Dojji

That surprises me too. Lowe would be very useful to the Yankees, even if he was only an average innings-eater in the AL East. Also the only teammates still on the Sox from Lowe's Red Sox days are Francona and Ortiz, unless they bring 'Tek back. (Well, Youkilis did have a minor bench role in '04...) I could see slotting Lowe into the #4 spot in the rotation. He was very good for most of his Boston tenure up until the end, and he could provide some mentorship to Masterson in the use of the sinker. If you can get him for short years I say make the move.

Yeah, but he's not gonna manage into his seventies with the shape his body is in. Just keep some people around him who he can turn over the reins to in a hurry in case something goes wrong.

This will probably turn into a "discuss the quality and usefulness of the manager" thread but apparently Tito's having back surgery in the offseason. He's got so many medical issues. One of these days the man's health is going to give out and we'll be without him.

.270/.330/.480/.810, 20 HR's 40 doubles, 80 RBI's. I fully expect Lowell to reach these standards.

But we don't need him to. 2006 numbers would be fine, and it was what he was in line for before his hip went. The only thing I worry about with Lowell is a possible DEfensive decline.

If the lefty platoon bat is Carter, and you batted Drew third, Lowell 5th, Carter 7th, that's not such a bad lineup at all. You could make the playoffs with that if the pitching was good. That would be 5 20-HR power hitters (Peddy, Youks, Bay, Lowell, Drew) and some nice upside on Carter, Lowrie and Ellsbury.

Yes, and in 2006 Jason Varitek missed the last two months of the season with a torn ACL, and yet the next year he posted one of the better offensive results of his career and was healthy for the full stretch of the season and HE was 35 years old -- and playing a position that put a whole lot more strain on his knee than 3B will put on Mike Lowell's hip. (actually IIRC Tek made it back to play the last few games THAT YEAR, and with no problems at all) The premise of this concern is ridiculous. Is Tom Brady now officially old, injury-prone and declining because of a low hit? Heck no, get him healed up and back on the field and he'll likely be the old Tom Brady again, as long as the docs do their job and it doesn't mess with his head. Same with Lowell. If Lowell misses a lot of time in 2009 it will be because something else went wrong, and you can only manage that kind of risk up to a point before accepting that the resources required to compensate for it are better spent building up other parts of the ballclub. The goal here should be to make sure you have a good utility man, not to panic and overload on big-name sluggers because Mike Lowell MIGHT get hurt. That's Hank Steinbrenner talk.

Yes, and in 2006 Jason Varitek missed the last two months of the season with a torn ACL, and yet the next year he posted one of the better offensive results of his career and was healthy for the full stretch of the season and HE was 35 years old -- and playing a position that put a whole lot more strain on his knee than 3B will put on Mike Lowell's hip. Not buying the Lowell scaremongering. At all. This injury is not likely to be a chronic one and it is not a reason to read anything at all into Mike Lowell's performance next year except the one little point that he should probably get some extra rest in Spring Training and April.

Mike Lowell is not in noticeable decline. He's hurt, but that's not the same thing. If he'd gotten his usual 145-150 games a season in his power numbers would have been somewhere between 21 and 25 HR's and 80-90 RBI's. For a third baseman who hits in the lower middle of the order that's more than acceptable. His OPS "decline" is largely because of a career year last year combined with an inadvisable month plus of playing with a problem that impacted both his swing and his ability to run out grounders. (which I might add, if he'd gotten surgery at the time he might have been available for postseason play...)

See, that's where we differ. I don't think that Mike Lowell is going into next season with any more health concerns than he had going into this one. He had a tear in his hip labrum, not a knee or back problem. This isn't the sort of thing that's likely to recur as long as he takes proper care of himself and doesn't try to come back before it's fully healed. Once fixed by surgery the problem should stay that way and Mike should be back to a reasonable semblance of his old form (by which I more or less mean his 2006 form, 20 HR's and 80-100 RBI's) The only reason I'd be interested in Nomar instead of Teix is because he could possibly accept a bench role and woud be very useful at a time he's most likely to be healthy -- in the early going, when Lowell's hip might still be a bit tender and Ortiz is still working through the early power struggles that players with wrist injuries in the previous season sometimes put up with. By mid-May I fully expect any concern about Lowell's health related to the hip problem to be a thing of the past and Ortiz to start resembling the Ortiz of old a little more. At that point it's not so much a platoon, as Nomar making himself useful off the bench in as many places as he can in order to get at bats thus putting the most fragile player under the least pressure to be present and healthy every day.

The difference of course is that I was suggesting bring in a bench player (albeit a good one) to take some starts at DH if Papi struggled, and you're suggesting sticking Mike Lowell into that role.

Scouting report in a nutshell: 21 year old SS with a fantastic glove and a light bat. Could use to draw some walks, makes decent contact, not really much power to speak of. He's your basic "defend a lot, hit enough not to embarrass the team" player and would probably draw some fire in Boston for the lack of hitting, but by all accounts the glove is real and is at the major league level right now. If the consensus is that with a bit of experience the hitting might come around Diaz could make something of himself. I guarantee you every Sox fan forum in the world would spend every single offseason Diaz spent in Boston arguing between the defensive spectrum folks making points about how he made the pitching better and fans who watch baseball for the offense trying to figure out how to get a SS who can hit. My question here is basically that: do you see Diaz playing a role in Boston's future or is the guy just not a fit in a town that demands that all of its position players swing the bat well?

OK, that's not quite as insane, but going into the season you're still locking two guys into a DH platoon when there's no reason to believe either of them couldn't handle the full load of being a starting baseball player once they recover from their injuries.

That happens more than you might think in the minors. Possible it happened to catching prospect Jon Egan for us this year for an example.

How much of what we saw from Benjarvis Green-Allen good performance and how much of it was awful defense? I really liked what I saw from the kid. He broke a couple tackles, he committed to his route, he was decisive with his route (which is something I've been blasting Maroney for NOT doing) and he had some good to great second efforts. On the other hand, with D as bad as it was in that game I think just about anyone could have run on the Broncos in the second half. BTW -- there's something to be said for the fact that the D was so bad because they were on the field so long. The Broncos had HOW many turnovers? We all know how much that wears down an average defense.

You're gonna sign a GG 1B to be a DH. Look people, Teixeira has nothing to do with Ortiz' injury! Acquiring Teixeira and keeping Ortiz are objectives that do not intersect unless you'd rather play Teix over Papi as the DH or you're worrying about money. The only reason for a post like the above in this thread would be if you think Papi is unable to carry on, which there's no evidence to support. You do not spend large amounts of money and a draft pick to replace above average players with other above average players, even if the new guy is slightly more above average. It's a collossal waste of resources. I would be interested in signing Nomar Garciaparra if we could convince him to take a bench role. Now there's insurance, especially because Nomar's hitting again, his problem is being healthy enough to play the field. A Nomar/Papi platoon at DH in the event Ortiz has some problems wouldn't be the stupidest thing ever.

That's because athletes who have unsuccessful surgery tend not to be athletes anymore.

Lowell was on pace for a fine season before he got hurt (twice!) and still finished with 17 HR's and 73 RBI. On a 150 game pace that's somewhere around 22 HR's and 85 RBI even giving him room for his usual late season slump. Will be nice to have him in the lineup again, that's for certain sure. Definitely missed him this October. A couple Lowell RBI's in either Game 2 or Game 7 would have seen us in the Series.

Heck, you get a firey competitor like Joba and you have him MISS THE PLAYOFFS FOR SOME REASON and feel like he's got unfinished business in the season, this is what happens.

Welker = THE MAN!

Nice 3 and out.

Wow, I haven't watched the last few games, is the D-line usually this swiss-cheesy?

Green-Ellis showing us what a tough RB can do

You do realize that Cash proves that the whole caddy phenomenon is more because Varitek can't or doesn't want to catch the knuckler, than because Wake can't pitch to other catchers.