Korn2

According to Perfect Game, Ramos is yet another high upside high school kid. Has a ton of power potential but not a lot of baseball experience as he mainly played soccer. I like the picks of Ramos and Cecchini from a risk reward standpoint. Maybe there is a 10-20% chance that they work out, but if they do, they both have a chance to be stars.

Jim Rice has hit 40 homers in the bigs maybe the Yankees should get him. The point is that if the Yankees had two injuries in the outfield they wouldn't be playing anyone who was that good and Darnell MacDonald has been just fine.

You shouldn't worry about weather a player has losses or not they don't tell you very much. I'm fairly confident that if not overused Bard will be a shut down guy in the 8th inning. Embree's has an option to go somewhere else if he's not called up by Friday so either hor Schowenweis is going to have to be gone. I'd give Embree a chance and hope that Schowenweiss clears waivers. The point about Cruz is that you can't stuff him in AAA as he'll want and receive a major league deal if no one works out a trade for him. You'd have to cut Ramon Ramirez if you wanted Cruz and as you mention he doesn't help you that much.

And its unlikely you'd see much of a difference. Can you really tell me that over the next month that having Marcus Thames over Darnell MacDonald is going to make a difference? Really when you start dripping down into your AAA roster there really isn't much of a difference in talent. Darnell MacDonald is fine for a few weeks and getting someone significantly better is going to represent a huge cost in exchange for very little incremental value.

You fail to understand some basic economic concepts. Sunk costs. -Eating $12M or $9M of Mike Lowell's contract costs the Red Sox nothing in incremental costs because those costs are already sunk. The Red Sox pay him no matter what. Bringing in another guy would cost the Red Sox more money in incremental costs, than it would to trade Lowell. -Similary the costs of John Smoltz are also sunk. Why should what you spent on another player that didn't work out have any bearing on how you spend your next dollar? Are you the guy who buys a stock that will go down 20% because the last stock you bought went down 50%? If so, then I invite you to play poker at my house and I will gladly take everything you have. The Red Sox cannot afford to spend millions on a player and give up talent for a player who is unlikely to make a difference in the standings. Its unlikely that one month of Xavier Nady is going to be worth the price.

So let me get this straight. The Red Sox are supposed to go and pay nearly $2M+ and give up a player for a fourth outfielder whom they will cut withiin a month when Cameron and Ellsbury return. Its a good thing that you don't work for John Henry because people who flush millions down the toilet, get fired.

Actually it would likely be Randy Winn who is 35 and fits the very definition of a journeyman. If both Granderson and Gardner got hurt it would likely Greg Golson. Golson may only be 24 but he had a K:W ratio of nearly 4 in AA and AAA the last two years. Do you really think that he's better than Darnell McDonald? Most teams don't have very good options available in April if two outfielders are hurt. The reason the Red Sox traded for John Van Every was that he was the best available talent on the market. Xavier Nady can't play CF and thus doesn't play over Darnell McDonald. I swear a700 its as if you expect the Red Sox to go out and acquire Colby Rasmus to fill in for a few weeks while their injured players heal.

This statement is inaccurate. Beltre's fielding overall has been excellent all season and was on display in the Baltimore series where he made several excellent plays. He hasn't really hit that well yet but I'm confident that he will hit better than he has and be well worth the net $6M that the Red Sox spent on him. Fill ins play for weeks on end when your regulars are hurt. That's the way it is for most teams. Whom do you think plays if Granderson get hurt? Fill ins.

Ramon Ramirez post all-star break last year had 17 walks in 31 innings of work, and more hits than ininings pitched that's not what I call "quality." Ramirez's work so far this year hasn't done anything to make one believe that the second half of last year wasn't a representative sample. If you re-read my post however, I argued AGAINST cutting him and in favor of giving him time to show that the second half of last year wasn't a representative sample. If he's this bad in June or July, you'd have to consider cutting him if there are better options on the market.

If you sign someone up at this point he has to be significantly better than the guy you are getting rid of. I'm not sure that's the case with Cruz. Atchinson is going to be farmed out and they want a second lefty in the pen so its either going to be Showenweiss or Embree. You aren't cutting Wakefield so that means that you are cutting Ramon Ramirez is you sign Cruz. Ramon Ramirez has been a dissapointment for nearly a year, but even so I'm not convinced that Cruz would be a significant upgrade. I'd be all for stashing Cruz in AAA and calling him up if someone gets hurt or if he shows that he'd be much better than Ramirez. Cruz is probably going to want and receive a major league deal though.

The rumor is that both Atchinson and Schoenweis would be gone and Embree and Dice-K would be activated. I'm not sure Embree would be much better than Schoenweis. Bard has a K:W ratio of 4:1 and K:IP Ratio of over 1 and a WHIP under .75. That looks pretty good to me. Okajima has gotten worse every year he's been with the Sox so his ability has to be a concern. Not ready to cut ties with him though. I'd be for giving Juan Cruz a chance in Pawtucket, but he'll probably get a major deal. Releasing Ramon Ramirez who is similar to make room for Cruz at this point wouldn't make a lot of sense. What the Red Sox really need is for their great starters to start going 7 innings night after night as we expected. That and Delcarman pitching up to his capabilities.

I have some experience with this. The difference between a hairline fracture in the rib and a severe bruise in the rib are very difficult to diagnose. In the end doctors don't spend a lot of time, at least initially, trying to find the difference as the treatment is the same. Its not like an arm that you put into a splint and imobilize if there is a break but just wrap in an ace bandage and ice if there is a severe sprain. The ribs have to continue to move if you intend to keep breathing and hairline fractures in the ribs aren't cause for surgery. You basically just have to wait for the ribs to heal. There have been some questions about the Red Sox medical staff in the past, most famously from failing to diagnose Curt Schilling's career ending arm injury when he was signed prior to the 2008 season. But I don't think this is cause to blame the Red Sox doctors. FWIW Doctor Thomas Gill, the Red Sox physician is a very well respected doctor with sixteen years experience, and the chief of sports medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, the number five ranked hospital in the country according to U.S. News and World Report. I'd certainly go see him or his staff if I were hurt. Their affiliated hospital is the Beth Israel Deconess Hospital which is also a nationally recognized hospital and where I personally receive my care. As I'm sure you all know, Boston is nationally renowned for its plethora of experienced doctors. Its a little silly given all this information to question if the Red Sox doctors know what they are doing.

Talent

Atchinson was signed to be the 12th man on an 11 man staff for two years. You aren't going to find many guys who are good and can fill this role. Atchinson at the very least has a halfway decent curve which he can throw for strikes. Scheonweis maybe released this week but I fail to see how Alan Embree is going to represent a significant upgrade.

Because quite simply Matsusaka is a better pitcher today than Tim Wakefield. Among starting pitchers with 100 innnings plus Wakefield had the worst X-FIP of all American League starters. Matsusaka hasn't shown great velocity in his AAA starts but he has shown improved command of his fastball as indicated by comments from the Pawtuckett pitching coach and his low walk total.

Gom- I have read your comments re:UZR and its obvious you haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about. #1 UZR DOES NOT compare a player to a replacement player. It compares players to the average major leaguer at the players position. #2 You can't dismiss a metric because it tells you something different than what your own sensibilities tell you. A good statistic should be a better measurement than watching the game on TV. #3 UZR DOES NOT say that any of the above players you mentioned are below average defenive players. It only says that they made a below average number of outs given the distribution of balls that were hit in their area. This could happen for any number of reasons over a single season. For many positions there tend to be a limited amount of plays over the course of a season that aren't either routine or impossible, that can make the sample sizes difficult. Mark Texiera had a very poor batting average over a small sample of play. Does this mean he's a poor hitter? When a hitter hits poorly over a small sample size, no one ever questions the metric. #4 Saying that UZR missed gold gloves and is therefor invalid is likely one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. You are aware that gold gloves are voted on by beat writers who do not see a player play defensively every day. More often than not a gold glove is won by a players reputation as opposed to how he actually plays defensively. Many just vote for the guy that won it last year. Rafael Palmiero won a gold glove in a year he barely played in the field, nuff said.

The idea that Clay should be sent back to AAA or to the pen is ludicrous. To give the team the best chance to win, you put your five most talented starters in the rotation. Clay is one of those. Dealing with situations when things don't go absolutely perfectly is something that can't be learned at Pawtuckett. I'd assume Atchison goes to Pawtuckett as he has options. No reason to release a player with options.