User Comments, Suggestions, or Complaints | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertising
|
Demarini, Easton and TPX Baseball Bats
|
AllianceTickets.com has cheap MLB Tickets. Get all your Colorado Rockies Tickets, Seattle Mariners Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and all your favorite baseball tickets here. We also carry cheap Denver Broncos Tickets, Seattle Seahawks Tickets and Denver Nuggets Tickets. |
For wholesale prices on baseball gifts and equipment, check these stores out! |
Page rendered in 0.2617 seconds
39 querie(s) executed
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Dan SzymborskiTwo T Fruity, laid a beauty, and everyone went out for air
I tend to think that the best way to handle all the uncertainty (variance, OleP...) in the Red Sox' projections is to hang on to as much depth as possible. I think it's pretty likely that two out of Youkilis/Lowell/Marte will have solid MLB seasons. The issue is how to make the balance work, when to demote Lowell to a part-time role if he's struggling and Marte is ripping it up. And while the prospect of Francona in charge of that situation does worry me, I'd be more worried about heading into 2006 without this sort of depth at the corners.
Recent quotes from the FO makes it seem like they're thinking of Euclis primarily as a 1B these days, and will bring in an Olderdude successor like Snow to pair with him. Or Travis Lee. Or one could certainly see Choi, if the price is right.
Because he's cheap, young, good, and we have him for another 4 years.
I read Darren's point as the complete opposite - that he is no longer a "prospect" but isn't really a big leaguer either.
The Red Sox have a big logjam at 3B, but Youks doesn’t have much trade value
They've definitely got plenty of depth (or, as those of us who are variance-obsessed would call it, "suck insurance") in the IF. Tentative depth chart:
1B: Euclis; an Olderdude successor; Lowell; Loretta
2B: Loretta; Graffanino; Cora; Pedroia
SS: Cora; Graffanino; Loretta; Pedroia
3B: Lowell; Euclis; Marte; Loretta
Graff's decision might cool their interest in signing the FLA A-Gonz.
Time to get busy with that OF depth chart.
Marte could probably use another year in AAA. He's struggling this year in winter ball, and the Sox really need to make sure that his elbow is indeed fine, regardless of what his agent says. No need to rush him.
The Sox should seek to give Youkilis as many at bats this year as possible and try to pawn him off next offseason for some real need--and free up 3b for Marte. He is the future 3bman in BOS, not Youkilis.
And I wouldn't trade King Felix for Marte. That's crazy talk.
I agree. If the Pirates would not trade Jack Wilson for Andy Marte when the Braves had him pegged for AAA while playing behind Chipper Jones, I can't imagine the Pirates trading Bay for Marte straight up or for any feasible package of players the Red Sox could put together. To be sure, Marte is a fine prospect. But his minor league career has been such that he inspires far less confidence than, say, Miguel Cabrera, Joe Mauer, Felix Hernandez or Mark Prior did when they were ready to break into the majors. The fact that the Braves traded Marte for a shortstop (Renteria) in the decline phase of his career already tells us that Marte is not an A list prospect.
The Red Sox might be better off letting Marte develop, perhaps into the kind of player Mike Lowell was before his decline, instead of waiting in vain for another team to make a big mistake. Even the McClatchy Pirates aren’t that dumb.
A 33-year-old veteran of 10 major league seasons, Graffanino earned $1.1 million last season in the second year of a two-year, $2.2 million deal. He finished the year with a .309 average, seven home runs and 38 RBI in time split with the Sox and Kansas City Royals, meaning he could be in position to earn roughly $2 million in arbitration. Just the same, salaries earned through the arbitration process are generally non-guaranteed, meaning the Sox could cut Graffanino during spring training and be responsible for only a fraction of his salary. Because the Sox do not regard Graffanino as a candidate to play shortstop, he is not expected to impact the club’s pursuit of other options at that position.
Andy Marte is definitly the future of the franchise at 3B.
what about 1B? Youkiils is probably the best 1B we have in the system right now.
This may be true, but its not a lot of comfort. Youkilis has no speed, probably no power, and not much defense. He gets on base, but that's of limited value if the Sox bat him toward the bottom of the order, especially given his lack of speed.
A third baseman who gets on base but does little else has value. A first baseman who does the same doesn't have much value. When I see Youkilis at first, I think "Dave Magadan".
Except that AZ is trying to trade away its current 3bman, not acquire another one. And AZ isn't peddling Q or J. Which isn't to say that Marte shouldn't be of an interest to AZ (should be of interest to any team), it's that AZ has cheap young options at 3b, and should have more when Santos moves there, and potentially if/when Justin Upton moves there too. Unless Upton stays at SS and Drew moves to 2b.
There's nothing wrong with being Dave Maggadan.
Two T Fruity, laid a beauty, and everyone went out for air
Long live Mr. Show.
I'm a big "fielding" guy. I think YOukilis would be a good fielding 1B.. combined with his numbers, should make him very valuable.
Long live Mr. Show.
David Cross is a Red Sox fan, as is Sarah Silverman.
It wouldn't be the end of the world, but its nothing that great either.
One of the reasons that the Sox were so good the last few years is that Theo and the gang made sure they were likely to be above average offensively at virtually every position, with a couple of big bats in the middle. That may be coming to an end.
.279/.402/.402/.286
Kevin Millar 2004
.295/.386/.479/.295
Kevin Millar 2003
.273/.354/.480/.282
So if Kevin Youkilis puts up a .260/.400/.415 line, he will be extactly as good as Kevin Millar before 2005. Yes he'd be slow. Millar was slow, so he doesn't gain there.
One of the reasons the Sox have had such a good offense the past few years is that they've had guys who get on base all the way through the lineup, with two big bats in the middle. Kevin Youkilis, for all we know, will be at least average at first, and will score runs.
There's another solution, and that's to not have Alex f'ing Cora as our opening day SS and instead play Pedroia.
A guy who gets on base 40% of the time and costs 350k is of limited value to a team?
If his ZIPs are true and he puts up a .815ops he would have been sandwiched between Lyle Overbay and Dmitri Young using last years stats. Usuing EqA, we are looking at a Sean Case type, again for 350k. Of course, he could suck but so could any other guy we hand the job to. His OBP skills are not offset by the fact he will be in the bottom half of the order, they are probably magnified.
Getting on base is less of an asset with Alex Cora coming up after you than with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. And somehow, I think pitchers will come right after Alex Cora no matter who is batting before him.
Or Carlos Quintana.
And the reason Atlanta gave him up for a 30+ year-old SS is that they don’t have anyone at SS who would be ML ready in the next three years. And, despite being in his decline phase, Renteria is still a pretty good option at short.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main