caulfield12

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Nov 22, 2014 -> 06:04 PM) http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/11/21/adam-laro...surprising-move SI not happy.............too bad! Apparently SI isn't aware of Rodon's existence. And the point of free agency is to go where you're wanted...and/or you will receive financial compensation (respect) that is line with your abilities. By SI's narrow definition, signing FA's wouldn't make sense for the bottom 10-12 teams in the league every year...so I guess they should just follow the Royals or Pirates plan of struggling for two decades instead. Well, more disrespect and treatment as a "small market" club...the only way to reverse that is putting up wins on the board against the Royals and Tigers.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Nov 22, 2014 -> 03:58 PM) Viciedo is one of the worst players in the game. There is so much evidence that documents his sorriness that it is beyond dispute. If he is in line for significant playing time next summer, RH will have failed his offseason report card. In the rotation, Sale, Q, and Noesi (at #4) are givens. Rodon will likely start the year in the minors. That means we have two slots open. Danks should be either dumped or in the pen. Just like there's plenty of evidence Me.Cabrera isn't very good defensively and only put up positive OPS/RC numbers around the time in his career when he began to take the peds and fabricate alibis.

Now we have Reds and Dodgers fans storming the barricades. Let's try to return to reality. It's amazing how some typical bold/brash KW comments have some believing we can acquire nearly any player on the planet regardless of the expense or talent demanded to consummate said transaction.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post?id=8678

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/10/free...am-laroche.html Profile of LaRoche. This writer had him at 2/$30 million. Two years removed from sixth in the 2012 NL MVP voting.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-011410312.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nation...cago-white-sox/

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 11:26 PM) Melky Cabrera wRC+ by season: 2006, 130 games - 98 wRC+ 2007, 150 games - 89 wRC+ 2008, 129 games - 68 wRC+ 2009, 154 games - 94 wRC+ 2010, 147 games - 77 wRC+ 2011, 155 games - 118 wRC+ 2012, 113 games - 151 wRC+ 2013, 88 games - 86 wRC+ 2014, 139 games - 125 wRC+ So, he was a rich man's Gordon Beckham for about 5 seasons. Then he becomes Alejandro De Aza. Then, well, we know what happened in 2012. Then he plays like s***. Then he plays pretty well last year. I think we can toss out 2012, since he was unambiguously on steroids. This definitely casts doubt on what was going on with his improvement in 2011, but who knows about that. He had an injury-riddled, crap season in 2013 after the steroid suspension. He played well last year, with an ISO at a level he has only had previously in 2011 and 2012. To me, you're taking a big risk on a guy like that. Either way, there's no sense in freaking out about us getting LaRoche as if that has any real bearing on a possible Cabrera acquisition. I particularly don't want to give up a draft pick to sign Melky Cabrera, and we didn't have to do that with LaRoche. Perfectly rational response to an over emotional exaggeration. There's nobody alive from Cal Tech or MIT that could assure me why Cabrera would be a better bet than LaRoche for two years and not surrendering a pretty high second round draft pick as well.

QUOTE (icroca @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 11:17 PM) Not taking into account 1-3 additional years on the contract when guys like Tim Anderson and hopefully Hawkins will be pushing for starting roles...

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...roven-additions The irony is that the headline of the article is "Sox shun risk with proven additions" arguing that Eaton and Abreu were even more unknowns/mysteries at this point last offseason.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 11:09 PM) It is 12 games in Caulfield chill out. You didn't grow up in Iowa, lol.

McDermott looks like the ghost of his college self. Surprising? How many times has that happened with elite outside scorers/pure shooters upon arrival to the NBA?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 09:45 PM) Chris is under contract for 1 less year than Quintana, but he's put up 5.1 and 5.3 fWAR the last 2 years. If you believe Sale will repeat his last year, then Quintana is more valuable than Sale, hands down, but the difference is that Sale missed 4 weeks last year. If Sale was healthy all year last year with no difference in performance, he's a >7 fWAR pitcher, but we haven't seen that from him yet. It seems more likely with him than Quintana but that's where health comes in. But really, a good rule of thumb is...if you say "God no" to any trade proposal involving sale, you should say the exact same thing about Quintana. Sale should outperform Jose but he seems a higher injury risk based on his record, so if you weigh them about the same for trade value, Sale's trade Value and Quintana's trade value should be close enough that they're exchangeable. So, would you trade Sale as the key piece in a deal involving Jay Bruce? Literally there's no deal I can put together with the Reds roster that works, not with Cueto that close to FA. I wouldn't trade Sale as the key piece for Votto, so I wouldn't trade Quintana as the key piece for Votto. Their total value to the franchise is just about that close. The only reason you'd trade either of them is to remove the injury risk, and from the perspective of this thread, if you're worried about injury risk, how confident are you about a guy who struggled with knee injuries last year? This is approaching silly. No one with a lick of sense would trade Sale for a deal with Bruce as the centerpiece, so it's equally silly to trade Quintana for a package around him, let alone Quintana+. It's fine to take that kind of risk with a Thome or Dye because you're buying on a dip, especially with a FA coming off a down year or injury. The problem is the Reds aren't going to sell low on any of those guys, so a trade becomes virtually impossible. Of course, the risk is buying veterans like Keppinger, Duke and LaRoche at high points when the odds are good they won't be able to sustain that level of success. At least they're mitigating risk by not spreading it out over 4-5 seasons with these signings. There's that. They're not franchise-altering missteps like Dunn and Danks.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 10:44 PM) Thing about Ethier is that the Sox don't really need another lefty platoon hitter at this point. In fact, someone to platoon with Laroche would be helpful. They will have to decide in the next couple of weeks whether Viciedo's worth more or less the same ($4-4.5 million) as DeAza and Beckham in that role...assuming they find a corner of. They've got Markakis, Cruz, Tomas, Torii Hunter, Me. Cabrera, Aoki and Rasmus remaining on the board.

C.Rondon in 2015? Just wow. It didn't work to carry Brian Anderson in 2006 when we had one of the best offenses in the league...andRondon wouldn't come close to Anderson's numbers offensively. Leury Garcia would make fewer errors than Rondon and nobody wants to see him on the roster even.

Except pitchers have a much higher likelihood of career-threatening injuries than position players. Sure you can come back eventually from TJ...and Stanton almost had his career ended...but shoulder/labrum injuries are killers It's the age old argument about a pitcher with 32 starts vs. 150+ games from an everyday player...especially at SS or CF.

QUOTE (robinventura23 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:43 PM) Maybe Justin Upton is an idea as well. Multiply Heyward's cost by 1.5 at least. For a one year, desperation go for it season? That would be the COMPLETELY the opposite of everything Hahn has preached for three seasons at the helm.

QUOTE (Baron @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:40 PM) I'm thinking we sign Aoki The $7 million price tag fits but will he provide enough impact? He's incredibly streaky offensively and completely unorthodox defensively...albeit he usually gets the job done. It would be an upgrade over Garcia who would probably move to LF. But nobody will be dreaming at night like KW promised.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:33 PM) Why is that?? The dollar figures just don't add up with any of those guys to also be able to address our remaining pitching issues...without trading Alexei...which now makes little or no sense in the context of the LaRoche deal. Crawford or Ethier and money for a Danks, that's much more likely.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) Let's hope he can because as a regular, that's the only above average skill he has. And that's the same point about Victor, Dunn, Abreu or LaRoche....and we've clearly upgraded 1b defensively when Abreu has to rest/is ouchy. There's not a single player acquisition (and price tag) we couldn't all pick apart. We have started an interesting trend of integrating more NL guys too, fwiw. Eaton, Davidson, Duke...now LaRoche.

Kemp, Bruce and Me.Cabrera are all unrealistic at this point.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:33 PM) Tomas might possible take a 4/5 year deal (which won't be over 100) so he can enter free agency at 28/29 and have a chance at at a 6-7 year deal In the end no agent will leave a $90-100 million deal on the table for a completely unproven player internationally.

If LaRoche is getting that much at his age, Cabrera will easily be $15-17 million per season. I don't see a Headley move fitting here, either. Catcher and 3b are secondary to the pitching issues remaining as well as LF.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:24 PM) I dig it, thought after VMart he made the most sense. Now LF doesn't necessarily have to a LH hitter....Tomas? Way too expensive for on the job training at $100 million or so. They're taking the smarter approach...allocating the money across five players instead of just one or two. It won't drive pre-season sales as much as a big splashy signing but it will lead to a better overall team imo.

Interesting. Doesn't make any sense to go halfway in now or this signing is mostly wasted on just 2016. You could see the Danks/Ethier move back in play...trading Alexei makes less sense now. They could go Rasmus (two years)/any closer not named Robertson for 2-3 years/Volquez or Brett Anderson and be fairly close to $40 million in new spending. There's no way they can afford M.Cabrera and still have enough left for two more pitchers.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 05:25 PM) Well, to be fair, for the same term, it would be more like $60 million more Then you would be left with the same issues the Angels and Dodgers are having with Hamilton, Pujols, Ethier, Kemp and Crawford.