Frank the Tank 35

There was as short blurb on espn1000 about the possibility of this trade. They also mentioned some minor league infielder from Boston to the Twinkies instead of Mueller. Not Youklis... can't remember the name.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 19, 2005 -> 06:57 AM) They're only 8.5 games back of the Padres who haven't been that great after their good start to the season, they get a whole lot of players back in Drew, Bradley etc., they're loaded with good prospects especially in their AA team, and DePodesta's never afraid to make a move to improve the team now. Bradley should be back soon, but Drew is well over a month away from returning. Don't forget, Jose Valentin just started rehabbing! All those strikeouts are important for team chemistry.

QUOTE(soxfan3530 @ Jul 19, 2005 -> 10:28 AM) wagner's not going anywhere. the phillies still believe they are in it. "The Phillies told one NL executive that virtually everyone is available, which could lead to a massive bidding war for closer Billy Wagner." - from USAToday

per rotoworld: Dustin Hermanson was held out of tonight's game due to a sore back. ''Hermie is not feeling well, his back is not feeling well,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. ''If he's not ready (this week), someone else will be ready. I cannot wait that long.'' Cliff Politte and Damaso Marte will split save opps if Hermanson winds up on the DL. Jul. 19 - 12:50 am et I seem to remember Hermanson saying recently that he was getting tired. Hurry and get someone else for the pen KW!

I was pissed at first too... but whatev... let America bet on the other teams... maybe we'll get some calls from the ups come playoffs.

I wouldn't be against trading Jerry Owens for Redman, then sending Redman to the Marlins as part of a package for Burnett. The original rumor says the Marlins would try to acquire Redman if they traded Burnett, so why not help them? We got Owens for basically nothing. Turning that into a major chip in the Burnett deal would be huge. Or KW could emply Redman as a cheaper 5th starter than Contreras and send the Count to Florida per the current swell of rumors.

Byebye Leiter: The Yankees have agreed on a deal to buy Al Leiter from the Marlins, Newsday reports. MLB.com is still saying another player is involved in the deal, but according to Newsday, it's a cash transaction, with the Yankees sending about $250,000 to Florida and paying about $150,000 of what the left-handed is still owed this season. The deal is expected to become official today, allowing the Yankees to start Leiter tomorrow against the Red Sox. Jul. 16 - 12:11 pm et Source: Newsday

This article is a couple days (July 14) old from usatoday... "Speaking of Cleveland, the Indians made several trade proposals to the Brewers for left fielder Carlos Lee, who leads the major leagues with 76 RBI, but he is unavailable. The Indians now plan to make a run at Blue Jays infielder Shea Hillenbrand and Rangers outfielder Kevin Mench." WTF is Cleveland thinking? Carlos Lee? Are they serious? Mench? Why the hell would Texas move him when he's finally breaking out? This confuses me. If the Jays are willing to move Hillenbrand, we should be on top of that first. Meanwhile... "The Blue Jays, who thought they might be in the dumping mode, can't give up yet. They are 44-44 and 5½ games out of first place in the AL East. They are listening to offers for starter Ted Lilly and closer Miguel Batista, as well as center fielder Vernon Wells and second baseman Orlando Hudson. But they say Hillenbrand is not yet available." Lilly and Batista are probably available for the lovers of those two. "The Phillies told one NL executive that virtually everyone is available, which could lead to a massive bidding war for closer Billy Wagner." Serious? They have some great hitters. Anybody for Jimmy Rollins (Ok, not gonna happen)? Wagner would be great. It seems strange to me that the Jays are interested in Burnett. Clearly they need more than Burnett to have a chance in the AL east especially now that Halladay went down. Trading Chacin doesn't make any sense seeing as how he's young, cheap, a lefty, and GOOD. If the Sox were content with sticking it out with the Count, maybe we could help the Jays get Burnett. Sounds weird, huh? But if they sent us Hillenbrand, we could be persuaded to help out in a 3-way. I can't imagine they're not building for next year. Adding Burnett would make that staff formidable with Halladay and their good young pitchers next year. Hillenbrand will be arbitration eligible after this year, do the Jays want to pony up? And hey, while I'm on the subject of crazy 3-way deals... maybe we could help the Orioles get Burnett. They don't want to give up Cabrera. We could ship the Marlins BMac, Everett, and whoever else it would take to get Burnett (assuming we didn't want to keep him ourselves) then turn around and trade Burnett and Crede for :gasp: Melvin Mora. Ok yeah, prolly not going to happen. He's only owed $4 million next year, but after that he'd be in for a BIG payday. Still we'd have to give up much more than Burnett + Crede IMO... seeing as how the Orioles are trying to get Burnett with a package built around Jorge Julio. We'd have to give up a TON... but Melvin Mora sounds so nice... kinda rolls off the tongue... If we need to dump some pitchers (in the event that we acquire a starter, etc), I'm sure the Yanks would love to have El Duque back or any decent pitcher for that matter. Of course they don't really have anything to give to us. Another 3-way!?! Ok, enough of my crazy talk...bedtime

Here's a thought, how about Chad Tracy of of D'backs? He plays 1B and 3B. He's been playing at 1B this year due to the Glaus signing but had been a 3B. He's definitely not the defensive wiz Crede is at 3B which would be my only hesitation. He's in his second year making near league minimum. Last year he hit .285, and this year he's been over .300 for almost the entirety of the season. He doesn't have too much pop (although 10 homers so far isn't bad). He's a lefty (throws right), something the Sox could definitely use, and he's not going to kill rallies. Plus he's only 25 years old with a history of hitting for a high average in the minors. So why would the D'backs even consider trading him? Well he's obviously of no use at 3B since Glaus is there and will be there for several years. They have Tony Clark playing 1B as well who's having one of his better years so far this year (hitting .324 w/ 13 homers in limited playing time). They're also looking to bring up their prize prospect Conor Jackson. Jackson is POOR defensively and really can ONLY play 1B, so there's a logjam there. Tracy could move to the OF, but with Shawn Green, Gonzo, and Jose Cruz out there, I can't see regular playing time for him out there either. The D'backs obviously still need bullpen help. I think we could get Tracy straight up for ONE relief pitcher, either one on the major league roster or a high level relief prospect... definitely not more than two... maybe we could throw in Borchard and get some value for him if necessary. Plus side: can replace Crede if he goes down at 3rd, can backup Konerko at 1st, hits for a high average, bats lefty, young, cheap, very good against righties Negatives: poor (but improving?) defense, doesn't hit lefties well

M's aren't trading Meche or Franklin. Read it somewhere a while ago.

Is anyone else getting REALLY annoyed when Sox players, esp fastball hitters, let a FAT first pitch, heart-of-the-plate fastball go by for strike one? A few games ago there was a stat I heard (I think it was actually a Cubs game) where in the MLB as a whole, hitters are batting in the vicinity of .220/.230 after the count is 0-1 and are batting .270/.280 after the count is 1-0 (they gave exact BA #'s I can't remember). I have a feeling that the Sox collective paltry .255 team BA is being affected by this phenomenon. Mr. Paul O-fer Konerko has been letting all kinds of first pitch fastballs go by him lately. I dunno if this is of his own accord or Greg Walker's doing, but it has got to stop! Do what has made you successful! Yesterday Zito gave him a couple first pitch fastballs. Zito gave a lot of Sox hitters first pitch fastballs, yet he knew they'd stand there with the bats glued to their shoulders. If Zito gives you first pitch fastball strike, YOU GOTTA SWING! Once you're down 0-1, all you are going to see is JUNK. And junk is exactly the kind of stuff that will strike out most of our Sox hitters... which is just what happened. Meanwhile on the other side of the plate, Oakland hitters have been doing nearly the same thing. The bats will NOT move from their shoulders on the first pitch (there were some exceptions). They do NOT swing at breaking balls in or out of the strike zone unless there are 2 strikes. They wait there till our pitchers outthink themselves and have thrown them a 2-0 count, then they wait on a fastball in the zone. They're contact hitters that wait for fastballs in the zone after they're up in the count. That's it! That's the great mystery to why they've beaten us. Buerhle had the right idea yesterday when he was doing first pitch strikes only his defense let him down (as his own did last time). Normally Garland pitched like that too only two days ago he didn't have location of his pitches and fell behind many A's hitters. In conclusion: Konerko, swing at first pitch fastball strikes... Frank Thomas was good enough in his hayday to get away with letting the first strike go by, YOU ARE NOT AND NEVER WILL BE THAT KIND OF HITTER Rowand, do what made you a .310 hitter last year, swing at first pitch fastball strikes! Dye, hey you got hot because you stopped letting that first strike go by unchallenged! Ozzie, you wanna win, right? Stop starting Willie and Timo! Aaaargh!!! Oakland is NOT that great of a team, we just make it look that way.

Ollie Perez is a fantastic talent. He's on two of my fantasy teams this year, so I've taken special interest in his struggles this year. He usually plays ball in the winter leagues during the offseason but did not do so last year at the request of the Pirates. Many believe that change in his "preseason" routine messed him up, so he started off the season pitching like he was going through extended spring training. He then reeled off a couple excellent starts. He then had a couple poor starts (one to the Yanks, who can blame him?), and he kicked something in the clubhouse and broke his toe. I dunno if he'd be able to help the team this year or not. But if he's available, get him anyway. He'd be valuable in some capacity.

This came out yesterday so I may be late on this. For those people who really want a top relief pitcher rather than a starter, here's this nugget: Just ask Billy Wagner. "No chance," was his response when asked yesterday whether he thought the Phillies had what it takes to make the postseason. "We ain't got a chance to get there right now." ...from yahoo sports. Doesn't sound like he's too happy to be there right now.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 04:04 PM) WSCR 670 The Score is so desperate for any rumor to compete with ESPN 1000. They are reporting that the Dodgers are interested in Carl Everett and then the guy finishes it with, "BUT ARE THE SOX INTERESTED?!?" They probably saw it in the Los Angeles newspaper today that said something about DePodesta looking into possible trades. They mentioned Everett's name may be available. Saw it on prosportsdaily.com

Crede's hit like 6 homers during June, I hope the A's have been watching. I wouldn't mind having Joe play from the 7th inning on. He seems to always get a clutch hit in the late innings... but if he hadn't done an 0-fer in his previous at-bats, it might not have had to come to late inning heroics.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 02:33 AM) Whatever. I see our opinions on Crede's value differ. I know that 3B can be a black hole for a franchise for many years. Just look at the Cubs pre-Ramirez

Well anyways, the speculation was fun for me while it lasted. In any event I don't think the Sox have all the pieces that would allow us to trade for Chavez. I think we'd have to have a 3rd team involved. Getting Oakland a good young 2B would be a key to the deal IMHO. Believe me, I just looked through nearly every MLB team and there really aren't that many teams with young major league ready 2b's that would be willing to trade them. A bunch of them are already trying out their major leauge stripes (Weeks, Burke, Cano, Cantu can play 2b). The Dodgers and Padres have hot 2b prospects, but Kent is only signed through next year and Loretta's contract ends after this year. There aren't really any hot major league ready prospects that are stuck behind second basemen that aren't going anywhere for awhile. Pipedream it may be, but the media keeps bringing it up so it will continue to be the hot topic on my mind. Wouldn't mind the talk of a SP coming true either... BTW, thanks DBAHO for actually listening and letting me speak my mind.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 01:53 AM) I don't know how many times I have seen someone state that Crede was going to be a FA. I got tired of explaining it, so I now I just state the fact that he won't be one. Thanks. I guess I just keep hearing how Boras will try to get more $$ for Crede and am connecting that with free agency instead of arbitration. Well, all the cheaper Crede should be next year, right?

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 01:30 AM) Alex Cintron is a SS. He's played 262 games at SS, 38 at 3B and 55 at 2B. If he's not good enough to start over Clayton then he's not good enough to start over anyone on Oakland. You're right, he's mainly a SS. My bad, I usually check those things before I post them. But he definitely has the ability to play 2b. From checking out his game log, they've been finding ways to get him in the lineup nearly every night. He's making a lot of starts. He has only played in 60 games this season, but it appears that in the first two weeks of the year he wasn't playing much and he didn't play for a about a week straight just recently (injury?). He seems like he's somewhat stuck bouncing from position to position as they try to get him some playing time ala the beginning of the year for Uribe last year.

Actually this year Counsell has been the everyday starter for Arizona at 2B. In Milwaukee last year he was mainly a SS. Cintron has played 2b, 3b, and ss... mostly ss though.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 01:23 AM) Oakland wants bullpen help too BTW. No way they'd settle for a package of Crede, Cintron and Anderson for Mr. Chavez. I guess if Oakland is going for it this year and wants relief pitching, it would make it harder altogether to pry Chavez. Next year they definitely do not need relief pitching though. The only reason they may want it now is because of their pitchers on the DL. If we have to send a relief pitcher their way, fine. Beane may say he's going for it, but honestly, I think even he realizes that the way the A's are now, he'd be lucky just to get into the playoffs let alone advance. The A's, even IF they made the playoffs, WOULD NOT advance. He's gotta be thinking about next year already. I know a lot of people are down on Crede (myself included), but he still has the "potential" tag. He may never reach that potential, but it's obvious he has it. He does hit 20+ homers and has shown he can hit .275. If the A's think he can do that, they're only losing 10 homers a year, maybe a few points off the BA, and nothing on defense. He'll be a free agent after this year, but how much will he be able to sign for? 3-4 mil a year is the most I'd say he could get even with Boras. 6-7 mil less per year for 10 less homers? plus 40 BA points better at 2b? add a top OF prospect (and maybe more)? It's not as far-fetched as everyone will undoubtedly flame me for saying this believes.

Craig Counsell, the heart of the team, is basically playing everyday, and his main position is 2b. Cintron is basically spelling him and Glaus while splitting time with Clayton at SS. I believe Cintron's main position is 2b though, making Clayton the better defensive player at SS.

I mean flame away, I never said it was going to happen. It's just that Ellis and Scutaro have been .250/.260 hitters at best and so far in the AL Ginter is at a buck something.

Like I said, it's speculation. But of all their positions, really that's all they need. They're not stacked in the minors outfield-wise so I included the OF prospect. Maybe they think out of Ellis, Scutaro, and Ginter somebody's going to pan out... but up to this point none of them have.

...Cabrera, Tex, Soriano, Tejada, A-Rod, Guerrero, Abreu, D Lee, C Lee, A Jones... just a short list of people that are better and that I'd rather have on my team. There's plenty of other people I'd rather spend my $$ on too. For a team that likes to run the bases, it's harder for a guy to move runners along if he's striking out all the time. Dunn may help you win the HR category in your rotisserie fantasy league, but he's not gonna help the Sox the way they're configured now. On another note, all these people who keep bringing up the Chavez talk has got me thinking. I know everyone's tired of hearing about rumor and speculation, but I think we're going about it the wrong way. Billy Beane is all about reloading for the immediate future. The way he's got his minor leagues stacked is a testament to that. If we base a deal for Chavez around Crede, that degrades their 3b spot. Obviously we have to make that up in another area. You can never have enough of pitching, but if anyone doesn't need more, it's the A's. They'll probably be trading away one of their veteran outfielders, but they have Nick Swisher stepping in. Bobby Crosby is their heir apparent at SS. I thought maybe they'd want someone to replace the aging Hatteburg (he's 35), but they just brought up their hot 1B prospect Dan Johnson. Then I thought maybe they'd want to get rid of the underperforming and overpaid Jason Kendall for someone younger and cheaper. They have 2 of the top 20 catching prospects in their system. Their one weakness may be at 2B. They aren't really stacked in the minors with 2b'ers. They thought Ellis would come up big, but he's injured this year and really hasn't been anything special. Scutaro had his chance. They brought in Ginter, but he's played horribly. As I don't think they'd accept Willie, and we won't trade Iguchi, maybe we should look for a 3rd team in the deal. Two teams I thought were possibilities who had extra 2b talent. The Pirates are always unloading. They have plenty of infielders and maybe they'd move Mackowiak in the right trade. Another more conceivable trade partner would be Arizona. They were scouting the Sox relievers. They have an extra infielder in the young Alex Cintron. He's hitting around .300 this year in limited playing time. He's not doing as well as his breakout year in 2003, but he's doing better than his "sophomore" slump year last year. Not only is he young, but he's poised to get better in the immediate future. The only thing is that he hasn't shown any power the past year and a half. In 2003 he showed alot of promise in the power #'s for a 2b (roids?). So as long as everyone's speculating, here's my proposal: Sox give reliever to 'Zona, give Crede + OF (Anderson maybe?) prospect to Oakland Arizona sends Cintron to A's A's send Chavez to Sox If that whole BMac + midlevel prospect for Burnett is true, do it immediately. Move Duque to the pen. I crap my pants in excitement. Yes people, it's just speculation. If you feel dumber for reading it, take it to the complaints dept.