Bringing in Scutaro is a solid move given the other options this off-season. He's obviously not going to be an impact player, but certainly should be dependable guy for a position that's had way too much volatility since '04. I guess they are okay with giving up a first round pick for him after the Braves signed Wagner. It'll be interesting to see how the Sox handle the rest off this winter since they still have a lot of money to spend and holes to fill but the free agent market is pretty ehh. I'd be happy with Holliday plus a few scratch ticket rehab pitchers (Harden and Escobar maybe?) to fill out the end of the rotation. Another big bat like A-Gonz would be nice but it just doesn't seem like they're going to be willing to give up Buchholz plus the other guys required.
Scutaro's first half last season is far out of line with his career averages, and he came back down to earth down the stretch. I think that Boston will be looking to upgrade at short before too long. Also, my how Jed Lowrie's stock has fallen. Another example of the Sox overrating their own farm system.
Wait, what?! Since when is a guy with a career .337 OBP an OBP guy? For comparison, Lugo's career OBP is .336. And Scutaro's OBP of .379 last year was a career high by a goooooood amount. Prior to a career year at age 33, Scutaro's career OBP was .325! ETA: Oh, and Lugo's career SLG is .391 (.358 with Boston). Scutaro's? .384 (.377 minus last year's outlier). Good luck with that.
just get ready to get "bent over" in the Halladay deal.....that's all you really need to worry about....
Scutaro sucks. Pedroia should have been moved to short, the options at 2B were much better than SS. Epstein once again has fucked up at the SS position. Shocking.
Eh. I'll "worry" about that when it happens. And even if the Yanks do get "bent over" as you say, it'd be hard to get too upset about acquiring one of the best pitchers in the game. Even the most lopsided of deals for Halladay would likely only hurt the Yanks on the back end of whatever extension they sign him to. Hard to argue that he'd make them worse for the next 2-3 seasons. In any case, the original point still stands... Scutaro is not an OBP guy.
Brad Penny signs a 1 year, $7.5 million deal, with another $1.5 mil in incentives, with the St. Louis Cards. Jesus.
Apparently the Rays are getting in on the action.....the rumor is they're offering a pkg including BJ Upton.
5:17pm: The Rays "flatly denied" interest in discussing Davis and Upton for Halladay, reports ESPN's Peter Gammons.
You do realize that you're talking to someone who spends most of the baseball season with a Dan Duquette avatar right? I've never been an Epstien fan.
ryan church released http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/12/braves-designate-ryan-church-for-assignment.html
ivan rodriguez signs with nationals http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/12/nationals-to-sign-ivan-rodriguez.html
What the hell is with some of these contracts? 2 years 6 mil for Pudge? WHAT?! And now 3 years 15 million for Brandon Lyon. Awful.
Notice it's bad teams making these moves... the good teams aren't making any bad high priced signings. You have the Nats, Orioles and Mets wasting money on scrubs. AS for Scutaro, the guy is average role player which is what helps you win. Yes the Skanks won with an All-Star lineup but how many times did they fail? The Sox, Phils and Cards have all won with a few great players and many role players. It's stupid teams like the Mets and Nats that continue to sign aging over the hill guys to awful contracts and then look around like they are shocked when they fail.
