Hopefully Ellsbury crashes and burns next year as the starter.

I would trade A Jones for Ellsbury in a heart beat.

Ellsbury is faster (yeah like 50-70 stolen bases), also has developing power (see John Damon), a table setter, better defensively.

The age thing makes no difference since both are young unless you want to make the argument that Jones will suddenly burst forth with more and more improvement (which I will buy a little but not that much). I think Ellsbury will also get better.

I still am not quite sure what kind of player Jones will become. Yes, he has a latent power stroke. I did see a lot of comparision to Mike Cameron.

Would you rather have Mike Cameron or a Johnny Damon (that also plays defense)?

Jones and Ellsbury will offer different abililites although in about the same amount of at bats they both hit 9 homers in 2008. I remember seeing Ellsbury hit a number of line drives into the triangle at Boston, he can hit with more power then you think.

Ellsbury will be a table setter, base stealer with good defensive skills. He should easily score 125 runs batting leadoff with 40-60 steals and still hit 12-15 homers and knock in 65-70 rbis.

I think Adam will be a fine player. 20-25 homers hopefully is a norm. The avg and consistency are still to be determined as he went through first year growing pains as did Ellsbury. I just think in the end, Ellsbury will be that unique table setter who can also play great defense. You can find 20 homer hitters a little more cheaply. Marcus Thames and Luke Scott come to mind. But it doesnt make them great players. Adam offers more then either of those. He has nice speed and is learning in CF. I just lean to Ellsbury and it makes for great debate.

“Taking on Crisp’s $6M salary plus giving up probably your best MR for 1 year of a mediocre CF??? Makes no sense to me.”

Crisp also has an 8 million option so he has two years of control.

Dayton Moore traded JP Howell for Gaitright. That worked out. For Tampa Bay. Crisp is a better player and I suspect Moore is going to trade Teahan or Dejesus for a starting pitcher (Sean Marshall maybe?).

Other wise, just like his signing of Mike Jacobs, he is just moving around puzzle pieces and giving up his young bullpen arms. I suspect he figures he has replacement arms in the minors. But still, unless you can acquire starting pitching, its a hard go.

Leo Nunez, Ramon Ramirez and Soria were a good, young, cheap bullpen. Seems he is trying to fix one problem and creating a bigger one. Have to wait and see where that all shakes out.

I think we will just have to agree to disagree. I like power from anywhere.

I just happen to think Ellsbury will be a very unique player for years to come.

I agree.

Lets say the lineup is Crisp, Aviles, Dejesus, Guillen, Jacobs, Gordon, Butler, Buck/Olivo and I think Grundy is back. A lot of how next year looks offensively will rest on Gordon and Butler taking the next step.

Butler, Shealy and Teahan are rumored on the table and maybe Buck. Dont know what they might bring. I think they need starting pitcher for sure, a 2b and more power. Still in a division that ebbs and flows like the central that offense is an improvement.

And then we don’t have to have this argument. With Nick M. in right, a ball would never touch the ground in the outfield. You would have to hit it out every time or make an our.