caulfield12

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 2, 2014 -> 07:33 AM) I'm not looking to redirect resources to 3b but if the Sox really want Micah to be the starting 2b next year then I'm looking to sell high on Conor to upgrade elsewhere and let Semien be the everyday 3b. Except that's more likely to give you TWO holes to fill. Gillaspie's going to give you what? Are you expecting an 825-850 ops hitting LF or DH for him? Good luck. Conor has at least proven he can hit at this level...even without the expected 12-15 homer power. What are the odds that Marcus Semien comes out essentially as a rookie again and gives you a 750ish OPS at 3B? Maybe 50/50 at best, although I would bet the under. I'd say you're very likely to get worse production out of Semien and not a certain upgrade from a young prospect for LF or DH or C. If you want to trade Conor for bullpen pieces, there's definitely a better use of our resources. And he's certainly not going to get you a quality starting pitcher in return, for the same reasons you cite...that other GM's are waiting to see if he can repeat his success and nobody wants to be caught overpaying for a guy coming off a career peak in his trajectory to ride the downside and give up quality cost-controlled talent in return.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 2, 2014 -> 07:09 AM) The only way you move Jose Quintana is if you are getting a true superstar hitter, and are giving out a big contract to a RHSP. So if Jose and others bring you Mike Stanton, sure. You don't deal him for prospects. Another example besides Baez/Alcantara/Edwards would have been Gregory Polanco from the Pirates. I'd imagine quite a few would have been quite interested in a Polanco + ??? for Quintana move about half a year ago.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 2, 2014 -> 06:48 AM) Gillaspie has the 9th best OPS among major league 3B. Maybe the Sox should look at LF, DH, and C first??? Because I think that trading the farm to get one of the top 8 3B and leaving three other black holes in the lineup probably isn't going to produce good results. The problem is that sinks to average when you take his defense into account. When you throw that into the mix, he's something like 17th out of 28 with over 350 PA's. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos.../true/minpa/350 Which of those guys would you take Gillaspie over going into 2015? Plouffe? Matt Carpenter? Headley? Aramis Ramirez? Brock Holt? That said, it's fine if you combine him with Marcus Semien...together, they should give you enough. Flowers would be around 15th out of 24. DeAza 19th out of 25th, ahead of Parra, Choo, Kemp, Ludwick, Allen Craig and Domonic Brown. Viciedo's the single biggest issue, 18th of 19 RFers, only ahead of Schierholz, who was released and behind the once very good Jay Bruce. On the plus side, Eaton's 4th out of 27, Ramirez is 5th out of 27 SS's, and Abreu's 1st out of 25 1B. Dunn's ahead of Carlos Beltran, Billy Butler and Kendrys Morales. Still, Garcia's giving you NEGATIVE war numbers, and if you're relying him to be that middle of the order hitter without adding at least one more big bat, you're in a world of trouble. Pretty much anyone's going to be equal or better than Beckham, whichever of the 3 guys (Sanchez, Micah Johnson, Semien) wins the job. That just leaves you with LF and DH, assuming Gillaspie/Semien/Davidson and Flowers aren't going to be replaced.

Deal from our area of depth, which is middle infielders and Viciedo. The problem is that offering Carlos Sanchez and Dayan Viciedo isn't going to bring back much in return. Trading Ramirez almost completely shoots down any chance of competing in 2015 and 2016, so it's quite the quandary...with seemingly no solution other than spending their way out of it if they really want to be close to the Royals/Tigers/Indians in 2015.

Look at Baez and Alcantara, or Baez/Alcantara/Edwards. If you said three months ago you could trade Jose Quintana for those three prospects, almost everyone would have jumped all over that move. What you would have done is blown another irreparable 2-3 hole in the rotation....and consequently be stuck with three huge question marks for 2015.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 06:21 PM) Unless it's Chris Sale for extreme under market value. Unless it's someone like a Buehrle or Quintana with a fairly smooth, not max effort delivery.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 2, 2014 -> 12:50 AM) The Sox need to develop the classic run producing, third baseman, its been such a black hole for them since Crede left. If I were Rick Hahn I would try trading for a prospect, Corey Seager and Ryan Mchanon come to mind. If you want Seager, you better be ready to trade Alexei Ramirez plus Hawkins/Danish/Montas.

QUOTE (The Wiz @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 11:55 PM) The other main issue about Martinez as the DH is how do you get his bat in the lineup when the Sox play in the NL? I guess putting Martinez at C would make the most sense. Maybe have Abreu play a game or two in LF? No to Abreu in the OF with his ankle/foot problems. Martinez at catcher pretty much erases any offensive advantages he provides. I think you'll see that the Tigers rotated Holaday and Avila at catcher 90-95% of the time in interleague play, especially considering the Martinez injury and how catching would only put more stress on his knees, feet, hips and lower body in general.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 10:03 PM) http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/...-of-the-galaxy/ Grantland write up about how awful this movie summer is. Who woulda thought comic book movies would be what ultimately are keeping this afloat right now? Guess he didn't watch BOYHOOD. At any rate, Nymphomaniac 1 is actually quite good, and not exactly what you're expecting. It's a lot less salacious than, say, Spring Breakers or the latest Sin City.

They can't sign Martinez and then NOT end up with a new LFer, starting pitcher and something resembling a bullpen. There's going to be a timing thing. Will getting Martinez on board bring in the other 2-3 key pieces of the plan? How long will Victor wait to sign? If you're left with those three moves and no Victor, it's still probably not a playoff-contending team.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 02:03 PM) Who, besides Randy Johnson in recent decades. High school or American Legion this past summer...can't remember the exact circumstance, but he wasn't an MLB draft prospect.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 02:57 PM) I've heard KW called a lot of things but never an" unqualified whack job." Here's the thing. The Astros played a LOT better and improved this season, compared to last year. Outside of maybe Altuve, Carter and Springer, which Astro had the best season? Oh, yeah, that JD Martinez guy they released and who's had such a great season with the Tigers. (Someone's going to argue he wouldn't have played that well for Porter...well, that's sort of like arguing Adam Dunn wouldn't have hit a home run for Robin Ventura if he was the manager of the A's, only Bob Melvin could coax it out of his bat). Luhnow can run but he can't hide. Firing the manager simply brings more pressure to the GM the next time around...that maybe it's NOT the manager, but the GM responsible for the quality of play on the field. from crayfishboxes.com Meanwhile, Richard Justice (Houston Chronicle) has published a scoop so intriguingly thorough regarding the organization's take so soon after the story breaks that one has to assume Justice has inside sources confident in his ability to stay off the record and report fairly. Regardless of when and how he got this information, it contains some pretty interesting new information. According to Justice, •Some unnamed players were weary of Porter's abilities as a manager from the very beginning. •There was tension between Porter and Luhnow from Day 1, with Porter reportedly interrupting Luhnow on multiple occasions during a meet and greet with the players. •Because of this tension, this was assumed to be inevitable, with Justice asserting Porter would have likely been gone during the offseason. The latest stories about unrest just sped things up. •Justice had an interesting take on Luhnow's statement: Luhnow said the team's won-loss record -- 110-190 under Porter -- was his responsibility, which is damning to Porter on several levels. In other words, he didn't dismiss Porter for losing too many baseball games. He dismissed him because he no longer respected Porter's leadership skills and his ability to be a team player in the organization. •Some of Porter's managerial motivation tactics were deemed somewhat juvenile. •The Great Appel Bullpen Hubbub may in fact have been the "breaking point" for Luhnow and Porter. My latest take on this is that it says as much about Luhnow's approach to secrecy and management as anything else. From the beginning there was discussion about the tight informational ship being run by Luhnow. But then things started leaking, like a sieve. Then players who weren't afraid to make public criticisms started dropping like flies. Then it was reported that Bo and Luhnow were on the outs. Now Bo is gone. Justice gets a scoop that feels 'teed up', while other reporters, who have reported these leaks, are left to bitterly tweet. I went out to walk my insane woofer dogs, thinking about this latest news and it kept reminding me of somebody or something. It was a movie. A famous movie. Maybe a series of movies. Ah yes, that's it -- The Godfather. So Luhnow isn't just the data nerd. He's the Michael Corleone of GMs.

QUOTE (Wickel @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 04:46 PM) I hope so, Hi8. I'll be here. Besides, after we get rid of President O in 2016, we'll be just fine. You might want to read the forum rules about political comments outside of the "slam" section of the site.

QUOTE (Timmy U @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 01:14 PM) Fernandez and De Los Santos are release candidates. Gonna be a crowded 40 man beyond them. Tough decisions loom on Surkamp, Taylor Thompson, and Carroll. Why are those tough decisions?

QUOTE (LDF @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 12:53 PM) I wonder if this will damage looking to the Asian market for prospect, meaning pitching prospects. As long as Darvish and Ryu and Iwakuma remain effective, not to mention that underhyped pitcher for the Orioles, Wei-Yin Chen, not completely. Yu Darvish, when healthy, is one of the best 5-7 pitchers in all of baseball. Almost nobody hyped Iwakuma or noticed when the Mariners signed him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 10:22 AM) If you focus on the big picture, the Yankees brought Tanaka in along with a couple other big additions from veteran players last offseason in order to win this year. He had a good run, but they aren't winning this season and they're missing the playoffs to boot. Tanaka would have to do a whole lot to make up for this season, because they aren't just going to take a hit from him, they're also taking hits from Ellsbury and Beltran who are going to keep getting older and less reliable from this point. Don't forget McCann as well.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 11:12 AM) I always thought he was an unqualified whack job. That mid-game team meeting last week was bizarre. That's because he has that KW, football player mentality as well...especially coming from a perspect of a defensive backfield player...and defense in football thriving more on emotion and momentum than baseball.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 12:52 PM) I for one am tired of the negativity. Dunn was a professional throughout his time with the Sox. I am sure no one is more disappointed in the outcome then he is No more than being tired of being outcheered/outattended in our home ballpark by Orioles, Blue Jays and especially Tigers' fans. Couldn't believe how loud the Detroit fans were on the radio. It felt like a Tigers' home game, honestly. What next? Indians' fans outcheering us down the stretch? It's not even a matter of "hating" Dunn. It's the fact that standards for who is deemed worthy of praise have fallen so far, it's almost like a political correctness thing. If we want to actually celebrate performance, it should be those guys like Conor, Putnam, Noesi, Nieto, Eaton and Abreu who have surpassed expectations. The reality is that receiving a huge contract simply to hit necessitated a certain expected level of performance. What kind of fans would we be if we were simply contented with "the 'ol college try" and "wait until next year," etc.?

QUOTE (Wickel @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 07:43 AM) You mean Dunn is leaving a clubhouse, front office and team in turmoil. Transition would be a better word. Turmoil? Where? Pretty much all the expected players have been jettisoned, except Belisario (who would want him at this point anyway), Lindstrom (see Belisario) and I have a feeling that Hahn is holding onto Viciedo as a 4th outfielder/emergency starter...obviously hoping to improve LF and that Viciedo can re-establish some potential value next year. I still think they end up keeping him and giving him one last opportunity, as Beckham got five and one half-years, surely Viciedo gets his fourth with the Sox. I'm also not sure that Avisail Garcia's going to fly smoothly through all of 2015...they might have to send him back down to AAA for some work on his hitting mechanics because he's going to get exposed with his current approach up there. That said, they will give him the entire off-season, spring training and 3-4 months next season to prove he's the long-term answer in either RF or LF.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Sep 1, 2014 -> 01:54 AM) I remember when Keon Barnum's ceiling was Ryan Howard. Now it's more like Ryan Garko. And holy s***, no idea how I pulled that name out. What a name drop to randomly come to my mind. Garko was more of a doubles hitter. Cliff Floyd might be a better comparison. Of course, it's doubtful that he ever reaches that ceiling, but Ryan Garko's about the last name I would associate with Barnum...he's not even LH'ed.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 31, 2014 -> 10:33 PM) Royals Indians game suspended, to be resumed Sept 22 in Cleveland. The division race just got more interesting How can they move a Royals' home game to CLE for the bottom of the 10th? That's very unusual.

Cleveland re-enacting last year's final month run of incredible baseball. What it is with the Indians? 2005...2007...now the last two seasons with dramatic comebacks at the very end of the year when pretty much nobody's watching their games in September.

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 31, 2014 -> 04:10 PM) that is one option that I have been thinking about. Semien, Sanchez, Johnson need positions. You don't move a top 30-40 mlb ops guy away from a corner if spot unless one of those guys really merits everyday playing time...in all likelihood u have one starter there among the three and the other two fighting for a utility role

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 30, 2014 -> 10:35 PM) Yost is getting nailed by Royals fans on twitter, etc., for batting Nix in 2 crucial situations in the loss, instead of PH Willingham. I'd blame Dayton Moore AND Yost. Yes it was ridiculous to bat Nix, who is horrific, but why in the hell did Moore acquire Jayson Nix? I wouldn't be surprised if Cleveland sneaks in and wins the division. They have the best manager of the 3 and just as good talent as KC at least. Willingham tried to warm up in the sixth...stiff back/spasms couldn't go Nix has already played for two teams this year...the royals are his third

Tied for the fourth worst rs/ra allowed differential in the majors. Tied with the cubs for the 7th worst record...picking 8/9 in the first rnd.