Let's Get This Over With

[Alkie]

RedSox call and say, "look, we've had enough of this bullshit.  You want Manny Ramirez?  We'll pay 1/4 of his salary and all we want is Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, and Chad Qualls."

You want him?

Feel free to change the demands-in-return with reasonable players.

Ramirez for OP, for example, probably ain't likely.

[JimR]

nope.

[BudGirl]

Personally, I'm not interested in the Astros acquiring Ramirez.

[Bench]

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Personally, I'm not interested in the Astros acquiring Ramirez.

I love watching Manny hit, but if he's dysfunctional on a team with David Ortiz taking care of everything for him, keeping him happy, and running interference with the media and management, I can't imagine how dysfunctional he would be on the Astros.

Maybe with guys like Viz and Alou to provide a steadying force for Manny it would work, but I don't think it could work with the current team. But who knows? Manny is weird enough that he could be happy drilling balls over the railroad tracks and having some of the most incomprehensible conversations ever with Lance.

[Trey]

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RedSox call and say, "look, we've had enough of this bullshit.  You want Manny Ramirez?  We'll pay 1/4 of his salary and all we want is Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, and Chad Qualls."

You want him?

Feel free to change the demands-in-return with reasonable players.

Ramirez for OP, for example, probably ain't likely.

I'd consider it.  He made $18 mil last year.  That means the Astros would be paying him $13.5 mil.  That would be a serious upgrade to the offense.  You'd need to find some bullpen help, obviously.  If you could switch out Hirsh and/or Qualls for Lane and/or Scott, I'd almost certainly do it.

[Trey]

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RedSox call and say, "look, we've had enough of this bullshit.  You want Manny Ramirez?  We'll pay 1/4 of his salary and all we want is Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, and Chad Qualls."

You want him?

Feel free to change the demands-in-return with reasonable players.

Ramirez for OP, for example, probably ain't likely.

I'd consider it.  He made $18 mil last year.  That means the Astros would be paying him $13.5 mil.  That would be a serious upgrade to the offense.  You'd need to find some bullpen help, obviously.  If you could switch out Hirsh and/or Qualls for Lane and/or Scott, I'd almost certainly do it.

Let me add, Manny is crazy, but he doesn't seem to be the clubhouse cancer/distraction type of guy.  I think the worst he's ever done in that regard is demand a trade, and I'm pretty sure that he forgot that he did it within about 3 1/2 hours.

[WulawHorn]

I'm cracking up at the thought of Manny and Berkman talking to each other day in and day out.

I think I'd do a lidge, Buckholtz and OF to be named later deal. Don't want to give up Hirsh.  Boston might do Lidge, Buck and Scott or some such for Manny- they've put him through anyone who wants to pay his salary claim him type waivers 2x's with no takers- right?

+++++++Addition++++++++++++++++++++

I think Manny might be fine in H-town. He seemed to like playing in Cleveland. He just might be a small market- small media type guy.

[schlumburger04]

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RedSox call and say, "look, we've had enough of this bullshit.  You want Manny Ramirez?  We'll pay 1/4 of his salary and all we want is Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, and Chad Qualls."

You want him?

Feel free to change the demands-in-return with reasonable players.

Ramirez for OP, for example, probably ain't likely.

manny doesnt have near that value, lidge and maybe nieve but thats it. he'll be crying to get out of houston after the first week

[Reuben]

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RedSox call and say, "look, we've had enough of this bullshit.  You want Manny Ramirez?  We'll pay 1/4 of his salary and all we want is Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, and Chad Qualls."

You want him?

Feel free to change the demands-in-return with reasonable players.

Ramirez for OP, for example, probably ain't likely.

I'd consider it.  He made $18 mil last year.  That means the Astros would be paying him $13.5 mil.  That would be a serious upgrade to the offense.  You'd need to find some bullpen help, obviously.  If you could switch out Hirsh and/or Qualls for Lane and/or Scott, I'd almost certainly do it.

Let me add, Manny is crazy, but he doesn't seem to be the clubhouse cancer/distraction type of guy.  I think the worst he's ever done in that regard is demand a trade, and I'm pretty sure that he forgot that he did it within about 3 1/2 hours.

Having lived around Boston the entire time Manny's been there (until this fall), I've heard and read more pro/con Manny discussions than I care to admit or remember. It's always a bit difficult to deduce what is fact and what is Boston reporter bias/agenda. But this year it really seemed apparent that Manny's bullshit was pissing off a lot of guys on the team (and of course the manager). Not the trade request stuff, but the asking for days off, the missing lots of games with a sore knee during a pennant race, the flakiness, the lackadaisical defense, etc. I do think he would clearly benefit from playing in a less-pressurized market, but I think Bench is right in that things  could get out of hand if he doesn't have the right framework of teammate pals around him to keep him in line.

At any rate, he's got a no-trade clause, so he will only go where he wants to go. Personally, FWIW I don't think he would fit that well in Houston- but I'd certainly rather see him than Sheffield.

[juliogotay]

forget it. sign Lee as a FA and keep the pitchers.

[Tralfaz]

For Hirsh, Lidge and Qualls...well that makes Springer the closer (FA? Not sure, but if so, must sign).  Set up man would be.....Nieve?  Takes care of Purpuras need to protect Berkman, regardless of dugout blabbery.  Sign Pettitte for a year.  Still need a to address the #3 SP and middle relief.

[Limey]

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forget it. sign Lee as a FA and keep the pitchers.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

[Froback]

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forget it. sign Lee as a FA and keep the pitchers.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Totally agree with these two.

One more log to the fire: Doesn't Manny really remind everyone of Juan Gonzalez of the Rangers?  He won 2 AL-MVPs and totally disappeared a couple of years later because he was such a flake.

[austro]

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forget it. sign Lee as a FA and keep the pitchers.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Lee scares me: I think last year was his career year, and that whoever signs him will wind up overpaying.  I think Soriano will cost more, but I think he'll maintain his production level.

Doing this would probably make it impossible to sign another pitcher, but signing Ramirez and Soriano would certainly liven up the offense.  Of course, you probably can't do it for less than $25M-26M/year.

[Limey]

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Lee scares me: I think last year was his career year, and that whoever signs him will wind up overpaying.  I think Soriano will cost more, but I think he'll maintain his production level.

Doing this would probably make it impossible to sign another pitcher, but signing Ramirez and Soriano would certainly liven up the offense.  Of course, you probably can't do it for less than $25M-26M/year.

My dings were in response to the either-or question of trading pitching for Manny or simply signing Lee.  There's many other options out there for a team with cayshe to spend on FAs...such as the Astros.

[Bench]

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For Hirsh, Lidge and Qualls...well that makes Springer the closer (FA? Not sure, but if so, must sign).  Set up man would be.....Nieve?  Takes care of Purpuras need to protect Berkman, regardless of dugout blabbery.  Sign Pettitte for a year.  Still need a to address the #3 SP and middle relief.

Don't forget about Wheeler, but yeah, keep the pitchers and sign Lee.

Heck, keep the pitchers and sign Luis Gonzalez, and the Astros still have a better shot at winning more games, IMO.

[JimR]

keep the pitchers and sign Aramis and Huff.

[S.P. Rodriguez]

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forget it. sign Lee as a FA and keep the pitchers.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Lee scares me: I think last year was his career year, and that whoever signs him will wind up overpaying.  I think Soriano will cost more, but I think he'll maintain his production level.

Doing this would probably make it impossible to sign another pitcher, but signing Ramirez and Soriano would certainly liven up the offense.  Of course, you probably can't do it for less than $25M-26M/year.

The trends indicate Soriano had a career year, more so than Lee.  

 Lee

 Soriano


Also, take note of the K's for Soriano...

ETA:  Also, past performance is a very poor indication of future continuing performance levels.  At least, absent of any expert assessment.

[JimR]

Soriano is not a serious option, imo.

[S.P. Rodriguez]

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Soriano is not a serious option, imo.

Nor mine (obviously) but even more so  now.

[Jose Cruz III]

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RedSox call and say, "look, we've had enough of this bullshit.  You want Manny Ramirez?  We'll pay 1/4 of his salary and all we want is Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, and Chad Qualls."

You want him?

Feel free to change the demands-in-return with reasonable players.

Ramirez for OP, for example, probably ain't likely.

If the Astros were gonna do anything with Ramirez I would rather they claim him off waivers that the Sox annually put him on then eat 1/4 of his salary and take the reported Angels offers for him last summer. If we could just get a couple of their bullpen it would be worth the 4 million Manny would make off of us. Every time ManRam is rumored to be traded the Angels reportedly step up, and a couple of other teams, see what they have to offer, claim his lazy arse, and trade him. But i really don't see that happening.

Can Luke Scott play CF? If he can or even if he can't, I like Jim's idea of signing the other Ramirez and Huff. Then reupping Pettitte, signing an innings eater like Meche or someone of his ilk, and trading Mo and Willy/Scott for bullpen arms. I think Drayton would even pull the trigger on Lee too in this scenario. But even if he didn't I would like our chances.

[stubbyc]

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Can Luke Scott play CF? If he can or even if he can't, I like Jim's idea of signing the other Ramirez and Huff. Then reupping Pettitte, signing an innings eater like Meche or someone of his ilk, and trading Mo and Willy/Scott for bullpen arms. I think Drayton would even pull the trigger on Lee too in this scenario. But even if he didn't I would like our chances.

Luke cannot play CF.

We have enough bullpen candidates and bullpen arms as it is. We don't need to be trading Ensberg, Taveras, or Scott for guys comparable to what we already have.

Since Zito, Schmidt, etc. will be out of our price range we might have to settle on a guy like Meche.

[VirtualBob]

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Can Luke Scott play CF? If he can or even if he can't, I like Jim's idea of signing the other Ramirez and Huff. Then reupping Pettitte, signing an innings eater like Meche or someone of his ilk, and trading Mo and Willy/Scott for bullpen arms. I think Drayton would even pull the trigger on Lee too in this scenario. But even if he didn't I would like our chances.

Luke cannot play CF.

We have enough bullpen candidates and bullpen arms as it is. We don't need to be trading Ensberg, Taveras, or Scott for guys comparable to what we already have.

Since Zito, Schmidt, etc. will be out of our price range we might have to settle on a guy like Meche.

Actually, we will have to settle for what the real Astro management brings in.  If that includes a Luke Scott experiment in CF, however, I would koin you in a complete state of shock.  He's exciting enough on the corners.  I just hope he continues to carry a big stick.

[EasTexAstro]

Am I missing something, or is everyone forgetting Burke in CF? Garner seemed ok with him there while Willy was working on his time off, and 2nd base is not going to open up for the first month, or two, or three. If WT is traded, doesn't Burke step in there unless a CFer is picked up?

[JimR]

i hope not.

[EasTexAstro]

I hope not, too. (Is that grammatically correct?

It did happen before, and Burke wasn't horrible, but everyone seemed to forget that was an option.

Of course, it might not be an option.

If Willy is traded with the thought the Astros have a chance of picking up a big CFer, and it falls through, I just think we might see Burke there. We have seen worse.

[JimR]

he was not good. i'm kinda hoping for better than "not terrible" in CF.

[VirtualBob]

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he was not good. i'm kinda hoping for better than "not terrible" in CF.

Jim ... Can you elaborate some for my (and probably others') edification?  Did you think he didn't cover enough ground?  Or didn't get good jumps?  Or what?

I thought he did a pretty adequate job apart from displaying the same throwing-mechanics problems that make him so exciting in the infield.  But there have been a lot of CFers over the years whose rag-arms did not apparently disqualify them.  What am I missing?

[JimR]

he is a 2B playing CF. bad paths/angles to the ball, horrible arm. he did fine in LF, but he is a 2B.

[VirtualBob]

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he is a 2B playing CF. bad paths/angles to the ball, horrible arm. he did fine in LF, but he is a 2B.

I have my questions about 2B.  But thanks.

[Froback]

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he is a 2B playing CF. bad paths/angles to the ball, horrible arm. he did fine in LF, but he is a 2B.

I have my questions about 2B.  But thanks.

I think at this point he is better than Biggio defensively there.  But given how rarely we see him there it is hard to tell.

I am still believing Taveras is traded this off-season, so then the question might become who to the Astros get to replace him.... Scott is NOT the answer, and while I have heard Pence can play CF, CF at MMP is not something I think he will succeed with.  Like was stated before, you need alot of range in your CFer at MMP.