Vance Law

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 30, 2008 -> 09:00 AM) What's C-Lee doing now adays? Polishing his bare ring finger.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 11:02 PM) Why is a double taken away defensively worth less than a double produced offensively? I've never quite understood this logic. I doubt anyone's ever said that, and if they did, you couldn't call it logic. But I have a sneaking suspicion that in a full season, Swisher would hit more than one, and perhaps even several doubles. The cumulative run producing effect of all of the additional home runs, doubles, and walks from Swisher relative to Owens or Crisp or anyone else who has been mentioned will FAR OUTWEIGH the cumulative effect of runs saved by their superior defense relative to Swisher.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 09:29 PM) I've seen him play CF and wasn't impressed. I don't need to be impressed by Swisher in CF. I know I'll be impressed by his bat, and getting that production from a center fielder will WAY more than make up for whatever degree to which he may be below league average in CF. I know I'll be impressed by Quentin's bat and his defense in LF. Any superiority that Owens has defensively over Swisher does not make up for how much more productive Quentin's bat will be than Owens'. Same goes for Crisp and some of the other "suggestions" I've seen like Dave Roberts and Chris Duffy. There is no sane reason to get any of these players when we have Owens. Owens can play center anytime Quentin, Swisher, Dye, Konerko, or Thome need a day off.

Hell yeah. No more Santana hopefully means a couple more wins for us.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 02:17 PM) Health, contact hitting, emergency catcher ability, already signed to en extension, a non Bora$ client. A couple of these are huge strikes against Inge- Already signed to an extension....for so much more money than he's worth, that nobody is even willing to take the salary off Detroit's hands. Taking into account the positions they play, it would be like us trying to get someone to take Uribe if we had him signed for 3 years and $8 million a year. In fact, it would be smarter for the Giants to take Uribe to play 3rd base rather than Inge, if Crede's back were a concern. Contact hitting?- Maybe that was a typo. Inge struck out 150 times last year and has averaged about 140 for the past 3 years. Crede strikes out about half as often. Inge is basically exactly a very poor man's Joe Crede. Very good defensively, has some power but not as much as Crede, doesn't hit for average, doesn't get on base, strikes out a lot.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 05:36 AM) IMO, the sox need an OFer who can play all 3 spots well defensively. And hit LHP well. That guy likely would only be available via trade during spring training. Esp. as Ozuna isn't slated to play the OF this year. With Quentin, Swisher, Dye, and Owens- you have all of the spots covered defensively. Will there be a better outfield threesome in baseball at hitting LHP this year than Quentin, Swisher, and Dye?

This makes it seem even more certain that Crede goes to San Fran. I like this because Sabean seems to be the worst/dumbest GM in baseball, and we possibly get a useful player/prospect.

Wait till he has a good-great half season in AAA.

Paterson is a worse player, and is more expensive than Jerry Owens, the 4th outfielder. Both of those things. Swisher is the centerfielder. Owens can play center any time one of Dye, Thome, Konerko, Quentin, or Swisher needs a day off.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 25, 2008 -> 02:04 PM) Is Juan Uribe's $4.5M 2008 salary going to keep KW from going after a player whom he believes will make the team better? Is Juan's salary going to be a financial burden? If the answer is no (which I believe is the case) then who gives a s*** how much he's making? Again, it's not just how much he's making. It's whether or not we have better players than Uribe for that role (Ramirez, Bourgeois, Ozuna, Getz), and oh yeah, they're cheaper. So when you're GM, and you determine that Ramirez is a better player than Uribe, and you can trade Uribe and his salary at some point during the season, you can then make a bonfire in centerfield and burn $3.5 million in cash if that's the way you'd prefer to handle it.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Jan 25, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) No, I don't think you are the only one because I feel the same way you do. What difference does it make how much money the guy makes It makes a difference because the Sox are not the Yankees. They have a finite amount of money. It is potentially a bad allocation of that finite money to be giving that much to Uribe on the bench, to do a job that other players (Ramirez, Bourgeois, Ozuna, Getz) could potentially do better, and for millions less. It would be neato to have those millions to allocate elsewhere-another bullpen arm? another starter to cover our asses?

QUOTE(WHITESOXRANDY @ Jan 25, 2008 -> 12:46 PM) Maybe I'm the only person that doesn't think that having Uribe on the bench is a bad thing. I see Uribe as playing 2b against lefties, the only legit backup SS and 3B in the whole organization in case of injury to Cabrera and Fields. I don't think most people think Uribe on the bench is necessarily is the worst thing, but that he's not worth it at $4.5 million. But I imagine that between now and the middle of the season, someone will be in the market for a shortstop (or 2nd baseman). Someone will get injured. Someone will underperform. Uribe does have some positives: his glove, some power. It's not that bad a position for us to be in. It's different than the 3rd base issue because you're not putting either of Crede or Fields on the bench. Uribe can sit on the bench and potentially get traded whenever, recovering for us whatever portion of his salary. Crede, however, needs to get traded now (before the season) or else Fields will have to go to AAA.

Yeah, we're not getting Cain. Who is this Sanchez fellow? Is he worth a damn?

Great job, Kalapase. So your total at the bottom of the page estimates all of the pre-arb salaries right now, is that righ?

Here is speculation. It's really difficult to get into the United States, now with the way security is. It is even more difficult if you come from a country of evil doers, like Cuba.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jan 21, 2008 -> 03:05 PM) As of right now, it may not hinder any future moves the Sox want to make, but they are putting a good deal of faith in Floyd, Danks, Quentin, and Richar to succeed. If any of them fail, the Sox will have to change their future plans. If Richar were to not succeed, there's Alexei, Uribe (for now), and Bourgeois. I'm not worried about Quentin at all, but very excited. If he were to be injured again- Owens or Alexei goes to center, improving the defense, adding speed, though the offense takes a hit.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jan 19, 2008 -> 11:05 AM) people will be surprised at how helpful it will be to get wastes of space like pods, uribe, owens, erstad out of the lineup.....assuming swisher puts up .270 .380 .475, cabrera puts up .275 .340 .400, and quentin (whose acquisition i love more and more everyday, the guys lowest OPS in the minors was higher than Fields highest while playing at a higher level at a younger age) should reasonably put up .260 .350 .400....if all those things happen our offense will be SIGNIFICANTLY upgraded....guys like uribe pods and erstad were literally useless offensive players....not to mention two of our big bats, PK and Dye had a down year last yea and should bounce back i actually do think this team can compete...especially with solid performances from the starters....our pitching staff will really be the determining factor...we need an 05 like performance (buerhle to be buerhle, vazquez to repeat what he did last year to replace freddy, and jose to be the jose of 05, which may be dreaming) then if one of floyd or danks can take the next step to fill garlands shoes (id take a 4.6 ERA over 30 starts) then we have a decent shot...in the end i think the tigers will be too good and we wont quite have enough...right now if i had to guess i think we are an 80-84 win team (with the possibility of hitting 88, 89 if things go really well ie a contreras return and floyd emergence) and the tigers are probably a 90-92 win team with 100 win capability That's just about the same assessment I'd give, daa84. I'm maybe even a little more optimistic. If hitting and winning are "contagious", (just as losing and not hitting are) I'm really looking forward to seeing this lineup. I can't wait to see a healthy Quentin out there. The difference between just having a winning season, and being in playoff contention is "how good will the 3-5 starters be." If, combined, they are just league average, we should be in the running.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jan 19, 2008 -> 07:23 AM) AAA- Wasserman Oneli Perez Adam Russell Dewon Day [?] not sure of his status though Egbert/ Broadway/ Haeger The sox still need some AAA pitching depth. Maybe trading Crede could help there. Sisco, Aardsma

A C-prospect, B if we're lucky. If we're super lucky, some team's 3rd baseman gets attacked by a shark and there's more demand for him. You've got a guy coming off major surgery, who therefore has a high risk of injury, even if he looks great and healthy in ST. He is a one year rental. He costs $5 million. Now how many teams LEGITIMATELY might be interested in him? The Giants, and to a lesser degree, the Phillies. That's it, baring any injuries. Go ahead look at all of the teams. Look how many have better third basemen or young guys coming up. Look how many teams don't have the payroll, are not competing in 2008, or who do not have the MO to go get a $5 mil one year rental. Injury risk, one-year rental, $5 mil, very good defense but a league average bat (if healthy), and everyone knows we are desperate to unload him. Nobody buys that Fields is going back to AAA, if Williams at least gets someone to take his salary.

Is anybody a subscriber and able to summarize anything interesting from the chat with Phil Rogers?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 14, 2008 -> 01:39 PM) Whats more outrageous, paying a lump sum at the beginning of career of someone who will be cheap for a while after that lump sum. Or paying Juan Uribe 4.5 million a year to swing for the fences and fall over. Right now medicore players are getting large amounts of money, so what would you rather have a possible impact guy or a crappy guy for a few years. I would rather gamble right now on the high end player than save the money for crap later on. To clarify, I wasn't totally disagreeing with you. I meant my comment as something potentially that the Sox or Williams would use as a reason not to deal with Boras, not what I think. Haven't some recent Boras guys sat out a year when they couldn't agree on a large enough signing bonus? I agree that I hope we sign the best player available, regardless of anything else.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 14, 2008 -> 10:46 AM) 3 things. One, you replace them in the 2009 draft...and 2, you look to the guys you have remaining, like Broadway, Egbert, Sisco, and 3., you try to see if they can't work things out somehow. Here's the other question...what happens if we spend $8 mil a year or so to bring in Colon or Garcia, then both Danks and Floyd wind up pitching well enough for the first 2 months. What do you do when Garcia or Colon comes back? Demote a guy who's done well for you? Spending that much money would be ludicrous. It would only make sense to give them virtually no guaranteed money, with lots of incentives (starts or innings pitched). They only make their money if they are useful.

The problem, however, would be the outrageous signing bonus demand.

Per Rotoworld: Mike Cameron is expected to be guaranteed just over $6 million under the terms of his one-year deal with the Brewers. The agreement is pending a physical and probably won't be announced today. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Cameron will receive a $1.25 million signing bonus, a $5 million salary and either $10 million or a $750,000 buyout in 2009. However, since he won't collect a paycheck while suspended for the first 25 games of the season, his actual salary for 2008 will come in at just over $4.2 million. So he makes $5.45 million in 08. Wow. That is, like, not a lot.

That is a pretty impressive lineup in Milwaukee now. Fielder, Braun, Cameron, Weeks, Hall, Hart, Hardy. All of them should be from above-average to spectacular.