Merkin attempts positive Beckham article

[Balta1701]

Link usually these type of fluffs don't start until spring training. Odd.

[iamshack]

Link usually these type of fluffs don't start until spring training. Odd.

I like your title

[Paint it Black]

Boers and Bernstein has Curtis Granderson on today. They asked him what his offseason plans were, and Granderson mentioned himself, Beckham, Kipnis and a few other big leagers were going to be working out. Terry then said, "Can you please switch Beckham and Kipnis?"

 

I lol'd really loud at work.

[Rowand44]

+1 on the thread title.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Maybe Merkin got he hint from the Sox that he should start blowing smoke now in case they are trying to trade Beckham. Although I can't imagine any GM would be dumb enough to fall for a puff piece.

[greg775]

His injuries give him a pass for this past season. But he's not getting any younger and he is such a lousy hitter it's depressing.

 

I guess one more year of Beckham. I still like him way more than Kepp and Gillaspie and Flowers. Maybe our new hitting coach will make Beckham, Viciedo, DeAza and Phegs thrive. I sure hope so. The only times I can stomach Beckham at the plate are those two-week hot streaks he goes on once in a while when his parents are visiting. It's fun to see him rake, but he does it so infrequently I'd rate Gordon a 5 out of 10. He's just kinda a big piece of blah. Defensively however, 8.5 out of 10 or 9.

[Chicago White Sox]

Maybe Merkin got he hint from the Sox that he should start blowing smoke now in case they are trying to trade Beckham. Although I can't imagine any GM would be dumb enough to fall for a puff piece.

Exactly, GMs aren't going to whitesox.com and reading a Merkin article for their "insider" information.

 

These fluff pieces are intended to hype up the meatball portion of the fanbase for the coming season.

[caulfield12]

Exactly, GMs aren't going to whitesox.com and reading a Merkin article for their "insider" information.

 

These fluff pieces are intended to hype up the meatball portion of the fanbase for the coming season.

 

 

Shouldn't Merkin work for Epstein/Hoyer, then?

 

 

During one of the Cubs' "bonding" theme trips in 2012, during which players, coaches and manager Dale Sveum dressed up as their favorite superheroes, Jeff Baker and Reed Johnson went as team president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer.

 

The front office executives were amused.

 

"I actually got a text from Theo saying, 'Hey, you nailed the front office khakis and the colored shirt — you look like dorks," Johnson recalled.

 

Johnson and Baker were traded soon after, but the self-described "dorks" are entering Year Three of their rebuilding plan with another manager and another plea for patience.

Edited November 8, 2013 by caulfield12

[Balta1701]

I know the first thing I thought of when I read a beckham salespiece was "Hey, remember that time several minor Cubs players dressed as Theo and jed?"

[caulfield12]

I know the first thing I thought of when I read a beckham salespiece was "Hey, remember that time several minor Cubs players dressed as Theo and jed?"

 

 

Too bad nobody did that with Ozzie or KW.

 

The best story we have is the Swisher/blow-up doll thing in Toronto, unfortunately.

[elrockinMT]

I think the Sox would be making a big mistake in trading Beckham. He has a ton of talent and was showing it last year for certain until he was injured. You trade a person of his caliber and get what in return? Plus how do you find a replacement at 2B? Semien got a showcase for a month. L Garcia also. I like Semien but I think 3B is his spot or he takes the role Keppinger was supposed to fill. I don't think you do these stories with the idea it builds up trade possibilities. There are so many posters who call players seasons disappointing and let's talk specifically of Beckham. What are the realistic stats we should be seeing? Can one player be the teams salvation? It is a team effort and all pieces fit and make the contribution. You aren't going to have 25 all-stars on the team regardless of how much the Yankees, Angels and Dodgers tried to buy them. Beckham needs to stay. You don't create a hole in the team because you seem to have some pie in the sky idea of what the player should be doing productionwise

[greg775]

I think the Sox would be making a big mistake in trading Beckham. He has a ton of talent and was showing it last year for certain until he was injured. You trade a person of his caliber and get what in return? Plus how do you find a replacement at 2B? Semien got a showcase for a month. L Garcia also. I like Semien but I think 3B is his spot or he takes the role Keppinger was supposed to fill. I don't think you do these stories with the idea it builds up trade possibilities. There are so many posters who call players seasons disappointing and let's talk specifically of Beckham. What are the realistic stats we should be seeing? Can one player be the teams salvation? It is a team effort and all pieces fit and make the contribution. You aren't going to have 25 all-stars on the team regardless of how much the Yankees, Angels and Dodgers tried to buy them. Beckham needs to stay. You don't create a hole in the team because you seem to have some pie in the sky idea of what the player should be doing productionwise

 

Well then he gets the proverbial "one more year," El Rockin. At some point he has to be considered a bust even though he was a first round pick. I guess Semien at third and Beckham at second would be OK. Who's going to get cut if they keep all these infielders, though. Kepp and Gillaspie appear safe. My great fear is it's the blah Kepp/Gillaspie duo at third and Becks at second, which is not good at all.

Edited November 8, 2013 by greg775

[Balta1701]

Well then he gets the proverbial "one more year," El Rockin. At some point he has to be considered a bust even though he was a first round pick. I guess Semien at third and Beckham at second would be OK. Who's going to get cut if they keep all these infielders, though. Kepp and Gillaspie appear safe. My great fear is it's the blah Kepp/Gillaspie duo at third and Becks at second, which is not good at all.

Welcome to rebuilding, that's exactly what the lineup is likely to be to start the year. Semien was a fast riser last year and could seriously benefit from starting the season at AAA, and then we can see if anyone in the big leagues earns their spot or if Semien hits his way onto th e team.

[TaylorStSox]

I think the Sox would be making a big mistake in trading Beckham. He has a ton of talent and was showing it last year for certain until he was injured. You trade a person of his caliber and get what in return? Plus how do you find a replacement at 2B? Semien got a showcase for a month. L Garcia also. I like Semien but I think 3B is his spot or he takes the role Keppinger was supposed to fill. I don't think you do these stories with the idea it builds up trade possibilities. There are so many posters who call players seasons disappointing and let's talk specifically of Beckham. What are the realistic stats we should be seeing? Can one player be the teams salvation? It is a team effort and all pieces fit and make the contribution. You aren't going to have 25 all-stars on the team regardless of how much the Yankees, Angels and Dodgers tried to buy them. Beckham needs to stay. You don't create a hole in the team because you seem to have some pie in the sky idea of what the player should be doing productionwise

Dude, Gordon Beckham sucks.

[2nd_city_saint787]

Well then he gets the proverbial "one more year," El Rockin. At some point he has to be considered a bust even though he was a first round pick. I guess Semien at third and Beckham at second would be OK. Who's going to get cut if they keep all these infielders, though. Kepp and Gillaspie appear safe. My great fear is it's the blah Kepp/Gillaspie duo at third and Becks at second, which is not good at all.

 

Here's a fun fact that might boggle your mind Greg....Conor Gillaspie ranked in the top half of 3rd basemen in ops vs RHP.

 

He was "fine" in his part of the platoon. They just need to get Keppinger back to his 2012 self when his OPS vs LHP was 3rd in the league.

[greg775]

Welcome to rebuilding, that's exactly what the lineup is likely to be to start the year. Semien was a fast riser last year and could seriously benefit from starting the season at AAA, and then we can see if anyone in the big leagues earns their spot or if Semien hits his way onto th e team.

But it doesn't seem to me rebuilding should include the Kepp/Gillaspie combo. Sox have some money. Can't they find a stop gap third baseman or just plug Semien in there and get rid of one of the two, Kepp or Gillaspie?

 

Here's a fun fact that might boggle your mind Greg....Conor Gillaspie ranked in the top half of 3rd basemen in ops vs RHP.

 

He was "fine" in his part of the platoon. They just need to get Keppinger back to his 2012 self when his OPS vs LHP was 3rd in the league.

 

How was his defense? Seemed to me he was not good over there. Conor to me screams career minor leaguer, but I could handle him on the team as long as we trade Kepp for a bag of balls.

[Balta1701]

But it doesn't seem to me rebuilding should include the Kepp/Gillaspie combo. Sox have some money. Can't they find a stop gap third baseman or just plug Semien in there and get rid of one of the two, Kepp or Gillaspie

Again, welcome to rebuilding. When you're rebuilding, you have to get the best value out of every guy you can, IMO. To some degree, that means seeing what guys can do and playing guys you have under contract until they're tradeable.

[2nd_city_saint787]

But it doesn't seem to me rebuilding should include the Kepp/Gillaspie combo. Sox have some money. Can't they find a stop gap third baseman or just plug Semien in there and get rid of one of the two, Kepp or Gillaspie?

 

 

 

How was his defense? Seemed to me he was not good over there. Conor to me screams career minor leaguer, but I could handle him on the team as long as we trade Kepp for a bag of balls.

 

His D was in the lower half of the league....Would I like a new 3B??? Sure. I just think you could do worse, and it's nothing to, dread, fear, detest, or whatever vibrant word you wanna use about the situation.

[Vance Law]

But it doesn't seem to me rebuilding should include the Kepp/Gillaspie combo. Sox have some money. Can't they find a stop gap third baseman or just plug Semien in there and get rid of one of the two, Kepp or Gillaspie?

 

If Keppinger can simply produce at his career normal level against lefties, the platoon with Gillaspie would have put up an OPS around .770. There were only 7 3rd basemen in all of baseball last year who produced at that level. Whoever this 'stopgap' is you speak of would be worse than that. The reasons for keeping that platoon are: Gillaspie is giving positive production for no money, and just in his rookie year. Who knows, he could even improve. You're already paying Keppinger and you actually believe he will get back to normal against lefties in which case he would be a positive asset on the field and would rebuild his trade value.

 

In addition to being bad, Keppinger was also very unlucky last year. I can't find this stat for the whole season, but through July he was baseball's unluckiest hitter.

http://www.bsports.com/statsinsights/mlb/l...-on-line-drives

[Chicago White Sox]

Again, welcome to rebuilding. When you're rebuilding, you have to get the best value out of every guy you can, IMO. To some degree, that means seeing what guys can do and playing guys you have under contract until they're tradeable.

Wait, we're rebuilding now?

[Balta1701]

Wait, we're rebuilding now?

I'm pretty sure that's what happens when you sell off 3 highly paid veterans mid-season, lose nearly 100 games, and replace your team's captain and longest-tenured player with a guy who has never played an inning of major league baseball.

 

We could pull it off very quickly, but if that's not rebuilding then I don't know what is.

[Chicago White Sox]

I'm pretty sure that's what happens when you sell off 3 highly paid veterans mid-season, lose nearly 100 games, and replace your team's captain and longest-tenured player with a guy who has never played an inning of major league baseball.

 

We could pull it off very quickly, but if that's not rebuilding then I don't know what is.

Lol...I'd call that retooling. Crain was an injured, free agent to be reliever. Hell, you were the biggest fan of dealing Peavy regardless of his value because of our pitching depth. Trading from a position of strength to land a young, major-league ready hitter isn't rebuilding, it's attempting to address our biggest weakness. And clearly Rios became expendable once we got Garcia. Getting rid of his contract helped us land Abreu (as you've stated numerous times) and an interesting utility player with some upside. Obviously Hahn was trying to get our team younger at the deadline, but rebuilding would have meant trading a lot more than just those three.

 

Also, Abreu just signed the largest first time contract ever for an international player. That's called a major free agent addition. Were Ichiro or Darvish considered rebuilding-type moves as well because they had no major league experience at the time?

[chisoxt]

I think the Sox would be making a big mistake in trading Beckham. He has a ton of talent and was showing it last year for certain until he was injured. You trade a person of his caliber and get what in return? Plus how do you find a replacement at 2B? Semien got a showcase for a month. L Garcia also. I like Semien but I think 3B is his spot or he takes the role Keppinger was supposed to fill. I don't think you do these stories with the idea it builds up trade possibilities. There are so many posters who call players seasons disappointing and let's talk specifically of Beckham. What are the realistic stats we should be seeing? Can one player be the teams salvation? It is a team effort and all pieces fit and make the contribution. You aren't going to have 25 all-stars on the team regardless of how much the Yankees, Angels and Dodgers tried to buy them. Beckham needs to stay. You don't create a hole in the team because you seem to have some pie in the sky idea of what the player should be doing productionwise

I don't think that Gordon would be as disappointing were it not for his position in the draft.

If you can't find a decent major leaguer picking 8th in the draft how are you ever going to develop a farm system?

 

[Balta1701]

Lol...I'd call that retooling. Crain was an injured, free agent to be reliever. Hell, you were the biggest fan of dealing Peavy regardless of his value because of our pitching depth. Trading from a position of strength to land a young, major-league ready hitter isn't rebuilding, it's attempting to address our biggest weakness. And clearly Rios became expendable once we got Garcia. Getting rid of his contract helped us land Abreu (as you've stated numerous times) and an interesting utility player with some upside. Obviously Hahn was trying to get our team younger at the deadline, but rebuilding would have meant trading a lot more than just those three.

 

Also, Abreu just signed the largest first time contract ever for an international player. That's called a major free agent addition. Were Ichiro or Darvish considered rebuilding-type moves as well because they had no major league experience at the time?

Cespedes sure felt like one.

[Eminor3rd]

Dude, Gordon Beckham sucks.

 

Yeah. The thing with him is that he doesn't even look good when he's hot. He just looks like he's running into some balls. He has never really seemed "

dialed in" to me. Hits just fall in for a couple weeks at a time.