Lucienbel

I have a difficult time saying the Sox have a bad pen right now. They have done some good stuff to shore up the pen and I don't think they'll be a weak point of this years team.

Part of me does want them to take a chance on him, the other part of me would prefer they didn't. Either way, I hope Gomez doesn't just sit down there and rot away like we have a habit of doing. I hope he does get a shot at some regular time in the majors relatively soon.

Berkman wouldn't be the worst. He's certainly shown that he can hit when healthy. I'd also think you'd like him to be in a platoon position though. Certainly wouldn't be my number one choice, and I'm sure it's a large question mark how many games he could play. None the less, we could do worse.

Looking at what Scout's have said about him I could see why people think he could end up being a top of the rotation guy. Everyone is already projecting very good things for him and he's still very young, so I don't see why not. With that said, he's still very young so we'll see what happens. Either way, even a middle of the rotation guy would be a gift in this trade personally. I see it largely as a salary dump as well. De La Rosa did need to be part of that trade though..... You can't give up all of that for nothing.

I'm really hoping this does happen now. Hearing Napoli has a hip thing going on is concerning. I personally found a lot of value in the games Napoli would be able to catch, and assuming the versatility will likely be lost with the hip thing brings his value way down to me. LaRoche is a solid defender and even if he doesn't have quite the homerun power he did last year, he's still going to be decent offensively.

That's pretty high regards, but I won't disagree entirely. I think going out to the West Coast would really benefit him. Big ball parks play well for pitchers like him. I think going out West would give him a lot of big ball parks to pitch in and he'd start putting up numbers more reflective of the pitcher he is.

I really don't have a ton of faith with Aceves. Not necessarily from a baseball perspective, but from more of a personal perspective. He has shown that he can pitch, but I really can't stand the person that's going to complain because he couldn't live up to what was expected of him. I know Bobby V was garbage, but still..... Him acting like that wasn't going to improve anything. As for Bard, I'm not really sure how I feel on him. Part of me thinks he could turn it around, another part of me thinks that's it. Whichever way I lean I do realize he isn't getting any younger, and unless he turns it around soon he'll quickly turn into one of those "could have been" type relievers. As for Morales, getting lit up by the Yankee's doesn't make you a bad pitcher. He has shown good stuff in the past as well as last year. I think sometimes Red Sox fans get caught up in the mentality of doing good/bad against the Yankees makes you a good or bad player. There's a lot of other teams out there, and wins are wins no matter who they're against for most of the regular season.

Not really sure what he's talking about. Napoli likes Fenway a lot. I don't really think the question was ever his offense. More a question of his defense, how many games he'll be able to catch and now his health too.

Certainly agree. This bullpen is starting to shape out very nice. At the very least they should be fun to watch. Still, even with the starters having people to fall back on in the pen I think we could use more starting depth.

I was also hoping that we'd end up with Jones too. Oh well, I still like this deal. Now it's just time to see what ends up happening with the Napoli thing. If Hanrahan can find his command again he'll be a great closer for us. Someone also mentioned flipping Bailey and a smaller prospect for Porcello. Not sure if Bailey has that much value at the moment, but I'd love if we can make that happen.

The Orioles will be an interesting team this year. I think a large part of how they do is going to depend on what they can get out of their pitching.... They certainly hit some luck all over last year. With that said, I do agree that counting them out wouldn't be right. They have a solid offense and a lot of guys who play hard. At the very least, they're not going to be an easy team to beat. Not sure if I'm comfortable saying they'll be in it until September, but they're going to be a decent team again.

Said it before too, if Napoli isn't going to be able to put in some time catching I'm personally not too interested. A loss of versatility really hurts him. If he wouldn't be able to catch I'd much prefer LaRoche. Knowing that Napoli has injury risks anyway makes me prefer LaRoche anyway. Even if he does lose some production to Fenway, it seems like his numbers will still be decent and he'll be much better defensively at first.

I'm also going to agree with this one. Especially after watching a few of his starts. The attitude problems even seemed to stand out some when he was on the mound. I've seen a lot of people speculating that this is why Arizona got rid of him, even though they claim it isn't. It certainly seems like it is to me though. Either way, it kind of seemed like they didn't want to deal with him anymore.

I've played through this a million times around, and I hate to agree but do. I think we all hate to agree. The truth is, something incredibly screwy would have to have him not start. I can't see him being just a long reliever in blow outs out of the pen, though I'm sure that's where we'd all like to see him. With him it's probably just going to need to be a case of hoping for the best. It's going to be difficult to do, but if the surgery was truly a big part of the problem he won't be the worst.

This is certainly an interesting option, but I'm not under the impression Bailey is really the guy the Tigers would want. Since he had another injury, and came back not so good (even if it was a kind of small sample size) his value is probably way down. They could possibly build a package with him involved, though I don't know if he would work as the center of the deal. With that said, Porcello would definitely be a positive for the rotation.

Ross is in Arizona now.

Said it in the Swisher thread too, but I agree. Pretty cool to see them trying, and they seem to have made some pretty good moves. Swisher is solid, and not a bad replacement for Choo at all.

I think this thread brings up a lot of good points. I'd have to assume that once you start playing at a certain level, you kind of just want that pay day and want to know where you're going to be living. As others have said, playing in front of a lot of people is probably a large factor as well. I think the point about the playing bad is a good point as well. You sign a one year deal with somewhere you don't see yourself long term, and then play bad you get stuck there. Chone Figgins comes to mind when I think of why players wouldn't want to go to Seattle at least recently. He had rather good numbers before getting there, and now it's safe to say he'd have an impossible time getting MLB playing time anywhere unless he seriously showed something in Spring Training. I figure some players definitely have that in the back of their mind when thinking of Seattle. He certainly isn't the first player to go there and tank either. At the end of the day though, I could imagine one year deals aren't the most attractive, no matter what the reason. It seems that knowing where you're going to be and having guaranteed money locked up is probably a big deal, just as it is for any working person.

I see your point here, and I think that even if they do end up signing him, there's certainly a concern. If they have in fact gave him a different offer after the physical and he turned it down that would be interesting. Either way, if they don't lock him up the market is closing up quickly and that's not a good thing either. It would kind of suck if he couldn't catch any games too. As just a first basemen he loses a lot of his appeal. Even if he wasn't going to catch a lot of games, any loss of versatility makes him less appealing. Now hearing that whatever is going on with his injury may have caused Seattle and Texas to back down too is bothersome. Hopefully he doesn't end up being another JD Drew.

It's about as likely and legitimate as any other source you're going to get at the moment. An MLB.com article also sighted the same source as well. I have a tough time believing they're just trying to screw him...... It seems like he would walk and find a deal somewhere else if so.

Should be a nice move for the Guardians. Reports are saying it wasn't his first choice and you can't really blame him, but it does seem like the Guardians are at least trying. It'll be interesting to see him in a different uniform, got so used to him being a Yankee. Always liked him as a player though.

I'd also prefer letting Iggy go over Kalish. While I'm not totally sold on Kalish, I would like to see what he can do a few years removed from injury. Agreed that Kalish has a shot at having some up side while Iglesias would be easier to let go of.

I'd enjoy seeing another team in Montreal again. We used to drive up there and catch games once a year or so, I'd definitely be interested in going up again. Either way, the Rays do seriously need to get out of that ballpark they're in.

If it's just Sands I suppose it isn't really a huge deal. Hanrahan definitely has good stuff....the walk rates last year are concerning though. I'm also going to second the thought that if Salty's catching him it isn't going to help anything. Hopefully it's just an easy to fix problem and it gets turned around. If this guy pitches as good as he can, this bullpen is going to be a bit outrageous.

That guy sucked so bad.