witesoxfan

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 02:02 PM) Mercer is their new starter, and he is better offensively than Alexi. We'll see how long he keeps it up. He's been pretty solid in his last 450 plate appearances or so, but has a career minor league OPS of .730. He has been trending upwards, but, like I said, we'll see how long it lasts.

Arrieta scares me because he's gotten chance after chance and failed. Maybe there's some Gavin Floyd in there, maybe you can turn him into a reliever, but I'd rather have the smart and crafty pitcher over the million dollar arm and ten cent brain. If I'm dealing Axelrod, it's similar to the Hanson/Walden trade the Braves and Angels made this offseason (not that Axelrod is Tommy Hanson, but he has put up similar numbers to Hanson). I'm not even worrying about getting rid of Dunn. Get value for those you can rather than trying to have teams eat contracts and losing out on talent. Dunn is a sunk cost who can be an effective bat against RHP. Also, I was going to bring up Eduardo Escobar too and how it'd be nice to have him back. From what I've seen and read, I would have trusted him defensively at SS more than anyone else, and he's a good contact hitter. A mini Ozzie, if you will.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 11:11 AM) Interesting if not ridiculous trade ideas here. Undervaluing our players because the Sox are slumping is not good baseball sense Some undervalue, but you also overvalue. If these guys were better, the Sox would be better and we would not be having this conversation.

Barmes gets DFA'd the second the trade would go through. It's primarily just a offsetting some of the money for both parties. Anyways, De Aza has struck out quite a bit, which is not a good thing, but he's still hitting OK (and would be a big upgrade for Pittsburgh), and he's a good defender in the corners. You prefer him in LF but he'd be OK in RF. Also, for SS, it really depends on who else would be available. I'd prefer not to deal Alexei simply because it's a difficult position to fill (and next year's class is dogs***), but if you could get that kind of upside in a deal, it'd be hard to say no.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 11:06 AM) Which of those guys that were lost would you actually have wanted back? Have any of them other than Liriano been valuable contributors to anyone? As a fan, I didn't want any of them back. Had I been a manager though, I probably would have wanted Pierzynski and/or Youkilis back, but I don't know what the lockerroom was like or anything along those lines. I do know that, if I were the manager and we'd competed that hard all year, I would have hoped they'd add more than Jeff Keppinger and Matt Lindstrom to my team.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 11:03 AM) He's just this year's Fernando Rodney, who was Jose Valverde the year before, who was Kyle Farnsworth the year before. These guys show up every year, and die, it seems. eh, he's been pretty incredible for the last 2 years worth of pitching Since joining the Pirates bullpen- 122 IP, 2.29 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 178 K (13.1 K/9), 44 BB (3.2 BB/9), and 9 HR.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:53 AM) If do a deal with Pittsburgh they have Jose Tabata. Not really a "build around" kind of player but comes with cost certainty & would give us a "plug-in" type should we trade Rios. BTW holy s*** at Jason Grilli's numbers. My GOD. Who saw that coming? We had him once ya know. Damn KW, should have been psychic & held onto him. They might have the best pitching staff in the majors. Anyways, who knows how much longer they can hang on to Travis Snider too. I also have no problem with Tabata either. Alexei and De Aza for Snider, Tabata, Barmes, and Stetson Allie (the former pitcher, now hitter, who is absolutely destroying Low-A ball pitching, and yes, I know it's Low-A ball, but still)

I really want to be surprised by the results, but I simply can't. 5 out of 8 want Ventura gone, which to me is sad. He showed incredible potential last year, and I'm sure he wanted to add to the team. Instead, they lost Liriano, Myers, Youkilis, and Pierzynski, and added Jeff Keppinger and Matt Lindstrom. There's a feeling of dejection there for him too. I say you keep him for a couple more years, you unload and reload a bit, and give him one more shot. As bad as it looks now, this team really isn't that far away from being competitive.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:43 AM) sigh, Crawford is the referee for Game 6. At least we know it's going 7, right? EDIT: I know it's a merit based system, but you would think that they'd really try to avoid having Crawford ref against the Spurs in the FINALS given the history between the two.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:58 AM) Tell me again. When did you play this game? It was last night

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:40 AM) Who takes Alexei for one? Dodgers are out there, they could use a SS and can take on salary. Who else needs a SS? Pittsburgh needs SS help pretty badly, and they have a nice system too. Collectively, they have a .532 OPS from the SS position and their normal starter, Clint Barmes, has an OPS of .496 this year and it's at .568 over his last 198 games.

The Sox can legitimately trade with any team in the league right now. There are teams like the A's that are worse fits than others, but all doors are open.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:40 AM) Indeed! http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88772 Who could have ever seen that coming. I love the idea of regression, because Nate Jones is probably about a 3.00-3.50 ERA pitcher with about a 1.2-1.3 WHIP who gets by based off of electric stuff. Based on his overall numbers, he's expected to come back to earth from that 1.38 ERA but he's also expected to keep it up, because he's not a 5.00 ERA pitcher. As a result, he's both pitching normally AND over his head at the same time.

Meanwhile, Nate Jones has put up a 1.38 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 12.5 K/9, 18 K/BB, and a .506 OPSa in his last 10 appearances, 13 IP.

There are no long term answers anywhere in the lineup right now, and the system is still pretty weak. For Crain, you just take the best offer you get.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 08:46 AM) Actually it would be pretty badass of Hahn to put Crain out there right this second, look to deal him for a nice package early as the best reliever on the market, and then as soon as he's gone when everyone else is thinking about taking on a salary like Papelbon, you throw Reed out there for a really high ceiling MLB-ready position player & see if you can make that deal It'd be ballsy, but you could get a really nice return. And, as has been pointed out ad nauseum on here, the Sox have proven capable of developing and locating bullpen arms. I'd have no problem with it. I really don't think it's going to take much longer for the first domino to fall. Trade a guy who is assuredly not going to be an all star.

I don't disagree with any of what you said except that I don't think there's any chance pending free agent relievers stay. There's no point if you aren't going to resign them, so you just hold out for the best return. There will always be someone willing to give up something for them. I'd bet money that Lindstrom, Crain, and Thornton are all wearing different uniforms come August 1st.

Unless you are discussing Sale, you aren't going to be getting Bogaerts.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 08:10 AM) I think people are a little over-excited about Micah Johnson. He's definitely going to jump up the rankings, maybe even the back end of the Top 10. But Top 5? Not yet, anyway. On the Johnson debate, if the games were played at Tennesee (who the Barons play regularly), make sure to add 3-4 ticks to the gun. That's just one example I know of, but some of the guns at these parks are off. EJ is low 90's typically, can run to mid-90's. This was a point I was going to make. You have to take minor league guns with a grain of salt because a lot of them are quite inaccurate. It's best to listen to scouting reports from guys behind the plate on velocity readings.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 08:08 AM) Joe sometimes takes things too seriously. That wasn't an "attack", it was just an argument. That's what the internet message board world exists for, clearly. Let's just all agree that XBOX has blown since the 360 days and move along. In NBA 2k12 last night, my dude put up 67 points, 9 boards, 11 assists, 11 steals, and 2 blocks last night on 68% shooting (66.7% from 3) last night against the Bulls. Needless to say, we won by 35.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 08:11 AM) Teams can sometimes win big though when they make deals opposite that & trade smaller names who are in demand at the right time. Eduard Perez returned Asdrubal Cabrera, Ben Broussard brought back Shin Soo Choo, and Casey Blake turned into Carlos Santana all for the Indians alone. Yeah, I don't think he's talking about winning trades. I have no problem dealing guys like Crain and De Aza and whoever else, and you can win big on those. Buuuuuut the Indians won 78 games the year they traded Broussard and Perez, and they won 81 games when they traded Blake.

Profar I could work with. Olt looks awful right now. I'd take him for Crain right now, but that's about it. You honestly can't trade Sale for any less than a team's top 3 prospects.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 06:17 PM) Contest about what? I get attacked, I respond, and then I get yelled at for fighting? What the hell is that? And then on top of all that an ADMIN mocks me as well? Nice....real nice. Nobody attacked you, I merely called you out for being a hypocrite, and then I said the XBox Done name is terrible.

The Phillies and Brewers both made things interesting last year, but for the most part, no, teams simply do not win when they trade their best players.