monomach

There are tons of options better than .330. Every time you bring up names, you bring up fast guys. The speed is irrelevant as long as it's not as slow as Konerko. -We could have signed Orlando Hudson for a slightly higher obp and way more power. -We could have signed Felipe Lopez who has been better at everything. -Even Doug Mientkiewicz as a FA would have been better. -We could have signed a middle of the order type and moved Gordon Beckham to leadoff. While that would have been suboptimal, it still would have been better. Now as far as trade options go, there are tons who are better than Juan Pierre. For example, we could have picked up BJ Upton after his down year. Pretty much every metric agrees that he's going to rebound. Even he attributes it to his offseason shoulder surgery not being completely healed. Even now that we have Pierre, we'd be better off just signing a slugger for the middle of the order and putting Beckham at leadoff. Pierre belongs in the 7-9 spot, no matter how fast he is (in reality, it's more WAS than IS).

Oh, wow. 600 comments at the same time.

...he's not a center fielder. He's a left fielder.

I meant as far as the organizational philosophy that he posted there, not as far as the personnel we have. I think what he said makes no sense, by the way.

So you think they don't want to acquire anyone good via trade and they don't want to sign free agents. Great. We're the Royals.

Jones was better last year against righties than lefties. If you want a platoonat DH? Sign Garret Atkins and Thome.

Getting two draft picks is not as good as the 3-4 good prospects we'd have to give up.

"Kerry Wood and Mark Prior should be fine this year, we're going to win the world series!"

Why wait that long? You should bring it back when we're eliminated 2 months before that after being in the bottom 20% of the league in runs scored.

Speed does not a leadoff hitter make. OBP is what does it, and that's not Juan Pierre. Kevin youkilis was a good leadoff hitter. He never stole bases.

I don't see how the pen is any better than last year. We ditched Carrasco, who was underrated and picked up a guy that no one is sure still has it. We'll still have Ozzie using an amazing lefty-only guy (Randy Williams) against righties. On the other hand, the rotation is so good that the pen should be "good enough."

I can't wait for Ozzie to get fired already.

Because the fact that he did it last year makes all of his other years not count, of course.

wtf does CF have to do with anything? Even with Juan Pierre here, ouir CF is still Rios.

Because Godzilla is 4 years younger and puts up the same OPS. I choose him over Thome simply because he can be here longer and there is less risk of him breaking down. I'm not adverse to the idea of Thome being our DH next year. I simply acknowledge that when everything else is equal, younger is better.

aka Mackowiak, Erstad. I hate Ozzie. The correct description for these people is "stupid." People who believe the smallball myth are morons, especially when we play in the ballpark we have.

Jones is a scrapheap bencher. Ditto Vizquel. Pierre is a slap hitter who can't get on base and gets caught stealing too much. Putz is a giant question mark. Hell, yes, I'd give them all up for Matsui and his .850+ OPS. We could have just signed Matsui, offered Carrasco a million in arbitration, signed a league-average outfielder for almost nothing, and used minor leaguers on the bench. Hell, we'd even be better off with matsui at DH and Andruw Jones playing RF every day than we are with a rotating DH that puts up half the production of a real one.

Jenks, Hudson, Beckham for Griffey. To play Center Field, even. You know it's coming.

The fact that the Sox wouldn't even look at him kind of disturbs me. Don't we have a regional scout in the south who could have driven over there with a radar gun and a video camera just to see what's to be seen?

That doesn't mean we can't trade away all of our minor-league pitching for him.

This I can live with. At least he'll probably put up an .800 OPS. I'd like him better in right field where he looks like an all-world fielder, but center is ok, too.

If they could keep Ozzie from ever talking to him, it would be ok. He's at least a run producer. Otherwise, expect fisticuffs. Anyway, since Kenny is acquiring all of these bad players he's wanted forever, I'm going with Joey Gathright. After all, the only thing better than one guy at the top of the order who can't get on base is two of them.

Why have the Sox always been obsessed with leadoff hitters who can't get on base? I'm sure this is an Ozzie thing. He loves bad hitters with speed who make outs by getting caught stealing. ...and before someone brings up Pierre's .365 obp last year, you know it's just as much a fluke as Podsednik's 2009. Give me the leadoff hitter Boston was using for a while in 06/07: a Kevin Youkilis type. I want the underrated guy with doubles power and a super high walk total over a weak slap hitter who hits a bunch of ground balls and makes outs on the basepaths without drawing walks. If we don't get a real run producer for the DH role and do what Ozzie wants instead (giving bad players more ABs), we're going to waste this amazing pitching staff.

Definitely do not want Lidge. God, no. Wouldn't even deal Linebrink for him + cash.