Said as he floated in his moat.

$40m of shut the fuck up

Honestly, the utter lack of self-awareness by these morons is astonishing.

Boston's system is pretty deep and broad. Lee and Young for 4 prospects could definitely be put together.

Two of their top three pretty please.

Shore wrote:

mcare89 wrote:The amount of money needed to entice teams like Oakland and Pittsburgh into the race negates half the point of trading him. To get those teams in, you'd probably need to pick up at least half the tab, and I don't think either of those teams would part with enough of a prospect haul to make it worth carrying around 10-15 mill of dead money around.

The idea isn't to get the best value for him. This isn't an auction where everything must go. You don't have to trade him in the next 3 days unless you're absolutely terrified he's going to get hurt this season and kill his value, which is just no way to run a baseball team. The idea is to get proper value for him. That includes getting a prospect haul that compares to what we're losing in our #1 starter, as well as getting Lee's contract off the books. If you have to kick in a few million, as long as you're getting a prospect haul, so be it. But wanting any buyer to take Lee's full freight isn't an absurd request at all.

Disagree. Our sole advantage in the marketplace is cash. If we can add cash and widen the market for Lee, we have to do it. It's not about making another team spend money, it's maximizing the return in talent that you get - regardless of the cash it costs.

But you're right - we don't have to trade him. And I wouldn't unless we got a kickass haul.

I'm all for adding the money if I thought it would make a difference. But Pittsburgh and Oakland aren't the teams I'd use as an example. Oakland's system is pretty terrible, and I don't know that any amount of money would bring Pittsburgh into play. This example works better if there's mid-tier markets in the hunt who may be willing to bend their payroll to win a ring. Oakland and Pittsburgh are bottom 5 markets who just aren't ever going to make that big a splash.

I absolutely agree in using the financial advantage to make the return greater, but right now, the optimal trading partner from a prospect stance is probably Boston anyway. If Boston's not willing to part with Boegarts or JBJ on Lee's merits, I'm not sure that any amount of money is going to pry them from that stance. Money isn't an issue for Boston. Using the cash advantage works on a team that is built to win short-term and needs to accumulate more assets to do so. That's not Boston, and it's definitely not Oakland or Pittsburgh.

Baltimore, OTOH, is more along those lines. Not that they're in the mix.

lowcountry wrote:Baltimore, OTOH, is more along those lines. Not that they're in the mix.

Baltimore is the perfect example. They're in the hunt for Peavy, but I don't know if they'd be willing to give up Bundy or Gausman regardless of the money thrown in, which is what they'd have to do for Lee.

Come August 1st, the only two things that will seriously piss me off are if Michael Young is still on the team, and if Ruben has traded Cliff Lee without getting legitimate value, at least one consensus stud prospect plus another piece or two, in return.

Trent Steele wrote:Honestly, the utter lack of self-awareness by these morons is astonishing.

It's not surprising, but it's remarkably fucking tone deaf. The two people who have the worst contracts on the team complaining about how the organization is run.

jerseyhoya wrote:

Trent Steele wrote:Honestly, the utter lack of self-awareness by these morons is astonishing.

It's not surprising, but it's remarkably fucking tone deaf. The two people who have the worst contracts on the team complaining about how the organization is run.

Without the context it's hard to know, but I think Howard's comments are very different than Papelbon's- just a general it "it's frustrating to lose" rather than a criticism of the organization.

jerseyhoya wrote:Come August 1st, the only two things that will seriously piss me off are if Michael Young is still on the team, and if Ruben has traded Cliff Lee without getting legitimate value, at least one consensus stud prospect plus another piece or two, in return.

I think you're underestimating Rube's creativity at doing annoying things.

swishnicholson wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

Trent Steele wrote:Honestly, the utter lack of self-awareness by these morons is astonishing.

It's not surprising, but it's remarkably fucking tone deaf. The two people who have the worst contracts on the team complaining about how the organization is run.

Without the context it's hard to know, but I think Howard's comments are very different than Papelbon's- just a general it "it's frustrating to lose" rather than a criticism of the organization.

He hadn't even heard Pap's comments. Barkann summarized them on the spot, and I'm not sure Howard even really heard him through the ear piece

Anybody but Jackie Bradley Jr., please. I can't take ten years of the Crashburn gang whining we could have just drafted him

Grotewold wrote:Anybody but Jackie Bradley Jr., please. I can't take ten years of the Crashburn gang whining we could have just drafted him

it is a pisser though. they had a chance to add a top 10-15 talent who dropped because of an injury and picked larry greene instead. it felt like a big mistake on draft night already.

at this point i'd tell the sox i'd do jbj/ranaudo/owens or jbj/cecchini/barnes. that lets them keep boegarts/workman/webster. i'd add in young if they want him.

The Nightman Cometh wrote:And if we are retooling, getting something of value for Kendrick and then using his $$$ to take a flier on Halladay seems pretty ideal.

Halladay came here because he wanted to win a WS. Why would he come back?

IIRC he's said that he wants to spend the rest of his career here.

It'd nice for him to be able to train all winter and spring right near his house, in facilities and with staff he's comfortable with.

I also suspect he feels bad about not helping us these past two years. The World Series desire is still in there, but they could even give him a tacit promise to move him to a contender if fall out of the race. I don't see him getting more money or more guarantees from a sure-fire contender this winter. We'll see.

Dunedin is right next to Clearwater, right?

Barry Jive wrote:Dunedin is right next to Clearwater, right?

Yeah. Are you implying he'd sign with Toronto? I don't see that as a significantly better situation at this point, factoring in everything I mentioned upthread, but who knows