He just said he’d take Lester over Jed Weaver.

In 284 MLB innings Weaver has put up a 3.33 ERA, 220K, 78W, and 32 HR.

In 144 MLB innings, Lester has put up a 4.68 ERA, 110K, 74W, and 17 HR.

Weaver is a little over a year older than Lester.

What the hell is going on in baseball?
What is it that people have seen in Lester that I have missed?
WTF?

Why so bitter, Man? Sox fans, just like Yanks fans, are guilty of overrating their prospects.

That being said, Lester does have great potential. I have watched him in person many times. Command is the last hurdle for him to clear. And yes, last offseason slowed his progress. Battling cancer takes away from your season preparation.

Crisp is a tremendous CF’er. Put his speed and D in that lineup, he improves the team. With Morneau, Mauer and Young in the middle of the order, they can afford to have a lighter hitting D stud in CF.

Lowrie is an extra base hit machine. I have seen him in person, also, and his D at short is underrated. I would prefer him at 2nd, but he’d do at SS. His gap power and OBP would be ideal in front of the Minny big 3.

Masterson is a dominating sinkerballer. He started out slowly in Lancaster last year (a hitter’s paradise), but he recovered to be absolutely dominating before suffering an injury at season’s end. Minny will LOVE this guy in the next year or 2.

PS- keep an eye on Ryan Khalish. Scouts are predicting him to be betetr than Ellsbury in a few years. His #’s last year were amazing.

Bluescript
December 4th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Wake up!
Do you really think Yanks can compete with Boston with an absolute gurantee of 15-16 additional wins with realistic numbers being more like 18-21 wins????
Santana won two cy young with average….
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At best, the 18-21 wins you think that Santana will give you only replaces Wakefield’s 17. Best hope that others like Schilling doesn’t slip any farther, or, that Ramirez isn’t starting his fade. If that happens, your offense is in trouble, because Ortiz will never see another pitch.
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You support my point. Yankees hope for title comes down to the number of Sox pitchers and players not having good or even average years (you state lots of ifs…). Look how consistent Santana is in terms of his ERA, Ks, and Innings Pitched over the last several years. 15 win (with 3.33 ERA) is considered a BAD year for Santana?!. Another words, even if Schilling falls off the cliff and Wakefield has his average 12-14 win season, Boston will likely win more games with Santana in 08 than they did in 07 (even with some loss of offense). Now, if Yanks want to follow Boston’s fumes for the next 2-3 years…..

I may know something about baseball, but one thing I know a lot (a real lot) more about is cancer.

Lester is one year out from a diagnosis of diffuse large cell lymphoma. I feel great for him and I hope he never relapses from his disease, and has a great pro career.

Unfortuately, the 5 year relapse rate from this disease is 40-50%. How can the Twins NOT know that? So you get the guy, and he has a 50% chance of being out for his career within the next 5 years. Twins fans, be sure you pound this fact over the head of Bill Smith. This is business, and you have to think with your head.

That being said, the rest of this deal?

Ellsbury = Cabrera. we can all point to 33 games of Melky’s and show a great average.

Masterson = Marquez or Horne.

Lowrie? .167 in the AZ league? Yanks have an expendable Alberto Gonzalez who likely is better.

I just don’t see this going down, but if it does, the Twins were shafted.