MPrior

Couple things: I HATE the idea of Wood in the bullpen. Here's why: it seems like every single game he pitches, he sucks terribly in the first inning, and then settles down and shuts down the opposition. I'm not sure where to get stats about inning-per-inning ERA or anything (if anyone does know, I'd like to see 'em), but I'm sure it's pretty compelling. And in the bullpen, you really only get one inning. Secondly: let's say that it's not Wood's mechanics that are necessarily the problem. He didn't have huge injury problems until last year. It's totally possible that he's had this frayed labrum the whole time, and it's just taken a while to spot it - all the articles, even the most recent ones, say that MRIs reported no structural damage. It seems like it would be pretty easy to miss. So if he's going out there and pitching through pain every time, of course his shoulder's gonna hurt every few starts. I really like his chances of coming back after surgery and returning to old form.

Well, I took a long time putting mine together only to have the whole thing erased when I tried to submit it. So rather than trying to redo the whole thing, here's my rotation and my lineup: Prior Peavy Zambrano Santana Halladay Lineup: 1. CF Abreu 296/422/501 2. 2B Roberts 341/413/576 3. 1B Lee 370/442/735 4. RF Pujols 338/425/613 5. SS Arod 320/418/596 6. 3B ARam 314/367/605 7. LF Manny 278/376/584 8. C Varitek 303/375/525 9. Pitcher

Just a possibility: Hendry is picking up Gerut as a long-term type solution. Remember, all this talk about his "career" stats is a little misleading, since he's only had one season that wasn't weighted down with injury: 2003. Which was, by the way, a very good season. So the guy clearly has potential - I think more than we're giving him credit for. And we traded Dubois, who - as much as I love him - was not needed in the organization at the time, and doesn't look to fit into the long term solution either. Secondly, Hendry loves to do this sort of thing: get somebody who can be good when their value is low. He's always said that he thought DLee was gonna blossom into a better player, and look: he was right. Aramis Ramirez had one good season (just like Gerut), and Hendry picked him up without giving up too much, and now look. Barret was similar, although the results are not as striking. Hendry also said earlier that he was looking for long term help, not just rentals. Next, think about Gerut himself: he is a good defensive player - something we need; he's pretty cheap, which is nice; and he has good plate discipline, which is the aspect of a young player's game (and no, he's not real young, but he's still developing) that is most singularly predictive of his potential in the majors. I think we may not be giving Gerut as big a chance as he deserves.