BamaDoc

I absolutely love that the other day Renteria canceled the intrasquad games to do more drills on fundamentals. That was after watching them do drills the day before. Maybe he saw how bad they looked? In any case, it drives me crazy when guys make fundamental errors. Physical errors will happen (errors of commission) but I drilled my kids on not having mental errors (or errors of omission).

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 19, 2017 -> 06:06 PM) Doh! Forgot all about Bourjos. At least there's a quality CF for a backup plan. I think quality should be in quotation marks

It would be shuffling madness to put him in the pen to soon. There is no reason you can't pamper him this year and if he is still dominating he would be able to fetch highly regarded position prospects. Supply/demand stuff could work out...unless he has locomotive breathe!

Very nicely done. I was wondering in regards to the bullpen candidates for MLB and AAA, who has options left or importantly is out of options? With some of the trade rumors, I always wonder about some of that depth could be used to help a deal get done. Not as a significant piece but if several guys may/are going to be lost passing thru waivers it is easier to include one of them in a deal.

If the Sox don't get an offer they like, what about an alternative. Consider, 1) Q has been a great teammate and never b****ed about anything publicly. 2) He has been good and durable. 3) Could he be a great mentor for the young guns coming and anchor the staff? He has a four year deal with the last two being options that are considered team friendly given his production. What if the Sox guaranteed those two years (good for him) added two additional option years at a reasonable/slight discount (good for Sox). You could give him a slight signing bonus now or have moderate buyouts on the options to further sweeten the deal for him and to provide he doesn't get jerked around with rumors a full no trade clause for a couple years and then maybe limited no trade after. I hate to say that I prefer trading him but if the offers really aren't there wouldn't this be a viable alternative? You could also do this after this season to minimize the Sox risk but if he has a bad year it hurts everyone.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 09:01 PM) 2016 was tough year for Sox rookies. Coats, Smith, Davidson, Tilson all injured immediately upon seeing action. Keep Moncada away from these guys. All of this years rookies should sit their first game or be on a lineup card and substituted for before seeing warmups.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 20, 2017 -> 08:07 PM) Agreed. He's not great but not bad, cheap at $3.5 mill, and wouldn't cost much to acquire like you said. I too wonder why he's never mentioned with LAD. Supposedly they are looking for a right handed hitter which he is. Is he still hurt? Anyone hear injury update? Love to get Barnes from them for Lawrie, even if we have to add a little.

I could see a platoon with Narvaez the LH option though maybe let other guy pick up some of the at bats to get closer to 50:50. Some prospects close to MLB with rh bat and decent to good defense: Barnes/LAD, Murphy/Col, Severino or Kieboom/Wash. Those are teams deals have been rumored. These guys could be lesser parts or individual deals since some conversations have taken place.

I expect an awful W-L record because in my world I make him my 1 or 2 starter (depends on if Q on team). He would split up two lefties if Q is here and even if not, I have him in front of Rodon for the sake of Rodon's psyche. Rodon could be a part of the future while Shields most assuredly won't be. Let Shields take the lumps.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Dec 20, 2016 -> 04:22 AM) The ~rebuilding Yankees may need Quintana more than even the win-now Astros. After 2017 both Sabathia and Pineda are free agents and Tanaka has an opt out that he will almost surely take if he has another good season. The best pitcher on their 25 man right now who they will have control over in 2018 is either Luis Severino or Ivan Nova. Now next years crop of pitching on the free agent market is crazy good. Arrieta, Darvish, Cueto, Tanaka, Duffy and Estrada will all be available plus a bunch of guys like Lance Lynn, (our own) Miguel Gonzalez, Jaime Garcia, Clay Buchholz etc. who could become a lot more desirable with a strong 2017. The Yankees are almost assuredly going to sign one of these guys, if not two or three. However a lot of very rich, very pitching hungry franchises are going to be going hunting for pitching as well and the Yankees still must concern themselves with saving money for the truly monster 2018-19 class. Its not a secret that they want Harper, and they have to balance having enough available payroll for Harper with having a good enough team to lure (a possibly ringless) Harper to New York. Quintana, king of the rotation workhorses on a team friendly deal for another 4 years, would go a long way to alleviating some of the Yankees' long term pitching concerns while barely denting the Yankees payroll. That said its pretty obvious the Yankees plan is to just attack as many postions as possible with prospects and fill in with monster free agents megadeals. As much as they'd like Quintana they would be stupid to sell more than one of their headliners to get him. If anything they'd want to deal from their system depth and for a team like the White Sox that has such a top heavy system that's not a bad match. Five-for-one deals are rare, but I could see it here. Great analysis. Could you also argue this is why we need to trade Q this year? The supply of pitchers is low now and will be greater next year , Q will have one year less of control, thus the price may drop. If you don't get what you want now and next years offers do drop, I think you may consider keeping Q in the mentor role. Also in a year some of the Yankees prospects will progress up to higher levels and have more value. They have such a quantity of prospects that if they feel they won't get to the playoffs this year they are better off waiting a year. Because of failure risk, you may get 4 players this year but 3 next. For me I want Torres + one of (Rutherford, Sheffield, Andujar, Kaprielian) + one of (Fowler, Adams, Wade) + Sands(catcher prospect)

QUOTE (kwill @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 07:48 PM) So now that the Dodgers just dropped about 150 million dollars today we can take them out of the discussion of giving a s*** about how much money they spend. Teams as dollars on dollars. Or it may encourage them to do something . It will be telling if the contracts yearly amounts are lower in year one and two or if there is deferred money.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 04:42 PM) I don't see how that really works out for all involved. In the short term, the tax teams would just bite the bullet because if they give their better prospects away to save money, they will be in the position of having to spend more money to remain competitive because their system sucks. The Dodgers want to spend more (Jansen Turner) and are seemingly in a perpetual win now mode. There are MLB mandated rules regarding debt that they must comply with and at 100% tax level that is harder to achieve. I don't have a link but what I saw indicated they are out of compliance or nearly so now.

I think there was another interview where he might have said Burdi was staying in the pen. Did you get that sense from him?

Assuming the Sox continue trading our vets, we could have a very low payroll the next couple of years. The low payroll got me thinking of another creative way to acquire talent. Salary dumps are not necessarily new, though they would be to the Sox as usually we receive money in deals not the other way around. I read some articles discussing the finer points on high spending penalties in the new CBA. They can be significant. I also read about the Dodgers high debt to cash flow which they MUST comply with and it got me thinking. For the Dodgers, who still want to spend on Turner and Jansen, they are multi year offenders of being over the cap. Counting international signing penalties, if they sign more players it may be an effective 100% tax. They have three awful contracts... Eithier owed $20 million (could cost them $40 with tax) Kazmir owed two years at over $35 (cost them $70) McCarthy owed two years at over $22(cost them $44) Because of the debt service rules and even in general, if you start talking about 40 million it matters. Even if the Dodgers kicked in some cash in a deal, every dollar we pay they save two. So would they do a lopsided trade where we get prospects in return for their true relief being dollars? Remember it cost the Red Sox over $60 million to acquire Moncada. Depending on the money we pay it would be another way to get talent. I realize it is unlikely as we have never been a spending team but if something happens with the Dodgers and anyone, if these players are involved this may be why the deal looks like a Dodger loss.

If the Pirates need a closer, what about Will Craig who is blocked by Bell as he is likely to be a 1b/dh and Taylor Hearn LHP. Hearn would be very interesting to me as a power LH reliever ala Thornton.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 04:53 PM) No way New York parts with that much for Quintana and Robertson Torres is not going anywhere after destroying the Arizona Fall League What if you drop Rutherford ?

If its Yankees ....how about Torres, Rutherford, Kaprielian, Adams, and Torrens(really want catcher) for Q and Robertson.

I was hoping he could be worth something to the Dodgers who have questions at second and third and seem to be checking everyone at those positions out. He could be a depth piece for them. Maybe injured worse than thought?

I would like a fundamentally sound team defensively and on the base paths. A pitching staff that pounds the strike zone and generates ground balls as well as k's. Offensively, I would like a team which works counts yet has low strikeouts and high OBP. Hitters who can execute situationally, not necessarily bunt heavy but hitting behind runners, beating shifts, and moving runners over and getting them in from third with less than two outs.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 11, 2016 -> 11:14 PM) Are any of those good prospects? Seems like Kendrick would be a decent bet for a bounce back yeard and he'd have some value at the deadline (more so then what the Dodgers got). Save 10 million

I was hoping that in seeing the error of his ways, Robin came to sox talk asking advice on how to run next springs camp.

An overlooked fact on organizational depth is the 40 man roster and transactions impact. If Burdi is added to the major league roster he has to be added to the 25 and therefore 40 man roster. He doesn't currently have to be there because he is a new draftee. If he is added, that means one less spot for another prospect so someone who is exposed to the rule 5 draft this winter. I see no reason to rush him, use up an option year and start his service time clock. He has performed well enough that if you "go for it " next year he will likely be in the bullpen mix but if you go for a rebuild looking at him as a starter is probably worthwhile. He, Hanson and Adams could be seen as future mid or higher rotation options. So with that said, I started to look at guys on the bubble and was hoping someone may be able to give some info on three players David Holmberg LHP. 25 yo and quietly having his best season in the minors. He failed previously with Cincy in some auditions but has something clicked? A WHIP about 1.0 at AAA and averaging over 6 innings a start. Nolan Sanburn RHP 25 at AA. Looks like he is getting a look late this year as a starter. ERA in twos and WHIP around 1 for the last 4 months. Any hope? Peter Tago RHP 24yo at AA. Former first rounder came to sox in 2015 and looked liked they helped him. Was maintaining improvement this year. Lights out in June and July then couple rough outings in Aug and on DL. These look like players that could help a team and might end up exposed/selected in a rule 5 situation. Any info on Tago's injury or the players as prospects is appreciated.

Probably our best hope is to keep him, hope he has a good first half and move asap. The financial commitment of the acquiring team would be lessened and the return may actually better than this winter where his value is low.

May be Turner's best inning this year.

"No Charlie Brown I won't pull the football away, you just run really fast and kick it really hard!" said Lucy