TruffleShuffle

axford close this out for the love of God

my all-time favorite ned yost move was during that phillies series that got him fired... he had a good lefty specialist in the game and intentionally walked ryan howard, who absolutely cannot hit LHP, to face pat burrell, who at the time was hitting LHP to the tune of a .900 ops or something.

hey, he's better than ned yost.

It definitely moved. hahahaha his fantasy football team name was the stinky pinkies

also, screw the phillies for continuing to play their best players against the braves and then losing to an inferior cardinal team in the first round.

hahhaha brilliant

i hate pittsburgh, but they really have impressed me over the last year. malkin and crosby missed a ton of time last year and they still finished a point out from the best record in the east. this year crosby is still out and they're still winning. i mean, who's their best offensive forward when crosby and malkin aren't in the lineup? james neal? jordan staal? chris kunitz? and their defensive corps is a bunch of no-names (letang being the biggest name, i suppose) that just gets the job done. i think bylsma must be a really good coach because he keeps them performing better than you'd expect given the players on the ice.

let's just make a rule now that nobody is allowed to ask him if every player should practice bunting or if pitch counts are irrelevant.

nelson cruz is the first player to hit two multi-rbi home runs in the 11th inning of a 7-3 win in a league championship series.

look i think everyone had some doubts, just because nobody knows the future, but ricketts said a lot of good things about a more statistical approach and investing more in amateur talent. then they didn't invest in amateur talent in 2010 and some people are already declaring him a disaster. i'd much prefer an owner who knows he's not a baseball guy and takes some time to evaluate the people he inherited rather than just immediately throwing everyone out on their ass and starting completely over.

It means the Red Sox won't be getting any good players. Oh wait, it's Gammons, the last coherent thought he had was about 6 years ago. http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/petergammons_290.jpg "My sources indicate I have no idea what I am talking about" it's funny because he almost died from an aneurysm.

From this day forward, every time Steve Rosenbloom refers to "The Fanboy owner", he should be punched directly in the nose. let's just punch him repeatedly no matter what he says.

everyone who bitched about ricketts not spending in last year's draft or about his [expletive] safari should hang their heads in shame. i mean, it's the cubs so maybe all the big-bonus draftees will be a bust and theo epstein will inexplicably turn into a moron, but you can't say that ricketts isn't trying really hard and doing a lot of things that, at least on paper, appear really good.

I wouldn't trade either but either of those for Epstein is far less absurd than that Upton/Davis package of yours. It's a tossup, IMO. We aren't trying to get Epstein out of some 15 year contract to come to the Cubs. The only reason he's interested is because he's at least a little disgruntled in Boston, and he's only under contract for another 12 months. For the Red Sox to demand any player of value(aka anyone who would play in MLB or find themselves on a Top 15-20 prospect list), is a desperate attempt that someone like Ricketts should see right through. He can respond "you can take whatever trinket I'm offering(cash, minor league filler, Bryan LaHair) and get something for Theo, or you can trap him in Boston for 12 months and piss him off, assuring he's gone after 2012 for nothing". The Red Sox have no leverage to demand value. based on this logic, no team would ever get anything of value for a player, manager or general manager who requests a trade, yet it happens all the time. they could easily keep him around, win 100 games and the world series next year, and he decides to stay in what's kind of his home town with his wife and young family. it's not like he hasn't changed his mind before. or he still wants to leave, but there are other good organizations in the market for a GM. and what do the cubs do, have randy bush make all the decisions for the next calendar year? there is still some leverage on the red sox' side.

And Soriano... and Casey Coleman, Rodrigo Lopez, etc. I think it's just going to be money. I think it's going to be 2nd tier talent. Probably better than what the Marlins gave up for Ozzie, but not someone that should superbly trouble the fanbase. At best, perhaps could see a Flaherty get sent that way. I'll be surprised if it's a better talent than that, unless it's one of our low level kids. Just a guess. Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked to see us go as high as Brett Jackson or even Andrew Cashner. And I can't say I'd turn either of those down. i wouldn't be too thrilled about jackson, because he'd be an everyday player under team control for several years, and while he's unlikely to be an all-star, there's a good chance that he's at least a solid regular. i like cashner's arm, but let's be realistic about him - he's 25 and has had arm trouble, and he's likely to be a relief pitcher. even if he turns into daniel bard or whatever, you're getting one of the best GMs in the game and a guy who will shape the organization's future for the next several years. that's really not an unreasonable trade-off.

as opposed to piniella and guillen being forced at gunpoint to leave for new organizations. Niether the Sox nor the Mariners got anything of value. the fact that randy winn was worth almost 4 wins a season during his two years in a mariners' uniform would seem to contradict your assertion here. Let me rephrase what I meant. The Rays and Marlins did not give up anything of value. That would be like the cubs giving up Marlon Byrd, he has no future here and we would like you to take his salary. well randy winn was paid about $10m over the three seasons that he was contracted to seattle, hardly a crippling contract for any organization, even the rays. he produced at a four win pace during the 2.5 seasons there, so he was worth way, way more than he was paid. at the time of the deal he was 28 years old and under team control for at least three more years. marlon byrd is 6 years older, has only one year left on his contract, will be paid twice what winn's average salary was, and isn't likely to be as productive. this is a terrible analogy.

no, i'm trying to be realistic about it. who do you think they'll be giving up?

you really think that the cubs and red sox would have theo epstein making the decision about compensation for himself? come on. Beane did when he was originally planning on jumping ship to the Red Sox. He and DePo had decided on Youkilis as the compensation. Hanley and Shoppach were being considered as well. really??? that seems completely insane to me. but i am sure that red sox front office people and a's front office people would have been involved. azgm made it sound like epstein would be working the deal out himself.

at least one person in this thread has said that getting epstein could be more important than signing fielder or pujols, and everyone seems to agree that a good GM is really important, much more so than a manager. so why is it unreasonable for the red sox to ask for cashner when the marlins just gave up two of their top 5 prospects (coming into 2011, though their stock had slipped) for a lousy manager, and tampa gave up randy winn coming off a 5 win season to get piniella? Because if Epstein really wants to come here then Boston has no leverage to ask for anything of value. as opposed to piniella and guillen being forced at gunpoint to leave for new organizations. Niether the Sox nor the Mariners got anything of value. the fact that randy winn was worth almost 4 wins a season during his two years in a mariners' uniform would seem to contradict your assertion here.

at least one person in this thread has said that getting epstein could be more important than signing fielder or pujols, and everyone seems to agree that a good GM is really important, much more so than a manager. so why is it unreasonable for the red sox to ask for cashner when the marlins just gave up two of their top 5 prospects (coming into 2011, though their stock had slipped) for a lousy manager, and tampa gave up randy winn coming off a 5 win season to get piniella? Because if Epstein really wants to come here then Boston has no leverage to ask for anything of value. as opposed to piniella and guillen being forced at gunpoint to leave for new organizations.

you really think that the cubs and red sox would have theo epstein making the decision about compensation for himself? come on.

at least one person in this thread has said that getting epstein could be more important than signing fielder or pujols, and everyone seems to agree that a good GM is really important, much more so than a manager. so why is it unreasonable for the red sox to ask for cashner when the marlins just gave up two of their top 5 prospects (coming into 2011, though their stock had slipped) for a lousy manager, and tampa gave up randy winn coming off a 5 win season to get piniella? Beacuse Guillen wasn't being promoted and the Cubs weren't tampering? And Chuck LaMar is nowhere near our organization. it's a promotion, but the GM title is most important and given that the GM is the most important position in a sports organization, the red sox would have been completely justified in telling the cubs to [expletive] off and come back after next season when his contract is up. i'm still trying to figure out how you think cashner is way too much compensation for a guy who's one of the most highly-regarded GMs in the game and who will shape the organization's future for the next several years.

at least one person in this thread has said that getting epstein could be more important than signing fielder or pujols, and everyone seems to agree that a good GM is really important, much more so than a manager. so why is it unreasonable for the red sox to ask for cashner when the marlins just gave up two of their top 5 prospects (coming into 2011, though their stock had slipped) for a lousy manager, and tampa gave up randy winn coming off a 5 win season to get piniella?

yes, and that really contrasts with how the cubs treat most of their prospects (see felix pie). pedroia was lousy toward the tail end of 2006 when he got a cup of coffee, and continued to not hit for the first month of 2007. but he wasn't striking out much and they kept the faith.

well, much safer to have you driving than jim bowden.