You have got to be kidding me.

I can almost look past the fact that he believes A.J. will win the AL MVP at the end of the year.... but Williams trading Garcia or Vasquez??

Unless there is some no-trade clause that I completely missed hearing about, Jon Garland will be traded before either of those two aforementioned pitchers regardless of his recent performance.

Not only does Garcia have the fact that he is related to Ozzie going for him, but he has a postseason performance that has to stand for something. And as far as Vasquez goes, the guy has been rather impressive (he had no-hitters going into late innings TWICE this season) in my humble opinion.

Ya know when ever somebody talks about A.J they always say "look what the guy does for the pitching staff." Even this year they say that. Hello. The pitching staff has been poor this year. So does that mean A.J is not helping the staff. If you give him credit then you must give him blame too. I think the starting staff has an ERA of 5.

The staff's ERA when A.J. is catching is 4.24, with Widger catching it's 5.35. In games that A.J. starts their record is 48-21 (.696), when Widger starts it's 9-10 (.474).

No way will I agree with Murph that A.J. should be MVP, however.

A.J is a decent player but people are like robots when they say "Man he really handles that pitching staff". I was never one to give him all of the credit for last years great pitching so I'm not gonna blame him this year. But people don't look at the numbers you just posted. Pods has more RBI then A.J does. A.J having a good year but he's way behind in Sox MVP. Here is my list from most important down.

Dye

Jenks

Crede

Thome

Konerko

A.J

Jose

Iguchi

I think A.J. is the player the Sox could least afford to lose because the dropoff to Widger is so dramatic.

And just who would you put in right? Ross Gload? Pablo? Rob? Yep they compare real well to Dye. Dye is far more the MVP of the team than AJ.

Widger is TERRIBLE and the Sox have zero catching depth in the minors. Mackowiak and Ozuna are at least servicable, not too mention Sweeney at Charlotte. Dye has had a much better year than Pierzynski, no doubt, but I stand by my statement that A.J. is the player they could least afford to lose for a significant amount of time.

That argument is really the nature of the position, though. You could probably say that about most team's catchers. Most teams have servicable replacement outfielders. If you are a starting quality catcher - you are probably picked up by a team to start. And, most pitching staffs are better with their every day catcher than the back up. You are arguing two separate points - who is having the better year and who is most replaceable. I don't think those are one in the same things. I also don't think you should base your MVP vote on the hypothetical of the player disappearing (having to be replaced). Put your vote on the one that is doing the most for the team while on the roster currently.

Garland cant be traded until the end of the season. Part of the CBA, no player in the first year of a long term contract can be traded.

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Not to mention he won't be traded after the season. Ugueth take a look at his numbers for the last month or so. I believe he is 5-0 with an ERA around 3.

I get as frustrated with Garland as you guys, but I'd probably keep him beyond this season mainly because he's still relatively young, no injuries, and has been an innings eater. He seems to be turning into, with some help from the offense of course, a 14-16 game winner....Somebody like Garcia or Vacquez, who have been awful at time as well, would be on my trade list, particularly Garcia, who's pitched a lot of innings over the year, and has only 1 year left (I think) on his deal that another team would find attractive as well

I said Kenny should trade Garcia in the offseason in May. His value will never be any higher. He's gonna end up with his 18 wins this year despite the ERA.

Good discussion here. Instead of the bash murph most of these threads turn into, it went opposite for once and we're talking baseball

Everyone except you.

ROFL.




Oh, BASEBALL. Sorry.

and now you