suicidesqueeze

Except neither jose or Freddy could get ready in a short time frame and no one would be able to even find Colon (insert Ponderosa buffet line joke variation HERE).

Although he did have a rough time hitting the cutoff man on a few balls, the CQ did gun a guy at home on a very nice throw Sunday. Pods will never make that play no matter where he plays. And while Pods may have the ability to get to balls, more often than not his routes have been atrocious. Ozzie should be thrown in a rubber room if he ever puts Pods in Cf over Rios if/when both are in the outfield/lineup. That would be criminal and about 100 times worse than Toronto shoving Rios to RF for overrated Vernon Wells.

Pods can grab some bench, he looks like he needs a rest anyways... 1-rios-cf (speed and power combo at the top. A lot of potential leadoff doubles instead of singles) 2-beckham-3b 3-thome-dh (still draws the BB enough, gotta keep that OBP production near the top of the lineup) 4-Q-lf 5-dye-rf (interchangeable w/paulie, a SLIGHT edge to jd on speed) 6-aj-c (really deserves a higher spot with his 300 average, but lack of power drops him down here, as well as breaking up the righty parade) 7-paulie-1b (interchangeable w/dye) 8-lexi-ss (another speed and power combo guy, starts 4 straight batters with speed) 9-getz-2b When Pods does play... -drop him into leadoff and LF -use either thome or Q as your dh in the 3 hole -move JD to cleanup and AJ to 5th, and drop Rios into the 6 hole -everything else stays the same. I espcially like the Lexi-Getz-Pods or Lexi-Getz-Rios stretch once the lineup turns over within any given game.

Contreras just can't be counted on consistency-wise anymore. I'll give Freddie a shot, what the hell? It's a short term fix, just getting us through the 5 spot a handful of times is all we need and Jose just ain't cutting it.

Rios in the 8th spot? Nah... When Pods is out of the lineup... Rios-cf (his stats will no doubt improve hitting at the Cell) Beckham-3b Q-lf (coming on of late, deserves the 3 spot much more than JD) Thome-dh Dye-rf aj-c Paulie-1b Lexi-ss Getz-2b When Pods is in the lineup... Pods-lf beckham-3b Q-dh aj-c (just to break up the parade of right handed hitters) dye-rf rios-cf paulie-1b lexi-ss getz-2b Really Dye and Paulie are interchangeable, put them where you want because they're basically the same hitter. Both lineups would have speed at the top and bottom, and once the lineup turns over during the game you've got 3 speed guys at 8-9-1 to set the table. There are many variations depending who gets the day off, whether there is a lefty throwing against us (in which case Thome should ride the pines in most cases). Rios can play anywhere in the outfield and anyone can be plugged into the dh spot--even pods if you want both him and quentin in the lineup. None of these are perfect of course, but like Ozzie said it's a nice headache to have trying to figure out the various lineup possibilities!

This idea I like; that lineup would be solid throughout, with Blalock at 3rd and Becks at 2nd

Balta gets it

Read the original post; nobody is talking about giving up on Lexi. My point is that he's a very valuable trading chip for multiple reasons and you never know what they might be able to get for him. It'd be more foolish IMO to not see what he would potentially bring. It's not a matter of NEEDING to move him. Linebrink, now that's a guy we NEED to move (but pretty much can't).

The whole Carlos Lee for Pods and then some deal. That got us a ring, baby!

It took 18 posts to get called out on 'behooved'? Man, thought I would get flamed much quicker than that when I wrote it! Reminds me of Judge Schmales...Mmmmm, Mmmmm?

The title of this thread should be changed to "Guillen threatens to start a beanball war. Again". Enough tough talk Oz, just drill someone already and let everyone else figure out the intent. I had more respect for BBJ when he threw behind Kinsler and then said "yeah, I did it, I thought it was about time". I bet his teammates appreciated it more, too.

It's not his first year at the position. The Sox have been telling anyone who will listen that SS is his natural position. Doesn't look like it to me, he was better at 2nd last year.

We need to get much better defensively up the middle, bottom line. Rios patrolling CF is the 1st step in the right direction. Keeping the infield lineup the same leaves us with a deficient SS; Getz is fine at 2nd defensively, IMO. Maybe it would make more sense to move Lexi back to 2nd, Beckham to SS and get a 3rd baseman from outside the organization? That way we keep Lexi's freakish bat in the lineup and have a better than average 2nd baseman, in terms of offensive production. And it would seem to me that his shortcomings with the glove would be less glaring at 2nd base than at SS.

Sometimes what is deemed as a 'lateral move' on paper actually improves the overall effectiveness of the lineup a whole lot; I think this is an opportunity to do exactly that. We've already shuffled Alexei from 2nd to ss, now that Rios is here where exactly would he be moved to yet again, for the 2nd time in 3 years potentially? Again, I'm not trying to bury the guy, I just think we could be better by upgrading in the infield and he would seem to be a pretty valuable trading chip that would net you the most in return. In hindsight, I think Lexi-Cabrera up the middle last year was a better combo than Getz-Lexi has been this year, and I bet most wouldn't have predicted that. It was more about getting rid of Cabrera's attitude, etc.

His cheap contract is what could net us a solid starting pitcher or 3rd baseman, IMO. Shed a little payroll here, a little there, and we're in the ballpark to add another piece...