Sox to Make Hard Push for Granderson

[witesoxfan]

Holy quad post!

 

Anyways, yeah, Bleacher Report is pretty terrible overall, but to me, there are not many guys I'm taking over Homer Bailey. The fact that Samardzija is 34 is silly. He's a talented pitcher, and I would take him on the Sox, but I am guessing I can probably list 35 guys I'd rather take than him.

[Jose Abreu]

I remember all the Homer Bailey for Dye rumors... looking back on that I'd definitely do it considering Dye hasn't played since

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

The problem is that they tried to make quantitative. They made a series of small, subjective opinions about each player and turned them into numbers and then analyzed the result of the numbers as if to say, "numbers don't lie!" Nobody could say with a straight face that Alejandro is one of the worst CF in baseball, but the numbers say so (that a guy made up)!

 

If he just said, I think this guy is better and here are some reasons I'd take it more seriously. Instead, the results don't even reflect his opinions, but rather an arbitrary score based on his opinions -- in other words, I guarantee the list is not in the order it would be if he tossed out the numbers and just ranked them based on who he thought was better.

I can say with a straight face De Aza is just about the worst CF in baseball defensively if you use DRS as a metric. Throw in his outs on the bases and your looking at a pretty bad overall CF with not a lot of upside to look forward to.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

The fact that posters are reaching for Bleacher Report for news means we need the Winter Meetings more than anything. Thankfully they begin a week from tomorrow. The cannot come soon enough.

You can only go to Soxtalk, SSS , MLBtraderumors, CSN, CBSsports, ESPNChicago so many times before you look at B/R for anything new I haven't already seen about my Sox.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

The problem is that they tried to make quantitative. They made a series of small, subjective opinions about each player and turned them into numbers and then analyzed the result of the numbers as if to say, "numbers don't lie!" Nobody could say with a straight face that Alejandro is one of the worst CF in baseball, but the numbers say so (that a guy made up)!

 

If he just said, I think this guy is better and here are some reasons I'd take it more seriously. Instead, the results don't even reflect his opinions, but rather an arbitrary score based on his opinions -- in other words, I guarantee the list is not in the order it would be if he tossed out the numbers and just ranked them based on who he thought was better.

I don't know man you can take 1000 guys with infinite baseball knowledge with all the latest stats on offense and defense and baserunning then throw in health and age and future projection and you 're still going to come up with 1000 different lists when your taking so many players into consideration.

 

I'm sure not going to blow a gasket like most commenters do because someone elses opinion is different then mine. I take following the Sox very seriously but it's the nature of the beast for all those argumentatove, outraged commenters not to keep in mind the writer tried to take all aspects of a players game into consideration but some stuff is very subjective .

 

I read a lot of the individual ranking sand what I saw about the Sox players was pretty much spot on wether it was Dunn, De Aza or Viciedo. Where they end up in the rankings doesn't really matter . The guy seemed like he did his homework. There's just so much research you can do before you have to write the article and you're bound to screw up somewhere since metrics often conflict .

[southsider2k5]

I remember all the Homer Bailey for Dye rumors... looking back on that I'd definitely do it considering Dye hasn't played since

 

It wasn't the Sox who turned the deal down.

[Balta1701]

It wasn't the Sox who turned the deal down.

But it was definitely Kenny's fault.

[ILMOU]

I see the idea that the Sox had a good pitching staff this year brought up a lot, but it was actually in the lower half of teams (9th ERA, 11th in FIP, 9th in xFIP). There are some arms that are likely to improve on those numbers (Danks) and replacements should put up better numbers than others (whoever for Axelrod), but the pitching can still improve drastically. There are some good pieces in place, but I think next year could be pretty similar pitching wise, especially if they deal a starter (like I expect them to).

 

The team's ranking within the league dropped off steadily throughout the season, and was much higher through most of it. Yes, there's room for a lot of improvement. Losing 128 innings of horrid Axelrod (and you know the second half of his season is especially horrid, because the first half wasn't), 138 innings of the "meatball version" of Danks, and 5 starts from an injured Floyd can go a long way toward that improvement. We have a group of young starters more prepared to pitch effectively through a longer stretch of the season than we've had in some time. Last year's inning totals for our top 7 "kids" (all prof. leagues included):

 

Sale 214, up from 192 in '12

Q 200, up from 185

Hector 149, up from 85

EJohnson 170, up from 92

Rienzo 169, up from 103

Bassitt ~170, up from 91

Beck 147, up from 40 (not incl. college innings, didn't bother to look)

 

Didn't include Danks here as he's a special case of injury recovery. If he's effective, then he shouldn't have too much difficulty ramping back into the 200 inning range where he resided from '08 to '10.

 

In a nutshell, we should have little to none fatigue effects this year dragging down the late-season numbers. The bulk of the conditioning has already been accomplished. IF we are competitive, and I know that's not super-likely, we shouldn't falter because the staff is "out of gas".

Edited December 2, 2013 by Stan Bahnsen

[ILMOU]

You can only go to Soxtalk, SSS , MLBtraderumors, CSN, CBSsports, ESPNChicago so many times before you look at B/R for anything new I haven't already seen about my Sox.

 

True, and hilarious. It's a lonely, desolate winter.

[witesoxfan]

The team's ranking within the league dropped off steadily throughout the season, and was much higher through most of it. Yes, there's room for a lot of improvement. Losing 128 innings of horrid Axelrod (and you know the second half of his season is especially horrid, because the first half wasn't), 138 innings of the "meatball version" of Danks, and 5 starts from an injured Floyd can go a long way toward that improvement. We have a group of young starters more prepared to pitch effectively through a longer stretch of the season than we've had in some time. Last year's inning totals for our top 7 "kids" (all prof. leagues included):

 

Sale 214, up from 192 in '12

Q 200, up from 185

Hector 149, up from 85

EJohnson 170, up from 92

Rienzo 169, up from 103

Bassitt ~170, up from 91

Beck 147, up from 40 (not incl. college innings, didn't bother to look)

 

Didn't include Danks here as he's a special case of injury recovery. If he's effective, then he shouldn't have too much difficulty ramping back into the 200 inning range where he resided from '08 to '10.

 

In a nutshell, we should have little to none fatigue effects this year dragging down the late-season numbers. The bulk of the conditioning has already been accomplished. IF we are competitive, and I know that's not super-likely, we shouldn't falter because the staff is "out of gas".

 

I don't disagree with any of this and, in fact, do really like the pitching staff going forward. Just basically pointing out that, even though we felt it was a good pitching staff, compared to the rest of the league it was pretty average. There is most definitely room for it to grow and improve and be a top 5 staff in the AL next season. They'd still need a lot to go right for that to happen.

[ILMOU]

Not for long. One week from today we have the Winter Meetings. 10 days from now we have the 3rd pick in the Rule 5 draft. Hang in there!

 

Thx man, I feel a lot better. I think Jaso is my biggest, semi-realistic hope, followed by Salty. And whoever we target for lefty relief, if that is in fact that is a priority as I hope

[Jake]

While I don't really subscribe to this to a great extent, a bunch of guys having huge increases in innings last year is as much a recipe for a bunch of significant injuries as it is evidence that they're "stretched out" now.

[flavum]

I think Phil Rogers has a crush for Granderson. And not just a man crush. Full on.

 

https://twitter.com/philgrogers/status/408053030651568128

[daggins]

Well hopefully he signs with the Mets and the Sox keep their draft picks.

[Dick Allen]

Well hopefully he signs with the Mets and the Sox keep their draft picks.

I don't think the Sox will sign Granderson, but the odds are a lot higher he would help the Sox win a lot more games than the draft pick and slot money they would surrender signing him.

[witesoxfan]

I don't think the Sox will sign Granderson, but the odds are a lot higher he would help the Sox win a lot more games than the draft pick and slot money they would surrender signing him.

 

Yes, for a team that lost 99 games. Would you rather take a chance that the 2nd round pick turns out to be someone like Addison Reed or Gio Gonzalez who can help the Sox either directly or indirectly 5 years from now while they'll be competitive, or would you rather Granderson help lead the Sox to 77 wins instead of 73?

[Balta1701]

Yes, for a team that lost 99 games. Would you rather take a chance that the 2nd round pick turns out to be someone like Addison Reed or Gio Gonzalez who can help the Sox either directly or indirectly 5 years from now while they'll be competitive, or would you rather Granderson help lead the Sox to 77 wins instead of 73?

If Konerko wasn't back I'd have said I'd prefer the Granderson option if he was at a contract I liked, but any chance for him to get PA's rotating positions to the DH spot just evaporated.

[Dick Allen]

If Konerko wasn't back I'd have said I'd prefer the Granderson option if he was at a contract I liked, but any chance for him to get PA's rotating positions to the DH spot just evaporated.

Unless someone is moved. I am surprised he came back. I thought for sure he would call it a career.

 

What would be interesting is if Paulie physically came back better than last year and started hitting again. It's not like he's 45, and before his wrist surgery, he was hitting around .400. Last year he obviously was hurting when Dunn was playing first all those games early. Obviously, chances of broken down 37 year olds returning to form aren't as good as broken down 27 year olds, but maybe Paulie has something left. He apparently thinks so.

 

Also, perhaps the Sox mapped out their plan to him. I would think coming back to a team destined to lose a ton of games isn't so desirable. For some reason, I think the Sox may try to sign Choo.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Dick Allen

[Chisoxfn]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,0,830178.story

 

Mets closing in on Granderson.

[GGajewski18]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,0,830178.story

 

Mets closing in on Granderson.

 

Good. Stay away.

[flavum]

It is true, once the draft pick came into play, there wasn't really a good reason to pick up Granderson.

 

Good player, but not the right fit.

[southsider2k5]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

signed, Phil Rodgers.

[Andy the Clown]

Not so fast, Soxtalk:

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/NYPost_Mets/stat...338958880223233

[DirtySox]

Not so fast, Soxtalk:

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/NYPost_Mets/stat...338958880223233

 

Do not want. At all.

[2nd_city_saint787]

Do want.