Dojji

And there's this fellow named Papelbon who's pretty good too. Delcarmen's a lot better than his reputation as well. Our bullpen is really stacked right now. Papelbon is as good as they come as a closer. Oki is a wickedly tricky lefty with a really nasty specialty pitch who fools good hitters consistently. Ramram was probably the Royals' best reliever not named Joakim Soria last year and is a workhorse and getting him for Coco Crisp was a steal. Manny Delcarmen is hideously underrated here and also is a very consistent and capable RP who's a match for Ramram. Masterson has a nasty sinker-slider combination and as he refines his command he bids well to be better than he already is. Lopez has been much more consistently reliable than he ever gets credit for here and has put up good end of season numbers for each of the previous 3 years while actually increasing his fastball velocity and playing very well as a situational lefty last year. And the last slot in the bullpen has a number of possible challengers who represent quality options for the long reliever -- starting with Hunter Jones and our Rule V pick Miguel Gonzalez.

Not to mention Thomas' idiot penalty against the Colts and the fact that the defense couldn't get off the field in overtime after Cassel's heroics tied the game at the last second against the Jets. The Pats might not have a big win this year but the LAST player on the team you could blame for that is Matt Cassel.

The FA class always looks fantastic from a couple years out before everyone who wants to stay with their current club gets re-upped.

I guess you and I see Cassel's role as slightly different. There's certainly plenty of evidence that Matt Cassel knows how to run an offense. All he has to do as QB is be good enough to spread the field and give the backs room, he proved he could do that before he proved he could look like an elite QB while throwing to Moss and Welker. Heck, there were a couple games where he gave the fourth string back enough room to have a field day. That's the only reason he even got a chance to prove that he could throw the ball.

I think the one thing that the Penny signing most signifies is that the FO really, really, REALLY liked what they saw out of Masterson in the bullpen and want to keep him there for now. Otherwise there's no particular reason you wouldn't go into the season with him as your 5th starter or at least make a trial of it and see where it goes from there

If he makes it through the season as a productive catcher for the Sox, which is the only way that option is relevant, he'll have earned that $3M and then some.

Because Randy Moss and Wes Welker, while talented, are not the only good recievers in the National Football League and another GM may feel that his weapons would be good enough, and his system good enough, to allow Cassel to repeat his performance for that team -- and even failing that maybe he sees Cassel as a guy who can make good weapons look great with his arm and bad weapons look OK with his feet. I can think of a few other systems that Cassel would probably do well in. Philly springs to mind if McNabb is done there, which given how the season unfolded this year is not difficult to imagine. Depending on how the Vince Young saga unfolds in the offseason the Titans might see Cassel as an upgrade over Collins if Young is officially damaged goods. In either system Cassel would be primed to thrive and would probably be well recieved, at least until his first thrown pick if he winds up in Philly. Minnesota would be a good home for Cassel as well. Define significance. They won every game down the stretch in an effort to keep their playoff hopes alive and did beat some teams when they were good even when they turned out later not to be, such as the Jets and Bills early on. Immaterial based on what he did after he wasn't cut. Nice.

Let's talk about one other thing: How many times have you seen a guy who was such a stud that he was definitely going to get traded for a "boatload" of prospects actually get a loaded ship full of quality ballplayers headed the other way? What did Teixeira fetch the Rangers? If I recall correctly he fetched Saltalamacchia and maybe a minor league piece. That's a good catching prospect but it's certainly more if a dinghy than a boat. The deal to the Angels involved an average to somewhat above average 1B and IIRC a minor leaguer or two. Again, not exactly a tall ship of the line loaded with the best choice prospects. The only two "boatload" deals we've seen recently have both involved the Orioles, and one was basically Adam Jones and 5 flavors of fail for Erik Bedard and the other was Luke Scott and 3 flavors of fail for Miguel Tejada. Neither deal was rewarding for the team who loaded up the ship and sailed it to Baltimore. Baltimore didn't get that much actual production out of their new players either in year 1. And for the most part that boat was crewed by maybe one high-ceiling guy and a bunch of schlubs with useful skillsets or utility players -- more Chris Carter than Lars Anderson to be sure. Even the Manny for Bay blockbuster's passengers were more of the "talented disappoinments to their original club" category, which includes LaRoche from LA and Hansen from us. Santana deal? Same story. Gomez has a great ceiling, but other than that Humber is a contact sort and Deolis Guerrez might not become anything at all. In short for all the talk about large numbers of top prospects going back and multiple top prospects into the bargain, you don't see too many deals ever that actually do that, and we've got a deep enough farm system that we have no shortage of interesting second-tier players for a team to look at and take two of instead of Anderson, Buchholz, Masterson or Bowden.

Guys, the proposed Berkman trade is not really THAT crazy. If you take off your anti-Dojji glasses for a moment and look at it based on the needs of the three teams it actually could work OK. The reason Philly's involved in my theoretical deal is simple: they have a legitimate reason to want Mike Lowell and Houston really doesn't. The reasoning is simple: Philly is contending for rings now and next year, or at least intending to do so, and covering third base for them is the incomparable Pedro Feliz, who's a solid defender but provides Juan Uribe style offense from a position that really needs a little more. In other words it's a position of need on a team in GFIN mode and Lowell is a quality veteran signed to a short-term deal and a prime low-risk rental opportunity.. It would depend on Philly seeing Lowell as a missing piece that would help them have a better chance of challenging for the trophy over the next two years. SInce they went after Lowell in the '07-'08 offseason and rumors had them offering a year more than Boston offered it's very easy to see them making that call. The only reason I included Kris Johnson in the deal is to sweeten the pot on Lowell's salary and make sure the "renta"l is worth a blocked but very good SS prospect to Philly. Philly likes lefthanders and Johnson, while he hasn't played to his upside yet, is a respectable pitcher with plenty of upside and a minor league profile that isn't half bad as it is. It's a fair fit. The obvious question here is why Philly wouldn't just play Donald at 3B if that was such a position of need. The answer is that he's still a year or so away and Philly's got reason to believe their window isn't all that wide as a number of players in that young core of theirs are going to get paid soon and may be leaving. But that's also another reason Philly comes down with a LHSP in the deal -- because one of the players they're going to lose to threaten that window, possibly to retirement, is Jamie Moyer. As for Houston, I certainly don't think they're getting shafted. Donald is a stud. Exposito is a stud. Bard is a stud. They might need another guy to push them over the edge but if they're looking to get cheaper, that's a fair stack of prospects and most of them are pretty close to the big leagues. Carter's there to immediately replace some of Berkman's offense at 1B for the league minumum and all of the othre 3 players have very bright ceilings, especially Donald and Bard who fill positions that the Astros are going to need filled about the time those two project to make the bigs..

Only because there's noplace else to go. I'd rather sign Joe Crede than rely on Lowrie for a full season at 3B

Well seeing as it's you who said it I guess I have to use it all the time now.

Lowrie is not an above average offensive 3B. He's a capable offensive SS but if you replace him with Lugo and Lowell with Lowrie you lose a lot of VORP at each position.

But he's a 3B so if you're trading him and Anderson in the same deal ("2 1B's") you're trading Youk as a 3B For the record, we shouldn't trade Youks. He's the only guy we have who can provide decent production from 3B if Lowell goes down or can't perform for some reason.

Wow. I don't think this has ever been done before. The Lions reached a new and unprecedented suck this year. I know the Bucs went 0-14 one year and when asked what he thought about the execution of the squad the coach said "Yes please!" But I think this is the first 16-game season that a team has not scored a single regular season victory in. And this after the Tigers' hideously underwhelming season. So who wants to be a Lions fan? Kinda makes the Pats missing the playoffs look like chump change! At least they have the Wings and Pistons.

Not so sure the D is as big a need as all that. Granted we need to upgrade the pass rush but that's the only big need on D. After they got their feet under them and other than the absolute fiasco against Pittsburgh the D played alright and adjusted well for their losses. If we get our big guys back, especially the ATom Bomber to bolster the pass rush, we should be able to get by with Welker and Moss powering the offensive game.

Perhaps I'm just fantasizing, but I would love to see them invest in Nomar in a utility role. Ideally he'd provide some power and ability to sub in OK at first and play a bit of third base, so it's not COMPLETELY insane to contemplate it. The time of the year he's most likely to not have completely broken down yet is April, and that's the period when we're most worried about both Ortiz and Lowell. It could work.

Brilliant.

Youk is a 3B pressed into service at 1B.\ I guess I might as well repost/amend my crazy Berkman trade here. To the Phillies Mike Lowell Kris Johnson To the Astros Luis Exposito Chris Carter Daniel Bard Jason Donald To the Red Sox Lance Berkman

Then how about an actual defense if the concept of AJ Burnett's quality that doesn't nominate Cabrera for the hall of fame?

That happens sometimes when you can't back off an argument in time and wind up trying to save it by playing word games. Been there. Many times.

Watching Cassel develop has been fun and entertaining and really gave BB a chance to shine as a coach. If we have to go next year with Cassel again I have no doubt in my mind that the Patriots can turn him loose all year and make the playoffs. Was really a fluke that we didn't make them this year with a 11-5 recorr when 9-7 teams have made it in the past. Freakin' Penningdon. Seriously though, comparisons between Cassel and Brady at this point are more about strengths and weaknesses than they are about how Cassel can't really touch Tom Brady. In the final analysis TFB is probably still the better QB but Cassel does have a few advantages. The legwork is nice, for example, and also someone made an excellent point about how now he's developed properly his lack of prior experience actually contains a large silver lining -- he has far less wear and tear than even your average rookie much less your average 27 year old. If he doesn't fall back he could have quite a long career and be playing good football well into his late 30's -- and who knows, maybe even beyond Meanwhile even without the knee injury, Brady's approaching his mid 30's and you have to start asking about the D word. If we trade Cassel during the offseason and then Brady proves to have declined, then we might wind up having to rinse and repeat a very volatile process with Kevin O'Connell for a result that has a better chance of being much less good than it has of being better..

It's official then: Daniel Cabrera has the best stuff in the majors. All he needs to do is locate it.

Jacko: I went out of my way to say I was not comparing Kottaras to Napoli. I was using Napoli as a specific, highly limited statistical example based on the primary criticism of Kottaras, which is Kottaras' low batting average. Low batting average in the minors is a phenomenon common to both Napoli and Kottaras. Napoli overcame that disadvantage and is a successful major league hitter. Suggesting that for Kottaras to do so would not be impossible and lo, here is a player with the same drawback who did exactly that. That's it. End comparison.

It's happened before. Every tine I bring out a minor statistical similarity between one player and another to make a point there's a tendency for the Dojji-hunters to baloon that similarity into something far bigger than I ever said or intended my comparison to be. An example is if I said that Pedroia has the contact skills of Wade Boggs. I said exactly that. "Pedroia has the contact skills of Wade Boggs." Inplying nothing more than exactly what I said. Someone who's waiting to pounce on me for something I said earlier or who just plain loved Wade Boggs, tries to destroy me based on Pedroia's lack of IsoD and Boggs' ungodly OBP and basically saying that while Pedroia's a good hitter he can't sniff Wade's jock. Which is a fine point for him to make to refine the comparison but if he makes it by trying to put me down that's not right, because nowhere did I ever say that Pedroia could match Boggs' legendary OBP skills, just his contact skills, IE average and being a very tough strikeout. And if I want to respond I'm left with two bad choices. I can spend 20 posts arguing about a completely pointless minutae that has nothing to do with what I said and is tangential at best to a conversation about Pedroia, or I can drop it and let the other guy "win" with an irrelevant rebuttal. Unless the attacker is very clumsy about it (see above) either way we go I wind up looking like an idiot whether or not my ideas stand on their own. Very frustrating.