witesoxfan

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Dec 26, 2013 -> 08:55 AM) No reason? When's the last time the Sox spent an average of around $20M+ per season on anyone? This doesn't seem like a very good reason to stay away. When's the last time the Sox went 5+ years on a free agent pitcher, in fact, when is the last time they've gone 7 years? Every single offseason there are #3 quality starters with the stuff to dominate a game on the market, and usually there are guys you can sign for 4 years or less. Also there are always types with a bit more upside looking to rebuild value, ala Josh Johnson this year. Further, we have an organization that specializes in picking pitching out of other organizations/off the scrap heap and turning it into something worthwhile. Lastly, the strength of or organization is pitching, the weakness is everything else. There are plenty of reasons not to piss away a huge chunk of payroll space and potentially several seasons of offseason flexibility on a guy who has never pitched in MLB & who probably isn't even an ace anyway. Should the Sox offer a $20M bid plus a 6 year, $75M salary? Maybe, that's a lot and still pretty risky. But that's not going to get it done. The Sox would be forced to bid against angry, aggressive stupidity to "win" by assuming what is probably going to be the biggest on-paper financial risk of the offseason. No thanks. Yes, there are #3 guys available. Tanaka has ace quality upside - this is a guy who put up an ERA of like 2 the last 3 years combined. Players like him don't become available very often. If you have both him and Sale, along with all the others, you suddenly have a ton of assets that can be dealt for offensive pieces to improve your overall team. The Sox would be able to justify trading Erik Johnson for Grandal at that point. Isn't that what people want? If they believe Tanaka is a guy who can give you 200+ innings and put up an ERA of 3.00 (give or take), then, no, there is no reason they shouldn't be involved. Yes, they probably don't get him, but you are at least putting yourself out there.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Dec 25, 2013 -> 07:37 AM) Let the madness begin on this bidding war. Sox will stay on the sideline and that will be the smart thing to do. My prediction Tanaka will get a contract over $120-$135 million plus the $20 million posting fee. I believe it will go down to the Cubs and Yankees getting Tanaka in the end. For every Darvish their around 5 who don't even come close to fulfilling their expectations (Dice K, Irabu, Kaz Matsui, Fujikawa, the list goes on). This is when Theo gets way over his head and starts making decisions that isn't best for the organization. Before Theo left Boston, he signed the past 5-7 years and left them some of the worst contracts (Crawford, Beckett, Lugo, JD. Drew, Lackey, Dice K, Adrian Gonzalez, and Edgar Renteria) those are just off the top of my head. The common theme to all those deals is the ridiculous amount of years and dollars giving to these players. I do hope Cubs get Tanaka and again have another Soriano contract on their hands. Theo needs to learn and stick by what he's good at and that's player development. All of these long term deals that have been going out for the past 7 years have never panned out. Hahn has really impressed me this offseason and I'm sure he will continue his smarts by taking a seat on the sidelines to the crazy bidding war between the Yankees and Cubs. You had to go all the way back to Irabu to make your point. What about Nomo? Hideki Matsui? Ichiro? Iguchi? Aoki? Any number of relievers that came over? Kaz Sasaki? There is plenty of evidence to see that it's, at the worst, 50/50, and a lot of those guys had at least some success during their careers. http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/Japan_born.shtml There are plenty of guys who have been incredibly successful, and the pitchers are slightly better than 50/50. If they've done their homework, and they believe the guy is legit, there's no reason for them not to be involved.

A pitcher with Sale's shapes but slower velocity sounds a bit like Ted Lilly, which, ok, cool, but it also didn't affect Sale. I also didn't notice much difference in stuff between Santiago starting and relieving other than his screwball not being particularly effective as a reliever. Frankly, with this team, I want them to take the best twelve pitchers north. If that means Surkamp over Leesman and Veal for the second lefty spot, cool; if it means Surkamp over Paulino or Johnson for the last rotation spot, cool; if it means he's in AAA, cool. It's a waiver claim. The Sox have a tendency to actually push these guys as they tale their waiver claims more seriously than a team like the Cubs. If they claim someone, you can bet your butt they are going to try and use them.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 04:28 PM) Beckham may very well finally become the player he was projected to be. That's fine, and there is no reason that it shouldn't be with the Sox, as he would likely not net much in a trade. The problem is that he would then get big money in arbitration, and become a free agent in 2016. No one has addressed the question I posed earlier: "Would you give him one of those insane, long term, big contracts in 2016? I wouldn't. Let's hope that he stays healthy, has a "break out" year, and can net something of real value in a trade. It's still 2013. I have no idea. You can't say for certain that anything is going to happen yet. Maybe Beckham posts back to back .800 OPS, 4 WAR seasons. Who knows at this point.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 02:51 PM) People really like to select data during certain time periods that make Beckham look good. It's called confirmation bias. Me, I like aggregating data. What I know is this: In nearly 2500 major league ABs, Gordon Beckham is a -40.5 offensive player. Think about that. He is an atrocious, s***ty baseball player. Jose Bautista was a pretty terrible hitter too. He become one of the best in the game. Sometimes, it just takes an adjustment and getting healthy. I'm not comparing Beckham to Bautista, but the Sox may as well give Beckham another chance. He has been terrible. He's still a talented player, and the team does not appear to be competitive this year. See if you can extract value out of him at the very least.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 02:36 PM) Not much of a point, I just looked that up now and realized how horrible that is. I've seen people say that Keppinger should start at second, but I think that's insane Anybody who is saying Keppinger should start at 2B want to lose 95 games. He is a valuable utility player who typically mashes lefties who just so happened to have a really bad (and unlucky) year last year, especially at the beginning of the year.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 02:30 PM) And Keppinger had a negative 1.5 WAR, so... Yes, he was a terrible last year. I don't understand your point.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 02:14 PM) The problem with bringing back Cutler is that it means you are committing this excellent core of offensive skill players and intriguing young talent on the line to him. Whether or not the money is there, you have to decide if you want Jay Cutler to be the last QB for this offense. By the time any Cutler deal would end, you've probably seen the last of Forte, Marshall, and Bennett while also nearing the time where you have to re-up with Jeffery. We've already given Jay a contract on the premise that we wanted him to play better than he ever had. I'm not sure that I want to pay a 30 year old, oft-injured, apparently uncoachable QB on the premise that his play gets better. I think Jay is broken. His mindset is that of a guy trying to protect himself and a guy who is used to playing behind a bad line. He is panicked all the time. He's not David Carr, but I think he's really close to Jeff George. I agree, I think the Bears need to look in a different direction. They should trade their 1st round pick for Ryan Fitzpatrick because he is a veritable stud.

I have no idea where else to put this, but how on earth did I never hear of Jason Neighborgall? http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/p...id=neighb001jas

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 01:58 PM) What is an average player WAR-wise? Beckham put up a 1.0 WAR playing hurt all year. I would venture to guess 1.0 has to be at least near average. Around 2.0 WAR is typically considered average. 0 WAR is technically considered a replacement player (0 wins above replacement, thus equal to replacement).

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 01:09 PM) We still have multiple players on the 40-man who could be dropped at a moment's notice (de Los santos, Heath, Molina, Mitchell), so we should not be precluded from continuing to improve the roster (cough...catcher....cough...). I honestly don't see a realistic option available for catching. I think Castro is going to cost Quintana, Grandal is going to cost Erik Johnson, and Lucroy is going to cost something in between those two. The Sox aren't in a position to be making trades like that.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 01:25 PM) He hit 16 homers in 2012, and in 2013 was hitting over .300 in the middle of August when he went down with the quad. His wrist injury zapped his power. If he stays healthy, and that is a huge if, a lot of people are going to be surprised, and even some haters will flip and say they knew he had it in him all along. I honestly don't think this will happen, but for this season, I see no reason to not give him a shot. He did look much better at the plate last year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 12:40 PM) You know though, if you're talking about a guy like Surkamp who isn't necessarily coming in with the best stuff in the world...I could see how it would be a problem. One of the reasons lefties can be more effective with similar stuff is that hitters aren't used to seeing them. When they're thorwing mid-90's being lefty is just icing on the cake...but a guy like this it might be more of a worry. 3 lefties and 2 righties in a rotation, that's a decent setup even with a guy like this, just to give the occasional righty as a changeup. If he's the best pitcher, then I see no reason why he shouldn't get the job. I don't think he will end up being that guy - I'm on record as saying I think Paulino is going to be the Sox 3rd best starter this year, and I'm a huge fan of Erik Johnson - but he's going to be different enough from the other 3 lefties that I don't think that will matter.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) Yeah, I have not understood any of the "too many lefties" in the rotation stuff. A lot of teams have 4 RHP, some have even had all 5 over the years. It's not called too many. As long as they are good pitchers, I myself couldn't care less which hand they use to throw. In the last year or so, I have switched completely and endorse this. If you had 5 Chris Sale's in your rotation, would you say "no, I need a couple Kevin Correia's to balance out the lefties" ?

In at 11, leave at 3. We are taking calls and it blows. I wanted to leisurely catch up on a little of my work. That's not going to happen.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 09:52 AM) I know that feeling. Any game where the trophies/stars/awards are shown at the beginning of the level and I dont want to move on until I get them. Which suuuuuuuucks because then games take soo much longer /slowpoke I am trying to beat Borderlands 1 so I can start Borderlands 2. Those games have so much to do it's unreal

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 09:33 AM) one can only hope it's Heath. QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Dec 24, 2013 -> 10:45 AM) Im guessing Heath or Molina I would say with 99% certainty that it will be Heath

So, just a thought, but has the Packers plan all along been to wait until week 17 for Rodgers to come back? Gotta make sure you're still alive in the hunt, you're likely going up against the team you will have to beat to get in, and if Rodgers comes out rusty, they can just say it was exactly that. The Bears also have no idea what to gameplan for. Just the tin foil hat side of me coming out.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 10:26 PM) Can't stick him in the bullpen until you know whether he can cut it at as a starter. Has excelled at every level starting in his career so far In general, I agree, but frankly, if the guy can provide value as the second lefty and swing man, I have no problem with him in the bullpen.

QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 03:20 PM) I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict he wins a Cy Young for us in 2017...it seems open for the taking and I think Coop will help him get it done. This is the most awesome prediction of all time

More surprised he wasn't DFA'd earlier, but this doesn't surprise me in the least. I would say this makes it more likely that Heath is the person DFA'd when the Downs signing becomes official. Also wonder if, barring any other small trades or moves, they aren't pretty much done for the offseason.

Nice call

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 11:17 AM) His name is Nick. Why am I thinking Ryan? Whatever, yes, you are right

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 11:15 AM) Me neither. Didn't they add another pitcher that offseason. They were trying to be legit for the first time. Ryan Masset. He was traded with Danny Richar to Cincinnati for Griffey. Masset turned into a pretty solid reliever for Cinci.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 08:41 AM) Oh you can always sabotage yourself, but the structure of the NBA draft really punishes the middle-of-the-pack teams because of the lottery aspect. Well the nature of the NBA itself does that. If you don't have a superstar player, you have almost 0% chance of winning. We've talked about it before, but the last team to win with no real superstar talent was Detroit, and that team still had Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Ben Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, and quite a few solid role players too. So, unless you can find and develop a superstar player in the mid 1st, you have to tank to get back to being a respectable team.