Originally Posted by BishopMVP
I don't get the hate for Gammons. He clearly was the classier Red Sox version of Jon Heyman, but as long as you knew that he was entertaining to read and had very good sources. He might not have been as good as Joe Posnanski the last 5/10 years, but considering what he did to build up the industry he was still one of the better ones out there.I didn't realize Reddick and Kalish were in SINGLE A (Westmoreland yes. Casey Kelly is overrated and I hope he is a centerpiece in a trade for Gonzalez, Fielder, or Hernandez). Theo, and effectively the Red Sox ownership, has said their goal is to realistically compete for the WS 8 out of 10 years every decade. Considering the dead weight we're carrying in Ortiz and Lowell and the lack of more than one true middle of the order power bat, we're likely at 1 of the 2 "rebuilding" years - where we'll probably still win 85+ games and compete for the WC at a minimum. Your solution is what... extend a long contract to Bay or Holliday so they can play the role of 2009 Mike Lowell in 3 years, send most of our best prospects for Halladay (who would then likely be extended and signal the departure of Beckett when his contract ends) and throw everything at this year while decreasing our chances the next 5? Sure I'd like to beat the Yankees every year, and I certainly don't want to go into a Marlins cycle of 4 terrible years for 1 shot at the WS, but we are 70-80 million dollars short of the Yankees on payroll and revenue. The only chance we have to match them on the field is by having 4-5 all-star caliber players being significantly underpaid in their pre-arb years (in 2007 it was Pedroia, Youkilis, Lester, Papelbon, to a lesser extent Ellsbury) to supplement the high-priced superstars (Ramirez, Ortiz, Beckett, Schilling). I agree they messed up by not overbidding 2-3m/y for Teixeira (how Duquette got Manny), but it doesn't change the fact that you need to surround those guys with multiple quality starters developed from within.Do you actually know who any of these players are? Crisp turned 30 last month, Hermida is 25, was a top 10 prospect 3 years ago and had an .870 OPS in a hitters park as a 23y/o. If we gave him a full season of at-bats there's a decent (15-20%?) chance he turns into a middle of the order bat that we got on the cheap - kind of like how we lucked into David Ortiz. Rich Harden, when (and that's a big if) healthy is a borderline Cy Young candidate. Considering we already have 2 #1's we're paying 12m+ (plus a potential #1 in Buchholz), signing Harden and hoping he's healthy for a full year is much, much smarter than trading for Halladay and giving him a big-money extension. If Halladay only wants a 5-year extension he'll be 38 at the end of it. I know he's a power pitcher and some of those guys can keep going strong until that age (especially if they, I mean their wife, take lots of steroids) but I'd think long and hard about giving him an 18m a year contract until then, let alone trading prospects for him.
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