RME JICO

AJ is a class act, how many players do or say this: Thanks AJ!

Yeah, I don't think trading both Jose and Jon would be the best option for the Sox. Most players turn down the first offer, sometimes it is due to money, and sometimes years, so I don't think this is a big deal. My prediction is Jose is signed for 3 yrs for $10 mill a year. If there is more to this than we know, could it be something to do with the El Duque trade?

Man that would take away a lot of options for the Sox. It looks like nothing will happen until tomorrow anyway: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/s...dbacks1219.html

QUOTE(AnthraxFan93 @ Dec 17, 2005 -> 09:50 PM) Wish I could say I made it.. I got it off another board from a buddy who loves Dime like you and I do. Dime was awesome playing for Megadeth or was it Anthrax?

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Dec 19, 2005 -> 02:41 PM) Paid a little more than I thought I saw 3yr 12 mil package .......I like AJ and glad he is back but may have overpaid a little. Overpaid? He is going to make $5.5 million in 2008. That is a great deal for a starting catcher who handles the staff as well as he does. Also, his fielding numbers were pretty good too: .999 fielding percentage 119-game errorless streak This is just one more piece of the foundation that KW is building here. The Sox have a ton of players locked up for at least 2-3 years now, which is nice to see.

If it is 7 DVDs, it could be one for the regular season, one for the ALDS, one for the ALCS, and then four for the WS with the post game show and parade as "Special Features".

I think the bottom line is Joe's health. The Sox don't want to trade him, but if they had to package him to upgrade at that position, then so be it. No team wants questions marks when it comes to a player's health, and when you couple that with another issue like a bad agent, then it makes parting with players that much easier. I personally would love to see Joe carry his post season momentum into a solid consistent year at the plate. Let Mack come in once a week to give Joe's back some rest and to give Mack some AB's.

There should be several middle relievers available that will not be offered arbitration by Tuesday, so KW can pick one or two up that way. If I remember correctly, that is how he snatched AJ up last year. There is probably a 99.9% chance that Timo will be non-tendered, while the Sox will shop Willie and Jon. I assume the Sox will tender everyone minus Timo.

QUOTE(JoeBatterz @ Dec 18, 2005 -> 06:07 PM) Why not just do this once every 4 years at the Olympics? I am not sold on this format and I doubt I will have much interest. Won't March Madness being going on at the same time? It is going to be every 4 years after the initial years of 2006 and 2009. Yes, March Madness and WBC are at the same time.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Dec 15, 2005 -> 08:04 PM) I appreciate your rant but feel you underrate the contribution the departed players made. Great post Fathom! Now, TLAK, you are joking right? You add up the stats of the departed guys and ask how we are going to replace those numbers? For offense, how about with Thome, Anderson, and Mackowiak. Pitching? I know you are really joking there. Marte, Viz, and El Duque? Those are the pitchers we lost. Are you saying that the Sox cannot do better than that? Are you saying that B-Mac alone is not an upgrade from El Duque? I understand you didn't want to break up the team, and no one is taking away what the departed Sox did to win the WS, but that was LAST YEAR. If it wasn't for moves like this the Sox would never have won in 2005. They would have had a couple massive contracts with Mags, CLee, and the Big Hurt, and they would not have had AJ, Gooch, Count, Freddy, Pods, Hermie, Uribe, or JD to name a few. Also, KW is not done. Worried about the bullpen, well after the next move or two, I am sure the Sox will be set in the bullpen, and probably add a couple of prospects ro ease the pain of losing Gio, Haig, and Young.

QUOTE(mmmmmbeeer @ Dec 15, 2005 -> 03:32 PM) What was the point of getting Mackowiak if Joe is on the block? I posted a question a few days ago concerning Joe possibly dumping Boras. I wonder if KW has even approached Joe about signing a deal or, if it's legal, encouraged Joe to dump Boras so that they can start negotiating a deal? Blalock just doesn't wow me with those road #'s. I have no doubt he'd hit well at the Cell, but why not keep Crede and trade Garland for some good prospects? Crede @ Home: .235 BA .281 OBP .441 SLG Blalock + High Level Prospect + Reliever > Crede + Garland

FYI, I don't know if this has been discussed, but Vazquez is pitching for PR in the WBC like Garcia and MB. I knew about Garcia and MB, but I just read about Vazquez for the first time.

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Dec 15, 2005 -> 03:04 PM) i'd just like to make one very important point borchard > pujols. trust me on this one guys. and also, lorenzo barcelo is coming back with a vengance. so resign him and don't trade him. Are you serious? Try borchard >>> pujols Borchard is WAY better defensively, and he also can crack a mean pistachio shell.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Dec 15, 2005 -> 02:58 PM) The only thing that might derail that is his back. That is the biggest factor, regardless of what he has done, if his back acts up and he has to have surgery, it will be a long road back (no pun intended). That is probably the main reason why his name keeps popping up. When trading players it normally comes down to contracts or health.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Dec 15, 2005 -> 02:42 PM) Rogers is suggesting Garland AND Crede for Hank Blalock. AAACCK. No thanks. Here's Blalock's pitiful numbers away from home: Away 334 26 77 20 0 5 29 21 1 70 0 0 .231 .276 .335 .611 .335 slugging? .276 OBP? I wouldn't trade Joe Crede for him straight up? And I'm sure you could get Crede signed right now for Blalock's deal, even with Scott Boras as his agent. Joe Crede is going to turn into a monster for the Sox in 2006, just like he was in the postseason. Wow Blalock is really bad away, but how is that different from being bad at home @ the Cell no less: 2005 at Home AJ .250 BA, .308 OBP, .448 SLG Crede .235 BA, .281 OBP, .441 SLG Uribe .234 BA, .285 OBP, .422 SLG Everett .217 BA, .285 OBP, .438 SLG I agree though, Crede looks like he is about to breakout.

Trades a SP for Middle Relief and Prospects. or Leases a "Party Boat" for his players.

Thanks for the review, mine is in the mail and I cannot wait to get it. I agree about the MLB one. I felt like they sped through everything to keep it at 75 minutes. Still nice to have though.

People don't go to Wrigley to watch baseball!

Last year the Sox lineup did not scare anyone. Most teams felt that if they could get a couple of runs off our starters that they could win, and that is basically what happened all year excluding the playoffs. So KW keeps the core of the team intact while upgrading specific targeted areas: He adds a LH power bat in Thome (who replaced Carl at DH), who will make the players around him better. The combo of Dye, Konerko, and Thome will immediately be one of the top 3-4-5 punches in the game, and they are playing half of their games at the Cell. He gives the Sox the best bench player in the game in Mack. He upgrades the pitching staff by going from El Duque to Vazquez, and gives himself flexibility to move Garland or Contreras if he cannot sign them to a new deal. If he can sign one of them to a multi year deal, we will have the same pitching staff thru at least 2007. This pitching staff would have 4 pitchers with 200+ innings and B-Mac as #5. If he doesn't move Jon or Count, the starting rotation will have 5 pitchers with 200+ innings. He rids the bullpen of the weakest links in Viz and Marte. So these are more addition by subtraction moves. He retains the core players of Konerko, Dye, Pods, AJ, Gooch, Uribe, Crede, while only losing Arow from the starting defensive lineup. So the way I see it, KW is setting this team up not only for a WS run in 2006, but 2007 and beyond.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Dec 14, 2005 -> 11:49 PM) While it angers me a little bit that Duque left, I just remembered his forays as a starter earlier last season. If I wanted to see four balls that often, I'd be out renting XXX gay porn. Classic!

No one is taking away anything that Jon did in 2005, he had a great year, and was a huge part in the Sox winning the WS. The problem is KW is planning for 2006 and beyond. He is not going to wait and see if Jon wants to sign a contract after testing the FA waters, since he already learned a $10-15 million lesson from Konerko about that. So since Jon already turned down the Sox offer, and he has stated that he would like to play on the West coast closer to home, then KW has to buy low and sell high. Also, Jon has been a disappointment until 2005. Who knows what would have happened if he had another 12-12 year with a 4.60 ERA. Even after his career year in 2005, he is still just average: Lifetime 64-61, 4.42 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, .265 BAA

QUOTE(mike12345 @ Dec 14, 2005 -> 04:35 PM) I also think we are still on the verge of making a big move. I really think Garland is going somewhere like Texas,Tampa or Baltimore. Maybe Crawford from TB or Wilkerson from TEX?

Vazquez is only 29, it is not like he is 34 or 35. He is not replacing Garland in the starting rotation, he is replacing Hernandez. You can also look at it this way if Garland goes: Vazquez (29) replaces Hernandez (40ish) McCarthy (22) replaces Garland (26) So the Sox get considerably younger.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Dec 14, 2005 -> 03:48 PM) Does anyone think Javier Vasquez is half the pitcher Jon Garland is? I don't. In fact, I think it is pretty clear that Javier Vasquez isn't a match for any of our top 5 pitchers, including Brandon McCarthy. He was 11-15 in the National League, which always improves pitchers' numbers because they don't have to pitch to a DH. Vazquez has the potential to be a lot better than Garland. Their numbers match up fairly good except that Vazquez stikeouts out more batters. Remember before this season Garland had never won more than 12 games. We all hope that Jon has turned the corner, but before this season he was a 5th pitcher, 4th at best. Garland 2004 - 12-11, 4.89 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, .269 BAA, 113 Ks, 76 BBs, 34 HRs, 217 IP Vazquez in AL 2004 - 14-10, 4.91 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, .255 BAA, 150 Ks, 60 BBs, 33 HRs, 198 IP Also, Vazquez has a higher ceiling: 241 K's in 2003 against 57 BBs in 230 IPs, 3.24 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, .229 BAA Vazquez also has 19 CG's in 256 starts compared to Jon's 5 CG's in 159 started. So how is really a better pitcher?

ESPN already has a poll up about the trade: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation...g?event_id=1920 and the two most obvious questions: