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Screw that pitching stuff. We got Garcia and Buehrle. If we let Maggs walk, I want Beltran. Not only does he give the offense a solid boost, but he helps the pitching with his stellar defense in center. I think we can see from these last few games that we aren't as great an offensive team as we think, and we need to keep Magglio. Yeah, I wish he was cheaper, but we need his stick in the lineup. If we are going to score two runs a game, it won't matter how good our pitching is. Unless we get a pitcher and someone like Vidro or Cabrera, or deal Paulie for a pitcher and get Sexon, I go with Maggs. Or let Loaiza and Schoenweis walk and use that $6 mil to try to get a pitcher.

Great job with the site, good article. Keep up the good work!

Damn, Anderson is really starting to look like a future stud. Hasn't missed a beat with the promotion. Hopefully a future Sox All-star for years to come!

Pavano will get Colon-like money, probably $10-$12 mil, all that for a guy that is having his first really good year at the age of 28 and has had some arm problems. Last year his ERA was 4.30, and he only had one other good year a while back with the Expos where he only made 15 starts. Give me Maggs. He's an everyday player that would be our #3 hitter and has had an impact for several years now. Pitchers may not grow on trees, but neither do .300 hitters with 30 HR power. Plus he is a homegrown guy, which is always nice to keep. I think our O the past week or so shows that we need to keep him. Plus we already got 2 pretty good starters in Garcia and Buehrle, and Garland looks close to joining them. Now it might be another story if you asked Clement or Ordonez I might have a tougher call, but not in this case.

Ugh, Contreras is making a lot more than I thought. $9 mil?! :puke God, Steinbrenner has too much money. He could still be in it with the Yankees paying part of his salary. I don't want to trade Anderson because he is probably our best prospect right now, he is a true centerfielder, he's been killing the ball, and he is at AA in only his second season(even though he missed a good chunk of last year with an injury). If any of our prospects are going to be solid players, he's my vote. I also don't see why they would want Loaiza since he is a free agent at the end of the year, and they aren't going anywhere(Maggs would fall into this category too). If any of our pitchers were to go it would be someone signed for a while, making Garland more likely. Plus we would still end up dealing several prospects unless we eat all or most of the money. If we could get away with Borchard and Rauch with the DBacks eating a some money, then hell yeah go for it, but that's not likely, even if he wants to come. No GM is going to take a package just to piss off another team, so the Sox would have to come up with significantly better package considering they are not likely to cough up all of the money. Obviously Phillps wasn't untouchable, since he was traded for Colon, and Escobar is still a decent prospect. You never know which one is going to pan out. Albert Pujols wasn't that good a prospect when they got him. Seattle raped Houston on the last Randy Johnson deal. Garcia and Guillen would still be helping them out significantly if they had kept them, and Johnson is long gone from Houston. I don't want to be saying that about Anderson. However, I could care less about guys like Rauch, Borchard(assuming we keep Maggs, otherwise we would need him), and Diaz. Munoz I kind of want to keep, but for someone like Johnson fine, but these guys don't have enough value. Plus the Johnson deal would probably make Reinsdorf get rid of Maggs for sure, which I don't want. Look at what KC got for Beltran. The got Teahan, Wood, and a good catcher(his name escapes me). Wood is already with them, and the other two will be shortly. We don't have 3 guys that will start for the DBacks in the next two years in our Farm System. Maybe 2 in Rauch and Anderson, but that's about all I see above A ball.

Very few players come up and hit major league pitching right away. Your average rookie of the year will hit about .270, so that means that everyone else that comes up does worse. It's hard to say if Reed would have or not, but he didn't. They traded him at the height of his value, and I have no problem with that. He wasn't going to make any kind of impact on the team this year, and he MIGHT HAVE next year, but that's still an if statement. He just seems like an average player, not someone we should cry in our beers over trading. This is my final comment. To paraphrase a Major League line: "Who gives a s***, he's gone!"

You never said nothing, but you made contradictory comments in two different parts of the post. Such as, he's going to play nexxt year and won't cost that much, and he's an injury risk and has a bloated contract. The point is you wouldn't have even thought of trading him 3 years ago, much like you wouldn't trade those other guys. You would still have to give up some good players to get him, again, assuming they even trade him. I do not want to touch Anderson, but that is who they are going to want. Throwing 4 okay prospects together isn't going to cut it. Obviously, you're going to be able to come up with more guys from the minors that didn't make it than one's that did, because there are a huge number of guys and only a small percentage of players make it. Hill never even signed with the Sox, I blame that one on the Cubs, and Stumm and Borchard aren't done yet. As for first rounders that have done well, how about Baines and Thomas? If you can go all the way back to Ruffcorn, I can start there. Plus Honel and Anderson are two of our top prospects that are kicking ass(well, Honel was before he got hurt), and we drafted guys like Reed, Ring, and Francisco that brought us valuable pieces. You don't just trade away your guys with a chance to help your team and call them useless. Garland is better than medicore. Decent would be my word of choice. There are a whole lot of pitchers out there performing a lot worse than him. Come on, when Tayon Sturtze is starting for the Yankees, I'm not complaining about Garland much. As for what the Yankees would deal, they would almost certainly give up Dionar Navarro, their stud catching prospect, Contreras, a guy that has some problems but has great stuff as their centerpieces. They have a few other decent prospects that would probably be involved, but I can't remember who. We don't have anyone at the same point that Navarro is, so we would have to give up a few good prospects to beat that, plus the Yankees wouldn't have to make the Dbacks eat any of his salary, meaning they wouldn't have to give up as much.

Great deal. Getting him for under $10 mil a year looks like a steal. Unless he collapses in the second half(he better not ), he would have almost certainly gotten more in free agency. Now let's lock up Maggs!

Last I checked, Randy spent most of last year on the DL, and he isn't getting any younger. I think it's funny how you say he's a great player and he would greatly increase our chances, but screw Arizona, he's old, fragile, and not as good as he used to be, so they shouldn't get anyone good. Make up your mind. Just because Arizona is in bad shape financially doesn't mean they shouldn't get anything for him. He's their best and most popular player, and people would be unhappy with him gone. He's about the only thing worth watching on that team now. How much do you think it would piss of THEIR fans if they didn't get a great package for him. They've been in financial trouble for a while, and all they really did about it this offseason was trade Schilling and add Sexon, which I believe is virtually a draw on money. Besides, according to Selig, 20 teams in baseball are losing money. As for pissing off the fans, their attendance can't get much lower. The Sox are going to make the playoffs this year whether or not they get Johnson. Just look at the Twins schedule for the second half and you'll see why. Even if they lose in the 1st round, their revenue would still increase, and their is no telling if Johnson will actually make a difference. If their offense is so pitiful, as you have claimed before, then it won't matter how well we pitch, we'll lose 1-0. How did Houston do when they got him from Seattle? I would rather have Maggs for the next 5 than Randy for 1 1/2. And not every Sox prospect is overrated. Maggs, Lee and Buehrle have done fine, and Garland is better than a lot of pitchers. Giving up someone like Anderson could hurt a ton in the future.

I doubt Loaiza would go to the Yankees. He seems more like a guy a mid market team desperate for pitching would overpay for(hopefully not us). Yankees will probably try to add Johnson now, Clement, Pavano, Perez, Radke, or Ortiz in the offseason.

I really wish we had kept Wells and Fogg as bargaining chips, and Lowe was pretty good in the pen the year before. Kip pitched pretty well last year, and might have gotten us to the playoffs. However, I think he could have been part of a monster deal if we kept him. He was starting to pitch okay at the major league level. Even now, I bet a bunch of teams would really want him.

Just a side note about the Diamondbacks, does anyone know if they resigned Sexon, or is he still a free agent at the end of the year? That could make for some intruiging situation in any potential Johnson deal, although it would still be a long shot. Lee, Konerko, Rauch, and Anderson for Johnson, try to keep Maggs and sign Sexon in the offseason? I don't even know if that would be financially feasible, but wow.

The right answer is none. Matsui played center briefly last year when Williams was hurt, and from what I remember it was rather ugly. If the Yankees were going add another outfielder(and my guess is they won't, unless Steinbrenner gets pissed again and decides to add another $40 mil to the payroll), it would make much more sense to get Beltran.

For the rest of this year, Johnson is affordable, but those last two could be killers. With that much money left, it has the potential to kill the Sox payroll. That's an awful lot of money to be investing in a 40 year old. If he gets hurt or decides to retire, that's going to be one heck of a problem for the Sox those two years. Besides, there are other problems. First, there is no guarantee he will be available. Second, the cost in prospects would be crushing. We complained about losing Reed and Olivo, we would probably lose two or three more stud prospects, and potentially Maggs or Lee. Third, he has total power over a trade, and even if everything else worked out, he could still just say no. Yeah, it would be nice to see a pitcher of RJ's caliber on the Sox for the playoffs, but there are a whole lot of obstacles, and I don't really see anyone but the Yankees taking on all of that money.

The Yankees are not going to offer a huge deal to Maggs. They have a lot of money committed to Matsui and Sheffield, and are going to invest a lot of money in getting another starting pitcher or a second basemen. The Dodgers are more likely going to cut payroll. They have a $95 million payroll and not a lot to show for it. While they do need offense, I find it hard to believe that they would let Perez go considering they already unloaded Brown. The Pardres are a possibility, but they are spending good money on Giles, Nevin, and Klesko, and are likely to call up Nady if they don't trade him. They would also likely be trying to lure a starter, and I'm not sure they are going to push past $80 in payroll that fast. Baltimore already gave backloaded deals to Tejada and Lopez, and are desperately seeking pitching. I forgot Boston as a possibility, assuming they lose Nomar, but they will also be trying to either resign or replace Pedro and Lowe. Overall, there don't look to be a large number of huge spenders, and there are numerous good players out there. Most of the teams seem more likely to add a stud pitcher than a hitter. I doubt Maggs will be offered much more than Tejada was, who is also younger and plays at a premium position. That would make the Sox offer much more appealing. Why risk it if the money is already on the table?

The point with Magglio is that the Sox have apparently offered him a deal in the neighborhood of what he originally wanted, and he has stated that he wants to stay. So unless this was a load of BS, he should strongly consider taking it. I wouldn't be so sure that he will get the 5 years $70 mil he is looking for anywhere else. I repeat, this is what VLADIMIR GUERRERO received last year, and Maggs is not Vlad. Vlad is a better hitter and is younger, and still didn't have a whole lot of huge offers. He basically was choosing between Anaheim and Baltimore. I wouldn't be too sure that teams will be jumping to sign a 30 year old outfielder that just had a knee surgery to a huge deal. Besides, the Sox aren't the only team signing contracts with deferred money. Numerous other teams are doing it. From what I read much of Randy Johnson's money has been deferred, as well as Jason Giambi. And teams are starting to sign shorter deals because of teams getting burned on huge deals, like Mo Vaughn and Albert Belle. The Mets and Dodgers might offer large deals, but they are both getting pretty close to the luxary tax threshold, and the Dodgers are going to have to resign Perez. The only huge threat I would see is the Cubbies, and they would be stupid to commit that much to Maggs when Clement is a free agent, Ramirez needs an extension, and Prior and Zambrano are going to receive huge deals in the coming years. Plus the Cubs have no balls when signing major free agents, as shown by refusing to make offers to Miguel Tejada and Ivan Rodriguez/Javy Lopez, and the refusal to sign Jim Thome a few years ago, despite his obvious interest.

Forget about Randy. Not going to happen. He's due $15 mil for the next two years. The Sox will not add that much for a 40 year old starter, no matter how good he is. Plus, they can't really afford to lose the level of prospects it would take to acquire him. I think Esteban is gone if he expects a significant raise, might stay if his demands are for similar money.

I don't think Maggs is necessarily gone because of this deal. If you look at ESPN, the Sox are at about $68 mil in payroll(not sure why it includes Jerry Hairston and Vic Darensburg both at about $1.5 mil, if those numbers are wrong that drops it about $3 mil), and that includes Maggs' $14 mil and Garcia at his current salary. There aren't a whole lot of increases that would be coming, outside of maybe a raise for Frank, and Konerko and Lee's go up a little, and Loaiza's $4 mil might be gone. That salary isn't that high. If they make a playoff run, then I would be shocked if they don't keep it there for a while.

Yeah, the Twins shoud struggle to win if Radke and Santana are not on the mound, but they are playing the dregs of the league for a while. As you said, that schedule starts to get nasty as July turns into August. By the way, I know the Royals suck without Beltran, but 1-5 for a guys with a 3.58 ERA? Come on!

It's huge if we actually do resign him, I think that would get rid of a lot of the people bashing the trade, saying we gave up too much. My hope is that Mags will see that we are going for it and sign. I desperately want to see him stay, not only because he is my favorite player, but because he is our best hitter and we are really going to need him. Our lineup is above average without him(as long as we are not in an NL park), it is outstanding with him. I hope he realizes that it is doubtful he will get Vlad money anywhere but here.

That pretty much looks like a random collection of crap to me. Nothing there that makes me say we gotta have this guy. My vote is wait until the All-star break and hope that more teams fall out of the race, increasing the potential group, see if some guys like Smoltz or Danny Graves show up. And if I was going to take anyone from Seattle's pen it would clearly be Guardado, but I'm not sure if he is actually going to be available, and if he is, it will cost us quite a bit. We don't need more medicore arms. If we are going to add to the pen we need a reliable stud that we can use in the 7th or in the 8th to take some of the load off of Marte and Shingo. I realize these guys are harder to come by, but let's wait and see.

Brando fan, I agree with you, but I think the package of prospects we would have to give up is a little off. We can't trade Gio yet anyways, can't in the first year you have a guy. They would want 2 studs minumum, so my guess would be Borchard, Rauch or Munoz, and Anderson at a bare minimum. Even when Sheets goes to arbitration he isn't suddenly going to get $12 mil, he would go from making next to nothing to maybe $8 mil tops. That's not going to kill a team. They don't have anyone else they need to pay anyways.

As I said before, when this thread starting getting out of hand, unless those comments came from some scouting report, they are just your idle thoughts and we can dismiss them rather easily. Obviously many people felt that he had some skills because he was a 1st round pick and just about every pundit had him ranked as a star. The problem is that none of you comments are quantifiable, so it carries about as much weight as us arguing over how good Reed's arm and range were. To claim he doesn't have the edge(biggest bulls*** phrase thrown around) or that his arm is overrated or that his batspeed and hand eye coordination are nothing special doesn't really back up the argument that much unless they are expert opinions.

Sheets will not be moved, I have no clue why his name keeps coming up. He's their property for another two years. Yes, if he became available, we gotta take a shot, but it is not likely. Teams don't let young guys that are kicking ass and cheap go until they absolutely have to.

He seems pretty low profile right now, but I'm sure you will hear a ton about him in the offseason. Last I read, the league was unsure if he would be subject to the draft or if he would be a free agent. We will certainly hear about him eventually, from what I hear he is a stud.