Dojji

Of course you do.

Don't even bother looking for a power hitting 3B on this market, the only really good ones are on teams that are in the race. Dipre has one thing right: the best way to improve at corner infield is to use Youkilis at third and snag a 1B. I wish Lowell were healthy. A healthy Lowell is one of the better 3B's in the league.

Gain greater consistency from the existing team. If everyone was playing to their career averages we'd be a better team right now with only maybe one or two excptions.

Chris Carpenter is a St. Louis reclamation project gone brilliantly and he benefits very much from now being in the National League. He is most definitely NOT the pitcher he was as a Blue Jay. I imagine that considering that the Jays moved on from him not long after that performance, that they were concerned. You don't let a guy with that level of talent go unless there's something. Roy Halladay was rewarded for that performance by being sent to A ball where he completely relearned how to pitch. I imagine that there were some legitimate makeup issues that got worked out there as well. Interesting that both of your examples of disastrous young pitching performance were Blue Jays at the time, yes? Where I draw the line is referring to it as luck. Lester made his pitch. Buchholz does not. As to why one did a thing and the other doesn't (yet) do it, there's numerous potential causes and I don't think I'd be well advised to speculate in that area. It's more than just "luck" though. No, once he actually had that emotional reaction I'd rather know about it, but I'd definitely rather not have a pitcher who let past performances affect him emotionally to the point that they affect the next one. That isn't a recipe for success.

And two weeks before that, it was the Yankees in exactly the same spot. It's been back and forth. Color me extremely not worried.

We'll see. I wouldn't half love it if you were right, and it's about time. If that kid matures like Lester did and those 96 MPH radar readings go from occasional to common, he's going to be lethal. But he's not there yet,

Actually true, Kilo, if only because the team loves to run Wakefield out there for game 4 of the ALCS even though he's sucked in the playoffs since 2003. At this point it's either Smoltz or Wakefield to pitch Game 4 of the ALCS. With Penny as the #3. All I can say is that if we don't improve our rotation at least a little, Smoltz had better pitch better because I don't think I can stand another Wakefield playoff start.

Holy crap, you're kidding! I've been in crazy synch with the FO this month. It was about time though. congratulations to Tazawa. So we can expect him to be there as injury insurance for pretty much all of next year I guess. Cool with that.

There isn't much more for Buchholz to learn in the minors. At this point, he is what he is as a big leaguer and any further development is going to take place on the big stage. As much as I'm not very high on the guy, it makes sense to make sure Buchholz is on the roster on the 31st of August this year. Lord knows I've been wrong about guys before and I would love for a few of those mistakes to be pleasant for once.

That puts us dang close to the playoff eligibility deadline and past the trading deadline. I'm not sure that if you "gave Smoltz 2 or 3 more starts" you'd have time to acquire and evaluate a new option properly unless you did it now.

Even after "that albatross of a deal" Chiarelli had the money to sign Kessel at several different points this offseason and said so himself. Kessel is not unsigned because of Thomas. Kessel is unsigned because Chiarelli has, for some reason, not decided that he needs to hurry up and sign Kessel.

Cliff Lee is one of the better pitchers in the American League this year, he just isn't single-handedly winning games for his team.

It may or may not be overblown, but the concern is there and it's real. lester would mix a few good pitches in with the bad ones and while he'd struggle, he'd usually get himself out of the trouble he wound up in, at least long enough to get through 5 and qualfy for some wins. I am very much concerned that Buchholz isn't showing the same ability to get out of the jams every rookie puts himself in. I don't purely know if it's stuff or character, but it's not good either way. Lester when he was developing would sometimes throw 25 pitches an inning but when the chips were down he often found a way to make his pitch when it mattered and get out of it with the damage minimized. He got blown up occasionally but not as consistently as Buchholz. It's a real concern, at least to me. I don't think it's a mental issue, but he just isn't making that critical pitch. Don't ask me why. I'll admit I wasn't very happy with Lester in the early stages of his development. It came down to the same thing, I thought Lester had been pushed to the majors too soon because of "stuff" and needed to refine his fastball more in the minors and he needed to refine his command more. In my own defense I was pretty quick to recognize the signs when it looked like he'd made his adjustments though, and there was absolutely no question in my mind ever about Lester's mental or physical toughness. Speaking of, Buchholz' head is clearly in play as well. he as much as admitted that he let his struggles early in the year last season get to him and affect his performance. I cringed reading that. NOT what you want to hear from someone you want to groom as a franchise big game ace. That's almost worse than the numbers themselves, really.

Or we can just wait for Wakefield to return, let Buchholz come along at his own pace, cut bait with "Smoltzy" (great idea, there, too bad it didn't work!) and bring in Bowden or Tazawa

Bingo. Not that a defensive shortstop is that bad a thing to have, but this is the American league East, contending teams here usually need to be able to get something offensively from all 9 positions, even if it isn't very much. Also there are defensive shortstops that also actually hit adequately. Finally, our backup SS is already a defense-first guy and while he's faded a lot from the start of the season he isn't a total waste of an at bat (Green's OPS+ is in a virtual dead heat with Wilson's and provides well above average D at SS, tell me why I need to pay that much more for Wilson).

Since when are people not allowed to discuss the positive attributes of middling prospects, or the downsides of top prospects? See the problem here is that you guys continuously decide that when I am willing to defend a prospect, often for little more than the sake of a good argument, that I have some kind of man crush. The homoerotic references just drive home that point and amount to a rhetorical oversell, a dishonest tactic designed to artificlally put the other guy on the defensive. I don't think that it's a particular shock to anyone that Buchholz's big issue is fastball command. He has stuff for miles but if he's going to have one weakness, that's a heck of a bad place to have it. That was one of the reasons that unlike Lester, Buchholz couldn't bounce back easily when he struggled last year. "Pitching backwards" is fine with the bases empty, but not even Buchholz can live in the strikeout indefinitely with breaking stuff, and there will be days when the breaking pitch isn't there for him, and when that happens Buchholz is pretty much screwed, as he can't go to his heater to get out of a jam consistently, at least not yet. That's a problem. That's one of the reasons I actually think that while Buchholz is the more objectively talented, Bowden may well have the better career. He's got a better balance of skills for succeeding in MLB, including far fewer questions about his primary offering. Go ahead and quote that and say "lolwut" or some other one liner to reveal your ignurance and unwillingness to tackle my point headon, and by all means continue to impugn my sexuality, since that's pretty much the majority of what you guys do here.

As an inveterate prospect afficianado, I'm not that high on Buchholz myself. Everything builds out from Old Number One, and that's his weak spot. A fastball doesn't have to be overwhelming but if it isn't, you'd better be able to place it. Buchholz has a moderately good fastball, and when he places it he's awesome, but thats not exactly all the time. One thing sure, Buchholz is pretty much done with Pawtucket. Right now he gets away with overpowering AAAA hitters so he won't learn to maje the adjustments required if he stays down there. He's going to have to come the rest of the way in the bigs much like Lester did.

what a crapshow

Sure, if they passed a law to officially rename first base "Centerfield."

I don't buy the cause and effect there. If Chiarelli could have signed Morris to 3.3, I'm hard pressed to believe he couldn't sign Kessel to 3.5.

I wrote that more than a month ago, and JUST NOW posted an opinion that jives with yours. Tazawa's BB/9 is 2.5 BTW, that's actually very good.

I'm cool with that. Or Gonzalez.

Is Harper really going to be a catcher? One would think with his offensive prowess, it might be tempting to move him to a corner post so he can focus on hitting. If I'd drafted him, unless he's a brilliant defensive C I'd rather have him learning to be a healthy 1B than have him go Mike Sweeney on a team.