OmarComing25

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:04 PM) Sorting on defense for 3b in Fangraphs, he's 9th out of 21 qualified 3b in defensive value. His DRS is -3 though, which is 115th out of 138 players who have played at 3b this season. This feels like the opposite case of Adam Eaton last year, who ranked well by DRS but poorly by UZR. http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/...-fielding.shtml

The Cubs are held up as an example of a complete rebuild yielding results, yet by far the biggest reason for their success this year - their pitching, had largely nothing to do with the rebuild. You have the free agents (Lester, Hammel) and the guys picked up off the scrap heap (Arrieta, Strop, Rondon, James Russell). Those are moves that can be done without rebuilding, and they're going to drop another $25 million/year on a pitcher this offseason as well. Their best position player was also acquired through sketchy means (Rizzo). If Arrieta pitched like he did in Baltimore and Hammel pitched like he did in Oakland last year, then the Cubs are likely nowhere near a playoff spot. You could argue that their eye for talent is great and the reason why so many of their scrap heap moves work out, and I wouldn't disagree, and yes they still have a lot of young talent that came from the rebuild, but my main point is so far it's the non-rebuilding moves that have led to their success. If we had a few similar scrap heap moves break right for us on the position side, then we'd be right there for a playoff spot too. I'm just not convinced a complete breakdown is the right move. For one I don't trust this organization to execute it correctly, and also the Pirates and Royals were in rebuilding mode for 20+ years before it finally worked out. We'd be punting on several seasons, and there's no guarantee we'd be better off afterwards than we are now. You can rebuild without doing a complete teardown.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:03 PM) I think a rebuild is LOOOONG over due! I asked in an earlier post, when should we have done a complete rebuild? There was no logical situation for it until 2013, which wasn't intended to be a rebuilding year but turned into one anyway. How does that mean we're LOOOONG overdue for one? There was nothing to tear down at the end of 2013, our only assets were Quintana and Sale, both at 24 years old and both the exact kind of players you rebuild around. What year should we have gone for the rebuild? As others have pointed out, there's not necessarily a need to do a complete rebuild with the parity and second wildcard. Look at this season, 84 wins could end up being enough for both wildcard positions the way things are playing out right now.

You don't often see two intentional walks in a row.

How about a wild-pitch walkoff?

Looks like the offense is still on track, why did our pitching have to go into the s***ter the past week?

Bryant has been dreadful the last 40ish games, Soler has been only slightly better than Avi, and Russell's offense has been non-existent yet they keep winning because their pitching just continues to dominate. For those who like run differential their's is still pretty mediocre. They're tied for second after us in terms of outplaying their Pythagorean record. But there's no question they have the best pitching of any wildcard contender. If Bryant ever starts hitting again they'll be pretty dangerous.

I've seen a lot of posters here and on WSI lament the fact that we hadn't torn it all down and done a complete rebuild in the past, but looking back, when would such a move had made sense? In 2009, the year after winning the division? In 2011, a year after we won 88 games and would have probably made the playoffs with a competent DH? In 2012, when we lead the division for 95% of the season? 2013 basically was a total rebuilding year, as was 2014. you could argue they should have made 2015 a rebuilding year too, but we were 13th in runs scored last year in the MLB and had money to spend. If we had the same offensive production as the 2014 squad (and we made a few theoretical upgrades too), we're probably right there for a playoff spot this year. It's hard to argue with the results this season that we shouldn't have made 2015 a rebuilding year, but given that we had money to spend I don't necessarily fault them for going for it a little bit (just like in 2011 when we thought we had filled the DH hole). However, I don't buy the argument that ownership was afraid of plummeting attendance if they committed to a full rebuild. There really wasn't a logical situation for it outside of the last couple of seasons, which were rebuilding years anyway. Also, all our main assets in 2013 and 2014 were young and cost-controlled, so a complete sell-off didn't really make sense.

Hell at the very least Trayce would be a huge defensive upgrade over Avi. And it shouldn't be too hard to do better than the sub .600 OPS the last 30+ games that Avi has put up.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 3, 2015 -> 10:41 PM) 16,459 and SoxTalk can now turn their attention back to the draft pick thread and forever wondering what new prospects we'd have acquired to get us through the last two months were it not for KW/Hahn's titanic debate leading into do-nothingness. I don't think Pentecost was a guy who was going to turn the franchise around.

We probably should have traded Shark, but I'm not going to cry over the loss of a couple B prospects.

Should be 3-1 against Tampa and instead we're 0-4. f***.

Wow Garcia was completely overmatched.

Not even kind of close, are you f***ing kidding me.

When's the last time LaRoche hit a bomb?

Unbelievable, that was such a garbage pitch by Robertson.

We should have taken 2 out of 3 in Tampa but got swept instead. This game has the same feeling as those 2 losses.

Downs, MacDougal, Aardsma

When was the last time a 30-year-old pitcher was signed to a big contract and was actually worth the money?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 2, 2015 -> 06:36 PM) We'd be better off with Daniel Norris or Jeff Hoffman. Oops. Now someone inevitably will post a critical review of Hoffman despite it being his first month back from TJ surgery...which historically has required 18-24 months to be back at 100% or better. 0% chance the Sox could have had one of those guys for Samardzija.

Eaton's OPS is now higher than last year. Amazing.

I really don't think Samardzija would have gotten us much, he's a step down from Cueto/Price, a lot of buyers were off the market today, and the package for Kazmir was pretty blah, I'm not too disappointed if that was what we missed out on. I know the comp pick could very well end up being nothing but at least we're getting something out of it, I'm not really that convinced that the package we could have got for Jeff was >>> than the value of the comp pick. Also, I think Upton is very overrated and Cespedes would have required an Anderson or Montas, no thanks.

I'm not terribly disappointed, at least when it comes to buying. If we were 4-7 games over .500, then yeah I might consider giving up a good prospect for a guy like Cespedes, but given where we are and how much better the Blue Jays got, I would have hated that move. I think we waited too long to sell Samardzija. It was a seller's market, then suddenly it became a huge buyer's market, then all the teams that needed a SP got one, so I doubt there were very many good offers for him on the table today. I think we still need to evaluate Johnson as a candidate for next year's rotation, so I'm still hoping he replaces Danks in the rotation. Since we kept Shark, if we start losing again, it's going to really suck to not have any idea of how Johnson will do in the rotation going forward. You don't want to make that decision in Spring Training in 2016. But if the offers for Samardzija weren't great (and I don't think they were), this wasn't really that bad IMO.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 12:48 PM) Nationals fans will be elated to have LaRoche back! Yeah wait I thought the deal sucked for us but the Nationals absolutely gain nothing from that deal and Joe Ross looks good.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 12:46 PM) Cue up the PS4! Sox: Cespedes Upton Tigers: Avi Garcia Erik Johnson Chris Reed (LAD) Padres: Saladino Zach Lee (LAD) Joe Ross (WAS) Nationals: Laroche Dodgers: Shark We get absolutely hosed in that deal, two rentals and we lose Shark?