Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:59 AM) Yeah he kicked our ass in '08 (we're the only team he hit that year) then did absolutely nothing against us last year. That's not much of a track record. And nothing against MLB last year.

I'm telling you guys, the Sox brass loves Danks. He's a phenomenal athlete and a tremendous defensive player. Offensively he has flaws to his game, but quite a bit of overall upside. I think it might be a bit early, but the Sox could do far worse than going with Danks. The problem is if you get Danks, you need to get a pretty big time bat as your DH, imo.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 12:22 PM) It's time to move on. He has become a role player without a position at this point. I hope this team has its' sights set a little higher. If the Sox make a bigger splash to fill the OF spot, than I think Thome is a great fit. If we go cheap or give the job to Danks, than I think the team needs to get an impact bat for the DH spot and that bat wouldn't be Thome at this point, imo.

Very interesting article. The three things that stood out to me were: Jordan Danks - Great to see what the brass is saying about him. I'm a little concerned that we'd not puruse someone and rely completely on him starting next year. In fact, the only way I'd endorse that move is if the club picked up a big time impact middle of the order bat and strengthened the pen. I say that because it would take a ton of pressure off of Danks and allow him to develop slowly in the back of our order for a season or two. Jermaine Dye - They've tried to do some things to create a spot for him, but haven't been able to do so yet and he's not writing off the possibility of him returning Jim Thome - He's in the picture (I expected this, but its official)

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 12:25 PM) That's solid. Teahen could be a pretty valuable commodity at under $2M. That's also an acceptable salary for a bench player. I'm liking this deal a lot more now. Don't love it, but I like what it does for the Sox and I do believe it gives the Sox a good deal of options.

What about a Marlon Byrd?

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 12:00 PM) In hindsight it would have been a smart thing to do, but I think Kenny initially looked at Pods as a stopgap for a couple of weeks or so, that's about it, so he probably didn't put any thought into it. Ya, no one expected Pods to do what he did. Ozzie even indicated when Pods was signed that they didn't honestly expect much out of him. WE didn't even know if he'd join our roster. To Pods credit he had a solid season and helped us much more than any of our other in-house candidates.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:57 AM) What about the Sox signing Hideki Matsui as our DH for a couple years? Would he cost too much? Would Thome come cheaper? Godzilla is 35 years old, but almost OPS'd .900 last year and is a career .292 hitter with .370 OBP. I'd take a healthy Matsui over Thome. He's a better base-runner, has a nice OBP (Thome's is a bit nicer) but he hits for a much better average and handles the stick much better. Matsui is on my short list of potential DH candidates that I would really like. I wonder if the Iguchi/Shingo factor will help the Sox because I wonder how many places Matsui would really consider going to play. I kind of think he ends up in LA area, Seattle or stays in New York. Chicago could be a wild-card.

QUOTE (Felix @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:27 AM) So basically like 2005, when he had a -17.6 UZR/150? To his credit, he had a 0.4 UZR/150 in 2006 when he only played third, but the numbers at third for his full career don't make me optimistic. That was also his rookie season in the majors. 2006 was his best year and we can only hope he somehow gets back to that. He had a real nice first half of this past season too before dropping off (not sure what the cause was for that either).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:24 AM) I hope so. If the Dodgers, Braves, Mets, or Giants (all need a 1B) would take Konerko's deal without the Sox having to eat salary then I wouldn't ask for anything in return, and if I had to, I'd even throw in a halfway decent prospect or two. Jenks we should be able to get something for, but nothing fantastic or anything. It would be hard to give up Jenks without getting something in return because the reality is a healthy Jenks along with Thornton is a pretty damn good back-end of the pen. So if you deal Jenks, you should be getting a power arm or two in return, plus some financial flexibility (for it to make sense to the Sox). I don't know if another team will think Jenks is worht it to them, but thats what it would take for me to move him (which probably puts the odds at remote). In Konerko's sake, I could see the value in moving him for nothing. 12M would go a long way to do some nice things, but we'd also have a major void we'd have to fill in that lineup and there aren't a ton of guys lying around in FA that can put up those type of numbers that wouldn't take significant contracts. If we could move Konerko and go with a Holliday or Bay that would be fantastic, but again, I don't think it would be realistic, so we'd have to be able to get something plus the cash savings to make the move more beneficial (and would than probably have to acquire his replacement on the trade market and than maybe go with a Johnson or whomever, who could play 1B and DH).

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:24 AM) arbitration? or why is it not set? Yep.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 10:37 AM) I was just joking, but you do have to draw the line somewhere. Tyler Perry may be that line. I figured, but I know Shipps, and he's liable to take your advice as legit. I don't know if I could love a women that thought it was a good idea to go to a Tyler Perry movie though Its one thing that my girl is a Laker fan, but if she were a Tyler Perry fan :uggg

QUOTE (Felix @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:16 AM) He's a terrible 3B. UZR/150 of -10.9 last year and -10.1 for his career. I'm not looking forward to watching him there next year. We'll see what happens when he plays a full-season at one position (if that is what the Sox plan on doing).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:18 AM) I know. But I'd much rather get a CF and move Rios to RF than bring in someone who sucks balls to play RF. Quentin would also suck balls in RF. DeJesus would have nice rang, but doesn't have the arm to play RF. I would prefer we bring in a legitimate offensive RF'er, however, DeJesus would fill a nice need at the top of the order and a duo of DeJesus/Beckham would be pretty good in my book.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:12 AM) DeJesus would be a pretty bad fit IMO since he's not really a CF. And for the thousandth time (from me) PLEASE no Quentin in RF. Rios is our CF'er.

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:13 AM) What's his salary numbers again? ~3.5M this year...probably will get closer to 4M.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) BTW Kenny's comment about the DH spot possibly going unresolved until the end of the offseason makes me worry. It tells me 1) he has very limited funds, 2) it's not important enough to address immediately, 3) he's planning on waiting around until January to pick through the scraps. Wonderful. I think he knows there will be good deals out there and DH is usually one of the easier positions to fill. Right now I think Kenny's focus will be finding that starting OF to go with Rios and Q and retooling the bullpen and giving himself some more financial flexibility so he can get Danks locked down, maybe go to Q for a deal (buying low), and of course freeing up the payroll necessary to add one more big bat. I really feel we see a few rumored Jenks/Konerko deals which give the club financial relief and some young arms that project to the pen (and maybe a young outfielder depending on the Konerko situation).

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:09 AM) I really wish they had gone for DeJesus over Teahen. I'm a huge Dejesus fan and him and Rios plus a now (hopefully) healthy Quentin would have been a huge defensive upgrade over 2009's outfield. Offensively that outfield wouldnt' be great, but I'd be okay with it, especially if Rios came back closer to his career norms. And a healthy Quentin will be much better than this years version, imo (and I think he'll be healthy). Q works hard and has had some fluke injuries but long-term he'll be ok. I think if you brought in a DeJesus and than got agressive to try and find a DH we could have a pretty solid all aruond offense. Not an explosive one, but a solid one that will consistently score. Not to mention our team defense would be much improved and that is key since we should have one of the best rotations in baseball and a good defense and solid offense should be what it takes (hopefully a solid pen too) to take this team to the playoffs and beyond.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:08 AM) Correct, but at this point, maybe his plus defense and a little speed would be enough? I have no idea who we will be able to put in that spot from the FA market. I think the most important spot to fill is the DH at this point. The offense could use two quality bats. If we go after a Royal, got and get Dejesus. I think we could use two more higher average, higher obp guys and Dejesus and maybe even Johnny Damon (depending on cost) could fit that bill nicely. Nick Johnson is another nice option that we've all discussed (health is a major concern though).

Royals dont' have anyone else available that really would fit the Sox needs or at least I don't think they do. DeJesus would be a nice fit though.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 10:36 AM) Since PODS is not coming back our outfield has a hole, who will we fill it with? We also have a void in the middle of the order. So right now the holes are at DH and the OF. Now holes in the infield. I'm curious as to what the Sox will do. Plus the bullpen. I still think we will move another contract and than allocate the funds saved to fill multiple spots (I'm looking at Paulie and Jenks)

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 10:27 AM) It's like, "no honey, I dont need to watch 6 hours of college football on saturday, I would MUCH rather sit around at brunch with you and your girlfriends." No I f***ing dont, and I'll tell you that so you dont think thats the norm moving forward. This is what I do, and I will be doing this until I have grandkids standing in front of the TV. Watching a movie that she wants to watch isn't the end of the world. Its not like your giving up your favorite thing in the world to do. Big difference in.....going antiquing during an OSU (or in my case a Bears game) game and going out to a movie she wants to see on a Friday or Saturday night. I'm sure she'll end up sitting through far more of your type of movies (Shipps) than you sit through hers.

It could be leverage too. I hope we move another direction though.

QUOTE (League @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 09:15 AM) Hardy is one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball, the last 3 seasons he has posted UZR's of 14.8, 8.2 and 6.7, he's never had a negative UZR and has always had high RngR's as well, and his career high for errors is 15. I stand corrected. Can't say I watch a ton of Brewers games but I always heard analysts saying he had poor range at short. Hell, I thought that was the big reason they wanted Escobar (because he was going to be such a defensive upgrade). Cause personally, I don't think much of Escobar as he doesn't have too many offensive tools.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 08:43 AM) Not a big deal. It's what you do in a normal relationship, a lot of sucking up. When I was dating my wife I took her to see Apocalypse Now. I loved it, but it wasn't exactly the kinda movie chicks like. Very shortly after we were married she wanted to see Xanadu. I went...what a piece of crap movie that was. Through the course of being married I watched a lot of crap I for sure wouldn't have watched were I on my own. You go. You don't even have to pretend to like it though for the sake of the relationship maybe you should at least say, "Eh. It was alright". Be sure to chuckle a few times. This is true, I've seen more shows on weddings and crap like that on tv than I'll ever need to see again. But I guess thats love, haha.