Eminor3rd

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 09:51 AM) Most realistic option without giving up a draft pick or paying a lot of money? Seth Smith. Can be the primary DH but also spell guys in left and right. This is a realistic choice. Good call. He's a straight platooner, but we don't really want Viciedo in LF that much anyway, right?

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 09:30 AM) A 3-4 combination of Abreu and Davis.... The problem is that if Davis proves he's for real, he's going to be unavailable.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 09:30 AM) Thank you for starting this thread. A lack of a middle of the order left handed bat continues to be the most glaring flaw in the Sox organization. There isn't a single candidate at either the Major League, or Minor League level, who could realistically be expected to contribute any time soon. It's a shame that there probably isn't even a candidate to fill this void, in the upcoming Amateur Draft, and that's picking third, with likely all of the position players, from whom to choose!!

Jeter is a first ballot HOFer. THAT SAID: There are two reasons that I don't think he is as "classy" as everyone gives him credit for: 1. His refusal to move off of SS as he aged. If the team needs you to move, a "classy" guy moves. 2. The public hissy fit he put up about his last contract. No one owes you money for your past. He was coming off a garbage season and was offered a better deal from the NYY than any other team. So I tend to play a strong devil's advocate role when he comes up, not because I think he's a bad guy, but because I'm not seeing this whole "greatest ambassador of teh game evarr" crap. Guys like Jim Thome deserve that, not Jeter.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 07:13 AM) Well, I should modify my statement. You can show you completely suck in Spring Training, but you can't show you're awesome. Every professional player has a good couple of weeks. There's no way to know whether those couple of weeks are sustainable, though. Thus, Boggs can pitch his way out of a job, but Semien shouldn't be able to play his way onto the team unless he's completely proven his mettle in his development process. He hasn't yet. Soon. But Beckham is hurt, and so he IS playing in the Majors now. So how he performs during the season SHOULD count toward whether or not he stays. I don't THINK he's ready either, but since we're going to find out now anyway, it would be senseless to jerk him around if he's raking. If he still looks rough around the edges, then sure, send him down. My point is just that there should be a scenario where he keeps the job, and that is that he looks ML ready when he's filling in.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 01:07 AM) But Jeter is a starter, Konerko is a bench player. I just hope he wasn't implying Konerko should get the attention Jeter is going to get. He's just saying Konerko wouldn't want it.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 30, 2014 -> 10:11 PM) Wrong thread? He's implying that PK is humble, whereas DJ is controlled by his ego.

Too many good arms to think Sale is THE favorite. Certainly he'd be a preseason contender. Abreu as ROY is much more likely, but I think Tanaka is a better bet in NY, given they're much more likely to contend and, of course, they are NY. There's also the potential for a Xander Bogaerts breakout, and that's another nice East Coast story. I voted neither, but both are certainly plausible.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2014 -> 02:58 PM) Would the emotional joy of getting rid of Beckham be worth the risk of having Semien jump to the big leagues without much time at AAA (when we already saw him struggle somewhat last year with the 2nd jump, with his walk rate declining both from AA to AAA and then big time from AAA to the big league cup of coffee)? If Semien is even average, he goes down for seasoning, IMO. But there should absolutely have the opportunity to steal the job. If he decides he's going to break out this year, the FO would be insane to interrupt it.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Mar 30, 2014 -> 02:52 PM) You're nuts. Beckham has had his chances. I'm not going to give him another year. Screw that. If Semien plays good, he should play, period. This ^

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 09:19 AM) For us that was clearly talking about the early-2nd round pick, I thought. Sorry, I was referring to the #10 rank on mlb.com earlier in that post.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Mar 27, 2014 -> 05:46 PM) Gettys is likely long gone by the time the Sox pick. Some have compared him to Buxton with an ugly swing. MLB.com has him ranked as the #10 overall prospect. This was interesting though: "It's a bad swing, but I can't just ignore the other talent," an AL Central scout said. "It may only end up a 45 [on the 20-80 scouting scale] hit tool, but when you're above-average to plus everywhere else, I think you can still be a major league regular, in my opinion. It's going to take some time, but his skillset is a special one." "...can still be a major league regular..." No thanks in the first round, lol.

Gotta get team control in trades right now

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 04:11 PM) Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jiminez are making roughly the same salary per year as Abreau. How are they being paid like stars and Abreau is being paid like a league average player? If you consider $2-4 million dollars per year "roughly the same," then yeah, it's not much difference. Santana at $14.1m, and Ubaldo at $12.5m AAV. If the Sox got Santana, I'd assume it would be at the same price since it was essentially just "choose your team" for him. You figure the Sox would beat the Orioles offer at $13m AAV at the minimum to get him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) Again, in the Abreu thread, you said if he was a bust, $60 million wasn't going to harm the team. At least be consistent. The fact that the Sox were in on Tanaka tells you all you really need to know about their finances. Apparently JR WAS WILLING TO THROW MONEY AT HIS PROBLEMS. He threw $68 million at Abreu and in total was probably willing to go twice as much for Tanaka. You never read my response when you say this. Please read the following: NO ONE IS AGAINST SPENDING MONEY EVERYONE IS AGAINST SPENDING MONEY ON STUPID, RISKY, LOW UPSIDE DEALS Jose Abreu's contract was smart because he is being paid like a LEAGUE AVERAGE PLAYER. Ergo, his contract is easier to tolerate if it busts. An investment in talent with upside is good. The downside is limited, in context. You are the ONLY one who thinks I said that $68m doesn't matter. Truthfully, I don't even think you really think that's what I said, I think you just like to disagree with everything I post. Ervin Santana (and every other old, dead cat bounce, injury prone, flash in the pan, etc.) is a BAD INVESTMENT because there's limited or no upside, he/they are being paid like STARS instead of league-average players, and thus come with MORE downside. This is risky. This is bad. I don't know how else to explain this.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 01:54 PM) What a tease. Haha no joke

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 11:18 AM) This board is so concerned with JR checking account balance. I just wonder, what if the Yankees or Dodgers needed a 1st baseman and Abreu's price went up, what would have been the cutoff money-wise before his current can't miss, can't wait to see him in the middle of the line up would have change to the "he's never faced a pitch in the major leagues, he's not worth it, maybe when the team is a little better you could spend the money". We don't care at all how much money that JR has, it's just we're looking past that and dealing in reality. None of us know how much the Sox make, how much they have saved, ownership's ability or willingness to expand budget, balh blah etc. The reality is that there is a limit to how much the team is going to spend on payroll, and we have some frame of reference that tells us that our team is willing and able to be in the upper quarter when they feel it's necessary. This is PLENTY of information for us to like or not like deals based on financials. You can wish JR would spend endlessly if you like, but it isn't going to happen. There IS a ceiling, it's a reasonable ceiling, and therefore we don't like s***ty deals that waste money because we know there's a limit. The morality of that is completely separate from the analysis and interpretation of the deals that happen to the team. Marty's kindergarten logic dictates that we should sign overpriced players because JR should have enough money to continue throwing money at problems anyway DESPITE the fact that there is no precedent for this type of behavior. But we know that he WON'T continue to throw money at problems anyway, and therefore we should NOT sign overpriced players. Marty deals in Martyland, the rest of us are dealing in reality.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 10:55 AM) Unless the guy sucks, and prohibits you from signing a guy when you actually need one like, you know, Adam Dunn. Exactly. And when you're talking about 32 year old middling free agent starters, the window of effectiveness is really small. You just have to wait Marty. If this team wins 80 games this year and has a hole in the rotation, you can be angry if they don't sign Ervin Santana's equivalent next year. Those guys just don't last, you can't rely on their futures.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 10:05 AM) When did I say that? I felt it was safe to assume when you didn't respond to post #408

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 09:47 AM) Chairman Reinsdorf should sell the team if he can't figure out a way to grow revenues. But you're against spending money on risky free agent signings now, because Adam Dunn. What do they need more revenue for?

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 25, 2014 -> 10:03 AM) It's so difficult to imagine the Sox organization drafting a high school pitcher that high. Over the weekend, Hawk and Stoney were talking about how research showed that a high school pitcher loses about 2-3 mph when they enter professional baseball. Sure, but that's not really surprising considering that velocity decreases every year for pitchers, on average: Credit to Bill Petti for this graph and the corresponding research.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 25, 2014 -> 09:02 PM) And popular opinion was wrong. (Fangraphs too.) Ok, so you're against spending money?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 25, 2014 -> 09:55 PM) Not true. The reaction to the Dunn signing was decidedly pro around here. That's because no one thought it was a stupid move.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 25, 2014 -> 09:29 PM) This does not explain SS2K5's posts against spending any money. No one is against spending money. EVERYONE is against making stupid moves in free agency.