Dojji

!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't think they'd actually do it. Wow. So does this mean a trade of Buchholz is imminent, or does Wakefield exit stage left?

They can have Bubba Bell and Randor Bierd

.... other, of course, than the Pesky Pole.

Adrian Gonzalez plays a different position, making your post an example of the the false choice fallacy.

Well bear in mind that the guy that supplanted Atkins is pretty studly, and we don't have anyone like that looking to take over at third -- so the situation that helped cost him a job isn't really the same as the one we have The way I see it, you get Atkins if you're counting on having one of your prospects, or Max Ramirez, get some work in the minors and then emerge as a stud 1B. Atkins covers that position at at least replacement level for a short period of time without encumbering the books with a big salary you have to move. And if he does perform to his old level with the bat -- DH will be coming open next season, and Atkins can play there or take part in a platoon situation depending on the needs of the club. And I doubt he'll cost enough that this team can't use its financial clout to get him off the team if he becomes a problem, so the risk is actually fairly low IMHO -- lower than Beltre, who we'd have to commit to a great deal more than we would Atkins and would have a much harder time getting rid of if things flopped. I think that just because Youks has played a lot of 1B shouldn't decieve us into thinking he's a 1B in the traditional sense, and not a capable third baseman -- Youkilis originally projected as a solid 3B, remember, and he's played that position solidly every time we've asked him to, even despite putting most of his prepwork into 1B. Just because we've had worse luck replacing at 1B than 3B recently doesn't mean that if he became the everday third baseman we'd have a problem with his glove.

Sure but it's not like Fenway is a terrible ballpark for RHH either. Probably a bigger criticism would be Atkins' defense, which is mediocre. If he's sufficiently cheaper than Beltre though, and the money could be used to pick up Matt Holliday, it should be considered, especially if you can get Atkins on a 1 or 2 year deal and Beltre wants 3.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091211&content_id=7802094&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb Found it. Garrett Atkins has not been tendered a contract and is available as a FA. And there we have it folks -- a legitimate alternative to Adrian Beltre, also righthanded, also coming off a bad year, and probably less expensive.

Speaking of third base, the scuttle around the Internet is that the Rockies might non-tender Garrett Atkins. I think the non-tender deadline has past, so I'd be interested if anyone knew his status. He might be a good fit, and I doubt he'd be all that expensive coming off a nontender. Thoughts?

Who said anything about ALL young cost-controlled guys. I'm just against trying to blow our wad early, because you need SOME cost controlled guys arriving on a near-constant basis.

Sure, but the kids that debut in 2010 and 2011 will likely take a little while to really round into shape, so I'd rather not count on them as impact players Until 2012. that's the price you pay, sometimes, for riding a wave of youth to contention.

I honestly wouldn't mind a "step back" this year. Course in midseason I'll likely feel differently, but I think we'll be in a much better position to reshape the team next offseason. I think this season is going to be moderately disappointing no matter what moves we make and we're going to have a lot of positions to sort out over the next 2-3 years as our youth movement starts to get expensive. We've got a tidal wave of prospects that'll be hitting the team within the next couple seasons anyway, and taking a no-pressure season to evaluate some of them is probably a good thing. In particular, there's about 10 guys I think we'll know a lot more about in a year who you ccould legitimately project as playing for Boston next year if things fall right, and maybe playing at a high level in 2-3.. Kelly Tazawa Reddick Kalish Exposito Wagner Ramirez (if the Lowell deal goes through as predicted) Lars Anderson Lowrie Doubront And a guy like me who watches the bit players and tries to keep an eye out for pleasant surprises could add another 6-7 more starting with Dusty Brown, Aaron Bates. Tug Hulett and Dustin Richardson. Maybe throw Bryce Cox in there too -- he's struggled, a lot, but he looks like he might be FINALLY getting his career on track again. And this besides guys like Hermida and Ramon A. Ramirez who we might be in on for a longer haul than some people think. Point is that we have a ton of guys of the "one year or maybe a bit more away" category, and a step backwards to let them catch up makes some logical sense. A year of evaluation and small patches to hold us over until these guys are ready wouldn't be totally amiss -- especially because as constituted, we've still got a better chance to make the playoffs than all but about 3 teams around the league on the strength of our starting rotation and our diminished but still above average lineup. Even if the worst happens we've made the playoffs 6 of the last 7 years, if it becomes 6 of the last 8, I don't think we should be complaining.

Did they re-sign Nady? Otherwise I'm thinking it's Mekly-Gardner-Swisher left to right.

Well, I ran it on a spreadsheet using a few test cases using my little formula above and here's what I came up with. All numbers are 2009 values unless stated otherwise Carl Crawford 0.0783 Carlos Gomez 0.0335 Brett Gardner 0.0880 Coco Crisp 0.0624 Coco Crisp (2008) 0.0412 Jacoby Ellsbury 0.0958 Jose Reyes (2008)0.0653 Seems to correlate fairly well with what we think about various speedsters. I'm not sure how useful it is, though -- it doesn't tell us anything we didn't really know. About all it really does is provide a one-off number that allows you to compare various speedy guys with each other. To be really valuable we need to take a step somehow to correlate all this with run creation.

I suppose. Besides, I just realized I was adding SB to SLG, not OPS, in that equation anyway. lol. I'd like to play with it a bit before we put it away for good though.

Hmm. So ([[TB + SB]/AB+ OBP] - OPS) * SB%? If you multiply it by success rate, you get .117 * .85 = .0995 for Ellsbury, and .04*.69 = .0276 for Span, which really highlights the hige difference in their speed. I suspect if you did this for everyone .0276 is one of the higher numbers you'd come up with, but Ellsbury's way the heck up there at nearly .1, so it sort of brings things home in a way raw numbers don't do. EDIT: I suck at math

So if you take that number, and subtract OPS, does that give you an Isolated Speed? So that .887-.770 is a .117 IsoS for Ellsbury, and a .040 IsoS for Span?

Again I say -- don't rule out Ramirez himself being the guy we "bring in" to replace Lowell. He's more than talented enough. We have a Mientkiewicz type to help cover any defensive problems he or VMart would have at first, so as long as he hits, I think we could likely get away with it. Ramirez, too, would be a RHH in Fenway after all.

That doesn't fly. It's easy enough to point out that Figgins is playing a corner IF position without a ton of power and use Beltre's perennial 25 HR's to get him past Chone as an earner.

He's kinda got a point... Although I don't think Lowell was going to produce 3.2 WAR next year for us.

Denard Span .392 OBP, .807 OPS, 69.6% steal success, 23 SB's Jacoby Ellsbury .355 OBP, .770 OPS, 85% steal success, 70 SB's The reason I'm asking is I'd like to get the feeling of the board on the importance of "conventional" leadoff attributes, such as a high level of speed, versus the more modern values a guy like Span brings with his substantially higher OBP. The reason I bring up those two rather than more archetypal examples that isolate specific attributes like, say, Carlos Gomez vs. David Dejesus, is that I'd like to see how people compare two players who use their skillset effectively, and which attributes are preferred when both players are doing their job well. I wanted to compare players who were very good at what they did, and find which parts of the skillset people considered most important. These might not be the best examples in the history of ever, especially given Jacoby's adequate OBP, but I felt Span's low success rate sort of makes up for that, at least enough to allow people to kick off a conversation about it.

It's true, when I make a post he considers insane, but backed by some kind of logic, he will go to great lengths to tear that logic down. Always kind of uncomfortable from my end, but that's what you come to a forum like this for -- to refine your ideas.

There are certainly catchers I'd go to for defense before I went to Bengie Molina.

Why? I've never even really talked about Boof. Glad to see the team stockpiling some bullpen depth though.

http://news.soxprospects.com/2009/12/red-sox-claim-ramon-ramirez-off-waivers.html And we just completed the set. The other Ramon Ramirez has looked OK in limited time in Cincy, not sure if he'll crack the roster but his numbers make it look like he may be worth a shot.