Red Sox In Serious Talks With Cuban SS

Would this be for this year? or would he be considered as a prospect?

Didn't that trade help pave the way for 1 or 2 world series championships?

The Hanley/Beckett deal was a win for both teams, Sox in the present and Marlins in the future.

Beckett led them to another WS, and Hanley is the 2nd best player (pujols) in the game, and will continue to get better.

Alvarez? He was drafted by the Pirates 1 or 2 years ago

"None of them will ever replace Hanley Ramirez."

I love how everyone is sooo in love with Hanley Ramirez. He's not the second coming of Cal Ripken, Jr. people. Yet!

He's a great player so far, but he's only played three years in the majors. He hasn't even shown constant improvement from year-to-year, except in the power numbers.

Before we go reserving a plaque in Cooperstown for this kid, let's remember all the "great" players to fail over the past hundred years.

Look at players like Mark Whiten or Kerry Wood. All the talent in the world, but injuries and inconsistent play led to sub-par or average MLB careers. It wasn't that they suddenly lost their talent, it is just VERY difficult to maintain that high level of excellence over a twenty+ year career.

So hold onto his halo for another ten years or so until he's actually earned it. Okay?

The reason midtown mentioned Pedro Alvarez is the Red Sox drafted him out of high school a few years back. The sides were a fairly small amount apart and he never ended up signing. It's just another "what if?" scenario, just like "what if the sox had never traded hanley?"

Beat to the answer. Oh well.

This guy soounds like Rey Ordonez.

Even if he was a second coming of Ordonez --a true great in the field-- would you really have a preference for that over a guy who could hit .270 and ten hr's and field competently?
I'm a bit surprised they would pay that kind of cash when they just drafted a SS in '08 and followed that up with their top signing in the the DR and another high draft this year in the kid from MS.

Also the Cubans haven't exactly made their presence known the last ten years.
The signing looks high risk.

I would be shocked if the Red Sox actually pay this guy $8M. It sounds like a con job to get Cashman to fork out needlessly huge bucks for someone who can't hit.

"Yes, Beckett and Lowell helped the Sox win another World Series. Still, it would have been nice to see Pedro Alvarez and Hanley Ramirez covering the left side of the infield in 2011."

Why would it have been nice? I'll take the World Series title. Having Hanley Ramirez would not guarantee anything. Having a single great player does not make a team great. The Red Sox had haf a century worth of Hall of Famers in LF and never won a single title with any of them.

Hanley is like Nomar Garciaparra with less defense and more stolen bases. Nomar didn't lead the Sox to any titles, either....

To put 8M into perspective for a guy that has never played head to head in a real professional league:

8M is almost as much as the Sox last year spent on the entire draft, when they got 5 signability guys that dropped and they snapped up in lower rounds. That 8M could and maybe should go to Madison Younginer, Barandon Kline, Alex Hassan, Jason Thompson and Kendal Volz, who have been extensively scouted and most importantly the TRUE ages are known. 1-2M? sure, but more than thet.. Let him walk on by.

BTW.. Congratulations Minnesota Twins for grabbing Max Kepler, have not seen it posted here, but he chose them over Boston yesterday and signed with the Twins.