2nd_city_saint787

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 01:41 PM) Who are these guys that are similar to Ellsbury that were effective into their mid-30's? We're talking $20M a year effective, not just good ball players. Without looking to deep into it Juan Pierre hit .307/.351/.371 with 37 SB at age 34. Coco Crisp just put up a 4 WAR season at age 34.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 01:30 PM) If they had 1 or 2 more good players, they'd still be a bad team. Baseball teams aren't just a collection of stats. Depending on who those players are I disagree. Especially if Abreu is the player we all hope he is. Words can't describe just how bad Paulie was, he was ranked 953 of 955 in wRC+ and as a middle of the lineup bat that is just horrendous. If Abreu is the top 25 hitter that some scouts think he'll be that upgrade is just HUGE.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 01:19 PM) You keep adding pieces that will give you long term success. A 30 year old, injury prone, $20M a year speedster isn't one of those pieces IMO. He's more than just a speedster. He gets on base at a good clip, doesn't strike out a bunch, and he can hit the ball. He's a legit table setter. He doesn't always have to steal 50 bags in the later years of his contract to be effective. There are a ton of "speedsters" who played well into their mid 30's and were still effective. If he gets 5/100 I'm confident he'd still be a more than competent player at ages 34 and 35.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 01:16 PM) Is there really a correlation between run differential and future success? This team found ways to lose because they're really bad at baseball, not because they're close. See my edited post.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) I certainly don't think the Sox are even close to being in a position to consider themselves contenders in 14. This is a team that lost 55 games by 2 runs or less(36 by 1 run, most in the majors), yes, the record looks bad on paper but it's not like they were consistently getting blown out. If you make 3 offensive upgrades there's no reason they shouldn't be at least closer to competing in 2014. How many of those 1-2 run games they lost were caused by errors? You upgrade CF defensively with Ellsbury and that helps a lot. How many of those 1-2 run games were caused by having a middle of the order bat that had a .310 slugging% vs RHP(what we mainly faced)? You hope you upgraded that with Abreu over PK. How many of those 1-2 run games were caused by having a Catcher platoon that hit in the .200s with an OBP around .220 and defensively wasn't very good to boot? An upgrade there helps the team a lot as well.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Nov 2, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) I'm actually agreeing with Marty. The Sox aren't in a position to invest $20M a year in a 30 year old whose game is so reliant on speed. It doesn't make sense. Going back to the comment about the Sox not wanting to punt on 2014 it absolutely makes sense. The payroll as it stands now is so low that they can add a guy like Ellsbury and it won't kill them financially. The addition of a 20M a year player still puts the Sox under 90M in payroll, and around 75M next season., with the Sox usually sitting around 120M. You bring in Ellsbury, trade for another key piece to the offense, and hope Abreu is a world beater and you compete right away.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 1, 2013 -> 06:38 PM) It's going to be someone like Buck or Suzuki. There's just no way they're bringing back AJ, and McCann/Salty will ultimately either be too expensive or stay put. I wish they could figure out a way for Viciedo to catch, haha. He's been put at every position on the field except for CF and the middle infield! Navarro and Carlos Ruiz are two other options, albeit far from ideal. I'd actually amend my first sentence to say Buck/Suzuki/Ruiz. They have to get a veteran in there who could catch at least 100-110 games and lead the pitching staff. I still wish the Sox can get their hands on Jaso. Not sure what the A's need though. Perhaps Beckham and some minor leaguers? Even with them non tendering Suzuki they still have Voght and Norris but I believe both are RH and neither bring as much to the table as Jaso.... EDIT- Vogt is actually a LH hitter so maybeeee they let Jaso go.

QUOTE (Mr. Showtime @ Nov 1, 2013 -> 03:11 PM) Sting's contract is up in a little bit so if they want him for Mania they can get him. Meltzer reported all about this in his newsletter and it's not WWE/Bischoff/Viacom as the buyer, he didn't reference who exactly it was though. Mostly that the person/group buying it is looking at possible growth in the tv rights as away to make money. I hope it's the Sinclair Broadcast Group...aka Ring of Honor. SBG is one of the largest TV broadcasting companies in the country so I'm gonna assume they have the money. They won't compete with WWE but at least they'll be entertaining.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 1, 2013 -> 12:58 PM) Any position players who might qualify? (Genuinely don't know their system well). Obviously Kolten Wong makes some sense as LH bat who could play 2B right away.

Cubano!! Any thoughts on this guy...

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 1, 2013 -> 12:07 AM) I can understand why Sox aren't going to get Ellsbury and McCann if those 2 get ridiculous contracts, which they probably will. But I hope the trades and moves they make are for this upcoming season and not just for prospects. Our division is pretty horses*** (I'm not a believer in Cleveland and KC) and it's hard to fathom that we can't compete with Detroit. I know we currently can't beat anybody in our division, but we need to revamp the lineup so we can start to win divisional games again. I love the Grobber and he said last night on his show the Sox pitching is good enough to win with. He said, 'they just have to take care of that lineup, change that lineup.' I agree. Writing off next season is stupid. Make some trades, sign AJP as stopgap catcher on the cheap. Why is it so hard to fathom? At least for the next couple years they are just an incredible team.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Oct 31, 2013 -> 07:44 PM) That's interesting. Can Garcia be any worse in CF than ADA? Well in Garcia's 201 innings in CF, fangraphs has him rated much worse than ADA so yes.

Dude can really take a walk but 1. I'm not giving up Santiago for him alone and 2. He doesn't play CF so I'm not interested. Unless the Sox think Avi can hang in CF I don't think the Sox should be targeting any corner OFers.

I'm not ready to give up on Tank in favor of Ethier. I suppose if a good trade came along for him(Dayan) I wouldn't mind him(Ethier) on the team so long as the Dodgers pick up a good deal of his contract. Not sure I'd give them Santiago though, and I'm iffy on Beck as well.

I guess I see your guys points, just seemed a little off to me....carry on.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 31, 2013 -> 12:59 AM) That game will be on MLB network though when I haven't checked. Saturday @ 7p. Kinda lame that it appears the All Stars or whatever weren't picked on their AFL performance. Semien was garbage, Leesman/McCray were better than Bassit(though all 3 were real good), and Mitchell put up better numbers than 3 of the 5 OFers on the team.

QUOTE (Leonard of Berwyn @ Oct 30, 2013 -> 11:24 PM) "Note. The Tigers aren't resigning Cuban Catcher Brayan Pena who is a switch hitter and had an .800 OPS against RHP. He will be 32 in January, 2014 so it's another option ." And He's from Cuba and hit 100 points better than Tyler Flowers I brought him up in another thread awhile ago, he's certainly a logical fit if the Sox don't plan on spending big money on McCann/Salty. I don't expect him to duplicate what he did last year but if he hit .250-.260 he'd certainly be an upgrade. Only thing I don't really like about him is he doesn't offer a lot of power

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 30, 2013 -> 05:17 PM) My feeling from eyeballing that is that you'll need some help with big man stats like boards, FG%, blocks, turnovers. Interesting, between Favors(who someone here said was gonna pull down 14 boards a game), McGee, Faried, Monroe, and Lebron I thought I'd be in really good shape rebounds wise.

I know no one cares about my fantasy team but oh well...How does this look... Rubio K. Thompson Conley Lebron Favors Faried Monroe McGee Oladipo Afflalo Bench-Granger, MKG, Kaman. I feel like I did really well but I don't follow basketball as much as I should....Is there any category I should target?

My biggest take away from this is the mentioning of Aaron Sanchez. I was skeptical of bucket as a legit source for whatever reason but this kinda, in a round about way adds some sort of validity to his post about the sox talking about Sanchez.....If the proposed deal is something like Q/Beckham(or more preferably Santiago/GB) for Lawrie/Sanchez and the Sox think Sanchez is a legit front of the rotation pitcher then I would be all over that deal.

^ De Aza is 29 ATM, he'll be 30 next year. I hate the saying "wrong side of 30" if a 30 year old is "on the wrong side of 30" then there is no right side of 30.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Oct 29, 2013 -> 11:35 PM) Should we try and trade Mitchell for anything we can while he may have marginal value, or should we just hold him until spring training and see if he can fight Danks for a 4th OF spot? I guess either way it's not going to impact much. I'm keeping him, you're not gonna get much of anything for him in return and if he turns it around he presents a pretty good option in CF and leading off(dude can take a walk).

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 29, 2013 -> 08:17 PM) You realize nobody watches TNA, right? You can't do a major angle with a bunch of guys nobody knows or has seen. Do t care if they're led by Hogan. And we all know how the angle would end, so what would be the purpose. Yes, I realize this, as I am one of them who doesn't watch, for whatever reason. The Shield was a bunch of unkowns, I don't know how many fans actually watch NXT, and they came in and took down a bunch of big players. The purpose would be to get new guys in and get them over quickly by pinning them against the bigger players. Like I said it probably doesn't work in todays WWE storylines but it would definitely set up some really fun feuds.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 29, 2013 -> 08:14 PM) Where do you get that from ? In only 92 games with the Angels he had a 2.3 defensive WAR and Steamer predicts with 97 games he'd have an 8.5 defensive WAR. He turns 26 in January and is a switch hitter. So yes I'm saying he is OK defensively . If you have something else to support your weak defensive label I'd like to see it. Catcher has to be our weakest position as of now and I'd like another LH bat who also can hit a little bit and is young. Conger fits all of those . Feel free to do some research and submit other names if Conger doesn't do it for you. Flowers wasa -0.1 and Phegley was a -0.5 WAR . Conger was a 1.0 WAR so no ,he does not suck nearly as much as the players we have. I just want someone who has showed something in the bigs. Looking at his minor league numbers, they're good, but at the same time Phegley put together a better year in the minors last year than Conger ever did and we see what he did in the bigs.

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 29, 2013 -> 07:45 PM) An Invasion angle with Bully Ray, Angle, and a bunch of guys nobody know? Pass It wouldn't work now but only because the "Powers that be" are heels. If Hogan came in and led a stable of guys they would have to be the "bad guys" and I think it's work, and them being unknowns really wouldn't matter as long as they come in and beat the "Good guys". It'd set up so new interesting matches right off the bat.....but ya, it probably wouldn't work right now.