Jordan4life_2007

QUOTE (Real @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 09:11 PM) When do Stacey King and Luol Deng's contracts end? Both make me want to turn the game off I actually like King. And I've disliked Deng, well maybe dislike is not the right word, but I wanted Andre Iguodala back in '06.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 08:14 PM) Well as you already said, that was the biggest need for this team and we filled it with one of the better left handed hitters around, so yes that alone jumps the letter grade up quite a bit. It's all a matter of opinion, I guess. I don't think Adam Dunn alone makes this a great off-season. And I'm not thrilled at all by Crain or Ohman. Especially Crain. Again, nothing negative to say about the Dunn signing. And I'm glad we brought PK back, even though, and we agree, that he's not likely to repeat his 2010. I have no idea how one can look at Crain's body of work and be at all thrilled. He was good last season. But the 3 years prior to that he was very mediocre. And I just can't get excited over Loogy's. Yes, I do. But then you have to factor in the likely Konerko regression and the fact will be without our number 1 starter for likely quite some time and we won't even know how effective he'll be once he eventually does come back. I guess it would be hard to be worse than A.J. was last year. But I don't expect some renaissance at age 35. I, of course, would love to be wrong. I think Beckham will be better. But he needs to be A LOT better. Because last year for the most part was pathetic. The bolded is driving me crazy. Yes, they won 88 games. But how many of those came after the Sox were long out of it and playing teams [the Sox were doing the same] that were either shutting their main guys down because they were either resting them or their teams were already out of it and evaluating young guys for next year? And what do you mean added depth? How does losing Putz and Jenks and adding Crain and a loogy give us more depth? I'm torn with Santos. I've become a big proponent of pitcher peripherals. And outside of his K/9, which were good, they were mediocre. And then there's always the challenge of making adjustments when hitters get to see you the second time around. And I totally disagree that the pitching staff will be better without Peavy for an extended time or a healthy Peavy when he comes back. Could it be good enough? Yes. But I doubt it will be better. Sure, this team has enough talent that if most everything goes right they can win 95 games. But I thought that last year. And I think we had a solid/good off-season highlighted by one great addition. So I guess will agree to disagree there. QUOTE (hi8is @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 08:19 PM) What is the point in speculating towards something like this when it is not at all in the realm of reality? It was just a simple hypothetical. I'm getting the idea by many that simply adding Adam Dunn makes this a great offseason. I disagree. Simple as that. QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 08:21 PM) If they did sign Lee or LaRoche or nobody, that would have given them a few extra million to play with. What would they have done with? That would affect the grade too. True. Like I said, it was a hypothetical. I love Dunn. But I'm not crazy about anything else we've done. Well, of course, bringing PK back.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 07:32 PM) Just curious, what would you have liked to see done? Well we took care of our biggest need. A left-handed power bat in Dunn. If we're going to be signing relievers to three-year deals, I much rather have signed a Scott Downs, who's been much more consistent and just flat out better than Jesse Crain the last four years. Jose Contreras was another guy I had my eye on. He got a 2-year, 5.5 million dollar deal with the Phillies. Downs and Contreras is A LOT better than Crain and Ohman. And the money would've been roughly the same. Maybe an extra 2 million? I would've liked to seen Andruw Jones Brought back. As of right now we have no power threat off the bench. If used correctly, and I think Ozzie did a good job of this last year, he's a bargain asset. And I would've liked to have seen a young catcher brought in. Which obviously would only happen through trade. I'm sure KW was shopping CQ hard with nobody offering anything close to desirable. And, of course, I want Juan Pierre and Mark Teahen banished. I guess that's it from a realistic point of view. Or could we have signed both Cliff Lee and Adrian Beltre? Now let me ask you this...say we didn't sign Dunn and maybe ended up with a much lesser player like Lee or Laroche or worse even nobody, what grade would you give the Sox offseason? I'd be shocked if it was higher than a C -.

Team looks set to me. I'd give the offseason a solid B -. That's mostly because of the massive upgrade at DH.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 03:27 PM) AJ and Beckham are guaranteed to be better this season just as PK is guaranteed to regress, I'm 100 percent positive on all 3 of those. Yes, we have question marks just like every other team and just like we did going into 05 but we also have 0 holes on this team which really hasn't been the case in a few years now. As I said earlier in the thread, I'll put our roster up against anyones minus the Phils and BoSox. All I'm saying is that I don't think we've had this spectacular offseason [think Brewers and Red Sox]. The Dunn signing was fantastic. Only a few on the board are bigger Dunn fans than me. I'm not doing backflips over the Crain and Ohman signings. I'd rather have them then two scrubs, obviously. But they're not putting us over the top. I agree with you that Beckham 'should' bounce back. I have no idea what to expect from A.J. and CQ. And Rios has to be more consistent. He was quite mediocre outside of a very good May. And we have a major question mark at 3B. As far as the pitching goes, we know Peavy's situation. Which is going to put a lot more strain on the rest of the staff and a hell of a lot of pressure on Sale, assuming he starts. Edwin Jackson is just a .500 pitcher to me that will look dominant for stretches and brutal for other stretches. Danks and Buehrle are the constants. And Gavin needs to be more consistent. QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 03:51 PM) Really? Other than the Dunn signing I can't think of a positive thing you've said about the team? And bringing back PK. But yeah, like I said to Rowand, I'm not going crazy for signing a couple bullpen guys. Crain was very good last year but just as mediocre the year before that. That's relievers in general. And I don't like the fact that we gave him three years. But that's a separate issue. I certainly didn't start texting all my Sox buddies in big bold 'HEY, WE SIGNED WILL OHMAN TODAY!' QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 04:24 PM) Is Jordan4life a huge Jordan Danks fan? Let's put it this way, I don't want him anywhere near the major league team and our starting LF is my mortal enemy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) The other thing is that KW has traded a lot of our relievers off too. Adam Russell is a big league reliever. Boone Logan, like him or not, is a Yankee. Nick Masset, David Aardsma and DLS come to mind. Yet we're trading a 1B prospect for Tony Pena. I've said it before and I'll say it again. KW was a jedi master from 2004-2007. He's been horses*** since then [save the Dunn signing].

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 01:28 PM) There's no guarantee for anything man, this is baseball. I can give plausible reasons why the Phillies will struggle next year. The Sox are in the best possible place they can be. I'm thrilled about that. I know that. But I think some are overrating our offseason. Dunn without question makes us better. Everything else is a toss-up right now.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) The system is regularly producing competent arms! Santos! Infante! Carter within a year! And that same organization you're praising has a number of retreads from other teams in its bullpen. Scott Linebrink, George Sherrill, Scott Proctor. Peter Moylan, their closer, they signed as a free agent 25 year old following his showing for an international team in the 2006 World Baseball classic. Santos isn't a product of the Sox system. We lucked into him. And his peripherals scream regression. I have no idea why you threw Carter and Infante at me. They've proven next to nothing. And even Carter's minor league numbers were mediocre. Thing is I was more than willing to give both a shot at the expense of handing out 2-3 year deals to relievers.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 01:20 PM) This team could EASILY be 10 wins better. Adam Dunn instead of Kotsay...3.5 ish wins. Remove Mark Teahen and replace him with an average player would be 1.5 wins (since he was worthless)...replacing him with an above average defender would be more than that. Getting rid of Randy Williams and replacing him with Ohman is half a win. Replacing Jenks could be worth >1 win. Then Pierzynski, Quentin, and Beckham all had very much down years. And there's certainly no guarantee that they bounce back. And PK will most certainly regress. And I'm really worried about Sale and the pressure that's going to be on him since Peavy had to act like a tough guy and pitch when he clearly shouldn't have been.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 01:15 PM) I understand your stance and the risk behind signing relievers to multi-year deals, but how else were we going to improve our bullpen for 2011? Free agency was our only option and that meant offering multi-year deals. There's obviously a huge risk that Crain and/or Ohman sucks in one of their years with us, but would you rather throw out two unproven minor leaguers without great track records in 2011 to avoid that risk? Given our situation, I'll worry about 2012 and 2013 later. It would have been utterly stupid to go into the season with obvious holes in the bullpen, given the potential of our offense and rotation, because we were worried Crain and Ohman MIGHT be bad in future years. Well when I see a team like the Braves spit out Johnny Venters and Craig Kimbrel in one season or the Padres seemingly piecing together a solid bullpen every year without having to overpay in years and money in free agency, yes, it would be nice if the system could produce a competent arm every now and then.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 12:54 PM) Not sure if this was posted, but supposedly Cashman said he is not willing to sacrifice Yankees numer #1 pick for Soriano. I don't blame him. And it would be a bad move long-term anyway. You don't pay set-up men 10 million plus dollars. You just don't.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 01:07 PM) Well yeah...Not having arguably your most talented pitcher and having two of your better offensive players totally flunk will definitely put us in a bad position. Sounds obvious. But it seems like many around here think this team is 10 wins better or something. They're still a lot of question marks.

I won't go nuts over two years and 4 million. But my stance on relievers remains the same. And I'm one that doesn't believe this team is any better outside the massive upgrade in Dunn. If Beckham and CQ don't bounce back and PK regresses along with not having Peavy for possibly half the season we could once again fall short to the Twins or even the Tigers.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 11:50 AM) Ruh oh. Get ready for J4L rant. It better be really cheap or something. Oh, yes. It's coming. I'll wait until I see the official numbers. These dumbass teams just don't get it when it comes to FA relievers.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 11:38 AM) Or Beckham Jesus that draft was sick. I forgot Eric Hosmer went in that draft. I was thinking he was from the class of '07.

Also makes you wonder what the Rays think of Tim Beckham's long-term prospects. Lee's supposed to be a defensive wizard. And the only position he would obviously play is SS. I suppose Beckham is athletic enough to move to the OF. But he loses a ton of value, as it doesn't look like at this point he's going to hit for much power. The Rays are going to rue the day for eternity for not taking Posey or Alvarez.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 11:17 AM) I caught a double-header between the Barons and the Cubs AA team last year. The only guy who hit the ball harder than Brent Morel for the whole game was Robinson Chirinos. He's old for the minor leagues already so it was hard to figure out if anything was translatable, but the dude was killing the ball. Yeah, I see that he's 27. But so was John Jaso. And he was a 2.5 WAR player last year. And Chirinos supposedly has more power. This screams Cubs getting butt-f***ed all over it. But then again it's not that surprising considering this is Jim Hendry vs Andrew Friedman. Not much of a contest.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rays use some of the savings from trading Garza on a Jim Thome. They could definitely use the left-handed pop. And I'm hearing this Robinson Chirinos is a better version of John Jaso. Many of the 2011 projections think Jeremy Hellickson will come close to or even match Garza's production. If so, this would be a huge win for the Rays. That's not even mentioning Archer, Lee and Guyer.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:24 PM) So where is Soriano going? It appears he doesn't have too many options. I'm sure the Phillies would love to trade Blanton somewhere and pick up Soriano, because ever other team that has made sense appears to be "out of it" I can't imagine the Phillies adding anymore to their payroll.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 07:59 AM) The guy knows what leadership is on winning teams. They brought him in to lead the young players. I know you disagree but there is something to be said about veteran leadership with a young team. I think there's something to be said about leadership. But that doesn't overcome being a bad baseball player.

Been at NSBB.com for about an hour and most of their fans hate the trade. They think they gave up way too much for a guy with mediocre peripherals and isn't any better than Randy Wells. I actually checked it out and Randy Wells was actually better than Garza in 2010. lol. Of course, the AL east is a much tougher division than the NL central. But last I checked the Reds, Brewers and Cardinals could all hit. Maybe this wasn't such a good move for the Cubs.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 8, 2011 -> 05:13 AM) I like it for that cheap and for a year. Also, with Soriano's market dwindling to it seems just the Angels, if they don't sign him, KW could swoop in at the end of the offseason.. CL - Soriano SU - Thornton SU - Crain MR - Sale MR - Santos LR - Ohman LR - Pena Soriano would be a luxury, and it'll probably be the other six plus Infante, but that'd be a lethal bullpen. Has any team in baseball had a worse off-season than the Angels? Or at least out of the teams that matter [Pirates don't count]. And no way in hell are we getting Soriano. And I don't want him for the years and money he will command.

Saw that the Reds just signed Edgar Renteria. The question is simple: why? Dude is awful. He's been exactly a replacement level player for a while now. I know the Reds couldn't have been dumb enough to be fooled by his World Series performance? It's only 1 year and 3 million. But still. You probably get better production from Paul Janish for less than $500 K. Just a really stupid move for a front office that had been on a roll of late. I'm not saying this is a crippling move or anything. Just doesn't make any sense.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 09:49 PM) I can definitely stomach $1.5 million. You have to give Ozzie a LOOGY or else he'll try to use Randy Williams again or something. Yeah, I'm definitely down with 1 year, $1.5 for a guy that's only going to be counted on to get guys who swing the bat left-handed. It's multi-year deals for relievers that make me ill.

Damn, I don't blame Danks for turning that crap offer down and would be rather insulted, even though I'm sure the Sox didn't think there was a chance in hell he'd take it. You've got mediocre relievers making that much. Far as CQ goes, there's no way in hell I'd sign him to an extension. Go ahead and let him match his 2008 and make him more expensive when he's eligible for free agency. Be a nice problem to have, actually.