FredLynn

Yes Mitch Moreland

Pretty much. Some people who go through microfracture treatment get temporary relief (some don't), but its almost always a very short term solution. My guess is that he will need a new knee down the road.

What is idiotic is that you, as a Yankee fan, can postulate injuries or other factors in a futile attempt to dilute what the data says about performance of Red Sox pitchers in order to elevate in your own mind the performance of a guy your team might eventually sign. Pomeranz is not injured yet. No one is injured yet. What Pomeranz has done ON THE FIELD during the time he is there is better than what Cole has done on the field while he is there. That is all I am saying. Given the choice in starting pitchers I will always take the guy who surrenders fewer runs.

I am not optimistic that Pedroia can be counted on the play many more games for the Red Sox. The procedure he went through has an awful track record. His knee is shot.

Great analysis. So you are going to postulate an injury to one of the Sox starters as proof that Cole is a better pitcher? Two can play at that game. Lets say Cole gets injured and can only pitch 100 innings this year and Porcello has a rebound year with an ERA under 4. Cole isn't even my number 4 SP any more. I deal in what is real performance by historical data; you deal in what might be. If all the pitchers mentioned are healthy, Cole is my number 4 SP this year.

Reread my post. I said that if all those guys are healthy then Cole, based on his career performance, is my #4 SP. Who among those guys has the lowest career ERA+?

You can have him then. He is behind Sale, Pomeranz (career ERA+ at 117, last season 137), and Price if healthy (career ERA+ 124, injured last season). If all of those guys are healthy Cole (career ERA+:111) is my #4 SP.

While you have to look at performance in past years as well, I am not convinced that Cole will be significantly better in the ALE than he was last year. Furthermore, its not a done deal yet.

And BTW, Gerrit Cole had an ERA+ of 101 last year. Pretty average statistic. Unless he suddenly morphs into something more than he is, he is unlikely to have a major impact on the ALE.

Pretty funny. The season hasn't even started yet, let alone concluding the offseason with whoever DD manages to sign, and some of you guys are already surrendering the ALE to the Yankees. Kidding, a bit, of course. The Yankees do look strong, but a lot can happen. If somehow DD manages to sign both Hosmer AND Martinez AND Price comes back strong and healthy AND Porcello looks more like the 2016 version we will be competitive. Point being, its far too early to write off the season as wild card contenders.

Well what did you really expect his attorney to say? "Steven punched his wife in the mouth so hard that her teeth bounced across the kitchen floor like Chicklets"? As you said, something closer to the truth will eventually be uncovered.

Disaster for the Red Sox.....the Tigers should start printing World Series tickets immediately.

I read that he is only considering the Dodgers and the Yankees. I am not sure that I would mind him signing with the Yankees as long as they are responsible for his whole contract or close to it. It could easily hobble their ability to sign other players for years to come.

I read in the SF newspaper today that Stanton is holding out waiting for the Dodgers to make a push for him. He grew up near LA (or in it) and would love to play for his hometown team. Fine by me; too rich a contract. We need to make a run at Abreu and/or Santana and get one more decent SP. The rest of any improvement has to be made by the current underperforming players.

I prefer the term "potential cliff". Overall, its a dumb idea anyway. Too much can change in the period of three years to postulate baseball Armageddon for this team.

As was pointed out below, we do not have the money to make a competitive offer for him. Second point, having "major heat" on his fastball is not good enough in MLB. You need location and a mix of offspeed stuff as well. Third, he is not going to be both a pitcher and a DH. No player in MLB assumes both roles, because of the work involved in preparing to play each role. Finally, I know he comes with a good scouting report, but a lot of guys from Japan did well over there and failed over here. Remember Matsusaka? He had a good year or two, but overall was a disappointment. Its not a given that Ohtani will be a star over here.

Allowing HanRam to DH is kinda pointless. Why have a DH who cannot hit? I don't expect much of an improvement from him this year, and he wasn't very good last year. He is a wart upon his team.

Pass on Hosmer. He isn't enough of an offensive upgrade-I think his career OPS+ is just 111 or so, vs JD's 130. JD can DH; HanRam can either play 1B or be traded for a can or two of beans and sign Santana as well.

Swihart isn't going to HAVE a future if he cannot learn to hit the baseball.

You just never know....you can't take a minute you are living for granted: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21331438/roy-halladay-40-dies-plane-crash-gulf-mexico

If Price has a stellar season next year and wins 20 games or whatever, nearly everyone on this forum is going to want him back and write about what a smart contract was offered to him. Such is the fickle nature of Sox fans. Its always "what have you done for me lately". And rightfully so.

And while we are at it can we give the Yankees one of our former managers, Bobby Valentine?

The point is that the team cannot count on Pedroia ever being a regular second baseman again, especially with his style of play. Sure, its worth a try-if not for his playing career just to try to delay the need for a new knee. Management is going to have to find a different solution at 2B for next year.

Having had microfracture surgery (shoulder) I can say that for me at least it was useless. The cartilage that is formed is of poor quality. I would think that it being exposed to repeated trauma that professional athletes subject the new cartilage to means an even lower success rate. Probably time for Pedroia to hang them up. Here is one article that supports what I believe to be true: "This research review in the Journal Arthroscopy reviewed 15 higher quality research papers that had been published about the effectiveness of microfracture. These studies usually compared the outcomes (how well patients fared) of microfracture to other cartilage repair techniques. Their conclusions? The majority of the studies reported poor clinical outcomes and two reported no improvements in the treated patients. Small-sized lesions and younger patients showed good results in the short-term. However, treatment failure could be expected within 5 years even in patients with small cartilage lesions. The upshot? When you look at the high quality studies published on microfracture, despite its widespread use, it doesn’t work well. So why are we still performing this surgery? "

A Klingon.