1) Great article on Dave Roberts in today's Times. (Nice photo, too.) I guess I hadn't realized just how badly he wanted to be in the starting lineup, and to live in California. Note to self: get off your ass and make the trip down to Petco Park.
2) The more I think about it, the happier I am with getting Graf-and-niño. Sox gave up basically nothing, and now have more than just a stopgap solution to the Bellhorn injury.
3) Now all Theo needs to do is convince Terry Ryan he really wants Kevin Millar. It's possible -- he took on Bret Boone, who is far worse this season. If he doesn't bite, a little inaudible muttering should do the trick: "How about J.C. Romero for Mlllrrrr?"
Romero would be a nice addition for the Sox, for Millar. And then we can bring up Pentagnine who would platoon with Olerud.
ReplyDeleteRyan is likely far less inclined to go after Millar at the price of Romero - with Boone they basically got him for nothing.
Graf was playing mostly 3b...He might be a stop gap until Bellhorn comes back, or we might have an infield with Graf splitting time with Cora and Youk at second and third respectively. Also, Youk is probably the backup 1b as well.
ReplyDeleteMueller all of the sudden (position-wise) becomes expendable...Of course, so does Millar. But I don't think we can get by without these guys. Sorry, but I don't think Graf's bat is going to replace Mueller or Millar. I hope that Graf surprises me...There have also been major rumblings around here that Hanley might be coming up. Not sure how he would fit in...
Also, Kapler is not that big of a bat, either. Payton, I think, was a step up offensively.
I agree that El Nino does not replace Mueller offensively. He doesn't replace Millar either, but I agree with X about giving Petagine a shot -- he's looking good at Pawtucket. I really like that Graf can play all the IF.
ReplyDeleteAs for Kapler vs. Payton, Kapler is really great against lefties -- so if he's used just as a sub for Trot it could be an upgrade over Payton (assuming he returns to 2004 form) -- I discussed this a little while back.
Anyone know why Manny left the game?...
ReplyDeleteManny: no clue. Don and Jerry speculated injury or illness, but I didn't hear anything else about it.
ReplyDeleteGR: Graffanino plaed 3rd mostlyout of necessity this year, but he's played the majority of his career at second. I bet he gets most of the playing time there for the rest of the year, and then opens next year as the 2B/Util until they figure out what Pedroia will give them.
From today's Globe, on Embree:
ReplyDelete''It's not a real fun decision to make," said Francona. ''We let him have a little bit of input. We kind of arrived at this because it's just not working out consistently as we needed to. Although he thinks he's maybe getting better, I think he acknowledged that it's been rough. He was about as professional as you can be. We talked to him for a while and that's what we decided to do.
Does that sound like they gave him the option to " be injured" and go on the DL and maybe make a rehab in the minors to try to get more consistent with location/velocity? It sounds that way to me.
Wow... that is very telling. I hope Bellhorn works his way back. He was such a solid contributor last year.
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