2008 SS,who's it going to be?

[GoodAsGould]

anyone not named uribe or eckstein.

[beck72]

If the Dodgers sign A-Rod, then Furcal should be dealt. I'd rather the sox do that then get stuck for 4 years of Eckstein. However, with no deal likely before Wed.'s deadline to re-up Uribe, the sox will keep Uribe. They can still make a deal for Furcal [or another SS] later by having Uribe around for backup SS, 2b with Richar and 3b for Crede/ Fields.

[SadChiSoxFanOptimist]

It's a crying shame that we have absolutely NO ONE in AA or AAA to fill our needs this year for SS or CF. What a franchise.

[Steve9347]

I want Furcal.

 

I'll end up with Uribe or Eckstein.

[rockren]

I want Furcal.

 

I'll end up with Uribe or Eckstein.

 

I think we'll end up with Furcal. It may cost us Garland, however I'm sure the Dodger would throw in Brazoban to make the deal work.

 

Brazoban just had TJ last year, but should be back playing in the bigs by June.

 

[daa84]

do you guys know that furcal is only 2 years younger than hunter? and ALREADY makes 13 mil (which is actually 17 mil with his goofy 4 mil dollar payment made in january 2009) not to mention he is a FA at the end of the year. we are just speculating that hunter will make 14 mil....oh yeah btw furcal hit all of 33 extra base hits last year.....hunter had 12 more doubles alone (45 with an extra 28 HR) and hunter had only 19 more ABs.....SBs? Furcal had all of 7 more than hunter....i said this before....torii is not overrated...he is underrated....with the exception of his injury shortened 2005 he has basically been a 27 HR, 30 2b, 15 SB type player since 2001 while playing above average, if not spectacular defense at a premier defensive position (i will say though that furcal is good defensively as well at a premier position)

 

so we would have to give up players to the dodgers, in order to pay furcal more money for only 1 year to produce less? sorry guys but i have to agree with kalapse on this one... if we have the option of filling CF with hunter and SS with someone else, or SS with furcal and CF with someone else...gimme hunter

Edited November 3, 2007 by daa84

[BearSox]

SS is a position that desperately needs upgrading, and we can find easier/cheaper replacements for the OF somewhere else besides Hunter. Furcal only had 19 stolen bases last year because of injury problems and not being asked to steal as much. He can steal 35-45 bases a season, as he did do that in 06. The only reason why Furcal had a bad season last year was because he had several nagging injuries. And, Furcal hasn't shown the same signs of slowing down as Hunter has. Furcal fills two big needs, SS and leadoff hitter. Hunter justs adds more pop to this lineup at a price that he is not worth. Is Furcal worth 13 million? Of course not. But Hunter is definitely not worth 4-5 years at 15 mil a season.

[vandy125]

SS is a position that desperately needs upgrading, and we can find easier/cheaper replacements for the OF somewhere else besides Hunter. Furcal only had 19 stolen bases last year because of injury problems and not being asked to steal as much. He can steal 35-45 bases a season, as he did do that in 06. The only reason why Furcal had a bad season last year was because he had several nagging injuries. And, Furcal hasn't shown the same signs of slowing down as Hunter has. Furcal fills two big needs, SS and leadoff hitter. Hunter justs adds more pop to this lineup at a price that he is not worth. Is Furcal worth 13 million? Of course not. But Hunter is definitely not worth 4-5 years at 15 mil a season.

 

I really like the idea of both of them. Call me short-sighted, but I have no problems with both of those contracts. With the way the dollar is right now, what is 15 mil going to look like in 4 or 5 years. My bet is that it will seem pretty reasonable at that time. Right now, we are looking at 15 mil and thinking that is a whole bunch of money, but I doubt that will be the case in 4 or 5 years. If they are able to do both, sounds good to me.

 

What also struck me in your post was the bolded sentence. Aren't the nagging injuries a sign of slowing down? Isn't that what starts to happen when the body starts to break down more often?

[bmags]

good point.

[bschmaranz]

I'm on the Furcal bandwagon and the "stay the f*** away from Eckstein" bandwagon.

 

Also wouldn't mind another year of Uribe if we get someone at the top of that order.

[CanOfCorn]

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.

 

 

Ah, the voice of reason. And who's to say that he can't slide over to LF when his range for CF lags. I agree 100% percent...4 or 5 ok. 6 or more, no way.

[bmags]

Can I ask where this talk of him only being above average defensively is coming from? Did he slow down quite a bit or something?

[Balta1701]

Can I ask where this talk of him only being above average defensively is coming from? Did he slow down quite a bit or something?

Are we still referring to Hunter?

 

I think there's been a general impression for a while that Hunter is a good CF but is not the enemy of every ball ever hit in CF. I think i've heard and seen suggestions that he does a dynamite job on the spectacular plays but doesn't always get great jumps or cover the ground that you'd want from a guy who wins the GG every year.

 

Just looking at the easily referenced stats, his ZR/RF haven't really shown declines yet despite his age, which is a good sign (although his defensive numbers show so far a clear peak in 2003 and a clear valley in 2006)...but those same numbers aren't really dominant in the league. Comes in at #9 in RF, #7 in ZR. Quite good, but we shouldn't pretend that guys like Sizemore, Crisp, Suzuki, Beltran, etc. aren't putting up numbers above his.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Balta1701

[ottawa_sox]

I would love to see Furcal. But something tells me they might get Tejada ..... which would mean Owens is kept as the leadoff man ..... but he will be moved to left, as Crede is dealt, which means Fields back to 3rd. The remaining outfield position is taken by discount Rowand. Don't ask me about pitching. Perhaps both Crede and Garland to Baltimore for Tejada and some youth. Maybe Brian is thrown in the mix.

 

Owens

Tejada

Thome

Konerko

Dye

Rowand

Fields

Pierzynski

Richar

Edited November 6, 2007 by ottawa_sox

[spiderman]

Tejada is clearly on the block in Baltimore, but the Orioles would have to pick up a ton of $$$ for the White Sox to acquire him.

[Balta1701]

Tejada is clearly on the block in Baltimore, but the Orioles would have to pick up a ton of $$$ for the White Sox to acquire him.

Why? With the inflation in contracts lately, his contract has gone from being relatively expensive at the time he was signed to relatively cheap for the numbers he puts up. Money doesn't strike me as being the best reason not to go after Tejada; i can think of quite a few better ones.

[spiderman]

Why? With the inflation in contracts lately, his contract has gone from being relatively expensive at the time he was signed to relatively cheap for the numbers he puts up. Money doesn't strike me as being the best reason not to go after Tejada; i can think of quite a few better ones.

 

He's owed $26 million over the next 2 seasons. I don't think the White Sox take him unless Baltimore throws about 8 million into a deal.

[Balta1701]

He's owed $26 million over the next 2 seasons. I don't think the White Sox take him unless Baltimore throws about 8 million into a deal.

With where we are in terms of total salary...I don't think that the price would be nearly as big of a deal as the guys we'd have to give up in order to get him from Baltimore.

[Dick Allen]

The White Sox claimed Tejada on waivers risking having to pick up his entire salary. Though it was a very small chance, it did exist. I don't think his salary would be the issue.

[Chombi]

If the Dodgers sign A-Rod, then Furcal should be dealt. I'd rather the sox do that then get stuck for 4 years of Eckstein. However, with no deal likely before Wed.'s deadline to re-up Uribe, the sox will keep Uribe. They can still make a deal for Furcal [or another SS] later by having Uribe around for backup SS, 2b with Richar and 3b for Crede/ Fields.

 

Arod I pray goes to the Dodgers. I don't want him on that Angel's ballclub. They are a playoff team every year and adding Arod just gives me nightmares.

 

The Dodgers are where I think he will end up. I honestly hope they land Arod and Santana. It'd be fun to see a NL team like that. Furcal initially seems to be the odd man out but why wouldn't Nomar be that guy?

 

Regardless, I've brought this up before so I will ask again. In the furcal-deal that we would pursue, is there any way we go after a LaRoche or Kemp. I love that farm system and I would really like to steal some things from them. A contract for Arod blocks LaRoche b/c it will be a long-term deal and Mattingly will be up sooner now for them (I wonder why?) IMO. They've got Valdez and Hu as well. LaRoche to me seems able to be had for cheaper then his value (by no means cheap though).

 

As far as Kemp, everything I have seen says they are going after Andruw. Whether that will conflict with their Arod dreams seems undetermined but I can't imagine it will. If it does, I think Jones is priority one for them simply because he will come much cheaper. Ethier or Kemp will be the odd man out in that scenario, and it looks as though it's leaning towards Kemp.

 

Now, for SS. I am ok with Uribe again if it means no eckstein.

[BearSox]

If the Dodgers get ARod, I think Furcal will be practically given away as the Dodgers would be looking to unload some salary.

[YASNY]

If the Dodgers get ARod, I think Furcal will be practically given away as the Dodgers would be looking to unload some salary.

 

I've read somewhere that it is highly unlikely the Dodgers are going to be in the ARod sweepstakes.

[The Ginger Kid]

I've read somewhere that it is highly unlikely the Dodgers are going to be in the ARod sweepstakes.

mccourt's been making money hand over fist and not spending it. With Torre in charge, he's gonna have to pony up. It's one of the richest franchises in the league.

[LauraJ14]

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.

 

 

Vlad Guerrero