Balta1701

According to Fangraphs Player Value, Crawford was $1.6 million this year, while Adam Dunn was -$13.1 million (you read that right). That means Adam Dunn underperformed his contract in the Fangraphs world by $27 million, Crawford by $19 million.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 04:01 PM) Yeah, I just finally got to that quote you posted. Jesus Christ. KW. WTF buddy. I really wish we'd just have cleaned house. You know, if Swisher had actually hit, it probably would have been a tolerable solution for a year or two.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:57 PM) This just isn't true. Their core of young players is the problem. Actually I'd say that's quite true. The Sox got a ton out of their young players this year. The only one I'd legitimately say was absolutely disappointing was Beckham, and he was balanced by guys like Santos, Lillibridge, and Humber well overperforming. When you ask who the 3 players were who underperformed the most, you still come back to Peavy, Rios, and Dunn, and they're not in the "Core of young players".

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:58 PM) While I agree that KW has made many, many mistakes, he had no intention on Swisher playing CF that season. Unless you believe Kenny Williams.

New Fox News national poll (no national primary noted again) with a big shakeup from the last poll (previous poll, 8/29-8/31, in brackets). Anyone know what Gingrich did that would have caused a significant surge?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:19 PM) Simmons

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:48 PM) Please explain how you'd pick Bautista over Ellsbury, Miggy, AGon & Granderson. He quite simply has the best numbers with the bats.

Everybody hurts.

Awesome. Maybe now that the seasons' over we should start a different thread and leave this one to you?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:29 PM) A short term stint for a sore elbow? Most pitchers have that sort of thing come up. Not what I'd consider a warning flag. Really the only significant indicator of risk I saw with him was mechanical, and that is a roll of the dice. I just don't see blaming Kenny on this one. Plenty of other moves to blame him for. A short term DL stint for a problem associated with his mechanics? Come on man. This is like Stras blowing his elbow out. Yeah, it was sad to have it happen, but you had to know it was possible.

You go away!

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:12 PM) I have to agree with Chisoxfn... Dunn was neither Kenny nor Ozzie's fault, no one saw this coming for him. Peavy had one injury, and ankle injury unrelated to pitching, so I don't fault him for that either. Swisher was questionable defensively, that's on Kenny but not a big deal. Kenny's biggest misses were Rios and the Hudson trade, he outright blundered those. Again, with Peavy, this really isn't true. He hasn't had anything "Major" before of the sort that would require surgery, but he has had elbow problems in the past, including in 2008, the year before the Sox traded for him. He didn't actually pop anything, but he was a power pitcher with mechanical and elbow issues before he ever came to the Sox. There was a reasonable chance he was going to get hurt. ESPN version added.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:59 PM) You mean like an unemployment tax? Or a shovel ready jobs program? Yeah, why weren't those things thought of. Because if the stimulus package wasn't 60% tax cuts it couldn't pass. Tax cuts, after all, are important. Spending takes a while to get out the door, and this Southsider2k5 convinced me in early 2009 that the economy would be fine by 2011 if we front-loaded all of the stimulus money as tax cuts.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:02 PM) I think the government hiring the people who are out of work and putting them towards rebuilding America is a great idea. I feel however that the unions might not be on board. Well let me rephrase that, they will be on board as long as this temporary force pays union dues. I think this, plus adding tax incidentives to companies that hire unemployed people, including a sliding scale of tax incentives for hiring the 99ers. If only someone would propose these things!!!!!

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:59 PM) You got me there, but Rios' career stats scream "average player" to me. 21 homers, 88 rbi's last year, good slugging percentage, nice year especially for him. 17, 71 the year before 14, 62 the year before 15, 79 theyear before 24, 85 in 2007. His other "good year." I guess conceivably he could bounce back next year at the age of 31. I don't think it'll have anything to do with the manager. It'll have everything to do with what's in that guy's head. I wonder if he has performance bonuses in his contract. He's the guy who needs some. If Alex Rios was an "Average player" with the bat and played a good CF while running the bases effectively, he'd be very very valuable. CF Defense is hard to come by. We learned this repeatedly. Moderate production from CF would be stellar. I think if anything gets through to him, it happens in the offseason. He was dumped unceremoniously by the Blue Jays and spent the next offseason working hard with Walker to get back into a groove. He then had a solid year and spent the offseason and spring training partying with no one to push him the whole time.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:48 PM) Where were you going to play Swisher with Quentin in left and Dye in right? God I hate having to do this. I really do. Marty's right. The USA Today Passan The fact that Alexei was there in CF on opening day was anqother of Ozzie's classic lineup experiments, like Jerry Owens in LF and Carlos Quentin on the bench. Gonzo

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:50 PM) I didn't realize that 2010 was a contract year. It wasn't.

You know what would help with that? If the Federal government were to come up with some plan whereby they chipped in an increased amount towards covering state-level unemployment benefits, maybe along with some reforms to help people move back into the work force easier if they're trapped in "Unemployed need not apply" land. Hell, we could even have the government hire people to rebuild stuff, that would even take them off the unemployment rolls and make unemployment costs cheaper for other businesses. It seems like we have plenty of bridges and stuff that still need fixed. Why hasn't anyone proposed a plan to do that?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:37 PM) The sad part is that from the sounds of it, he has his best CF playing 2B. Unless you're referring to Uribe, Alexei didn't look like he deserved a second of playing time until May, when Uribe got hurt. I can still remember how stunned I was that the guy who looked like he belonged in single-A in April came out in May and started hitting everything in sight.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 12:18 PM) But without Quentin for the final month down the stretch, wouldn't the same scenario have played out in all likelihood? Bourn put up a .675-ish OPS for them, .320 OBP. They needed 1 extra game. Even if Carlos had gotten hurt, putting Carlos out there for all of August might well have found them that extra win.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 01:58 PM) The good news, Peter King will be distraught, but will still yap incessantly about coffee. The bad news, the Red Sox will go nuts this offseason trying to acquire pitching and patch up their offensive holes. They'll throw 10 players at Seattle trying to trade for Felix Hernandez and maybe go after C.J. Wilson and C.C. Sabathia if he opts out. Plus, Jacoby Ellsbury will get busted for HGH. And consdering they still have needs, John Danks will be on their list.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:32 PM) I'd throw my best versus my best. The last thing you want is to go down 1-0 without throwing your #1 out there. Fister and Scherzer are better than the other Yanks SPs on most days, anyway. Have you seen the kind of numbers Ivan Nova put up this season?

Not on the candidates themselves here, but the Caucus/Primary date shuffle has officially begun once again. South Carolina has already indicated they'll move their primary up again in order to jump ahead of Florida.

By the way, anyone other than me have an urge to go dredge up the trade deadline threads where the Braves passed on Carlos Quentin and had Michael Bourn as their only big deadline addition?

Globe