You're Hahn, who are you looking to trade first?

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Xander Bogaerts, SS, Red Sox: Bogaerts, 20, didn't let his age stop him from dominating Double-A ball. One of the youngest players in the Eastern League, the shortstop hit more than .300 with strong on-base skills and power. The Aruba native earned himself a trip to Triple-A after less than half a season. A strong start to 2013 earned fellow shortstop prospect (and potential roadblock) Jose Iglesias a 25-man roster spot as the backup to oft-injured veteran Stephen Drew, but Bogaerts has a much higher ceiling. Iglesias is much more likely to end up as trade bait thanks to his high-level play -- should Boston need to shore up its roster for a run at the playoffs.

 

In light of the Red Sox's recent closer shuffle, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal asks if the best solution is for the Sox to re-acquire Jonathan Papelbon. As MacPherson points out, the Sox have tasked four relievers with replacing Papelbon -- Andrew Bailey (twice), Mark Melancon, Alfredo Aceves and Joel Hanrahan -- and none have been able to get the job done to this point.

 

All this perMLBtraderumors.com

 

Crain or Reed give us Iglesias . Call it even.

[caulfield12]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/cincinnati-re...ZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

 

Color me not impressed.

 

This article suggests that the Reds will trade Billy Hamilton to us, get Rios, get cash/subsidies AND prospects back.

 

No thanks. It's not even clear that Hamilton is going to be much better than Micah Johnson in CF. There are many who feel that Donald Lutz, mentioned in the article and one of the first German-born players in the majors, will actually end up the better overall player.

 

Is anyone out there who has watched him play 100% sure Billy Hamilton's going to be an improvement over, say, Jerry Owens?

 

Acquiring a player like Hamilton (who is more of a prototypical lead-off hitter than DeAza, Walker or Mitchell) does give us THAT one missing element to our line-up.

 

However, it also signifies a complete failure in our drafting process to produce that type of player internally (and ready to play starting in 2014).

 

We simply have to bring back a potential impact bat for Rios. Or know that we're going to use some of the freed up monies to sign one. We can't afford to whiff on this, we need a 2012 Josh Willingham or 2013 version of Shin Shoo Choo to be respectable again (eventually).

 

 

Right now, the Reds are relying on Derrick Robinson (who the Royals in their infinite wisdom cut), Xavier Paul and Donald Lutz with Heisey and Choo on the DL. That's an OF that screams of weakness/regression.

 

Clearly, they COULD use a solid veteran like Rios (or Dye in the past) to anchor one of their corner OF spots. CF? Their scouts should know better than that...as well as making him a lead-off hitter again.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2013 by caulfield12

[The Ultimate Champion]

It's the Yahoo contributor network.

 

Why would you trade for Alex to have him in CF leading off? Makes no sense.

 

Re: Hamilton, I love pure stolen base threats & especially so when they play up the middle. They need to get on base at a good clip though, and I'm not sure what the Sox people would think about Hamilton being that guy. If they think he's that guy then he's definitely someone you target. Just imagine the (completely unlikely) nightmare a 1-2 of Hamilton & Johnson would be. And if you add a speedy little shortstop to that picture, you have a 9-1-2 of speedsters playing SS, CF, 2B. That's like a dream. Then you just need to get some run producers 3-4-5, and maybe a 6 hitter. I do feel confident ATM in our ability to produce 7 & 8 hole hitters on our own, so that's nice.

[The Ultimate Champion]

Wait a min, Iglesias hits .202/.262/.319 in 133 PA in Pawtucket, then he hits .431/.482/.578 in 114 PA with Boston? WTF? I was going to say I'd take him for Crain, not Reed, but at those numbers we might need to send Alex & Peavy with both of them. His minor league line is .257/.307/.314 and that's closer to who I thought he was. I'd take him for Crain. Then I'd offer Castro or something to the Twinkies for Escobar back. Then you target a bigger name SS who maybe is a little ways off & let him develop, letting those 2 play in the meantime.

[beautox]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/cincinnati-re...ZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

 

Color me not impressed.

 

This article suggests that the Reds will trade Billy Hamilton to us, get Rios, get cash/subsidies AND prospects back.

 

No thanks. It's not even clear that Hamilton is going to be much better than Micah Johnson in CF. There are many who feel that Donald Lutz, mentioned in the article and one of the first German-born players in the majors, will actually end up the better overall player.

 

Is anyone out there who has watched him play 100% sure Billy Hamilton's going to be an improvement over, say, Jerry Owens?

 

Acquiring a player like Hamilton (who is more of a prototypical lead-off hitter than DeAza, Walker or Mitchell) does give us THAT one missing element to our line-up.

 

However, it also signifies a complete failure in our drafting process to produce that type of player internally (and ready to play starting in 2014).

 

We simply have to bring back a potential impact bat for Rios. Or know that we're going to use some of the freed up monies to sign one. We can't afford to whiff on this, we need a 2012 Josh Willingham or 2013 version of Shin Shoo Choo to be respectable again (eventually).

 

 

Right now, the Reds are relying on Derrick Robinson (who the Royals in their infinite wisdom cut), Xavier Paul and Donald Lutz with Heisey and Choo on the DL. That's an OF that screams of weakness/regression.

 

Clearly, they COULD use a solid veteran like Rios (or Dye in the past) to anchor one of their corner OF spots. CF? Their scouts should know better than that...as well as making him a lead-off hitter again.

thats from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, its credibility is even less than a forum like here and take a look at his photo, hes obviously a red's homer

[caulfield12]

It's the Yahoo contributor network.

 

Why would you trade for Alex to have him in CF leading off? Makes no sense.

 

Re: Hamilton, I love pure stolen base threats & especially so when they play up the middle. They need to get on base at a good clip though, and I'm not sure what the Sox people would think about Hamilton being that guy. If they think he's that guy then he's definitely someone you target. Just imagine the (completely unlikely) nightmare a 1-2 of Hamilton & Johnson would be. And if you add a speedy little shortstop to that picture, you have a 9-1-2 of speedsters playing SS, CF, 2B. That's like a dream. Then you just need to get some run producers 3-4-5, and maybe a 6 hitter. I do feel confident ATM in our ability to produce 7 & 8 hole hitters on our own, so that's nice.

 

 

We have to relax about Micah Johnson until he's putting up those SAME results for Birmingham.

 

Yeah, we've got a lot of athletic ability in our system.....but are they baseball players rather than just athletes playing the sport of baseball?

 

We'll find out.

 

It's exciting to think of Johnson, Tim Anderson and someone like Billy Hamilton on the same roster, but they've all got to get on base at 330+ clips to be effective (due to their lack of power). It would be reminiscent of those early to mid 2000's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim teams.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Wait a min, Iglesias hits .202/.262/.319 in 133 PA in Pawtucket, then he hits .431/.482/.578 in 114 PA with Boston? WTF? I was going to say I'd take him for Crain, not Reed, but at those numbers we might need to send Alex & Peavy with both of them. His minor league line is .257/.307/.314 and that's closer to who I thought he was. I'd take him for Crain. Then I'd offer Castro or something to the Twinkies for Escobar back. Then you target a bigger name SS who maybe is a little ways off & let him develop, letting those 2 play in the meantime.

It's some kind of crazy anomaly and Red Sox looking to sell high. But it is a decent amount of PA's so take a shot. He's a very slick fielder with great range and a contact hitter with very little power.

Edited June 22, 2013 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[The Ultimate Champion]

Yeah, re: Johnson, Anderson, etc. all you can kind of do is dream about someone finally coming through. Can't count on it. That's why we need to target MLB ready players, because every level of the minor leagues offers the potential of bottoming out. So while you never really know what you have until you see it on the field, at least if you have a player who has performed at each level from Low A to Triple A you have someone who has had to fail (to at least some small extent), adjust, advance, etc. and that gives you some hope. Of course there is always the extremely talented Brian Anderson type who just isn't going to fail until he's at the very highest level, and if your brilliant development staff has it in their heads that you can't ask a player to change something until he's completely lose & trying to save his career, then good luck. I personally like the later round picks more, or the more unheralded earlier round types, because they don't get to coast as much. The talent level is so great throughout the minor leagues, lots of position players with raw tools who can't hit, lots of pitchers with big arms who can't seem to develop the secondary pitch, that sometimes people forget just how talented some of these "nothing special" types are. And none of what you can do matters unless you can do it at the MLB level.

 

Re: Iglesias, it seems like everyone wants to jump out there and proclaim that your typical defense-first SS isn't ever going to be able to hit enough to start in the Majors. Iglesias was seen by many as a huge overpayment by the Red Sox when he was signed (and Alexei's development out of Cuba probably had a lot to do with that) but now he looks at least useful. If he has enough to do what he's doing now then I don't know how you can say he couldn't hit enough to start, but at the same time, his MiLB career seems to indicate a player who isn't going to hit a lot of balls hard, maybe he makes contact but not really hard contact & doesn't square many balls up. Maybe that changes some? I'd take a shot. We deal Alexei & we can plug him in, see what we have. Red Sox selling high makes sense, but they'd only get Reed for him if they added a lot more to the package. In general though, I like acquiring these types of players, as I mentioned above. Clearly he belongs in the Major Leagues, and obviously he has some ability, and you're not going to have to gut your organization to pick him up & try him out.

[Chicago White Sox]

We have to relax about Micah Johnson until he's putting up those SAME results for Birmingham.

 

Yeah, we've got a lot of athletic ability in our system.....but are they baseball players rather than just athletes playing the sport of baseball?

 

We'll find out.

 

It's exciting to think of Johnson, Tim Anderson and someone like Billy Hamilton on the same roster, but they've all got to get on base at 330+ clips to be effective (due to their lack of power). It would be reminiscent of those early to mid 2000's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim teams.

Here's Micah Johnson's slash line: .338/.420/.534/.954. Right now, he's not just a speed guy, he's an all-around offensive threat at 2B. He's got 31 XBHs through the first half of the season on top of his minor league leading 55 SBs (at a 77% rate). Plus he gets on base at a high rate. If he hits like this in AA, he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, but the good news is he doesn't have to be incredibly valuable. There's plenty of room for regression in that OPS as he moves up the system for him to remain a valuable player. Also, his speed isn't going anywhere, so he should be able to sustain his SB numbers and a high BABIP even as he's promoted. No one should have him pegged at 2B on our 5 year big board just yet, but there's no reason not to be excited about him. He has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff, which is something this system hasn't produced since Ray Durham.

[Chicago White Sox]

We have to relax about Micah Johnson until he's putting up those SAME results for Birmingham.

 

Yeah, we've got a lot of athletic ability in our system.....but are they baseball players rather than just athletes playing the sport of baseball?

 

We'll find out.

 

It's exciting to think of Johnson, Tim Anderson and someone like Billy Hamilton on the same roster, but they've all got to get on base at 330+ clips to be effective (due to their lack of power). It would be reminiscent of those early to mid 2000's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim teams.

Here's Micah Johnson's slash line: .338/.420/.534/.954. Right now, he's not just a speed guy, he's an all-around offensive threat at 2B. He's got 31 XBHs through the first half of the season on top of his minor league leading 55 SBs (at a 77% rate). Plus he gets on base at a high rate. If he hits like this in AA, he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, but the good news is he doesn't have to be incredibly valuable. There's plenty of room for regression in that OPS as he moves up the system for him to remain a valuable player. Also, his speed isn't going anywhere, so he should be able to sustain his SB numbers and a high BABIP even as he's promoted. No one should have him pegged at 2B on our 5 year big board just yet, but there's no reason not to be excited about him. He has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff, which is something this system hasn't produced since Ray Durham.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Re: Iglesias, it seems like everyone wants to jump out there and proclaim that your typical defense-first SS isn't ever going to be able to hit enough to start in the Majors. Iglesias was seen by many as a huge overpayment by the Red Sox when he was signed (and Alexei's development out of Cuba probably had a lot to do with that) but now he looks at least useful. If he has enough to do what he's doing now then I don't know how you can say he couldn't hit enough to start, but at the same time, his MiLB career seems to indicate a player who isn't going to hit a lot of balls hard, maybe he makes contact but not really hard contact & doesn't square many balls up. Maybe that changes some? I'd take a shot. We deal Alexei & we can plug him in, see what we have. Red Sox selling high makes sense, but they'd only get Reed for him if they added a lot more to the package. In general though, I like acquiring these types of players, as I mentioned above. Clearly he belongs in the Major Leagues, and obviously he has some ability, and you're not going to have to gut your organization to pick him up & try him out.

 

Many of Iglesias hits early this season with the Red Sox were of the weak variety where he has the speed to beat them out but more recently he's been hitting line drives . His glove is elite there's no doubt about that and can save many runs . If we believe our pitching can be very good, Iglesias would be incredibly valuable. The Red Sox are in a great position to sell high but really giving up Crain and possibly even Lindstrom for him would be a deal I'd do in a heartbeat.

Edited June 22, 2013 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[Y2Jimmy0]

Here's Micah Johnson's slash line: .338/.420/.534/.954. Right now, he's not just a speed guy, he's an all-around offensive threat at 2B. He's got 31 XBHs through the first half of the season on top of his minor league leading 55 SBs (at a 77% rate). Plus he gets on base at a high rate. If he hits like this in AA, he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, but the good news is he doesn't have to be incredibly valuable. There's plenty of room for regression in that OPS as he moves up the system for him to remain a valuable player. Also, his speed isn't going anywhere, so he should be able to sustain his SB numbers and a high BABIP even as he's promoted. No one should have him pegged at 2B on our 5 year big board just yet, but there's no reason not to be excited about him. He has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff, which is something this system hasn't produced since Ray Durham.

 

 

Is anyone worried about Micah Johnson being 22 in A Ball? Now obviously he has been performing big time but at some point doesn't he need to move through the system? He's the type guy that I thought would be moving through the system really quickly. He will be 23 in December.

[Chicago White Sox]

Is anyone worried about Micah Johnson being 22 in A Ball? Now obviously he has been performing big time but at some point doesn't he need to move through the system? He's the type guy that I thought would be moving through the system really quickly. He will be 23 in December.

That's why he needs to be promoted soon. If he can spend the rest of the season in Winston-Salem, then hopefully he can be in AA by the first half of next year. That would put him on an age-appropriate time-frame IMO.

[The Ultimate Champion]

Being 26 in the Majors & producing is a whole lot better than falling off the radar at 24.5 in Triple A. The age argument is mostly for fans, not for people making real decisions. Promote the guy when he's ready, not a bit sooner, and if there's something he needs to work on or change, make him do it. Christ, it's not like once you hit the age of 26-27 you lose all your physical ability. You have that into your 30's.

[caulfield12]

Here's Micah Johnson's slash line: .338/.420/.534/.954. Right now, he's not just a speed guy, he's an all-around offensive threat at 2B. He's got 31 XBHs through the first half of the season on top of his minor league leading 55 SBs (at a 77% rate). Plus he gets on base at a high rate. If he hits like this in AA, he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, but the good news is he doesn't have to be incredibly valuable. There's plenty of room for regression in that OPS as he moves up the system for him to remain a valuable player. Also, his speed isn't going anywhere, so he should be able to sustain his SB numbers and a high BABIP even as he's promoted. No one should have him pegged at 2B on our 5 year big board just yet, but there's no reason not to be excited about him. He has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff, which is something this system hasn't produced since Ray Durham.

 

 

Hold on, a player with his traits and characteristics, who might not even have a "true" position at the major league level...and, is, at best, a 2B or possibly outfielder, you can see him being #75-100, but no way BA's going to rank Micah Johnson in their Top 50 even with those same stats in AA.

 

And he's not even cleared High A ball, that's going to be a huge jump in competition from Low A.

 

I'll just have to wait and believe it when I see it. And he's got a long ways to go before we're penciling him for Durham HR and XB numbers.

 

Finally, 77% isn't a good steal rate. To be effective, it should be closer to 85% or at least 80%. As he progresses from level to level, it's going to get harder and harder to sustain anything above a 60-65% rate if he keeps running like this because his results are as much based on technique as pure speed, and superhuman catching arms at the major league level will beat technique most of the time.

 

 

[The Ultimate Champion]

You have to be pretty quick to steal that many bags regardless. Johnson will have to pick & choose more... speaking of Johnson, I assume we're talking about "Lance Johnson" jumps with him quite a bit, and Hawk still can't forget about him. Don't have to be the fastest guy in the league. Also, arm strength will increase, but in MLB you have a lot of teams that will still take catchers with weaker arms and/or accuracy problems, and as always, a catcher can only do what his pitcher will allow him to do. Stealing off the right pitchers, on the right pitches, in the right situations, off the right catchers, with the right players hitting behind you, you can really rack up some SB totals in the Majors. But the main part I like about the speedster is it adds an element we've been missing, and aside from Pods in '05, it's an element we've largely lacked for a very long time. Ideally you want to be able to win games in as many ways possible, and we've struggled mightily over the years to come up with any kind of balance, either too grindy or too mashy or too many K's or too right handed, etc.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

You have to be pretty quick to steal that many bags regardless. Johnson will have to pick & choose more... speaking of Johnson, I assume we're talking about "Lance Johnson" jumps with him quite a bit, and Hawk still can't forget about him. Don't have to be the fastest guy in the league. Also, arm strength will increase, but in MLB you have a lot of teams that will still take catchers with weaker arms and/or accuracy problems, and as always, a catcher can only do what his pitcher will allow him to do. Stealing off the right pitchers, on the right pitches, in the right situations, off the right catchers, with the right players hitting behind you, you can really rack up some SB totals in the Majors. But the main part I like about the speedster is it adds an element we've been missing, and aside from Pods in '05, it's an element we've largely lacked for a very long time. Ideally you want to be able to win games in as many ways possible, and we've struggled mightily over the years to come up with any kind of balance, either too grindy or too mashy or too many K's or too right handed, etc.

This discussion of Micah is like 2 years at least premature but if you feel like dreaming......

[Chicago White Sox]

Hold on, a player with his traits and characteristics, who might not even have a "true" position at the major league level...and, is, at best, a 2B or possibly outfielder, you can see him being #75-100, but no way BA's going to rank Micah Johnson in their Top 50 even with those same stats in AA.

 

And he's not even cleared High A ball, that's going to be a huge jump in competition from Low A.

 

I'll just have to wait and believe it when I see it. And he's got a long ways to go before we're penciling him for Durham HR and XB numbers.

 

Finally, 77% isn't a good steal rate. To be effective, it should be closer to 85% or at least 80%. As he progresses from level to level, it's going to get harder and harder to sustain anything above a 60-65% rate if he keeps running like this because his results are as much based on technique as pure speed, and superhuman catching arms at the major league level will beat technique most of the time.

The Southern League leader in OPS is currently at .891, so a 2B with a .950 OPS and 70-90 steals would be pure insanity. I never once said I expect Micah to put up anything close those numbers in AA (because I don't), but there is no question he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball if he did. Billy Hamilton was ranked 20th overall by BA after putting up an .830 across A+/AA last year (2/3 at A+ though) with a 155 steals. Imagine if he put up those same numbers over the course of a full season at AA with more XBHs and less SBs. He'd be ranked way higher than 20. And while I think Micah's defensive concerns are overblown, even if I'm wrong, he wouldn't be in much different of a situation than Hamilton. Again, I'm not arguing that Johnson will put up these numbers in AA, but if he did, you are so off on his value as prospect. A prospect who leads any AA league in OPS & steals is going to be considered elite.

[caulfield12]

#Astros GM Luhnow says there are very few farm systems he'd trade Houston's for. 'May trade it for ... Cardinals'.'

“Overall, I’m very happy with the system. I think about what systems would I trade it for and there are very few out there that are obvious. I may trade it for the Cardinals’ system,” Luhnow said. “Beyond that, there’s not a lot that are obvious that I would say, ‘OK. I’ll take your system and you take ours.’ And that’s a good place to be for us.”

 

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ber...8af60bb6a8.html

Is Matt Adams going to be the next Chris Davis?

 

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2013062...orts/706229839/

Dunn trade speculation...

Edited June 23, 2013 by caulfield12

[The Ultimate Champion]

If the Sox could get someone to eat $10M of Dunn's 2014 deal then that deal is done, you ask for nothing back, and you get that thing through the commissioner's office as fast as humanly possible.

[flavum]

Feel free to call me stupid, but how about this idea:

 

Sox trade Crain, Reed, and Carlos Sanchez to the Tigers.

 

Sox get back Bruce Rondon and Nick Castellanos, and maybe a throw in bullpen arm (Putkonen?).

 

We give up two bullpen arms that will give them a huge shot of winning the World Series this year, and a good 2B/SS prospect for the future...plus Reed will be team controlled for a while.

 

They give up a future closer that they don't feel is ready right now, and Castellanos, who is a very good prospect.

 

How bad?

[Balta1701]

Feel free to call me stupid, but how about this idea:

 

Sox trade Crain, Reed, and Carlos Sanchez to the Tigers.

 

Sox get back Bruce Rondon and Nick Castellanos, and maybe a throw in bullpen arm (Putkonen?).

 

We give up two bullpen arms that will give them a huge shot of winning the World Series this year, and a good 2B/SS prospect for the future...plus Reed will be team controlled for a while.

 

They give up a future closer that they don't feel is ready right now, and Castellanos, who is a very good prospect.

 

How bad?

Why would the Tigers want Sanchez?

 

[flavum]

Why would the Tigers want Sanchez?

 

Infante can't play 2B forever. Sanchez is still a decent prospect. I think he'll be a good player in a couple years.

 

If that's not enough, would you give up Trayce Thompson instead?

[Balta1701]

Infante can't play 2B forever. Sanchez is still a decent prospect. I think he'll be a good player in a couple years.

 

If that's not enough, would you give up Trayce Thompson instead?

It makes zero sense for the Sox to be trading away young guys whose value might grow with time.

[flavum]

It makes zero sense for the Sox to be trading away young guys whose value might grow with time.

 

It depends on the deal. Nobody is untradeable.