upnorthsox

I mentioned him earlier:

Well call me a dumbass but I have no desire to trade ARow either, and I don't think we'd have to. And for those of you wanting to trade Crede I'll be glad to add my own dumbass.

It's possible KW feels that way if he thinks the Angels are still a player, if they are then he may be right, but he can really make them pay thru the nose finding out. I'm pretty confident that the Yanks are out of it unless A.) everyone else drops out. Or B.) They trade off their BP(Gordon, Quantrill) to get the prospects to get him. Lieber just ain't gonna go anywhere to bring anything back and not only would it be difficult to orchestrate a triple trade but that may in the end leave them worse off than they are now with all the ouchy starters they have.

As they shouldn't, not even for Johnson.

We don't have to give up a young catcher for RJ, the D-Backs will get Quintero from the Padres for Finley. Pitching and an OFer is what they need from us.

And I wouldn't be so fast to pass on either Stairs or Tino who are both having pretty good yrs.

All those guys are considered available and would fit into confines of what would be needed, replacing Frank at DH, and all are have decent to good yrs.

Should we consider that a love letter to KW from the Big Unit?

Or you can hope that in their frantic quest to get RJ that Boston would let us seriously underpay to get Nomar, I highly doubt that one though as the Cubs, Giants, and Dodgers would all be in the hunt if they are shopping him seriously.

Everett is a good possibility though I believe he has a player option on next yr which wouldn't be too appealing. Others are: Matt Stairs KC Raphael Palmeiro Balt Josh Phelps Tor Tino Martinez DRays John Olerud SEA Daryle Ward PIT

Or not.

None at all, Johnson will go to Boston, Nomar to the scrubs, and we'll struggle to go 3-5 on this road trip and drop out of 1st. But hey, it got me over the hump of this hump day.

Randy Johnson LHP ARI Signed Mar 2003 - 2 years/$33M 2003: $15.0M option exercised 2004: $16.0M 2005: $16.0M -Receives additional $1M personal services payment -$6M deferred each year

That's almost the same package I've been saying, mine is Cotts, Diaz/Munoz, Sweeney/Joe B, Valdez, and any one of a MLer like Gload or a hot AAAA guy like Nelson, or a low minor guy like Young/Schnur, or a mid level arm like Baj. If they want Rauch over Diaz or Munoz fine, if it has to be Anderson over Sweeney or Joe B then ok(but reluctantly), if it's Crede or no deal then I probably don't do it or if I do it's an almost one for one deal.

Moreno Downplays Johnson Talk By Bill Shaikin Times Staff Writer July 14, 2004 HOUSTON — Angel owner Arte Moreno all but pulled his team out of the Randy Johnson derby Tuesday, expressing admiration for the five-time Cy Young Award winner but pledging to keep the core of his minor league system intact. General Manager Bill Stoneman has long insisted that he would not trade his top prospects. Moreno, in his first full season of ownership after a winter in which he spent $146 million on free agents, said he would not order Stoneman to pursue Johnson, the ace of the Arizona Diamondbacks' staff. "I won't do that," Moreno said. "That's not the way we'll do business. That won't come from me." Johnson said Monday that he would consider waiving his no-trade clause to join a World Series contender, with the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs among the suitors. The Dodgers are talking trade with Arizona, but not necessarily for Johnson. http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb...orts-majorbaseb

Here's a Newsday report: Make the F'n deal KW, it's there for the taking.

The way it is sounding, a deal may be done before the weekend.

I don't see a fire sale at all, we'll just let our FA's walk. That happened last yr did it not? And it could happen this yr too whether we add anyone else or not.

Good point, of the 4 AL contenders that he could go to(Yanks, Boston, Anaheim, Minny) I'd say that Boston from that group would probably be the most desirable spot for him to go from our perspective, it wouldn't guarantee them the WC and they still would have difficulty topping NY in the East. If he went to the Yanks then you might as well call the season now and declare them the winners and if he went to Minny then we'd have a hard time even making the playoffs. The thought of Anaheim with RJ just scares me. KW would do well to block an RJ trade to these teams but esp. NY, Anaheim and Minny. I'd have to say though, Boston getting RJ and the scrubs getting Nomar while we stagnate waiting on Frank to get healthy would sting quite a bit.

FYI, the NYTimes story: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/sports/b.../14johnson.html

Wow! I'm really surprised at the Nomar hatred around here. First let me say that I agree that if we had the prospects to get RJ then get RJ. EOS. The ????? then is why would we want Nomar? Simple, because Frank ain't coming back this season and KW knows it. We went 2 games under .500 without Maggs, 4 or 6 games better than that without Frank will still leave us on the outside in October. Frank has to be replaced, it's that simple. Why Nomar? Because he's a clutch career .323 hitter with a career .370 OBP who can hit leadoff for this team, and contrary to someone elses post he's a career .308 hitter away from Fenway and is hitting .368 away this yr. He's also a .323 hitter with 7 HR and 21 rbi's in 93 AB's in the playoffs. As to where he'd play, he'd come here to replace Frank at DH not Jose at SS, if on the outside chance that Frank does make it back before the end of the season or for the playoffs he can move over to 2nd. Why not Unit? I personally have no reason not to but thinking could be that 1) $16 mil next season, that's a big dissuader(sp?), 2) We don't have/want the prospects to get RJ, this makes sense in that BOS would need to trade Nomar to get some of the prospects RJ but they'd also have to kick in prospects of their own. And 3) RJ has said privately that he won't come to Chicago, this is pure conjecture on my part but if KW has asked and gotten this answer back then getting Nomar instead of Unit makes sense. So what deal? IMO whatever deal you'd make for RJ but minus the core player, so if a Sox offer for RJ was built around a Sweeney/anderson/Crede then remove him and btw make them kick in Lowe to us and that's your deal. So Nomar and Lowe for less than you'd pay for an RJ you didn't want or couldn't get is not that bad. It's not great, but it's not bad.

Multiculturally, MC Hammer would call it "Can't touch this" but as an old mick I'd just say "The Untouchables".

Nice stereotype, I sure am offended.

Btw: Talk about being stereotypical, do you really think all Americans think alike?

No, that would be "Hercules Conquers New York", but then of course that was such a mockery that we made Arnold govenor of California. Come to think of it, there you go, Shingo For Senator!!!!