Dojji

If you think Alex Gonzalez is going to repeat the season he had last year offensively, you are kidding yourself. Alex Gonzalez has never been that player and he's not going to start now at the age of 35. A career .247 hitter isn't going to suddenly hit .280. Not sustainably anyway. Not anything you could count on. I don't want to impugn Gonzalez' glove. He's getting older, but he's still got golden hands. But his range is slipping, his health is poor, and he was never much of a hitter. I wouldn't weep too loudly if we went in another direction.

I mentioned this in the other thread, but given the paucity of decent talent in the FA SS market, if we look for a SS, Nick Green is actually one or the top 3 or 4 to look at. And while that does say more about the talent pool at SS than it actually says about Green, it should mean that he gets a look. He was an above average defender last year, and he isn't hopelessly inept with the stick. At least he hits above the Mendoza line. And while Green is definitely prone to some pretty blunderful plays at times, UZR takes that into consideration and still gives him a +8.9 rating or so over a half-year sample at short last season. That's not bad at all. I'm not sure that any of Cabrera, Scutaro and Tejeda will combine those three attributes next year. According to UZR/150, both Cabrera and Tejeda were downright bad defensively while Scutaro is merely average, and all three are due for a major offensive regression. Meanwhile Green's 32 years old, and probably the best candidate of the 4 to repeat or improve on his previous season's numbers. Just a bit of food for thought. I know there's some emotions behind the concept of bringing it back that make the prospect less than palatable, but with so few really decent FA options, you have to at least contemplate Green.

I feel like we could do worse than re-upping Nick Green to another minor league contract. A couple depth signings make a lot of sense, Especially if Lowrie's starting in AAA, meaning whatever we do at SS is probably going to involve a patchwork of FA's anyway. Green isn't anything special, but he was an above average defensive SS by UZR/150 last year (+8.3 actually, which is pretty darned good), he's above the Mendoza Line offensively, and he's cheap. He had a pretty much career average season last year offensively, which means that what we saw there is what we could probably expect going forward -- and as mediocre as it was, it's still better than any FA except Scutaro, Tejeda, or Cabrera, all of whom for one reason or another are major regression candidates this year (and would be much more expensive anyway). He'll do as a third or fourth option -- which is all he ever was last year anyway. And he'll do as a utility man, which is Green's usual role when he cracks a big league roster. And if you have no one better at the end of the day, Nick Green is survivable as a starting player. I'm not saying the guy should be put anywhere near a starter's job, but he'd be a useful guy to add to increase our depth at a pretty shallow position.

Was responding to bsox. I mean, it's hard to really appreciate the scenery if you have to wonder if it's all fake.

Sad that that's what we've come to.

It's not exactly like we're going to get a great hitter at SS anyway. If Iglesias is the glove he's touted to be, why the heck not?

But probably a consideration in an argument that his lack of defensive worth cuts the value of his bat.

I can tell why. you're basically putting Damon in center and Holliday in right.

Eh? Looked like it on Cot's. Guess I got fouled up by the option. Switch it to Justin Duchscherer then, or Braden Looper..

Which means you're out that value too, which has to be added to the cost of moving Buchholz. Especially when you can add either of those two anyway. Again, stupid.

I would. that would be unbelievably stupid, and would weaken our rotation -- the definition of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I wonder if there will ever be a big league Grays team. Visiting teams do receive a portion of the gate, but media rights would be a big problem. I betcha they could muster enough to match the Marlins' payroll though.

Full 25 man roster, probably only a 75 game winner or so though. C: Jason Kendall 1B: Adam LaRoche 2B: Orlando Hudson 3B: Joe Crede SS: Miguel Tejada LF: Matt Holliday CF: Coco Crisp RF: Rick Ankiel DH: Carlos Delgado Bench: Barrett, C/1B Figgins, IF/OF Baldelli, OF Branyan, 1B/LF/DH Rotaton: John Lackey Kelvim Escobar Rich Harden Kevin Millwood Brett Myers Bullpen: Jose Valverde, CL Mike Gonzalez, SU Brandon Lyon Kevin Gregg Chad Bradford Ron Mahay Jeff Weaver

On a planet where you have to find offense from every position to be a championship team, and in which it's much harder to find .861 OPS for catcher or shortstop than it is to find the same at first. Don't they teach the scarcity principle in economics anymore?

You're probably right, but I don't see much else that we can hold out for other than V-Mart unless Exposito exceeds expectations. And I kinda don't see it with him given his big weakness is his hitting eye. Personally I think Expo is only going to emerge as a younger version of Johjima. A .260/.310/.430 type with great defense. Those can be useful, but they're definitely not what we're used to. And I'm not yet counting on anything at all from Federowicz or Lavarnway, given their track record (or lack thereof) and the unanswered questions about Lavarnway's defense.

Fair enough. Me I haven't given up on Mauer yet.

You know me, I've wanted a good cannon arm behind the plate for awhile, but when I campaigned for the team to bring in an available catcher with a great arm (Johjima) you guys suddenly found that other issues about what makes a good catcher were much more important than how they control the running game.

And my guess it has more to do with Orlando Cabrera and Erick Aybar playing ahead of him. You might be right though. On the other hand, Lowrie and Izturis could probably share SS duties without either getting exposed. Worth a thought.

We've got a better crack at landing Maicer Izturis, should we decide we want him. Personally, I do. He gets on base, switch hits, has respectable pop for a SS, steals bases, and is an average to slightly above average defender at SS. He's kind of wasted in the utility role he's pushed into in Anaheim. It's just his bad luck to be on the same team as Erick Aybar, who's a lot better defensively. Personally, to me that means that here is a trade opportunity. Personally, I've wanted Izturis since 2006 and was arguing for him instead of Lugo. I think history bears me out.

Just last year (2008) Martinez threw out 30% of steal attempts. He did the same in 2007. He had a bad year this year, but one bad year is exactly what it is, so I'm going to hold out hope that he can bounce back to his career averages, which are a low-but-acceptable 24%..

I don't know how well UZR/150 works for catchers, but Martinez' is only -1.7 or so. Pretty much dead average or only slightly below. Fangraphs' "value" rating shows him at 25.8 with his bat, and -0.3 with his glove. In other words, a great hitter and an average defender as a catcher but the not-exactly-excellent defense isn' enough of a problem to overwhelm his offensive value -- yet. That said, he obviously doesn't have far to dceline before he's clearly below average. But for now, he's not defeisnvely "bad" so much as merely "not as good as the premium defensive catchers."

Don't shy away from paying good money for good players. Yeah, we're building from the farm more than we've done since the late 70'a but there's a time and a place to put money on the table to make sure that your roster is as competitie as it can be. The only time to avoid spending money is if you have an 80% option for less money already on the team. We don't really have that at catcher, so I'd break the bank for Mauer if I thought he'd become available.

Oh that would be perfect. Yankees trade Swisher to the Tigers for Granderson, the Sox turn around and trade for Miguel cabrera, who Swisher's ability to play first base frees up. Tigers lose salary, both the Yankees and Sox gain highly talented ballplayers that fill their needs. Of course, I wouldn't half mind if the Sox did a deal with the Yankees for Swisher. We need someone who can at least fake it in CF and can help out at 1B. But I don't see that happening.

There's no reason at all not to go after Lackey, but I see no reason to believe he won't wind up back in Anaheim. So how far are you prepared to go to get that solid #3 starter? You willing to trade for Gil Meche or Derek Lowe?

The way I have it figured V-Mart is our next first baseman, but his catcher flexibility adds to what he can bring to the table in Boston. I'd give him average-first-baseman money for 5 years or elite-catcher money for three, his choice. I don't know why we have Kotchman when we could really use a 5th OF instead. Varitek will get playing time, meaning V-Mart can stand in as the backup 1B and probably will get pushed into the lineup that way anyway on days when Varitek is catching. In fact the only reason to have Kotchman on the roster at all is as a LIDR for days when Martinez is playing first. That's not enough justification IMHO.