Kalapse

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 31, 2007 -> 12:06 PM) That's sort of what I was getting at - Carter is too much. Although I think he's better than Owens overall, I wouldn't want to give up Carter for him. A lower level prospect I might consider, though. But I think he should be a backup plan, kind of like Owens should be the same. The whole Carter thing just caught me off guard. The Red Sox pretty much have to trade Crisp this offseason, he still has a big chunk of $$$ remaining on his deal and he's been terrible since leaving Cleveland 3 years ago, there's no way he should cost the Sox Carter. I'd have no problem with KW bringing him in in exchange for a C prospect or two but he's not worth Carter.

Nothing that Crisp has done over the past 2 years makes me want. Whenever you're praying that a player "regains previous form" after sucking for 2 full seasons somethings not quite right there. If it's up to me I'm not trading away my top position prospect for a guy who's making over $5.5M a year and has been absolutely dreadful for the past 2 seasons. He doesn't steal many bases, doesn't hit for any power and hasn't gotten on base since 2005. I'm pretty sure KW can manage to find a low .700 OPS OF for less than Crisp would command (in terms of both $$$ and talent.)

f*** NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. What is with Baseball Prospectus this offseason? They have us trading our most talented pitching prospect in Fautino De Los Santos and Crede for Bill Hall and Claudio Vargas and if that isn't bad enough now we're trading away the position prospect with the most upside currently in our system for a mediocre ballplayer who has over $11M remaining on his 2 year deal. The minor league system is depleted of talent as is, we can't be trading away guys like Carter and DLS for s***ty major league players.

Well, he just cost himself a few million in free agency.

You're still trying to compare to different decades, .267 means nothing to me since a .267 AVG in the 60's is COMPLETELY different from a .267 AVG now a days. You're also looking at the career stats of a man who played for 22 years to a guy who has been in the league for 5 years. Comparing their batting averages is bulls***, just look at the translated stats that Brooks put up in his 20's and compare those to Crede's. There's no comparison. And "great" is a very subjective term, when Crede is fully healthy, with no back pain he is an outstanding defender, right up there with the best defensive 3B in the game today but if he's having serious back pain like this past year then he's rather mediocre. I can't compare him to Brooks Robinson since I was about negative 20 years old when he was in his prime but when comparing him to the Eric Chavez's and the Scott Rolen's of the world I'd say a healthy Joe Crede can hold his own.

From www.whysoserious.com: It's a scavenger hunt. There's like 20 more for other major cities in the U.S.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Oct 30, 2007 -> 10:57 PM) Brooks Robinson was a career .267 hitter with 268 home runs. If he played today, you guys would fry him over the coals for hitting .267. Answer this honestly. Is Crede a GREAT defensive player? A GREAT one? I don't see how you wouldn't say "yes." Can Crede hit .267 for a career and hit that many homers had he stayed healthy. Uh, I think so. What makes my Brooks comparison so wrong?? Crede is a great defender who like Brooks can get a clutch hit. If you're going to compare the 50's and 60's to the 2000's then you're going to need a stat that takes into account what the rest of the league was doing offensively at the time. So in order to be as fair as possible to both parties I'll use OPS+ which takes into account such things as league averages and park factor. 100 is average. Anything above 120 is really good. Joe Crede will be 30 years old next year, by the end of his age 30 season Brooks Robinson had appeared in 8 All-Star games, had won 8 gold gloves, 1 MVP, 3 other finishes in the top 3 of MVP voting, 5 seasons with at least a 120 OPS+ (including 1 at 145) and was well on his way to a hall of fame career. If the eras were at all comparable then I'd probably buy into your batting average/home run comparison but until Joe Crede has even 1 season where his offensive production compared to the rest of the league is as valuable as Brooks Robinson's '62, '65, '66 or '67 seasons (he'll never touch Brooks' '1964 season) I'm going to have a hard time comparing the two. Joe Crede's breakout year was a 107 OPS+ Brooks Robinson by the time he was as old as Crede is right now had already blown that out of the water 5 times.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Oct 30, 2007 -> 05:41 PM) In analyzing any deal for Kobe, you also have to factor in a year from now which players he will demand to be traded. Please stay away from him. This has pretty much been proven to be bulls***. Jerry Buss more than anybody wanted Shaq out of LA, he was sick of O'Neal's bulls***. Kobe is not responsible for Shaq's departure.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 30, 2007 -> 08:33 PM) Agreed and agreed. Glad to see it, and hoping for the other two as well. I'll be curious to see what folks here who seemed 100% sure we'd pick up Erstad's option have to say. Anyone who actually thought Erstad's option was going to be picked up was kidding themselves, they weren't going to pay him $3.5M in 2008, this was an obvious move. My (and many others) real fear is that they'll decline the option but then turn around and sign him to a lesser deal. I still think there's a damn good chance they'll do it too, after he's given his 1 year, $1M deal w/ a nice option for 2009 we'll have to endure 4-5 months of bulls*** about how valuable he is as a 4th OF/backup 1B/grinding coordinator/team leader/lover up until opening day when he's given shadow starter duties once again of course that will only last until about mid-may when he suffers his first major injury. Some club need to jump in and sign him immediately, my sanity is at stake here.

Or you cut Toby Hall and sign Yorvit Torrealba.

Tim Kukjian has long said that Geoff Jenkins is at worst a top 3 defensive LF in the game and quite possibly the best.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Oct 29, 2007 -> 02:53 PM) Crede is an above average player. No he isn't. He's a well above average defender at 3B but his all around game is more often than not below average. Joe Crede has never been an All Star and by my count he's had a grand total of 1 All Star Caliber season.

I can't disagree more with the money aspect, just looking at last year alone you have the following: D. Baez: 3 yrs, $6.333M C. Bradford: 3 yrs, $3.5M O. Dotel: 1 yr, $5M L. Hawkins: 1 yr, $3.5M R. Hernandez: 1 yr, $3.5M S. Schoeneweis: 3 yrs, $3.6M J. Speier: 4 yrs, $4.5M J. Walker: 3 yrs, $4M Now just looking at those numbers are you still willing to tell me that Scott Linebrink can't get 3/4 years at $6M a year if not more? If Danys Baez can get $6.333M then Scott Linebrink who is a 1.) Bigger name 2.) the only decent reliever available in FA 3.) coming off a much better contract year and 4.) has a much better track record than Baez should be able to get at least equal money. And when Latroy Hawkins and Roberto Hernandez are getting $3.5M a year with lucrative option years then Scott should be looking at about twice that. Linebrink: 3.71 ERA, 113 ERA+, 1.322 WHIP Baez: 4.53 ERA, 99 ERA+, 1.291 WHIP Linebrink will get at least $6M a year, I guarantee it.

Damn, I totally forgot that September stats don't count. Sorry guys.

No to Kaz Matsui ('07 Home: .330/.381/.482/.864 | Road: .249/.304/.333/.638) and no to Scott Linebrink (it's never a good idea to spend $5M-$8M a year on a middle reliever especially one with as many question marks as him.) As for the last part of the first post, options will be picked up/declined over the next 10 days so we will see a little action, aside from that though I wouldn't expect KW to do anything substantial until at least Thanksgiving.

QUOTE(rockren @ Oct 27, 2007 -> 11:59 PM) Anytime you have an playoff run like he did in '05 and then follow it up with a 30,30,100,.300 type season while having two herniated discs in your back... people will tend to be optimistic about a player like that. 31 2B, 30 HR, 94 RBI and a .283 AVG is not a 30/30/100/.300 type season. It's a 30/30/95/.285/ (rounding up because I'm a nice guy) type season. I know it seems like nitpicking but rounding up 17 points and 6 RBI is rather disingenuous.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Oct 28, 2007 -> 04:37 PM) His career OPS+ of 92 says otherwise. He's also a liability on the basepaths. Since becoming a full time starter in '03 he's had 1 season over 100, 1 season in the mid 90's, 1 in the low 90's, 1 in the low 80's and a low 40's OPS+ last year. Nothing about those numbers screams ABOVE AVERAGE! to me.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Oct 28, 2007 -> 10:31 AM) There aren't many 3B folks out there better than Joe. He is in the upper tier. Interesting stat about the WS Rockies team. 16 of their players are home grown. We have a tendency to trade or let walk our organizations stars when they get to the point they can make some money. You don't build a stable winning team doing that and why would we just continue to trade or let walk away our best talent!? We get youth from another organization and continue to work through the learning curve. It seems KW may be changing that approach as we have seen lately, but Joe Crede needs to stay also. Where would you rank Crede when compared to the 3B of the NL East? (Miguel Cabrera, David Wright, Chipper Jones, Ryan Zimmerman)

QUOTE(Vance Law @ Oct 28, 2007 -> 11:45 AM) On defense, he is special, saving the Sox a lot of runs over the course of the year. With the bat, he's above average. Those 2 things together make for quite a good valuable player.....when he's healthy. No he isn't. Being above average for 1 season out of 5 does not earn you the title of "above average."

Can anyone find the league averages for runs per game over the past 10 years? I'm thinking scoring has been down league wide since the mid to late 90's which would make the numbers Fox keeps throwing at us about Coors moot. And if Coors isn't a f***ing power house anymore than why do we see such staggering home/road splits from guys like Helton, Holliday, Tulowitzki and Matsui? ANSWER ME JOE BUCK YOU COWARDLY FOOL!!!

The Rockies are looking to re-sign Matsui just in case anyone still cares.

Who would you have liked KW to sign? What percentage of the big name/big money free agents have panned out over the past 3 years? 5%? And what free agents are you looking at for this year? It's an insanely weak class outside of A-Rod and a few big name closers.

This team has NO use for Marcus Giles.

This movie can't come out soon enough.

Speaking of Joe Buck, did I actually hear him say that Todd Helton, over the course of his career, has been just as good on the road as he has been at home? Seriously? Does he do even the slightest bit of research? Since when is 1.128 ~ .896? He's a career .367 hitter at home which I guess is pretty close to his career .295 road AVG though rounding up 72 points does seem a bit disingenuous. What a f***ing joke.