EVIL~! alkeiper

And he still had a better year than Pettitte.

I honestly don't see what's special about Orlando Cabrera. He's 29, and he's never posted an OPS at or above the league average. His OBP is barely above water. With the loaded shortstop market this offseason, I think the Sox are well off trying to improve at the position.

I hate to break your heart, but I was referring to Miguel Cabrera.

No. Simply because I think you can get a better pitcher for $8 Million, or even resign Lieber for less.

He's eligible for free agency.

By the same token, a player's most recent performances can be misleading. You have to ask yourself, are we sure this pitcher will keep this up, given the salary we plan to pay him? I'm not so sure.

Hammond was criticized because he couldn't live up to his amazing 2002 campaign with the Braves. He still posted a 2.86 ERA with the Yankees, alongside a 45/11 K:BB ratio. He pitched well in Oakland this year. You can't tell me he wouldn't look better in a Yankees uniform than Felix Heredia. Hitting 17 home runs isn't much of a help when that's all you are doing, besides collecting outs. As far as Tanyon Sturtze goes, his ERAs for the last three seasons are 5.18, 5.94, and 5.47. His positive traits consist solely of collecting a 3.86 ERA in 16 1/3 IP in September. The month before, he collected a 7.25 ERA in 22 1/3 IP. Forgive me if his recent performance doesn't fill me with overwhelming confidence.

As far as pitchers go, one possible name is Odalis Perez. His W/L record is weak due to abysmal run support, but he has terrific control. He's a lefty, fly-ball pitcher, which tends to work well in Yankee Stadium. As far as the Yankees go, this is not a team which needs to be blown up. What would the reaction have been if we shuffled the games, and the Series ended with game 4? It would just be a close series that the Sox won. Making mass changes based on four games is extremely dangerous. Besides, like I stated before, I believe the problem is that they had a weak bench and bullpen. Tony Clark, Ruben Sierra, and Enrique Wilson all collected 200+ at bats for this team, and posted OBPs under .300. You can do better than that, and for very little money. Ditto the bullpen. Flash Gordon and Mariano Rivera are the only bullpen arms to post ERAs under 4.50. This is another area that needs to be addressed, and can be done so fairly efficiently. Chris Hammond, Rheal Cormier, and even Troy Percival could help here. The media loves to blame the stars, but that's not the problem. Not every player hits 3 for 4 every day. You need guys to fill the void, and the Yankees didn't have that. There's a huge dropoff in quality once you get past the starters on this squad.

Celebrating out on the street doesn't make you a rioter. Not everyone in the vicinity of a riot is a rioter. And celebrating a key win is not punishable by death. If anyone's an idiot, its the Boston police, who can't break up a riot without killing people, apparently.

Banning alcohol is definately an overreaction here. I think simply the circumstances will temper emotions next time, with no further legislation needed.

Under the old format, the Sox would have had home field advantage anyway. Comparing records usually isn't accurate because they play completely different schedules.

Usually the new edition drops in mid to late February.

The problem with the Yankees is a lack of depth. They need to address that issue this offseason. They carried Tony Clark, Enrique Wilson, and Felix Heredia on their postseason roster. That is inexcusable. The Yanks need to take a look at players like Craig Counsell to fill out their bench, and they badly need to bolster their pitching staff.

Temporarily Suspended Members Love the Smart Marks.

If you've never read Bill James' Historical Abstract, I highly recommend it. Its a terrific read, even if you care nothing about statistics. Its full of anectdotes, information, essays, etc. Best of all, its about $20 on paperback.

Now I'm glad Moises Alou and the Cubs didn't win....

Agreed. 294/366/512 in Pro Player Stadium, and he's just 21! Most similar batter at age 21, Hank Aaron. Of course Ruben Sierra is #2. In any case though, he has the potential to become great.

Eh. Its just a pet peeve of mine. Of course, we will have live chats for this series. We've had tremendous success with them thus far.

Congratulations to the Cardinals. 105 wins and a National League Championship so far.

Cabrera's not even arbitration eligible until after next season. There's no way the Yankees could've gotten him.

How many times do I have to tell you guys, no OaO threads! Otherwise proceed.

Possibly. But there's no good method for finding those players. Look at Tim Hudson. Fantastic winning percentage, any team would want him. He had a 6.23 ERA in the 2002 playoffs. Who would've seen that coming? Ditto for Miguel Tejada. Who could've predicted his 2 for 23 performance last year? These are players just about any team would take.

If the problem is with their philosophy, they wouldn't take five games to lose every year. The choking is a problem with the players, not with the overall philosophy.

Still waiting... Four division titles and five playoff appearances, while the big market New York Mets haven't been to the Playoffs since 2000, and the Texas Rangers, who threw $65 Million at Chan Ho Park without looking at his home/away splits, are just now recovering from that mistake. They've lost Jason Giambi, Jason Isringhausen, Johnny Damon, Miguel Tejada, Keith Foulke and they STILL won 90+ games this season.