caulfield12

QUOTE (Dunt @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 09:27 AM) Im not sure there is much of interest in next years crop that fit the plan besides Upton and Zimmerman IMO. Heyward. Fister maybe. Or Span.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 01:47 AM) He's basically coming for nothing. Again 8-10 million is nothing today. Sox could have had a 28 year old guy who knows how to hit for NOTHING. What the hell did they pay Keppinger? Since the Sox can't compete for highly priced free agents, he would have been a perfect gamble. He's only 28. We've had slow as molasses type guys before. I think he would have looked great in our lineup if we are serious about ever winning again. WHo the hell are the Sox going to sign? They can't afford anybody hardly. Beane is an EXPERT. He is the Sabes god and he wanted Butler. I think this is sad the Sox obviously had zero interest. I really truly don't think Butler is gonna stop hitting at 28. Cell is perfect park for him. The arguments about Butler are essentially the same as the ones surrounding Rasmus. Butler's more one-dimensional, of course reliably consistent offensively before this season but doesn't have a defensive position...Rasmus can play all 3 OF positions, and play the corners at above-average level...and has at least a 50/50 chance of outproducing Butler offensively going forward. THE BIGGEST factor is we need to find a LH hitter from either LF or DH. We could sign Morse for about the same or less than Butler and use Cabrera or Rasmus in LF, it's the same argument because Morse was much more productive offensively than Butler. Neither should be in the field. Probably the same with Torii Hunter as well.

The problem is Cincy Reds fans would freak out because Bruce and Latos are "name" players and Quintana's virtually unknown except to baseball insiders. I'm not even sure the Reds could deal with the PR fallout.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 12:49 AM) There is a possibility of an expensive splash with the budget I've heard however I don't think they are set on outbidding other teams. Which means you can essentially forget about any of the "premium" free agents in the top 10-20, and that probably includes Melky Cabrera.

Okay, Bruce is going to cost $37.5 million for the next three years, assuming they don't buy out his 2017 contract. But aren't Leake/Latos/Kennedy going to become free agents? If they COULD extend Latos before FA, then the Reds are going to ask for a pretty good package of minor leaguers... So it would essentially be like trading 3 years of "relatively affordable" Bruce, 3-4 expensive years of Latos (with the extension) for Quintana's six super affordable years and at least one significant minor leaguer (Danish, Montas, Anderson...possibly Hawkins).

He will be remembered for his goggles and pitching pretty well against his former team. And Blow-a-savio. TUC quote.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 10:55 PM) I think the Sox blew it not getting involved with Billy Butler. He's cheap in today's standards and a genius like Beane was willing to go three years. He'd have been potentially dandy in the hitter-friendly Cell. I'm not saying Billy is a god, but it's the Sox type of signing. Taking a chance on a guy who had a bad year. He's only 28. He could have possibly gone on a nice six-year run on the South Side. He finally elevates a bit and we might have had a good DH. Also would have been nice to have him in 19 games a year vs. KC. Now I could be wrong if Billy gets fat and continues to not elevate, but I think if the Sox are gonna continue to be a small market team like they have been payroll wise, this signing made a lot of sense. Go after the 8-10 million buck a year guys. I'd say this is a fail by Hahn. Cause he's not going to get any of the mega contract type guys. p.s. I'm in favor of acquiring Torii Hunter now. Yes he's old, but same reasoning as Butler. Figure you can get him 6-10 million a year for two years or one year and an option year. Hunter is too old to play the OF, but sadly he's probably better than Avisail nevertheless. If they were trying to win THIS season (like the Royals), it MIGHT make sense. Paying him when he's 40-42 and expecting his recent production to continue is downright insanity.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:07 PM) Gesell is just not a very good player. Iowa has a very good frontcourt, but a poor backcourt. They're going to miss Marble, even though he was perceived by some to be a selfish/me first player. One thing he could do well was create his own shot off the dribble...or get to the rim when the offense broke down. They're hoping Dickerson and Clemmons can pick up the slack, and some of it's going to have to come from Oglesby consistently hitting 3's from outside to open up lanes by spreading out the defense to keep them from packing down on White/Olaseni/Woodbury.

Some people in South Florida (and some people in my inbox) believe that Loria is setting up a future sale of the Marlins. Stanton's backloaded deal helps Loria and the Marlins make money in the immediate future. And starting next year, Loria could sell the team without having to give any of the profits back to the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County. Had he sold in 2009, for instance, 18 percent of the profits would have gone to the government. Some fans theorize that Loria could enjoy the cheaper years of Stanton, then sell the team before Stanton's opt-out date and not care about what happens to the Marlins and/or Stanton after that. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-180526965.html

So then they're also looking at guys like Fister, Zimmerman, Shark, Price, Latos...pretty much every pitcher that will be a FA after 2015, with the caveat of course being able to convince a player in the same situation as Heyward with the Cards next year not to go out onto the open market and offer his services to the highest bidder.

QUOTE (Special K @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 10:08 PM) Not the right plac for this, I know, so please excuse me while i digress, but, is there any indication sox are looking at Hanley? Feel like adding him and a melky or Rasmus would make us instant contenders.... Not at the speculated dollar levels of $80-120 million. If the numbers were in the 50's or 60's, I think they'd definitely have to give it strong consideration.

The Orioles aren't just going to give us Chris Davis. He's coming off a troubled 2014, and they're not going to get 2013/prime value for him, so why would they sell at his lowest value and put all their eggs in the Pearce (a guy waived/DFA'ed a number of times, even last year) basket? It just doesn't make much sense. Another name to consider in the Ike Davis category is Garrett Jones, if the Marlins make another move on the infield to go with the Stanton extension.

The Reds aren't going to get Q with Bruce Almighty. Of course, Cincy's going to overvalue Bruce as the player he was before 2014 when it might take him another year to get back to that form (not to mention the league adjustment and the fact he's never done any better than an average LF/RF outside of their bandbox stadium)...and then it might never happen. As has been noted, declining BB totals and rising K numbers, etc. Some alarming trends, at the very least. And the Reds certainly aren't going to give us Latos or Cueto to replace Quintana unless there are SIGNIFICANT prospects coming back from the Sox.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) Bruce is not a big contract at all, something like 3/$36M IIRC. Ooops, I was confusing him with Votto. Bruce really had a disappointing 2014 though, and had negative fielding metrics, yes?

Well, that's a pretty big contract. And it would completely blow a hole open in the rotation. It would also force Rodon to be a 2, almost from the start. (Unless we do something truly unprecedented and spend big money for a FA pitcher)...so all the resources we need to improve the team would basically be absorbed by contracts for Bruce and another more expensive pitcher to replace Quintana.

If you're Wade Davis and can lock down the 8th around 95% of the time instead of a mediocre 5th starter, sure.

Iowa for three years now having troubles in the 2nd half. They led Tennessee by double figures in the 1st round of the NCAA's, they led 13-2 and 30-24 at halftime and got overwhelmed (I'm guessing athletically) in the 2nd half. Uthoff has to take that next step for them to make the tourney...he's an incredible athlete, just gets timid and disappears at times.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 07:37 PM) They'd also be able to offer him a QO if healthy right? Yep, so if he overperforms and they want to keep him, there's protection. If he falls off a cliff, they're not wasting another $10 million...which is still important to the bottom 20 teams in MLB payroll.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:21 PM) No Reddick has 2 years and Jaso 1. Youth please. Okay, for some reason I thought he was still at 3. If it's just 2, no deal.

Well, they would be buying in for TWO years of Ramirez. I couldn't imagine any team would be absolutely sure that they'd even want to keep Alexei in 2017. It's completely a "win now" move.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 07:09 PM) 2013 he was hurt. Take that out, and things look a lot different. And you're willing to give him essentially the same deal Adam Dunn had? 4 years/$60 million? I love how exchanging Dunn for Ethier and Viciedo for Rasmus leads to a worse season than 2013. If everyone believes in defensive metrics/DRS/UZR so much, getting Viciedo out of the outfield alone should give you a tremendous benefit. We can't, on one hand, say how great it would be to add Heyward for one year and then turn around and totally discount defense with Rasmus, at least in LF.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:45 PM) Come on man, that's a 90-loss team. We could do that for free. So Cabrera makes us an 83-85 win team? I'm not even certain he will outproduce Rasmus the next four years straight up, let alone when you take costs into consideration, and finally the advantage Rasmus has of being able to take over for Eaton in CF and play the position at least adequately, compared to Cabrera at this stage of his career.

How many "if he could only find his control" have we had??? I know, I know, you have to take your shots with the Cleto's of the world....in the past, it might have been Santos Rodriguez, now Olacio, etc.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:06 PM) Melky can hit and doesn't strike out much, but I wish he played decent D. That was a real weak spot on this team. We can trade Alexei and get a good outfielder plus a couple of good a/aa prospects. Sandoval is the position player available, and by far, imo. I'd take Hanley Ramirez's impact bat over Sandoval any day of the week. I might even take Cruz if I believed his 2nd half wasn't a warning indicator of an impending age-related decline (Dunn in 2010) but happened for other reasons (see league pitching around Jose Abreu). The question is Hanley's health, of course...but that's the same as Kung Fu Panda's weight issues next year, or especially 4-5 years down the line. We've seen it blow up with Prince Fielder already.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20874139,00.html This is a typical review. Lots of B-'s and scores in the 50's, 60's and 70's from critics. Lots of criticism for "wasting" our time and money dragging the process out into two movies, studio cash grab, etc. (Of course, if you're the head of the studio and you can gross $750,000,000 X 2 or one billion on a single, longer final film...it's obvious what the SOP is today with gold mine movie franchises...and it works the other way against making sequels when there's a major disappointment, like John Carter, Green Lantern, the CS Lewis movie series or P.Pullman novels). It's STILL going to be a huge event, not unlike Twilight or the second to last Harry Potter film...but we all know we're going to leave the theatre disappointed and irritated at the same time.