Dojji

Johnson I can see, but I thought you were worried about his health. Huff is in-division, I doubt the O's make a deal with us, and besides, the guy's fatally inconsistent and isn't as good a hitter as Adam LaRoche. I don't get what you have against LaRoche. He compares to the rest of these guys as a hitter as well as a fielder. Look at the guy's numbers over the last 4 years and tell me what's wrong with the guy. Unless you managed to completely job the Nationals he's probably the best 1B you could get for a reasonable price.

I'd rather deal a prospect to pick up our injury insurance if possible. Of course, in the offseason I was all for getting Nick Swisher instead of Kotsay, but Boston was too slow on that one. He'd be a big help right now. Right now, I think that the best value is Adam LaRoche, especially if you can find a way to get him for prospects we weren't going to use.

it is if that sixth man has a proven track record of second half awesomeness and is doing a good enough job this year to be a setup man on some teams. Also, Delcarmen is our 4th man at worst, Masterson, Bard and IMHO Saito are behind him.

With the Butler-Overbay platoon I'm a bit light at 1B. While Ka'aihue is a bit of a late bloomer, I think he's going to develop into a solid power hitter if the Royals ever get their heads out of their posteriors and give the guy some actual playing time. For the record, if you go searching for the guy there are two Ka'aihue's in the minors, Kila, the Royals prospect, and Kala with the Braves. I think they're brothers. FWIW, Kala is also interesting and might make the majors at some point but is struggling this year Kila though is killing the baseball and has no business still being in the minors at all IMHO, especially for a power starved team like KC..

Kila Ka'aihue, 1B, minors

I'm on it, just reviewing some options here.

Sox win. But yeah, Paps has been looking a bit like Ricky Vaughn in Major League 2 recently. More interested in saving his arm than dominating the batter at hand.

So where was this version of David Ross when WE had him?

So who would you rather have on your team, Gonzalez or Okajima?

So Mike Gonzalez is pretty good.

Wow, Oki. Way to get out of it.

So why can't you do that with the bases empty, huuh Oki? Are you doing this to torment me? You are, aren't you? YOU HATE ME DON'T YOU OKI???

Time to get Oki out. He doesn't have it today. Do not like putting Chipper at the plate with 2 on and none out. THis could become a 1 run game very fast.

You sound like a middle schooler in a locker room.

I do believe we've found our Derek Jeter. A guy who we admire and love, but who drives everyone else nuts with his arrogance and self-confidence. Just as long as Pedroia doesn't water down his image to suit some corporate persona, we're good.

Yeah, but it's a bit below DipreG's league. I mean, you could talk about the Jair Jitterbug, or refer to him as Jumpy Jair, but Jair Balkjens? Blah.

What a wierd play. Nearly walked a guy to second.

Not one of your better efforts.

I'm sure Theo does too, especially while moving in the direction of his preferred financial institution.

Yeah, see: Jason Bay for three bust prospects and Brandon Moss. But if the Pirates weren't a team you could rob blind, Bowden would be a fair price for a player of LaRoche's caliber.

It's feast or famine with you, isn't it? Personally I think Bowden is a fair price if the Pirates are looking for a pitching prospect. Your claim that it would somehow be robbery is as ridiculous as going the other way and offering Buchholz and Anderson. Of course, knowing the Pirates you could probably offer them Bubba Bell, Hunter Jones and a used cigar stub and get LaRoche off them.

You're right, but who else do you think the Pirates would ask for in addition to Bowden? Also, LaRoche is mid-teir at worst. Lower tier is Ryan Garko, Mike Jacobs, and Mike Sweeney. I could list 10 starting first basemen that are worse than LaRoche right now.

You're overselling the point. Over the last 4 years LaRoche has actually been consistently solid. He's not Mark Teixeira, but then, who is? He is, however, likely to be available for trade and stands a good chance of being more useful than Kotsay. He's also at about the same level of production as a healthy Mike Lowell. If that's the perception of LaRoche, then he's seriously underrated. Adam LaRoche is exactly the kind of 1B you get in the middle of the season if you happen to need one. Only, he's actually that guy, rather than the 5-10 people around the league that you could get hoping they're that guy like Kevin Millar or Chris Shelton. He's a legitimate middle of the order bat, gets on base reasonably well, and he'll give you somewhere between 20 and 30 HR's. And he'd probably be good for more than his traditional 90 RBI's if he ever played for a team that actually got on base sometimes. As for Bowden being highway robbery in trade... ha. Talk about overvaluing prospects. Until he shows what he's got over an extended stay in the majors, he's probably worth less than a battle-tested Delcarmen. I'm very high on Bowden myself, but he has proven exactly nothing and I don't think the team would hesitate to deal him for a piece that would help them win now and next year. And LaRoche looks like a legitimate possibility to be that guy.

Disagree very strongly. Johnson has his faults, but he's an above average first baseman. I actually think MDC for Johnson is a bad deal for Washington. And I'm a guy who really likes Delcarmen and values what he brings as a durable, relatively consistent RHRP

He also maintains an OBP at or around .400 and hits for adequate power for a first baseman. (career OBP is .399, which is at the elite level as far as OBP goes) Johnson doesn't score well on the old metrics, but scores better on the newer ones. such as his .853 OPS and 125 career OPS+ I'd rather go for Adam LaRoche but there isn't much to choose between him and Johnson and LaRoche has fewer health question marks, but both of their teams have enough holes for me to think that those guys are available for the right price.