why would they want ensberg when they traded barfield last year for kouzmanoff? kouz is a decent player who needs at-bats. it doesnt help playing in petco and its certainly not going to help ensberg's power numbers. although he does know how to get on base and is now closer to home. regarding the sox, okajima, gagne and papelbon is a great 3 after the 6th but i dont trust gagne to stay healthy. any day now his non-roid arm is going to fall off completely. Also, papelbon is no picture of perfect health himself. the rangers did pretty damn good in return i think. hanley is around the top 10 best player in baseball and is likely only going to get better. Id take hanley any day of the week though beckett isnt chump change. id say a huge win for marlins and a semi-win for boston.
the sox are without a doubt the best team in baseball. the metropolitans will have a tough time with the padres in the NLCS, and it is gonna be a barn-burner of a world series in boston and new york (queens, not the bronx).
i certainly dont get the feeling boston is better than the tigers when I watch both teams play. though, common sense dictates that the sox did all this with papi being average, lugo batting below the mendoza, drew doing exactly what most figured (nothing) and manny struggling most of the year. given those situations, its pretty impressive they've had a lead much less maintained it. getting bullpen help is certainly good down the stretch and schilling the blogger returning may be a boost. he overexerted himself on that nono attempt and blew his old self out. now he can go back to talking out his ass and throwing into the 6th like rocket does. w/o ryan braun this team would be 4 back of the scrubs already. prince fielder is still out of breath from the derby and has done nothing since.
pitching wins championships. and detroit has pitching, but not like boston does. gagne as a setup man for papelbon? thats fierce. games will be over at 3-1 boston in the 7th.
although I agree, tell that to jeff weaver and justin verlander. as i said, gagne is going to get be hurt by playoff time and zoom-by-ya is on his way back to the tigers pen. the gambler, however, is hurt again and todd jones is still todd jones. but baseball sense wise, the tigers look like a better team on a daily basis by a good bit. still wouldnt bet against the sox given the experience.
About a month ago, I was hopefull that the Sox could land another SP (with Schilling on the DL and Kason Gabbard and Tavarez in the rotation), but with Lester back and off to a great start and Schilling coming off the DL soon, they get the boost at SP that I was hoping for and more. I was thrilled to get Gagne at the deadline today. Okijima has been great and Papelbon is baseball's next dominant young closer, but I was never too confident in Delcarmen and Timlin holding it together down the stretch as the two primary right-handed setup men. Now, with Gagne and Okijima working the 7th and 8th innings and Papelbon closing, a lead after 6 innings for the Sox just got even tougher to give up. Plus, Gagne offers Papelbon the opportunity to rest more often--something that sort of caught up to him beginning around this time last season. With a rotation of Schilling, Beckett, Dice-K, Wakefield and Lester and a bullpen of Tavarez as the long-reliever, and Timlin, Delcarmen and Romero as the middle relievers, Gagne and Okijima as the lefty/righty setup men and Paps closing, that's QUITE a pitching staff!
Gagne's health is the main reason I didn't mention him early in this thread when clair asked what we would like our teams to get. As far as Papelbon, other than his arm wearing out last year from pitching more innings than he's ever had to befor making the bigs, he hasn't had any health issues. Agree completely about Hanley Ramirez. Beckett being a Cy Young candidate type pitcher is the only reason I call it a win/win. The Monster reviving Lowell's career this past season and a half has been a plus, since he was nothing more than a throw in for the trade anyway. I'm not completely sold on Lester yet. He's a steady pitcher, and he keeps the Sox in games, which is why is 8-2 in his career so far, but his ERA is a little high, and he doesn't strike a lot of guys out. I think Kyle Snyder will log quite a few innings in long releif as well. And the side-winding lefty Javier Lopez is always good to throw a little wrinkle at you opponent, just not for too many innings.
How to waste $106 million dollars (on top of $51 mil just for the right to TALK to someone) Lugo = $36 mil / 4 years Drew = $70 mil / 5 years The only kinda good thing about the Drew deal, is if he doesn't play in enough games (at least 500 '07-'10 or 375 '08-'10), $9 mill of his final year is deferred until he's a senior citizen. The good thing about the Lugo deal is...........um, if anyone can think of something good about paying better than $30 million for an average (at best) defensive shortstop that never hits .300, and minimal power, please let me know.
let's crunch numbers.. Braves starters: Smoltz: 10-5 2.84 ERA Hudson: 11-5 3.09 ERA James: 8-8 3.55 ERA Carlyle: 5-3 4.25 ERA Reyes: 0-1 8.20 ERA Mets starters: Maine: 12-5 2.92 ERA O. Perez: 9-7 2.84 ERA El Duque: 7-4 3.02 ERA Glavine: 9-6 4.51 ERA Sosa: 7-6 4.59 ERA the only thing that stands out to me is that: a. the Mets have a much better No. 5 guy b. the Mets No. 1 and No. 2 guys have never experienced October. I understand No. 5 starter is a big problem for Atlanta, but if they get into the playoffs, you don't use one, so if ATL gets in, they will cause problems for anyone. But getting in is indeed going to be tough.
