Kalapse

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 1, 2012 -> 01:32 PM) He can be interesting like KW Jr. can be interesting or the Sox drafting Ozney Guillen could be interesting, but reality is this guy has probably less than a 5% chance of ever being as good of a major league pitcher as Jason Frasor is right now, and no one is too upset Jason was sent backing for nothing. And if that 5% comes in then he cost controlled for 6 years. That's kind of the point of stocking up on arms.

Kenny needs to start raiding bad farm systems rather than the best in the game just so he can start getting some top 10-15 prospects. People are WAY too hung up on that s***.

Fathom will be ecstatic. Oh and I guess KW was right to pick up the option, 2 warm bodies are better than nothing I suppose.

Happy mother f***ing new year you mother f***ing mother f***ers!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 05:21 PM) Damn, this is old-school Kalapse. Are you going to post more in 2012, you wuss? I typically make a run around this time of year, not necessarily a precursor for the year to come. If the Sox are as bad as we expect them to be: probably not. But hey: keep pissing me off and you never know.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 03:47 PM) We now have the least power in the outfield from what I can see. Put that with a .200 hitting 2b and no power at 3b either, the signing of Danks looks even stranger now. Williams has no clue. this team can't compete in the AL Viciedo doesn't have 20-25 HR potential? That's what we got from Quentin the last 3 seasons and De Aza isn't a power upgrade over Juan Pierre? It sucks sticking speed players in left like we've been doing since Carlos Lee departed but this is nothing new.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 02:31 PM) People do a lot crazier things than work with people they don't like in exchange for more money than others are willing to pay. I don't know what this guy is thinking, maybe he thinks of Alexei like a brother, but I don't think having Cubans on the roster or a large Cuban community gets him signed unless you are at the top or very close to the top bid. Well, no s***. I'm looking at factors outside of money. You have to assume the top offers will be fairly close unless someone makes a ridiculous bid then he goes there, so there's really no point in discussing any of this unless we're going to explore factors outside of money.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 02:27 PM) It depends. I'd imagine he knows the Sox Cuban players. There's always a chance he doesn't like them. Well, if he doesn't like them then we don't have a shot in hell.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 02:23 PM) IMO, Viciedo is more valuable to the Sox than he is on the trade market. And wouldn't our strongest selling point to Cespedes be the strong Cuban presence currently in our starting lineup? I'm fairly certain that's our only selling point.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 02:13 PM) The bottom line is for every pitcher you can say Cooper helped throw strikes, there are probably 25 or more you could say he couldn't help. Counting on Castro suddenly throwing strikes is something no one should really do. I'm not playing your silly little Cooper/Walker game. And I'm pretty sure you don't "count" on projects (that's what Castro's looking like right now) to do much of anything, there's typically a lot more hoping and praying going on than there is expectations.

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 02:05 PM) The Braves were never going to trade Teheran for Q... They were never interested in him. So says you, genius. Maybe if KW got his head out of his ass and exploited the "trade override" function in the options menu this organization wouldn't be in a state of disrepair right now.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 02:00 PM) Best deal possible for Quentin at this time most likely. Why on earth he wasn't dealt at the trade deadline when there were teams looking for OF bats is a reason Williams should have been shown the door with Guillen. Agreed. f***, we could have Julio Teheran or Jameson Taillon right now if Kenny Williams wasn't such a f***ing moron.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:58 PM) Could be, could be his age, could be sample size, could be the Sox AAA pitching coach as his BB/9 was 3.0 there in 2007 before he was called up. Or maybe he sold his sole to the devil or made a wish on an old fairground wish machine or just tried really, really, really hard after making a promise to a relative on their deathbed.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) Besides Thornton, who has he turned from a guy who can't throw strikes to one who can? Gavin Floyd's walk rate with the Phillies: 5.3, with the Sox: 2.7. I'd say halving your BB/9 is a positive move in the control department.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:36 PM) If they'd grabbed Quentin and Quentin hadn't gotten hurt, that'd probably have won them the wild card, but the "Quentin not getting hurt" part is the problem in all of this. This also isn't a video game where you just acquire the best players possible and try to fit them into spots the best you can without regard to anything but their ratings. It doesn't work that way in the real world.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:36 PM) I'll take Wood's future over Molina as a starter Enjoy. Sometimes I don't get you at all.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:33 PM) The one reason why it kinda made some sense is that with Jones constantly hurt, having Quentin as another RH bat would really help their lineup. But that's not worth trading away a top flight starting pitcher, especially with Q being MR. Glass. And then Michael Bourn became available and that scenario was rendered moot as he was EXACTLY what they were looking for. Plugged a hole without having to bench a legend or productive player. Quentin was a reach from the get go and fell by the wayside when the market opened up.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) Veryyyy debatable. Wood is a very mediocre young starter, who showed almost nothing last season, I dont see him worth a whole lot, definitely not up to Molina's status. The other two guys are mediocre prospects as well; Sappelt is probably a 4th OF and Torreyes played at Low A and is a crapshoot (especially at his size). It's the 5'9", 140 Torreyes that they all love for god knows what reason, he's not f***ing Pedroia, there is only 1 Pedroia and his power comes from fastballs in his eyes that he has learned to turn and burn on, just because one midget found a way to develop power doesn't mean they all will. Wood is nothing more than a servicable back of the rotation starter with little to no upside. Theo's going to do a damn good job IMO and he did a nice job getting something for a player he had no use for (Marshall) but lets not kid ourselves on that trade.

LF: Prado/Constanza CF: McLouth/Schafer/Constanza RF: Heyward 3B: Jones/Prado SS: Gonzalez 2B: Uggla Prado is capable of playing LF, 3B, SS, 2B (though SS is a stretch). Now where is the glaring weakness and the easiest fit? Yeah, CF. In order to take on Quentin they'd have to bench either Chipper Jones or Martin Prado. Yeah, Jones was banged up a lot last year but you can't put him on the bench. It made no sense.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:23 PM) Who was the team that said they "loved" Quentin. I swear every report I remember reading around the deadline was that teams like Quentin but Kenny was asking for the moon. There wasn't one, it was the Braves and Padres and as I said: the Braves were starting Nate McLouth and Jordan Schafer in CF with no one else that could play the position, Quentin made no sense especially for a club that's no longer comfortable unloading prized prospects.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:19 PM) The Braves were very interested, IIRC No, no they weren't. It made absolutely no sense, they needed a CF and speed not another corner outfielder, I said it at the time: the only team showing ANY interest was the Braves and even that was being shot down across the board by anyone familiar with the Braves situation.

Heh, yeah there was so much interest in Quentin at the deadline. We could have gotten a haul! We as fans really need to learn how to better evaluate our favorite team's players because Quentin wasn't caring a whole hell of a lot of value whether at the deadline or now.

Kevin Goldstein:

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:17 PM) That's kind of ridiculous... I imagine he's catering to the hardcore sabermetricians who want to do actual statistical research and not just evaluate players for the hell of it. I would love to have a sabermetrics related stats class at the college level though. That'd be a class worth taking (I'm paying the tuition for 18 credit hours anyways). I think the big selling point is the 2 hour one-on-one workshop with Tango himself via internet/phone. And yeah; he's definitely going for the hardcore sabermetricians, he basically says so with his snarky pitch. This is clearly for people who are looking to enter the field as a career choice.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:05 PM) I remember when Ozzie started Jones in center instead of Rios one game (Rios started in right) because they had a vote inside the clubhouse as to who the best OF on the team is. Jones won (probably because he had gold gloves) and Ozzie stupidly went with it. Thank god he's no longer the manager. Amen to that. Speaking of quantitative analysis: did you see that Tom Tango is starting up online classes? A grand for early bird's and $1495 after that, I can't imagine find too many takers at that price (perhaps I'm just naive or cheap) but it's intriguing none the less.