Friday, November 21, 2008

 

After Thoughts

I had some other points for and against the Coco trade.

Against - With slack Manny in LF and "I'm made of glass" Drew in right, it was nice to be able to have a defensive outfield where you had 2 people out there (Crisp and Ellsbury) that could really run the ball down. Even if it is in a relatively small yard.

For - I had a thought that maybe this was holding Ellsbury back. The inconsistencies of playing different positions, not playing every day, and moving up and down in the line-up. Maybe we just need to pick up a utility outfielder not as good as Kapler but not as bad as Wily Mo (ahh, Wily Mo.. the memories) to fill in whenever Drew hurts his back or the opposing team realizes that all you have to do is pitch Ellsbury inside. Oops.. maybe I shouldn't have let that little secret out of the bag.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

 

How could I forget?

Pedroia wins the MVP!

That leaves me a bit speechless. And he also gets the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger on the side. Somebody throw that man some money.

And Youk getting 3rd in the MVP voting.

These two need to stay around for a LONG time.

 

Ok, ok

Wow, it's been a month since my last post? I was going to post something when Bonnie first commented but never got around to it. So, now that Hober's reminded me of it, let's go even though he never answered my questions on his blog.

Coco Crisp - I'm fine with it. I like Coco, I think he plays really hard, doesn't cause any problems and is a solid player. I'd give him a 6.5 to 7 because his defence is great but he's hard to watch at the plate. But I'd also give Ellsbury a 6.5 to 7 and having rotating centerfielders with the same ability level is just irritating. One of them had to go and for over a year we all knew that it was going to be Coco. But I don't think Ellsbury is anything special, although you could always run into the Jeff Bagwell, Hanley Ramirez, and to some extent Carlos Pena problem of sending someone away and their career explodes from there. You can't use that with Manny because he's always been good.

I think the Sox need to focus on a core group of guys and make them Nixon/Tek-like franchise players. Get back to the Dirt Dogs. Pedroia, Youk, DO, Papelbon, Lester, Beckett, Dice-K. Then give Masterson, Delcarman, and Lowrie a chance to see what they can do (I'm not sure Lowrie can handle SS on a regular basis). Pay as much money as necessary to drop Lugo. Let Wake and Timlin leave on their own terms. See if you can jolt some life into Okajima. Buchholz has some nasty stuff... I say develop him in the beginning of the season and trade him in July. Bay and Drew - big hitters, consistent in the outfield (though I get nervous whenever the ball is hit into right field), i guess we can keep them. Lowell has one more good year in him and a couple of ok years. And of course there's Tek. What to do about Tek... He can't possibly make a huge salary somewhere else can he? I just can't justify paying that money. Call the game from the dugout and put Cash in there.

I miss Manny. And Pedro.

For me, I'll be back in the States in January when my assignment ends and my company pulls me back. I haven't really done anything exciting. I went up to Shepparton, Victoria to participate in a half-ironman this past weekend. A lot of people from my triathlon group (I don't do the tris, I just run) did the full thing, which is 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13 mile run. I just did the run in the team event and we did ok. My time wasn't great (1:41) but I'll be ok.

That's all for now.

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