KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Well, it's only one game, but the Sox look like they might be decent this year. They are no threat to win the WS, but at least they're looking a lot better than that sorry mess in NY.

And I'm a Yankee fan. The bills have finally come due. It's 1965 all over again.

A ridiculous $230 million payroll, more than half of it on the disabled list, and the rest of it looks like it should be on it. Half the team makes 10 mil or more a year, and the rest makes the ML minimum, or so it seems.

They have gotten old, and bad. If they win 70-75 games, that's about it, even when the wounded return. Rivera, as great as he is, won't have a chance to add too many saves to his all time save record. They won't be leading enough games late to call on him.

At least they are only one or two years away from the Great Salary Dump. Then they can rebuild.

rambone 78 wrote:Well, it's only one game, but the Sox look like they might be decent this year. They are no threat to win the WS, but at least they're looking a lot better than that sorry mess in NY.

And I'm a Yankee fan. The bills have finally come due. It's 1965 all over again.

A ridiculous $230 million payroll, more than half of it on the disabled list, and the rest of it looks like it should be on it. Half the team makes 10 mil or more a year, and the rest makes the ML minimum, or so it seems.

They have gotten old, and bad. If they win 70-75 games, that's about it, even when the wounded return. Rivera, as great as he is, won't have a chance to add too many saves to his all time save record. They won't be leading enough games late to call on him.

At least they are only one or two years away from the Great Salary Dump. Then they can rebuild.

How many more years to they have to pay ARod?

A-Rod is only at the MID-point of his ridiculous contract!!

What a terrible signing. He used to produce all season long and then come playoffs he would suck! Now the last two seasons he can barely stay on the field and his numbers are awful for that kind of money!

On another note, look at how both the Red Sox and the Yankees have fallen. Toronto and Baltimore are in the discussion for the playoffs now, not them. We'll have to see how the Yankees look when they are healthy.

As for the Sox, yesterday was a good start, but I see them with maybe 84-86 wins this year. Anything more and I would be surprised. I'm not 100% sold on Jackie Bradley Jr yet. He will take time, but I liked what he did yesterday in his at bats. He was patient and got on base.

JB Jr. will start off well, until the AL pitchers see him a couple of times and figure him out.

Not saying he'll be a flop, he'll be a very good player in time for them.

Even the great ones have an adjustment period after initial success.

As for the Yankees, it's going to be a horrible spring. Even when they get their players back, I don't see a great improvement.

Granderson is either a home run or strikeout. Texeira is already showing signs of decline, he can't stay healthy. Jeter might be done after this year. Arod may be done period.

Both Jeter's and Granderson's contracts are up next year. Texeira and Arod have 4 more years, what a waste.

Now they want to give Cano a 7 or 8 year deal. He's turning 30 this year. If he doesn't produce this year big time, they shouldn't do it. Even then, by the time he's 35 or 36, he'll be done. Of course, some other team will pay him if the Yankees don't, he's got Boras as his agent. That's bad news.

For the Yankees, well, it is only money. They could just release A-Rod and still make a profit. For that matter, I think most teams in MLB are making money hand over fist - Look at the TV contracts that the Dodgers and the Rangers recently got. It's hard to believe that YES and NESN aren't worth similar amounts, but the clubs have no incentive to publicize those numbers, since the players would probably raise holy hell.

I heard somewhere that ARod makes more than the entire Houston Astros payroll. Thay can't be right can it?

It is.

The Astros are also trying to rebuild via farm system, and they basically have major holes at every position. From their perspective, any dollar that's spent on player salaries could instead be spent on scouting and player development. At least in baseball, free agency is almost always a losing game.

Lackey just blew out his newly repaired arm. He was throwing the ball really well up to that point. It looked really serious. I think he might be done

Yeah, pop. Horrible. I actually like John, so this is a HUGE disappointment. He very obviously worked his ASS off for this season to really contribute at a high level. Where's some good news?

they said it may just be a bicep strain is better than a tear or shoulder issue

The Red Sox are now 5-2, and everybody is saying they're the '27 Yankees.

Bull. The Rex Sox start fast almost every year. Do they finish fast?

Their pitching is great right now. Will it stay that way? I doubt it. Although with Farrell, he was their pitching coach before, maybe that's who they needed to get better.

As for the Yankees, maybe I was a little premature. They actually aren't bad. Although beating up on the Indians ain't much.

Enough with all this Yankees/Red Sox talk...my Braves are dominating right now. Let's just ignore that its only been against the Phillies, Cubs and Marlins. Justin Upton is amazing though.

RIP, Roy Halladay's right arm.


(although I really haven't give up yet)

ace wrote:RIP, Roy Halladay's right arm.


(although I really haven't give up yet)

Seriously its pretty tough to watch at this point. I always kinda liked the guy, so I hope he is able to get it back.

rambone 78 wrote:The Red Sox are now 5-2, and everybody is saying they're the '27 Yankees.

Bull. The Rex Sox start fast almost every year. Do they finish fast?

Eh, have you been watching lately? The past couple years, the Sox have been notorious for very slow starts. Part of it is that they always draw a couple season-opening series with the Yankees, but the past two years they haven't been great in April.

Tough to figure, but Will Middlebrooks gets 4 hits, three homers and a double, just misses his
forth homer, Sunday.
Comes home and goes 0 for Baltimore at Fenway!
Guess Jackie Bradley isn't going to the Hall of Fame in his first year,
afterall.
Media just smothered this kid, who is no different than a thousand past players
who had a hot spring training, and couldn't live up to the hype.

But Lester has at least looked like the Lester of old

Carlos Zambrano, pitching in the minors for the Phillies. What could possibly go wrong with that?

I've stuck with some really bad Phillies teams over the years, but this one's a mess.

ace wrote:Carlos Zambrano, pitching in the minors for the Phillies. What could possibly go wrong with that?

I've stuck with some really bad Phillies teams over the years, but this one's a mess.

They're kind of paying the penalty now for Amaro's questionable signings and trades over the year. Flags fly forever, but going hard after free agents eventually has the side effect of making it tougher to sign impact amateur talent, since you're usually surrendering draft picks to do it.

SGreenwell wrote:

ace wrote:Carlos Zambrano, pitching in the minors for the Phillies. What could possibly go wrong with that?

I've stuck with some really bad Phillies teams over the years, but this one's a mess.

They're kind of paying the penalty now for Amaro's questionable signings and trades over the year. Flags fly forever, but going hard after free agents eventually has the side effect of making it tougher to sign impact amateur talent, since you're usually surrendering draft picks to do it.

I'm not sure it's even all related to that. I was never the biggest Gillick fan, but he won, so I have to give him that. Amaro just makes so many questionable choices, and he's so dismissive of anything related to advanced stats. I get that a lot of baseball people think they know better, but most teams at least work some of that into their decision-making... not Amaro, the guy who unabashedly criticizes walks. They've had injuries, but most can't even be seen as all that surprising (Howard, Utley, Halladay).

ace wrote:

SGreenwell wrote:

ace wrote:Carlos Zambrano, pitching in the minors for the Phillies. What could possibly go wrong with that?

I've stuck with some really bad Phillies teams over the years, but this one's a mess.

They're kind of paying the penalty now for Amaro's questionable signings and trades over the year. Flags fly forever, but going hard after free agents eventually has the side effect of making it tougher to sign impact amateur talent, since you're usually surrendering draft picks to do it.

I'm not sure it's even all related to that. I was never the biggest Gillick fan, but he won, so I have to give him that. Amaro just makes so many questionable choices, and he's so dismissive of anything related to advanced stats. I get that a lot of baseball people think they know better, but most teams at least work some of that into their decision-making... not Amaro, the guy who unabashedly criticizes walks. They've had injuries, but most can't even be seen as all that surprising (Howard, Utley, Halladay).

heh, I'm into advanced stats as well, but I figured it would be best to avoid getting into that since they did win some titles But yeah, that extension for Howard was a killer - totally unneeded at the time, with no real discount to the team, and it signed a bulky first baseman to a long contract. That type of player is typically the worst kind to lock up long-term, since if they lose their ability to hit there isn't a reason to keep them on the roster any longer.

ace wrote: I was never the biggest Gillick fan...

Stand Pat. He would have won more than his two World Series if he realized you can make impact trades from April 1 to July 31.

Send Pap back to Boston.

Isn't Jonny Gomes great? Isn't the Red Sox OF powerful?
The team that once had Rice, Lynn and Evans, and Tony C, Reggie Smith and Yaz,
has a bunch of Punch and Judy lefty hitters and the awesome Jonny Gomes.
Wow!
Who needed Justin Upton?

Jonny Gomes never made more than around 1 million dollars a year in his career. So what do the Red Sox do? Give him a 2yr deal worth 10 million dollars. What a joke. Guy is hitting .168.

Yes, but he's a "good clubhouse guy"
So was Cody Ross, who at least could hit in Fenway.
Who needed Justin Upton, when you can sign Jonny Gomes?

rhodyfan3 wrote:Jonny Gomes never made more than around 1 million dollars a year in his career. So what do the Red Sox do? Give him a 2yr deal worth 10 million dollars. What a joke. Guy is hitting .168.

To be fair, he never made more than that as a Ray because he was still on a rookie deal for most of his time there. Once he got expensive, the Rays (and to a greater extent the Marlins) did what they did with a lot of players - they cut him loose rather than go to arbitration, especially since he had had a poor 2008. He then signed a minimum deal with the Reds, but by year three was making around $1.7M, and then signed a FA deal with Oakland for a million. I do agree with you though that $5M a year for two years seems a bit steep, but it's not drastically out of line with other FA deals, where you unfortunately usually have to pay well over the player's future expected value.

Even with him hitting .168, his OBP is somehow .322, so he's kind of like Mark Bellhorn. Of course, the problem as Rod alludes to is that he's an OF - you can handle that kind of line from a 2B or SS, since most of them can't hit anyway, but not a corner outfielder who's more of a DH. Ideally, he's probably a platoon outfielder / DH at this point.

rodfromcranston wrote:Yes, but he's a "good clubhouse guy"
So was Cody Ross, who at least could hit in Fenway.
Who needed Justin Upton, when you can sign Jonny Gomes?

Justin Upton was never a free agent - his brother BJ was. To get Justin, the Sox probably would have had to give up something like Jackie Bradley Jr. and that mashing SS/3B they have in the minors, Xander Boegarts.

Us Braves fans are perfectly fine with the way the Justin Upton saga turned out!!

Young proven commodity in Justin Upton. So they had to give away Bradley and some prospects not
named Bogearts? Who cares?
Bradley isn't all the hype says he is, anyway.

What about bringing Bradley back up and putting him in the OF? I just checked out his stats he's batting .354 in Pawtucket right now. Why not? Gomes sucks and Carp isn't an answer.

Does anyone realize that the Sox play in Fenway Park and not Yankee Stadium?
Ellsbury, Bradley. Carp, are leftys, Victorino and Nava are switchers, which means 80% of their at bats are left handed.
No power from any of these people.
The last 30-100 right handed hitter developed by the Sox system was NOMAR!
Not exactly yesterday.
Theo and his obsession with little lefty OFs has come back to haunt the Sox.
The only right handed power is from 32 year old Mike Napoli and slumping Will Middlebrooks.

Yeah, I miss right handed sluggers like Manny and Beltre. I agree, Rod, that there are just too many lefties and not enough right handed power guys.

Clearly, the Sox try to get their lefties to use the wall, but not necessarily hit home runs over it. Maybe they're thinking that the other 81 games of the year are away from Fenway where being a lefty would be helpful.

Odd, but Jason Bay hit 19 of his 36 HRs on the road in 2009.
Everyone said it was Fenway that made him.
Of course, he hit 30-35 in three seasons at huge PNC Park in
Pittsburgh.
I liked JBay. Too bad he got two concussions, which have pretty much made him
a journeyman.
Youk gave them a threat from the right side, but injuries killed him, too.
He was a Dan Duquette era signee.

Bradley just got called back up...

Most over hyped Sox player, in my memory.
The media hysteria this spring was suffocating.
His opening day walk was treated as Bobby Thompson's home run to win
the pennant for the Giants in 1952.
Hope I'm wrong, but time will tell.
Somebody has to play CF next year after Ellsbury leaves.

So these rumored suspensions, and I would imagine the players' union fight against them, could be interesting.

don't understand how'd they fight them if the evidence is there, yes there are no positive test but there is evidence

Baseball is going to open a can of worms that will further damage the game.
As if that clinic in Miami is the only supplier of PEDs for MLB.
Funny, the NFL and NBA probably have wider PED usage than MLB ever imagined,
yet they make token suspensions and pretty much ignore the problem.
Only baseball does their "mea culpas" and drags the game through the mud.
PEDs are a fact, and have been for decades, in all sports.
Baseball selecting ARod, Braun and a bunch of bit players, as cleaning up the game
for the public is madness.
Bud Selig and his office are assclowns.

I'm so immune to these stories at this point. I love seeing guys like A-Rod get publicly humiliated, but overall I could care less about this whole deal.

I work under the assumption that everybody is taking something and always has.

We're a cynical bunch.


Also randomly wondering if I need a new picture over there. I think I'll keep it for now.

The Players Union will block this, as no positive tests were given.
Braun took something to cure herpes and got the positive test a couple of years ago.
Why MLB wants to try to destroy one of their best younger players, is insane.
He's been as consistent a performer since his rookie year, as anyone this side of
Miguel Cabrera.
As Ace said, the cynic in me says they're all doing it, so just look the other way,
instead of ruining player's careers.

Rod, I agree with you but I think Selig feels that Braun embarrassed him last time. But I'm not sure why they're still on this crusade. Everyone has moved on. Not the savviest thing to do from a PR standpoint.

Braun is dirty and a huge liar. And MLB doesn't require positive tests anymore under their newest version of the anti-drug program. They can use proof of possession/association with PEDs and their vendors as well as lying about such associations to levy suspensions.

That won't stand up in a court of law, when these players sue the shit out of
the idiots running MLB.

It's in their CBA. So the only defense they have is to argue over the validity of the evidence and the satisfaction of the "proof" requirement.

Plus, are you saying the MLBPA is not also run by idiots? It was their defiance that allowed this PED issue to fester and get worse. Now all their members are viewed as possible PED users, even if the true % is small. MLBPA did this damage.

For MLB, I can see how they want to levy some major penalties to make MLBPA members think twice about getting involved with BALCO-like companies like the Biogenesis one. This is why they have the CBA-provided option to suspend players without a positive test, since so many players who WOULD use PEDs would likely not be caught unless they were tested multiple times per WEEK.

Oh, please! MLB looked the other way until Canseco made it so public, that it couldn't be ignored.

Just about every pro athlete in all sports is either breaking the PED rules or bending them to the point that they are effectively meaningless. I cared about that 5 or 6 years ago. Now I don't care so much. It is their own bodies they are screwing with. I'm not going to worry about it. But I do view any future MLB action against Braun as petty and vengeful. I don't respect Selig enough to think anything other than that he is going after Braun because of a personal vendetta for making MLB look bad last spring.