Dojji

There's some merit to that approach, if Ricciardi was mentioning a willingness to trade within divisions for more reasons than simply the spectre of the Big Two being in the chance to drive up the price for everyone else. My guess is that we're only in this one to increase JP's bargaining position and the Jays would never trade Halladay to either us or the Yankees.

This is turning out like Dewey on the Orioles. Veteran tries for one last year on a random team, proves he should have hung 'em up, and leaves on a sour note. It's a shame. In his prime Smoltz was a fantastic pitcher.

That said, Joba got incredibly lucky in '07 as well as putting up dominating numbers. .246 BABIP? 96.6% LOB? These numbers make Joba look hella better than he really was that year. And don't try to tell me that that was excellent Yankees' defense. Chamberlain's 2007 debut was a flat out statistical fluke, the only numbers he claims full marks for that year are his K/bb rates./

Give credit to the Rangers bats for adjusting faster than Smoltz could counter. He was going great so he shouldn't throw what he did out the window, except for what happened in the 6th when they finally got ahold of him. Also, again, credit where it's due, that's exactly what the Rangers offense has been doing to not a few pitchers this year. They might not have much else but they ARE a good offense.

Which means he's due to play even worse relatively soon. "clogging the basepaths" is an anachronistic dead phrase often used as an excuse to argue against OBP by the neolithic baseball conservatives. In Lowell's case, however, it has some merit. I have yet to see Lowell successfully advance two bases on any play since his comeback.

Well, I think it's pretty clear that we need to do something about Lowell. I admire his attitude for wanting to stay active and live up to his contract as best he can, but his speed has gone from a point where you could shrug it off and say he's there to hit, not run, to the point where it's a major offensive liability. The guy can't stretch a double dependably and cannot score from second against a half decent outfielder. Those hard hit liners off the monsters that were once the Mike Lowell special are now singles. It's time to start the transition to someone else -- if we had anyone else. You heard the quotes. He's rested and fresh. He feels great. Bottom line this is as good as it gets for Mike Lowell for the remainder of this season at least. We need to find that transitional bat who can take us forward towards a post-Lowell world. Dunno who it is and at this point I don't care. SOMETHING, however, must be done. And looking at what we have in-system and their chances of being that guy this year, unless you want to count on Aaron Bates we will need to look outside the system for that guy at least in the near term. Time to get cracking, Mr. Epstein!

Just being honest. Yeah I'd rather have Penny, but I'd rather have a lot of guys over either Wakefield or Penny.

I would pick "HEEEEEEEELP!!!!!"

No he can't. We need to get past the whole idea that Varitek will handle the knuckleball on anything but an emergency basis. He's made it clear in the past that he doesn't want to do that and his style doesn't really work with the K'ball. The guy wasn't handling the knuck well in his prime, what on earth makes you think he wants to deal with it at age 37?

Actually I thought they were going to get Mauer, because he caught R. A. Dickey on a regular basis. Could be wrong.

That's not what you said though. You said best starter. It's not like the concept of Penny playing that role doesn't fill me with a similar sense of impending doom though. He hasn't exactly been lights out has he? By the time the playoffs role around, Buchholz with a half years' additional MLB experience could very easily be way better than Penny

Which is... EXACTLY what I just said.

can he catch a knuckler?

Well, yeah, actually. Butler has a .782 OPS. Teahen is at .807 at the more premium position. Butler is going to be a better player than Teahen at some point in his career, probably not too far in the future, but he's not there yet. As deadline acquisitions go, Teahen is one of the more attractive possibilities in the league. Moore's going to want a return similar to the Casey Blake deal, which is a good place to start talking Teahen trades. The eqiuvalent value of Carlos Santana is definitely a steep price to pay for insurance at 3B. This is one of the reasons I've backed off on the whole get-Teahen thing. I want him, but the price might not be worth it if all we're getting him for is part time work.

Frankly, he kind of does factor in. Having a flexible guy with his offensive ability in theory allows me to be patient with certain underperformers and so not regret a pick just because of a lack of immediate performance (such as Gordon, Dukes, or Ankiel)

We might be surprised by what Moore would ask for Teahen. He is their best position player right now (though that isn't saying a ton) and he is having a good year this year, and he plays a position that's in some demand -- 3B's aren't easy to find just now. I wouldn't assume that a couple B guys get it done at this point unless something leaks out that suggests it might. Teahen is all the Royals have as far as trading pieces, and they're not under any kind of mandate to actually move him. Moore is feeling some heat after a season where the Royals were supposed to push for .500 fell into the crapper, so he'll want to get this one right and get a return that makes an immediate impact on KC, so I don't think this will be done in a hurry and I think that the price might not be as cheap as I personally want it to be.

Fix that to "he will get his chance next year." They just burned Buck's last option. NWIH he passes waivers. Clay Buchholz will be a Boston Red Sox in the 2010 season.

Care to elaborate?

Elijah Dukes possibly. Other than that I think most of my picks are doing OK and there's some nice upside there. And with Zobrist on hand I have the ability to help myself if I run into trouble with Alex Gordon at third.

A platoon partner who could stand in fulltime if Lowell goes down could prevent the balance in the division from shifting away from the Sox when the inevitable injury occurs. I love what Lowell has been for this team but there is no way that was his last DL trip of the year.

Not really talking about putting Lowell on the bench, so much as getting him a platoon partner who could give Tito an excuse to rest Lowell on days when Lowell wanted to play. "Well, Mikey, I appreciate that you want to play, but I want to get Lefty Hitter X into the lineup against this righthanded pitcher because he hits better against him than you do, so you go ahead and take it easy today and go get 'em tomorrow." sounds a lot better than "Well, Mikey, I appreciate that you want to play, but you're old and your hip hurts so you go warm the bench tonight while I play a no bat schlub at first." You tell me which of those two senarios is more likely to result in a healthy Mike Lowell come October.

Lowrie the solution at third? I doubt it. He's a decent hitter, especially for a SS, but he doesn't have the bat for corner infield. He could fill in there if needed, but then we have to put up with Green's bat at short, that's a downgrade of two positions at once. Not exactly the sort of idea you want to trot out when trying to design the best possible Red Sox lineup. I'd rather try to fill actual holes than simply try to swap an underperforming player for another underpeforming player, if you take my meaning. Wilson is hideously inconsistent and just isn't very good with a bat in his hands. He's capable of a good year all right but the bad years outnumber the good ones about 2-1 with Wilson. And when it comes to a no bat all D SS, we already have one of those and one is about as good as another. The hole I see that most needs filling is a lefthanded, power hitting corner infielder to give Lowell a stable, competent replacement when he needs to rest (or to play 1B and let Youk provide that replacement). Kotsay is many things, but a power hitting corner infielder is not one of them. I would gladly shelve him for someone from a list of guys like Teahen, Overbay and laRoche.

Actually if the playoffs started today, Wakefield is the third best starter.

How about trading saito and moving Penny to the bullpen? He does have that great velocity after all