Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 24, 2016 -> 03:51 PM) The more they have opened up the playbook, the worst he has looked. He has zero arm strength so he has to anticipate where his receivers will be more than most. Most of his picks seem to be putting the ball into an area where the WR doesn't end up going. I lost count of how many were tipped by Bears WOs

QUOTE (farmteam @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 02:11 PM) Plus, in a nuclear arms race, there's a point where it simply doesn't make sense. With 7000 nukes (or whatever we have right now), we can blow up the world 10 times over. What's the point in adding more? To prove we have bigger d***s.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 12:20 PM) Sounds like the ending of War Games. Yup. Basically that really happened. So yeah, probably good reason not to push these things.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 02:12 PM) Brett Gardner going back to the Pirates would make sense. Yanks get McCutchen Sox get Glasnow. Rutherford and Newman or someone Pirates get Q and Gardner Probably someone would have to throw some cash at Pirates. The Pirates don't need an extra OF. They have 4 OF right now, if they took Gardner back they'd still have 4 starting OF.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 01:22 PM) I think you just cross that bridge when you get there. Someone may get hurt, someone may be ineffective, guys may find really nice homes in the bullpen. If the Sox are in a position where they have 5 elite starters and another elite SP prospect on the farm trust me, nobody will be complaining. That said they need another couple position player prospects and unless they really plan on Robertson for Robles/Conforto (yeah, right) this Quintana trade is their last opportunity to really load up on premier hitting talents until the draft. Come on, read your own post - "this wouldn't be a bad thing but yeah it would be a questionable to bad thing". Anyway, the one thing I'm now keeping in the back of my mind telling me that it would be ok to go for more pitching is how we're seeing the price of the 1b/DH types plummet this year. You could go out and get an Abreu and a Frazier and add 70 HR to a lineup at a pretty low price right now, so if you have a couple of dynamic players from your team you could fill holes cheaper than previous.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 01:05 PM) Did I miss a reference to getting back Taillon here? Was it Glasnow? My Bad, I keep crossing them up. Same basic concept. Glasnow should start this year in the big leagues if healthy. Add up the pitchers we have and by the time we have Kopech ready to go we're out of slots in the rotation unless Rodon is moved.

Taking back Taillon makes sense on paper but yeah, there's no room in the rotation for him. So yeah, I'd be less happy about that.... Basically the end result of taking Taillon back is that by the middle part of 2018 we're going to have to trade Rodon.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 09:43 AM) While I don't think you can allow Russia to have superior nuclear technology, this highlights probably my greatest fear with Trump as president, the fact he may do something stupid or drive other countries to do something stupid. Reading some people pointing out that a big driver in the US and Russia pulling back from an "arms race" is that an arms race pushes the probability of accidents higher - there's a legendary 20 minute stretch in 1983 when a Soviet computer sent out a false alarm saying the U.S. had launched missiles at the Soviets and it came down to basically one guy saying his gut said it was a false alarm and waiting 20 minutes to see if he was vaporized to avoid a retaliatory strike.

Op-ed piece by UNC Professor who helped develop index to judge how close to being a representative democracy countries were argues that North Carolina would by that standard no longer count as a democracy and is on about the same level of representative government as Cuba and Iran.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 11:22 AM) Updated with Maoist self criticism session.

Trade? Isn't Davis a free agent?

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 12:08 PM) I think the White Sox end up getting Glasnow, Rutherford, Andujar, Keller, and I really like that package. If they could somehow swing getting Diaz as well, it would be an outright fantastic package. I would keep saying that I couldn't deal with the Pirates without Meadows...but yeah, I couldn't turn something down close to this.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 06:10 AM) How does this heat up the Frazier market, like, at all? Because they both hit 40 homers? How is that even a hot market? He'd be an upgrade to quite a few teams, but, even if I agree with them selling on him, he's not going to net a ton. Maybe a couple of 45-50 FV prospects with upside. Guys who are 3-5 years away. I'm OK with that return, but that's not a hot market. There's finally a price point of comparison for the 1b/DH types. If no one would buy EE, then you can just wait until he falls into Frazier's price range.

On paper, the ALCS and WS will be 2 spectacular weeks this year. Boston/Cleveland and the winner getting CHC.

QUOTE (Soxnfins @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 11:58 AM) My philosophy on this is that you cannot trade a TOR guy without acquiring a talented pitching prospect back. ESPECIALLY a lefty. That's why Sale doesn't get done without Kopech, regardless of Moncada. . You don't trade pitching straight for hitting, you trade it for both, even though you sacrifice a higher ceiling positional prospect. Position players are different, you can trade them for high ceiling pitching prospects and a mid tier positional prospect. The Sox know what they are doing. Bah, we just did a trade where we sent away a position player and brought back 3 pitchers. That would be your offsetting move.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 04:30 PM) Balta, what is a good Pirates message board? Trying to get a feel for what they think. I found a few, but very little action on the Q talk. No clue, never had reason to look.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 04:27 PM) And they'll all be unable to resist the shine of "guaranteed rate" branding. Naked Ty Pennington is blinding.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 03:28 PM) I've seen a lot of comments like this too from Pirates fans. Like they want them to get Q at all costs but are very skeptical the organization will actually do it. If there was ever a guy to put all your chips on, it would be someone as durable and consistent and cheap as Q. This sounds a lot like the Pirate fanbase to me.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 02:29 PM) Lmao. Don't we have like 7,000 warheads or something like that. Correct. Probably worth noting that yesterday Mr. Putin in a speech talked about expanding Russia's arsenal as well.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 01:37 PM) Could be that some team has met the price asked, and it's time for all the others to try to top it or look for another 5.0 WAR a year pitcher that is controlled for 4 more years at $38 million. I think this is probably true, at the very least some team is close enough that this seems likely to happen within a reasonable time period.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 01:09 PM) Abreu at the deadline or next offseason might be a better market for a slugger like him, agreed At those times guys like Hosmer, Duda, and Carlos Santana will be available as 1b options and you add in some OF candidates like Cabrera, Werth, Beltran, Granderson, Holliday, Frazier, and Bruce who all might be seen by teams as a DH option if they don't retire or get suspended. Plus anyone like Alvarez who winds up on a 1 year deal this season. The DH/1b market doesn't look like it has a very good chance of being that much better in the next year, at least to my eyes. Teams aren't jumping on these players now and I don't see openings that will make that change.

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 09:12 AM) Friend is a diehard Pirates fan and said this about Glasnow: "he struggled a bit in the majors, velocity was down, and seemed unable/unwilling to throw changeups even in the minors. I wonder if they're ready to move on from him" That being said, he barely pitched in the majors, right? Yeah, he had a shoulder injury last year and only started 4 games in the bigs. That said, he threw 110 innings at AAA last year with an ERA under 2, so while they might have been a bit flustered by him getting hurt again, the numbers in the minors for a 22 year old are screaming "TOR pitcher". The thing they're worried about more than anything else with him was control. See, I'm cool, I can use that abbreviation too.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 09:01 AM) They should definitely do that trade if offered it, but the Pirates aren't trading four top 100 guys in the same deal and I think they'd like to keep one of Glasnow & Keller. I think if you swap out Keller for Diaz you might have something that's a bit more realistic and still a haul for us. Ultimately I think if Meadows is untouchable, then we must get both Glasnow & Bell. If they're holding onto Meadows...then the basic question I'd ask is why they need to go out and get a #2 starting pitcher right now and why that's a priority rather than giving Bell, Meadows, and Glasnow time to develop? Yes, Quintana will still help them in 2018 and 2019, but why pay the premium price to get him in 2017 if you're transitioning Meadows into the OF?

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 08:28 AM) If Meadows really is "untouchable" is there a package that would work. Would the Pirates do Bell, Glasnow, Keller, and Newman? Would/Should we do that? If Meadows is untouchable then I can't see how them doing any deal for Quintana makes sense until they know what can happen with McCutchen.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 21, 2016 -> 05:32 PM) Or actual trades. Two weeks since Eaton, I'm a little surprised they haven't made another one since. Just going to be a long process over the next year. one of the ESPNers (Buster?) had an article today where they discussed this being the slowest offseason they can remember, everyone is holding out waiting for prices to drop. Edit: full piece and quote and Insider Version