White Sox and Red Sox face the same dilemma in many ways...

[caulfield12]

Nelson Cruz would have been nice, but he’s 34 and it appears the Orioles want to re-sign him. Nick Markakis and Melky Cabrera are good players, but there would be competition for them and no guarantee the Red Sox would get them.

 

So the Red Sox used their pitching resources and flipped Jon Lester and John Lackey to Oakland and St. Louis, respectively, for righthanded boppers Yoenis Cespedes and Allen Craig, and also received 26-year-old righthander Joe Kelly from the Cardinals.

 

The Red Sox now have firepower in the form of righthanded hitting in the middle of the order with Mike Napoli, Craig, and Cespedes. Will Middlebrooks will return to the lineup Friday night against the Yankees, and he too can provide righthanded power.

 

The Red Sox may even be too righthanded, as Xander Bogaerts goes back to shortstop. He will give the Red Sox a good glimpse over the next two months whether he can be their long-term answer or whether the team will engage in a Devin Marrero/Bogaerts debate in spring training, with Marrero now playing well at Pawtucket and a much better defensive shortstop.

 

Cherington is right to think that it will be easier to replace the pitchers than it would have been to revamp the offense. Having dealt with the offense, his job now will be to bring in two starting pitchers through trade or free agency armed with a lot of prospect pitchers and positional players, as well as financial resources as a result of getting rid of big contracts and not re-upping those high-priced players.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

 

Seems that Viciedo is likely to go nowhere, if Allen Craig with a similar OPS, 30 years old and a big contract for a limited defensive player is a key trade acquisition target.

 

While Craig has more of a track record, but he has age going against him, as well as his higher price tag in terms of salary.

 

Unless the White Sox can sign Yasmani Tomas or Nelson Cruz, they're going to be fighting with 10-15 other teams over the likes of Melky Cabrera, Nick Markakis, Victor Martinez and Colby Rasmus. That's not a good position to be in...

 

The White Sox have the seeming advantage with Sale and Quintana at the top of their rotation (Boston has Buchholz and Kelly, who might not even be a starter long-term, to go with Rubby/Workman/Ranaudo), and Rodon waiting in the wings. Abreu's more or less the equivalent of Ortiz/Pedroia, but the White Sox are lacking the resources in terms of minor league talent to swing for an impact bat like Cespedes...not unless they deal Quintana and/or Ramirez.

 

Then there's the huge catching issue. And that's not even mentioning the bullpen, yet, since 2016 is now the target for competing and not 2015 thanks to a number of factors (regression from Viciedo, Garcia's injury, non-performance from E.Johnson/Semien/Davidson, Flowers being at the bottom along with AJ Pierzynski in OPS for catchers with 225+ plate appearances, etc.)

 

Boston has a young core in Bogaerts, Marrero, Bradley, Jr., their young catcher that AJ was DFA'ed to clear the way for and Middlebrooks.

 

The White Sox have Eaton, Garcia, Abreu and Gillaspie...to go along with the veteran in Alexei Ramirez. So both teams have a lot of offensive holes to fill, with the White Sox possibly replacing 4-5 players in the offseason.

 

The Red Sox line-up now offensively is more settled...

 

Cespedes, Bradley and Craig in the OF

Bogaerts/Middlebrooks, Bogaerts/Marrero, Pedroia, Napoli in the infield.

Ortiz at DH.

Then you have Christian Vazquez with Blake Swihart behind him (according to Callis) possessing Buster Posey-level skills

You also have Mookie Betts somewhere in the mix.

 

 

Which team do you think is in a better position?

 

The Red Sox have to add more frontline starting pitching, but they also have a seemingly more settled line-up for 2015, a better bullpen, veteran continuity and stability with Ortiz/Pedroia/Napoli and more resources from which to draw from to fix things in one offseason. Not to mention two pretty high quality catching prospects, especially Swihart.

Edited August 1, 2014 by caulfield12

[cabiness42]

The White Sox have the seeming advantage with Sale and Quintana at the top of their rotation (Boston has Buchholz and Kelly, who might not even be a starter long-term, to go with Rubby/Workman/Ranaudo), and Rodon waiting in the wings. Abreu's more or less the equivalent of Ortiz/Pedroia, but the White Sox are lacking the resources in terms of minor league talent to swing for an impact bat like Cespedes...not unless they deal Quintana and/or Ramirez.

 

This is exactly why the two Sox are nowhere near the same position. Sale/Quintana is far better than Buchholz/Kelly. Abreu is better than Ortiz not to mention much younger.

[Buehrle>Wood]

We have a top 2 candidate for the Cy Young. They dont. We have a top 2 candidate for the MVP. They dont.

 

 

 

/thread?

[knightni]

Colby Rasmus would be a nice pickup.

 

How much would he cost?

[SCCWS]

We have a top 2 candidate for the Cy Young. They dont. We have a top 2 candidate for the MVP. They dont.

 

 

 

/thread?

 

I disagree. I get to watch the Red Sox all year living in New England. We clearly have 3 guys in Quintana, Sale and Abreu much better than anyone they have. but 3 guys out of 25 does not make it a better team. They now have a much better outfield than we have. Hopefully we get another bat and Garcia turns in to a solid player. They have 2 quality young catchers and probably the best DH in the league. We go into next year w questions in both spots. We are better at 1st and SS and they are better at 2B and 3rd is probably a draw. Their bullpen is much better. their young pitchers are in the rotation and I think have more potential than ours so far.

They also have a very good AAA team loaded w talent both pitching and hitting. I think the Lester trade is very suspicious. A guy plays his whole career in Boston, gets traded and before he leaves says he loves Boston and wants to return. Obviously media speculation is heavy that this was a win-win. Red Sox got a big bat, Lester gets another WS shot and they all meet back up next year. The lack of any negative comments from guys like Pedroia, Ortiz etc further fuels the flames.

Obviously Rodon is a wildcard but they may also have a stud somewhere in their farm.

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

I disagree. I get to watch the Red Sox all year living in New England.

 

I think anyone who owns a tv "gets to" watch the Red Sox all year.

[cabiness42]

I disagree. I get to watch the Red Sox all year living in New England. We clearly have 3 guys in Quintana, Sale and Abreu much better than anyone they have. but 3 guys out of 25 does not make it a better team. They now have a much better outfield than we have. Hopefully we get another bat and Garcia turns in to a solid player. They have 2 quality young catchers and probably the best DH in the league. We go into next year w questions in both spots. We are better at 1st and SS and they are better at 2B and 3rd is probably a draw. Their bullpen is much better. their young pitchers are in the rotation and I think have more potential than ours so far.

They also have a very good AAA team loaded w talent both pitching and hitting. I think the Lester trade is very suspicious. A guy plays his whole career in Boston, gets traded and before he leaves says he loves Boston and wants to return. Obviously media speculation is heavy that this was a win-win. Red Sox got a big bat, Lester gets another WS shot and they all meet back up next year. The lack of any negative comments from guys like Pedroia, Ortiz etc further fuels the flames.

Obviously Rodon is a wildcard but they may also have a stud somewhere in their farm.

 

If I'm trying to build a championship team, I'd rather have the three studs than a roster full of guys who are marginally better than the rest of our guys.

[caulfield12]

Bradley and Craig are both well down into the 600's for OPS, although Bradley makes up for quite a bit of that with his stellar defense.

 

I guess it also depends if you prefer Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Bradley, Vazquez/Swihart, Middlebrooks, Rubby, Workman, Ranaudo, etc.

 

They definitely have more pitching depth at the AA/AAA level.

 

 

Cespedes>LF

Eaton would have to have the advantage over Bradley, but not by a huge amount

Craig and Garcia is a wash right now, who knows

Gillaspie and Bogaerts/Middlebrooks...well, do you really think Conor's worth more if they were both put on the trade market today?

Ramirez has the advantage over Marrero

Pedroia vs anyone, not even close

Abreu over Napoli

Ortiz over Dunn/Konerko/???

Red Sox catching over White Sox

 

Red Sox have 4

White Sox have 4

Garcia/Craig a wash

 

I wonder how close they were to trading Uehara, and what offers were on the table, if he actually was made available in the last week or so....?

 

[Dick Allen]

Bradley and Craig are both well down into the 600's for OPS, although Bradley makes up for quite a bit of that with his stellar defense.

 

I guess it also depends if you prefer Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Bradley, Vazquez/Swihart, Middlebrooks, Rubby, Workman, Ranaudo, etc.

 

They definitely have more pitching depth at the AA/AAA level.

 

 

Cespedes>LF

Eaton would have to have the advantage over Bradley, but not by a huge amount

Craig and Garcia is a wash right now, who knows

Gillaspie and Bogaerts/Middlebrooks...well, do you really think Conor's worth more if they were both put on the trade market today?

Ramirez has the advantage over Marrero

Pedroia vs anyone, not even close

Abreu over Napoli

Ortiz over Dunn/Konerko/???

Red Sox catching over White Sox

 

Red Sox have 4

White Sox have 4

Garcia/Craig a wash

 

I wonder how close they were to trading Uehara, and what offers were on the table, if he actually was made available in the last week or so....?

The White Sox are better at the most important position, especially now. You can be better at C,1B,2B,SS,3B,LF,CF,RF and DH, if you pitcher isn't as good, you could be in trouble.

[caulfield12]

If I'm trying to build a championship team, I'd rather have the three studs than a roster full of guys who are marginally better than the rest of our guys.

 

 

The problem is that we need to upgrade 5 members of the line-up (including the most important position, catcher)...half of our bullpen...and at least one 2/3 starter.

 

We all know from the Santana/Jimenez/Garza debate about the merits of such a pitcher.

And we've exhausted the Paulino disaster as well.

 

The question is whether Hahn can find another Beckett/P.Hughes/Milone/Tim Hudson/Kazmir/Hammel at the back end. Hammel's already getting exposed in the AL in a month, for example.

 

That's assuming Rodon is a #3 or better starter. Because there's no way we even kick the tires on Shields/Scherzer/Lester. And Masterson's going to get so much exposure pitching for the Cardinals he's going to be either too risk because he completely falls apart or he's going to raise his value up quite a bit the final 3 months (and that's another risk, assuming he could jump back to the AL and continue that success).

[caulfield12]

The White Sox are better at the most important position, especially now. You can be better at C,1B,2B,SS,3B,LF,CF,RF and DH, if you pitcher isn't as good, you could be in trouble.

 

Except a lot changes IF IF IF Buchholz returns to form and they get back Lester or sign Scherzer or Shields.

 

I'd say Shields is the most likely add, from everything you read. He's down to 4 years (supposedly) and could be had for around $80-90 million now (coming down off the $144 million Greinke contract comp)...that amount's very close to what they wanted to pay Lester, fwiw.

 

 

 

We currently have a Cy Young candidate, a very solid #2 in Quintana, a decent 4 in Danks and a okay/so-so 5 in Noesi right now...and we're not even a .500 team.

 

What would the White Sox record be if James Shields had been pitching for us all this season? Most would argue we'd be 3-5 games over .500 and maybe as much as 7. Of course, the bullpen might have blown a number of his leads as well, so let's just say a 3 game swing in the standings to be conservative, although 5-7 is arguable as well.

Edited August 1, 2014 by caulfield12

[Melissa1334]

Colby Rasmus would be a nice pickup.

 

How much would he cost?

He was decent the last two years, batting .218 this year , doesn't sound that appealing lol