Emmz

Wait, what? Napoli's seriously legitimately being called below average? I thought it was a joke. He's decent, if anyone thought he was going to have another 2011, they're out of their mind.

He's having a bad year, that's all.

Is .818 OPS for anyone mediocre? 130 OPS+ means you're 30 points above average, also known as well above average. He's also in LA.

130 OPS+ is mediocre? Does he not have enough RBIs or a high enough batting average?

Or within the same organization.

The moment you close your mind to the possibility of pleasant surprises, you are dead in spirit.

I'd do whatever it takes to get Stanton, if only the Sox could afford that. I can promise you though, that Stanton's going to be just about the best player in baseball once he's out of Miami. When you're hitting 35 (Easily would have hit 40 if he didn't miss a couple of months last year) home runs in Miami, with LoMo and Hanley as your protection, you can hit home runs anywhere.

Anyone who's a starting pitcher should be capable of pitching 2+ months. I hope you're right, and there are no more problems for the rest of the season with our pitching staff. I think that a rotation of Buch>Lester>Lacker>Peavy is going to be very tough.

Hawt.

He's a veteran pitcher who has been pretty average for about 5 years now. He has pitched in the postseason twice and was rocked both times. Also, he only pitched 200 innings once in the last 5 years. Hell, he's only pitched 120 innings once in the last 5 years. I think that's something that you have to think about. If he's healthy this is great, it gives us a very nice 1-4 when Buchholz returns.

You, my friend, are on something. Explain how any of that relates to your statement that Adrian Beltre has a history of monster contract seasons followed by sucking immediately after? His success has continued in Texas, and I have every reason to believe it would have continued in Boston as well. Also, my reasoning for highlighting Seattle seems to have whooshed right over your head. Let me help you out: Seattle is where good hitters go to die, and Adrian Beltre put up pretty decent numbers in 3/5 seasons, was still average for the first, and pretty bad but also injured in the last. In the middle though, he was about an .800 OPS hitter which is well above average. Honestly, Beltre could easily be explained by the fact that he was at Dodger Stadium before that, and if Theo is stupid enough to have passed on Beltre because he thought he was "on something" then I'm glad he isn't with the organization anymore. Beltre's been about a .900 OPS hitter since then, and I wish we had a bat like that in the lineup right now, especially playing 3rd instead of...

Who's complaining about it? It's obviously for insurance, but is it really ideal for your insurance arm to be a guy who's coming from the AL Central and going into the AL East, is very inconsistent, and has been hurt as much as Jake Peavy has? I can't say I'm complaining, all we lost was Iglesias, who has come back down to earth. All we've gained though is Jake Peavy.

Wait, what time other than when he was signed by Seattle after hitting 48 homers did this happen? He was also above average for most of his time in Seattle to be fair. You can credit that to him playing in Texas all you want, he's been arguably their best hitter for 3 years now. OT: This is a good move, but I can't understand how you can get all worked up about getting someone like Jake Peavy. Maybe if this was 5 years ago, or even I guess if he was pitching the way he was last year. He hasn't really been that great this year, and now he's coming to Boston to face AL East competition. I guess we'll just have to see.

It was illegal, dude. It was illegal then as much as it is now, it just wasn't explicitly banned by the rules until 2005. I don't need to have sympathy for the guy man, I already assume that his motivation to use HGH was fairly clean compared to what other players used steroids for. I think you're the one who really doesn't understand, though. MLB banned it for a reason, because it gives a competitive advantage that "regular steroids" can't. Coming back from an injury faster than humanly possible is about the best advantage that you could ever have, and lying about it makes you a liar.

Using HGH to return from an injury faster is using to get a competitive advantage. I don't know if he's a chronic user of HGH, or if he used it before or prior to that supposed one time that he admitted to, and I'm not even speculating about that. Do you honestly think that it's okay to lie to everyone just because a guy from your church dips you in water and tells you that you're cleansed of all of your sins? Again, his faith is not being questioned here. Andy Pettite is being questioned. His faith is being used to show that, if anything, he's been even more dishonest with us than just the HGH situation. I think I already said it isn't that big of a deal, I don't pass any real personal judgment onto Andy Pettite since I don't know him, and he could be a really great guy. If I ever had a conversation with him though, I'd always have it in the back of my mind that this is someone who cheated, lied, and told on his supposed best friend. Those are some tough things to overcome when you're trying to demonstrate that you have good character.

One last point before bed time: Andy Pettite doesn't need to be demonized, he didn't kill anyone, and I'm not treating him like he did. He did HGH to get a competitive edge. It really isn't that big of a deal, but one thing I do have a problem with is that a lot of Yankees fans, not necessarily you, are constantly defending Pettite's character or in this case, using his supposedly exceptional character to try and illustrate that he's probably not lying. There's been a LOT of evidence of the contrary, and I could have gone in any number of directions to demonstrate that he's at least dishonest. Div was actually the one who brought Andy's exceptional character and devoutness into the discussion:

Holding yourself to a higher standard is the basic point of almost every religion. If he isn't holding himself to the standards of his religion, then he isn't religious, and that just makes him even more dishonest. He did illegal drugs that give him a competitive advantage over other players (also known as cheating) and he lied about it (also known as dishonesty). This has nothing to do with his integrity as a religious man, I think that's what you're focusing on way too much. It has everything to do with his integrity as a human being, though. Also, what scenarios did I create in an attempt to demonize Pettite?

I don't hold anyone to a different standard. He's a liar and a cheater, and there's not much I need to add to that. You make it sound like I'm the one who's holding him to a higher standard because he's religious. He holds himself to a higher standard by being religious, and being a liar and cheater just makes that all kind of seem like a pathetic PR stunt.

^How to liarpants. Edit: This actually reminds me a lot of what Pettite was saying when he got busted. He was trying to shame people the same way, I think he said something about how using HGH once shouldn't ruin an entire career of hard work, etc. I never thought of him as being full of s*** back then, but I kind of do now. He was dishonest, and he did cheat, but least he admitted it, something that Ryan Braun didn't do. @y228: If he's religious, it doesn't make a difference necessarily, but you should try and stick to what the Bible says is right, right? If you're supposedly a very religious person, and you're caught cheating/being dishonest, you have to live with that. You're probably not going to live it down, because religious people are supposed to set an example. That's what you're usually going for if your PR is that you're very religious, you're cleaner than a preacher's sheets and you're an exceptional human being that cares.

No, that pun was intended. But yeah, I don't consider the Pedroia contract bad at all. He could have for sure got more somewhere else, and he's already earned his last contract really. Someone who's not obsessed with money, is very good at what he does, and is the face of the franchise. Sounds like the perfect guy to have retire as a Red Sox.

Yeah, and there aren't other Yankees who are being paid way more than they should be paid? The Twins can't afford that, they have Joe Mauer taking up 1/3 of their payroll pretty much.

Yeah, I agree with that too, that they probably get a lot of money back just because everyone's crazy about Joe Mauer. That's part of why I mentioned him being the hometown kid, is that it's good for the Twins to have a guy like that. He's from St. Paul and he's still an elite catcher.

What intangibles? Does the "C" on his jersey magically add 20 wins to the Yankees' record?

It means that, assuming sabermetrics are accurate, which is apparently what we're doing, he hasn't been worth his contract. I don't know how I can simplify it beyond that. If sabermetrics aren't perfect then you brought them into this discussion and you have to live with that. Debating whether he may have been 10% worse than 21M or 10% better than 21M is a waste of time.

He's also the hometown kid. It was a no-brainer to retain him at the time, but it really hasn't gone as expected. He's been more or less healthy for 2/3 seasons under the new contract, and he was very mediocre for the half of 2011 he played. '12-13 he's been sort of like the old Joe Mauer. I can live with that, but 23M for a guy who can't even hit 10 home runs is a lot of money.