blumj

As a Red Sox fan, this whole thing is really embarrassing, but there were rumors he was planning to sell it to some Yankees fan bar so they could have a stupid "blow up the Red Sox WS ball to bring back the curse" promotion thing.

The Red Sox thought enough of him to protect him from the rule 5 draft, even though he's never pitched above low A ball.

Hi, guys, I'm a Red Sox fan, and I've seen them both play in spring training and the futures game, and Hanley a bunch of other times. Hanley definitely jumps out at you in a lot of ways, especially his defense and personality. He just seems like a star in the making, even though he hasn't put up the kind of stats you'd expect from one. I've never seen any hint of the behavioral issues; he always seems to be laughing and talking and even playing to the cameras. I don't know if he'll ever live up to his potential offensively, but he can do it with the glove and he's got speed, and as much charisma as I've ever seen in a player. He seems to have Cabrera-like defense and energy, in a bigger body. Sanchez really seemed to be overthrowing both times I've seen him, which makes sense because they were special occasions for him, the futures game and spring training with the big leaguers. His fastball has movement, in the low-mid 90's, but he kept missing with it, and seemed to want to keep throwing it up and away, although everyone says he can locate all over the plate very well, I didn't see that myself. He did throw one very nasty looking, Pedro-esque, change up in the futures game, got a swinging K, then went back to missing with his fastball. If Theo was still here, I don't think he'd be willing to trade both of those two, even for Beckett, if he had to take Lowell's contract, maybe not even either of them. And I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have traded Papelbon or Lester for anything. But I don't even know who's making those decisions now, so who knows what they'd be willing to do.

Guardado has a frayed rotator cuff. It's remarkable he's still pitching well, but he's lost velocity, although he never had much to begin with. If he didn't have that player option for next year, it'd be different, but you wonder if he can keep going. By the way, if the Marlins didn't have scouts watching Arroyo, they didn't have any watching Contreras either.

I just want to be clear, I'm not the one calling the Marlins idiots, and I can understand if they're not willing to deal with the Red Sox, and I don't think they should trade AJ Burnett unless someone makes a stupid offer. I don't expect the Red Sox will be the ones to make that stupid offer, although I'd expect my team to at least listen just in case they do. But we don't have a clue if anything we're hearing is at all accurate. 90% of what we hear this time of year is probably made up by writers just throwing junk against the wall like we do.

Some of what we're hearing in Boston is that the Marlins won't even talk to the Red Sox, so it's possible it doesn't even matter what the Red Sox are trying to offer.

Hey, this current Red Sox management traded the face of the franchise for two .240 hitters to get a ring. But the team they have this year isn't like that one, AJ Burnett probably isn't enough to make them a real WS contender without Schilling and Foulke. Actually, the Marlins probably have more of the pieces in place to get that far, it doesn't really make sense for them to trade him.

Sean McAdam, on Red Sox This Week, saying the Marlins won't even talk to the Red Sox because of bad blood with Henry from the sale, the Millar thing, and now the draft. They think the Red Sox rigged the draft to get Craig Hansen.

My feeling as a Red Sox fan, in case anyone's interested and FWIW, is that they'd be unlikely to trade Arroyo and Sanchez for a 3 month rental, AND unlikely to be willing to offer a good enough extension to get him to sign mid-season AND unlikely to take Mike Lowell's contract. So, I really think he doesn't end up in Boston unless he hits free agency. But I also don't see how the White Sox can trade Marte right now with Hermanson iffy healthwise, or how the Blue Jays can trade Chacin with Halladay on the DL and Lilly maybe about to join him. I almost think the O's might still be the best bet.

I don't see how the PA can enforce restrictions against NOT trading a player who's under contract. Their movement is restricted by definition. I'd think those types of agreements must happen all the time, but what do I know?

I think the only reason the Red Sox are more likely to trade Sanchez is because he's further away than their other pitching prospects. Lester started the season at AA and Papelbon is at AAA. But he's also already on their 40 man, so they'd have to protect him for a while. I also think if the Marlins traded Burnett to the Red Sox on the condition he would not be traded to the NL East, the Red Sox would have no choice but to honor that.