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QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Dec 4, 2008 -> 12:03 PM) The order: Kemp Getz Abreu Q Jimmy Paulie Alexei AJ 3B correction: Kemp Getz Q Abreu Paulie Jimmy Alexei AJ 3B This lineup has perfect right-left balance, and will wear starters and bullpens out.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 4, 2008 -> 10:33 AM) Once people notice this I bet they get real hot. My only hope is this was leaked to force an interested party into making a multi-year offer. You may be right about a leak. Anyway, if we could trade him, it might work out, because now, a team that wants him only has to commit to one year at his arbitration salary. Might I suggest: Dye, Jenks, Fields, Broadway, Lillibridge etc. to the Dodgers for Kemp and Broxton. Sign Lowe and Abreu, win the WS. I can dream. 3B - Betemit, Viceido, Beckham. 2B - Getz (who doesn't need to platoon, if he performs. His splits are nearly identical. I think he'll be excellent in the two hole) The order: Kemp Getz Abreu Q Jimmy Paulie Alexei AJ 3B

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 24, 2008 -> 10:22 AM) I don't know it looks a lot like Dye's finish to me. Agreed. At least as much like Dye as Uribe.

QUOTE (rockren @ Nov 22, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) Yeah...expiring contracts and kiss blown by Jerry West to his old franchise in the Lakers. How the NBA didn't even attempt to uphold that deal is a joke. When the Bulls talked to the Grizz the year before...the Grizz wanted Deng and Gordon for Gasol. Less than a year later expiring contracts did the job....right. Off topic yes, but: Yes, the Gasol deal smelled rotten then, and it hasn't it gotten any fresher. It was a deal the Grizz could have made with ANY team, but they choose to make a team in their own conference that much better for at least 5 years - makes absolutely no sense. There has been always a double standard when it comes to how the league treats the marquee franchises. There were tampering rumors galore when the Lakers got Shaq, but nothing came of it. Yet they don't think twice about crippling the T-wolves for years over the Joe Smith fiasco. The NBA NEVER would have punished the Lakers, Bulls, Knicks or Celtics so harshly. If D Stern actually wonders why people don't really TRUST the NBA, he only needs to look in the mirror.

QUOTE (Sockin @ Nov 20, 2008 -> 04:49 PM) So if Alexei is the Cuban Missle, is Dayan the Cuban Nuke? Let me suggest a nickname "The Big Cohiba". BTW, it was Ozzie, not Hawk, that came up with "Cuban Missile", correct?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Nov 20, 2008 -> 04:03 PM) Just saw this on Rotoworld. The acquisition of Jose Contreras has really paved the way for our future (Alexei, Dayan). And it makes us more likely to get the NEXT star who defects. Cubano? The pipeline is in place, if this kid is a success ala Ramirez, look out!

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Nov 20, 2008 -> 03:57 PM) 11 million, probably 5 years. Torres says he can be in the majors this year, but the Sox most likely think otherwise. This could be great news for the Sox. I'm sure we'll get plenty of comments from other team reps that saw his workouts, after the signing becomes official. Since he's "only" getting 11 mil, there must be some doubters. The Sox probably give this kid his best opportunity to get motivated and succeed at the big league level. Does this mean Fields is likely gone in a trade now? Does it make KW more likely to trade Dye?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 15, 2008 -> 04:21 PM) "Evaluating GMs is really subjective. I strongly disagree with the idea that Kenny is a top three executive in baseball, let alone all of sports. I just don't see eye to eye with the guy. I vehemently disagree with many of his moves, probably due to his distaste for players that come through his own minor league system. I'd without question rather have all the following guys as a GM: Beane, Epstein, Cashman, Josh Byrnes, Andrew Friedman, Doug Melvin, Mark Shapiro, and Shuerholz." Original quote... You're drinking some serious Kool-Aid thinking Shapiro is better. Andy Marte? Jason Johnson? Going into the season with Borowski as a closer? Josh Barfield? What have the Indians done, exactly, the last four years? Not much, considering their overall talent level. Sure, there's Sizemore and Lee, but that only gets you so far, and KW's deal for Colon was pretty sweet too? Or you like like Michaels/Dellucci so much in LF? Cashman and Epstein can't be compared...it's like saying what could Phil Jackson do without Jordan or two superstars paired together? Not very much. What has Cashman done that's so great over the last five years besides loads of bloated pitching contracts and idiotic deals like Carl Pavano...Jose Contreras for a washed-up Loaiza and eating a big part of the future best pitcher in baseball's contract? Brilliant! Brian Cashman is one of the worst GM's in New York Yankee history. He rode Gene Michael's roster to three Championship rings. The major acquisition was Roger Clemens, who George Steinbrenner had wanted for years. When Michaels' guys started fading, there was no one on the farm from Cashman's early drafts. He's butchered one free agent signing after another; spending tons of money on big names with ZERO chemistry. Cashman put the emphasis on power hitting; over pitching and defense and situational hitting. He was handed a successful blueprint by Gene Michael (who is a genius), and he put it in the shredder. As a matter of fact, it was the Red Sox who wanted to make Gene Michael their GM but was rebuffed by Steinbrenner. The Red Sox have been using the Gene Michael blueprint, and have two Championships to show for it. Ptiching, defense, OBP, situational hitting. The blueprint was copied by Theo Epstein. Give him credit for witnessing true genius, and duplicating it. Unfortunately, Cashman isn't that bright. Brian Cashman has quite possibly THE WORST RECORD OF ALL-TIME in signing free agent pitchers. He passed on Johan, to protect his apparently over hyped prospects. I wanted to trade Robinson Cano, Melkey Cabrera and Ian Kennedy last off season for Johan Santana and Pat Neshek. Almost every Yankee fan was too afraid to deal Cano following a strong second half of 2007. I felt Cano was severly overrated. And it was overlooked that Cano never seems to put in a full season. Now this off season, rumors say the Yankees are considering dealing him to Joe Torre's Dodgers. We could have had Santana without giving up Phil Hughes. Brian Cashman kept his job because his butt buddy is the younger, Hal Steinbrenner. Big mouth Hank may be an idiot, but at least he's right about Cashman, and was right about Johan. The Media keeps protecting Cashman (he must know somebody) because he protected the young prospects. But of all those prospects, only Joba Chamberlin looks legit. And Cashman, with his overrated Manager Joe Giardi, want to make him a reliever again. Idiotic. I hope Joba gets 'enough innings' to be a stud starter sometime before he retires. Phil Hughes is beginning to look like a 'David West' situation. Melky was nothing more than a fourth outfielder, if that. Cano showed that he's not the player that Cashman thought he was. Ian Kennedy is a disaster, and has Scott Boras as his agent. Why couldn't Cashman deal him? I was happy to see Cashman acquire Marte and Nady last season. One of the few times he did something right. But today he acquires Nick Swisher. This guy is poor defensively at TWO positions. He's a young Jason Giambi, without the advantage of steroid enhanced play. Swisher hit .216 last year. Terrible fit, and I guarantee you that Cashman is planning on Swisher for centerfield. Now that he's re-signed, we can only hope that George Steinbrenner rises from near death, and gives this guy the boot he deserves. HATE is not a strong enough word for how I feel about this pretender. Epstein? Hardly. Comparing apples and oranges. Beane? Overrated and overhyped. He's become successful at creating an illusion based on smoke and mirrors but has never won a thing. He has succeeded in dumping Hudson, Zito, Harden and Mulder before they were totally worthless...but the main reason for his success was the Big 3 pitchers, not drafting and not Moneyball. Nice move to let Dan Haren go, by the way. Blanton looked pretty good to me in the World Series. The one player he decides to hold onto, 3B Eric Chavez, is now basically without value. Byrnes, Friedman (let's wait for some sustained success there, how many Top 10 picks can any professional franchise have without blindly stumbling into a diamond or two) and Melvin aren't consistently great...they've made mistakes, too. Schuerholz...I won't argue with. But he's not a MLB GM anymore, and the Braves only won one World Series in 14 years. If you want to argue the best, Terry Ryan/Smith are/were better, but KW is catching up. Other than that, you can make plausible arguments that he's #3-5 in the majors now...Jocketty and Gillick are up there too, so no worse than 6-7-8. You put KW in charge of the Yankees or Red Sox over the last decade, or the Dodgers/Mets, I guarantee he'd have multiple championships working without financial constraints. The more you look at it, the more you have to appreciate KW's performance. He's definitely in the top tier in making positive moves for the MLB club. Of course, the farm system has been the major negative, and this year may be a good test of its improvement, or not.

QUOTE (Jeremy @ Nov 15, 2008 -> 01:05 PM) Evaluating GMs is really subjective. I strongly disagree with the idea that Kenny is a top three executive in baseball, let alone all of sports. I just don't see eye to eye with the guy. I vehemently disagree with many of his moves, probably due to his distaste for players that come through his own minor league system. I'd without question rather have all the following guys as a GM: Beane, Epstein, Cashman, Josh Byrnes, Andrew Friedman, Doug Melvin, Mark Shapiro, and Shuerholz. Kenny hasn't given up a superstar yet in one of the deals where he moved a young player but that doesn't mean he hasn't made obvious mistakes in those types of deals. Kip Wells put up consecutive 200 IP seasons with ERAs well below the league average after we traded him for a guy who contributed absolutely nothing to the team. Chris Young hasn't really broken out yet but he's been a lot better than anyone we've had in CF the last two seasons and he's still just 25 years old. We pretty much gave Jon Rauch away and he's been a pretty useful reliever the past several seasons. Jeremy Reed? Wells and Rauch had moderate success in the NL, but haven't been anything special.

What Torres failed to mention is that three of those tools are a fork, a knife and a spoon. Hope we get him though. The prospect of he and Alexei on that side of the infield is exciting as hell, and he may just eat himself over to RF/1B/DH just in time for Dye, Thome and Konerko's departure.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Nov 10, 2008 -> 08:40 PM) Stan, You quest is almost impossible. It is easier to go to Iran and bash the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and comeback alive than to find Alexei's jersey. Usually, you can find jerseys at the airport and tourist spots in Cuba. You find them for the cuban team and cuban series player jerseys. If there were Alexei's jersey, all of them are withdrawn from the market. You may find somebody that bought one and wants to sell it, but this would be a miracle. How about the WBC site? Never mind. Cuba us not even listed because the Embargo. http://shop.mlb.com/category/index.jsp?categoryId=2194484 That's a bummer, but thanks. Looks like a gotta go to Cuba!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 11, 2008 -> 09:50 AM) Well, here's our starting point then: Jenks Linebrink Dotel Thornton Poreda Top 5 followed by potential backup options: MacDougal (Out of options now) Carrasco Wasserman Logan Eventually Contreras I see Russell and Contreras rounding out those top 5 nicely.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Nov 10, 2008 -> 12:24 PM) Yes. However, Contreras had a bad 2004. He never live to his high expectation except for the second half of 2005 and first half of 2006. He may have been a Cy Young if he had put this performance in one season. Contrears is from a very very very small twon called Las Martinas. No electricity, etc. In other words, he is from the country side. Then, New York and his demanding fans. His ex-wife and daughters in Cuba. I read his wife was stopped by the police and called b****, etc. This is one thing about cuban players. We carry this liability about your state of mind. It is also true that you are getting paid and your team expects you to perform no matter what. Contreras had a bad 2007 too. I think Contreras age is catching with him. The over use in Cuba may be slowing him down too. Cubano, really appreciate all your insight. What I really want, though, is to get my hands on an Alexei #21 Cuban National Team Jersey like the one in your profile, or preferably a replica. I'd like to wear it, not hang it on a wall. That would be so cool. Any help is appreciated. I've tried the obvious, like E-Bay.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 10, 2008 -> 01:12 PM) You know, honestly, I disagree, at least for me personally. This season, with the roster we currently have, I was quite content with the division. Esepcially without Jose and God, I didn't think we were good enough to go for the full boat, and I just didn't want to lose to the Twinkies, and we didn't. Agreed. And one more thing: The Sox have had a huge "Twinkie Monkey Demon" on their back for several seasons and that was finally exorcised this season. I think it will carry over in coming seasons that while we'll still respect Minnie and their organization, we'll no longer have this excessive admiration/fear of them which has contributed to previous choke jobs. For that reason alone, this season marked a point of real progress for me. Expectations are appropriate for an even better season in '09.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Nov 10, 2008 -> 11:51 AM) ok, fair enough. That's still not a small group. To make my argument, How much of a dropoff would there be between Bobby and guy # 20? I'm guessing nothing drastic. All but about 5 of these guys have more fleas, less consistency than BBB. He is an elite closer. The AL just happens to have a fair number of them.

QUOTE (scenario @ Nov 10, 2008 -> 08:34 AM) Not sure what any of that has to do with anything. (1) The Sox have one of the highest payrolls in baseball and are profitable. But some fans continue to think we should act like a small market team. Whatever. (2) Regarding Jenks' K-rate... his big K year was also his worst season. The last two years he's had both a declining K-rate and a declining ERA. Call me crazy but I prefer a lower ERA. (3) Jenks is a big boy.... true. And you're worried this will limit his longevity. Give me a break... he's 27 years old. Frankly I'm not worried about 5 years from now. I'm worried about 2009. (4) What in the world would calling Theo and offering to trade Jenks for Papelbon prove? You could have the same conversation with Theo about Nathan, K-Rod, or Mariano Rivera and the answer would still be no. Bottom line: There is a small group of elite closers in baseball. Jenks is in that group. If we get rid of him, we won't have one anymore. I fail to see how it would make our team better next year. I'm with Scenario on this one. The Sox better be damn sure that Poreda is ready to close in APRIL if they trade BBB. You can't win a division in June, but you can sure as heck be out of it at that time if you can't close for three months while waiting for someone to develop. It's a huge gamble with the 2009 season (which could be a great one) if no one is able to immediately assume the closer's role.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Nov 9, 2008 -> 12:19 PM) Jenks' value IS in decline. His contract is going up exponentially. In a couple years, he could be making 8 figures. Strike while the iron is hot. I have to disagree. Bobby's built like Billy Wagner more than F. Rodriguez. His career as a closer will be long. He deserves high-seven figures, and he'll still be a hugely valuable commodity. He has a bit more value while being underpaid, I'll give you that. But this really depends on the team - I don't think $ is a huge issue for the Mets. I'm not saying don't trade him - just get A LOT.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Nov 9, 2008 -> 11:26 AM) If the sox are thinking of trading Jenks, they must believe Poreda could be just as dominant as Bobby. Poreda's emergence as a stud [with the reports in the AFL] has come as the talk of Jenks being possibly on the block. This would have to be their thinking if they trade Bobby, I would presume. I think they know that Thortnton, Linebrink and Dotel would not be as effective in that role. Thornton, in particular, needs to be in lower pressure situations to really succeed.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Nov 9, 2008 -> 07:45 AM) We should have traded Bobby at the same time we should have traded MB.....but we didn't trade either of them. So yes, although it's a year or two too late, I'm in favor of trading Jenks. He'll command more than he's actually worth and his return can be used to fill atleast one of our holes with a stud everyday player. This is crazy talk, sorry. MB has another 10-12 quality seasons in him, either with the Sox or somebody else. Jenks' value is NOT in decline.

QUOTE (scenario @ Nov 5, 2008 -> 02:51 PM) Scouts evaluated Q as a plus+ defender when he played right field. I think what we saw last year was: 1) a little bit of rust from time off due to injury; 2) the after effect of his injury probably causing him to be a little more tentative, 3) and the impact of adjusting to a new position. I hope you're right. I thought he looked a lot like El Caballo in LF.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 4, 2008 -> 11:10 PM) The last Oakland A to be nailed for roids was Tejada, and Tejada left after 2004. Swish only played 20 games with the club that year. Unless, we're assuming that the drug use is organizational wide rather then an offshoot of the Canseco era then that's a pretty strong statement. There were plenty of whispers about Swisher when his power dropped significantly from '06 to '07. The veracity of "whispers" is always suspect, but his '08 season MIGHT be a confirmation of this activity.

QUOTE (False Alarm @ Nov 5, 2008 -> 09:29 AM) Gordon Beckham, SS, Chicago White Sox: I caught some buzz from other observers that people are concerned about his swing: they don't like the way it looks, kind of "choppy" was how one person described it to me. Scouts were also downplaying his range, and at least one person I spoke with said Beckham really didn't look like a guy who was drafted in the first round. I will admit that he did not strike me either strongly positive or strongly negative in the one game I saw him play. I wouldn't make too much of this just yet, we need to see more out of him, but some people are concerned. If his range is an issue, all the more reason why he'll be a 3B or 2B when he hits the majors. Also, Dustin Pedroia's swing looks kind of "choppy" to me as well, and that's worked out OK.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 5, 2008 -> 08:55 AM) He’s more than acceptable. Poor defense can be compensated for, Dye does it with his bat. However, I think the ideal situation would be to move Q to right, and Dye to left. Dye defensive deficiencies would be far less evident if this move was made. Do you really like Q better defensively that JD? I think Q misjudges ball trajectory much more frequently. Yeah, it's a slow day.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 5, 2008 -> 12:46 AM) A brief comparison of our starters: Buerhle average outing: 6.43 IP Buehrle innings 1-3: 394 AB, .277/.321/.416/.737 Buehrle innings 4-6: 364 AB, .294/.332/.448/.779 Buehrle innings 7-9: 95 AB, .253/.304/.358/.662 Vazquez average outing: 6.31 IP Vazquez innings 1-3: 378 AB, .209/.307/.407/.714 Vazquez innings 4-6: 358 AB, .288/.332/.494/.826 Vazquez innings 7-9: 79 AB, .215/.287/.329/.616 Danks average outing: 5.91 IP Danks innings 1-3: 358 AB, .223/.296/.324/.621 Danks innings 4-6: 320 AB, .250/.288/.394/.682 Danks innings 7-9: 61 AB, .361/.409/.525/.934 Floyd average outing: 6.25 IP Floyd innings 1-3: 370 AB, .230/.311/.368/.679 Floyd innings 4-6: 341 AB, .240/.299/.469/.768 Floyd innings 7-9: 76 AB, .303/.316/.553/.869 When you look at Buehrle's numbers, they are always like this for some reason. He gives up a lot of hits but his game balls allow him to continue pitching. Buehrle's jockstrap is larger than Javy's Puerto Rican home which he'll return to once his playing days are over. When you look at Danks and Floyd you see young guys getting tired. They dominate until late and then they falter, which doesn't hurt quite as much because by that time they have done their jobs and the late inning relief crew can come in and do theirs. When you look at Javy you see a guy that almost allows a .500 SLG% in the middle of the freaking game. That third time through the lineup is brutal for him and it sucks to happen in the 4th-6th innings, as that is the time for a team to take control of a ballgame. When the offense keeps it close or puts the team ahead, it has to be demoralizing for the players to have a guy like Javy out there coughing up the momentum or control over the game because that puts them in a position where they have to score runs in the 7th inning or later. Excellent analysis. This really crystallizes why so many of us detractors find Javy so frustrating.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Nov 4, 2008 -> 04:07 PM) poreda got tittied today in the AFL....0.2 IP 5 ER 3 H 2 BB Should have traded him yesterday!