sircaffey

I'd rather not see any of Marquez, Poreda, and Richard in the pen. They should all be starting somewhere imo, at least to start the season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 10:31 AM) that's the thing, I don't see a lot of them. Sheffield and Rogers were both old, so bad seasons makes sense (though possibly not to the level that they had), Nate Robertson just isn't very good (though again, maybe not to a 6+ ERA...he's not much better than a 5 ERA pitcher though), their bullpen isn't that talented and they cut Aquilino Lopez who was one of their best relievers last year, and outside of really Guillen and Bonderman, injuries didn't strike them that badly (Granderson missed like 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the season but was healthy the rest of the season). I just don't think they are a very good team at all and without another move or so, I'd be surprised if they finished out of last place. That said, I'd agree with whoever said that the Central won't be very competitive. I see the Twins and Indians as the favorites and I could honestly see any team winning it with just a couple breaks. Verlander was horrible last season (11-17, 4.84 ERA), and Cabrera had a horrible first half by his standards (and finished the season ~.100 pts off his previous 2 seasons' OPS). As for injuries, in addition to Bonderman and Guillen, Rodney missed more than half the season, and Zumaya missed almost all of it. I'm not saying they're a great team, but a lot of things went wrong last season (some not entirely unexpected, but some quite unexpected). I think the Sox and Tigers are on even levels, both have many question marks to go with some very talented players.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 01:30 AM) what move did Detroit make that makes them a better team than the Sox? They traded for a mediocre starting pitcher in Edwin Jackson, traded for a so-so catcher, and signed one of the worst offensive shortstops in the game to platoon with a utility guy at SS? And they are suddenly going to finish ahead of the Sox? Consider me confused on that part alone. They did have a lot of down seasons and injuries last year.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 12:41 PM) I respectfully disagree and my analysis of J Dye has been backed up by baseball pros. Dye still has very good range and handles RF very well. If he has lost a step his experience makes up for it. He is not a defensive liability in any way. Th hitting aspect speaks for itself for sure. He's ranked 31st, 35th, and 31st in +/- the last 3 years for RFers. Even if you don't believe in stats, being THAT bad tells you something. Dye is no longer an above average defender, and he'll get worse. Experience doesn't make up for diminished skills. See Ken Griffey Jr's play in CF last year.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 10:56 AM) Again we see the value of Jermaine Dye undervalued. Dye is a very good defensive RF'er with a strong throwing arm. If we would ever trade him, and I hope we don't, we open up a hole in our team and someone fills their need with a very valuable addition. No he's not. His range has become very limited. Let's not overvalue Jermaine. He's a great hitter, but leaves plenty to be desired defensively.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jan 11, 2009 -> 10:50 PM) ....and instead of drawing walks he makes outs. Garrett Anderson still gets a lot of hits too. Wouldn't cost $80 million either. Never said I would make this trade, but I do believe Young would hit anywhere he is traded. And I have little doubt that any team Young's traded to would be getting serious salary relief unless it's a swap of bad contracts.

While I won't argue the merits of this trade, I do believe Young would hit in any stadium. At this point in his career (and for the past few seasons), he's a singles, line drive type hitter. He's not the type of hitter than benefits greatly from a launching pad. He may hit a few less doubles in the Cell as the gaps are smaller than in Texas, but he'd still get a ton of hits.

I could definitely see Garland settling for a 2 year deal and becoming a free agent again at age 31 (which seems to be the a free agent's preferred age to maximize value). A Burrell deal is what I would envision at this point.

Brandon just had a horrible 2nd half last year. Something was off... Pre: 37.0 IP, 35 H, 7 BB, 28 K, 2.43 ERA, 1.14 WHIP Post: 22.1 IP, 40 H, 6 BB, 16 K, 8.46 ERA, 2.06 WHIP I'd be very happy if the Sox signed him.

Pedro will take Contreras' place on the DL. The Sox probably look at Pedro/Jose being 1 SP with Marquez/Richard/Poreda being 1 SP as well. I like the thought.

I don't think Gavin will be the top-of-the-rotation SP like many assume he will be. Not the be-all-end-all, but sabermetrics tell us Gavin was one of the luckier SP in baseball last season. I think we'll see him up in the 4.30-4.40 ERA range, personally, which is fine. With all this said, I am indifferent on this deal. While I think Floyd is certainly replaceable, I just can't subtract another SP from this team currently. Although, Roberts would have a bigger impact on this team than Floyd IF KW could replace Floyd. Uncharacteristically, there seems to be a lot of pitching available through trade or free agency. It all depends on how much there really is available to spend.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 09:26 PM) and it's a 1-year commitment. No team should be afraid of his body breaking down that badly. Especially considering he'll be a full-time DH. He probably won't even bring a glove to the ballpark.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 09:20 PM) yeah...he is 38. I don't think he's going to go for like $3 million, but somewhere around $7-10 million for 1 year makes perfect sense to me for Giambi. Absolutely. There just isn't a market for him. He's reached the point that no team will consider him to be their full-time 1B. I see a $6-8 mil, one year contract (+incentives) with either a team option or vesting option.

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 08:37 PM) But... they might consider trading one for the right deal... because they are going to into spring training with 8 MLB ready starting pitchers. I'm not saying we should trade Paulie or JD... or that that Tampa would want them or want to take on those salaries... But Tampa is probably deeper in starting pitching talent right now than any team in baseball. So, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a trade involving pitching before the season starts. QUOTE (jenks45monster @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 08:44 PM) They have a ton of depth at the SP slot, so trading away a top guy wouldn't hurt them that much. Dye would give them a great outfield with Crawford, Upton, and Dye (not to mention the only all black starting OF I've ever seen?) and Konerko could be a solid DH for them. They simply do not have any holes that would require them to trade an ace to fill. Coming off of a World Series with the deepest farm system in the majors, and one of the deepest farms mankind has seen in quite some time, there is no reason to trade one of your top young established SP. This isn't like the Sox. The Rays are sitting on a gold mine. They could trade for Peavy without putting much of a dent in their farm system. They don't need to trade from the Major League club to improve the Major League club. And as far as Dye and Konerko is concerned, the FA market is flooded with corner OF options, and Giambi can be had for cheap to fill the DH role. Dye and Konerko make very little sense for the Rays in exchange for anything of importance on their Major League roster.

QUOTE (jenks45monster @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 07:22 PM) A Paulie and Dye package should be able to net Kazmir, heck maybe even most stuff not considered untouchable. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but Paulie is only two years removed from being a top-notch 1B and Dye is a great hitter. The only thing that would hold us back from getting a GREAT player for a PK/Dye package would be their age and contracts. You'd have to be crazy to think the Rays would move one of their top SP right now. They simply have no reason to trade one of them right now.

But CF is the easiest of the OF positions to play...

QUOTE (beck72 @ Dec 22, 2008 -> 10:41 AM) Marquez was a supplemental 1st round pick who threw like a 1st round pick all through the minors until last year. Not all high draft picks turn out well. Not all low draft picks are scrubs. The other group that Marquez was compared to [Masset, Grilli and Glover] did not perform. IMO, based on potential and performance so far, Marquez is much closer to Danks, et al than Masset, et al. The point being, he doesn't sniff Danks, period. Danks' name shouldn't even be in this thread. When with Texas, Danks was part of the famed DVD (Danks, Volquez, Diamond) trio that was hyped forever. Marquez is not Danks, and no where near Danks as a prospect. They are so unrelatable is ridiculous.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Dec 22, 2008 -> 06:35 AM) *Your rationale of Marquez' "Absence from top prospects lists" as a reason he shouldn't make it in the majors doesn't cut it. In any given year, for every top 100 minor league prospect that has a good career, there are many more outside of that 100 that can be productive major leaguers. *Masset was only 8th in the Texas system afeter being converted into a reliever. He toiled for years outside the Texas top 30. Marquez was always a top prospect with the Yanks since being drafted. Marquez fits in better with the Garland, Danks and Floyd group, based on potential, stuff and performance in the minors than with Grilli, Glover and Masset. I don't think it was his "rationale" for why Marquez won't be a good major leaguer. I think it was more to show how comparing Marquez to Danks, Floyd, and Garland is silly. All were far better prospects.

Marquez's AFL performance: 9 G, 5 GS...24.0 IP, 29 H, 10 BB, 20 K, 5.63 ERA, 1.63 WHIP All statistical signs point to him not being Major League ready.

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 20, 2008 -> 02:47 PM) Alright... let's play this in reverse. If he had a career minor league ERA in the mid 4's with no years in the 3's... except for one... which just happened to be the most recent season... How many people would be saying "the other 4 bad years don't count... projections should only be based on his most recent (good) year"? LOL. I think the answer is zero. These aren't established veteran players. We are talking about prospects, and the most important thing to see from prospects is progression. So looking at his minor league performance from 3 years ago tells you basically nothing about what kind of player he is now. He better not be the player he was 3 years ago or even 2 years ago for that matter. Next year is a huge year for Marquez, but I highly doubt we see him get much action in the majors. You can project off minor league statistics. They are entirely too misleading.

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 20, 2008 -> 10:01 AM) Danks had around a 5.00 ERA in AA; and a 4.33 ERA in AAA. Do you find it hard to believe that he is performing better than that in the AL? And Jeff Marquez had a 3.65 or lower ERA in 4 of his 5 minor league seasons. I'm not suggesting that Marquez is going to step up and pitch at that level, but why cherry pick his ONE sub-par year to try and suggest that he's not any good. Danks was 20 and 21 years old when he put those stats up in AA and AAA respectively. Marquez was 22 and 23 years old at the same levels. That's a huge difference when comparing the two. As far as projecting Marquez, scouting reports from 3 years ago don't do it for me. From what I've read that's been written recently, there are still questions about his curve and change. He's a project. I'm not putting much stock into him.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 18, 2008 -> 12:29 AM) Taking into consideration that he has a screw in his elbow, there's absolutely no reason not to take it year by year at this point. ^^^

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 15, 2008 -> 05:06 AM) But the other team doesn't want to give up a big inning....so they walk David Ortiz in the first to face Manny Ramirez with runners on first and second? Not wisel First, we don't have Manny Ramirez hitting behind Carlos. Second, maybe they don't "intentionally" walk Carlos, but you can be damn sure he's being pitched to differently with a base open and no stolen base threat on 1B.

This should be an article for the Onion.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 12, 2008 -> 09:30 PM) The Reds still have an offer out to Jerry Hairston Jr. He would fill a need at center field and leadoff hitter. "There's not really a deadline," Jocketty said of Hairston. "We'd like to move a bit on that next week." Wonder if Hairston's even close to being on KW's radar screen? God I hope not.