Dojji

you guys need to get off the "statue" thing. This is his first bad year defensively ever by UZR/150. Unless he needs to go under the knife again in the offseason he should regain most of his range as he gets healthier. Not as much as he had in his prime of course, but he should be back to being average defensively.

Point taken, although Tuiasosopo isn't exactly a sure thing. There's always the perennial Angels and Phillies scenarios. The Phils in particular might be tempted. As a starting 3B, Feliz makes a great backup.

Encarnacion is damaged goods. If the Redws had any faith in him they wouldn't have traded him away. I think Lowe would be a decent return for what Lowell is these days. That's JMHO though.

The Mariners might want Lowell since Beltre's moving on, but only if two conditions are true 1: They think they are immediate contenders in the American League West 2: They think Lowell can bounce back defensively while providing his normal level of offense in their park. In order for that first condition to be true, they kind of need to KEEP Felix. If we're trading Lowell to the mariners, we're probably getting someone like Mark Lowe back at best.

In fairness, Jon never demanded anything. All he did was answer a question to a mediaman about a member of his family. And we're not even sure Josh demanded anything. The closest we have is an unqouted, unsourced statement by one report that said that Josh was discontented with still being in Salem.

I wouldn't mind having our SS tandem be Gonzo and Lowrie. Use them like we used Crisp and Ellsbury last year. Lowrie playing a lot of SS, but then Gonzo playing SS and Lowrie covering other positions as required. Disregard, of course, if there's any chance of a certain Marlins cornerstone player coming to Boston.

it always hurts me when Swisher does something great for the Yankees. He's a guy I wanted the sox to go after aggressively. He was a near-perfect fit for exactly what we needed out of that last spot on the roster to help out with spelling Lowell, Drew and Ortiz. Instead? Kotsay.

On a related note, what do you think Lowell has for trade value? Think you could get someone to take on his salary? Informing this discussion: The Jays got a struggling but interesting Edwin Encarnacion for Scott Rolen, but I don't know how much salary the Reds took back.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519226 The season is over so I got curious again and decided to go see how he finished uo. Finished up with pretty decent season numbers. .907 OPS mostly in rookie ball is pretty impressive even at 19YO and if you look at the opening post, it's pretty clear Roque came on like a house afire down the stretch. Finished with 17 walks to 23 strikeouts -- that ratio improved drastically down the stretch as well. He keeps doing that, he might attract attention from more than just the odd prospect freak. He might just be worth watching next year. He'll probably play for Lowell in his age 20 season. if he starts to roll, that's not too old to start climbing the ladder in earnest, and we're not exactly overloaded at 2B. I don't know if he's more than a one month wonder, but I'm officially intrigued.

Full on squee, that. Imagine asking for opinions about a prospect in a forum about opinions on prospects. Such an unreasonable thing to expect. Quite obviously, Argenis Diaz' stock has dropped -- a lot -- since last offseason because the errors got a lot worse this year. When I said it the statement was true. What changed was not my opinion, but Diaz' performance. And I might as well admit this now while we're at it: Diaz' poor performance this year has a lot to do with why I'm wary about Iglesias.

Argenis Diaz and Yuniesky Betancourt spring to mind almost immediately.

I'm basing that on the same scouting reports you're using to call him the next Ozzie Smith.

You can tell people have preemptively fallen in love with the guy when someone brings up the fact that all we have right now is hype and wants to wait to see him in action, and everyone bristles as if that guy insulted their mother.

That would be great. I'm generally nervous about well-hyped Latin prospects. Here's hoping this is one of those exceptions.

OK, that was a bit of hyperbole, but there's usually a couple "next Ozzie Smiths" every single international free agent period. All I'm saying is give the kid a chance to prove what he is or isn't in the minors before going nuts over him.

Yeah, we got Beckett, Lester and Buchholz. If we could just get Daisuke back in order too I'd say we had a rotation.

sure. He gets all the time in the world in the minors for all of me, but I'm not counting on hall of fame caliber defensive tools from the guy until we actually have some kind of performance sample. every shortstop that isn't a slugger gets the same hype.

I've heard the hype before. Anyone remember Argenis Diaz? Was supposed to be the great defensive wiazard of the future for Boston. Only he screws up routine plays because he has the attention span of a moth. I'll believe it when I see it in action.

My bad on the typo, now get over it.

What's the consensus on the quality of Youkilis' defense at 3B Would he be a viable long-term (IE permanent) option there when Lowell moved on? I see good numbers in the metrics I know how to handle, but i don't know everything about defensive metrics, and this will be a theme in our offseason discussion -- as it has been each of the last several years. You don't need a crystal ball to see that this offseason will feature a multitude of threads involving Lowell playing somewhere else, Youkilis playing full time 3B and whoever the mancrush power hitting first baseman of the hour hour is coming to Boston (seems to be Adrian Gonzalez this week) Thing is, it's a bit more realistic this time if only because Lowell is going into the last year of his deal. The encumbering contract is not such an issue now and it is very hard to find a quality 3B -- getting a return for Lowell is more possible than it has been in the past. To feel safe doing that though, you do need Youks as the full time 3B and Lowrie as the backup. So if a scenario like that happens, disregard the offense, how satisfied would people be with Youkilis as a full time defensive 3B and how likely are we to wind up demanding a better option at the hot corner if we actually go ahead and make that move. EDIT: OK, OK, typo fixed. Jerks.

if you think Gonzo can hit, then you'll think Iglesias can hit.

Just get him to the playoffs, healthy, and let him do his thing.

pretty common Jacko tactic really. If you talk yourself into trouble just throw up a wall o'text and hope no one's bored or masochistic enough to acutally read it.

Can they afford to let him go out there and keep pitching poorly either? take the hit and trust the middle of your rotation to get something done. If you get into trouble, a better-rested Beckett will be there to help pitch you out of it later on.

Sure, I'd say the same, but I'm just pointing out that there would be a difference between bringing in a guy like Guzman next year as opposed to this one, and that difference is that he'd be in the last year of his deal next year, a true rental that carries little obligation beyond that one season for the team that acquired him. Instead of clogging resources with really quite a large contract compared to the actual performance you get and forcing you to commit to Guzman for an additional year no matter how well he does.