Dojji

Benzinger is more like Kila Ka'aihue than Anderson.

That's kinda two different questions. 1: when do we think he's ready 2: when do we think the team will use him. Possibly a third as well 3: When would he be a starter? No one is going to maintain the numbers Anderson had in his AA tenure last year indefinitely, but if he puts up good numbers in Portland he might ready to be be promoted to Pawtucket in the second half. Sort of like Ellsbury and Lowrie two years ago. Or he could spend all year in Portland depending on what Bailey, Carter, Natale and McAnulty do with the 1B, backup 1B, DH and LF spots. Anderson is very young and he's not on the 40-man, and we have players under contract for all the significant positions he can play until 2011. There's time. In all likelihood if Anderson is promoted midseason it'd be Bailey who was the roster casualty. IIRC he's out of options and is just too old to hold onto if Anderson starts seriously beateing the door down. Natale could go too, since he doesn't have the range for 2B or the power for 1B, but seriously the guy is an OBP monster, is still young enough to have a bit of projectability, and I suspect the team will wind up wanting to hold onto him as bench fodder. Guys who can put up a .400 OBP consistently throughout an otherwise up and down minor league career aren't guys you let go of in a hurry. Once he's in AAA it's just a question of a spot opening up. In order to gain big league playing time Anderson will have to earn his way past Bailey, Carter, and McAnulty for any cups of coffee going around as a result of possible injuries to Lowell, Papi or Youkilis. He also has Bates and Still trying to run up his back for 1B/DH time in Portland, which is not high odds for either prospect but is something to think about. Given the depth ahead of him it's not a given that he even makes the September roster. If we want a 1B there, I'd have to say both Carter and McAnulty need chances more than Anderson does, and IIRC Lars is not on the 40-man roster yet. It would depend on a few things falling his way that may not. In all likelihood we're looking at a strong possibility of a 2010 debut and a much smaller possibility of a debut this year. Now if we're talking purely on the basis of his talent alone and roster calculus doesn't enter into it, he could probably do all right in the big leagues right now -- and indeed there are teams out there that would have pushed a guy performing as Anderson did in the low minors much harder and he'd probably be in the big leagues right now. An example of this kind of thinking is Billy Butler. But since the decision to rush Butler really didn't do him any favors I don't see where there's much to lose by giving the kid more reps. By 2011 assuming nothing goes wrong I'd like our corner IF to be Youk at 3B, Anderson at 1B and Natale as the backup 1B (a position where I think his exceedingly strong plate discipline can compensate for his relative lack of pop and make him a fine pinch-hitter and righthanded backup to the lefthanded Anderson).

Only because no one is as good as Papelbon. We'll still have Ramon Ramirez, Justin Masterson and Manny Delcarmen on staff when we lose arb control of Paps, and will probably add Nick Hagadone, Richie Lentz and/or Dan Bard to our list of bigtime arms with possible late inning futures, not counting any free agents Japanese and otherwise we might sign in the meantime. nd who knows, maybe Hunter Jones progresses passed his presumed ceiling as well. He's can certainly handle the workload (94. 102. and 73 IP's respectively in the last 3 years) and he was lights-out in Pawtucket. I have no doubt at all that he'll be with the team by the end of this year, especially if Takashi Saito doesn't pan out. If I had to pick which of those is most likely to be a closer I'd say either RamrRam or Lentz. Bard passes both IF he harnesses his command.

Replace it with a more equitable sharing of media money -- that's been needing to happen for awhile, after all the big teams wouldn't draw without the little teams.

Alejandro Machado.

Oh, and anudda ting -- I believe the Sox are currently still 4th or so in payroll having been surpassed by the Mets and Tigers, I'd say we have a bit of room to talk since the league has more or less caught up with us. I'd say a floor of $60M and a ceiling of $110M would work. Even the Royals have recently demonstrated that they can spend over $60M. Build in a clause like they have in hockey so that salaries on the DL soften the cap a bit.

The Red Sox are going to miss out on at least one big-name free agent or big-contract trade in any given offseason. There would NEVER be a good time to call for a salary cap on that basis. Also: didn't Henry own the Marlins at one point? I'd say he's seen both sides..

Wow. That should send this thread into all sorts of interesting places

Wait... wait... Loretta has significant utility experience at both SS and 2B and would have slotted well enough into that role. So you honestly mean to tell me... ..that we traded Graffanino in order to keep ALEX CORA?

He's a professional ballplayer -- I see no reason why not. Graf wasn't moved because we were going to get Loretta, or because of an eggface error. He was moved because we thought our infield at the time of the trade would be Hanley at SS, and Renteria at 2B. Both superior offensive options on paper to Graf. Loretta was a desperation move brought on by the changes caused by the Beckett trade.

Graffanino's 2006 OPS for KCR/MIL: .751. Not great, but for a 2B you can live with that. Loretta's 2006 OPS for BOS: .706. Yuck. Add to that Loretta's complete lack of anything resembling range and... yeah. Gimme Graf. At least for that one year.

You're a fine one to talk about non-contributions, my trollbaiting friend. My point stands though. You'll have to pick one of those statements to tease the tiger this time. You can't have both.

Know what looked really good on Loretta? An Astros uniform. It meant he was done with the Sox. He wasn't really a bad 2B but given the choice of the two I'd rather have had Graffanino.

Nah it looked pretty good on Jody Reed.

These two statements are completely contradictory. Do you ever actually preview what you write for internal consistency or are we just your dumping ground for verbal diarrhea?

When Curt and Pedro moved on all the heat went out of the Boston-NY rivalry, at least as far as the players go. Now all we have left is Chamberlain throwing at Youkilis' head every chance he gets and A-Rod and Pedroia cheerfully hating each other.. And Varitek of course.

Not really. Last year our depth situation was Buchholz and Hansack. Masterson was an emergency move that happened to work. Without him, and with Schilling hurt, the Sox really needed Colon to do more than he did last year. If nothing else, this year Bowden is now ready to come fill in where he wasn't last year, we have Buchholz, we know what Masterson can do, and if he starts in AAA and does reasonably well, Kris Johnson should be on the Kason Gabbard plan as well.

Dunno bout a cap. At least not a hard cap. There should be a floor though. The Marlins loophole needs closed.

Why are we topping this thread?

http://www.peoriadefense.com/photo_host/BuildingaBetterCorn.PopcornThatis_C73D/popcorn.jpg

You realize that you just proved him right.

Actually from his words what he wants right now is to throw a 15 minute bullpen session that gets taken seriously and see where ya go from there.

Marbury?

Most of the time I at least understand what you're trying and failing to do when you post a barb, Diony. That one sailed over my head completely. WTH?

Why don't you go ahead and keep digging? A lot of very good big league players struck out a lot in the minors. What matters is what he does with the rest of his PA's.