Do it to Toronto instead. They're Canadian, nobody will mind.

Looks like the MLB is collectively trying to get Crawford out of Tampa. Every other day there's another award that bumps up the signing price. First the Gold Glove, and today the Silver Slugger.

For the AL East crew, Bautista, Beltre and Cano all won as well.

It looks like Jeter and the Yanks aren't playing nice. For the first time in his career he needs to completely justify his presence in pin stripes.

As much as it would thrill me for the Red Sox to sign him just as a thorn, it wouldn't make good baseball sense.

woohoo! The thread is back

Jeez - You get banned again?

Where's the sig man?

On a completely unrelated note, I am semi retired as of yesterday!

lol i havent been banned at all, i am just very busy with work

by the way, the sig was to be created by chester, who has refused to create the sig. I'll use it whenever he decides to make it. it's on him

congrats on being semi-retired!

oh and enjoy the catching situation for the next 5 years, red sox fans

Semi-retired? So I'm semi-happy for you?

Or is that when an 18-wheeler gets new rims?

Tigers look like they want to take the best of the AL East and turn it into success in the Central. Picked up Austin Jackson and Johnny Damon last year, signed Joaquin Benoit and Victor Martinez so far in this offseason.

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by the way, the sig was to be created by chester, who has refused to create the sig. I'll use it whenever he decides to make it. it's on him

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the sig was a red sox logo. put it up.

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So I'm semi-happy for you?

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Semi happy is when a fire alarm goes off at the end of your massage.

I am just happy!

I am looking into buying a business that will allow me to hire a manager and absentee work part time, or from home/beach/camper/Caribbean etc.

Congrats, of course, SC. Hope it goes well.

I found a column by some wit that thinks either Boston or Tampa should sign Jeter. Not going to give him the satisfaction of providing you guys with the link to his poorly written monologue.

congrats, man

They sent the cubs thread out to pasture. I am getting the timeout errors on this thread quite frequently as well.

Maybe time to reboot as well?

Thoughts?

I'm inclined to keep poking along, kinda see how far we can get.

But I'm fine with the idea of maybe starting a new one when the pitchers and catchers report.

looks like the sox are bringing back Tek for another year to back up Salty

Bring on the baserunners! Steal at will

Tek did ok in a backup role. Still a good all round leader.

It isn't like he is expected to play every day.

did anyone catch that mariano rivera was offered 3 years and 51 million by the red sox, 2 years 34 million by the angels and one other club, yet still took the yankees' offer of 2 years, 30 million?

wow

that was really a no lose situation for the sox. If he had accepted:

1. they would be overpaying but still would get an elite closer and could non-tender papelbon to offset the cost somewhat (and they still have Bard to take over when the contract is up).

2. they would get to stick it to the MFY forever that the greatest closer in MLB history finished his career in the rival's uniform

That woulda been awesome, but oh well. It just shows that Mo has 10 times the class of captain america and values finishing his career with the team he came up with more than making a few extra million bucks.

I'm gonna be bummed if they swap jacoby for Adrian g. Of course they have to land crawford first.

it's gonna take way more than ellsbury to make this deal happen (and i just read on mlbtraderumors that the deal would most likely just include a package of top prospects)

but i would love it if they included ellsbury if it meant they got to keep a guy like casey kelly for example. Even if they don't sign crawford or werth, they still would have Kalish if they wanted t ship ellsbury off somewhere.

man i hope they find a way to make this deal happen and sign A-gon to an extension. It means youk goes back to 3rd, so bye bye beltre (but he was likely to leave anyway)

Boom goes the dynamite!!! The Sox land Gonzales for some prospects!!! And they are moving in the right field fence!!!

[This message has been edited by Say Chowdah (edited 12/5/2010 8:53a).]

I see the red sox finally countered the mark teixiera move. The padres are morons. They couldn't force the sox to give up more prospects? They had a chance to make out like bandits

Starting pitcher Casey Kelly, the 2008 first-round pick that Boston had long been reluctant to deal, headlines the package that would go to San Diego. First baseman Anthony Rizzo, who overcame cancer a couple of years ago, is the second prospect. And Reymond Fuentes, the outfielder who was taken with the 28th overall pick in the 2009 Draft, is also in the trade.

i am well aware of the prospects they gave up, but the padres could've got more

Wasn't meant for the all knowing token

glad they were able to keep iglesias, doubront, kalish, and lavarnway

now if they can sign crawford or werth the lineup will be back to the 2003-2007 level.

i'd rather be known as jesus

Hay-zoos!

This is turning out to be a fantastic offseason!

Lets check in:

1B Tx v. Gonzales -- Edge Yankees. Tex has proven he can play in big name stadiums for a big name team. Gonzales is reported to be a cool fella under pressure. But he's not seen the pressures of the AL East.

2B Cano vs. Pedey - Slight edge to the Sox. Pedey, when healthy, is as good as there is in the league. He is reported to be 99.9. Cano is proving himself to be called among the elite so this is a very interesting matchup.

SS Jeter v. Scutaro - Even. An aging Jeter is a liability on the field. His bat, "leadership", and popularity will continue to make the fans happy. However, championships aren't won in the press box. Scutaro is easily as good as Jeter and he is probably better, in the field, despite gold glove votes. At the plate the edge goes to Jeter for historical value.

3B Arod v. Youk - edge Sox. The Sox have a perinnal MVP Candidate, Youkilis, returning to third base. The Yanks have an aging perinnal MVP winner who has increasingly limited movement in the field due to hip injuries. His bat will continue to decline as his best years (and the juice) is behind him.

This looks to be an awesome start to the season!

Pfssh... Youkilis is possibly the most valuable unsung player in the majors, but being better than A-Rod still only makes him the second best 3B in the division.

At SS, it's a kind of a rock-paper-scissors thing. Bartlett's younger, maybe a little bit quicker, but Scutaro's probably the better fielder, and Jeter still has to be considered the best hitter. Pick what's important to your team and you'll have the best shortstop in the division.

That said, there's chatter that Bartlett may be traded at some point, to free up a couple of dollars and to have Brignac take over. Even younger, but isn't as nimble as Bartlett and would leave Jeter/Scutaro as the two best SS in the East.

At 2B, Rodriguez is (again) slightly younger than the other two guys in the conversation, but the difference in talent is obvious.

Last, First. Well, hell, I don't have any clue who's going to be play 1B for the Rays at this point. Could be Dan Johnson (who I'd only put in the lineup against NY/BOS), Zobrist, maybe even Aybar if he comes back.

youkilis better than A-rod?

yeah, right

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2B Cano vs. Pedey - Slight edge to the Sox. Pedey, when healthy, is as good as there is in the league. He is reported to be 99.9. Cano is proving himself to be called among the elite so this is a very interesting matchup.

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please, make the argument on how cano is worse than pedroia. I'll wait.

Second, Derek jeter had the second best offensive year for an AL shortstop last year... and it was an off year for him. Yeah, scutaro isnt better than him. Scutaro was horrible defensively last year after being elite 2 years ago. Sure, jeter didnt have the best range to his left last year, but the guy did 2 things right. Everything he got to, he didn't screw up with errors like some of his peers did

Just because Jeter had one of the "best" seasons for a shortstop last year doesn't mean he's as good as he once was or that he should be inked in as the best SS in the majors, the American League or even the AL East. Just about every guy at the position has one deficiency or another.

Tulo missed too many games last year. Both Ramirezes (Ramirezii?) are good hitters but inconsistent fielders. Andrus is improving in both, but not there yet. Last year, Jeter was a B in a classroom full of C's.

As Ags, we should be rooting for Pennington to step up and become the best.

We aren't comparing Youk to how good ARod WAS 3 to 5 seasons ago.

Ok - defensively Youk is much better than ARod IS with an aging body and no steriods to beef up his stats.

Hitting:

Average/OBP: Youk
Power: ARod
RBI Potential: ARod historically
Total OPS: Youk

And the other edge... Youk's teammates like him. ARod? Nah!

It will be definately interesting to see what happens. But I would have bet you that Youk will have better numbers by the All Star Break next season, but you have curiously decided to wimp out on bets...

And for the Cano/Pedey discussion: Gold gloves an MVP trophies aside I didn't think that there was much of a discussion to be had...

From a Rays POV: I worry about Cano, I dread Pedroia.