caulfield12

Probably Upton doesn't want to leave the NL or prefers to stay near one of the coasts...

The Yankees missed on him and he grew up right across the water in NJ. Didn't Kirby Puckett spend much of his formative years in the high rise projects on the other side of the Dan Ryan (now torn down) from Old Comiskey? It happens. A lot of teams passed on Trout. Pretty sure he wasn't even considered at that spot by Sox scouts. Albert Pujols grew up in KC and played JC ball at Maple Woods...and yet the cross-state rivals unearthed that gem.

The #STLCards and the #Rockies discussing a trade that could send an OF to the #Cardinals, per @jonmorosi via @MLBNetwork http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ben...6e42fa2746.html Writer argues for CarGo over Dickerson/Blackmon.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 29, 2015 -> 08:17 AM) you make a great point, but why not a series of 1 opt contract with the last one at 33. for both the player and the team. now this scenario would work with cesp b/c there the team will not loose a draft pick. who knows, maybe even upton, he is young enuf. but the lost of the pick would hurt. now the mid market statement. i hate to bring up another sport, but look at the hawks and the signing of hossa. like the hawks, maybe, just maybe the sox will need to over pay, maybe in the front end. this is just a guess or an opinion. Agent would never go for that. Too much risk of injury to risk losing a huge guaranteed amount.

It makes sense for Upton because of his age and ability to remain at or near peak three years from now...but not for Gordon and Cespedes is debatable. Part of the problem is the White Sox historically have never been known to break ground in the escalation of player salaries...and a deal similar to Heyward's would do just that. And I can hardly think of a time where they front-loaded a deal, let alone massively fron loading. If anything, they want to limit the payroll impact...you could imagine $15 million this year, $25-30 million in 2017, but that's still going to restrict financial flexibility to put together those 2-3 smaller ($5-10 million) signings to make the roster as competitive as possible going into the most important year of the current contention window.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 29, 2015 -> 06:55 AM) This underlines the fact that baseball really does need a cap to have all teams remain competitive not just the most money wins. However there needs to be a floor as well to keep owners honest and not just grab for more profit at the expense of the team. Really, it's just a Loria cap, and he did spend the money on Stanton at least. Probably not Fernandez, too. Risky. Actually, Oakland, the Rays, Astros and DBacks were lower. And it's hard to really fault those two teams because of their stadium issues... Amazingly, the Pirates were 25th in their third consecutive year in the playoffs with that $85 million or so.

The problem is very simple...the White Sox don't want to go $30 million into red ink when they would prefer to spend $17.5 million. Neither Cespedes or Upton is worth that amount alone. Neither is quite a superstar. You're going to be devoting 20-22.5% of the payroll to a single player, and neither's as good as Chris Sale or maybe even Quintana. At least not to an organization with a middle class payroll and mid-market mentality. It was true in 2005, it's just as true today. Even having two of the best pitchers in the game like Kershaw and Greinke that would warrant such a deal...they weren't even able to get the Dodgers to the World Series.

Yeah, they're going to press for two year deals with options (club/mutual) for that third year in all likelihood. It might work for Parra, but Austin Jackson probably wants to rebuild his value with a one-year deal. That's their "cheap" route, you go with an outfield of Cain/Parra/Dyson and Orlando as the 4th. Then you take the rest of that money and put it into one more starting pitcher (probably a lefty unless Duffy stays in the rotation to go with Tim Collins coming back from surgery) and/or wait on Ian Desmond or Fowler to fall into your hands after the first month of the season. Then you can add pitching at the trade deadline again. Kazmir, Chen and Gallardo are that next tier of pitching available...in all likelihood too expensive.

And if baseball decides to bench him for 60 days, that could even work out better for the Yankees. Although it is unclear how many days of service time Chapman needs to qualify for free agency in 2017, it is pretty certain that losing 60 days would delay him from hitting the market for another year. In that case, the Yankees might get the better part of two seasons out of him at a relatively reasonable salary. Bottom line is, the Yankees got a great pitcher and they got him cheap. www.espn.com

Fans didn't love Todd Frazier because of his numbers, though his numbers were good enough. They loved him for his spirit. To fans, Frazier was not a line item on a balance sheet. He wasn't a clean set of digits all in a row, given meaning by odd acronyms such as WAR and OPS and the delightful-sounding BABIP. Fans here didn't quantify Frazier or study him like he was an equation or mine his statistics for undiscovered lodes of "value''. They just enjoyed him. On and off the field. He gave them a reason to smile. And go to the ballpark. ... Todd Frazier brought fans in, because they thought they knew him and they liked what they thought they knew. Ditto Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce. Frazier wasn't numbers. Frazier was family. http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/col...-fans/77627880/

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Dec 29, 2015 -> 12:43 AM) I definitely think that's part of it. With so many outfielders available its easy for teams to play the bluff game. Caulfield. I can see KC having genuinely interest in Bruce due to his power, salary and limited commitment of two years but I doubt KC would give Jocketty two of their three top prospects. Of course Jocketty is aiming high like he should but how big of a market is there for Bruce? Jocketty has to come down in price if he seriously wants to move Bruce. Bruce fits their time frame perfectly, the next two years...but so do CarGo, Ethier/Crawford, Dickerson or Blackmon, etc. It's a buyer's market right now, at least in terms of outfielders. If I'm KC, I am not even looking at it like a two year deal...it's one year for $12.5 million and the $1 million buyout...because Bruce has fluctuated up and down so much the last five years. I'm also not parting with one of my top five prospects, let alone 2-3 prospects unless they're all lower tier guys. The Reds basically have ZERO purpose or rationale to keep Bruce and Phillips at this point...the falloff in attendance already started happening with Cueto, Leake and Frazier, etc. And they do still have Votto, he's going to be the only homegrown star left, like Freeman in ATL. Otherwise, I'm just going to pay Span/Jackson/Parra and not lose a draft pick, preserving the remainders of the farm system (after the Cueto and Zobrist deals) for the rebuild beginning in 2018.

Well, on one hand, the Royals already have a relationship with Jocketty due to the Cueto trade...and obviously the Reds are familiar with the KC system. That said, KC isn't going to give up very much talent...if anything (the asking price was Zach Wheeler supposedly last summer)...this is going to be more of a clearing out the closets and starting over thing for the Reds, who have already parted ways with Frazier and Chapman and look to move Bruce and Phillips as well. Considering the buyout, you're talking $13.5 million for one season, or only $1 million more than they wasted on Alex Rios. Bruce has such weird career numbers, though. He's had two huge years, with 4.5 WAR in 2010 and 5.1 WAR in 2013. If you average the other 5-6 years of his career, you're getting a WAR of something like 0.7 or 0.8. Over the last 5 years, you're looking at 1.6, with a mode of 1.4. Optimistically, that has a value of around $10-11 million, so they would be asking for $2-3 million back from CINCY and Bruce to save them the $11 million or whatever for the remainder of his 2016 salary. Otherwise, you're going after A.Jackson and Parra and piecing two outfield platoons together...allowing you to alternate Dyson (LH), Parra (LH) and Jackson, who's STILL only 28 years old and carries a 729 OPS against lefties over the last three years. Parra gives you a 777 against righties and Dyson a 703 against righties. On the plus side, if Parra's numbers recently are anomalies, you might still have the best defensive outfield in baseball and even more versatility. For a higher price, Denard Span has been even more dangerous against RHP, an 800 OPS over the last three years...and no QO attached, thus no pick lost. But he's probably going to cost in that $12-15 million range like Dexter Fowler (who also has the pick attached), so unless his market drops, Jackson and Parra are the two most logical choices. They won't go after Fowler since they need to start rebuilding for 2018 and beyond. Of course, the argument is that you might end up spending $15 million on Jackson/Parra, so why not spend $17.5 million on Alex Gordon. That's where you get into the length of the contract arguments, and cost/benefit of having Parra/Jackson for 2-3 seasons instead of Gordon for 4-5. Plus both those guys are age 28, and Gordon's four years older. And both similarly fit the mode of "defense first-minded" players. So you have three choices, for example: Bruce for one year + buyout=$13.5 million (+ Dyson/Orlando platoon) Parra/Dyson/Austin Jackson platoon system for 2-3 years (let's say $37.5-40 million as an estimate) Alex Gordon for 4-5 years and $70-90 million (+ Dyson/Orlando platoon) Orlando has almost even splits, 719 vs LHP/705 vs. RHP

It's a bit scary if Engel's our best outfield solution for the future (it's also indicative of how far Courtney Hawkins' stock has fallen). I realize he had a great AFL season, but let's wait until he puts up an 800+ OPS in Birmingham first.

With the way Close conducts negotiations, we might never know if the Sox offered or not, and what exactly was on the table...unless the leak comes from the Sox side. My own personal feeling is that the longer this drags on, the more likely it is that Gordon ends up elsewhere. It would also be pretty surprising if the White Sox made an offer on December 28th that just blew everyone else's out of the water...you get the feeling there will be 3-5 serious offers within a $5-15 million range of each other. If the Royals are within that range, maybe even if it's one year shorter but the average is comparable or a bit higher over 4 years, he'll probably end up staying. That said, there's been no indication that KC was even willing to go up to $60 million and 4 years, which isn't far off from Melky Cabrera or LaRoche and obviously is either just a PR offer and they have no intentions to retain him or they're lurking in the weeds trying to suppress the Gordon market and really have an intention to offer $15-20 million per season and at least four years. That would be 4/$70 million (a lot of current speculation is around 5/$88-92).

The calm before the storm?

The only thing close would be the White Sox trading Sale or possibly Abreu/Rodon. Not even Quintana. Of course, it would be perfectly logical in the case of the Pirates with all their minor league talent (especially pitching), Marte being almost as good as Cutch now and younger, Gerrit Cole and Liriano, Bell for 1B, Kang rehabbing, Polanco also has all the tools but hasn't fulfilled his promise and needs a development year...taking that step back, letting Alvarez and Walker go, probably trading Melancon and elevating Watson or even trading Watson at his peak as well and replacing him with the likes of another Jason Grilli or Melancon again. Rinse/repeat. The core of that team will be even stronger in 2017 and 2018...but the odds of being better than the Cubs and Cards in their own division aren't that great this season. It's the perfect "interim" strategy for a smaller market team where they still have a decent chance (and can add at the Break if necessary) but they're not doing anything desperate that will negatively impact their long-term core.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 28, 2015 -> 05:08 PM) I just don't understand why they didn't take the Reds prospects You mean the Sox instead of Dodgers? ???

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/160525142/pr...ps-byron-buxton Surprised Buxton still had quite a few on his side after last year. The Angels are going to rue trading Newcomb...and surprised Manaea got one vote. Finally, how do the Rays keep finding so many young pitchers? Geez. Can't imagine if they had a $150 million payroll to work with...

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Dec 28, 2015 -> 03:29 PM) I take it the Nat's see Taylor as a fourth outfielder? Or back to minors like Avi potentially...appears they don't have enough with Span gone to get by with two big question marks. Need some more certainty/predictability in CF.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Dec 28, 2015 -> 01:53 PM) Lmfao! Don't blame da Wang! What about her cousin, Peenkay Tang? She was impressive in The Interview dancing with fake Kim Jong Il (2nd reference today).

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Dec 28, 2015 -> 03:54 PM) If a deal were to happen, I wouldn't want DRob to be involved. A bullpen ending with Jones, Robertson, and Miller would be insanely fun to watch on a daily basis. Except we just went well over the projected budget and have EJ/Danks at the back end still...as well as Saladino, catcher, DH and RF as potential trouble areas, along with Lawrie at 2b from a defensive standpoint. Maybe that's enough offense with Frazier, LaRoche rebounding and better starts from Eaton and Cabrera...but you've still gotta score enough runs to protect those 1-2 run leads. What was the 2005 offense? Something like 9th out of 14 in runs scored. But we were still fourth in homers with 200 and 8th in OPS at 747. As we stand now, with that offense and the concerns with the back of the rotation (as opposed to the best pitching in the AL across the board in 2005), it MIGHT be enough to eke into the playoffs but it's still a long shot. If Fulmer's as good as expected, 2017 would really be the year to test it, though.

Proof positive someone is working in MLB industry today, haha. Was starting to think it was quiet in deference to Hendu, Bobby Dews and Strauss deaths all in one 24 hour period.

For an agent. Some would argue 3-3.5%, but fairly close.

http://www.mlbdailydish.com/2015/12/28/106...-add-outfielder Nationals looking for OF help but not connected to Big 3 here... A name we haven't heard much for a platoon is Will Venable, but you'd have to guess he is going to stay in NL. The other names are the typical Tier 2/3 ones...along with trading for Blackmon or CarGo (see StL).

The problem with extending Frazier and Lawrie to a lesser extent are the recurring arguments about a longer-term Gordon contract at age 32. Lawrie...hopefully he plays so well that it becomes an issue to legitimately worry about. At least we're not preemptively extending like with Teahen when it wasn't warranted.