Dojji

Thank goodness we have someone who knows his **** and can set us straight.

He did not, in fact, say the same thing about Schilling last year. He did say that the rehab was going well though, so general point taken.

Probably so, but don't underestimate LBJ's capacity to completely fart up a deciding game.

At this point just ban him.

You could have said the same thing about Longo last year. What can I say? He's the most fundamentally sound prospect hitter I've ever seen.

Pujols has never been caught, but there's been rumors for years about him, too. With all the revelations forthcoming it is presumed by quite a few people that Pujols is just a matter of time. I think our best hope is a thoroughly tested next generation -- Longoria, Anderson, et. al.

That sounds pretty reasonable. You might get two if a team decides that what they think they see in him might be worth overpaying for, but it'd definitely be an overpay.

Right, which is why Nixon's on the raised-eyebrow list, especially because he hasn't really done anything significant since 2003 (injured in 2004 leading to the Roberts acquisition, hit 13 HR's in 2005, 8 in '06, and 3 in '07)

Matt Cassel is worth at least one draft pick because he's a surer thing than a QB you could draft in the first round. Also end of story.

Nice to know he made it through the winter OK.

Sure you can, but starters tend to have their Ratings overrated by a high Endurance score, which means their actual pitching effectiveness is dependent on their role. Because you can't go into some menu and say that you want to train the guy for relief, he will pitch in the pen as if he was a stretched out starter rather than getting the bonus that real pitchers like, say, Justin Masterson got in velocity and power when they went to the pen.

How about Tennessee? I could see them still thinking Vince Young is their man going forward, but I could also see them thinking that Cassel is a guy who has demonstrated that he's OK standing behind a more talented QB and that Vince is rapidly developing into a serious headcase, enough to threaten their push for a trophy or that they're too close to the prize to let Young screw things up again. Think of it kind of like Manny Fernandez on the Bruins. In principle you really don't pay what Chiarelli paid for a backup goalie, but Boston's goalie situation is a little unconventional, and for the Niche that MFMF actually fills, which is a starting-capable insurance policy behind Boston's enigmatic starter, he's worth the price. Fernandez plays well himself and he pushes Thomas, which seems to be something Timmy really needs to stay focused. And if Timmy had turned into a pumpkin at any point over the last few months, MFMF could have taken over the starting job himself and the B's would probably still have won more games than they lost. Of course you still run into the same problem, is that really worth two #1's? but Tennessee is right at the height of their playoff peak in the next couple years, and having a good #1a quarterback in case VY flakes out again really could be worth that to them right now. It's a bit of Yankee-think, but when you're close to a championship, overpaying a bit for that little bit extra tends to be something you consider. Collins isn't going to get you to the next level. He just doesn't have the tools. Cassel, especially the Cassel of the last 6 games or so when they really turned him loose, might. EDIT: Clarity (probably still needs some)

Well what I'd really like to find is an online game that had the simple, intuitive pleasure of Baseball Mogul online. I've gone through SinDynasty (*shudder!*) Bush League Baseball (ehh...)and CSFBL (*barf!*) without much success. ALl of those games either departed radically from the real rules of baseball or in BLB's case never even seriously tried to adhere to them. Most games seem to have this burning desire to overcomplicate things and make baseball this arcane something that isn't accessable to the layman. BMO was forced by its format to avoid that and be simple, easy to understand, and yet still capture the spirit of real GMing reasonably well (with some necessary compromises to the format). Their offseason sim for BMO is still the best i've seen in an online game. Far better than the desktop version's answer for the same. If they picked up a draft system like CSFBL or Sim Dynasty (all those two games had going for them IMO!) instead of just dumping players on teams it'd be the undisputed best browser baseball game out there. I hear BMO is making a comeback in some form. Would be cool.

You got OOTP? I tend to stick to Clay Dreslough's humble little Baseball Mogul franchise. It has its flaws --a major one is that you can't switch a starter to a reliever or easily stretch a reliever out to start, a big issue with historical pitchers where their role has switched in the past like John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, Rich Gossage, or Derek Lowe, and even moreso with modern players whose roles are conroversial like Papelbon, Joba or Joakim Soria (or going the other way guys who would be better relievers like Eric Gagne or Mariano Rivera turned out to be). Even worse with guys who IRL were starters this year (Feldman, Duchscherer) but last year were in relief. Trading system is whack too, you can acquire premium franchise arms or bats for a 15 player fail salad for example. And then there's the perennial ace that is Houston Street once you go through the INSANELY overlabored process of stretching a guy out by leaving him on the roster in a starting role for 2+ years. But it's a nice hit of baseball to help get through the winter and that counts for something. The PBP system is nice and getting better too It also has the advantage of being cheap. I cried when Baseball Mogul Online went down. It's the only online game I know that made a manful attempt to get the whole GM experience down with a real effort to have an honest to God offseason and a relatively intuitive lineup and trade system based more or less on MLB rules. I wish/hope Clay could bring that back at some point. It was a good game.

Not much of a laughing matter. Just watch the magic pinstripes work a miracle with this guy.

Aforementioned Brian Rose was 21. So was Carl Pavano. And again, both of those two were top prospects in their time. Being rushed doesn't help you. Having time to develop after your debut doesn't help you. Getting sent back down after your debut is enough of a mixed signal that it does more harm than good. You get a lot better results by making sure the guy is ready to play before you debut him -- which the Yankees did not do with Hughes. Buchholz is in the same boat but only because of the Schilling injury. Original plan was to stash him in AAA and call him up if someone got hurt but someone was hurt right off the bat. In other words, Hughes was rushed because of a failure to plan. Buchholz was rushed because the plan failed.

It kind of looks like DOntrelle Willis.

I happen to believe that health is part of the "it" that you have to put all together.

Gotta throw this one in too: http://www.beckett.com/images/itemimages/nd85/nd85200201061052284117.jpg

Indeed, especially since at least Buchholz remained generally healthy. Hughes is a good pitching prospect but Buchholz is a better one, at ieast until one, the other, or both put it all together and we can compare.

http://espn.go.com/i/page2/photos/060707/g_youkilis_195.jpghttp://digitalderek.typepad.com/sawxblog/photos/2008/offseason/february/kevin_youkilis.jpg "That really used to be me? Jeez!"

Calais. Part of the "Other Maine." Within about 500 yards of St. Croix Island FWIW.

Nah that's Youks circa 2005 -- back when he played a game at 2B. http://www.homeruncards.com/imagesrc/kevin-youkilis-tp.jpghttp://i.a.cnn.net/si/2007/writers/the_bonus/10/19/bonus.youkilis/t1_youkilis1.jpg