Dojji

My guess is either Bowden or Delcarmen depending on what the Pirates are looking for. But it's the Pirates so we probably ACTUALLY gave up Aaron Bates and Charlie Zink.q

Sure, not arguing that, but the point stands that there's a huge luck factor to Joba's 2007 performance.

And if the Yankees do that we explore other options -- for example, Jermaine Dye has a chance of being a FA if he doesn't pick up his mutual option with Chicago. He seems likely to go back there but it is possible that he moves on.

Every team goes through a stretch exactly like this one every year. I'm not worried about the performance on the field per se, that will turn around. More concerned about putting the team in the best position to stay competitive down the stretch than I am about kickstarting the offense now.

Interesting point. Any given athlete will have some form of aches and pains at any given time because of the strain major sports puts on their body. I imagine if you really wanted to you could find an excuse to DL at least half of the current Boston roster. Might this simply be a phantom DL trip to allow Buck the extra chance he earned himself with his last start?

Huh? wha? Wait... whoa.... WHAT????? Did not expect that. Wake seemed fine in his last start and we've had the whole All Star Break for him to rest. *sigh* Oh well, he'll bounce back quickly. It's what he does.

Right, Kot's out of options, and Tek doesn't handle Wakefield, so anything we do to bring in another catcher involves getting rid of one guy we know can do the job in order to bring in a guy we don't know can do it. And if we take Kotsay off the roster instead, we weaken our outfield depth. If Baldelli gets hurt I guarantee we hear squalling about carrying three catchers. Victor Martinez is not the right move at this time.

$.01

He's still having a great year, so I don't see much luster lost, most everyone knew a correction was in order. He's on pace for over 60 innings, what the hell are you talking about? Saito and his 136 ERA+ are worth that contract and then some. How many times was he recovering from shoulder surgery in those first halves? not buying it. Putting up those second half numbers still represents an improvement. Also, that's not exactly a huge split anyway. Actually that's not particularly clear, but in the absence of Teahen, Overbay, Huff, LaRoche or Johnson would serve quite nicely And our first rounder who turned into Reymond Fuentes.

Juan Cruz is one of those guys who throws very hard but is wild and erratic. He's either dominant or awful but he'll do for a lower echelon role in the pen and he's capable of getting very hot and dominating for extended stretches. he did a lot of setup work for Arizona before this year. Just looking around if I want to replace Saito next year with someone who isn't Saito, I take a look at Cruz. Jones isn't that bad an option in the pen. He's going to struggle a bit in the transition because he doesn't have the best fastball but he has good numbers and decent stuff so it's not too much of a longshot to say he could be the last man in a good bullpen.

I have my doubts Wright is available. Wouldn't half love to get him if he is but I wouldn't trade Wright if I was Minaya. I'd lose Reyes or Santana before I lost him. Here's how I'd do it: Jermaine Dye has a mutual option for '10. It's entirely possible that if we offered them a prospect that filled a need, such as a relief pitcher, they'd pick up the option and trade him to us. It's also possible given the state of the White Sox that Dye would waive whatever NTC he has to come here. He's our efficient alternative to going nuts for Bay or Holliday. Play him in Boston for a year, then renegotiate on the basis of Reddick's readiness. if he doesn't pick up his end of the option, just sign him as a FA after the Yankees have glutted themselves on Bay. Then sign Adrian Beltre, and eat Lowell's salary if you can't find a buyer, and then look for a couple bargain arms to replace Saito and whoever we traded for Dye (Delcarmen, likely). Juan Cruz has the potential to be an interesting value buy next year on a 1 year deal with his live arm and off year. Finishing touches: Re-upping Baldelli and Okajima, calling up Buchholz and bringing back Daisuke to replacing Penny and Smoltz, renewing Wakefield's perpetual option, keeping hold of Green as an option worth not having to replace as a reserve infielder, sliding Hunter Jones or Javier Lopez in as the last man out of the pen, bringing up Bates as reserve 1B. Final roster looks like this: Ellsbury, CF Pedroia, 2B Youkilis, 1B Ortiz, DH Dye, LF Drew, RF Beltre, 3B Varitek, C Lowrie, SS Green, IF Kottaras, C Baldelli, OF Bates, 1B Beckett Lester Daisuke Buchholz Wakefield Paps Oki RR Bard Cruz/Delcarmen (depending on whether we need to trade for Dye) Masterson Jones/Lopez

What do they have that we'd want? The only players on that team that are worth salvaging are the guys they won't get rid of. The only real exception are the overpaid guys like Santana or K-Rod

My guess: the 2004 versions of each player, at bargain bin prices. How else could you term what they've done in their roles anything worse than a mixed success?

Trade for Jermaine Dye, put him or Drew in left and wait for Reddick. Seriously, I'd definitely prefer to find a shorter term solution and hold out for Reddick than go after Holliday. He's done very little to disabuse people of the "Coors Product" label and I don't trust him for the money he'd want.

How, exactly? By going into a little mini slump headed into the break? If you expected RR not to give up any runs this year he might be a disappointment but other than that, I don't think you're approaching this realistically. Smoltz has not been good. We've gotten more than enough out of Saito to justify the flier we took on him -- remember, the debate in the offseason was whether he'd pitch at all. And you base that on what? Just your opinion? Far from regressing the guy actually has the stuff to come on a bit in the second half and really start earning himself a contract next year. Which is why I want to trade for a LH corner infield bat. Another perfectly acceptable use of that same minor league depth that also allows for midseason replacements. Are you done arguing just for the sake of arguing or would you like to go another few rounds? I'm game either way.

They were going easy on Lester in 2006. Take a look at buchholz last year and tell me the Sox shouldn't mind how they handle him.

I think that's the right move anyway. The guy is still a young pitcher and he... has shown that he can be ratled. Until he gets past that, going carefully makes sense. They babied Lester as well.

In that offseason we picked up several players who are key in our run so far, including Rocco Baldelli and Ramon Ramirez. Penny has carried his weight too despite some weak outings -- wins might not be the be all and end all but a winning pitcher in the 5 slot is an asset. Frankly our minor league depth gives us such ability to replace in midseason that our offseasons aren't as crucial as they used to be anyway. So far the offseason has been quite successful and the signing of Penny in particular looks like a dang good idea in hindsight because of Daisuke's injury. I'm not convinced we needed an expensive elite bat in the offseason and the performance this season has not proven me wrong. We do have a specific need for a LHH corner infielder, but that can be filled a lot more efficiently than a Teixeira deal would have filled it.

Now we gotta get Evans in there somehow. He's borderline on offense alone and is one of the best defensive RF's in history. With his very high OBP's Dewey was a hitter way ahead of his time and he looks better and better as we start understanding offensive metrics more. Perhaps a generation that's more aware of OBP and its virtues will be more inclined to let him in than people were at the time he retired.

Fixed

You guys knew I was crazy when we started this. I don't exactly have a thing for overpaid guys going into the second half of their prime for $20M+ AAV on 7 year deals. Not when our best prospect occupies the position we'd be filling with a contract larger by a third and longer by 3 years than our current biggest contract. And then there's the fact that the Red Sox were never, ever, ever getting Teixeira anyway, not with the Yankees having a hole at first and money to spend.

And know what? At that price, I still don't want Teixeira and I still don't see how he would have fit so well with this team. Kinda doesn't have a lot to do with anything now though.

To what DipreG said, I'd just like to add that defense is a factor in BABIP, since it's basically 1-DER. The variability and difficulty in predicting and projecting defense is a large part of the supposed "luck" factor. But this is pretty clear cut luck. The Yankee defense is NOT good enough that even if we get a steady diet of cheap flies and ground balls, they'll haul more than three quarters of them in. There just isn't the range on that team for that level of performance to be reasonable, especially when Chien Ming Wang's ERA as a pitcher whose whole identity was built around weak contact, sports a .290 median BABIP.

Because of course, none of us are allowed to change our opinions in light of new information.

At a rate that is unsustainable even for the most dominant pitchers. I'm not saying there wasn't a good performance behind it but those numbers are not just the result of good performance.