caulfield12

I would go with Duffy or Ventura but I haven't looked at the head to head numbers yet. Shields will undoubtedly get the ball though as he's earned the right and Duffy Ventura and finnegan will have plenty of opportunities in the future. The royals will really be interesting with victor Martinez...Sandoval...or Hanley in that lineup. Dyson can replace aoki and butlers numbers are easily replaceable. One would expect hosmer moustakas and Perez to all be better offensively. Like the 2005 sox pen you have to doubt that bullpen can put up another 72-1 with a lead going into the 9th. That's unreal. Butler will get $6-8 million per season...for two and possibly three years (option?). Getting older no defensive position power and RBI numbers way down...they would even be better off with willingham and Ibanez but they will have money to spend.

And irabu.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Oct 4, 2014 -> 04:22 PM) I agree with this on shopping Alexei, Viciedo, Rodon, and defense. Wish Gillaspie hadn't tanked in August and Sept or we could have shopped him too. I don't know anything about Sanburn, but I sure as heck don't recall Chad Bradford ever being an ace. Rodon??? Really?

Six of the top eight drs teams made the playoffs. I'd say that's definitely a strong correlation. The four al central teams not named Kansas City finished at the very bottom of mlb. We all know the tigers win because of their hitting and starting rotation...defense/bullpen/fundamentals/speed be damned.

Www.baseball-reference.com Flowers 3 Nieto -5 Abreu -11 Dunn -5 Konerko 0 Beckham 3 Leury 1 Sanchez/semien -1 Leury 3 Semien -3 Gillespie -12 Alexei -4 Semien/Garcia 0 Left field Danks -3 Dayan -8 Deaza/Sierra +1 Taylor -1 Cf Danks 0 Eaton 12 Deaza/Sierra/Garcia -1 Rf Viciedo -9 Sierra +1 Dunn -3 A.garcia -10 27. Chw -56 28. Detroit -64 29. Minn -72 30. Cle -74 2. Stl 66 3. Balt 50 4. Kc 41 6. Pitt 37 7. Oak 33 8. Lad 28 Washington 11 Sfg -4 Laa -15

Let's start with the startling +65 for Gordon/dyson/Cain....and overall positive 45 for all royals outfielders. The white sox were not surprisingly at -23 for 23rd (among all outfields), with viciedo being fourth worst in the majors and Garcia not much better. The one that jumps out is Alexei Ramirez at -5. With the unlikelihood of competing in 2015, a trade would seem the most logical move, also keeping in mind his offensive regression in the second half. We have -17 at first base (last overall), -12 at third, -10 in left and -21 in right. Catcher was league average and 2b +2. Unless we play Sanchez there we are likely to be negative with semien and/or Micah. Not even counting Dayan, we have three black holes in Abreu Garcia and Conor. The only player/position to grade out well was cf/eaton at +9 and one of the fifteen or so best individually. Other than trading for lagares inciarte nava Leonys Martin parra Heyward Jackie Bradley jr. Kiermaier or dyson we're not going to see wholesale improvement and most of those aforementioned players are offensively challenged. If there's such a thing as the Walt hrniak of defense we need him now and badly.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 4, 2014 -> 12:46 AM) Do you think Detroit's latest choke job will bring them back to earth during the regular season? Are they going to finally turn into the Rangers? How many years can you fail in the postseason without it affecting players' confidence and regular season results? The rangers had nearly every starter go down. So if verlander porcello and price all miss more than 100 games next year then they'll be the rangers...and it's similar replacing Nelson Cruz and the tigers without victor Martinez.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 4, 2014 -> 12:45 AM) Hmmm ... As I recall no other team in the postseason has come close to that kind of use of its starting pitchers a few years before and since 2005. I still think the Sabes people and all "modern" baseball tacticians would say that would NEVER work. Magic, destiny I tell ya. It's not ALL about numbers (cough, Billy Beane). Every manager will go his pen when it's finnegan Duffy Herrera Davis and holland. It's when the choice is Ventura vs. Collins/Fraser/Coleman/downs that it gets much trickier. I'm sure ausmus would have pitched anibal Sanchez an additional inning yesterday had he known the outcome in advance...Greg ur a big soria guy and he just doesn't have the crispness or movement after coming back from injury. A good manager would have recognized that the previous day and adjusted. It's not about sabes. It's about a managers intuition and decision-making ability.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 4, 2014 -> 12:45 AM) Hmmm ... As I recall no other team in the postseason has come close to that kind of use of its starting pitchers a few years before and since 2005. I still think the Sabes people and all "modern" baseball tacticians would say that would NEVER work. Magic, destiny I tell ya. It's not ALL about numbers (cough, Billy Beane). Every manager will go his pen when it's finnegan Duffy Herrera Davis and holland. It's when the choice is Ventura vs. Collins/Fraser/Coleman/downs that it gets much trickier. I'm sure ausmus would have pitched anibal Sanchez an additional inning yesterday had he known the outcome in advance...Greg ur a big soria guy and he just doesn't have the crispness or movement after coming back from injury. It's not about sabes. It's about a managers intuition and decision-making ability.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Oct 3, 2014 -> 09:29 PM) The team is in no position to forfeit any draft picks This team is in no position to worry more about 5-6 years from now than 1-2 years.

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 4, 2014 -> 12:51 AM) if I can't convince anyone on 1-seconder rounder for an establish very good rp or a closer in which the sox really need, I will forgo anymore discussion on this particular subject. all you posters are set with your opinions. I respect that. good job. If you could convince everyone that said reliever would be one of the top 2-3 set up guys (like wade Davis or miller or gregerson) or an elite level closer (87.5% or above conversion rate) then most wouldn't have a problem with it...for a second or third rounder that's not the worst tradeoff in the world. The problem is always this years miller is last years uehara...repeatability/consistency and predictability of future performance.

I think we will go after someone like heyward, parra, lagares, Cain, dyson...etc. josh Hamilton should not be in the plans. The only problem is the advantage of strong outfield defenders isn't as pronounced at USCellular. Seeing the direction the royals are going in...we need to get Gillaspie viciedo and potentially avisail off the field and dhing. Of course, that's not possible...but one can easily envision a lineup of semien Johnson and eaton trying to emulate the athleticism of kc. Of course we also need Herrera Davis finnegan and holland lol.

Please don't let ethier markakis Lind and morales be higher on that aforementioned big board list or considered true power bats.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 2, 2014 -> 08:16 AM) I don't mean to speak for Dick Allen here, but I think his big thing is this: if Greg Walker or Jeff Manto get blamed or fired because the offense underperforms, regardless of the talent on hand, why is Don Cooper continually given a free pass and not criticized when the pitching staff in recent years has been mediocre to dreadful, regardless of talent on hand? So many times, it matters not who coaches but insteaad who your players are. Maybe because 50% of that is john danks related, which he has how much control over exactly? Everyone will admit noesi overachieved....so what pitching coach in the majors could have gotten more out of Paulino Carroll rienzo surkamp leesman bassitt etc.???

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 2, 2014 -> 07:36 AM) heck, the Braves organization gets a ton of crap for only winning one world series when they made the playoffs like 18 years in a row. Thats crazy 14

Couldn't have two more opposite games in terms of drama. This will make volquez cheaper to acquire at least.

Hahn has been successful with one of four free agents. He's going to have to go 4/5 to be successful in 2015....see 2013 Red Sox offseason.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 09:23 PM) I don't see how we're close. On a macro level, the team lacks power and is still terrible defensively. On a micro level, the Sox need 1 #2 starter 2 top end bullpen pitchers. 3B LF DH We could fill all of that and still be lousy defensively and lack power. That isn't close I'm going to guess with Gillaspie semien davidson they don't make a move at third. Catcher is highly unlikely as well except via trade.

I think he returns as depth/back-up option at rf lf dh first base.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 07:53 PM) I really don't think there will be such a thing as "too expensive" this offseason. Payroll is so miniscule that I can certainly see at least 1 "high priced" player brought in. Whether that be Sandoval, VMart, perhaps a SP, a few "top flight" RP, or taking on a salary in a trade, the money is there IMO. I just don't think we will see another $75-100 million salary added. That money will be allocated across 4-5 players.

Sandoval too expensive and risky. I think we'll look at Alvarez (dh to start but could be moved back to third if they can fix his throwing issues)...headley would be okay but that makes viciedo or Gillaspie the dh...or Conor and semien. Outfield will be Rasmus or Dominic brown. Would prefer Rasmus but perhaps will be too expensive...simply because of his improving the defense in the outfield at a corner spot. Then someone like volquez with upside but risk mitigated by cooper...two relievers maybe Soria and any lefty reliever not named miller.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 05:38 PM) I think he's saying that signing two free agents with gualifying offers is worth the Sox losing their 2nd and 3rd round picks. Well yeah nobody's going to care about those draft picks if the sox are in fourth or fifth the next two seasons. Hahn would be gone. I should say barring a major injury to sale Quintana abreu.

QUOTE (woods of ypres @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 01:01 PM) Not to mention the two the Cardinals have won using it. Not really....drafting/player development young pitching in droves and the best catcher in the game when healthy. Cardinals' way 100+page instructional system integrated at every level etc. Luhnow was part of that...but mozeliaks more of a traditional baseball guy. Combination of both aspects. And the m's pitching just ran out of gas down the stretch.

Calling the Red Sox a saber team because of bill James' presence is pushing it... Those World Series can be just as easily be attributed to peds and traditional player development. Maybe the most recent one yes due to the positive contributions of all the undervalued veterans they brought into the fold. Angels and royals split 3-3 head to head this year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 04:00 PM) Huston Street seems to be the type of pitcher this front office is moving away from. Bit more finesse, throws a lot of fly balls, diminishing velocity. I think if Robertson gets to free agency without a QO, the Sox will make a major push for him. There's also a possiblity that, if he does, the Sox still go after him and then go after another guy who received a QO. It seems weird to think that - signing 2 QO guys gives up 2 draft picks - but then it's essentially a 2nd and a 3rd for those two guys, which really helps even the loss of those draft picks out. I don't quite understand that last sentence....compensates for?