Dojji

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At the time, I was all for trading for Ryan Church to be our RF. Sort of a poor man's Drew for far less money.

His stuff seems just a tick off and he's not blowing it by people. 4.05 FIP though. Our boy is having some really bad luck to go with his less than stellar actual performance.

You missed the part where he said "off the top of my dome" didn't you? These are just the guys he's clearly better than. Pineilla maybe. Macha spent last year as a NESN analyst. Until any evidence shows up to the contrary, a manager with a job is better than a manager without a job. Also Macha's got Fielder, Gallardo and Braun and is still somehow managing to lose more games than he wins.

While I agree with this, it does make sense to adjust the lines based on your opponent, yes? Leaving 3 small players on our top line creates a very simple gameplan for anyone who wants an upset. "Take Kessel out of the game -- hard." Montreal didn't have the physical players who could execute that plan and so they failed, with Kessel being a huge part of the reason why. Carolina has more to throw at that light top line than Big Georges Laraque, Tom "Flying Elbow" Kostopoulos and Lapierre. They will bring a much more determined and capable physical pressure on Kessel and Savard if all they have to defend them is Axe. We really need to keep both Kessel and Savard healthy throughout this series and hopefully on to the next one as well, so lining them up with a player with the skill to play first line and the strength to make guys think twice about the easy answer to Kessel makes sense. Z, Stuart, and Sherriff Shane can probably help out but they'll have their own responsibilities and I don't know I want to give them any more than they already have. They'll have their hands full as it is with this Canes team.

Well I've got my shortstop. Stephen Drew of the Arizona Diamondbacks is a solid, young all-around shorstop that just really hit his stride last year with 20 bombs. He's a bit of a risk because unlike his brother he doesn't have a good OBP, meaning he's a candidate for a step backwards. Also unlike his brother though, he stays in the field.

Stephen Drew

Even if they wind up down a goal after 1 I won't worry a lot. Half the reason New Jersey lost is because of some injury-assisted decline from Brodeur. Thomas is healthy, the offense is deep, and the defense is solid. The Canes' plan is probably to smother Kessel and Ryder and put pressure on our depleted defensive corps. That should lead to breakouts from the likes of Bergeron and Kobasew. The best counter to that is to put Lucic on the Savard line to keep Carolina's checking corps away from our featherweight wunderkind and to stick Wheeler back on the Krejci line to give that line another offensive out and force the Canes to give Ryder space. THe top D pairing is going to be crucial. If they need to keep Axe on the first line to keep the Canes' first line that gave Brodeur so much trouble (Whitney in particular who seemed to have an assist on every crucial Carolina goal) that takes away their ability to bolster the Savard line with Lucic's physicality. I think for the first game, though, they need to put Lucic with Savard and Kessel. If the first line can't keep Carolina on their heels without Axe then you adjust, but Kessel's going to need protection.

If nothing else, this series has certainly been full of exciting and memorable games and those who attended those games have gotten their money's worth. What is it, 5 overtime games with 2 or 3 multiple overtimes and two buzzer beaters?

Well that frees up my evening. All that's left is to watch Garza dominate us again for no good reason.

You are insane. Tito has his flaws, but they're peanuts compared to the kind of idiots you see around the league. For an example, just consider who he replaced. Terry Francona is the best manager we've had since 1917.

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Bump I wanna make my next pick! Hurry up guys!

We'd have David Murphy in RF. Woo.

Yeah, him too. BTW -- our offseason wasn't a total bust. You guys are forgetting the Crisp trade that netted us Ramon Ramirez. THAT one is looking like, if not a stroke of genius, at least a solid win-win for both squads.

The point is to try to avoid putting yourself in a position where you have to throw someone into the fire who isn't yet ready for it (see Buchholz last year). If you throw a kid into the fire and he sucks, all you have to fall back on is maybe another kid -- if you're lucky. If you sign a veteran instead and he sucks, you have a chance of promoting a kid to take his place -- and have time to figure out exactly which kid it should be. It's an extra layer of insurance against getting absolutely no production at ALL from a spot in the lineup and a chance to buy time to allow merit to sort out who deserves to be getting chances based on what they're doing (AND how they're doing it!) in the minors. If we hadn't signed Penny, Saito and Smoltz, then we would have broken camp with Buchholz or Bowden in the rotation and very little minor league insurance at SP. Daisuke's injury would have been a potential disaster, coinciding as it did with Buchholz' hammy pull. Bard would also be in the bullpen right now occupying Saito's space, ready or not. Bowden would be in service now either as a SP or an RP. That's a lot of pieces with a reasonable chance of failure and not much behind them but AAAA scrubs and reclamation projects, besides whatever damage a premature callup might do to the development of the kids we had on the roster. Put it all together, and a couple decent filler types with upside are a good deal to make in the offseason for a team in player developpment phase, even if they don't exactly play up to their ability while on the roster they tend to have some use just because of the guys who aren't there.

THe offseason wasn't set up to make or break our season to begin with. Its success or failure is not going to determine very much for us anyway. It doesn't MATTER what most of our signings do because all they are is supplements to an existing strong, young core, and we have young players behind most of our signings that could also do the same job in the same way, better in most cases. Bard > Saito Bowden > Penny Buchholz > Smoltz

To be fair, everyone knows he's bad. Remember, Glenn Geffner was calling games so that they could keep him away from the mike.

Enough with the freakin' walks.

I went with Granderson - 5 tool CF with good defense who would be a lot better if he made just a little more contact but will provide me a solid core power bat with good speed and defense. I think Granderson as a third rounder is a bit of an underdraft really for the package he brings to the table.