Dein erstes Forum » effectively ended after 10 holes. Ra

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The prospects keep flying out the revolving door. But Dave Dombrowski doesnt care.He didnt come to Boston to pile up names on Keith Laws Top 50 prospects list. He didnt come to Boston to help his good friends in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, finish first in the International League.He came to Boston to spray champagne and ride the duck boats, as confetti floats out of the New England sky. And if that means paying a price that the other baseball decision-makers of his era are too cautious to pay, then guess what?Dave Dombrowski doesnt care.And so, on the day he gave up four more good-to-great young players to add Chris Sale to a star-studded Red Sox rotation, he justified that cost in eight simple words: We feel its a chance to win now.Win now. If his wife doesnt give him a win now T-shirt for Christmas, shes missing the easiest gift-buying opening of all time. Win now. Its now, more than ever, what Dombrowski is all about.This is what Dave Dombrowski was brought there for, one rival AL executive said Tuesday, as he and his peers around baseball did their best to digest this whopper of a deal. He was brought in there to take a good team with a good system and push them over the edge. And thats what hes done. This is a really good team.Wow. No kidding. And how good are they?Put it this way, the same executive said with a laugh. I think a lot of teams in the American League just went into sell mode now that they see the Red Sox are in go-for-it mode.Hey, did someone just say go for it? Those would be the president of baseball operations magic words, you understand, because nobody goes for it like Dave Dombrowski. At least not in the times we live in.Just in one day in December, he traded for Sale, made a deal for an impact reliever (Tyler Thornburg) and signed a free-agent first baseman/DH (Mitch Moreland). So if you sometimes look at Dombrowski and feel like hes a team-builder out of another era, youre not the only one.Hes not afraid, said a fellow we know as Trader Jack McKeon, now a special assistant to the owner in Miami but once a GM who used to dominate the winter meetings of the 1980s the way Dombrowski does now. If you want to make deals, youve got to gamble. Youve got to have a plan. When I came into San Diego, I had a plan to go get Joe Carter. Everyone said, You cant get him. I said, The hell I cant get him. One thing I learned from Charlie Finley -- if you need a piece, sometimes youve got to overpay. And thats what this guy is willing to do.But thats not what most GMs are willing to do here in the 21st century. They study. They analyze. They crunch the numbers. They crunch them again. And then they weigh whether their equity equals the equity coming back, according to the latest spreadsheets.Not that theres anything wrong with that. But its still refreshing to see a guy like Dombrowski who is still willing to charge into the nearest Neiman Marcus, plop down his credit card and say, This is what I want. Just tell me where to sign.What Dave has clearly shown over the years, said the AL exec quoted earlier, is that when he has the match [on a deal] and the match clearly makes his team better, hes not afraid of the players he has to give up. Hes going to make that deal.Everyone in this day and age is so tied up with the value of the player. But Dave doesnt look at it like everyone else. If it makes his team better, he doesnt let stuff like whos got one more year of control affect him. He doesnt let the minutiae affect him, is what Im saying. Hes not going to let the little things stand in the way.Maybe youre thinking right now thats how you run your fantasy team. But recognize this. Its not how most GMs run their real-life baseball teams. So when someone comes along like this, he is opening up himself to a level of second-guessing -- by fans, by prospect junkies, by social-media geniuses everywhere -- that not everyone is willing to live with.But have we mentioned lately that Dave Dombrowski doesnt care?Its a huge deal to make, one NL executive said Tuesday. That town will be fired up. And their depth of starting pitching now is incredible. But to keep blowing through prospects the way they have, with the way trades are evaluated now by everyone in the world, there will be blowback. In the short term, theyre really, really good. But in three or four years, when they have to reach for young players to replenish, theyre not going to be there. So there is a cost.So if this fearless casting for the biggest fish in the pond doesnt bring another parade or three for Dombrowski and his team, he is going to hear about that cost. But what has made this guy one of the best executives of his time? He doesnt hear that noise. He isnt intimidated by that blowback.What was his mission? His mission was to win now. So whats the problem here?In baseball, four years down the road is an eternity in many ways, Dombrowski said Tuesday. So you need to take advantage of that opportunity. Nothings guaranteed in life. If you make these moves, it doesnt guarantee that youre going to win. But I think you just keep taking a chance. You keep going for it as much as you possibly can. And hopefully, it works for you some day.He rolled these same dice in Detroit and never did win a World Series. But it tells you all you need to know about him, that what happened to him at his last stop clearly hasnt scarred him at all. And its rare to find that strength of purpose in his line of work.I think theres some credence to that old saying, Flags fly forever, the AL exec said. So I give Dave a lot of credit. Hes not afraid of what somebody might say three, four, five years from now. To win a championship, this is just the gamble you take. If you end up on the top of the heap, you dont have to worry about what you gave up. And if you dont, you have to wear it. But Dave is never afraid to wear it.In his latest blockbuster, Dombrowski gave up two potential stars in Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech, plus two other intriguing young players in Luis Basabe and Victor Diaz. He has unloaded a slew of the top 20 prospects he inherited 15 months ago.But think of it this way. What does he have to show for it? Probably the best rotation in the American League. Thats what.Sale ranks first among all active American League pitchers in career WHIP (1.01). His new top-of-the-rotation co-star, David Price, ranks second (1.14). Theyre also 1-2 in Fielding Independent Pitching. And they rank first and third, respectively, in career ERA and strikeout-to-walk ratio.So thatll work. And we should probably add that their, ahem, No. 3 starter,?Rick Porcello, just won the Cy Young Award.But you should also think of what Dombrowski did this way: He controls Sale and Porcello for the next three years, Price for the next six years and most of his best young position players for the next three to five years. So where were all of his hot prospects going to play anyhow?They didnt have room for all those guys, one assistant GM said. And thats what gets lost here. Not all those prospects are going to actually play on your club. ... People forget that young major leaguers are more valuable than prospects. And the Red Sox have more of those good young major leaguers than just about anyone. And you dont have to wonder about them, because theyre already in the big leagues.So as happy as the Chicago White Sox might be with their haul -- a package every scout and executive I surveyed liked better than Washingtons offer for Sale, by the way -- just remember this:Dave Dombrowski doesnt care.To win, said Trader Jack McKeon, youve gotta wheel and deal.And on Tuesday, one of the great wheelers and dealers of his time struck again. Anton Lindholm Avalanche Jersey . -- Jakob Silfverberg is making himself right at home with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring four goals in his first four games. Rob Ramage Jersey . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. http://www.hockeyavalanche.com/authentic-mark-barberio-avalanche-jersey/ .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks aim for their third three-game winning streak of the season when they host the struggling Edmonton Oilers in Sundays battle at the United Center. A.J. Greer Jersey . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. A.J. Greer Avalanche Jersey . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59.Henrik Stenson remained on course to wrap up the Race to Dubai crown as Rory McIlroy endured a torrid opening day of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Leaderboard DP World Tour Championship Stenson failed to make much happen on the greens at the Jumeirah Golf Estates as he ground out 16 pars, one birdie and a bogey in a workmanlike 72, while Lee Westwood set the early pace on six under after a superb 66. Lee Westwood leads the way after opening with a 66 Danny Willett, Stensons main threat in the race to be crowned European No 1, opened with an erratic 71 to edge one ahead of the Swede, but defending champion McIlroy is tied for 55th in the elite 60-player field following a 75 - his worst score in 29 rounds over the Earth Course. Westwood, still rattled after being denied a debut in next weeks World Cup of Golf, provided an excellent riposte as he played some of his best golf of the season on one of his favourite courses. Danny Willett and Henrik Stenson on the first tee The 43-year-old picked up an early birdie at the 583-yard second and added three in four holes around the turn before dropping his only shot of the day at the 12th.But the 2009 champion bounced back with birdies at the next two holes, and his assured putting earned him another at the 17th which took him into the outright lead ahead of Nicolas Colsaerts and Julien Quesne, who birdied four of the last five holes to vault up the leaderboard. Westwood carded seven birdies to hit the front on six under Sergio Garcia is a stroke further adrift after a bad mistake at the 16th cost him the outright lead having stormed to six under with three birdies in four holes from the eighth before he made only the second eagle of the first round at the 14th. Six months half price Upgrade to Sky Sports to watch Man Utd v Arsenal on Saturday and get the first six months half price But the Spaniard dumped his approach to the tricky 16th green into the water and ran up a double-bogey six which dropped him into a tie for fourth along with Joost Luiten and Francesco Molinari, while Victor Dubuisson slipped from five under to two under with bogeys at each of the final three holes. The fourr contenders for the overall Race to Dubai title all had their struggles on day one, none more so than McIlroy as he bogeyed three of the first six holes and dropped another shot after driving into the desert scrub at the 10th.dddddddddddd Rory McIlroy fired his worst score in 29 rounds in the event He finally got a birdie putt to drop at the 14th and followed it with another at 15, but he undid that recovery work by blocking his second to 16 and finding the edge of the hazard, from where he needed two attempts to splash onto the green.McIlroy did at least finish on a positive note with a birdie at the last, but his very slim chances of retaining his European No 1 title effectively ended after 10 holes. Race to Dubai leader Henrik Stenson struggled to make much happen at the DP World Tour Championship, making just one birdie in a level-par 72 Stenson remains the man to beat despite being far from his best, and he admitted afterwards that average was a fair assessment of his opening 72 in which he parred the final 11 holes.Willett, who trails the Open champion by close to 300,000 points in the standings, got on a nice run after he hit back from an early bogey with three birdies in four holes before a tough back-nine 37 left him five behind Westwood. Danny Willett offset four birdies with three bogeys And the in-form Alex Noren, third in the Race to Dubai, put together a similar grafting round to Stenson, making two birdies and one bogey in a solid 71.Upgrade to Sky Sports now to watch Man Utd v Arsenal this Saturday and get the first six months half price! Also See: Race to Dubai contenders Dubai leaderboard Golf live on Sky Sports 4 European Tour Schedule ' ' '