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QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:48 PM) The Jays have so many promising pitching prospects to choose from in addition to Deck. Hutchinson, Syndergaard, Cardona, Nicolino, Sanchez, Wojo, Jenkins, and Osuna. I really hope a deal gets done. Deck isn't even the best one, right?

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:45 PM) Huh, I do not think JR is cheap at all. I also think you are agreeing with me. My point is that I am fine with the Sox staying the course and hoping players progress on a career path not throw more money at it. I have no issue with the players moved this off season. The media has no story on the Sox this off season so they are pretending like theo is baseball jesus. Well, then I completely and totally misunderstood you. I redact the previous post from the internet.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:42 PM) FarrellBall FARRELL BALL #Jays are still interested; Just don't want to give up Nicolino or Syndengaard along with Deck RT @FarrellBall Anything more on Floyd? I want Syndergaard really badly, but I'm not sure of how much of it is because I think he's good and how much of it is because I want to get a shirt with his name on the back.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) Except 75% of the blame for what happened with the Cubs should be placed on prior management (not so much Hendry) thinking those aforementioned splashy names would drive up the asking price/NAV of the franchise at the time of sale...and also for maxxing out the performance of the team at a time when others were kicking the tyres about a possible purchase. And there's still a decent chance this White Sox team can at least be competitive in 2012. Can't really say the same for the Cubs. Hendry's fault or not, the point remains the same. The Cubs suck and are in a horrible position, and the White Sox are headed down the same path. If they decide to STILL try to be "all in," they will be in the same position within the next season or two.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:08 PM) The cubs were 71-91 and I do not believe they have added replacement level players with greater value. I do not think Travis Wood, Volstad and Maholm are anything more than Casey Coleman and Randy Wells. cub fans must believe that theo and jed are the saviors. While they may be very bright individuals neither built the Red Sox organization to the level they are getting credit for and one of the biggest trades that took place during the theo tenure was when theo was on sabattical. I think the Brewers, Cards are Reds will all be better than any team in the White Sox division thus I think the cubs will be epically bad as the NL as a whole will beat them up, the cub will get to beat the Astros but recently the Pirates have had their number and may even be better on paper this year. The media seems to gloss over the cub debt and stadium issues and everyone just thinks the fans will pay to see a 100+ plus loss team for the next two years. There also seems to be an accepted precedent that a wholesale gutting is the way to go. The potential lost revenue from bad teams and the youth movement not working could cripple that organization but the media's rose colored glasses will not see this. It is assured theo and jed will be the Royals in two years and nobody will invest in youth like the cubs will now do. The White Sox were 79-83 last year. They had two players produce to a level which I think will not be repeated Konerko and Humber. If Peavy, Rios and Dunn put up the same numbers as last year, Sale is not the starter he looks to be based on this last two years and if Morel and Beckham are not MLB players, the Sox will be a 70 win team. I believe the infield defense will be one of the best in the AL. I like Buehrle and he will be hard to replace but I think Peavy will replace his value and Sale, Danks and Floyd will fit their roles with Humber begin a nice number four. I think the bullpen can be built from within and and an arm or two will be there from the trades the Sox made this offseason. The White Sox are a relatively young team so having a terrible farm system will not kill them if they stay healthy. I am of the belief that guillen hurt the team greatly and Ventura will give them more of an advantage. I am not saying they are going to the playoffs but I also do not want to blow the thing up and start anew. I am going to South Bend now to shovel Hawk's snow. Nearly every team can be surprise contenders if everyone plays well. It's baseball, the best teams every year only win like 65% of their games -- there is a ton of space for streaks and career years to make a difference. But all of that does NOT make it prudent to plan on everything breaking correctly with tens of millions of dollars at stake. Yes, we would all be happier if every offseason's theme was to add veterans stars, but that's just not possible. No matter how much money you think ownership has, they can not and will not just continue to add payroll until they bankrupt themselves. Yes, the Cubs will suck next year, but that's because Hendry drove them into the ground with wanton aggression every year, throwing big money at the best player available at the time without any concern for anything beyond the next season. Now, they're mired in a state of sustained mediocrity without any chance of getting better quickly because they have $150m tied up in garbage players on long-term contracts, and depressingly few decent prospects to come up and outplay the dead weight. What options do they have? Would the fans rather see an expensive team suck it up or a young team with a promising future suck it up? If you think the White Sox or the Cubs should be further mortgaging the future on the slight chance that all of their bad players will turn it around and have great years, you either have no understanding of basic economics or think the world will end after 2012. I'm sick of hearing people hate on KW offseason strategy by acting like he WANTS to lose. He may or may not be making bad decisions, but he's doing it while trying to build you a winner the best way he knows how -- and unlike so many fans, he understands that he may not be able to do it right now and is aware that the decisions he makes now will affect his ability to succeed in the not-so-distant future. It's not as simple as "get good players or get bad players." And finally, to everyone (not necessarily you) who is complaining about JR being stingy: please realize that last year's payroll was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than any payroll in White Sox history.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...n-in-san-diego/

I think it was Morosi, tweeted today that the Red Sox are discussing Floyd.

They're slashing payroll and letting prospects develop. They have ~$15m/yr invested in Adam Dunn's lefty power bat, whether he plays well or not. We're not in a position to further mortgage our future with veteran FA signings.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 17, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) I don't see why teams would give up much at all for Floyd. He's not even league average. If/when the Sox deal Floyd, there are going to be some upset posters here given what should be a pretty lackluster return. Not even league average? He's significantly above average. He's going into his age 29 season and his WAR totals the last three years are 4.5, 4.3, 3.6. Compare that to a guy like Matt Garza (3.1, 1.6, 5.0) EDIT: League average is ~2.0

QUOTE (gatnom @ Jan 16, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) I think you're proving the point that our current model doesn't work right here. Way more often than not, we have not had seasons where we make it to the playoffs regardless of how you want to define us as being competitive. Our model needs to be adjusted to take into account that minor league system because that's the thing we have the most control over. Also, we must have different definitions of incredibly successful... This is a good point. It's like they say to hitters in slumps, "don't try hard to make your mechanics like they were when things were going, solve the problem as it is now." It doesn't matter what happened before when we were successful - we aren't successful now and we need to do whatever looks like it makes the most sense to become successful. A tangent: it seems like every year I think we should be good, we suck, and every year i think we're going to sucks or be middling, we're good. Is it possible we've just been lucky a couple times?

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 16, 2012 -> 12:24 PM) Yep. Could be a great move. I'm starting to think Floyd isn't going anywhere though. Likely not, I agree. If some surprise team swoops up Oswalt though, I think it increases the chances a lot. Red Sox won't do a multi-year for Jackson, and Boras will snatch it up from some non-contender before it gets desperate enough that he has to sign for a year or two in the spring.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 16, 2012 -> 12:00 PM) 1.) Oswalt is a bad risk for the money when you consider the switch in leagues. 2.) Oswalt likely wants to go to a contender. On a one-year deal, he's nearly guaranteed to move at the deadline if he's on a non-contender. So he'll be in the postseason anyway, assuming he doesn't get hurt.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 16, 2012 -> 11:12 AM) Yes. I would prefer to trade Floyd now and have Oswalt on just a one year contract....and then deal him at the deadline as well. I suppose the greatest argument against that is that we MIGHT be competitive in 2013 if Floyd's still around, but he's not the kind of pitcher to anchor a staff around and he's going to be blocking Stewart/Molina/Castro/Axelrod/Santiago eventually. It's a pretty risk gamble for KW, though. Standing pat and keeping Floyd around is another form of gamble, because we're not getting a return on him compared to what we might be able to get back in trade for the future. If I had the chance to swap Floyd with all his salary for something solid and grab Oswalt for $8m for a year, I'm all over it assuming my medical team think he can hit 150 IP this year. We're in a good position to eat the deficit in innings from Buerhle/Floyd with our veritable plethora of similarly-mediocre SP prospects. This will be a year where we get to look at a ton of guys, methinks.

This is interesting: It would sort of imply that a Floyd trade would be preferable than an Oswalt signing, so long as the White Sox would be willing to pick up some of the cash. Though picking up cash hasn't been something the White Sox have been willing to do this year, it does mean they'd get back more prospect value in the deal. If this were the case, it then might be possible/make sense for the White Sox to sign Oswalt on a one-year after moving Floyd if they picked up say, only about half of Floyd's salary in the deal. Oswalt would gladly take the deal, being that with NYY and BOS (and potentially TEX with a Darvish signing) out of the running, it may actually be his best chance to be pitching for a contender by the end of the year, either via deadline trade or in the unlikely event that the Sox would compete. I don't know, stranger things have happened. It's probably more likely that Darvish signs with TEX this week and Oswalt panics and accepts a $4m deal with BOS or something. Thought I guess KW could approach Oswalt and tell him to hold his demands on BOS because he'll offer him $8m if he can move Floyd. Is that immoral? The business man in me says no, but I have no idea if that sort of thing ever happens.

Sox should not sign multi-year FA starters this year. I would say that someone like Oswalt at $8m would make sense if we were a bit lower on payroll (to hope to move at the dealine/dupe casual fans into thinking the Sox are tryin to win), but if we're sitting at $110m already, it's probably not in the books, unfortunately.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 15, 2012 -> 12:10 PM) Well, we don't have the usual "keep him away from Walker as long as possible" posts to worry about this season. There's that. Supposedly, Cespedes hasn't played under the lights in 10 months, that was his excuse basically for the 3 strikeout game. 1 for 10 with an infield single now, I believe.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 14, 2012 -> 10:37 AM) They already signed Carlos Silva, Aaron Cook, & Vincente Padilla. They will be fine. Those are the type of signings that serve as a backup plan if you can't get the guy you actually want. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 14, 2012 -> 10:52 AM) Signing a boatload of suck worked for the Yankees last year. Sometimes emergency crash landings work out alright too, but no one ever thinks it's a good idea to plan on one.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Jan 14, 2012 -> 07:35 AM) I don't understand why teams don't make the Yankees pay a premium when they trade. They should always be forced to include an extra prospect or two in a trade because of their ability to outspend everyone in free agency. How do you give up a 23 yr old guy who throws 95-100 coming off a solid rookie season? Dumb trade. Not when you consider how risky young pitchers are when it comes to being injured.

Kuroda is one year for $10m

Holy s*** the Yankees strike! Pineda AND Kuroda on one night. You gotta figure the Red Sox HAVE to get a SP now. Floyd maybe?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/c...talents-in-mlb/

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 11:30 AM) The high ranking on Thompson made me look up his stats and I gotta say, I was impressed with the power. He still strikes out far too much but he has decreased his K percentage every year and adding in his power and defense I think he might be a real prospect. I’m more pleased by the 10% walk rate that is trending upward. It’s certainly not awesome, but workable, and moving in the right direction.

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 11:28 AM) Cespedes goes 0-3 with 3 Ks and a hit by pitch in his DWL debut...could it have gone any worse for him? Scouting report say he couldn't handle slider. I'm so glad he is doing this, lol.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 12, 2012 -> 05:16 PM) Except arguably Cespedes is the best player (along with Gourriel) to come out of Cuba in this current generation of players. DeAza was a waiver claim, largely due to injury/depth issues with the Marlins, but cheaply available nonetheless. At the least, Cespedes will get around $20-25 million. And we've seen some guesses for $50-60 million on the top side of the range. Nobody would have given Alejandro $1 million+ guaranteed when he left Florida, or a major league contract. He was claimed October 20th, 2009. Many teams in the majors passed on him, presumably. I'm not sure what you're arguing. His price will be determined by the market. All I'm saying is that his performance in the DWL will help teams decide if they think he has a shot at immediate MLB playing time or if he'll need time in the minors. In the former instance, teams will be willing to pay much more for him than in the latter instance.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 12, 2012 -> 05:13 PM) Realistically, the only player who really could play 2B and clearly outproduce him offensively (based on 2011) is probably Brent Lillibridge. Despite Marty's please, we can't trade Alexei and move Brent to SS. But playing everyday at 2B might be his ultimate destination. If only we could have 100% confidence in Rios and, to a lesser extent, DeAza. That lack of depth is another reason (besides his clear inability to stick at 3B) that has had Viciedo moving all over the diamond...but we put Gordon Beckham through the same process, and one wonders if 2 position changes didn't do a number on him? Certainly, it couldn't have helped. I have seen nothing to make me believe Lillibridge can play competently in the infield.