2nd_city_saint787

Didn't realize/remember Lexi being that bad post May. Yikes. Looking at his splits he had 3 months where he hit .235 or worse.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:49 AM) My understanding is that they're trying to position themselves to compete for many years. It will be interesting to see how rents comport with that...unless they are confident that they can get extensions without them hitting the open market (which I have seen only once, and that was Garcia who had an in house connection). I still don't see why you think this is such an out there thing to do....I'm sure there's other examples....And I'm sure we'll see another example with Heyward and the Cards. I doubt they traded a guy like Shelby Miller who could be a front of the rotation guy for 1 year of Heyward.

Bruce and Latos, Bailey, Stephenson+ or somehow Cueto would certainly be interesting. Straight up? hell no

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:29 PM) Remember Hahn's comments last year about justifying going after Tanaka because it was believed he could be the ace of a rotation....which turned out to be true for a half-season? And he was beginning the prime of his career? That's never been applied to Maeda. Once. I still think if he was another Iwakuma, Kuroda or Chen (Orioles/Taiwan), it would be a nice addition....but then you have the Safeco effect to take into consideration with Iwakuma. Even veteran Chris Young looked pitchable there. Maeda could just as easily end up as another Kei Igawa, Irabu, Dice-K. The biggest problem for me is his upside is Iwakuma, not Tanaka. And that's not the kind of $100+ million wager you make. You go after two Moncadas before you take one Maeda. Iwakuma got Cy Young and MVP votes in 2013...Last year he had a 2.45 era on the road. There's a reason why he's projected to get that much.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 05:49 PM) white sox. i wonder who got dropped? Fairly certain Braulio Ortiz was #20.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:17 PM) Why? He has come pretty good stuff, just needs a bit of refinement, but could be a high leverage reliever in the not too distant future. A team with bullpen depth issues should not be quick to discard such an asset. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:23 PM) He is a young project who throws 100. Guess I should have looked past his stats on the surface....boy do those sure look bad though.

Why Raul Fernandez is on the 40 is beyond me, he should probably be next to go with Leury close to follow.

Man I'm slow. At the very least he's competition to Surkamp and Snoddy as the 2nd LHP out of the pen.

Is there a time on todays deadline or does it end at midnight?

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 02:51 PM) arguement???? i thought it was a nice discussion. I put argument in quotes for lack of a better word...discussion is what I was looking for. Anyway, I think Maeda has a chance to be much better than all those guys you mentioned. Villanueva has a career era of 5.00 as a starter Volquez like eminor said is a ticking time bomb and I'm not buying his season . Vogelsong would get lit up in the cell/AL. Here's another interesting article I liked on Maeda. http://seattlesportsinsider.com/tags/kenta-maeda

Lets give this thread a bit more play here instead of hijacking the other thread....here was my last post. No need to back off the "argument".....Though this should all probably be done in the Maeda thread Like you've said it's all subjective. It keeps being said the last few years that 1 WAR=5M in value. John Danks wasn't a 3 WAR player. In my opinion, this of course being key here, Maeda can indeed be a 3 WAR player and thus be worth 15M.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) the point is those players you mention came with a huge amount of hype. When KW went to the yank's academy to see Jose, he immediately called JR and rave about him being the real deal. with that in mind, Maeda started the yr with some negative, and i am sorry but i can't remember. however there was some thought of him being at best a #3 but a steady #4, at $15 mil for 4 yrs? posters are having a huge problem with Dank at $15 mil. what is Maeda going for $15 mil. what is the difference? edit..... my bad, i said that the previous was my last negative post today. No need to back off the "arguement".....Though this should all probably be done in the Maeda thread Like you've said it's all subjective. It keeps being said the last few years that 1 WAR=5M in value. John Danks wasn't a 3 WAR player. In my opinion, this of course being key here, Maeda can indeed be a 3 WAR player and thus be worth 15M.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 12:59 PM) here it is, and this will be my last negative opinion on him for several days. $15 per. on an unproven pitcher. is there going to be a posting fee? Edinson Volquez - 2 yrs, $18 mil Carlos Villanueva - 2/3 $7 mil per Ryan Vogelsong even him for 1 yr much better with a track record. Sox were rumored to be in on Tanaka and they signed Abreu, I don't think they have a problem throwing money at unproven players. I wouldn't really say any of those guys have a good track record. Volquez before this past year had a track record of being awful. Villanueva has a track record of being a bad SP...He didn't even start for a Cubs team that didn't have a good rotation. I kinda like Vogelsong, he's a good story, but outside of cozy AT&T Park he's had a 4.81 the last 3 years. Don't think he'd fair well playing his home games in the cell. Maybe Coop and company think Volquez can continue, or Villanueva can be the next Noesi, but ya, IMO Maeda offers much higher upside

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 01:04 PM) Iwakuma is awesome. If Maeda is like him, we should want him. That said, I'm not sure we have enough info to conclude they're similar enough to expect similar results. From what I've read they're both 89-94 on their FB, both guys will throw any pitch (and they have a lot of em) at any time, both switch up speed and depths and of course both were teammates making the comp "natural." Here's a good article with GIFs http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2014/11/12/72...n-astros-fowler The quotes about his velo kinda conflict with the reports from Ben Badler who had this to say... "Maeda’s velocity was impressive, ranging from 90-94 mph and hitting 94 four times. In previous outings, he’s thrown anywhere from 87-94 mph, but he didn’t throw a fastball below 90 today and he spotted it well. Maeda pitched mostly off his four-seamer, though he mixed in a handful of two-seam fastballs with a little more armside run, too." I really like him. I'd give him 5/90 without giving it a 2nd thought. There have been some reports of 6/120-130, which would make me pause and think, but with the payroll the way it is I think I'd have to consider it.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 10:56 AM) and do you think that is not an excessive amount. pass. Not really. But like you like to say it's all subjective. He's 26, and if he can do what Iwakuma has done here then he's worth 15M a year. If we have to go to 18 a year 3M is chump change. Iwakuma has similar stuff, worse numbers over seas, and has posted a 7.2 WAR the last 2 years. If 1 WAR = 3M Iwakuma has been worth 35M the last 2 years.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 11:16 AM) See Gordon Beckham's stat line. After looking more into it, Lexi was only 3 points higher (.280 vs .277) in the OBP department. OBP golden boy Marcus Semien had the worst of all of em with a .262. It certainly would be nice if Semien starts getting on base like he did in the minors, but so far he hasn't showed it, and with that said I'd love to add a #2 hitter, and Melky seems to fit that bill really well.

I've been meaning to make a thread about "Who bats 2nd" because I've grown tired of seeing Lexi ground into DPs but man, I didn't realize the 2 hole was THAT bad at getting on base. A .279 OBP??! Yikes. Fixing that ahead of Abreu and coupled with Eaton should go a long way in helping the offense.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 10:27 AM) it is all subjective, the real question, at what cost? I'm guessing somewhere in the 5/75-5/90 range. That's somewhere between 5 and 7 mill less a year than Tanaka got which sounds about right to me.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 09:55 AM) I actually agree with all 5 points from Rogers. What's Maeda's ceiling? I thought I read he was a back of the rotation type guy? Based on what I've read he sounds a lot like his former teammate Hisashi Iwakuma stuff wise. Statistically he was better in Japan though. I've liked him a lot since first reading about him. Even if he isn't Iwakuma, who got Cy Young and MVP votes last year, I still think he can be a well above average #3 like we need him to be.

He's expected to miss all of 2015....I'm not sure what to think of him at this point.

People are forgetting that Danks already changed his motion and pitch selection a bit back in September. http://www.southsidesox.com/2014/9/23/6832...h-seasons-again

Yup, one of my favorites as well. With VMart and Lind off the market he makes the most sense to me right now.

Too lazy to go back and quote the posts, but Wite's posts about pitch usage and the other talks of him changing his delivery last year has taken me from meh to somewhat excited. I'd still love one of Robertson, KRod, Janssen, Soriano, Romo, or Miller to close.

Let's hope we get 2012/2014 Zach Duke and not the Zach Duke who was a dumpster fire in 2013....Fairly meh on the signing till I see how he performs.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 18, 2014 -> 05:52 AM) I'm going to preface this with the fact that there's no good way to definitively say how much time he averages - every time he throws, we don't know whether he had to do it right then to avoid a sack or might have had several more seconds. Likewise, we don't know if the plays he is sacked are just like every other play - with the exception that he held on a split-second longer - or if he gets sacked because the rush was much faster. You'll notice that the best QBs tend to have the lowest times. Anyway... 2014 averages times: To throw - 2.57 (7th fastest out of 29 QBs, Peyton Manning fastest) To sack - 3.36 (13th fastest, Matt Ryan and Peyton Manning fastest) To scramble - 4.65 (9th fastest, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning fastest) 83.0 NFL QB rating on plays that take 2.6 seconds or more before throw/sack/scramble. 102.5 NFL QB rating on plays that resolve quicker than 2.6 seconds. In terms of pressure, he's at 30% of drop backs, making him only the 20th most pressured QB out of 29. 2013: To throw - 2.75 (13th out of 27, Peyton Manning fastest) To sack - 3.81 (9th out of 27, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning fastest) To scramble - 4.59 (5th out of 27, Eli Manning fastest) 80.3 NFL QB rating on plays that take 2.6 seconds or more before throw/sack/scramble. 99 NFL QB rating on plays where one of those things happens before 2.6 seconds. Was pressured on 39% of drop backs, 8th most out of 29. By most indications, not much has changed in terms of pass protection. Time to sack is the only thing that has really changed in terms of timing, but it's hard to make meaning of it when the line is allowing fewer pressures per drop back. Thanks for this. Isn't .18 seconds a lot in the NFL though. I know when talking about 40 times there's a big difference between a 4.40 and a 4.58. Real surprised he was pressured more last year. Though he is throwing a lot more quick passes which could make that % drop quite a bit. When trying to do anything other than those quick passes it seems like there's always pressure.