Dojji

THIS. This and 24-1. You can put up with a lot, and the Red Sox really put up with a ton from Manny, but there IS a line, and Manny was on a calculated campaign to cross it. I wish more athletes were willing to call guys out when they did this.

OK, you might be a fine poster otherwise but you're not rational when it comes to Wakefield. That's OK, we all have hangups, but Wakefield's a valuable member of this team for what he does over the season despuite individual moments of ugliness.

Surely you're not trying to make an argument about the quality of a pitcher using win percent.

I wouldn't take Wakefield out of the rotation for Buchholz until we're surer what we have in Buchholz. If he comes up and looks great, then shift Wake to the pen. But if you let Wakefield go he probably retires and you don't get him back, and you certainly don't get the sweetheart deal back, so MAKE SURE first.

Detroit? Leyland's job is none too secure.

And that is why I'm glad of Youkilis. EDIT: Heh. Erased.

Yeah, here they come back again.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081022&content_id=3637310&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos Everyone else will probably be back. Hmm, opening at first base coach, I wonder if Cora's contemplating moving into his next career yet

He's an average to above average pitcher at a bargain basement price at the bottom of our rotation. I fail to see the problem.

Yeah, and it also explains why a guy who scouting reports said all along was the same from both sides of the plate had such a platoon split.

Even more ridiculous than your usual, Gom.

I doubt Harang's available. He's a much better bounceback bet than Penny is.

One thing you know about Schilling, if he has an opinion, you're eventually going to hear it. I'm glad we're hearing this again. The fan attention span is very short. Schilling needs to remind us that the Manny situation really was untenable and he really needed to go.

Penny will get paid. Someone will scout him out, give him a physical, and pay him Suppan money on a short year deal. Us? Possibly. A lot of other teams would look at him too as a middle of the rotation piece.

When you show me the guaranteed 100% better option that we can get without crippling the team's future, I'll join with "please no Wake."

Varitek has been bouncing around between .700 and .800 OPS for his entire career. He's only slightly below his previous worst year. I wouldn't rule out a bounceback.

Did I? Woops. Victim of my own attention span I guess.

Yeah, it comes down to about $22,222.22 an inning, one of the best bargains in the league.

1: Re-sign Tek to a 2 year contract. This makes more sense than it sounds like. Varitek's chances of a bounceback year are greater than nil, especially if you can find a way to take some lefthanded at bats away from him. This is the option that is the least risky from a clubhouse chemistry perspective 2: Promote Kottaras, Brown, or both (platoon) as the replacement starting catcher. Basically, replace a position that has very short major league depth from the farm and hope for the best from a pair of rookies at a crucial position. It's got some flaws, but it has the advantage of being, by far, the simplest and least expensive option to implement. 3: Scoop up someone's disappointing veteran (ex: Johjima) and hope they turn it around. I like the idea of specifically Johjima, since he's in his prime (32,) he's got Clement breathing down his neck and his performacne was marred largely by a BABIP about .070 lower than his two previous years. That, and Seattle has a lot of holes that we can fill with spare parts. It's a solid big-market move. 4: Trade the farm for someone's successful veteran This is probably the least good option, since successful veterans require a large load of prospects and usually have a contract on top of that. It does have the charm of having the best chance of being a move that grants us an effective catcher. 5: Trade for a young player. Younster-for-youngster swaps don't really work very well. The Rangers will be looking for young pitching, but I think they want guys who are more proven, especially if it's going to be Teagarden on the block and not, say, Laird. It's a good way to pick up an inexpensive player but rookies can be pretty volatile. In order of the way I want to do things, I'd say: Promote rookie Trade for Johjima Re-sign Tek Trade for young stud C Trade for established veteran C.

Telling that Lowe's decline as a Boston pitcher coincided with the beginnings of Boston's problems attracting and keeping talented middle infielders. I know we'd been chewing through 2B's like candy for a couple years before that but 2004 was the year the whole middle of the diamond went blooie. For a sinkerballer, that matters. Lowe's issues also coincided with the two years following being ramped up from 90 innings to 200+ for the first time, that's not really surprising either. Of course, Lowe had some big off the field problems in Boston too but on the whole now that our MI is relatively stable again, and Lowe has had years to adjust to the workload, I think DL could be effective in Boston.

Celtics are still the class of the East, which isn't as weak a conference as it used to be. Eastern Conference still more topheavy than the West but by the time you hit the playoffs most of the bad teams are culled and you get about equal quality competition. I'd say the strength of the team is a combination of a slight edge by the Big 3 and a huge edge by the second unit. I love the young guys and their ability to stand tall on any given night. I also think that in terms if character, you can count on KG to keep the team intense. I don't think that goes away just because his life ambition is fulfilled. A guy like that doesn't change his spots just because he's won. He'll still be the most passionate, energetic player on this or any other floor, and if anything the Celtics are more talented this year and a LOT more confident than last so Garnett's gotta be smelling ring #2 and banner #18. I don't see an Eastern contender that I don't think the Celtics should beat on any floor. Boston's bench is deep and talented, their big 3 should have a few more years in them. I've really liked what I've seen fromPruitt as well which answers the point-guard "weakness" so I see no problem saying Celtics all the way.

Uggh, don't get me started about Scaffolds. If I hear him get all dreamy eyed over Alex Cora ONE MORE STINKIN' TIME... We've met in another forum. If he was ever a scout, I'm glad he's not working for the team right now. He's apparently in the "we lost because we didn't have Manny in the lineup" camp as well. Thinks that we don't have a cleanup hitter despite Youk's 29 HR's. Should come as no surprise that he also wants to sign Teixeira. What a nit.

I woiuldn't be so sure. I say he's an option. It doesn't help that his last year in the AL East was mediocre, but before that he'd done a great job here. The deciding factor is probably Lowe's status as a Type A, which makes it unlikely they'd go after him, but still not impossible.

Ehh, I actually agree with Gom. Rays fans are just waking up now to the fact that they have a baseball team. They were justas blindsided as we were that the Rays were actually relevant, much less great, and they deserve to see what they do now that they finally have a winner to support. They don't exactly have a tradition to be proud of, so don't blame them for not playing it up. Even the bad old Boston teams had fans that remembered a winner. Even the Royals can remember a winner. The MARLINS fans remember a winner, at least those that showed up do. Heck, if you re-expanded into Montreal the EXPOS fans could remember a winner. Tampa didn't even have that to build on. THey don't even have a .500 team or a third place finish that a lot of teams' fans have to help them get used to the idea of hoping. They're just building it for the first time right NOW. I'm not shocked, at all, that they can't rip open a packet of Instant Massive Fan Support and pour it into the stadium like a bowl of microwave oatmeal. Also, Boston has a huge season ticket base and Tampa's sucktastic teams of yesteryear (literally) aren't exactly something you' buy the right to watch a lot of games for. Now that they're good, that base will increase and it should be easier for them to sell out. Trying to fill 85% of your seats with walkups is not a way to fill a stadium.

Maybe you could have a full homecoming year and resign Kevin Millar for the bench 1B role.