Jehrico

No way do I trade Prior, not for anyone in baseball, It'd have to be a package of high caliber players to entice him out from me. The only stud on the team I'm open to trading is Wood, and there'd have to be a stud coming back. The reason I think we could get the Yanks to bite on Wood is that I don't see anyone else in his league being offered on the market right now. If we offer Z or Prior, we'd be bidding against ourselves, no one is putting better pitching than Wood on the market.

No. Because there's no way the protest has a chance to be upheld and Scioscia knows that. He's taking the high road, which has to be extremely tough to do given the spectacular incompetence of this crew of umpires. But he's a long-time ML manager so I guess he's used to dealing with that level of umpire incompetence on a regular basis. The other reason he has to soldier on and shut up is that ML umpires are well known for carrying grudges and the Angels would be more than screwed from here on out if he had called out Eddings, Crawford and Co. for their complete lack of professional ability in the postgame press conference. He has to soldier on because he didn't file a protest at the time of the incident. Since he didn't, then there's nothing he can do, so he's best off not criticizing the umps. Had he protested at the time, there's a chance that MLB would have overturned the call (ala George Brett), and they could have picked up with the 10th inning today.

Does anyone else think Soscia blew it on this one? The rule for protesting was stated on one of the earlier pages of this thread, he can't protest whether or not the ball hit the ground. However, he could have protested the fact that the play was set up by the umpire pumping his fist calling the out, then reversing the call. Had the umpire made his call clearly known from the get-go, there would have been no controversy. But since he didn't inform the ump before the next pitch that they were going to finish the game under protest, now a protest can't be reviewed. I think he blew it.

his K/9 and BB/9 don't show nastiness. Not compared to the top closers. Judging a player by one or two stats isn't a good way to evaluate...you should look across all of the stats. He's not perfect, but looking across the spectrum, it's hard to argue with the results. He may not be one of the top 3 dominant closers in the game, but he did a darned fine job when he was in there, and I'm satisfied with what we got for how much we are paying, especially if you consider what some of the other comparable options out there would likely fetch on the open market. I'm confident that the closer role is not going to be a sorespot on the team next year like it was last year and earlier in the year this year.

Why in the world would the yankee's do this? If they shopped ARod around don't you think they could do better? Remember the yanks don't realy need payroll relief. You might include Williams or Walker, but I think NY would be interested in getting Pie to play CF. I think Cardsfaninchitown is right. It won't be too hard for them to do as good as Pie in CF or better (in the short term, and you know that is how they operate), especially if ARod is what they are offering. What the Yanks REALLY need is that front of the rotation pitcher, and there are no true aces on the FA market this winter. Millwood and Burnett are talented, and I wouldn't mind Hendry picking either up to bolster our rotation, but they're not Ace caliber pitchers. I can't think of any other teams offering up any true Aces for trade this early in the offseason. For all of Wood's history with injuries, if we put him on the market, he'd be the best possible pitcher they could pick up. I don't think we can get Arod without giving up one of Wood, Prior, or Zambrano, and I don't want to see Prior or Z go (not crazy about trading Wood either, but for ARod, I'd do it). Even with Wood, you might have to give up Pie still. I'd be more hesitant, but I'd still go for it (maybe induce them to do a Walker for Cano in addition if they want Wood AND Pie).

I hope Hendry takes advantage of the fact that he has one less hole to work on before the FA season even begins. Having as many of your holes filled as possible earlier in the FA period seems to give GMs an advantage when pursuing the big name FAs. Just look at how the Sammy question handcuffed Hendry from doing anything last offseason when most of the premier FAs were still available.

Maybe, but that doesn't mean Steinbrenner wouldn't give him a whack if it meant getting Wood...or maybe he flips him with Walker to someone for a different CFer.

I'd throw Wood, CPatt, and Walker at the Yanks for ARod and see if they bite. We could have an IF of Lee, Cedeno, ARod, and Aramis. I'd explore putting Nomar in the OF, if he's willing. Sign Lofton, and I think you have a decent producing OF with Nomar, Lofton, and Murton (not a great OF, but not bad...), but we'd have the best IF production by far. NYY may not need Walker, but he could easily be flipped to another team for a need based on his low salary. Or bring a third team who's interested in Walker (Cleveland could have alot ot offer for him). Plus, if we have an injury to the IF, or if Cedeno gets sent down, Nomar could move to the IF, as a corner OFer would be easier to pick up in a trade than a 2B, SS, or 3B. Flexibility is the keyword with Nomar in the OF. One thing I haven't see mentioned as to why the Yankee's might bite on Wood is that the FA crop of pitchers this year is weak. They've gone after 2nd tier guys like Pavano out of FA the last couple of years, I don't think they'll settle for anyone who is on the market. They'll want a premier talent. There won't be many teams marketing Ace-caliber pitching this summer, Wood may be their best bet. I don't think CPatt is going to hit .280 plus next year, but he could at least approximate Bernie William's production the last few years, while improving the defense markedly. There's a chance he'll turn the corner for the Yanks too, which makes it a worthwhile gamble. Basically, getting Walker would be a safe bet either way (keep or flip to a third team), and if either Wood or CPatt have a comeback season, it's a fair deal. If both of them have a good year, it's a great deal for the Yanks.

So people rippin' apart Farnsy makes you a little annoyed huh? A little bit, especially since we have no middle relief and traded him away for nothing. BO "FRUITY NAME" FLOWERS AND ROBERTO NOVOA (MORE LIKE NOPITCHES) AND SCOTT "ID LIKE TO DO HIGH A SOME" MOORE I'm not going to rate the trade as a good or bad one yet. Everyone rags on Novoa, forgetting he was a rookie. I bet he'll be a pretty damn good reliever in the next couple of years. Moore also had a great year in the minors. He was a highly regarded prospect at one point, he could turn it around and be a heckuva pickup, kind of like Murton was when he was a throw-in. How did Bo Flowers do this year? I never heard anything about him.

Did anyone else get the feeling that Chip likes the Cardinals more than the Cubs? I HATED him. I put him on par with Joe Carter as an announcer.

Don't take me for a Neifi fan, but Neifi actually had a pretty solid year for a SS, with all things considered. There's not too many guys that would be solid upgrades over him. My biggest problem with Neifi this year was Baker hitting him at the top of the order, and benching Cedeno for him. But he did play excellent D, and hit what, .280? He didn't cost us much either. That's really all I would really expect from a SS not named ARod, Tejada, or someone in that league. That doesn't mean I want Neifi back, just that I wouldn't go so far as to say we could replace him with "anything" and it'd be an upgrade.

I doubt we'll hear something along those lines whether Hendry does or doesn't have interest. If he's been consistant about anything during his tenure, it is that he holds his cards close to his chest. The Nomar Deal wasn't on most people's radar until the final hours, and no one knew about Lee very far ahead either. Honestly, I'd be more discouraged if we were hearing alot about either of the Giles brothers.

funny, from what i've read the phillies wish they didnt sign him to a no trade clause so they could trade abreu. I'm just shocked by that. He's one of the top 10 players in the game. Philly fans booed Mike Schmidt the first five seasons he played for the team. The Phillies got rid of a yong Rolen after a bad season and a half. They are not the smartest organization in baseball. But then again neither have the Cubs. In all fairness, Philly didn't trade Rolen because of a drop in production. They traded him becaue he let them know on several occasions that there was no way in the world he was going to stay with the franchise once he earned his FA rights.

96-66 in 2003 91-71 in 2004 88-74 in 2005 After '03, he lost Miguel Tejada, Ramon Hernandez and Mark Ellis. After '04, he lost Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Mark Redman and Jermaine Dye I don't know if terrible or sucky would be the proper adjective for a guy working with a 55m payroll. If you would have told me during the last offseason that they would only drop 3 games off of their record the next year after the Hudson and Mulder trades, I would have said you were crazy. And that was considering that Kendall was expected to have another .300+ year. It does make you wonder how much a few studs over average replacement players really does for a team though...i.e. Mulder, Hudson, Tejada, and Hernandez (4 all-stars) only dropped them a total of 8 wins over two seasons. Granted, that is a pretty over-simplified, myopic way of looking at it, but it does strengthen my belief that no player is worth $15+ mil a year.

Could that have anything to do with the VERY strange deviation from habit when Hendry gave Dempster an extension before the season was over?

I'd rather have Walker at 2.5 mil or Nomar with an incentive based contract at 2nd over Kent. Or Cedeno if we sign Furcal to play short.

I don't think Hendry will trade Walker. If he picks up his option, it will be with the intent of keeping him, unless Walker OKs a trade to a specific team. I know that Walker doesn't have a no trade clause, but he signed at a discounted rate with a cheap option. Hendry takes pride in being a standup guy, and I dont' think he will damage his reputation he has built around the league with players by picking up Walker's bargain option just to flip him to another team.

1 more: 50 duobles, 2 triples, 46 homers = 99 XBH I think you typo'd that...3 triples, the 99's correct. What better t eam to reach that illustrious platform against than...the astros.

What did Morgan Ensberg come back from? Unless I'm mistaken, they've always treated the Comeback Player award as if it were a "Most Improved" award. I don't think you need to have been injured to win it. You'd put Wickman on your ballot but not Jones?

I don't know about Giambi...he wasn't that bad for that long like Jones was, and, although he's putting up pretty decent production as far as 1Bs go, he's not one of the most dominant at his position this year. Jones went from 4 years of garbage to being perhaps the most dominant reliever in all of baseball this year.

I was wondering who all of you would submit for comeback player of the year award. The only reason it's crossing my mind, is I was amazed the other day when I happened to see Todd Jones stat line for the season. He was plain horrible over the last 4 years, and here he is this year in a closers role again for the leading wild card contender with 35 saves out of 37 opportunities, 2 HRs in over 65 innings, a WHIP under 1.00, and an ERA of 1.10...that's lower than Gagne's ERA when he won the Cy Young. I can't think of a player having as big of a turn around after being so bad for so long since I've been following baseball. Who else thought Florida was crazy for signing him for over a million at the beginning of the season?

Note the word "TYPE" of hitter...i.e. high average, mediocre power, good contact hitting corner OFer. That pretty much describes Gwynn and Puckett, and from everything that Murton has shown us so far, he fits in the same category. I didn't say he's a lock to be as good, I just said he's the same TYPE of hitter, as I was trying to make a point that it's not necessarily a bad thing that he doesn't project to turn into a 40-50 HR type of guy at this point. I'd be happy with Jacque Jones type of power numbers if he maintains his OBP.

Thanks, it's good to be back. Wish I could have come home in time to wait in line for playoff tickets, but I guess that just wasn't meant to be. Why couldn't we be in the NL West?

I'd disagree with that. Everything he's shown so far is that he could end up being another Tony Gwynn or Kirby Puckett type hitter. He'll never put up Vladesque power numbers, but the guy is simply a pure hitter. I love watching his approach at the plate. He's doesn't have the power to be a prototypical all-star corner OFer, but that never stopped Gwynn or Puckett from being all-stars.

On a side note...Hendry has gone after and paid well for two guys who were elite setup men to bolster his bullpen since he has been GM...Remmy and Hawkins. Does anyone else think that those two guys busts have made Hendry hesitant to pay big money for a premium reliever, and that's why he's trying to get someone from within the organization to step up?