Dojji

Well if you missed this Maine winter, then you missed a particularly brutal one. Usually you get a couple breaks, respites, where the snow melts a bit and you get temps over freezing for a couple days in a row. That never happened.

I dunno whether he's worth 2 firsts, but he's probably a better gamble than your average first rounder for a roster spot, which is a good indication (IMHO) that he's worth at least one. Also bear in mind that the team Cassel was leading wasn't exactly the usual Patriots juggernaut. In fact there were a couple games where all we had was the passing game and BJGE. When you're that two dimensional, a win against any NFL team is a good win. If they'd had the same level of performance from the other Patriots that we'd had in the 16-0 season cassel could easily have gone 12-4 or even 13-3. The defense was a big letdown in some key games, especially against the Colts. The "can't beat a good team" thing wasn't just Cassel in other words.

lol can't blame him there, it was blastedly cold in Maine this winter, worse than usual. And snow, we had road signs on Highway 1 up Calais way that were completely buried. I shudder to think what they got up in Presque Isle or Fort Kent. Went to school there and it was always a fair bit worse than Calais.

BTW -- for what it's worth, Youk has really filled out over the last couple years. Another possible explanation for his power spike I guess. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/ordine/blog/Millar.bmp http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/486949646_d8c2b7de0f.jpg

Youk's there? Great news. Looks like the big fella is going to put his work in this year to make sure he doesn't go back to his 2007 ways.

Buddy, go back and read the post that started all this. I was talking about prospect hype to begin with You were the one who busted out the slide rule. When a guy can't place his fastball everything else is suspect. Until that problem is resolved no, I'm not completely sold on Buchholz and until it's resolved I do consider Bowden the better prospect as he's more fundamentally sound and has a better basis to work off -- one of Bowden's big selling points is fastball command. Interested to see whether Buchholz might actually gain some velocity as that rail-thin frame of his fills out. Once Buck masters the fastball he'll be a monster, but we're kidding ourselves if we think that's going to happen overnight. He's gonna struggle a bit, it's the nature of the beast. That said, he certainly is capable of having a great game at the big league level and I think thathis struggles just went to his head because he's a kid and isn't used to sucking. I think he'll turn that around sooner rather than later, as long as he also fixes his fundamentals issue.

Who he hell used the word "comp?" I was only comparing because he was once consdiered a can't miss prospect. Carrying comparisons farther than the other guy clearly intends them to go is a form of cheap, intellectual dishonesty.

Guys, turn off ESPN. Cassel has beaten good defenses. The only reason he gets that label at all is because: 1: in the games where he scored well against good teams, the other team scored better and the Patriots lost 2: the Steelers debacle which was a complete team clusterbomb including a total meltdown by th3e O-line and a fumbled kickoff return..

No, they aren't. Rose plowed through the minors without even slowing down, Bowden hit a rough stretch in AA. You're counting post-prospect numbers. That's a pretty serious sample in Snyder's case, especially because of some of the inuuries he suffered. Yep yep, and the strikeout numbers are impressive. A big factor with Rose, Frankie and Snyder is that they were pushed pretty hard by their teams at the time, limiting the usefulness of the minor league sample. One thing though. Old friend Casey Fossum would be right up with that quartet based on minor league numbers, escluding post-prospect numbers. Minor league numbers just don't mean that much.

Cassel has played well in the NFL. He has managed a winning team. He had a dynamite recieving corps but Cassel still has to hit his man to have that mean ANYTHING. You are underrating the hell out of the guy. He had good games against a couple good defenses, but it was losing efforts where he scored 25+ and the D gives up 30+ It comes down to whether you think Cassel is a better risk than most of the QB's you could get in the lower middle of the first round. I think you can make the argument that an established NFL quarterback with nice tools coming off a good year is better than than gleaning a fairly thin QB draft this year. THat means that especially playoff near-misses and first round exit teams are going to be talking Cassel.

In Cassel's case there's a real possibility of offer sheets. He did have a pretty decent year as a quarterback and he got better as the season went on, hinting strongly at continued improvement. He's got a pristine injury history due to his lack of playing time, has demonstrated that he can play NFL ball, and while he's not the strongest arm in the world he's young, durable, reasonably accurate, can use his feet, and has a good head. There's a lot for a team stuck with below average QB's to like. Most of us look at the guy and say "not as good as Brady" but all it'd take to get an offer sheet for Cassel is for a team with playoff hopes and a weak or aging QB to look at Cassel and say "he's better than the guy we've got." Possible offer sheet teams: Titans, Vikings, Eagles, Jets. Dolphins? Bengals? Lions? Particularly the Vikings and Jets are very real possibilities. The Vikings look like a team that's a QB away from contending, and the Jets have plundered the Patriots before looking for the next guy and don't really have a QB right now depending on what Favre does.

Honest question from a guy who's never pitched: I thought it wasn't that easy to go back to an old delivery after training for awhile in a new delivery. I still think Bowden breaks out before Buchholz does. Buchholz is probably better once both do though.

Ohhhhhh no, I think this team and this town have seen enough can't miss prospects miss completely to know better than to take this tack. We've lost whole generations of can't miss pitching prospects. Whither Brian Rose? Whither Frankie Rodriguez? Whither Casey Fossum and Abe Alvarez? Frankly that fastball has me scared. You canNOT just assume that Clay's other pitches will make up for a shoddy fastball. There's going to be games where the curve and change aren't there. Snyder had a really good curve too after all, and a 90+ fastball. Was a heck of a prospect once upon a time Didn't do him a lot of good because he couldn't place his fastball. Same problem Buchholz has. If he can't do more with that fastball than he has done then he has a very good chance of winding up with a very mediocre career. It's because I can see the problem being identified and addressed that I'm hopeful for the kid. But seriously, on the basis of strong command of his main offering and solid secondary stuff, I have to think Bowden is going to "get it" first. Clay will be along, eventually, but gun to my head, ask me who becomes a legitimate pitching star first bwtween Buck and Bowden, it's Bowden.

VMart is not a disaster behind the plate, and actually was showing signs of improvement before his injury. In 2007 Martinez was markedly better than Varitek in several key areas, especially CS%, and he was tied with Joe Mauer for second in the American League in fielding Win Shares for a catcher. As for why they'd give him up, the reason is pretty simple -- Kelly Shoppach has arrived, is, for now, cheaper, and has more defensive tools and significantly more power than VMart. I dunno if the Guardians GM even seriously considered it, but it's the move to make IMHO for the Guardians, especially if they can get a good SP out of it. They have a rotation right now of Carmona, Lee, nada, nada, and nada.

Agree. There's a lot of pitchers with stuff as good or better than Clay's who started out as poorly as he has and came back to dominate. Just... A... Few... Examples! Especially this one!

OK. If we don't win Teixeira, Plan B should have been Victor Martinez. Not only a solid veteran catcher but one with some 1B experience as well. Two birds, one stone. You could probably get him from Cleveland because they have Kelly Shoppach who's been proving his worth behind VMart. Bowden would have more than done it. Quite seriously though, I can see why you don't do that either, and maybe Cleveland is more optimistic about their (small) chance next year than I am. That's why I give the grade a boost because of the way he's set us up long term not to need to go after big blockbusters to improve.

Attempted thread salvage: Our guy has had his contract extended, and it might be worth... something... to discuss how you thought he did in the first offseason of the new deal or how you felt about his offseason performance. Me, I give him a C+ for this year (covered the basics, filled all the roster holes, really didn't dramatically boost what the team will be) which bleeds upward to a B- on the basis that I can sort of see where he's going and how he plans to use the farm to build for the future without as many big name FA's.

Wilkerson probably has little dollar signs in his eyes right now.

Not surprised. One thing we always knew about Lester was that he had awesome work ethic.

Maybe but there was no guarantee on draft day that Bird would become what he is. Developing into a star player involves a mutual investment of a lot of time, effort and training on the part of the team and the player, it doesn't happen on the basis of talent alone. There's a lot of reasons to take someone else over a guy who looks like a future star. Maybe you like the guy you took better. Maybe the guy you like fills a "position of need." Maybe the "star" isn't a personality fit with your organization. Maybe you're stretched as far as you want to go financially. Maybe there's a flaw you see in his game that gives you doubts about him long-term. (that's what happened to Phil Kessel) And of course, maybe you don't believe the hype about the player you overlooked. There's a LOT that goes into the decision of who to draft when your slot comes up, and it's not ever as cut and dried as pure talent alone This really has nothing to do with Wily Mo/Bronson. Wily Mo Pena was an established big league player, having played multiuple full seasons with the Reds and putting up decent numbers there. He tore the cover off the ball for the Sox in 2006 even. I suspect a combination of his wrist injury and some inconsistency in playing time made it easier for pitchers to figure him out. I still wouldn't rule out a couple monster seasons for the guy if someone believes in him enough to give him a real shot.

They're not that good, but after the whole Papeldance affair I really couldn't hate them.

Disagree. I do think having Tek on the team makes getting Johjima FAR less likely and I said that in my post that kicked this off, BUT, Johjima has some advantages over Tek. He's a better RHH than Tek at this point, he can throw out baserunners a whole lot better than Varitek can, and if you look at his strikeout numbers this guy does not K. At all. Ever. As an RHH pull hitter that makes a lot of contact he seems like a perfect Fenway hitter. Much like Mike Lowell got his career back on its wheels after a year at the Fens. If you accept the premise that Tek is still a switch hitter (I know, I know) it could be made to work. Especially since Johjima has handled R. A. Dickey's knuckler.

Which was my point. You don't cavalierly "trade for Clement" without discussing exactly what it is you'd be giving up.

I didn't say he was. But Johjima and Bowden is better than Clement and no Bowden. And your exact statement (that you seconded) wasn't "Johjima is not better than Clement" but "Johjima blows" which is not true, BABIP-fuelled bad year in 2008 notwithstanding.