Kalapse

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 8, 2009 -> 12:12 AM) Well, with only $20M left on the payroll...how much could we expect after arbitration to all the guys with it? Like, 5 million left? I'd say it'll cost somewhere between $17.5M and $19M total for Jenks, Danks, Quentin, Teahen, Carrasco and Pena. That doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room

In another shocking turn of events the Washington Nationals will waste $6M over the next 2 years on Ivan Rodriguez.

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 11:25 PM) Probably the best ever. Lord no. Not even close. Not even top 10 (20?). Just off the top of my head I'll go with the rotations everyone knows and loves: 1998 Braves and the 1971 Baltimore f***ing Orioles. Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Millwood, Neagle (combined ERA somewhere around 3.00, the big 3 all finished in the top 4 or 5 of CY voting that year) and Palmer, McNally, Dobson, Cueller (all won 20 f***ing games) There's also the '93 Braves with Steve Avery but the 5th starter was no one special.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 11:10 PM) With respect, 400 PA is not a partial season and a career .300 AVG is not a track record of mediocrity. He's expensive to the Dodgers. If the Sox acquired him, he wouldn't be under those terms any longer. In order for a deal to happen, the Sox would unload a heavy contract and would insist on LA eating some cash which they know they'd have to do. The key for LA is any player they inherit, it would have to be an expiring contract. Pierre still has another year on his after 2010. If the Sox can dump salary in a deal, which is what they are trying to do, and they can offer 2011 relief to LA for Pierre for around $6M a season, they might just do it. The Sox financial relief would not happen, but they improve the team at the plate on the paths and in the field. 425 PA is a partial season. This is a guy who's used to 730+ PA years, 425 is 58% of that, basically the definition of partial. Congrats to him on the .300 career batting average, baseball if full of early 30 year olds who are past their prime's and can no longer be relied on to match their career numbers, the Sox just signed one for $550K guaranteed, you know he of the .826 career OPS. The last time he hit .300? 2004. The last time he put up a good OBP? 2004. The last time he could be relied upon as an everyday player? 2004 So what expiring contract are you sending the Dodgers' way? The Sox have a grand total of 7 expiring deals and 5 of those guys make less than $2.5M and/or were signed within the past 2 weeks. The other 2: AJ Pierzynski ($6.25M) and Paul Konerko ($12M). Your 2 year deals are Buehrle ($28M), Linebrink ($10.5M). What's your plan for buying high on Pierre?

Well the offers Soriano received must have been pretty unimpressive because he accepted the Braves' offer of arbitration and is looking at $7M+ in 2010.

There is a ton of talk about Edwin Jackson, with this amount of activity he almost has to moved. It sounds like the Diamondbacks want him pretty bad. I find this frightening. Scherzer has higher trade value than Edwin Jackson right now so that doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. There was supposedly talk of a 3 team trade involving the Yankees and Curtis Granderson as well which is where Scherzer's name could have been brought up, with a prospect or another piece headed from New York to Arizona.

Players offered arbitration and their decisions: ACCEPTED Rafael Betancourt Rafael Soriano. That's huge, that Atlanta bullpen just got significantly stronger and significantly more expensive. There almost has to be a trade made here. Carl Pavano Declined Brandon Lyon Jose Valverde Adrian Beltre Mike Gonzalez Joel Piniero Matt Holliday Fernando Rodney Brian Shouse Marlon Byrd Rod Barajas

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 10:25 PM) Pierre is a career .301 hitter. - He gets on base. He would cost quite a bit more than Crisp, though. Yeah, a career .301 hitter who before last season hadn't put up an OBP north of .331 since 2004. He has a career 5.8% walk rate and a 0.72 ISO, that's not exactly what you're looking for from the guy who will get the most plate appearances on your team.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 10:29 PM) Why would you completely eliminate last season from your assessment? He had a nice season both at the plate and in LF. Because I don't change my opinion on players based on one partial season, a good 400 PA season doesn't erase the previous 4 bad ones. I'm not going to buy high on an incredibly expensive 32 year old with a well documented track record of mediocrity, that's how a lot these teams in financial trouble accumulate bad contracts.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 08:52 PM) Really? $7.5 million? What he did in San Francisco did not justify $7.5 million. I understand it's only a one year commitment, but that seems a bit much. Yep, it looks pretty bad. 41.2 decent IP, a healthy season of play and good velocity got him $7.5M guaranteed, crazy. It looks like Randy Wolf is going to get 3 years from the Brewers, so like always teams are willing to fork over big money to starting pitching and when the free agent class is as weak as it is this year there's going to be some bad money handed out.

It's all in his wording I suppose. When he mentioned Vizquel leading off and playing DH he qualified the statement with something along the lines of "if we don't have a leadoff man or true DH'. If Kenny fills these holes -- I don't really think Kenny cares what Ozzie wants when he's working on potential acquisitions -- Ozzie will have no reason to threaten us with these terrifying scenarios.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 07:00 PM) I think it's wrong to assume they don't explore every possible option. Aside from sheer laziness I can't think of a reason not to explore every possible option. To suggest otherwise would be an tremendous affront to Kenny Williams and the White Sox front office.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 06:27 PM) I imagine because, in the 1 year Jones actually played for the Dodgers, he put up an OPS+ of 35. Zito, in 3 years with the Giants, has put up an ERA+ of 97. I imagine Zito's FIP is rather high, but he's actually been a decent middle of the rotation starter for the Giants. His FIP in each individual season since joining the Giants is lower than his final year in Oakland and right around what he had been producing in his final 3 seasons with the A's. Which makes that contract look just that much more irresponsible.

Brad Penny signed a 1 year, $7.5M deal with the Cardinals.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 06:43 PM) Good re-signing for them. Is that Sizemore kid going to play 2B for them with no Polanco or are they going to sign someone? That appears to be the plan.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) Jordan danks has zero business being on the major league roster at any point this season. Danks bat is no where near major league ready at this very point. I could see if danks was on the verge of being a major league player, with not much more to prove, but let's not jump the gun and rush him when it is unwarranted. It's senseless. The reward is just not worth the risk (big risk it is... for danks the player, not the team), considering there are other options. Quentin also has no business being moved to dh anytime soon, when that day comes, it will be the sign of quentin on his way out (injuries - body breaking down) of the white white sox organization. For me, it's as simple as this: compare him to Colby Rasmus, age, ability, development, minor league production, quality of competition. Now look at what Rasmus did in 2009. There's really no reason for me to believe that Jordan Danks wouldn't be a complete disaster at the plate in 2010.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 04:53 PM) So is he one of the top 10 pitchers ever? Context is very important when you want to throw out names of guys that played, like, 100 years ago. And I never brushed him off. I said from the start he was great for that time. Now if you're saying he's one of the best pitchers ever because he has the lowest ERA ever, well, I'll just stay out of it. Just think of this: the year Ed Walsh won 40 games there were only 8 teams in the American League, the average team OPS was .598, there were 116 total HR hit that season and the league leader in homeruns was Sam Crawford with 7.

Adam Everett re-signed with the Tigers. Don't know the terms of the deal just yet.

QUOTE (chisox2334 @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 04:11 PM) http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/white-sox/ So it's speculation that they'd be interested in Matsui and an assumption that he'd play left because Ozzie has been talking about moving Quentin to right. His 'as of today' outfield did have Jones in left and Quentin in right. Sounds like a whole lot of nothing.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 04:07 PM) For what it's worth.... the Score just mentioned that the Sox might be pursuing Matsui, and that would Quentin to move over to RF... Matsui isn't even capable of playing the outfield.

Hardly surprising, I'd take it with a grain of salt: http://twitter.com/JoeFrisaro/status/6443042775

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 02:32 PM) From moron's twitter: Ugh Who else would it be? De Aza? Danks? Viciedo? We only have 2 starting outfielders right now.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 12:35 PM) Personally I think that Pierre gets a bad rap. I don't think that, other than his arm, he is that bad a ballplayer. Sure his contract isn't good, but how many players in MLB with more than 6 - 7 years of experience have "good" contracts. Ozzie seems to like him so maybe he does possess some type of intangible that may help a winning team. Pierre has been on what, for the most part, has been winning ballclubs in L.A. and while being primarily a bench player I haven't heard anything about him being disruptive. I'm sure that Ozzie has requested some type of a typical lead off hitter and for what is actually available I think that you could do a lot worse. For those in the know, Pierre can still cover ground in the outfield can't he? If the Dodgers are in the financial bind that people are claiming and don't want to give cash in a Pierre - Linebrink swap, maybe K.W. can get them to part with a good prospect or 2. JMHO. He's made the playoffs 3 times in his career and the last 2 times were as a part time player so he got a total of 7 PA in 4 rounds of playoff action, I'm not paying for intangibles that likely do not exist. His combined line over the past 4 years going into last season was .286/.329/.359/.688, that's awful especially for the price it'd cost to get and pay him. A .43 isoD and a .73 ISO, that's a bench player not your top man in plate appearances.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 7, 2009 -> 08:40 AM) Who else is out there though? Yeah, I'd take Podsednik/Crisp (assuming he's healthy enough to play) and Linebrink over Pierre.

Because if history has taught us one thing it's that you can't go wrong spending big money on multi-year deals to middle relievers.