squally1313

I love Marshall as much as the next guy, but he's a reliever, and he's about to get a lot more expensive. The best way to handle the bullpen is to keep a group of young, team-controlled guys in the upper minor leagues, and plug the best 6 or 7 in for the year. Maybe pay one guy bigger money that can be your closer/high leverage guy, but we already have that in Marmol. As already mentioned, we have a bunch of lefties that are ready/near ready. They probably won't be as good as Marshall, but the money saved and the return we could get for Marshall more than make up for it. I'm assuming this won't end up being the final trade (if there is one), but if the Sox land Rasmus for Thornton and a midlevel prospect or something, I'm going to be furious. Not that I think the Cardinals would ever trade Rasmus to us, but the idea of Rasmus and Jackson (and Kemp?) in the outfield for the next 10 years makes me happy in the pants area.

I would definitely think he is in line for a September call up and if he has a good fall/spring I think he could be in line to win a utility role with the team for next season. Especially if he can handle 2B/SS/OF adequately and one or more of Baker/Dewitt/Johnson do not return. I think, sooner rather than later, we need to figure out the 2B/3B situation with our prospects, because we've got too many guys for those positions, and a lot of them are going to start losing their trade value quickly. Obviously shortstop is not going to be an issue for a while, and I think we all agree that we're hoping to get an elite first baseman. However, with Gonzalez's emergence (if it's for real), we now have him, Vitters, Watkins, Flaherty, Lemahieu, even Barney to an extent fighting for 2 spots. (I suppose Vitters can still be in the 1st base discussion, but he'd need to significantly improve his offense to be valuable there). That's 5 or 6 guys, and I just realized I left Lake out as well. None of these guys are really "young" anymore, and it seems redundant to have so many. Yes, it's nice to be able to fill out the utility positions in house, but I think the ceiling for all of these players is a starter at one of those positions. I'd start calling around, seeing what the value is for these players, and maybe unload a couple of them for pitching prospects, or package them with a Soriano/Fukudome/Dempster to help with salary relief.

Anyone know of any streams (outside of espn3) for those of us horribly unfortunate enough to be stuck at work?

Any timetable on Guzman? He seems to be handling himself pretty well now. Obviously he had to start over, and there's no rush to get him up to the majors, but it'd be nice if we could see enough of him to know we can count on him next year.

Should we be excited about Struck? His numbers seem decently above average, but nothing special. He'll be 21 the entire year, so putting up good numbers in AA would be pretty impressive, but he was also a 39th round pick. Is he another one of those guys who's ceiling is a 3rd-4th starter? Or is there hope he could be more than that?

Not that anyone really gives a crap about Alberto Cabrera's stats (seriously, that pitching staff is awful), but I'm thinking there's a typo in his innings pitched for Iowa. Either that, or the catcher sucks at catching third strikes and he leaves a bunch of stranded runners.

I know Jackson has been bad.....but I don't think he's been THAT bad....

At least there's that.

Bryce Harper showing early shades of Lebron, both in talent and in being a huge dick... http://deadspin.com/5809414/bryce-harper-does-another-jerkass-bryce-harper-thing

I love when Lebron does the thing where he doesn't look directly at the person, but it's so clear he's just talking [expletive] for 20 seconds.

Need both.

It has to be Bosh. Of course it does. Kill me.

Noah looks completely gassed. We need to go after Bosh and his 5 fouls.

I'd give my next paycheck to hear a recording of what went on in that last huddle before Rose did that.

FIX

This is going to come down to a Thib's 5 second play, either for the tie or for the win.

You really think so? I know the free throw differential is bad, but outside of that last charge on Noah, I don't it's been all that bad. They just go into the lane much more than we do. It's a whole different discussion about why the NBA would be pushing for the team that 90% of the country wants to lose. I think it's little things and not so much a completely out of whack FT discrepancy. It's more than Crawford and Salvatore are pretty easily swayed by a home crowd. Yeah I guess I can understand the home crowd factor. But other than that, I don't think it's surprising that they get more free throws than us. Maybe not this many, but their personnel is going to lead to it. I thought the flagrant was absurd, I think they consistently blow continuation calls, loose ball fouls, etc. I don't think it's a fix, a la SAC/LA, but these guys suck at their jobs. I think it's more an overall problem with how the rules are interpreted, especially the continuation call, like you said. LBJ's last and-1, any of Wade's fadeaways, even Rose's first dunk....none of those should really be continuation. But yeah...it's really tough for me to buy into the fixed thing.

You really think so? I know the free throw differential is bad, but outside of that last charge on Noah, I don't it's been all that bad. They just go into the lane much more than we do. It's a whole different discussion about why the NBA would be pushing for the team that 90% of the country wants to lose. I think it's little things and not so much a completely out of whack FT discrepancy. It's more than Crawford and Salvatore are pretty easily swayed by a home crowd. Yeah I guess I can understand the home crowd factor. But other than that, I don't think it's surprising that they get more free throws than us. Maybe not this many, but their personnel is going to lead to it.

You really think so? I know the free throw differential is bad, but outside of that last charge on Noah, I don't it's been all that bad. They just go into the lane much more than we do. It's a whole different discussion about why the NBA would be pushing for the team that 90% of the country wants to lose.

Commentators got it right. No need for what he did with his left arm.

Korver's got LBJ on his back at his feet and gives the ball up to Noah, then the next possession he shoots a fadeaway 2-pointer over Lebron. I'm fine with him not playing. Watson can go 1-5, and maybe cut to the rim every now and then too.

Injured/ineffective. Came in for 2 minutes, picked up 2 fouls, and limped into the dressing room at the end of the first/beginning of the second quarter.

I'd go Pisani. It reminds me a lot of the backup catcher discussion. I think Smith is the better player, now and especially long term, but he's not going to reach that potential player 6 minutes a game. If there's no room for him in the top 3 lines, send him down and make him force the team to bring him back up. He'll be ready to push someone out of a top 9 spot soon enough, and we'll definitely enjoy his small cap hit when he gets there. I think it will be interesting to see how they handle Smith, Kruger, and Morin next year. Especially Morin....he was the most highly regarded prospect, but got a concussion (I believe) that put him out for a while. I'm guessing it will come down to training camp. They're the cheapest options, obviously, but you don't want to stunt their development when they can all be on the first line in AHL next year. On a slightly different subject, anyone else with me in the belief that Sharp is a tad overrated, and it wouldn't be the worst idea to trade him? I'm not saying he sucks or anything, but you look at his basic numbers and see borderline star, while his more advanced numbers tell a different story. He's not good at the dot, awful defensively, and it seemed like 1/3 of his goals were on a wide open net on the PP, thanks to a cross ice pass from Kane/Hoss. I'd see if there's any good 2-way second line centers out there, hopefully getting paid a little less.

It's terrible in the sense that it handcuffed the rest of the team and we had to rely on fringe NHL talent on the third and fourth line. While it may not be a terrible contract on the open market, it's absolutely a terrible contract with this team. You have a Norris Trophy caliber defenseman as your #1 defender and he's paid like one (even though he didnt play like one this year), you have a fantastic (IMO) compliment to him as your #2 guy, who is now being paid like one. You have a young #3 defender who played really well last year making something like 3.75m. That's fine too. But then your 4th defender is making more than the other 3, and is skating into the defensive zone like a forward and gives you negative in terms of physical play, doesn't get in front of shots very often, and the next time a hit by him knocks the glass loose will be the first time. If he was making $3m a year, he'd be a valuable piece for what he is. At 7 million, he pretty much better cover his role and Kris Versteeg's. In what world is Hammer a better defenseman than Campbell? 51 had the highest +/- on the team.

I don't know where this whole thought process comes from that Dallas is guaranteed their last 6 points. This a team that has won 8 games since February 1. Yeah, their schedule (vs Colorado, @ Colroado, @ Minnesota) is easy, but it's not automatic.