Balta1701

Whoever got signed as a coach...you'd sour on them in 3 years.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 03:49 AM) I think tonight's loss was the worst of the season. Chance to pick up a game on Twins. Floppola. We are not looking like a team that is gonna scare Minnie at all. Really? Tonight was the worst loss of the season? I can pick about 4 that I think were worse just against Minnesota.

Andruw Jones is a perfect example of why you shouldn't look at batting average as a useful stat. Andruw Jones has hit .210 the last 2 years combined. However...he's hit a very powerful .210. He doesn't make contact often, but he hits the ball out of the park when he does. He has a .774 OPS over the last 2 seasons. And perhaps more worth noting...he has a 101 OPS+ over the last 2 years. Since a 100 OPS+ is an average run producer...he's been right around average in run production for an OF over the last 2 years. Basically, Andruw Jones is a solid replacement OF. He's good on defense and can cover multiple positions. He shouldn't be playing every day because he'll wear down (see: early this season). He's not going to get a lot of hits. But...when he does get a hit, it's got a very good chance of leaving the park. Because he hits it out so often, he generates a lot more runs than most people with a .210 batting average. If you were insisting on going with a rotating DH position, and you had a guy like Quentin who you'd want to move to the DH position a lot to keep him healthy, Jones is an ideal guy to do that with. He's not a liability with the glove (and is in fact an upgrade), he's not a severe liability with the bat, and especially if you put him in against a LHP (.822 OPS) he's actually something of a dangerous hitter.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 09:04 AM) Yes. See what just happened with Johnny Damon and the Red Sox. The Red Sox claimed him, the Tigers and Red Sox were willing to make a deal, but Damon used his NTC to block the deal. He cannot be placed on waivers again this season. Can he still be placed on irrevocable waivers? i.e. if the team was just happy to get rid of his salary and was willing to take nothing back, could they put him on waivers again?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 06:20 PM) That's our entire system anyway. Viciedo/Sale. After that, it's embarrassing. No one from our 40 man roster can be traded without having to pass through waivers as well. That means Viciedo, Sale, Flowers, Harrell, Torres all aren't options.

Former RNC Chairman and Bush 2004 campaign manager Ken Mehlman comes out of the closet.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 04:54 PM) Wouldn't that be pretty risky hoping that no one at all claims him. Once it gets past the Sox...the only real legitimate team that might claim him is the Rays. And frankly, if I were the Rays and I could afford the salary...I'd absolutely jump at the chance. Their DH spot has been as weak as ours.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 04:42 PM) Guillen hasn't even been starting consistently in SF, has he? It seems he's more like their 4th outfielder. Unless his playing time has changed a lot in the last 7-10 days. Guillen has 1 DNP since being acquired, and that was yesterday, when the Giants started Cody Ross, who they claimed on Waivers from the Marlins.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 04:23 PM) Who is playing RF for Giants? They won't take Burrell out of left, he's been good for them since they got him and Manny is every bit as bad on D as Burrell can be. If they're shaky in right, I could see them claiming, although, I'm sure any team, including the White Sox, are going to have to do some back channel checking on Manny and see if he wants to play for the team, worst thing would be to claim him, Dodgers walk and you have Manny sore again or coming to your team and ripping it up The Giants picked up Jose Guillen from the Royals off of waivers to cover their RF spot. Their corner OF's have just been flat out bad this season.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:50 PM) what is the timetable for making a claim? how long does each team have? Is it simultaneous? Each team has 49 hours to submit a claim. All teams submit claims during that 49 hour period. Once that period ends, if a team has claimed him, the 2 teams have 2 days again to work out a deal, pull the player back, or to let him go with no compensation. The Dodgers could let him go immediately, or they could hold on for a couple days to try to work out a better deal for both sides. If more than 1 team has claimed him, it goes immediately to the team with the highest priority. The NL has the first shot...if no NL team places a claim, it goes to AL teams by worst record. The Sox have worse records than anyone else legitimately in the playoff race, so there's no logical reason why anyone in the AL other than the Sox would claim him.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:44 PM) Could any NL teams stick him in LF? Phils? Too expensive for a PH, right? The Phils have Ibanez out there, so while that'd be an expensive platoon...he also potentially makes sense there.

QUOTE (RudyLawRules @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:38 PM) I agree...with the only problem for an NL team claiming him is that they have to put him the OF daily. Not sure how wise it is to have a butcher out there in a pennant stretch. Flipside...if the NL team has the horses to hide him in the OF and make it to the WS...you get yourself a nice DH for the AL away games. Like I said about the Giants...they already have butchers out there in the OF, and they're butchers with worse bats.

QUOTE (C_LEE45 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:30 PM) what team should we worry about claiming manny? Basically NL teams. The Sox are the AL team with the worst record of any that are still in the race. Someone like Detroit might just to spite us, but $4 million is a lot of money for spite. No one in the West will. Toronto won't. I can potentially still see the Giants or the Braves rolling the dice on him. He can't possibly be worse than Jose Guillen for the Giants, for example.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:12 PM) I'm willing to admit he may have been using steroids over that period. Personally, I don't really care. I think you're incredibly naive regarding who has used and who has not, and you would probably be heartbroken and want to quit being a fan of baseball if you knew who had used steroids over the last decade. For $5 million, I'll take the risk without thinking twice. Even this year, Manny has posted a .396 OBP. I'm not looking at any data, but my guess is .450-500 ABs at a .396 OBP is worth $5 million easily. One thing I will say is that the Sox might be a good fit for him next year in 1 particular sense...in that if he does get hurt, the Sox have several versatile options that could be plugged in as a replacement. Assuming the Sox spend some money this offseason to keep a backup OF of the quality of Jones or better on their roster...if you plug Manny in to the DH spot and expect 400 PA's from him, and he gives you 100, with Quentin, Teahen, and Viciedo still on the roster as options, that's a potential way to cover up for a ManRam injury

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:11 PM) So what's the absolute earliest day we could see him in a Sox uniform if everything worked out perfectly? If the Dodgers put him on waivers today...Saturday.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:58 PM) No, I'm arguing that he was caught using a masking agent one time. You're making the implication that therefore, since he was an amazingly talented hitter before that, he must have been using steroids throughout that entire time. That is a f***ing huge implication. I'm certainly saying it's plausible that he was using the entire time. You could make the case to me in reply that he only started using once he went to the Dodgers because he was trying to extend his career and although I'd be skeptical I'd have to admit you had a point...if it wasn't for 1 piece of data...the reported 2003 positive test. Yes, I only have 2 examples...but they're 2 separate examples 6 years apart. So either Manny Ramirez has been the unluckiest steroid abuser in history such that every time he's juiced he's immediately been tested and caught, or there is a significant history there covering the better part of at least 1 decade. If you're a GM and you're thinking about signing him next year, you have to keep in your mind the strong possibility that he's been juicing for years and is now officially off the stuff. If you offer him $5 million...you better get some sort of insurance on it, or do something else to protect yourself, because it's entirely plausible that his body is as used up as it can be.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:52 PM) It's entirely believable that Manny Ramirez has used steroids over the course of his entire 16 year career because he once tested positive for a woman's fertility drug. That is a huge, huge leap to make. Oh man come on, you're not going to give us the "it was just a fertility drug" nonsense defense are you? Really, that's flat out indefensible. Anyway...I'm also counting the 2003 list which his name has been reported to be on.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:35 PM) Wow. Both of you are really stretching things here. Do you even watch the guy hit? This is absolutely ridiculous. Guy has a 16 year career, no major injuries, and you guys are going to imply he has been a user his entire career. Ok. You realize...Steroids help you recover from minor injuries right? He may not have used his entire career. But if you're a GM...you don't offer him anything more than you would offer if he had used his own career...because it's entirely believable that he did.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:33 PM) His salary says otherwise. His salary says otherwise? Am I the only one that remembers how messy that negotiation was for ManRam? How he was talking about retiring because no one wanted to pay him the kind of money he deserved? How he basically held out from the Dodgers camp for a couple weeks to try to get the money, otherwise he wasn't coming at all?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:29 PM) Well for your situation, I know its sort of tough, because you don't even necessarily know where you will be in a year or two. That's a whole different ballgame, and I am not sure what the right course of action is for you. Rent, and if I get caught by a minor interest rate increase I don't really care long-term because even if they go up slightly, they won't go up a lot. It's a nice safe play, and it actually has the potential to even still pay off.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:29 PM) So do you think he started in 1994? The guy has been a freaking monster his entire career. Frankly, I don't know when he started, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out that he started before he even hit the majors.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:22 PM) Before Manny gets here I'd go with this for the 1st six spots: I've gotten the impression that Konerko has this weird mental thing about the 3 spot. He's hit in the 3 spot over 200 times in his career and his OPS there is over 100 points lower than in the 4 spot.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:18 PM) Decades of steroid abuse? Riiiight. 2003-2009 is at least the better part of a decade, and I'm not going to think that he just happened to start in 2003 right before the initial tests.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:22 PM) No, I'm really not, Northside. You're trying to pick out flaws in one of the best hitters of the modern era when your current DH is a Mark Kotsay/Andruw Jones platoon. That's like me turning down an Audi because I don't like the color when I'm driving a Ford Festiva. I just don't want to pay the price for the Audi and then discover that it's got the engine of the Festiva stuck in there.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 02:17 PM) That's a great example of what I was saying - when you are talking about the last few % points of value around the bottom of a market, trying to play those last few out gives you a lot less gain and more risk than if you get in now while rates are low. And as you also pointed out, and as everyone I talk to in the sector agrees, inflation and interest rates have to rise pretty soon. No one knows exactly when pretty soon is, but it is basically inevitable in the relatively near term. Balta, if you want to try to find that perfect bottom, I'd suggest going to a night club instead of playing the market timing game. Anyway, now the issue is I'm back to expecting to move within a year or two and I don't know exactly when.