italstallianion

Only if John Henry funnels profits in from Liverpool to spend on the Red Sox. (I think all of our other English readers just fainted)

Besides, Cliff Lee said a while ago that he was going to sign during the weekend. I mean I think he'd be a jerk if he waited until the last week of the offseason to sign, but for a player of this magnitude, he wouldn't be doing himself any favour by signing immediately. The more desperate teams get = more money for him.

I just hope that you're not Martin's agent Dojji. You probably just drove his price up a couple million.

To be honest, I simply thought it was a way to add an extra pick (because of the people who wanted backup QB's) so that the number of rounds was even. I believe it was my original idea to have coaches anyway. I only really factored it in if it was a top coach, or if the coach worked with a lot of the players on the particular team. I never used it as a deciding factor, in the power rankings over the voting. That said, as some of these matchups get closer and closer, that is something that would stick out in a close game, in addition to field position (punters and returners) as well as field goal kickers.

For the record Y228, I had you up there too. I figured the top 4 teams in this thing were (in no order) your team, Kilo, WB, and my team, with Jbay, and YH slightly behind the top pack. I think I put you 2nd in the rankings, but I'm not exactly sure.

I'd argue that most Sox fans are happier than we Brits are watching Eurovision or going to PubTrivia. The thing is, the offseason (also called the Hot Stove) is a long and arduous process and is an emotional rollercoaster. In a matter of minutes people can be enraged and orgasmically happy. One can only give a complete offseason grade at its completion when the final product is realised, but for now, I'd say that almost every Red Sox fan is incredibly happy, albeit others, like me, are happy with a side of cautious optimism.

I think that this matchup is the other close 2nd round matchup (other than Y228 and YH), but that matchup was a defensive one with points at a premium, and this one appears to be more of a track meet. I also favour Jbay's offense, and WhiskeyBreath's defense. The thing that I like about both of these teams, is that even though they don't have the best offense in the league or the best defense in the league, they are reasonably good at both. I see YH and Y228 as very good defensive teams with ok offenses, and I see these 2 teams as more balanced. Anyway, moving onto this particular matchup, I like WhiskeyBreath's defense more and JBay's offense more. I do think that Brees may have taken a slight step backwards or at least appears more inconsistent at times, but I'd still take him over Roethlisberger. They both have very good offensive lines, but I see WhiskeyBreath's 4-3 causing more pressure for JBay's offensive line than JBay's 3-4 on WhiskeyBreath's offensive line, and seeing how hard Roethlisberger is to take down, I don't see JBay getting many sacks. I like both team's RB's, but I see this being more of a passing game, and while Brees has the edge over Roethlisberger, Brees has to deal with a very good secondary that has one of the best cover corners in the NFL. JBay might as well be taking one of his WR's off of his roster. I'd give WhiskeyBreath a slight edge at WR, but I don't see that deciding the match. What benefits JBay is that he's less relient on top heavy WR's which is good because I don't see his top options contributing much. I'm also not a fan of Mike Jenkins as a cover corner, and I think that Calvin Johnson and Vincent Jackson should feast on Jbay's corners (although Jbay has good safeties). That said, in a close game, a few things stand out. I like Whiskeybreath's coach (Tomlin) over Smith, and I like Jbay's kicker and kick returner over WhiskeyBreath's. I'd give extra points to WhiskeyBreath because I like his bench better, having an extra corner and defensive line player will come in handy in this game, and I think that Tebow and a 3rd RB (that isn't a kick returner) is a waste of a draft pick. I feel bad because this is also a close 2nd round matchup, and I had WhiskeyBreath among my top 4 teams (like Y228), and Jbay as one of those teams just outside the top 4 (with YH). I think the deciding factors will be WB's better ability to create pressure for Jbay, WB's suffocating corners, and more beneficial "extras". I think the points I'd deduct from Jbay's poor bench choices would equal out the difference I'd place between kickers. I don't think it would be easy for either team, but I think that WhiskeyBreath's team is a little bit better than JBay's, so I'd have to give him the nod here.

Come back and kick everyone's a** in the baseball redraft? That one should be a dog fight because I think that there are even more people on this site that know a lot about baseball than there are that know a lot about football. Besides, you, Kilo, Coco, Y228, and many others weren't in the last baseball redraft.

In all fairness, I do understand your frustration because this had the makings of a final four matchup. I think you got screwed more in the power rankings than you did in this particular matchup. I gave you credit where it was due though. I wasn't a big fan of your NBA team, but I liked your team here. It's just that a few other people also have really good teams.

Much like the Coco/Divinity first round matchup, I see this one being the closest (and toughest) second round matchup, with Jbay vs. WhiskeyBreath being the other close 2nd round matchup. I do think that it's a shame to see great teams face this early, but in my opinion, there were 5-6 teams that could make realistic arguments as to why they are the best team in the league, and with only 4 semifinal spots available, that meant that 1-2 teams were going to only make it this far. That said, these 2 teams would be in my top 5-6 teams that could realistically have a shot at being a top team. And I agree that Y228 has a better QB, YH's has the better RB's, Y228 has the better WR's, YH has the better O-line, Y228 has the better front 7, and that YH has the better secondary. I think that Y228 has a more talented team, and by a large enough margin to give him the win, EXCEPT that YH has one of the only coaches that I think would give his team points. The other special teams I'd give a wash, the kickers career FG% is different by .01% in favour of Y228, which I'm not factoring in at all. I like both kick returners, I think that Sproles gives YH more versatility, but that he loses points on Edelman as a bench player which I think could have been used more wisely. I like Y228's bench better overall, but again, that has a minimal effect on the game. For me, my deciding factor was that of all the differences between spots, only one difference wasn't close, and that was the QB's, which is one of the more important positions. I feel that Rodgers is a much better QB than Eli Manning, and that Rodgers ability to run with the ball as well as making more accurate (and often deep) throws will be a big advantage over everything else. The way I see it, I think that both defenses are VERY good. I think that of all of the teams that did a 3-4 defense, YH and Y228 are 2 of the only teams to do it correctly. I think most teams that did 3-4 defenses didn't do it right (Coco and Ytrb are 2 examples that come to mind) and played people out of position. I'm not a big fan of the 3-4, but if one does choose it, it HAS to be done right, so I give you guys both props for building good 3-4 defenses. I think that Kilo and Jbay are the only other 2 to do it right. With both defenses being very good, I think that it's going to come down to offenses. While neither team has the best offense in the league, I think that Y228's offense is better than YH's and that it's going to give him the victory in a low scoring game. I don't see YH's offense scoring many points off of Y228's defense (in all fairness, I only think that very few offenses can score decent points off of either defenses) I don't think that YH's advantages (though numerous) are enough to counterbalance Y228's advantages in QB and front 7, so if I had to predict a score, I'd go with: Y228: 14 YH: 10 Again, this was NOT an easy decision, and both of these teams deserve a shot at the final four. The way I saw it, there were 4 teams at the top, and 2-3 teams slightly behind, but if facing the right matchups, could have a shot at the top. I had put Y228 as one of the top 4 teams, and I had put YH as one of the 2-3 teams off of the top. This is definitely the closest matchup of the 2nd round.

Salty does have an option (according to Buster Olney) so this seems to be insurance and potential more than anything else.

I agree with Palodios. I'm not very high on Martin and I don't think we need him at all. I think that if the right handed bat or the defensive catcher was that important that we should have saved the money on Olivo (who I think is cheaper and more qualified at those purposes), but the only reason why I'm not going to destroy Theo for looking at Martin is because I still think that he'll sign 2 good relievers anyway. If however, the Martin signing prevents us from signing at least 2 good relievers, then I'm going to madder than a legless Ethiopian watching a doughnut roll down a hill.

ESPN seems to have a list of players OPS against lefties and righties weighted for the past 3 seasons. I'm not sure what the weighting proportion is, but it's something. This should be in alphabetical order. Against RHP: Cameron 730 Crawford 860 Drew 911 Ellsbury 729 Gonzo 981 Lowrie 667 McDonald 661 Ortiz 932 Pedroia 861 Salty 745 Scutaro 727 VTek 649 Youk 931 Against LHP: Cameron 980 Crawford 684 Drew 767 Ellsbury 748 Gonzo 787 Lowrie 944 McDonald 846 Ortiz 674 Pedroia 809 Salty 571 Scutaro 761 VTek 838 Youk 1.067

Plus we do have Cameron against lefties and if we get Martin we should be in good shape. Now let's get some relievers!

That's exactly what I did, except for the fact that it makes it harder to prevent multiple lefties in a row towards the bottom of the order, especially if we don't get Russell Martin. Another benefit is that if you do that and put Ellsbury last, when the lineup turns over it'll be like starting the lineup a spot earlier, and you'd be able to give the top players (pedroia, crawford, gonzalez, youkilis) more AB's at 1-4 instead of having them at 2-5. If we get Martin that can make the bottom of the order more right handed and make the lineup balance out.

It doesn't have to be. And in response to a post you made a while ago, it doesn't have to be your best hitter either.

According to Buster Olney, Jarrod Saltalamacchia has a minor league option left.

As you should be, as people don't really lose their technological abilities until they hit their mid to late 30's, so you still have a few years.

You know how to text?

Who knows, I never said I agreed with it, I just said that it was Buster Olney's projected lineup for the 2011 Sox.