cabiness42

I can't speak for the Sox, buy my plan is to be left-handed in 2014.

Not that I'd rather cover the Cubs than the Sox, but Trips to MIL, PIT, CIN, STL >>> trips to CLE, DET, KC, MIN

My final prediction is that greg and marty will whine a lot.

Start searching the 2009-10 archives for posts by greg or marty calling JR cheap for not outbidding the Mets for Bay.

I would hope for that too, but I don't think teams are going to give that up for Crain.

My expectation is a prospect whose ceiling is major league utility infielder, 4th outfielder, 5th starter, or long relief.

Here you go--a guaranteed 100% accurate story: Sometime before 3pm Wednesday, Jesse Crain either will or will not be traded in a deal involving at least one other team.

The Rays need Crain to go to an NL team instead of the Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, or A's.

Let's wait and see if bucket knows anything about it.

It was 159.1 innings and not a single inning more.

What is your favorite "Weird Al" Yankovic song?

There was no writing section when I took the GRE.

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you. I wasn't talking about trading Dunn. The $13M is essentially half of of the Peavy/Rios contracts for 2014, and I mentioned Adam Dunn and his $14M as a comparison as to what the Sox could buy with that $13M saved.

Yes, read all the posts, there are people who are dead set against sending money with guys. They must be under the delusion that the $13M they don't send with Peavy and Rios for 2014 is going to make some kind of magical difference. Adam Dunn goes for $14M on the market, but somehow there's a magical free agent out there that the Sox can get for $13M who will be the difference-maker in 2014, at the expense of getting better prospects back in the trade who will make the team better in 2015 and beyond.

Yes, but which hand your pitchers throw with has no influence over how much your hitters suck.

To the people who are dead set against sending money with Peavy and Rios, what exactly do you think the Sox are going to do with that money? Konerko and Thornton are already coming off the books. Sale is the only one currently under contract who has significant salary increases looming. The arbitration group (De Aza, Beckham, Viciedo) aren't exactly playing themselves into huge contracts. Reed, Jones, and Santiago are two years away from getting bigger money, and Quintana is three years away. So a ton of savings isn't needed to fund the current group. Huge free agent deals are proving to be a terrible idea all over the place (ARod, Pujols, Hamilton). The Sox got off relatively lucky with Dunn in that he was only given 4 years and still found some productive streaks here and there. If eating salary, up to about half of the remaining deals, nets significantly better talent as compared to not eating any salary, then it's 100% the way to go. Now, eating more than half starts to become counterproductive, but saying that the Sox should eat $0 is shortsighted.

Good plan if he wants a chance at playing in the World Cup.

Nine pieces of dung are still nine pieces of dung no matter which order you put them in.

Thumbs up to both of the above posts. Good starting pitchers will get hitters out from both sides of the plate regardless of which hand they throw with. If your five best starting pitching options happen to be left-handed, then go ahead and have five left-handed starters. I don't think it's something you necessarily try to do, unless your home park has some very weird configuration that causes a huge hitting split.

I don't think I studied at all for my GRE.

OK, let me rephrase the question--do you know for a fact that he's been traded or is it speculation?

Confirmation that he's been traded or just an assumption?

I would consider retiring in Northern Arizona, but I love Chicago/Indiana too much to live out there now.

Pretty sloppy game but still counts for a win and a championship.

Marty would, and then he'd turn around in 2 years and complain about how little we got for Peavy and Rios.