ScottyDo

While Jenks' deal is pretty fair and Crain's was a little lucrative for my blood, I voted for Crain because it's time for a shakeup there, IMO. Plus, I just have a feeling Crain won't wet the bed v. the Twins, which is what finally soured me on Bobby a little. I'll miss the hideousness of his bearded face, though. Is that a poll option?

WTF? 1.5M, really? Wow. Okay, it's your career, Wood.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 02:48 PM) Didn't they retire BA's number when he left? I believe they're waiting till just before his HOF induction.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 02:40 PM) I didn't want to turn this into a Jake Peavy thread, I just found it funny that of all the awesome deals Kenny Williams has made (there are many), the writer points out Jake Peavy. Yah, good point. I guess it was his highest profile move, and that's usually what national writers glom onto.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 02:34 PM) Well, yeah, no one said "dude sucks when healthy". I know, I'm just sayin there was a huge potential reward component to the risk you rightly pointed out

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 02:04 PM) Peavy was on and off the DL with elbow concerns his entire tenure with the Padres. He spent most of 2008 with pain in his elbow, and for a power pitcher, that's not good. He's been on the DL in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, and 2004. Note the year not included in that list, and what he did that year (yeah, 2005's not on there either, but whatever!) I don't think the move was un-smart, but rather high-risk, high-reward. You can't mind a couple of those moves, since low-risk, high-reward moves are rare.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 02:08 PM) Ahh, Rich Harden. What could have been. Could still be, he's young-ish yet. Stranger things have happened than a player, beset by injuries early in his career, lucking into a few healthy seasons.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 01:23 PM) It's Chris Getz. You don't need to look at the numbers to remember he sucked, but when you do, it certainly reinforces that thought. Right; I remembered him being not good but I didn't recall that he was atrocious. Whoops! Between my selective memory and selective listening, I live in a pleasantly-filtered little world where TCQ deserves his T and MacDougal's stellar half-season made him a worthwhile pickup.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 11:06 PM) Could have been an accident. This might have been prevented if the original owner didn't leave the dog go astray. Could be. An arrow straight through the abdomen just screams "sick freak" to me, though. Maybe if it was a graze, or at some odd angle or something...plus, if you're a decent human being and you accidentally shoot a dog through the abdomen, don't you do something about it? He probably ran, but I'd go after him. Anyway, speculation. Good on ya, Buehrles!

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 13, 2010 -> 04:01 AM) I always disliked Teahen (baseball speaking), but at least he makes me laugh and seems like a cool guy. Mark Kotsay brought NOTHING to the table but a hot wife. I dunno though, she's preeeeetty hot. 1 year, $550k couldn't hurt, right?

Nielsens are antiquated and unreliable, especially with how media has changed over the past 10ish years. That said, they probably reflect the team hierarchy pretty well as I bet the baseball fanbase is relatively homogeneous across teams.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 07:01 PM) If Mark is interested in pitching beyond this year, getting his contract option picked up would be big time motivation. Okay, now I'm confused. I thought the option in his contract went away when he hit 10/5? Or does it just not vest automatically anymore? It can still be picked up?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 06:53 PM) It's all speculation right now. Gotcha, carry on!

Where is the assumption coming from that MB would accept a trade? Has he said as much somewhere?

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 12:46 AM) There are worse options. I don't really understand the Andruw hate. Not the best player in the world, but in his last 2 seasons, in 559 AB he's hit 36 HR, 91 RBI, 90 BB, 145 K, OPS>.800. I would be very interested in seeing someone give him a starting role or at least a majority role and see what he does. His production has pretty much mirrored (or bettered) Quentin's the last 2 seasons, with better defense. I do not love Andruw Jones, nor do I advocate given him the starting gig, but I wouldn't be too mad to see him in RF if a Quentin trade gave up some much need SP and RP depth. To me, it's about the injury risk, K/bad AB rate, and potential price tag of ~4M that some have been throwing out there. $4M's not bad for that type of production, but again, the injury risk makes me want to say nay. I wouldn't actually hate the move or anything, you could certainly do worse, but i'd rather flip the coin on CQ.

QUOTE (pktmotion @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 12:23 AM) ...Scott Podsednik, Luis Vizcaino, and Travis Hinton. oh wait. Carlos QUENTIN joking aside I think Quentin stays. You don't move what could be an integral part of a potent lineup for bullpen help. But, I guess it's all predicated on how well they like Andruw Jones in RF. Hahaha yeah I guess that's why the CLee comparisons were drawn. Personally, I'd be fine keeping him despite the poor RF defense. I think one of these years he will regain truly dominant form. I just hope it's with us. If it were the right outfielder in the CLee-like deal, I'd probably pull the trigger, though. Yeah, can't depend on Andruw, and I wouldn't like risking the attempt.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 12:06 AM) Again I ask.... what would a reasonable expectation for a package coming back for Quentin??? I'd be down with a young, defending outfielder who still has something to prove and a veteran reliever of either handedness, plus a 'spect

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 03:24 PM) So are you saying you are still developing your wing-wang? It can still grow!!!! ........

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 07:42 PM) It shortens the bat and the area that you can hit with. You can count on one hand the guys who've choked up in the last 10 years. If guys like Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn and Ted Williams didn't do it, then I fail to see the overall value. Well, I think it might have value for people who can't do the longball thing, but the trend over the last 10 years has been "long ball pays" so there probably aren't a lot of guys willing to work on it. Pierre's a candidate, though. The reason I brought up Polanco earlier in the thread is that he's next to impossible to strike out, and thus pretty valuable, and part of that ability may be his superior bat control due to choking up.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 07:29 PM) I drunkenly ran into Kerry Wood at a bar last night, gave him my best pitch to sign with the sox and he said "can't do it man". You heard it here first Nobody tell Cowley! Awesome story, though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 07:13 PM) The problem is...if he's already got a fairly quick bat, a lighter bat will translate to less power. Juan Pierre with less power. Think about that for a momen. I think that's the hazard of choking up in general. He may actually be more valuable with an increased contact rate and even less power, though I'm not sure. I mean, at this point you're really talking about zero power anyway, so it might make sense. I dunno, I'm actually not really advocating this change, but it might be worth considering. Polanco has made a decent living choking up, and he was sure a thorn in our sides. There are many ways in which using Polanco as a model fails, though, since Polanco still made it over the fence on a somewhat frequent basis.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 07:08 PM) If he doesn't choke up, he can get to the outside pitches and flip the ball into left field. Can't he get a longer, lighter bat and have the same effect while improving his leverage? I don't know bat regulations.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 06:56 PM) It would be like taking candy from a baby. All you would have to do is tweet the posts of the people who know what they are talking about on here and you would kick his ass all over the place. I'm not above taking candy from the right baby...

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 06:32 PM) I'm of the opinion the Sox have more money to spend than they are leading on and will do so regardless of ticket sales. KW always says he's out of money . . . If it's ever known that you have money to spend on payroll, you'd better spend it or risk pissing off a LOT of fans, so you're right, it's always best to say you don't have any. I've used that trick on my girlfriend before This, of course, has nothing to do with whether or not they do have the cash budgeted.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 06:15 PM) He's absolutely guessing, just as he's been all offseason. This "real time" has been about 20 hours. Not much has changed except KW taking in a Bulls game and going to sleep. Cowley now says if he can't trade Quentin, maybe Viciedo or Teahan. Sorry, I could come up with these tweets without talking to anyone or getting any inside scoop. Its not like KW has a lot of guy he realistically could trade where he could get salary relief and useful players in return. Exactly what would he get for Teahen? If "Phillip from the Tribune" had Cowley's record predicting the future this offseason, Cowley would have a field day. Did you see the tweets that said KW "destroyed" Rogers? KW "destroyed" Cowley today. Its time to have a field day at his expense. It might actually be a fun experiment to try this: tweet whatever you see based on a little online research and see if you can scoop Cowley at every turn. That'd REALLY piss him off.