2008 SS,who's it going to be?

[Lemon_44]

I think it will be amongst these 4 candidates:

1-Uribe

2-Eckstien

3-Furcal

4-Tejada

 

If i had to rank them in order of preference it would Tejada,followed closely by Furcal,then Uribe, and last would Eckstein. However, it looks like KW preferences, going by newpaper speculation, seem to be Eckstein, Uribe,then Tejada/ Furcal. I would absolutley hate seeing Eckstein out there. Why are you going to pay free agency money to a guy just because he can bunt?

[Chet Lemon]

I could live w/ another year of Uribe as long as KW can ink a legitimate MLB leadoff hitter. Perhaps trade a pitcher to Philly for SS Jason Donald who is blocked by both Rollins at SS and Utley at 2b. He would theoretically take over for Uribe after '08.

[WCSox]

I could stomach one more year of Uribe if KW went out and got Hunter.

 

[Melissa1334]

I think it will be amongst these 4 candidates:

1-Uribe

2-Eckstien

3-Furcal

4-Tejada

 

If i had to rank them in order of preference it would Tejada,followed closely by Furcal,then Uribe, and last would Eckstein. However, it looks like KW preferences, going by newpaper speculation, seem to be Eckstein, Uribe,then Tejada/ Furcal. I would absolutley hate seeing Eckstein out there. Why are you going to pay free agency money to a guy just because he can bunt?

i would love to get furcal. great defensively and he could be our leadoff hitter. eckstien would be cheaper and we wouldnt have to give anything to get him though...anyone but uribe

[rockren]

i would love to get furcal. great defensively and he could be our leadoff hitter. eckstien would be cheaper and we wouldnt have to give anything to get him though...anyone but uribe

 

We had better stay the hell away from Eckstein. Cheaper than Furcal? Eckstein is probably going to get a Lugo like contract at 4yr/36 mil.

 

When Eck goes into his little slumps, he's worthless to have. If we give him big bucks I'll be pissed.

 

I absolutely do NOT want us to deal Garland for Furcal, but hell I'd rather do that than sign Eckstein.

[BearSox]

Furcal hopefully...

 

And this obsession people have with Hunter is sickening. Face it, Hunter is old and just is a little better then a mediocre player who had a huge contract season. 5 years 90 million for Hunter would be one of the worst moves in baseball.

[rockren]

im just saying eckstien would be cheaper because isnt furcal making 13-14 mill? i dont think eckstein will even get 10. how about that rumored deal from the past 2 years, garland in a deal for tejada?

 

I think we're going to wait on Senator Mitchell's announcement on what players were juiced before we deal for our SS.

 

I like the thought of getting Tejada, though...maybe not for Garland, but we'd have to give up something substantial.

[rockren]

Furcal hopefully...

 

And this obsession people have with Hunter is sickening. Face it, Hunter is old and just is a little better then a mediocre player who had a huge contract season. 5 years 90 million for Hunter would be one of the worst moves in baseball.

 

Thank you.

 

It's nothing against Hunter, but he isn't worth that much money long term. If we could get him for 3 yrs/45 million then fine...but Minny offered him that same deal and he turned it down. He will get a minimum of 5yr/75 mil...which is ridiculous for Hunter. I'd rather stomach Owens for another year at a 40th of the price.

[Kalapse]

Furcal hopefully...

 

And this obsession people have with Hunter is sickening. Face it, Hunter is old and just is a little better then a mediocre player who had a huge contract season. 5 years 90 million for Hunter would be one of the worst moves in baseball.

You're delusional. I'm still waiting for you to back any of this up. How is he mediocre? HIS HUGE CONTRACT SEASON WAS NOT THAT MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT HE HAS DONE IN YEARS PAST. You act like he's been a .750 OPS player for every year of his career until last year when he shot up to .950. Last year was the 4th .800+ OPS season of his career and only 13 OPS points better than his 2006 numbers hell even 2005 was .789. THAT'S NOT MEDIOCRE. You can keep saying that he's slowed down in the OF but the Cell is one of the smallest centerfields in the league and he's still going to make all the plays. He's 32 years old, you act like he's 38.

[YASNY]

You're delusional. I'm still waiting for you to back any of this up. How is he mediocre? HIS HUGE CONTRACT SEASON WAS NOT THAT MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT HE HAS DONE IN YEARS PAST. You act like he's been a .750 OPS player for every year of his career until last year when he shot up to .950. Last year was the 4th .800+ OPS season of his career and only 13 OPS points better than his 2006 numbers hell even 2005 was .789. THAT'S NOT MEDIOCRE. You can keep saying that he's slowed down in the OF but the Cell is one of the smallest centerfields in the league and he's still going to make all the plays. He's 32 years old, you act like he's 38.

 

Wait. For some reason I thought Hunter was 35. If he's 32, that's a whole different scenario.

Oops. Never mind. This is furcal your talking about. I need to hit the sack.

s***. You are talking about Hunter. Give me another beer and I'll sleep well. lol

[rockren]

You're delusional. I'm still waiting for you to back any of this up. How is he mediocre? HIS HUGE CONTRACT SEASON WAS NOT THAT MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT HE HAS DONE IN YEARS PAST. You act like he's been a .750 OPS player for every year of his career until last year when he shot up to .950. Last year was the 4th .800+ OPS season of his career and only 13 OPS points better than his 2006 numbers hell even 2005 was .789. THAT'S NOT MEDIOCRE. You can keep saying that he's slowed down in the OF but the Cell is one of the smallest centerfields in the league and he's still going to make all the plays. He's 32 years old, you act like he's 38.

 

It isn't the short term that anyone is worried about regarding Hunter.

 

It's the 6yr/90 million he wants.

 

Do you really want to owe this guy 30 million when he's 37? Do you really want to be on the hook for that? Let some other team suffer that horrible contract.

[Kalapse]

He's not going to get 6 years, it'll be 4 or 5 at the most and as for the contract that he supposedly turned down, according to Hunter a legitimate offer was never even made by the Twins.

 

I'm not worried about the 4th or 5th year of the deal because the first 3 should be pretty damn good by that 4th he'll be slower but probably still hitting for good power and making all the plays he's capable of getting to in the OF.

 

And yes, some people are worried about the first few years of the deal. When claims of "career years" and "he's a mediocre player" are being made, then it's not just the last year or 2 of the deal that people are worried about.

 

I don't see anyone offering him more than 5 guaranteed years, if someone like Tom Hicks decides to do so then bully for him he can have Torii. But $13M-$14M a year over 4 or 5 years doesn't scare me all that much. What else are the Sox going to spend that money on? The payroll will likely be in the 100's for the foreseeable future and there's no players aside from Garland (who is pretty much out the door) that are looking for big money in the coming years and the free agents aren't going to get any cheaper. The money is there and the player is a good fit.

[BearSox]

Yeah, you're right. A .324 OBP, .469 SLG (.793 OPS), .271 AVG, 20 homers, and 85-90 RBI's is well worth a 5 year contract worth 15 million every season, especially for a player who will only get worse, at least in my opinon.

 

Yeah, he might still be able to make player out there, but he has slowed down tremendously, and I would not be surprised to see a serious drop off in bat speed within the next few years as well.

 

Torii Hunter might help the team in the short term, but he does not do anything for the long term, and in fact just hurts our long term even worse, if you ask me.

 

Also, how is Garland pretty much out the door? It seems to me you are just making that up.

[sircaffey]

I could stomach one more year of Uribe if KW went out and got Hunter.

 

I could stomach one more year of Uribe if it meant KW was replaced with Hahn.

[Kalapse]

Yeah, you're right. A .324 OBP, .469 SLG (.793 OPS), .271 AVG, 20 homers, and 85-90 RBI's is well worth a 5 year contract worth 15 million every season, especially for a player who will only get worse, at least in my opinon.

 

Yeah, he might still be able to make player out there, but he has slowed down tremendously, and I would not be surprised to see a serious drop off in bat speed within the next few years as well.

 

Torii Hunter might help the team in the short term, but he does not do anything for the long term, and in fact just hurts our long term even worse, if you ask me.

 

Also, how is Garland pretty much out the door? It seems to me you are just making that up.

What would you say are the odds of Garland getting dealt this offseason 60%? Considering all the talk I'd put it at 75%. In order to fill a few of the many holes this team has Garland will likely go. That is what I'm talking about.

[Kalapse]

Yeah, you're right. A .324 OBP, .469 SLG (.793 OPS), .271 AVG, 20 homers, and 85-90 RBI's is well worth a 5 year contract worth 15 million every season, especially for a player who will only get worse, at least in my opinon.

He's averaged 510 AB, 81 R, 30 2B, 25 HR, 87 RBI, 18 SB, .279/.335/.487/.822 over the past 3 seasons along with above average and at times spectacular defense. He's also a name that can be marketed by the club, the value of that should not be overlooked.

[rockren]

He's not going to get 6 years, it'll be 4 or 5 at the most and as for the contract that he supposedly turned down, according to Hunter a legitimate offer was never even made by the Twins.

 

I'm not worried about the 4th or 5th year of the deal because the first 3 should be pretty damn good by that 4th he'll be slower but probably still hitting for good power and making all the plays he's capable of getting to in the OF.

 

And yes, some people are worried about the first few years of the deal. When claims of "career years" and "he's a mediocre player" are being made, then it's not just the last year or 2 of the deal that people are worried about.

 

I don't see anyone offering him more than 5 guaranteed years, if someone like Tom Hicks decides to do so then bully for him he can have Torii. But $13M-$14M a year over 4 or 5 years doesn't scare me all that much. What else are the Sox going to spend that money on? The payroll will likely be in the 100's for the foreseeable future and there's no players aside from Garland (who is pretty much out the door) that are looking for big money in the coming years and the free agents aren't going to get any cheaper. The money is there and the player is a good fit.

 

Hunter will get 5 yrs/75 mil minimum.

 

A 4 year deal? In FA? No way in hell.

[Vance Law]

Thank you.

 

It's nothing against Hunter, but he isn't worth that much money long term.

 

Maybe, but you know who else isn't worth the money long term? Virtually every single free agent ever, always, who's decent and is not coming off of an injury. The highest bidder always pays more than the player's worth.

 

Show me one, no, how about lots and lots of recent contracts where a good free agent (who wasn't injured or legally insane or a drug addict) signed with a new team for a longish term deal and it was reasonable or the guy was "worth it." Or show me one.

 

Sure, you can find some under-the-radar guys who turn out to be valuable. But Hunter, as an all-star, a gold-glover, a 30 home run guy, is not that. As overpaying goes though, I'd rather overpay for someone who is good-to-great at a premium defensive position, and who's valuable with the bat.

[scenario]

What would you say are the odds of Garland getting dealt this offseason 60%? Considering all the talk I'd put it at 75%. In order to fill a few of the many holes this team has Garland will likely go. That is what I'm talking about.

I think the odds of Garland getting traded are 99%.

 

One year left on his contract... we won't re-sign him. No way will we offer or will he accept a smaller contract in either years or dollars than the one the Sox gave Buehrle.

 

And no way should we eat his $12M for 2008 and then just watch him walk for draft choices. A full year of a starting pitcher with his health and productivity will get us good value in trade this offseason. For comparison, look at what Colorado got for Jason Jennings last year. I think we will do better than that trading Gar, getting a player(s) who could really help us next year.

 

The 1% chance we would keep him is dependent on us finding a taker for Contreras instead.

Edited November 3, 2007 by scenario

[elrockinMT]

Uribe

[Vance Law]

If it were between Uribe's 1 year and signing some deal for Eckstein, I'll take Uribe and hope.

 

Furcal would be the best fit among those who are considered potential obvious trade options. Though, I am struggling to see the point of upgrading with an expensive ss for one year in hopes of competing if that means trading Garland and going with Danks plus the next AAA guy.

 

People like to be fantasy GM and try to make all these deals in their head to get the offense all nice and shiny with all the right projected stats and lay out their hopeful lineup 1 through 9 and say to themselves and others "now that looks not too bad." " I could live with this lineup after all of these fantasy deals I've made in my head."

 

and forget that the only gd reason we won a World Series was because we had the best pitching in the league. The best pitching in the post season. Furcal is great for solving a couple problems for next year, but if it creates another potentially big one by chucking up Floyd and Danks 40% of the time, we may well be farting into our own mouths.

 

 

[WilliamTell]

it'll be Uribe sadly I'm thinking.

[The Ginger Kid]

As long as people don't start referring to him as "Tori" then I'm cool with it. That, and he has to take out Mauer at the plate. Fair is fair.

[greg775]

I have a sick suspicion it's going to be grinder-Eckstein.

 

p.s. great win tonight, Brother Rice, my alma mater.

[beck72]

I see the sox bringing in another starting SS, such as Eckstein. But Uribe will also be around as insurance/platoon to play 2b, 3b and SS.