MLB - 2008 All Star Break and Beyond!

[Arrian]

Well, they're rolls of the dice, but not bad ones.

Agree on Cust. You don't stick your best OBP hitter 7th or 8th in the lineup. I'd think you'd want him right in front of Giambi, actually (doesn't G have more power?). Yeah, they're both slugs on the bases. You live with that.

edit: I'd forgotten Holliday. Bah. So... Cust-Holliday-Giambi (3-4-5)?

I don't know the As roster well, so I might've missed something obvious here.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Smoltz is a bad roll of the dice for $5.5 mil, IMO. But the Red Sox have the moolah.

[Arrian]

Agreed. It wouldn't be a good roll of the dice for, say, the Nationals. But for Boston? I think it makes sense.

-Arrian

[snoopy369]

Holliday-Cust-Giambi, i'd think. Holliday is less sluggish.

[Arrian]

Yeah, but then it's R-L-L. I don't know what Cust's splits are... if he hits LHP well, then ok. Giambi is decent vs LHP (mostly OBP, though, IIRC, with a major drop in power).

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

News:

Mets sign Tim Redding to a one year deal for about $2.25 mil.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090109&content_id=3738335&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp

In order to compete for the 5th starter (with the loser going into the long starter role, I expect). This seems to mean that after adding either Lowe or Perez, they won't be going after Pedro or Wolf. I'd much rather have Wolf as 5th starter, but I guess Redding is very cheap.

Braves look to be in the lead for Japanese pitcher, Kenshin Kawakami, and are going to make an offer to Lowe:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090109&content_id=3738811&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp

Red Sox add Saito to their bullpen (IMO, a good pickup):

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090110&content_id=3739075&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp

Oh, and Ken Burns is adding a 10th Inning to "Baseball", coming out on PBS in 2010:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article_entertainment.jsp?ymd=20090109&content_id=3738253&vkey=entertainment&fext=.jsp

[Imran Siddiqui]

dp

[Imran Siddiqui]

Michael Young asks for a trade after the Rangers want him to move from SS to 3B to make room for hot prospect Elvis Andrus:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/01/11/rangers.young.ap/index.html

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hall of Fame results announced. Rickey Henderson, of course, easily gets in. Jim Rice also as well (meh, but there are bigger fish to fry, see below).

@ Blyleven not getting in. WTF. Seriously, WTF.

Also not happy about Raines only getting 22%. But he has a few years yet to bring that number up.

[Supr49er]

I agree with both Blyleven and Raines.

However, I can not wait for Rickey's HOF speech in the third person.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And Rickey, of course, most definitely deserves to get in with his % of the vote (probably more, but some sportswriters don't want a "unanimous" selection, pah).

[Ming]

Hmmmm.... 94.8% for Henderson. I think 5.2% of the writers should have their vote taken away from them.
He was one of the greatest players of all times... at least 94.8% weren't morons.

[SlowwHand]

I'm glad Rice got in.

[Grandpa Troll]

I'm glad Rice got in.

me too..being raised in New England..he deserved it

[snoopy369]

Michael Young asks for a trade after the Rangers want him to move from SS to 3B to make room for hot prospect Elvis Andrus:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

I can think of at least one Chicago team who wouldn't mind picking him up. Move Alexei back to 2B, and we certainly could use Young's bat...