Kalapse

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) Virtually identical offensive players. Crisp .277 lifetime avg, 30 years old, 74% SB success rating Pods .277 lifetime avg, 33 years old, 75% SB success rating So do you want the older guy, coming off a career year with poor defense who is a fan favorite or Do you want the younger guy, coming off of injuries, better defense who may be slightly cheaper I think this could go either way. Since 2006: Crisp: 83/102 in SB = 81% Pods: 94/135 in SB = 70% Since 2005 Crisp has been picked off 12 times, 22 in his career. 12 of the 22 were picked off caught stealing. (much more forgivable, usually going on first move.) In 2009 alone Pods was picked off 11 times, 53 in his career. 17 of the 53 were picked off caught stealing. There's a significant difference in base running, defense and price. There's no reason to believe that Crisp will only be "slightly" cheaper when all reports have Podsednik asking for a multi-year deal worth at least $6M annually. Crisp is going to get a very low base salary for 2010 since he's coming for 2 shoulder injuries.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 03:33 PM) 30bps meaningful, but dont discount the fielding ... Matsui is toast, JD's numbers would increase if he was simply DHing like Godzilla, and most importantly, is not nearly as sexy. Might also be cheaper -- not sure about that Really? Because the opposite tends to happen. Matsui probably is toast in the field but so is Jermaine and only 1 of them is willing to accept a primary designated hitting role. So Matsui is the better hitter, left handed, will bring in all new revenue streams through Japanese advertisers and unlike JD he is actually willing to limit his time in the outfield. Sounds like an easy decision to me.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 03:19 PM) Can we please take a step back for a moment ... If we are seriously considering a dinosaur with bad knees who might be able to play RF, but mostly DH, then why in the would we not be interested in re-signing Jerry "I can rake other than 2H09" Dye?! Is a lefty more important than sexy?? Jerry Dye: Year Team AB R H HR RBI BB SB BA OBP SLG 2009: CHW 503 78 126 27 81 64 0 0.2505 0.3397 0.4533 3yr avg: CHW 534 81 142 30 85 51 2 0.2659 0.3333 0.4963 GODZILLLLA: Year Team AB R H HR RBI BB SB BA OBP SLG 2009: NYY 456 62 125 28 90 64 0 0.2741 0.3669 0.5088 3yr avg: NYY 447 68 127 21 79 58 1 0.2841 0.3672 0.4832 Dye has put up an OPS right around .800 in 2 of the last 3 seasons where as Matsui in the 4 non-injury shortened seasons out of the last 6 hasn't had an OPS under .855 and is coming off a season in which he put up a .378 wOBA. Dye's wOBA over the past 3 seasons: .355, Matsui's: .367. And reason #1: Jermaine Dye does not want to DH.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 02:19 PM) We need real players like Granderson instead of guys like Crisp who are broken down or Jones, Omar who are old news or simply old. Our starting rotation is simply awesome, congrats to KW. The rest of the team ... will keep us at or a little above or below .500. Of course there's always the chance Rios, Lexi, Teahen, CQ, have career years. If they do, then I guess we have a chance to do something special. I'm assuming Kenny will tweak the pen a bit and it will be better than average before he's done. Granderson is one of the most talented players in the game of baseball, there's only a handful of guys like him and they're all either not available or insanely expensive. Omar is a bench player and should be a fine one at that, his age is irrelevant.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 01:58 PM) Coco said that and I wouldn't expect him to say otherwise even if he wasn't That's why you have a medical staff. Once they get his medical records and put him through a physical they should get a clear enough picture of his time table.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 01:45 PM) Honestly, if healthy, I might take Crisp over Pods. Crisp is a much better defender who is capable of playing good defense at two outfield positions (LF & CF) and is simply put a superior base-runner, imo. If Crisp shoulders aren't healthy though and can't handle the contact, than Pods would be the better option. I wouldn't give Pods 4-5M for 1 year and certainly wouldn't give him a 2 or 3 yr deal worth that sort of money and right now that is the bottom line of what he is looking for. Crisp is the vastly superior base runner and defender. If he's healthy there's no doubt in my mind who I take.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 01:41 PM) I realize it isn't an ideal scenario. But the Sox also want to keep Quentin, Konerko and AJ fresh and the best way to do that might be suffering a bit on defense once or twice a week in the outfield. It is also important to know that if a significant injury were to occur that you have a guy that could slide into the outfield and help if needed. Injuries are a part of the game and to survive a 162 game season it is important to have flexibility. Clearly it would be a massive mistake to start Matsui regularly in the outfield. However, if it is done on occasions throughout the season it wouldn't be a major issue and in the playoffs you don't have to worry as much about the rest so Matsui would clearly stay at DH in those instances, but again, knowing he could play in the field still gives you the option to utilize one of your better offensive bats when you play in NL parks. For example, if Crisp starts 5 or 6 days a week in left, the club would clearly be downgrading its offense, but defensively, they will have upgraded significantly (Crisp >>>> Pods and Quentin in RF should be >>> Dye). I don't know how much of an upgrade Quentin will be to Dye though to be honest since Quentin has clearly been slowed by his injury. Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with occasionally putting Matsui in the field. Going into opening day with him as our everyday starter in the outfield, now that would be a bad idea. I also don't think Crisp is the perfect option, but given the resources the club has and if his shoulder his heatlhy, I would be accepting of him. I think it's funny that they seem to believe keeping Teahen at 1 position for the entire season will help his offense but they plan on moving the majority of their lineup around from week to week. And the way this has been talked about it doesn't sound like Matsui will be playing once a week in the outfield both Ozzie and Matsui are making this out to be a constant rotation and good luck with that.

There's also no reason to believe the money and years will be equal.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 9, 2009 -> 01:30 PM) I understand people are concerned, but if he gets the okay from Doctors he will be okay in left. Will he be great, no, will he be average, probably not, will he be the worse left fielder in baseball, I doubt it. I think Matsui wants the shot to show he can play left and if he earns it great. It is nice to know he can play. Pods isn't a good left fielder, he's a poor one, so the club has already been putting crap out in left for a while. Rios is an above average center-fielder and Quentin is probably better suited for right than left so as a whole I'd say our outfield defense is still improved. I'd expect Matsui wouldn't get more than 1-3 starts a week in the outfield (at most) and the team clearly is still looking at Pods/Crisp to round out the starting lineup. Plus if offering up the ocassional outfield gets Matsui in Chicago, do it, he really is a good offensive player and his skill-set will be a real nice fit in the middle of our order. The big if to me is his heatlhy, if he's heatlhy, he'll be a very very productive player. Podsednik isn't a good outfielder but he has speed to make up for poor reads, Matsui can barely move. Matsui's career UZR/150 in LF is -14.4, Dye was a -22.4 in right over the past 3 years. And now he hasn't played the position regularly in 3 years and is coming off 2 knee surgeries. And just because we've been sending bad defenders out there doesn't mean it's ok to settle for more bad defense in the future. That's like say; we've always had bad thrid baseman, so plugging in another bad one shouldn't really matter.

Well, it looks like we won't be upgrading from Dye's defense after all. Fun.

Loved Taye Diggs on Better of Ted. Real good start to the 2nd season.

QUOTE (Sox72 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 10:52 PM) Well, I do like him. I think he's a really good player. Maybe I'm viewing it incorrectly, but the headlines about it being a blockbuster are kind of bothering me. He's a 29 year old speedy, great defensive centerfielder with a .374 and .395 wOBA season under his belt. He's an elite talent who's put up elite numbers in the majors with the potential to be one of the best in the game if he can stay healthy and get it back together. A career 4.9 UZR/150 in CF, a double digit walk rate and .200+ ISO in a speedy young body, you don't see that often. It's definitely a blockbuster.

QUOTE (Mr. Showtime @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 08:29 PM) Gammons is going to MLB.com and MLB Network. It's one of the lead stories on mlb.com That's a coup by MLB Network. They grow stronger by the day.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:34 PM) what are these horror stories youve heard? i mean ive heard hes always been a primadonna, but i haven't heard anythign that has led me to believe that he's that much worse than everett was edit: thats not to say they don't exist, i just haven't heard the god awful things that would drive me to never touch a player regardless of cost Basically everywhere he's been he's alienated his teammates, after a few months in the same locker room with Bradley they want nothing to do with him. He's just a truly bad guy who doesn't give a s*** about anyone but himself and comes with a strong sense of entitlement. Everett was never actively despised in this way. He'll never stick with a team for more than 2 years for the rest of his career but he'll find work, he's immensely talented and every club thinks they can change the malcontent or that their locker room is strong enough to withstand it but he'll just continue to prove them wrong.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:34 PM) If Brad Penny can get one year and $7.5 million, what do you think Matsui can get? Hell, Scutaro got $6 million a year. Teams will always overpay for pitching, always, doesn't matter economic climate. Designated hitters are a totally different animal. As for Scutaro; one of the highest spending teams desperately needed a SS, he was the #1 player available at that position (basically the only option) and he's a good defender coming off a very good year with the bat, it's only a 2 year commitment and $12.5M guaranteed, that's about what he was expected to make. Hideki Matsui is a 36 year old DH, there isn't a very large market for a player like that especially when teams have as little to spend as they do right now. The only way he gets close to that is if a team believes the increased Japanese advertising revenue will make up the difference.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:31 PM) It really depends on the price. About Matsui's salary - I just don't see us paying him $4-6 million annually and him taking such an offer. He'd want at least around $8-10 million a year. He's not getting anything close to that.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:30 PM) That would be interesting. Wouldn't it be something if Bradley found a home with the Sox and hit .325 getting along with the clubhouse. Now, I try not to let anything on the northside cloud my opinions of the Sox, but it would be sweet if Bradley tore the cover off of the ball for the Sox while the cubs paid his salary. I know he has a lot of baggage but so did Jurassic Carl. Not even close to the same kind of baggage.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:29 PM) You got one here. I'm a Milton Bradley fan and I would be very happy to see him in a White Sox uniform. How the hell does that happen? There's basically nothing likable about him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:19 PM) OK, how about checking out his numbers with 2 out and RISP the last 2 seasons? Pitcheresque. And yet, in '06 and '07 he was great in those situations. Situational splits fluctuate greatly from year to year, rarely do they tell you anything.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 07:15 PM) i just feel like funny things like this always happen on the north side where some guys just don't fit...i'm not saying hes a great teammate or would work here, but if they cubs pay 8 of the remaining 20 mil on his deal...moving him to full time DH, in a situation where I really think he would have the added incentive of proving the cubs wrong, would be good for a guy like milton, and i think i would take the risk.....obviously im just blowing smoke here, but don't forget KW called Peavy asking him about a former teammate...everyone assumed it was Adrian Gonzalez, but you never know (however, it could have been henry blanco for that matter) Honestly, the American League Central isn't strong enough and the White Sox lineup isn't weak enough for me to be willing to take that chance. The stories coming from some of the clubhouses he's been a part of and just how much he teammates despised him (it's not just the Cubs) are more than enough of a deterrent. Then there's the whole injury thing.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 06:59 PM) i'm actually really hoping the sox are the "mystery AL team" that supposedly has a deal in place for milton bradley......obps the last 4 years.....370, .402, .438, .378....id lead him off and play him at DH....probably nobody else would, but id do it I know I often come off as heavily statistic oriented but this is one of those cases where the numbers really mean next to nothing to me, I wouldn't want him anywhere near the White Sox.

UPDATED VERSION [12.08.09] (CLICK FOR FULL SIZE) Added Mark Teahen's new deal

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 06:32 PM) Id give him a reasonable sized contract with incentives to be a good sized one for IP and ERA or K's or whatever the club seems fit. Id also think with Hudson likely being in the pen and Garcia being our 5th that the bp would be pretty damn good. You can't include incentives for either, not allowed. It'd be a very low base salary with substantial incentives for IP and games finished with the bigger money being available via games finished.

Looks like the Braves are going to attempt to trade Rafael Soriano, as he has granted them the necessary consent to do so.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) The whole point is to buy out his free agent year on the cheap, if he does indeed hit like his 2006 season, either next year, or the year after, preferably both. And it gives him incentive to take a probable pay-cut in both '10 and '11.