Dojji

If they plan on waiting, a rental of Konerko or someone like him starts to really make a lot of sense. Let a veteran with a good year or two left play one season for Boston and see how the long term solutions shake out next year. Pity Lance Berkman's unlikely to be on the trade block. He'd be a superb addition to the team.

I dunno. Konerko intrigues me. 100% dependent on whether Kenny Williams thinks he has the offense to contend next year of course He doesn't, he needs to realize that, and he might not. I see no reason he shouldn't be available, and for a far saner price than Cabrera and Gonzo. Not in their league, but surely "decent." It's certainly a more creative solution than seeing how many top 10 prospects we can hand San Diego on a silver platter before they condescendingly deign to accept an offer.

Indeed, but it's hardly elite. Anyway, I was nosing around -- I mentioned this in the other thread -- and I noticed that Paul Konerko is in about the right position to be an ideal one year rental. Be a half decent fit at Fenway, too. Not Adrian Gonzalez, but not a train wreck either. Maybe if the Max Ramirez thing falls through we can throw them Lowell and some prospects and bring him along.

We could have gotten Gaby Sanchez for Manny Delcarmen at one point not too long ago, I wonder if that deal is still an option. I think we have a shot at Konerko if Theo chooses to go in that direction. Near as I can tell, those two are about it for specifically RHH, other than maybe Max Ramirez. I wish Anderson hadn't fallen off the map, he'd be in the convo right now. I imagine if I mentioned Aaron Bates assuming a starting role I'd get the laughing derision I richly reserved.

Hey, how about Paul Konerko? He's in the last year of his deal, the Chisox are not in contention, I imagine that Kenny Williams will at least talk about moving him for prospects. Decent power, RHH, average glove. There's a potential fit there. And the Chisox are one of the teams that might actually contemplate taking on Lowell, too. Just food for thought.

I haven't given up on finding an above average RHH 1B. I'll dig around and see what might be out there and available. but for starters, I bet we could get a better deal on Miguel Cabrera. Something centered around Buchholz and Bard would grab the Tigers' attention. The really need pitching and they DESPERATELY need good bullpen pitching.

Time to explore other options. Looks like Hoyer's bidding as if he wouldn't mind not moving A-Gon, and that's not a winning proposition for the Sox.

I'd forgotten about Buehrle. Floyd had an off year. Good call on Danks though.

Yeah, but the other two happened as well. You can excuse 2008 because he was hurt, 2009 he was just an ordinary mortal SP though.

Both of the four?

You could come up with 6-7 really talented pitchers in every division though. Except maybe the AL West 'cuz they only have 4 teams.

Agreed. He knows what we want to hear so he'll say it.

I don't think you can look at the road numbers of someone who plays in the same division as Coors' Field and assume that he'll play to that level. It'd be nice, you know I'd love to see it happen, but I'm loath to count on it.

I just don't believe it's going to be as big as you claim. That's reasonable, but Florida certainly has at least as much motive to trade Hanley as Hoyer does to move his best player. And with the Marlins, you can load some quantity to take the edge off the quality.

I'm not sure how available Adrian is. Hoyer is asking for the moon and stars. You could probably blow away Florida for the "not available" Hanley for a similar price. It's an average park for RHH, and a bad one for LHH. That averages out to a tough place to hit a HR. And it's certainly not a bandbox in any direction. Please stop trying to beat on me with minor technicalities. 1: Is there a similar chart for doubles? I'd like to take a look at it, since your argument doesn't even refute that point of mine. As a righthanded pull hitter I imagine that Hanley would have a huge advantage there, and that's the part Fenway will really help. EDIT: Yeah, Hanley routinely hits about 10-15 more doubles a season and hits for a much higher AVG. 2: Hanley's a shortstop. He doesn't need to produce as much as Gonzo to be worth the same.

OK, well reinterpreting that as appropriate then, the same number says 16 parks help RHH homer to straightaway left more than Fenway does, and 12 parks help RHH homer to left center more than Fenway does. Again, "middle of the pack." And that's at the side hitters have an EASIER time homering from. The real strength of Fenway Park is not homers. It is DOUBLES. We are the Coors Field of doubles. And that means that for best effect, we need RH hitters who hit for high averages with moderate-to-good power. And low average hitters who all they hit is homers will tend to struggle here. Consistent contact for a high average with lots and lots of gap power is the name of the game. And if that's what you're looking for Hanley is the better fit, by far, compared to Adrian Gonzalez.

OK, that looks like gibberish for me, so that might as well be in Russian. I don't have the background in math to understand what they're talking about. So if you'd like to discuss it, it would probably be helpful to give a LITTLE more depth than that. And if I understand that at all, which I wouldn't give good odds to, it has nothing to do with platoon advantages such as the HR advantage for RHH you're talkinng about -- except pointing out that using them can lead to inaccuracies because the current PF models don't factor in roster construction the way they should. Since our 2 best home run hitters were RHH I imagine that could be a factor. Kinda like what I was talking about by referring to a chicken and egg question. Again, I'm fully willing to concede that RHH's thrive at Fenway, but I'd contend it has more to do with the wall and its ability to produce Fenway doubles. I'd need some hard evidence of how RHH's do exceptionally well hitting HR's at Fenway. While your list shows that they do better hitting them out to left than they do to right, the homers to left are not all hit by righthanded hitters, one, and two, that's an average number compared to the rest of the chart. 16 more parks had homers fly out to straightaway left, and 12 parks had more to left center. That's just about the definition of "middle of the pack."

The other issue is, is it righthanded HOMERS that are boosted by the Monster, or righthanded POWER or SLG? As all discussed, Fenway is the biggest doubles park in MLB and RHH's hit a ton of doubles here. If ORS is basing his point off SLG rather than homer count it's entirely possible there's no disagreement here at all.

You missed my point, which was about Beltre's low OBP. Only Pedro Feliz among regular 3B's has a lower one. You're right, I misread that, but the shoulder's bad enough. Remember the numbers Drew put up the year after his shoulder surgery, and frankly Drew's a much more talented hitter than Beltre. It's a great doubles park for righties, but it's not a great HR park for anyone and is consistently one of the hardest parks in baseball to hit a HR at.

But not 2009. But for all he's youngish, he still has 11 big league seasons under his belt, more than most 35 year olds. But he underwent elbow surgery during last season But he's the third worst OB% hitter of all third basemen with at least 1200 at bats in the last 3 years. (actually maybe second worse -- I'm not sure Crede qualifies) But Fenway isn't a very good homer park either, even to righthanders (the Monster gives, but in terms of HR's it definitely takes too) But there's no way to have Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis and Adrian Beltre on the same roster without someone playing LF, meaning Beltre is clearly Plan B at best. But he's asking for a 3 year deal when instead we can simply clear Lowell's salary and bring in a lower-risk substitude instead (if you don't like LaRoche, how about bringing in Garrett Atkins to play 1B?) and have more money to make other moves if things don't pan out I think there's a lot of risk involved in bringing Adrian Beltre onto the team, and I'd be surprised if Theo was really gung-ho about the idea.

I actually have the Mariners as the place Adam LaRoche actually winds up.

My smugness = your abrasive arrogance. Anywho, I'd much rather get hold of a RHH who hits a lot of line drive bombs than any LHH on the market. In my mind that means Hanley. I think that the same price that gets you AGonz and his poor build for this park gets you Hanley and his excellent one. That's my $.02.

Actually, this is a much better doubles park than it is a HR park. In fact Fenway is consistently THE doubles park. That wall may be shallow, but you lose a lot of the benefit of that from a HR perspective by having it be freaking 100 feet tall. On the other hand, it's a great park for line drive hitters, and the more contact and more line drives, the better. That's why a guy like Mike Lowell, who hits a lot of line drives, hits for a high average, but isn't a huge HR hitter, thrives here -- while guys like Wily Mo Pena or Jeremy Giambi who are dependent on the long bomb, tend to struggle a bit. Also it's a testament to just how awesome Big Papi really was that he hit all those HR's here in his prime, even with the park factors... well... factored in. What that means in real terms is that Derek Jeter would have probably been about the best Fenway hitter in the history of ever. It's why Youkilis has thrived here, and ditto for Pedroia -- they're the kind of hitter that will do well here. Guys like Beltre, or Adrian Gonzalez -- or, yes, Adam LaRoche -- will probably NOT perform up to their averages here, because they're dependent on something that isn't easy to hit. And, ironically enough given our team's history, we might have one of the best parks ever to put a speedy fast lineup into, one that can score from first on a double consistently.

Sure, since it was a pretty neutral result. Point stands based on 2008 and 2007 though. Also, just look at how much year to year variability there is in "park factors." And look how many of the league's worst offenses line the bottom of that list. I'm sure the park contrubutes some to that, but there's a legitimate chicken-and-egg question here too. Although I'm sure I can count on you to arrogantly and cavalierly dismiss that, since it doesn't support your lust for Beltre.