think we're way too eager to snap into "GRR SNARL IDIOT KILL" mode around here.

What's really silly is thinking that being silly is a bad thing all on its own.

Eh, I bow to superior experience. I was going off media reports and memoriesthat are about 4 years old now, so anyone who actually knew the guy knows more than I do.

And that's the real problem, and why actually getting more playing time on a team like the Red Sox was a bit of a pipe dream. Actually when Nixon went down he got it done just fine, it's just that after they signed Drew -- and believe me, they should definitely have signed Drew -- Wily Mo had no plac left to play. How many chances has he really gotten to just get in there and play long term? even with the Nationals he was getting platoon at bats or less other than one stint of regular playing time at the end of 2007 in which he was effective. When the guy's gotten to play, I mean really play more than one or two games in a row, he's been an effective hitter. It's because we couldn't give him that that we gave up on him -- that and the whole fielding thing of course. Except that in 2006 he hit .301/.349/.489, with the Sox, because he got regular at bats, but of course that doesn't help your argument so you're inclined to forget it. Yeah, because Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield and Lester didn't pitch at all that year, and Clement and Wells didn't win 28 games between them the prior season. We had no way of knowing that Clement's shoulder resembled Salisbury steak or that Wells would take a line drive off the knee early in the season. You can't judge transactions like that off that level of hindsight. Our best pitching prospect got FREAKING CANCER. So many things just plain went to hell that year that I think you just have to give Theo an overall mulligan, especially given the results the following year.

Sorta depends on what Brandon Wood does. He hits, it's all moot. Even if not, they put Izturis at third, and lose a lot of speed, but probably gain a bit of SLG. Even if not, that's not that big of an offensive dropoff really. the real question is if they can throw a rotation together that's worth spit. Their defense is fairly good, especially up the middle, so that task might be easier than it looks.

I dunno, there wasn't an offspeed pitch low and away that he ever didn't want to swing at, but Wily Mo was actually cleanshaven and fairly professional and he conducted himself fairly well. The only way that really invalidates Mr.Crunchy's argument is if the so-called IBM look is whites-only.

Arroyo for WMP was a good idea when it was attempted and that's all you can ask. He'd been a consistently solid hitter for the Reds, and the reason he failed in Boston was a combination of inadequate playing time, his own inability to advance defensively, and the fact that Fenway Park designed as it was in the state-park-of-an-outfield era, is a danged hard place to homer in -- which was pretty much all Wily Mo brought to the table..

You ARE silly. So am I of course. We're silly because we spend hours on this forum nattering on about a team in its offseason. you have to admit, that's pretty out there.

I think Green might be holding out to see if some low level team, like say the Orioles, might want to let him start.

I still say Nick Green is likely our best bet