SoxBlanco

Does anybody have a list of the remaining free agent starting pitchers?

Yeah, besides Wheeler (who we offered the most money to), the next best three are still available. We all knew coming into the off-season that Cole and Strasburg were not realistic. Being upset about that is completely fair, but we all knew that a couple months ago, so I'm not sure why people are upset right now. When we didn't land Wheeler, did people all of a sudden become mad that we weren't going to target Cole or Strasburg, as if it was brand new information? Like I said, it's fine to be upset about that, but the timing of the complaining is weird to me. I completely removed Cole and Strasburg from my thinking months ago, so the way I see it is that there were four pitchers to look at coming into the off-season. We offered Wheeler the most money and he chose to sign somewhere else. Fine...it sucks, but now we move on. The other three are still available, and trades are still an option as well. I have no idea why people are so upset. If March rolls around and we are in the same position, then we should be furious.

Have you looked at your calendar?

I think if you start him in AAA for a month, you might as well keep him there until you get the year of service back. I believe that would be late May/early June.

That's a damn good lineup. I still refuse to judge the off-season or get upset until I see what we add in the pitching department.

Correct. Let’s say they decide to pick up $12M per year and we trade for him. We are then getting Price for $20M a year for three years. What/Who else would the trade need to include to make that work?

Agreed, but this should be the reaction in March...not right now. I touched on this earlier today in this thread...

Let's assume for a minute that the plan was to make a run at Castellanos or Ozuna. If that indeed was the plan, what happens if Ozuna signs somewhere else next week and Castellanos waits until February and ultimately signs somewhere else? Then you are out of luck in RF. As a backup plan, you could buy low on Mazara and use him as your everyday RF if no other acquisitions come to fruition. It sounds weird calling it a backup plan when you make the move BEFORE your attempt at another move, but you certainly wouldn't want to come away completely empty handed in RF. Guys like Mazara, Calhoun, etc. could be moved/gone already by the time Castellanos signs. It also gives you a little more leverage in negotiations with Castellanos because you are no longer desperate for a RF. I have no idea if this was their line of thinking, but the point is that we need to see how the entire off-season unfolds before jumping off a cliff.

See, I completely disagree with that. You don’t decide to go after Rendon just because you miss on Wheeler. If you want Rendon, then you go after him. He is not a backup plan and he should have nothing to do with missing out on Wheeler. A backup plan should be going after Ryu or MadBum or trading for a SP if you don’t like those two guys.

What kind of backup plan were you hoping for? Signing Rendon, Cole, or Strasburg cannot be considered a backup plan because if you were willing to go after them, you would have made plan Plan A...not a backup plan. (I’m not saying you think one of those big 3 should have been the backup plan...I’m just genuinely curious what would qualify as a good backup plan.)

I’m wondering the same thing. I came into this thread and couldn’t figure out why there are so many depressed people. I thought it was pretty universally agreed upon that we had no shot at Rendon, Cole, or Strasburg.

What's the best way to handle positions if we acquire him? A) Move Moncada to RF and have Mazara be your primary DH against RHP, making Collins expendable or B) Move Moncada to 2B and trade Madrigal in a package for a SP

Do you actually think it’s possible that we don’t make any more moves this offseason?

This is a dumb tweet. Of course he COULD be of interest. He probably IS of interest. It doesn't mean we would give up Walker, and it doesn't even mean Texas wants him. If the tweet said, "Rangers asking for Steele Walker as part of a return for Mazara", then we'd have something to talk about.

Sounds great to me. I was merely predicting a return...not hoping for one.

How about Basabe and Flores for Mazara?

I don’t like this move, but if it happens, I’ll try to reserve judgment until I see how the entire offseason unfolds. If it means we spend big on pitching, I’ll be fine with it.

So if the over/under was 120 innings, and you had to pick a side, you’d take the under? I would easily take the over.

How many innings do you think Ryu pitches next year, if you had to guess?

I know...hence the winky face. I was just giving you a hard time, in a joking way.

Exactly. I really want Ryu. The problem is that if Boras wants to drag this out, what do we do? Do we go after MadBum or explore a trade? If we wait on Ryu and strike out, then we are shit out of luck. I just want to overpay him right now and lock him up.

Good point. He's definitely #1 on my realistic wish list right now.

I actually want Ryu as well, so I'm agreeing with you that he's the next best option. But Ryu is probably more likely to get injured. It is true that they've missed the same amount of time due to injury, but based on their injury histories, I would say Ryu is more likely to miss time over the next couple of years. That being said, I wouldn't worry about that at all. He was fairly healthy last year, and we have reserves coming back from injury to fill in for him if he does go down.

We've also won a World Series in the last 24 years, so it's not ALL bad. 😉

Ok, now you need to call the guy and have your wife act as the translator. Make sure to record and post the audio. It could go down in SoxTalk history.