boston and varitek are headed in different directions, but i also have a feeling that price will make many, many batters look pathetic over the course of his career. Tampa Bay is just so full of good, young players. A rotation of Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Price, and one of their many talented young starters is staring the rest of the AL in the face like a black eyed dog.

It went exactly how I knew it would. Did anyone think that the gruffy veteran was going to do anything but strike out against the shaky lefty?

that would be the second straight deadline they offered bowden to the Rangers.

Which means, of course, that he will go on to have a successful or even dominant career.

I think he’s supposed to be better than Masterson stuffwise, but the knock on him is whether or not he can start. His mechanics rely on a lot of arm action and although he hasn’t had any problems as of yet that concerns some people in regards to his long-term durability. Or so I’ve heard anyway.

as a plausable option. Is there any way this team deals both Laird and Salty if the right deals emerge.

Mine involved the 1st base situation though.

…using an elaborate system of lights and multi-colored flags from the center field office building.

I wonder how much Boston’s front office has the Gagne trade on their minds when trying to put together a trade for a TX catcher? Of course, the logical course of action would be to forget Gagne and try to do the best deal possible moving forward. I would think that is a little easier said than done.

(For the record, I think Ivan Rodriguez is all feet-to-arm release and nothing else. He’s got a cannon, and he’s got quickness, but he blocks almost nothing and gives up a lot of PBs and contributes to WPs by trying to glove everything. He certainly can’t call a good game. I’ve read that pitchers hate pitching to him because he calls all fastballs when there are baserunners on to keep his CS% up. That’s not the sign of a good catcher, by any means. I’ll take ’Tek over anybody in baseball when it comes to defense.)

HA!

Salty is also f***** young so we could lock him up cheap for a while, and if he turns out to be amazing, we’d have him for a long time

Varitek is not a top 3 defensive catcher. Even if you limited the sample of catchers to “Jason Varitek” and “guys with the last name Molina” he’s not in the top 3

PS) The only Molina that I think matches Varitek in defensive ability is Bengie. They’re both better than Jose. I honestly can’t say much about Yadier because I haven’t really watched him play. But it doesn’t matter… there are your top three right there. Varitek/Bengie at #1, Jose at #3.

If you watched the National League with any regularity, you would know better. Not only is Yadier Molina the best defensive catcher in the Molina family, but he’s the best defensive catcher in baseball, or so says the voting panel that compiles the Fielding Bible.

Varitek’s a top three, he’s not a top three. Who cares?

Dear god. A situation where the Sox trade prospects for Russell Martin seems like a doomsday scenario for me. Don’t touch him with a 10-foot pole.

So why not blame our catching for pitching woes? Sox fans ignore that the last couple of years they have had two separate World Series MVPs on their starting rotation (Schilling and Beckett), not to mention the rest of the beasts they have going for them.

Point is, Sox fans = total morons.

But both Max and Salty are considered below average defensively. How does putting them at DH make people feel better about their defensive game? It doesn’t. They may be able to hold their own at the plate but catching once a week isn’t going to make people feel better about trading for them to be their starting catchers.

Catchers’ values aren’t determined by the system’s logjam in front of them. They’re determined by reps on the field.

Max can’t maintain catcher skills by hitting DH and backing up the 1B for the Rangers.

As nice a plan as it appears on paper, I understand there’s no precedent for a DH who caddies the starting catcher around twice a week. That plan seems tailor-made for Max, but it apparently doesn’t work in the real world.

As far as the Rangers go, with Blalock (and maybe even Bradley) coming back, along with Josh needing more rest, DH ABs aren’t going to be available anyway.

If Salty or Max started at DH and hit well, their value would probably go up. Instead of being catchers who could hit at AAA, they’d be catchers who could hit in the majors. I think teams are smart enough to realize that we’re deep in catchers and starting a catcher at DH isn’t an indictment of that player’s longterm future at catcher. We’re just overstocked.

I don’t think that you can paint those two with the same brush. Buchholz is vastly suprior as an asset.