2009 Baseball Season/Off-Season Discussion

[pilferk]

There is a rumor floating that the Sox are trying to convince the Brewers to trade Fielder for a package of young talent (including Clay Bucholz, but a whole slew of others, too).

I'm not sure how credible it is, or if it's just wishful thinking/armchair GM'ing from some beat writers.  THAT move would pretty much take care of the Sox lineup issues, but I'm not sure losing Clay would help their rotation.

[faldor]

There is a rumor floating that the Sox are trying to convince the Brewers to trade Fielder for a package of young talent (including Clay Bucholz, but a whole slew of others, too).

I'm not sure how credible it is, or if it's just wishful thinking/armchair GM'ing from some beat writers.  THAT move would pretty much take care of the Sox lineup issues, but I'm not sure losing Clay would help their rotation.

I've heard rumors stirred up by fans and media types but nothing close to concrete about Fielder.  I'm sure the Brewers would want more than just Buccholz in return, much more in fact.  Fielder is only 24 and is a proven star, although his pysique leaves a lot to be desired.  Clay has potential but has yet to live up to anything, aside for a no-hitter.  They'd probably want Masterson too, or at least other high prospects.  Not sure the Sox would be willing to part with that much "potential".  Fielder would pretty much be in line to take over for David Ortiz who appears to be on the decline.  Both have similar builds, and Ortiz isn't really that old (32 or so).  How long will Fielder stay on the top of his game?  The Sox have a high 1B prospect, Lars Anderson, who is a few years away and will supplant Ortiz eventually.

[faldor]

Congrats to Jim Rice for being elected into the Hall of Fame in his final year of eligibility, FINALLY!  Stars of the 80's have been getting the shaft for years due in large part to the inflated numbers of the steroid era.  Voters are slowly starting to take notice and change their outlook.

As for sure fire HOF, Rickey Henderson.  I received this e-mail today, not sure what webiste it came from.  Pretty funny though.

Best Rickey Henderson stories EVER!

In no particular order:
Rickey the diplomat: When Rickey broke Lou Brock's all-time Stolen Base record, Brock had given up his own time to come to the game and stand next to Rickey for the presentation. Rickey addressed the crowd: ?Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.?

Rickey, friend to the little people: With the Mets in 1999, Rickey asked a teammate why there were so many reporters around and he was told the team had fired Tom Robson. "Who's he?" Rickey replied Robson was the Mets hitting coach.

Rickey the Wizard of Wall St. The A's accounting department was in a panic because their books were off by a million bucks. The source of the discrepancy was Rickey, who had taken a $1 million bonus check and instead of cashing it, framed it.

Rickey the Wizard of Wall St. Part II: He once held onto a bonus check rather than cash it because he was "waiting for the rates to go up."

Rickey the geographer: He once asked a teammate how long it would take to drive to the Dominican Republic.

Rickey the geography, Part II: His apartment had a "view of the Entire State Building."
Third person Rickey: He once left Padres GM Kevin Towers this voicemail: ?This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.?

Rickey the linguist: When he was looking for a seat on the Padres bus, Steve Finley said "You can sit anywhere you want. You've got tenure." To which Rickey replied ?Ten years? Ricky?s been playing at least 16, 17 years.?

Classy Rickey: When he broke Ty Cobb's All Time Runs Scored record on a home run, he took full minute to round the bases then slid home.

Rickey the mathematician: When Ken Caminiti said that 50% of ballplayers were juicing, Rickey said ?Well, Rickey?s not one of them, so that?s 49 percent right there.?

Gracious Rickey: At the end of his days with the Sox, Tom Werner offered him a car as a going away present and Rickey said he wanted John Henry's Mercedes. Not the same make and model. He wanted John Henry's car. So the team presented him with a red Thunderbird and when he saw it Rickey said "Who's ugly car is on the field?"

My all time favorite Rickey story that turns out not to be true even though I wish it was: Legend has it that when he was with the Mets, Rickey asked John Olerud why he wears a helmet in the field and Olerud explained how he had had an aneurysm and had t o as a precaution. "Man," Rickey supposedly said, "I was with Toronto last year and we had a guy with the same thing!" And Olerud said "That would be me." Too bad both men deny it ever happened.

But a true story of Rickey, great teammate: His locker was next to Billy Beane's, but Beane got sent down to the minors. After a few months, Beane got called back up to the bigs. Six weeks after his call up Rickey said ?Hey, man, where have you been? Haven?t seen you in awhile.?

I can't wait until Henderson gets into the Hall. His is going to be the greatest induction speech in the history of sports.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Ha!  Those stories about Rickey were published on ESPN.com

The MLB Network guys had a few good stories about him.

Rickey was Rickey long before Manny was just being Manny.

[G2N2R]

Rickey is the greatest, those stories cracked me up 

[D]

Rickey Henderson is one of my all time favorite players.


Braves picked up Derrick Lowe. That is what  i like to see. Get back to  pitching and defense.

Losing Furcal will prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Escobar had a pretty decent season and hopefully will keep getting better.

If I were Milwaukee, I'd trade Fielder in an instant for some great young talent. Guys with that body type, usually eat themselves out of the league.

[D]

How do Boston do it?

First you re-sign Pedroia, a damn MVP for less than 8 million a year.. NOW u get Kevin Youklis back who has numbers as good if not slightly better than Mark Texeria for 41 million over 4 years. that is half per year of what Mark gets.....


Those dudes need NEW AGENTS fast!

[gilld1]

^^ Or baseball needs to ban Scott Boras so no one makes the massive amounts of cash that his clients do.  He is killing the game.

[Misfits 138]

now the cubs sign So Taguchi...i swear to god Jim Hendry better have a big plan for signing and trading all these outfielders that dont bat past .203....there better be a method to his madness...so now instead of having 2 centerfielder with speed who really cant hit...we went out and signed 2 more centerfielders who cant hit but have speed...and then reed johnson who is 10 levels of awesome! but yet dosent get proper playing time...

this better be the parts for the peavy deal or i will eat my signed sammy sosa cubs hat!

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

[novemberparadise23]

I've been to shea a number of times and for all mets fans sakes i hope the new stadium is much better. Shea was a shithole 


But from what i hear its gonna be a beautiful stadium 

[tim_m]

I've been to shea a number of times and for all mets fans sakes i hope the new stadium is much better. Shea was a shithole 


But from what i hear its gonna be a beautiful stadium 

Yeah shea sucked!

You would hope a brand new state of the art stadium would be!

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

[w.axl.rose]

what are you trying to say? come on boy, spit it out.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

[cotis]

place looks great!

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Speaking of great looking places...

Check it out, brah.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Looks like Shea will be gone this week.

[pilferk]

Yanks front office has moved into their new digs:

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090123&content_id=3766742&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy