Cheech Tremendous

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Hey ESPN, it's been like 6 games, Tony Romo is not a Hall of Famer yet. Lay off the guy for a while.

Here's a more interesting question. Of those that came around in the old days, how many still watch wrestling? I know I don't.

I've been around since the Rantsylvania days, but I almost never posted. Didn't really start posting much until the last year or so. Wrestleline was the first site that I used to frequent when I got the Internet, and it introduced me to Scott Keith. Can't believe that was like seven or eight years ago.

I've always like Paul Heyman's booking, but I'm not really torn up about this. It's really time that TNA and WWE start looking for the next great writer/booker instead of rehashing the Rhodes, Russos, Heymans and Cornettes of the world. It's a different era and we need bookers who understand that.* *I have zero confidence that the braintrusts in either promotion recognize this, nor do I think they could ever find that person if he was out there.

I don't care how scarce starting pitching is, or how many times I hear that these teams are just awash in cash, when Gil Meche, Jeff Suppan, Vincente Padilla and Ted Lilly start getting $10-$11 million a year, there is serisously something wrong. These guys are fringe starters at best, and there are probably a number of AAA guys who could nearly match their production if given a shot.

They're also 5-0 when both Hasselbeck and Alexander are in the lineup. This team is a lot better than they are getting credit for. The NFC is going to come down the the Cowboys, Seahawks and Bears. If the Seahawks end up with homefield, would you bet against them?

The only thing you can say for him is that he is just 24. In his first full season in the majors, he hit .291/.325/.341. In his second season, he went .278/.333/.338, which to me looks like zero improvement. His K/BB numbers are atrocious. He steals bases at a 75% clip, which is just about at the threshold of having positive value. He is a good to great defensive centerfielder, but I'm not sure he's good enough to make up for a .650 OPS. His most similar batters don't paint a good picture at all. With zero power to speak of, and no ability to draw a walk, pitchers are going to continue to challenge him and probably cause him to regress a bit. Burke could be a nice talent, but it's looking more and more like Pettite and Clemens won't be returning next year. If you have the opportunity to lock up a solid #2/#3 to put behind Oswalt, I say you should go for it.

You may be underestimating Jason Jennings a little bit. There's a chance last year was a fluke, but he improved his peripheral numbers including his K/BB which was vastly improved. Remember that he has been pitching his entire career up in Colorado. Looking at his career trajectory, it looks like you can pencil him in for 200+ innings a year with a sub 4.00 ERA. That's very valuable (plus I still don't know what you see in Taveras).

Jon Lester's cancer is supposedly in remission and he may be ready to pitch by Spring Training. Good for him.

Kevin Youkilis is not a world beater, but he's a solid player and adds a lot of value to a lineup. He's not an ideal first baseman because he lacks the power associated with that position. However, he is almost perfect as a leadoff hitter (except for his lack of speed) and still brings value, especially at his low cost. The most important thing in baseball is getting on base, and he's one of the best at doing that. He's not going to win any Gold Gloves, but his defensive reputation is good at both first and third (career rate at third is 110). I watched most of Boston's games last year, so I don't appreciate being told that you have to watch the games to know value. Youkilis was the third best player on offense last year. He's no stiff.

Since when is Youkilis garbage? He's a cost controlled OBP machine that plays plus defense at two infield positions. If they made that deal, at least two or maybe all three would be sent off in separate deals to either upgrade at 1B or CF, or get the SS or bullpen help they are looking for. Loney, Laroche and Penny is about as good of a package that you could hope for if you're Boston.

According to Will Carroll, Jake Peavy's mechanics are fucked, and his shoulder has burdened far too great of a workload for his age. I know that he's complained at length about shoulder pain in the past, and he needed anti-inflammatory pills to get through his starts at the end of the year. I'm not saying his career is over, but if Kevin Towers knows something we don't about that arm, I could see him trying to move the guy while his value is super high. All that being said, he gets mentioned in trade rumors because every team under the sun wants him. He's not getting traded for Manny, Teixeira or anyone else this winter. EDIT: Check the news history on his player card at espn.com. The whole thing is full of tidbits about arm soreness, skipped bullpen sessions, etc.

That's a great deal for the Mets. Reasonable money, short term and an option if things work out. I may have to change my opinions about Omar Minaya one of these days. I still think they need to sign Barry Zito. That's one of the only places for him to go that makes sense for both sides, as far as I can see.

Just saw that play from the other night where Nate Robinson tried a ridiculous bounce the ball to himself dunk and missed badly. He didn't even get punished! If I was his coach, I'd sit him at the end of the bench for a week. Does Isiah have any control over his team whatsoever?

Don't know think I saw this mentioned anywhere, but Bud Selig says that he is stepping down in 2009 when his contract ends. I'm totally indifferent to Selig as commissioner, because for as many things that he's done that I've hated, he's done several others that have been positives.

Last thing I'm really going to say on this because, like I said before, I do believe this was a bad trade. It was reactionary and it went against their normal approach to roster moves. But, at the time, Josh Bard and Cla Meredith were nothing special at all, and it was very hard to see any upside in either of them (Al did, that bastard. Always one step ahead of me). Meredith was destroyed in Boston, and he really seemed like a busted prospect. I would sort of liken it to Fausto Carmona with the Indians last year. Remember when he got promoted to closer and went out and got slaughtered in like five straight appearances. Imagine if he got sent back to the minors and kept doing the same thing for the next six months. You'd probably think he'd lost his confidence and that he wouldn't recover. That's sort of what happened to Meredith. I'm happy that Cla is successful. He has said in interviews since the trade that he didn't like pitching in Boston and that the coaches continually messed with his approach. I don't think he ever would have been successful here. If you want to point out to the weak spot in Theo's crew, it's been the pitching and hitting coaches, as well as his player evaluation guys. I'm glad that he's taken steps to overhaul this aspect of the organization.

Except for the fact that Josh Bard was an awful player before the trade to SD, both in Boston and Clevleland. The sample size is small, but the guy couldn't even sniff an OPS of .700, which is basically the baseline for a major leaguer. He had an okay defensive reputation, but he couldn't catch knuckleballs. The Sox ask one thing of their backup and that is to catch knuckleballs. Doug Mirabelli was among the best backup catchers in the game before last year. He fell off a cliff in 2006, and that's what happens when you have a catcher that age, but I don't think anyone thought Bard was or was going to be a better player. That's why Boston had to add Meredith and kick in cash.

No it isn't. Our farm system is in the best shape it's been in 10 years. I know, so is the Red Sox farm system. Cartman and randomguy have no idea what they are talking about.

But Bard's been horrible everywhere else before he got to San Diego last year. He wasn't exactly a top prospect. If it wasn't for the fact that catchers develop late, I would write off last year as a fluke in a small sample size. I'm interested to see what happens this year, though. And Marte has done what again so far? Coco Crisp was hurt all last year. He was essentially as good as Damon was in 2005, maybe even better when you factor in defense. He was doing fine until the wrist injury. This is essentially true, except for the two week period that he spent in Africa last winter. This was the same time the Beckett trade happened. Hoyer, Cherington and Henry wanted to put off the deal until reaching Theo, but LL forced their hand by saying that Florida would accept the Texas deal unless they acted right then. I do have my reservations about Tito, and his rigid use of the bench and bullpen, but he's a good manager. He managed rings around Joe Torre (who is great in his own right) during the '04 playoffs. Plus he replaced Grady Little, who may have been the worst manager the team has ever had, and that's saying a lot. It baffles me that guy even got another job.

Wow, if you were going to take all the time to type this stuff up, you'd think you'd do just a bit of research first. Theo did not trade for Beckett. That trade was orchestrated by Larry Lucchino and done with Theo out of the country. He did it to put his stamp on the team in the face of the way Theo wanted to build the team. Hoyer and Cherington were against it, and John Henry was as well. He wanted to sign Burnett and keep the prospects. I did say that I though this was a poor trade, but let's not look at it just in hindsight. Bard and Meredith were horrible with the Red Sox. Bard nearly set the record for passed balls after like ten starts. Meredith couldn't hit the strike zone to save his life. They probably gave up to quick, but neither guy had a future at the time. Some guys just can't do Boston. The front office wasn't really trying to trade Sanchez. If you remember correctly, that was the second part of the Brandon Lyon deal. If you don't remember how that went down, the Sox may have knowingly traded an injured Brandon Lyon to the Pirates for Mike Gonzalez. The Pirates found out and demanded to rescind the trade. When they (the Sox) returned him, they packaged Sanchez in the deal as a goodwill to keep the Pirates from crying foul to other GMs and destroying their ability to make a deal at the deadline. But Ortiz did work out. You can't say that he doesn't get credit for that success, but them blame him in the same breath for other sure things failing when they got to Boston. Some moves work out and some don't. As for Cabrera-Renteria, are we really at the point that we are lamenting not signing Cabrera? The same Cabrera that the Angels offered at the Winter meetings for nothing last year? Renteria was a bust, but he netted Andy Marte, and therefore, Coco Crisp. The plan has always been to reconstruct the core of the team around young, pre-arbitration players entering their prime instead of old overpaid guys leaving theirs. They wanted to rebuild the team around character guys, and flush out the so-called idiots and headcases. They want to construct the $100 million player development machine instead of depleting cash resources on free agents. They want a team that can win 90 and compete every year, instead of one that perpetually fails. All those things are works in progress, and we won't know how it works out until 2007 or 2008. Curt's a media blowhard. They are not going over the threshold. They didn't last year and they won't this year. Ownership does not consider themselves competitors with the Yankees, no matter how often the media tries to feed on that.

Okay, I realize that my posts are really getting Red Sox-oriented lately, and I will try to temper that a bit in the future, but I have to take issue with this post. Theo Epstein is easily one of the 5-10 best GMs in the game. He's had his share of miscues during his tenure, but it's been his plan and the execution of that plan that has transformed the club into perennial World Series contenders. His moves from 2003-04 were masterful, and took the team from a 90-win club to a 98-win team. It is exponentially more difficult to step up from a solid contender to a World Series champion. The additions of Schilling, Foulke, Ortiz, Mueller, Millar, O-Cab and Bellhorn to the established core is what put them over the top. 2005 was definitely a step in the wrong direction and it's impossible to judge 2006 because half of the moves made last offseason were done when he was no longer working for the team. He has said since the beginning that 2006 was going to be a rebuilding year, and one of the main reasons he left was because management wouldn't accept this fact. He's had exactly two trades go wrong under his watch and those were the Jeff Suppan acquisition and the Bard/Meredith for Mirabelli trade. And one of those trades had to happen because the team couldn't find anyone to catch a knuckeball and they panicked. Lastly, they do not have all the money in the world to spend on players. Ownership has taken the hard line stance again and again that this team will not go over the luxury tax threshold except in the most special of cases. Theo's ultimate plan is a work in progress, but soon the entire core will be made of players entering their prime instead of overpaid ones exiting theirs.

Doesn't Bonds hate Boston, thinking they are all racists? Well, to be fair to Bonds, the Red Sox were built on a foundation of racism for decades.

I concur. The drums from the opening may be the greatest thing ever captured on vinyl.

It's unfair that that the perception will be that JD Drew is replacing Manny, or that he got Damon's money, even though I know full well that is what will happen. In reality, Drew is a replacement for Trot Nixon, and they still need upgrades at several other positions. The Sox can afford Drew and Manny, but they cannot afford Manny, Drew, Lugo, Matsuzaka and a new closer. Someone has to go in that equation, and unfortunately, it will probably be Manny. This front office understands and values Manny's hitting, but they've never coveted him as an all-around player. When you have Bill James on your payroll and mandate that he spend his time investigating the negative value of Manny's lack of hustle, you know that the player is not in good graces. It's a ballsy move, and ultimately this, and not the 2004 World Series, will clearly define Theo's reign.