Dojji

I'd like to point out that Coyle and Brentz in particular have no value at all. Also... umm.. how can I put this? i feel we can do better than Cashner, who's putting up below average numbers in San Diego. When healthy, which if Price, Eddie, Wright, Porcello and Buchholz are you going to replace with Cashner? I feel that this trade is improbable.

It's a fair point that Layne had no trouble getting through the inning. It's still a move that can be subject to reasonable and fair criticism.

Figured it would be a good time to set one of these things up, just to provide people one place for all the crazy trade ideas that are going to start flying around here as the weather heats up. Wouldn't be a baseball forum without some crazy trade notions. If I could request one additional ground rule for this thread -- please don't ridicule anyone else's trade suggestions beyond some variant of "that is improbable." People are going to get caught up in an idea beyond the point of reason and need to get it off their chest sometimes, that's one of the reasons I want this outlet to exist. We all get the mad trade theory bug from time to time so be gentle when it's someone else's turn, alright? Well with that said, I'm'a kick things off with this suggestion. To the Giants Marco Hernandez Brian Johnson to the Red Sox Gregor Blanco I think Blanco would be a great fit for the organization. his offense appears limited but what he does have is geared towards OBP and speed, which are two strengths the organization seems to value at the moment, he could take over the table setting job or just provide some additional speed to the lower part of the lineup, and he plays 3 outfield positions. He wouldn't be an ideal starting LF, but he's been good enough to take regular playing time in San Fran, so he's worth taking a risk on to expand our roster depth. Grabbing Blanco would allow Holt to go back to the all important supersub role as well, which would be a nice plus. As for what we're sending the other way, Johnson and Hernandez are both valuable pieces that I feel we can spare, that I also feel the Giants would be intrigued by. Everyone can use a young utility infielder who's hit well in the upper minors, heck that's pretty much where Brock Holt came from, and Hernandez is blocked here. And I feel our rotation has the depth to allow us to part with Johnson who has some command concerns, while I feel the Giants would be interested in adding to their LHSP depth. I think though that that trade would be a decent fit giving both sides something they want.

See this is where you're wrong. We're not making assumptions about his character based merely on the fact that he is fat. We are making assumptions on his character based on: -- the fact that he is too fat to defend his position -- the fact that the team asked him to lose weight over the offseason and instead he came into camp heavier than ever -- the fact that this is not the first time there has been a disconnect between what Sandoval promised his team he would weigh, and what he did weigh when he made it to camp -- and the fact that this comes in the wake of a season in which he was absolutely wretched on both sides of the ball, and if he'd had any professional pride that would be an incentive to work all the harder, which clearly doesn't seem to be the case in Pablo's head at the moment. I for one don't have any problem with fat players. I do have problems with deceptive, lazy players who treat a career crisis like ho hum, c'est la vie and don't do what is necessary to improve their situation. He thought he could just play his way back into shape on the field this year, with the resulting drag on the team's performance from a player being out on the field who doesn't belong there. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy in his behavior and comportment but even so, that was a dick move. Pablob was in no condition whatever to save his own job when Travis Shaw mounted a surprise challenge and took it from him to the point that when he tried to up his game earlier than he seems to have expected he'd have to, he got hurt at least twice, once a back strain, and once either creating or exacerbating his shoulder injury. The guy didn't do his job in the offseason, so he couldn't do his job when he needed to in the preseason or the regular season, and when a guy's being paid 8 figures and turns in an "effort" like that I don't think I'm alone in finding that incredibly disgusting. One of the #1 jobs of any athlete in the offseason is to maintain their condition so that they can play effectively the following year and Pablo clearly did not even come close to accomplishing this.

Add to that the fact that our lower echelon relievers really had to put it on the line the previous night, and it was kinda time for the upper echelon guys to get back in the game.

For me, it's Travis Shaw, followed by Wright and Porcello.

that is the exact opposite of what we want. This isn't SoSH where every minor deviation from the established mindset is subject to immediate censure. All we ask is that you check to see if your thoughts might belong in an existing thread before creating a new one, because it's easier to keep track of long chains of conversation if they're all happening in more or less the same places.

I don't know if Joe Rudy did or didn't do that, but I know Rick Dempsey did.

One weird thing that happened about the third time through the rotation is that they actually switched the order in which the pitchers started to move Wright up in the rotation. Right now, I believe the rotation goes Price, Porcello, Wright, Buchholz, 5th guy. Steve Wright isn't our 5th starter anymore. He's our third starter. He may even maintain that eminence when Eddie comes back, depends on how sharp he looks. Tell ya what, if Buchholz gets his game on and Eddie comes back looking strong enough to put Wright back into the 5 spot this is going to be one HELL of a rotation.

He was never caught for PED's until after he left Boston and was in the twilight years looking for that one last payout. Am I surprised he tried that in his last couple seasons no. Does that mean anything about the rest of his career also no. I do think his name was on the 2003 list alongside a lot of other players for which no other evidence existed that they ever cheated. For the record, I find it hillarious that a Yankee fan has the stones to call out anyone else's stars for PED abuse.

We've all been kind of collectively holding our breaths waiting for Steven Wright to regress into a pumpkin. His first few outings suggested that a significant regression was in order, after his first few starts his xFIP was somewhere in the high 4's or low 5's and his BABIP was incredibly low. Now I don't know how common it is for a pitcher to simply continue to pitch well until the underlying stats catch up with the good numbers, but that seems to be happening with Wright. According to Fangraphs, Wright's BABIP, while still low, is at about the same point it was last year, suggesting that he simply allows a lot of weak contact. Wright has also maintained a very high strikeout rate for a knuckleballer, at still north of 8 k/9, meaning he's still keeping good lineups off balance with his mix of stuff. His strikeout rate last year was actually pretty high for a knuckleballer as well, at 6.5 k/9. This combined with the weak contact generating a low BABIP is what has allowed him to be this effective, and yet in each case the numbers are either maintaining, or actually improving. As for FIP and XFIP, both are now in a range where good pitchers tend to live. Wright's FIP stands at 3.23, and his xFIP at a 4.17. Both very solid numbers that throw into question the idea that a major correction in performance is on its way. I think that as bats heat up towards midsummer Wright may have some games where he lets in a few more runs than he has so far. But just looking for the numbers, and bearing in mind they probably will dip at least a bit as hitters adjust to Wright (though in the only game against a team that's seen Wright a second time, he still shut the Blue Jays down pretty comfortably), the whole concept of Wright experiencing a major regression or turning into a pumpkin is looking a little farfetched. One area of concern with Wright is his walks, he could use to get those down. I think some of those extra runs he'll allow in July and August are going to come from walks followed by him trying to sneak his BP fastball in for a strike to get ahead of the next hitter and letting up a long one. Still, it looks like we may have a good pitcher on our hands for the longish term out of nowhere, and for a franchise that has developed rather few really strong starting pitchers in awhile, that's exciting.

Great job by the bottom of the bullpen tonight by the by. They carried the game against a good lineup and only let up 1 run in 6 innings.

scouting the stat line has its place. I've been known to do that from time to time, and it's put me out in front on a couple pleasant surprises as a result. Sometimes traditional talent evaluation just misses a guy, especially an older prospect or one who started in the system late. Daniel Nava and Steven Wright are players I had my eyes on for a couple years before they were good because their statline indicated they may be underrated one way or another.

Well there was that 2-3 year stretch where all Dustin was really destroying was his own skeleton. Seriously it seemed like the guy's bones were made of pretzel sticks, he seemed to be dealing a broken this or a fractured that every other week or so. I tell ya the way that man throws himself around I wouldn't want to be in his knees by the time he retires.

Extremely unlikely. Any kind of surgery sets a timetable for a comeback even further, having a secondary liposuction would put the recovery from the shoulder surgery on hold and the team would need a good reason not to put its foot down and insist that Pablo lose the weight the hard way. It's not like he hasn't managed to successfully slim down in the past.

Bogaerts is fine. He's hit 11 XBH already on the young season. It's just that only 1 of them was a HR. I'll take the kind of OBP and defense bogaerts offers plus gap power, if that's all he wants to show this year, but I think the homers will come eventually.

Valentin maybe, but not Petrocelli. Petrocelli got replaced at SS by 37 year old Luis Aparicio a quintessential McNoodlebat shortstop. He like Valentin was moved to third because they lost a step defensively, which is probably going to happen to X when he reaches the back 9. There will be plenty of time to line up a good replacement at SS before that happens though. (speaking of which, holy hell was Petrocelli great when he was in his peak years, probably the best SS the Sox had until Nomah, I had no idea!).

Iggy has range for days. Range is the most important attribute for a defender which makes it much easier for Iggy to get defensive numbers compared to Bogaerts, although I actually think X makes fewer mistakes Iggy takes a lot of risks on plays X doesn't even have the ability to get to and I think that ironically hurts his defensive numbers -- if he didn't go outside his zone as often, he would look better because of the plays he's barely able to make, and no one else is even able to try, that occasionally blow up in his face. Pushing your boundaries is like that.

I went to the trouble of mastering the spelling of Mientkiewicz's name back when we had him, just because. I didn't want to be one of the plebs calling him Minty or Minky.

Just did a youtube search on the Panda, and The Belt was the second video. Poor guy.

It is. And if this is something he's been dealing with for awhile, as has been speculated, he might return better than ever. Maybe well enough to take over DH duties like he means it.

Doubt it Fred, I think it was a legitimate injury caused by trying to make plays on the field and overstressing his joints due to his weight. If there was any smoke behind that particular fire, I think you can count on the Boston sport media to have pounced all over it. Pablo is not exactly loved, and our sports media is quite aggressive, so a news story that the real "surgery" was a liposuction and stomach stapling instead of a shoulder repair woulod not be kept quiet.

I'd second a nomination for MVP as mod. He's active enough, he cares about the forum, he knows his stuff

In Swihart's case, his performance has nothing to do with why he was sent down. He was still needed as an injury replacement for the first 8 games, then they confirmed Vazquez was ready to go and then Swihart was sent down to make way for him. They could have had Sandy Leon do the same job I suppose, but why not let Swihart pick up that little extra nugget of experience?

And you should read. He was clearly referring to Henry Owens.