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Extra base hits are good, regardless of whether or not the bases are empty. Every time Jose Reyes leads off with a triple, it makes it easier to drive him in. SLG is great everywhere, but OBP is more important in front of big hitters.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 04:17 PM) E-Jax (and some cash) for Rasmus. Rios for Lowe. Quentin for Beachy. Danks, Jordan Danks, Floyd to Pirates for prospects (preferably a 3B who can hit, to at least push Morel, a LHP, and a catcher. Or something of value). Throw in Flowers if that might get you a catching prospect. Resign Buehrle. Next year's rotation: SP - Buehrle SP - Humber SP - Sale SP - Beachy SP - Peavy/Santiago (when Peavy is on the DL) Next year's OF: LF - Rasmus CF - De Aza RF - Viciedo No offense, but NONE of that is realistic, except 'resign Buerhle.' ATL would not want both Rios and CQ. ATL would not give up two members of its rotation in the midst of a playoff run. STL would NEVER give us Rasmus for only Jackson. Floyd/Danks/Danks is straight out of a video game, PIT would never take that kind of salary on, and if they did they'd have to dump the entire farm which would be a ridiculous move. And the staff we'd end up with up there is a total rebuild of a staff.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 04:00 PM) I agree, there probably isn't a high OBP, "traditional" leadoff hitter available. I would rather the Sox not spend ($ or talent) to acquire a traditional leadoff guy and just find someone with a high OBP that can handle the role. I'm all about that, IF we fire Ozzie so he doesn't insist on making whoever that person is steal every time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 03:56 PM) Brewers opening day payroll the year they traded for captain cheeseburger: $81 million. Pittsburgh's opening day payroll this year: $45 million. Even if they now have a little bit extra in the budget...they NEED to go with the long term plan. Deviating from it would be suicidal. Agreed. They need to go out and get someone like Carlos Pena - a clear upgrade one a reasonable expiring contract that costs next to nothing in talent.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) Like I said, he's a nice player, but despite the speed (stolen bases), I would really prefer a leadoff guy with an OBP better than that. As Balta mentioned before, it "feels" like another Lee for Podsednik, but it really doesn't make any sense for the Sox to do this. I would too, I just don't know that there's one available.

You're correct that OBP is a much better statistic when evaluation a leadoff hitter. But SLG is good in any position. Leadoff hitters that get onbase hitting doubles are better than those that get onbase hitting singles.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) I wouldn't trade Q alone for Rasmus, let alone with Jackson. That seems unbelievable to me, given the financial considerations and the upside and the injury risk.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 02:30 PM) Not those moves alone, no. It'd have to be a sustained plan. And c'mon, do you really think Quentin will tear it up the rest of this year and next? The guy is erratic as hell, and there's a good chance he has a terrible year or that he breaks his wrist wiping his ass. Exactly. Paying Quentin now is paying for his peak performance while probably not getting 70% of it. It doesn't make financial sense when you have Viciedo to replace him on the cheap. Only logical move is to cash him in while he's most valuable.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 01:46 PM) None. That's why I said "creative" ways to trade. I think Jackson and Quentin for Rasmus would be idiotic. Jackson must be a headcase cause he still has good stuff (I guess Cooper can't fix this one) and Quentin is a good player. You're incorrectly evaluating Jackson and Quentin because you aren't taking their contexts into consideration. Jackson has to go, period, because we will lose him at the end of the year, and we have 5 starters already. He is a borderline type B right now, so you try to trade him for more value than a supplemental pick. To get max value, we have to trade him. Quentin is good, but very streaky and inconsistent, and will make $8m next year. We have a younger, cheaper, high-upside replacement in Viciedo in AAA. It doesn't make sense to pony up for CQ in this case. I'm not saying these are bad players, I'm saying that circumstances make it a good idea to move them for other things we need. A power-hitting, high-upside CF like Rasmus would be a great grab for us. No one wants Rios without us eating the contract, so it makes no sense to sell low on him. We can move him to RF and put Viciedo in LF next year. Viciedo/Rasmus/Rios is better and cheaper than De Aza/Rios/Quentin

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 01:19 PM) Teams that have zero use for a corner OF: 1. St. Louis Cardinals. This is true. For some reason I was thinking in terms of them ditching an OF and getting one back, but obviously CQ can't be in center and is not starting over Holliday/Berkman

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 01:20 PM) We should throw in John Danks to be safe. You wouldn't make that deal?!

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 11:35 AM) I don't really get the excitement over Bourn. His career best (this year) OPS is .746. Sure he's more of a prototypical "leadoff" hitter, but he doesn't get on base all that much, and he doesn't have much power. He's a nice player to have, but I wouldn't want the Sox giving up much for him. OPS is not the right statistic to measure a guy like Bourn. His OBP's from the last three years are 354, 341, 351, with SBs of 61, 52, 35. He also has 20+ doubles eery year, and will have 30+ this year. Those numbers, from a guy that can play above average CF, I'll take any day on this White Sox team. It's time to replace Pierre with a real table-setter, and if it means trading CQ for Viciedo, I think it's well worth it, both in terms of the performances and the finances.

Edwin Jackson AND Carlos Quentin for Rasmus

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 10:43 AM) Bourn really doesn't help us. I might be more open if he wasn't a 2013 Free Agent...he won't be extremely cheap next year as its his last arbitration year, and then he's a free agent. Well, he helps us a lot for next year, which is probably the last of our current contention window.

CQ for a couple young ML ready SPs allows us to trade Jackson for prospects this year and let MB walk (maybe for draft pick comp) at the end of the season. Pierre walks, Viciedo promoted, and then we have a few bucks to sign Pierre's replacement. Or maybe flip the Jackson prospects for Bourn or something.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 10, 2011 -> 11:49 AM) It means that the Sox have the pitching staff to beat the elite teams whereas the Twins get by beating the lesser teams and really have no one to match up against the better teams in 7 game series. But why can't the staff that beats elite teams beat lesser teams too? Makes no sense.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 6, 2011 -> 03:59 PM) I don't understand how anyone thinks this team, as constructed, will be anything more than a .500 ballclub. This team is performing at maybe 60% of its capability, and has been all year.

I think Phil Jackson is available.

http://sportsnews72.com/mlb/mlb-trade-rumo...atlanta-braves/

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 6, 2011 -> 05:22 PM) http://mlb.mlblogs.com/2011/07/06/white-so...antas-pitchers/ Mark Bowman of mlb.com seems to think the Sox are definitely scouting Atlanta's pitching but he hints that the Braves would be more interested in Pierre than Quentin. What? God I hope it's Rios that they are interested in. LOL, Selig would veto the deal, fantasy-style.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/qa-a-j-pierzynski/

Yeah. Looks like one more chance for Dunn/Rios/Beckham to play well before rebuild time.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 6, 2011 -> 06:42 AM) Except who are you going to get to replace Mark Buehrle and Jackson? Our rotation next year is going to be at least one starter short, assuming Peavy stays healthy. There's at least a 50/50 chance he isn't healthy again coming into 2012. So that's potentially 2 starters. And that Humber continues to pitch like a frontline starter instead of a journeyman/AAAA/filler pitcher. In theory, it would be Danks/Peavy/Floyd/Humber/Sale. But if MB/EJ/JP/CQ are gone, they'd have a chunk of change to sign another SP if they needed.

I'd trade CQ for Bourn in a heartbeat. Bourn is dirt cheap, CQ is about to be $10m player. Viciedo doesn't have to be CQ for this team to be good - Dunn needs to be Dunn and Rios needs to be Rios. If those guys are good, and Viciedo is 70% of CQ, and you replace Pierre with Bourn, you have a WAY better team. If Dunn/Rios/Beckham stay bad, the team isn't going to win either way. Think about 2012. Without CQ, MB, EJ, and JP, there's like $40m off the books. Jerry won't put us at $127m again, but he'll sure as hell put us at $100m. Now imagine the above scenario with $15m or so for KW to spend on FA.

This is an interesting thought. Per FanGraphs: That would be a great reason to deal CQ or Rios for pitching prospects. Talk about solving the Juan Pierre problem! You run out Pierre/Bourn/Rios or Quentin for the ROS, let Pierre walk in the offseason and replace him with Viciedo. Now we actually have a real leadoff hitter! One might also speculate that Beachy could be the one flipped to the Astros for Bourn. Pure speculation, but it makes so much sense!