Lemon_44

I read where the Phillies offered Dominic Brown for Gio but the A's didn't think that was enough. I would think he'd be enough for Danks or in some kind of deal for Qunetin.

I've pretty much backed Williams and like how he is usually willing to take risks to try and win. But he has this team a mess right now. He's obvioulsy asking for way too much in trades for his pitchers and then doesn't even try to keep Buerhle. My two points of contention are why does anyone care whether or not JR makes money? As long as the Sox put a good team on the field and can win, I could care less what the payroll is. Secondly, alot say they wouldn't sign him for that amount of money. Why not? That's what the market price was for him. He's only 32 and is going to give 200+ innings and 13-18 wins every year. Didn't he just have a long streak of quality starts snapped late last year? Plus, he's great in the clubhouse. For some reason, I think if he was strikeout pitcher who threw 95 mph, with the exact same stats and situation, alot more people would be pissed.

I liked Santos but I just don't get how people are claimimg he's an elite closer. He hasn't even been a close for an entire season yet and he wasn't all that lights out in the 2nd half of last year anyway. Maybe teams started to figure him out or maybe he just tired. Either way he's been dominant as a closer for about 6-7 weeks. To get a top pitching prospect seems like a good deal to me. Santos could just as easily flame out as become an elite closer.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 5, 2011 -> 09:29 PM) Whatever makes you feel better. I'd like to ask the girl in Chet's avy for just 30 minutes. Pretty sure she'd shoot me down. But no harm in asking. why ask her for 30 minutes when you'd only need 2.

I don't think they'd get Bruce either but why not ask? They're asking for a ton for their players.

I thought it was funny that after talking to my sportwriter friend last week, he put a blurb in his "Rumblings" column on Friday about the Sox and Reds talking trade. It's about 1/2 way down. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/sp...gugf418i-1.html In a couple emails we've exchanged since then he's said that Alonso is the most likely target but I wouldn't put Jay Bruce off the Sox's radar either.

I wonder if the Sox are talking to Marlins about AJ. Ozzie always liked him and he could platoon with Buck, or maybe Ozzie doesn't want Buck to be his everyday starter. I don't think they'd get much for AJ but they'd rid his salary which should be good enough.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Nov 30, 2011 -> 03:20 PM) Yonder Alonso(his prospect ranking has gone down i believe so would hat make him formerly heralded?) and Bill Bray?? For what its worth, and probably not alot, I ran into a friend of mine who writes a sports column for the Columbus Dispatch prior to the OSU/Duke B-ball game and we got to talking baseball. This was just bar talk and by no means is meant to be a pending trade or anything like that, but he told me the Sox and Reds have discussed multiple deals involving the following names: The usual suspects from the Sox side, Danks, Floyd, Quentin, and Thornton. From the Reds side: Alonso, whichever catcher the like least of Mesoraco/Grandal although the Reds like them both, SP Homer Bailey, LHP Donnie Jones, Drew Stubbs. Said prospects 2B/SS Billy Hamilton, an OF named Rodriguez, SS Cozart, and 3B Francisco were pretty much untouchable. Doubts they trade Votto or Bruce because they think they can win this year. Nothing earth shattering, just thought I'd pass it on.

I like Danks to the Reds idea. How about Danks to the Reds for Alonso and Homer Bailey. The Reds rotation of Danks, Arroyo, Cueto, Volquez(when he gets back), and Leake makes Bailey's more expendable.Not to mention they have also have Travis Wood. KW likes both guys. The Sox may have to throw in something but this trade seems feasable. Alonso the can play OF with DeAza and Viciedo. Quentin could be dealt to Atlanta for Beachy and give their rotation 3 young arms in Beachy, Sale, and Bailey to go along with Peavy and Floyd. The Reds could also use a guy like Thornton as they really missed the role Arthur Rhodes filled for them. Why not make it a big deal and get Grandal as well? I guess alot of that depends on what kind of future the Sox think Flowers actually has.

I wouldn't trade him yet. I look at how Cleveland gave up on Brandon Phillips too early and how he blossomed for Cincy. Granted Beckham has had many more AB's at the MLB level but Phillips struggled mightily his first few years. Where it is different is that Cleveland was smart enough to send him back down after he struggled intsead of trying to have him work it out against MLB pitching.

The most amazing thing to me in the Coop interview was right at the beginning. After OG signed his extension, he was asked about his assisstants and, according to Coop, Ozzie said let them sweat. I've been a defender of Ozzie but that's pretty bad, if true. I don't see what, or why, or how, that could be good for a team on any level. OG wuold always defend his coaches publicly as being hard workers, why would he want them to "sweat" waiting on a contract extension?

If Alomar gets it, I wonder if he'd have Mike Hargrove as his bench coach. They had a pretty good run together in Cleveland.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 08:22 AM) So I take it you have spoken with both. I really don't understand how any of us could know who really is the better candidate. Basing everything on one guy being a first base coach and one guy being Joe Madden's bench coach is akin to selecting NFL players the draft based soley on what school they attended, without any regard to anything else. Last year Alomar and Martinez were both interviewed for the Toronto job. Neither got it, but Alomar was the runner up. Exactly, why does everyone assume Martinez is going to be great and Alomar not so great. None of know. In football, Romeo Crennel and Charlie Cheeseburger were supposedly "great" candidates as HC's and how did that turn out? Not saying Martinez won't be great but none of us really know and, while we all have our favorite candidate, it's kind of pointless to say with any conviction that one is going to be better than the other.

Liked Ozzie. He wasn't the problem for this years team but he is the one accountable. Let's hope the next manager can have a winning % over .500 because most don't.

I think the thing that made De Aza stand out is he came up and played hard, and with effort, which was sorely missing from this year's team. I hope the starting OF is Quentin, De Aza, Viciedo.

Not that they will, but the time to retaliate is tomorrow. You still want to win the game so you don't put the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth just for retaliation. Nail them all day long tomorrow.

great stuff. That was right in my heyday. I would love to get ahold of a Southside Hitmen Tshirt. The '77 team, the 83' team , and the ' 05 team were my my all time favorites.

LF- Albert Belle CF-Chet Lemon RF- Harold Baines 3B- Ventura SS- Aparicio, saw him when I was a kid 2B- Jorge Orta 1B- Thomas C- Fisk DH- Greg Luzinski Bench- Ordonez Richie Zisk Sandy Alomar Tony Graffanino Tim Raines SP: Mcdowell, Burns, Hoyt, Jim Kaat, Dotson RP: Terry Forster, Rich Gossage, Bobby Jenks, Bobby Thigpen, Thronton, Hernandez

The bottom line is Juan Pierre did his job this year and is not the reason the Sox have been bad. He's not great, he's not terrible. He went out and did exactly what was expected of him. I don't know wht it has to be one way or the other. I haven't seen anyone clamoring for him to be back next year ,as it's pretty much a foregone conclusin that he won't be. If De Aza hits in the mid .280's next year, everyone will be satistfied. BUt let's see him do it first. I think its funny people are quick to rundowm Pierre, yet the bum Brian Anderson had people defending him on here for years. Like I said, you have to go far down the list of reasons for failure on this year's Sox team before you come to JP. This is sad, but other than Konerko, who has had a better offensive year for the Sox. Quentin is really the only one that can be considered, possibly AJ, but doubtful. We know it's not Rios, Dunn, Beckham, Morel, Alexei. Lillibridge has been overall pretty good but has limited at bats.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 9, 2011 -> 12:00 AM) He can try all he wants, but he's not worth $9 million. Neither are Dunn and Rios, but they got their money based on talent and track record. What did he get his money based on then? I don't get the bashing of JP. He's near the bottom when it comes to problems on the Sox this year. He got off to a shaky start but didn't I read he's about 5th in the AL in batting average since mid-June. What more do you want from the guy? He's had some big hits earlier and did a nice jpb as the leadoff man. Next to Konerko, he's probably had the next best year at the plate out of the rest of the Sox.

Here's my hope for next year. There has to be someone that will take Rios if the Sox pick up 1/2 to 3/4 of his salary. It will be worth it to get him off the team and will save some money. But getting him off the team alone would be worth it. It may be time to let MB go, only because I don't see him taking a big pay cut to stay, nor should he. But he's probably been the biggest beneficiary of the 6 man rotation. It would be very tough to let him go but you have to at some point. I re-sign Danks to a long term deal. Next, I use Carlos Quentin to acquire Andre Ethier from LA(2 arbitration elg. players). He's playing hurt and has been feuding with management over his injury. My last move, dependant on his health is try to acquire David Wright from the Mets(use Thornton, Morel, spects in a deal). Salaries off the books: Pierre 8.5, MB 14, Rios at 50% 6, Quentin 6,Thornton 5.5 = 40 New salary: Eithier 11( a guess,arb elgible), Danks about a 8 mill raise, Wright 14 = 33 Lineup: LF- Ethier CF- De Aza RF- Viciedo 3B- Wright SS- Ramirez 2B- Beckham 1B- Konerko C- AJ DH- Dunn Bench- Lillibridge, Flowers, Escobar, veteran SP: Peavy, Danks, Floyd, Stewart, Humber RP: Santos, Sale, Ohman, Frasor, Crain, Reed, Infante/Kinney/Rodriguez

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 6, 2011 -> 03:00 AM) Joe Maddon. Look at the lineup he throws out there everyday. The Rays would be in the playoff race if they weren't in the AL East. That Rays team started off worse than the Sox and are 7 games better with a quarter of the salary. They're a superior organization in almost every way - including the GM, the manager, and the coaching staff. There's a reason why a lot of people are clamoring for Dave Martinez. He's in one of the most well-runned organizations in baseball and he's been under a manager in Maddon that applies statistics to his strategy and runs a good clubhouse. Maddon also has the benefit of the probably the best young pitching staff in the AL. You could argue their record should be better considering they have 111 starts from pitchers with an ERA under 3.70. He does a nice job. But his job is made much easier when the biggest decision he has to make what order a rotation of Price, Shields, Hellickson, and Nieman should pitch. I like Maddon, but put him on the Royals, and they are still in 20+ games under .500 and fighting to stay out of last place.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Sep 5, 2011 -> 12:09 PM) I wish I had a dollar for every time Ozzie left a pitcher in for too long or pitched to somebody with an open base... thus stringing together 4 full pages in the game thread of what an idiot he is. Yes...they do have influence. You think Rios pencils himself in the 4-hole? 4 pages of what fans on a message board gamethread is meaningless. Everybody is right after the fact. I think Ozzie is 100% right not batting Viciedo 4th. I don't like Rios batting 4th but his options were pretty limited at the time. Are you happy with AJ hitting 4th? Dunn not hitting has killed this lineup. My lineup would have had De Aza 3rd and PK 4th. But De Aza is not a #3 hitter either.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 5, 2011 -> 11:21 AM) People are really complaining about lineups now? The season is over. Who cares who's batting cleanup? Might as well give Dunn at bats to hopefully give him something to build off of going into next year. The pressure is completely off at this point. Exactly

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Sep 5, 2011 -> 10:21 AM) This is what I don't get about all of the Ozzie supporters. All of you are more or less saying that the manager doesn't matter but you will perform some incredible mental gymnastics to defend Ozzie. Look, you can't have it both ways. Either Ozzie deserves some accountability and actually influences the outcome of the game or we should hire a traffic cone to be manager. I think the manager hsa little influence on the game itself. They have influence on the clubhouse, and that's where I think Ozzie is good. But, you're right, if the players don't perform, and they haven't this year, it really doesn't matter who the manager is. I'm not saying I'm righ, but that's what I think.