caulfield12

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Mar 30, 2014 -> 12:57 AM) Rasmus is basically De Aza with 7-10 more homers. I wouldn't load the truck for that. Ideally we'd like more power in LF anyway Rasmus hit 22 homers in only 118 games. Projected out over 162 games or 600ish AB's, that's 30+. Not to mention that he would be a "plus" defender there, or push Eaton out of CF to LF. (That's not such a huge issue unless Eaton's arm is not back to 100%).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 30, 2014 -> 05:28 AM) Kids in warm weather in the USA play all year as opposed to those in cold weather climates who don't play half the year. It doesn't make them an old 31. They're not pushed from the age of 14-16 like those kids in the "baseball factories" in Latin America. And those kids play all day long, after pretty much being forced to drop out of school. It is their job, and the future of their family, at stake.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseba...on-ticket-sales Reds owner blames media for lower ticket sales....maybe our marketing dept. should try this one? http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseba...ith-knee-injury Surprise, surprise, Carlos Quentin to begin the season on the DL with knee injury

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Mar 30, 2014 -> 12:12 AM) I just hope Semien takes the job. Any idea on Beckhams value if any? Probably the equivalent of another Leury Garcia, a Top 8-12 prospect in another organization....especially like the Rangers, that are desperate for a competent veteran 2B for half the season.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 09:23 PM) Random thought: if UK loses tomorrow there's a chance this ff has 0 lottery picks, that's kind of crazy. Maybe McGary after next year. Napier will get drafted, but nowhere near the lottery.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 27, 2014 -> 10:03 AM) Players love Alford. He has always been a player's coach, for better or for worse. For some reason, he never was able to relax at Iowa, and I guess it goes back to the expectations of the 2001-02 team with Recker/Reggie Evans and falling into a 5-13 Big 10 record after being Top 10 in January that year. Then Pierce. Then Northwestern State. Tyler Smith leaving for Tennessee and former Iowa assistant Bruce Pearl didn't help much. For that matter, I think the attrition rate of players transferring or getting kicked out of the program must have been 55-60% when he was at Iowa. That was one of the biggest knocks. He never seemed to do those "fun" things like he did at SW Missouri State, like having a wiffle ball tournament in the gym instead of practicing, free throw shooting contests against him...he's brought that same feeling to UCLA, at least for now. If I had a $1.00 for every personalized "Steve Alford is an arrogant bastard/SOB/d--k" from people living in Iowa City, I'd be well on my way to my first million at this point. I think he just felt Iowa was beneath him, and that Indiana pride and the arrogance never set well with anyone. It's okay for him to have that kind of swagger in SoCal, as long as you back it up with on-court results. I'm sure he grew a lot out of the Iowa situation, because he has done a much better job at New Mexico (minus the NCAA tourney wipeouts until this year with UCLA) and his one year in Westwood.

Great game...two crazy calls at the end. Guess I didn't jinx the B10 yet. Bo Ryan deserves this coaching achievement...have always watched with admiration and secretly wished Iowa could have developed a program like Wisconsin now has.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 08:49 PM) Jackson always runs that play at the buzzer. He's hit maybe one his whole career Just like his dad. Should have gone to Kaminsky or Dekker.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 07:35 PM) FWIW, keep in mind that Japanese pitchers only pitch every 7 days Yes, but they often have hellacious "simulation" outings in-between...some throwing almost every day. Dice K was a perfect example. Maybe they've changed that since he broke down, but one of the major concerns with Tanaka has always been the wear and tear on his arm/shoulder. We'll see.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 07:05 AM) A major league team needs players like Alex Liddi? Try again. He has one tool, power. Strikes out more frequently than Adam Dunn. Doesn't walk and defensively, although you can put him in at several positions, he doesn't play them well. I have seen guys have hard ons for some mediocre players, but to think Liddi has even in the slightest way shown he belongs on a major league roster or taking it farther and saying he is the type of player the team needs is about as ridiculous as your claim Alexei is an old 31 because of what he was doing when he was 13. You don't think players who play year round in the Dominican, Cuba, Venezuela, etc., don't take more physical abuse, especially speed-based players like a Pods or Chone Figgins who take even more hits to their bodies from all those stolen base attempts and diving on the ground in the infield (as opposed to outfielders)? Or a catcher (or running back), whose career timeline is almost always 2-3 years shorter than the average player. It's the exact same idea as those arguing against Tanaka or Dice K because of the extremely high pitch counts they've been exposed to since they were younger...the number of pitches thrown in-between starts because of the rigorous Japanese training regimen, etc. Yes, I'll argue that Tanaka is more like a 28-30 year old pitcher, if not older, and that he's definitely going to break down in the first four years of his deal and have to undergo surgery. Also, he relies more on torque/movement than having elite velocity (like Darvish), so there's another red flag to consider.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 06:25 AM) Not true. Rockies are overloaded with Lefty outfielders (Blackmon and Dickerson) and, according to recent articles, they would love to trade one for either a pitcher or right handed hitting outfielder. Both are already good, hitters, better than our duo in left.. And still relatively cheap. Dickerson, that used to be on the Reds? Seriously? I've never even heard of Blackmon...unless he used to be a basketball player.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 07:13 AM) When is the last time a team not in contention traded for a guy with an expiring contract? Find me an example, and then I'll waste my time answering the question. Freddie Garcia, 2004.

QUOTE (professa @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 12:58 PM) I don't see us signing a pitcher, I see us signing a guy like Colby Rasmus next offseason (Something to the tune of 5/85 would seem like market value). Future lineup: LF Adam Eaton 2nd Marcus Semien RF Avisail Garcia 1B Jose Abreu CF Colby Rasmus DH Dayan Viciedo 3B Matt Davidson C Free Agent SS Tim Anderson Rotation Sale Quintana 3rd overall pick Johnson Beck/Some free agent/prospect Anderson might not even end up at SS. And he's at least 2 or 2 1/2 years away, still.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 12:44 AM) Look, I'm just saying baseball wasn't designed to be an elitist sport. You disagree? I don't and won't sit in upper tank. I'm a box seat guy. So what will a game cost me on the secondary market? It wasn't designed to be a commercial sport, period. It was designed for the enjoyment of the soldiers around the time of the Civil War, by Doubleday or Cartwright depending on which origin story you choose to go with.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 11:45 PM) God I hate when people complain about ticket prices. I saw Chris Sale pitch 13 rows behind home plate last year and it cost me $18. Use the secondary market for tickets. Also, as bad as baseball contracts seem, baseball players still get a smaller portion of the overall revenue than football, basketball, or hockey players. It doesn't even matter. Detroit's tv deal is up in two years and then they sign a new one and Cabrera's deal won't even matter. That's how much revenue these teams are making. If the Tigers are worth less than the White Sox, have the withering Detroit economic downturn to deal with...and can still afford to pay Fielder, Verlander, Cabrera, Scherzer $650 million or whatever, well, there's money there if teams really want to spend it. It's not JUST about Mike Illitch's personal fortune at play here. The main point, though, is that they're not willing to spend it on 2nd tier players like Santana, Nelson Cruz, Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales...especially when draft pick compensation is attached. But almost every team can sign a $15-20-25 million per year player...if they really want to.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 09:29 PM) Assuming Rasmus has a good first half, wouldn't trading for him be similar to buying a free agent who had a great contract year? The difference between the 2 is Sandoval has been good for 5 years, and Rasmus really only had 1.5 good months(thus far). We are of course talking about trading for these guys though, so if he needs time to adjust to the AL(I'm not convinced this is a real thing) then he'll have a few months to do so. I know money is a factor, Rasmus will probably be much cheaper, but Sandoval is absolutely a guy I'd take a chance on. Well, the only other options out there that will make a significant impact are Headley and Hanley Ramirez. If we could actually believe in Ramirez playing a competent level of MLB SS, I'd take that risk over Headley or Sandoval, simply because of the importance of getting offense from another position on the field...with a premium on big numbers from your two middle infielders. Of course, Ramirez has a lot of wear and tear on him, and significant injuries over the last 2-3 seasons. That said, if he was available for 3-4 years, I'd absolutely roll the dice on him...but I'd have to be 100% confident he was 1) past all of his injuries and 2) capable of playing SS for 140-145 games. All of these question marks will somewhat limit his demands for anything much above $100 million. That said, Ramirez is getting older and it would be another version of the Adam Dunn acquisition...where you're basically forced to compete in the NOW (like the Royals with Shields) and that would also mean you would have to address catcher, bullpen (if it's shaky all this season) and possibly one spot in the rotation. Ramirez would be 31 at the beginning of 2014, but, in reality, in terms of wear and tear, playing from the age of 14-15-16, etc., he's more like 33-34. It also doesn't address the LH issue. Eaton Semien or A.Garcia Abreu Hanley Ramirez Viciedo/DeAza (DH position, rotating all the outfielders and infielders) A.Garcia (hitting 2nd or 6th) LF Davidson Catcher Semien (hitting 2nd or 9th) That would give you five guys with a lot of power, one with a combination (DeAza), ??? at catcher and then Semien and Eaton for your speed/aggressiveness/small ball attack.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 10:55 PM) I just don't understand baseball's need to give a contract like this. 10 years is just flat out stupid. I mean in 4 years (which is a long time) he might have a bad back or something and be DONE. It's just unnecessary to pay this kind of money to a fricking baseball player. Baseball players would play for a million a year if they had to. For the most part, they are not rocket scientists. Baseball owners slay me. Some of you don't remember the day you could actually go to a baseball game and park for a couple of bucks instead of 25-50 bucks and didn't need to shell out 59 bucks for a halfway decent seat for a meaningless April game. Baseball was never meant to be an elitist sport as it has become. Ridiculous. I guess the team gets to purchase insurance in case he can't ever play again after a serious injury; I'm assuming they at least will do that. Yes, but those policies are also getting more and more expensive with each megacontract, as the risks to insure them for companies like Lloyd's of London escalate. It used to be you could recover about 35-40% if a player was injured. I would guess these contracts are probably adding another 10-15% in insurance premium payments, above and beyond the actual value of the contract itself.

Big 10 has a great chance to get their first national championship since MSU. Michigan and MSU should both be favored (although MSU has to play a road game essentially)...and nobody would be shocked with how well Wisconsin has played the last 6 weeks if they went on to beat Arizona.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) I would rather go 3/4 years with Shields than 6-8 years with Scherzer. Just my preference is all. Plus I think Shields would be much more affordable than Scherzer which leaves room in the payroll for funds to be used elsewhere. Did you read the article? His agent is targeting Greinke, which is $147 million. He's going to be the second pitcher on the market after Scherzer, so he's arguably going to get at least $125-130 million and 5 years, so you're already in Tanaka territory there. Hahn/JR were willing to take that risk on Tanaka in his mid 20's. They won't do it with Shields in his mid 30's for roughly the same price.

Yep, and last night's games were disappointing...with the second two being mildly entertaining.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10690274...abrera-megadeal Dombrowski responds to the criticism.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 09:51 PM) I think he is the best RH hitter the Sox have for a pinch hitter. He is alot better than any of the others. It's going to be really interesting to see if he can still maintain his bat speed and rhythm as a hitter playing only 2-3 times per week at age 38.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 09:41 PM) I'm pretty positive he was being sarcastic. Liddi has no business being in the big leagues. But those are actually the kind of versatile veteran bench players we need. I'd rather have him than Keppinger, at least. And he would make the minumum salary.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_...-year-extension The Angels and outfielder Mike Trout agreed Friday to a six-year contract extension that guarantees him $144.5 million. The Angels will formally announce the deal Saturday at Angel Stadium, before the Freeway Series finale against the Dodgers. The new deal covers Trout's three arbitration years and buys out his first three years of free-agent eligibility. The deal includes a no-trade clause but does not allow Trout to opt out of the deal at any point, according to people familiar with its structure. The Angels had hoped for a longer deal. When the extension concludes, after the 2020 season, Trout can become a free agent, at 29. Trout will make $1 million this season, under a contract signed last month. The extension takes effect next season, so the Angels will be able to avoid paying a luxury tax this season. Trout, 22, is widely considered to be the best player in baseball. He was the runner-up to Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers as American League most valuable player in each of his first two major league seasons. http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la...y#ixzz2xK819KWI

Iowa State couldn't hit in the first half. As great as Hogue was, Kane was that bad, unfortunately. Looks like another UConn/MSU match-up.