scenario

I think people get all excited over nothing on these rankings. Yeah, our system must suck... 2 of our last 3 top picks are in the majors... rather than sitting in the minors and improving our ranking.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 23, 2010 -> 05:25 PM) Rhodes signs with Texas. Wonder what that contract might look like. Texas has a pretty nice bullpen with O'Day, Olliver, Rhodes, and then Feliz. I think the Rangers are talking about turning Feliz into a starter.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 08:46 PM) Jeff Passan with another excellent piece on the mental retardation that is giving relievers not named Mariano Rivera multi-year deals. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Akql...erscolumn121710 I really wish we didn't have to go three years with Crain. The hard part about multi-year deals with relievers is that amount of time they pitch in a season results in year-to-year small samples. They don't pitch enough over the course of a season to overcome a bad stretch... which practically guarantees at least one crap year in a 3-year deal. And since the crap year is all that fans remember, practically every one of these deals look bad. But to get talented free agent relievers to sign on, the 3rd year is often a clincher. Fail to offer it and risk losing out. The only way to get above average talent for fewer years is if they are coming off a bad year or an injury. So, pick your poison.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 11:26 PM) Best part of the whole deal IMO. Kenny scored here I think... Best part of the deal is that Crain not only generated those numbers against us... but he did it for the TWINS!! Not having him pitch for the Twins against us is a double win.

Just revisited the thread and saw my Buehrle/Rasmus comments stirred up a few responses. I've read what was said. Doesn't change my point of view. In my book, "can't miss outfield prospects" who strike out in 30% of their MLB at-bats are more of a commodity than proven left-handed starters with career sub-4 ERAs (in the AL no less) who can throw 200 innings a year. You don't like it? Fire me when I become GM.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 13, 2010 -> 12:09 PM) Colby Rasmus, at 23, had an .859 OPS last season while playing impeccable defense while making under $500k. Mark Buehrle had a 4.28 era while making $14 million. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that trade would never, in a million years, happen. Because one year of stats is always a good way to measure value. Yeah, I get it. Never mind that Rasmus struck out at a Jordan Danks like clip. Or that in 3 of the last 4 year, Buehrle has had an ERA below his career average of 3.85

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 13, 2010 -> 11:27 AM) Maybe you can get the Cardinals to toss in Albert Pujols and pay half his extension while you're at it. In what fantasy world did Colby Rasmus become a superstar? I'm always fascinated... - how other team's young players with 'potential' are deified, and - how quickly our view of our own players goes from rockstar to dog s***

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 06:05 PM) I added more. The only one that I can't find is a decent Indians one. Indians Ink is a good site. Quite a lot of activity in-season. Quality posters. Well moderated. Quite a few knowledgeable posters. Many saber-oriented discussions.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Dec 12, 2010 -> 10:51 AM) The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo reports that he had no real baseball news to talk about... so he started making s*** up to meet a deadline. Fixed

QUOTE (since56 @ Dec 11, 2010 -> 08:16 AM) $2400 on a dog? How many families could use that for child care especially at Christmas. Priorities? Ok animal lovers initiate attack. Pretty simple for me. I like my dog more than I like most people.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 8, 2010 -> 08:51 PM) He was the only one I saw report that the Chairman had joined the negotiations last night. From David Haugh's article today... Reinsdorf felt so emotionally invested to keeping Konerko in a Sox uniform that he made the ultimate sacrifice: he recused himself from negotiations. It makes a better story portraying Reinsdorf as the guy riding in on a white horse carrying a briefcase full of concessions to get Konerko signed. But the Sox chairman only made one phone call, according to a source familiar with the process. It was to Konerko's agent, Craig Landis, explaining why he wouldn't be involved. And a quote from Scott Merkin... This deal looked to have hit a major snag on Tuesday evening... Williams even spoke of moving on to Plan B. That pessimism quickly turned positive after Williams left the Chicago media contingent, with a deal being arrived at later that evening. "Again, we had a consistent dialogue throughout the entire time," said Williams. "But I wouldn't say that things really started to come together until after I left our press conference yesterday. And we had one more meeting headed by Rick Hahn just prior to dinner, and things just finished up over dinner and sushi -- good sushi." So... as far as Cowley's 'scoop' about the chairman entering into the negotiations and that swinging the deal... nyet.

JR and Kenny playing good cop / bad cop. I love it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 01:50 PM) If we could get a good return for TCQ, I'd be interested. That's along the sames lines as I was thinking. Fukudome would be an upgrade defensively and could play either RF or CF... which could help with roster flexibility. Plus, with his OBP he could bat 2nd... letting Alexei/Beckham drop down. And we'd only be on the hook for one year of contract, which would free up money in 2012. If we could get a decent return for Quentin might be interesting to think about.

Any interest in Fukudome if the Cubs offered to pick up half his remaining salary?

Just saw this note about Cliff Lee in the Trib... Nationals to make huge offer to Cliff Lee The Nationals may be on the verge on making Cliff Lee, the top free agent pitcher on the market, a huge offer, according to various media reports. The Rangers and Yankees are believed to be the front-runners for the left-handed starter, but the Nationals may become players with a jaw-dropping seven-year offer. They've already stunned the industry by striking a seven-year, $126-million deal with free agent outfielder Jayson Werth. -- Juan C. Rodriguez, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 12:25 PM) Jon Heyman on twitter reporting that a 7 year offer for Lee was put on the table by a "mystery" team My guess is Philadelphia.

Didn't hear B&B today, but I heard KW say something very similar to that in an interview today... And the context I heard it in was KW explaining why he didn't want to talk about the problems between he and Ozzie. Could be two separate events. But the wording was pretty similar.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 06:02 PM) They would be better served just resigning Beltre and leaving Youk at 1B. The RedSox faithful are going to be pretty damn restless if they don't upgrade the team this year. Especially with VMart leaving.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 05:45 PM) I don't understand this at all. If a week from now they are willing to go 8 years, why would they risk losing him completely by not just giving it to him now? Because they might have had a Plan B... like Werth. Take him and a few others off the board this week and scarcity will drive prices up. And Gonzalez... rather than having Boston set the price... will be able to let the market set it. Not unlike what Konerko is doing. Plus, I'm not sure the deal fell through because Boston was low-balling him... it's very possible AG didn't want to sign a deal until after a few other guys signed.

I expect Gonzalez to Boston will happen. Not necessarily a bad strategy for Gonzalez to delay on agreement to a deal until after the winter meetings. Boston wants him bad. The price will go up by the end of the week.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 11:47 AM) Didn't say he was a 4A washout. But 15 million? We all love Mark because we're Sox fans and he's been here for what seems like an eternity. But nobody in their right mind would take him with that kicker and those peripherals at his age. Not unless we sent a TON of cash with him. Like at least 8-9 million. I'm not accusing you of calling him a 4A washout... I'm suggesting that his peripherals don't mean s*** when determining his value. This is the same reason that every single year the saber projection world predicts that Buerhle is going to have a career worst year... that with the exception of one season never even comes close to being true. If it fails miserably 90% of the time for predicting his performance, how valid is it for establishing his value? Answer.... it isn't. The market would value him much higher than stats would suggest.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 10:57 AM) Thanks. What a strange ass clause. And I disagree. Mark ain't goin' nowhere. 15 million for a guy with a 4.2 K/9? Not happening. People need to forget about Mark Buehrle being a legitimate trade piece (Peavy as well). A few thoughts.... If K/9 were a true measure of his value, Buerhle would be a AAAA washout or pitching in Japan by now. But you look at his body of work and it screams legit #2-3 starter on any team in MLB. Plus, he's left-handed, which in MLB means if he could roll the ball across the plate, he's going to get good money. So, will $14-$15m limit some teams' interest? Sure. But if the Sox wanted to move him, they'd find takers.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 5, 2010 -> 10:28 AM) Quick question: the $15 million dollar trade kicker or whatever the hell it is that would come into play in 2012 if Buehrle is traded would be paid by the Sox or the team trading for him? It's a clause that says that, if he's traded, a guaranteed 5th year is automatically added to his otherwise 4-year contract... and the salary for that additional year is $15M. So... if he stays with us, there is only one year left on his current contract. But if traded, his contract is two years. As such, any team interested should expect that they'd be acquiring a pitcher with a two-year contract... the first year (2011) at $14M, and the second year (2012) at $15M. Frankly, I don't see that clause hurting his trade value. In fact, it could help us since whoever might acquire him would be getting more than a 1-year rental. Bottom line: We're not on the hook for that money... unless we decide that it's in our best interest to kick in some money to sweeten another team's trade offer.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 4, 2010 -> 11:55 AM) Well, one thing you're missing is that the Red Sox have reportedly obtained a 72 hour window to negotiate an extension with Gonzalez or veto the trade, so you've got the calculation wrong. Even if that was the calculation though, I think the feeling expressed so far is that 1 year of AG at that price plus the 2 picks should have brought back more than the Padres got. They should have gotten a serious MLB ready guy. Yeah. The right to negotiate with him does come into play, but the point I'm trying to make here is that you give up alot less when you only get a guy cheap for one year. Which is also one of the main reasons why potential deals LAST year for AG are different than would be on the table this year, etc... and are therefore hard to compare.

People generally think about these deals as 'trading for a player'. Gotta remember... you're not trading a player... you're trading a player's contract. What the RedSox acquired is 1 year of AG's services at $5.5M + two draft picks if he left in free agency. What they offered the Pads had to provide fair value for that, plus some premium to make their offer more attractive than other teams.