ScottyDo

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 12:44 PM) Easy. If nobody wants him, you DFA him. I don't think anyone wants to get rid of him just to get rid of him. I don't see how that would benefit the team at all. He's a fine bench player. Trading for another need makes sense. DFA doesn't, IMO.

QUOTE (scenario @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 12:33 PM) Tigers Offer Contract to Ex-Yankee Damon Published: Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 11:50 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 11:50 p.m. LAKELAND | Dave Dombrowski, president and general manager of the Detroit Tigers, confirmed Thursday that the club has offered a contract to free agent outfielder Johnny Damon. Negotiations between Dombrowski and Damon's agent, Scott Boras, have been reported over the past several weeks but there has never been an official confirmation by the Tigers, who, under Dombrowski, typically do not disclose anything about personnel matters until they are concluded. "I can confirm that we have talked (Dombrowski and Boras) and that we have offered him (Damon) a contract," Dombrowski said. Dombrowski would not say how much money or how many years were involved, but published reports have indicated Boras was initially seeking a two-year, $20 million deal. No team has offered anything even approaching that. The Tigers offer has been variously reported at two years for $14 million and one year for $7 million. Dombrowski would not confirm either number. "I would be very surprised if it's for more than one year," one source said. Tigers Manager Jim Leyland, as is his custom, would not comment on the Tigers' offer. This makes me very happy. Come ooooon random NFL scout! I will consider you a baseball guru if you come through for me on this one!

QUOTE (scenario @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 12:18 PM) Except Toby Hall. Nicely played sir

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 11:39 AM) Honestly, just about anyone with 2 legs and a glove can play 1B 20 times a season. Ooo! Ooo! I wanna play! I'll do it for league minimum, too!

In the hypothetical situation where Damon actually signs with us, we really would have a glut of outfielders. I really would condone trading Kotsay for an infield backup at that point, providing they're also a lefty.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 11:17 AM) If we sign damon i get rid of kotsay. But I know we won't. Wow, you're gonna hate him even if the DH situation is resolved by Damon? Call me crazy, but I think Kotsay is pretty great to have off the bench. Besides, who else will back up 1b? EDIT: I can see trading him for a proper CI backup, though. One who can play both 3b and 1b.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 06:54 PM) I don't think people realize just how bad Aaron Rowand really is. This. Hey! I did a "This."!

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 04:08 PM) Come on now, Boston has the second highest payroll. They each won the same amount of WS during that 4 year stretch. He left for the money, period. I doubt it's as one-dimensional as all that.

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 04:01 PM) This is the same guy who fled Boston, a place where he was treated as a God and then was referred to as Judas, for more money. To suggest he doesn't want the best deal is crazy. The Yankees were also a near-guaranteed winning team (yeah, I remember 2008). If they were an awful team I doubt he would have turncoated like that. Just goes to show how many different things factor into a contract decision. I don't envy him that. I do envy him the $248502635 contract he's going to "settle for", though. Jerk. I deserve free money!

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 03:38 PM) But in a platoon role, Jones will get 40% of the AB's at most against LHP only. He isn't being counted on as a full time DH, so why bring up the "if he played a full season" card. So once again limited AB's for Jones and his power which he does have will only play a few times a week so it won't add up to much. Kotsay has enough power to maybe hit out 8-10 HR with his 60% share of the DH duties, but he isn't a power hitter, never has been, never will. Well, a platoon might benefit his numbers. He's got a somewhat heavy split, so I can see his power/avg improving facing almost exclusively lefties. But I think most of us are (relatively) satisfied with the Jones half of a platoon -- he still hammers lefties pretty well -- so we really don't need to include him in the conversation. Kotsay is the rub. He's only in there because he's the best lefty we've got. I'm just as unhappy about his half as the rest of us, but I do think they could even out to a somewhat passable DH. It's mostly bothersome to me that we have to waste two roster spots on a position that should be filled by one. It's one thing to platoon LF/RF where people can play the field in other spots, rotate into DH, or whatever you need to do on a daily basis. Kotsay and Jones both CAN play the field, but really, life would be a lot nicer if we only needed the one of them.

Going back to my original estimate of 40%

QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 12:23 PM) Maybe they have a deal in place....just waiting to announce it on the first day of camp to make a "splash". I'm remaining positive and hoping for the best....hope that I'm right. It doesn't sound like KW's MO to count his chickens before they hatch. He's not gonna set up a press conference if the man isn't signed and they're still expecting to land him.

QUOTE (Sockin @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 12:06 PM) Kenny says he'll be talking about Damon....on Sunday. http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/3472 I really can't see this being a good thing... Damon ---> Tigers. Sad panda.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 06:58 PM) If he is a smart man, he isn't going to say a whole lot Yeah, I figured. But I'd still LIKE to hear it! Maybe he can project it to me psychically...

I'd love to hear Ranger's take on this...

It's nice that there aren't many super-obvious answers. That means we tend to lose people at the appropriate times, or at least judge their future values accurately. C. Lee would also be my answer.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 03:14 PM) Let's just see what numbers Thome puts up in 300-375 at-bats with the Twins this year and then we compare his "value" with what we get out of Kotsay or Jones on their deals. Both of them can, and likely will, play the field at some point during the season, and probably will do so with adequate defense and at a very cheap price.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 03:03 PM) I'm not going to speak for him, but i'm okay with that. I don't think a DH has to to be able to play the field, it's nice, i mean it's an added bonus, but it's not needed. Full-time DH's who put up strong numbers do not need to be able to play the field. Part-time DH's who put up questionable numbers and cannot play the field are literally not worth a league-minimum contract (maaaaybe as PH's in the NL) in my opinion. The roster spot is worth more dollars than the player at that point. Especially with us missing an infield-backup.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 11, 2010 -> 02:14 AM) You still don't want them yelling "f*** the Cubs, motherf***ers" Personally, I actually do

QUOTE (Hawkfan @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) 21/25....pathetic.. I spent like a whole minute pissed off because I couldn't remember the name of our legendary backup catcher. I had the same problem. And I kept saying (out loud) "come on! that short guy! you know, the one that had the walkoff single against the angels in the regular season!!!!" but my computer didn't listen. I also couldn't remember the widginator, the vizzer or damaso marte for the life of me. i feel like a fraud. i did (and always will) remember geoff blum, though. that was epic beyond belief.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 03:16 PM) Am I the only one that doesn't understand this one bit? The Vizzer, man!

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 10, 2010 -> 11:04 AM) Decline is an issue that every baseball team needs to deal with. Some players decline slower than others, and still managed to replicate similar valuable statistics they had during their prime year. Some even increase. Like On-Base Percentage. See: Jim Thome. Some players, however, due to injury and age fall off a cliff and should not be counted on to anchor a major league DH rotation in a home-run hitter’s ballpark. For solid examples of this kind of decline please see: Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay.The Twins seems to understand decline, and embrace it. They sign these players to cheap contracts, and take reasonable risks. Having Mark Kotsay and Andruw Jones as your only options to anchor the most potent offensive position in baseball is not a reasonable risk, it's a ludicrous attempt by Ozzie to cling to a misconstrued opinion on versatile baseball. The White Sox have quite a history of doing exactly what you suggest, so I hope this is a criticism of this one, very particular DH instance, rather than an organizational one. I say this because this board seems to have a problem compartmentalizing their frustration over the DH situation, and it's spilling into a hypercritical farce. Seriously, we should just start an "Ozzie's Mom" thread and get it all out of our systems

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 04:03 PM) Well, it's at which you're more inclined to believe: 4 years, 2600 PA and a .286/.329 AVG/OBP . . or . . . 1 year, 425 PA and a .308/.365 AVG/OBP (not to mention the .273/.326/.337/.663 line he put up after May 31st which falls right in line with his performance each year dating back to 2005) The Sox bought Pierre at his absolute highest value. If anyone out there truly believed Pierre is ~.365 OBP hitter the Dodgers wouldn't be on the hook for 57% of his salary and have a couple mediocre prospects to show for him. That doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't his highest value be when he signed the contract the Dodgers are on the hook for? By definition, the Sox got him at 43% of his highest value... EDIT: Or are you saying we got him at his absolute best value (i.e. most "worth it")?

He was just on the Hot Stove. They gave him some softball questions ("you pitch quickly..." duh. And "do you like the direction your team is going in?") but they also asked if he was still thinking about retirement after this contract is up. He said yes, pretty firmly, because he wants to spend time with the family. But he also noted that his wife thinks he's full of it. Everyone else on the network agreed with his wife. So do I. What about you guys?

I'd be all for picking up Hudson just so we can complete our Orlando collection.