See you Johhny...

[C-pher]

Well, it seems that Damon is going to be wearing Pinstripes next year.

It seems the MFY offered 12 more million than the Sox with a deal of 4 years and 52 million.

I wonder how much of this had to do with the fact that the Sox front office is not what it used to be. Having two GMs instead of one, I guess that they challanged Damon thinking that he wasn't for real when he said that he had an offer from the Yankees. Well, he did and he went.

I start to wonder what this team is going to look like next year.

 

[Skald]

Here is the thing about Johnny. He is first and formost wrapped up in his own 'greatness'. He publicly said 'if the sox don't sign me I'll sign somewhere else and try and get others who are free agents to join me.' Not verbatum but that was the gist.

Now, he is a very very good leadoff hitter, BUT he is at that age when odds are his stats as a leadoff hitter will diminish.

Also, my friend describing Damon put it best about his throwing arm...

'Looks like Jesus, throws like Mary.'

Fenway doesn't have the largest OF in the majors, probably one of the smallest and he routinely bounces the ball into the 'His' cutoff man. I mean, even Dittzy Ramirez has a better arm than him.

Besides, let the Yankee's have him, I don't think he will do that great in NY because he wont be allowed to be scruffy and have long hair, his 'free spirited' attitude would be frowned upon.


But the team is seriously FUBAR. First they trade away their best positional prospect away (Hanley R.) then dump their starting SS (Rent) and don't even have the AAA replacement to take his place.

IMHO, this is Lucchiano's hand at work, not making smart deals and trading to many prospects away after Theo did a damn good job of stocking our farm system with talent in the pipe.

 

[dwarven1]

I hate to point this out, but if you want to see where the Red Sox are headed, just look at the NY Mets of 1987, and 1974. Their "management" basically gutted the roster after each World Series win... something that has always frustrated me about the Mets.

But that's what's going to happen to the Red Sox. I'd bet money on it (if I bet on sports, that is).

 

[Chris]

Well, aren't the Red Sox the Yankee farm team anyway? From Babe Ruth to Pedro, we seem to just get them in shape and send them on.

Couldn't we just send them Bill Buckner and help ourselves a little?

 

[Skald]

Pedro has shoulder problems and his foot is still hurting him even a few months after the season, and he's had it a cast type thing since then.


Best bet as far as firesales is Marlins. They completely gutted their teams. Sox are unique in that they are also gutting their farm team!

 

[Garys]

Pedro went to the Mets, not the Yankees. Other than Roger Clemens, who went to the Yankees by way of Montreal there aren't many good players who went to the Yankees from Boston. At least not in the modern era.

Damon is going to find Yankee Stadium a much tougher field to play on than Fenway. He has an arm like a T Rex, which means Jeter is going to have to move way out to cut him off.

Martinez has one of the best throwing arms in baseball. He lead the Majors in outfield assists last season. That included some tremendous throws from left field to home plate.

I also think Damon will end up on the DL next year or 2007 at the latest. I think both of his shoulders are lot more fragile than anyone knows right now.

As to gutting the team, the Sox are hardly doing that at all. They've picked up some pretty good players in the off season. They've lost some decent players, but also unloaded Rent a Wreck, I mean Rentaria.

Schilling, Wakefield, Nixon, and Varitek are all solid and all coming back. Dave Roberts might be signed back, and with luck Gabe Kapler will be healthy and they will pick him up again. Oh yeah, there's that David Oritiz guy too.

My prediction is that we'll see Tony Graffinino in center field. He can catch, he can throw, he can run, and he can probably be a good lead off hitting.

Gary

 

[C-pher]

I have to agree with Skald as I don't understand why they are doing so much with their farm team.

Like you said, getting rid of Hanley Ramirez and Rentaria. They need a center fielder, a first base, short stop, and some utility players.


I do think that he's not going to do well in New York. Like you all pointed out, it's a much deeper field, as are most of the AL parks. So he's not going to get the chance to rest up in a shorter outfield. The free spirit attitude is a good point. He's going to have to be pretty cleaned up and I wonder how that's going to effect his playing.

And I wonder if Wackobriner is going to give his wife her own show on YES.

As far as Schilling being solid, I'm still up in the air with that one. I'm not going to say that he didn't seal his fate when he did what he did to win the Fall Classic. As for Ortiz, I think that he's not going to be so happy to play here when he finds out that he doesn't always have people on base when he comes up to bat. And I think that this year we're going to see him getting pitched around more often because he just doesn't have the protection.

One thing that Damon was good at was making the pitcher work when he came up to bat. More so later in the game. When the other team would throw up a relief pitcher, Damon could get 7-10-14 pitches out of him, then he would come up and have to face Ortiz, Manny, etc....and it would work to the Sox advantage.

I don't konw, I guess that we'll see coming up in the next few months. Not too sure that Coco is what we need, but I guess that there's really not much out there for good center fielders. As for Graff playing center, it's a good thought. And I wouldn't put it pass them...

I'm still not sure that I like this GM by committee. I don't think that it's going to help the team, and I think that it's going to let Larry make too many big choices that he shouldn't make.

 

[Skald]

Only person really noting in trades is Josh Beckett. Marlins basically told Sox "You want Beckett your getting Lowell too."

We lost Bill Muehler (class act still in his prime) to Mike Lowell (though he won a gold glove this year only by default since Rolen was injured). Also many think Lowell was juicing (his decline at the plate coincides with the new testing for steroids).

As far as the Wakefield for Loretta trade. WTF! We have an excellent, excellent prospect in Dustin Pedroia.

I'm sorry, but I could do a ton better job than the 2 co-GM's are doing. No matter what you say about Theo, he tried to keep the Sox awash in talent which they didn't have to buy. The GM's now seem to follow the Steinbreiner mode of buying championships (and in case you didn't know Yankee's have the worst farm system in MLB. Sox used to but got wise and started to acquire picks and prospects to load up the farm system with talent)

I mean, right now the only prospect ready was Ramirez and probably Pedroia, now its just Pedroia, the rest are in A and AA ball.

And one thing about Marte, he got the nickname of K-Marte.

One thing about the Marlins, they at least get the prospects to groom and make another run in a few years as they develop.


Edit: Henry should boot Luchianno and get someone who understands talent, not dollars and cents.

 

[Skald]

Fitting Display of Affection towards what has happened


Note: Towards page 3 take a guess which is my thoughts on what they are missing.

 

[Cptn5spd]

Just saw this, thought it was funny stuff

 

[dreppucci007]

 

[C-pher]

Just saw this, thought it was funny stuff