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...

The bigger point is that Pods should not play CF for us, period, unless of catastrophic injury or something like that. He has killed us out there with the glove.

Ok, I was a big fan of Lexi last season, no surprise there as we most of us were. But he is a minus defensive player at shortstop, supposedly his natural position. Beckham, who never played 3rd before this year, to me has shown more improvement there since early June than Alexei has displayed at ss all season. I also am wondering if Lexi is closer to reaching his ceiling as a player than we might want to realize. I really don't see him hitting for more than around a .290 average, 20-25 hr's and 80-90 rbi's in the future; all nice numbers, but he did that last year. Beckham, on the other hand, I believe will eclipse those numbers and continually get better along the way at a higher trajectory than Lexi. So...my thought is, would it behoove the Sox to explore the option of trading Lexi for a 5th starter/3rd baseman in the off-season? Then move Beckham to ss (his natural position), keep Getz at 2nd base (good defense/nice speed on the basepaths, can handle the bat better), and get a proven 3rd baseman or starting pitcher (whichever we don't get in any potential trade involving Lexi)? I like Lexi, don't get me wrong...but he has been a drag on the defense at ss, shown next to no discipline at the plate, and IMO does not hustle enough. Thoughts?

Q has been hitting the ball pretty hard lately, and provided more production of late than JD has since the All-Star break. I'm all for not rushing to judgement, but at the same time this is now a 50 game sprint; we really don't have the time for patience right now in as important a lineup spot as the 3 hole.

It's time to drop him from 3rd in the order to 5th or 6th. Put Q back at 3rd and we're good

What he said. Getz should either be in the 2 hole next yr, or at the bottom of the lineup again. Despite his average-ness at the plate, once the lineup turns over within a game he is a nice table setter along with Pods (or whomever it is that ends up leading off for us in 2010), and a much better base stealer as well.

Thanks for the welcoming, long time lurker who felt the need to join the discussion..finally. You are correct, Thome's power and OBP are fantastic, no argument there. I just think moving forward that the bigger gamble is thinking Thome will remain healthy, and if he goes down we got nothin for a DH. Dye has the better odds to stay healthy moving forward, and he can still rake it pretty good. The gamble with my theory of keeping JD over Thome would seem to be that by moving him to primarily the DH role he will remain fresher than he has been the past 2 seasons after the break. Either guy is a gamble of sorts, but I'll play the JD odds over the Thome odds on this one.

Dye should come back for a 2 year deal, with a team option on the 2nd year. Maybe $9 mil per would seem to be a good fit. He can still play outfield for maybe 30 or 40 games, and be the main DH for the remainder. Although he is getting old, I feel that playing RF every day is the main reason for his finishing like a dog last year down the stretch and the current slump he's in this year. He's just too old to play RF everyday, plain and simple. Thome is a great guy, HOF, etc...but a one trick pony. We have been extremely lucky that he hasn't broken down at some point during his tenure here for an extended stop on the DL, and he's only getting older. You can't play him in the field for even a single game. For those reasons I say they should keep JD and let Thome walk.