caulfield12

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 1, 2014 -> 07:32 AM) If I'm trying to build a championship team, I'd rather have the three studs than a roster full of guys who are marginally better than the rest of our guys. The problem is that we need to upgrade 5 members of the line-up (including the most important position, catcher)...half of our bullpen...and at least one 2/3 starter. We all know from the Santana/Jimenez/Garza debate about the merits of such a pitcher. And we've exhausted the Paulino disaster as well. The question is whether Hahn can find another Beckett/P.Hughes/Milone/Tim Hudson/Kazmir/Hammel at the back end. Hammel's already getting exposed in the AL in a month, for example. That's assuming Rodon is a #3 or better starter. Because there's no way we even kick the tires on Shields/Scherzer/Lester. And Masterson's going to get so much exposure pitching for the Cardinals he's going to be either too risk because he completely falls apart or he's going to raise his value up quite a bit the final 3 months (and that's another risk, assuming he could jump back to the AL and continue that success).

Bradley and Craig are both well down into the 600's for OPS, although Bradley makes up for quite a bit of that with his stellar defense. I guess it also depends if you prefer Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Bradley, Vazquez/Swihart, Middlebrooks, Rubby, Workman, Ranaudo, etc. They definitely have more pitching depth at the AA/AAA level. Cespedes>LF Eaton would have to have the advantage over Bradley, but not by a huge amount Craig and Garcia is a wash right now, who knows Gillaspie and Bogaerts/Middlebrooks...well, do you really think Conor's worth more if they were both put on the trade market today? Ramirez has the advantage over Marrero Pedroia vs anyone, not even close Abreu over Napoli Ortiz over Dunn/Konerko/??? Red Sox catching over White Sox Red Sox have 4 White Sox have 4 Garcia/Craig a wash I wonder how close they were to trading Uehara, and what offers were on the table, if he actually was made available in the last week or so....?

Nelson Cruz would have been nice, but he’s 34 and it appears the Orioles want to re-sign him. Nick Markakis and Melky Cabrera are good players, but there would be competition for them and no guarantee the Red Sox would get them. So the Red Sox used their pitching resources and flipped Jon Lester and John Lackey to Oakland and St. Louis, respectively, for righthanded boppers Yoenis Cespedes and Allen Craig, and also received 26-year-old righthander Joe Kelly from the Cardinals. The Red Sox now have firepower in the form of righthanded hitting in the middle of the order with Mike Napoli, Craig, and Cespedes. Will Middlebrooks will return to the lineup Friday night against the Yankees, and he too can provide righthanded power. The Red Sox may even be too righthanded, as Xander Bogaerts goes back to shortstop. He will give the Red Sox a good glimpse over the next two months whether he can be their long-term answer or whether the team will engage in a Devin Marrero/Bogaerts debate in spring training, with Marrero now playing well at Pawtucket and a much better defensive shortstop. Cherington is right to think that it will be easier to replace the pitchers than it would have been to revamp the offense. Having dealt with the offense, his job now will be to bring in two starting pitchers through trade or free agency armed with a lot of prospect pitchers and positional players, as well as financial resources as a result of getting rid of big contracts and not re-upping those high-priced players. www.bostonglobe.com Seems that Viciedo is likely to go nowhere, if Allen Craig with a similar OPS, 30 years old and a big contract for a limited defensive player is a key trade acquisition target. While Craig has more of a track record, but he has age going against him, as well as his higher price tag in terms of salary. Unless the White Sox can sign Yasmani Tomas or Nelson Cruz, they're going to be fighting with 10-15 other teams over the likes of Melky Cabrera, Nick Markakis, Victor Martinez and Colby Rasmus. That's not a good position to be in... The White Sox have the seeming advantage with Sale and Quintana at the top of their rotation (Boston has Buchholz and Kelly, who might not even be a starter long-term, to go with Rubby/Workman/Ranaudo), and Rodon waiting in the wings. Abreu's more or less the equivalent of Ortiz/Pedroia, but the White Sox are lacking the resources in terms of minor league talent to swing for an impact bat like Cespedes...not unless they deal Quintana and/or Ramirez. Then there's the huge catching issue. And that's not even mentioning the bullpen, yet, since 2016 is now the target for competing and not 2015 thanks to a number of factors (regression from Viciedo, Garcia's injury, non-performance from E.Johnson/Semien/Davidson, Flowers being at the bottom along with AJ Pierzynski in OPS for catchers with 225+ plate appearances, etc.) Boston has a young core in Bogaerts, Marrero, Bradley, Jr., their young catcher that AJ was DFA'ed to clear the way for and Middlebrooks. The White Sox have Eaton, Garcia, Abreu and Gillaspie...to go along with the veteran in Alexei Ramirez. So both teams have a lot of offensive holes to fill, with the White Sox possibly replacing 4-5 players in the offseason. The Red Sox line-up now offensively is more settled... Cespedes, Bradley and Craig in the OF Bogaerts/Middlebrooks, Bogaerts/Marrero, Pedroia, Napoli in the infield. Ortiz at DH. Then you have Christian Vazquez with Blake Swihart behind him (according to Callis) possessing Buster Posey-level skills You also have Mookie Betts somewhere in the mix. Which team do you think is in a better position? The Red Sox have to add more frontline starting pitching, but they also have a seemingly more settled line-up for 2015, a better bullpen, veteran continuity and stability with Ortiz/Pedroia/Napoli and more resources from which to draw from to fix things in one offseason. Not to mention two pretty high quality catching prospects, especially Swihart.

Verlander is arguably the 5th best pitcher on that roster right now, but he's going to be pushed ahead of Porcello in the playoffs because of "experience." So you have $20 million or whatever going to Tampa (which is huge for a financially-strapped organization with cash flow issues), Franklin and a cost-controlled Smyly, along with a prospect. The Tigers have a huge issue trying to patrol that canyon known as CF there in Comerica with JD Martinez and Hunter on the corners. That's just a disaster waiting to happen. The Tigers are also basically stuck with nothing in return for their move for Iglesias last year, since they seem to like Suarez more...and there's nowhere for Iglesias with Castellanos and Kinsler on that infield in 2015. There were two huge risks taken yesterday. Dombrowski by trading Jackson, and Beane took a surprising risk of his own trading his clean-up guy, that's never happened with a contending or division-leading team so late in the season. OTOH, Gomes/Fuld could easily put up similar numbers in a platoon to what Cespedes was providing...and they can also move around some other guys like Moss, Jason and Vogt to get the best offensive match-ups depending on the opposing pitcher. It will be interesting to see if Verlander's pride gets in the way of the Tigers' post-season hopes. You know he's not going to remove himself from a playoff starting assignment for Porcello.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 10:35 PM) There was only one real team in on Danks and it didnt work out. Dunn will help someone in their playoff push, just need to hope for an injury somewhere. Gordon had a bit of interest for some teams like SF but really his value isnt all that great right now and personally I think he is more valuable to the white sox right now. I am hoping he puts in a second half push for value. How does holding onto Beckham generate any value unless they're tendering him in the off-season, which almost everyone is completely opposed to? Just banking on injuries that would make Danks and Beckham and maybe Viciedo/DeAza and Dunn more attractive in August? We can all see Danks moving then...if a team loses a starter to TJ/UCL, but at some point you have to think more about the future and giving those 2B at-bats in September to SOMEONE: Either Semien, Sanchez, Saladino or Micah Johnson. During the game, it was interesting DJ and Farmer were talking up Leury Garcia as a trade/acquisition target. About how he can play many positions (made some excellent plays at 3rd), is the fastest runner on the team, etc. Seems to me they're looking to put Semien in that utility role, keep Alexei at SS and then let Saladino/Sanchez/Micah Johnson fight it out for the starting 2B position. The main problem with that is pushing Micah Johnson 2-3 months ahead of schedule, basically the same thing that happened with Semien. With Detroit holding Price through 2015, even losing Scherzer, they've got Price, Sanchez, Verlander and Porcello as their Top 4. The White Sox are probably better off targeting 2016...also because of the lack of matches with our areas of need in FA (LH power bats, #3 starters behind Shields but better than Masterson, there's a huge falloff to the 4/5 guys after you go through Scherzer/Lester/Shields....and catchers, since 12-15 teams can't all have Russell Martin).

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 12:09 PM) Nope. Beckham is batting .317/.356/.476 vs LHP and that's before his double today. I like the idea for the rest of the year if they can't unload him....Next year though? No thanks WHY? Conor Gillaspie's one of the top 5-10 hitters in the AL playing without a platoon partner. If there's any time to see how well he does against LHP and whether he can be an everyday player, it's the last two months of 2014.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 12:10 PM) Bah Back end piece who is pitching well > back end piece who's pitching poorly. Before that inning, Danks had just 2 walks in his last 3 starts.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 11:47 AM) Nava has an OBP of .363 in over 1200 PA's for the Red Sox. Sizemore was one of the best players in baseball at one point. They took a shot on him. Gomes had a .868 OPS the year before the Red Sox acquired him and was a starter and leader for their WS team. Ryan Carp hasn't been in the MLB since '97. And Craig was an All-Star LAST year, but has a lower OPS than Viciedo now. Sizemore was that player when the White Sox were in the World Series. Gomes isn't an everyday player and hasn't been for many years.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 11:50 AM) I like it. That's a .352/.414/.506 hitter this year. (I feel like my math has to be wrong somewhere) LOL. Are you adding their numbers together? Gordon Beckham sucks. If there's a platoon, it should be with Marcus Semien and Conor...and then a real MLB starting 2B.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Danks has to be able to throw that curveball he USED to have for K's. Otherwise, the batters just sit on the fastball and foul off them while waiting for a change-up because there's not enough velocity differential between both pitches. The only pitch that's a dramatic enough difference to get a no-contact swing is the curve.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 11:39 AM) I love the Bosox trades. Oh, I don't know if they were that great, but they are old school: veteran for veteran. Like it. It worked coming into 2013, at least in free agency. That said, they might be stuck with a bad contract with Craig for two years (how many NL players improve in the AL East?), and find themselves fighting with 12-15 other teams to outbid them all for Cespedes and Lester at their highest possible value/s. And they now have the worst pitching staff in all of baseball, in terms of starters. Buchholz, Workman, Rubby, Ranaudo, Webster...

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 11:20 AM) This isn't David Price we're talking about. It's John Danks. You aren't getting a hell of a lot for him any ways and it's not as if the Sox have no use for him. I mean, really, if they trade Danks, who is replacing him in the rotation? Andre Rienzo? That's real exciting. Although I would imagine if they took those savings and spent it on Shields (and that wouldn't be my my move), it would help sell a lot more tickets than having John Danks as the #3 guy in the rotation heading into 2015.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 11:02 AM) I just feel the Red Sox have higher standards for their OF than Dayan Viciedo. Like Daniel Nava and Grady Sizemore? Johnny Gomes? Ryan Carp?

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/richar...p;vkey=news_mlb

I got ripped to shreds when I mentioned Craig for the White Sox. So he's either the All-Star from last year or the washed-up 30 year old this year? Which one? Good luck buying pitching on the open market, Boston. Your new #1 is Clay Buchholz, and not the 2013 version.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 09:11 AM) With Gomes getting most of the playing time in left, I guess that wanted a legit defensive back up. (I remember fuld being really good defensively) ^^^^what he said lol Guess he doesn't think much of DeAza defensively.

Plus Millone gets to start in a similar pitcher's paradise there in Minny. Good place for him to prosper. I hope we at least offered Viciedo and/or Dunn and/or DeAza for Millone. Weird that a PR/4th outfielder type has so much value to the A's. Fuld's not even close to Jarrod Dyson.

How many times have we said players like Swisher and Dunn and name another random guy (Nelson Cruz, Yasmani Tomas, Kendrys Morales, Rasmus, Markakis, Victor Martinez, etc.) would put up huge numbers at USCF? It's only happened with Carlos Quentin and Abreu, and even CQ had some years where he hit much better on the road than at home, surprisingly. Since that infusion of power with Dye/AJ/Thome in the mid 2000's to replace Lee/Thomas/Valentin, we have failed miserably at producing power hitters. Our two best (and most improved) hitters this year are Eaton and Conor, far from your typical power guys. You could add Alexei Ramirez to that list as well. Viciedo's been a disaster recently, and we have no clue what we're going to get out of Avisail Garcia coming off his injury.

Why does it seem like if Nelson Cruz ends up in Boston with Cespedes and Lester comes back that Boston will the favorites again?? They're still a couple of starters short though.

So wait...the Twins gave up on Morales and dumped him and are now turning around and adding? Weird. The move's more for 2015 and beyond anyway.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 08:55 AM) Millone to the Twins....Marlins were said to be interested in him. Could help in Danks/Marlins talks. That was predictable. His reaction to the "demotion" to AAA when he was pitching so well must not have sat so well with Beane and Co.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 08:46 AM) They will resign Cespedes long term this off-season and then bring back Lester. For $130-150 million? And they're going to give Cespedes a huge contract when he's getting close to 30 as well? From everything you read about Boston and how they're planning to operate in the future, both fly directly in the face of that...giving 4-6 year contracts for veterans on or close to the wrong side of 30. Didn't Epstein already go down that road too many times before for them to have learned the consequences with the likes of Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, JD Drew, Lackey, Dice-K, etc.??? If nothing else, the 7 free agents they added before 2013 taught them that 1-2 year deals (maybe with an option) are much better than 4-8.

Miller and Lackey might both be gone....but Lackey has that weird contract where he's only getting $500,000 for one season, signed when his career was falling apart. They're looking to deal Carp and possibly Napoli and Victorino. Bradley Jr. (not the prettiest OPS but awesome defense), Middlebrooks (if he ever puts it together), Bogaerts and their young catcher should be the core, along with Pedroia. Don't see Ortiz or Pedroia going anywhere, and probably not Napoli, either. Uehara might be traded as well. That would bring a nice piece (or two) back...to put one of the best closers in the game on the trading block a year after winning the World Series.

It's an interesting twist on the biggest criticism of Beane, not having enough bats/offense in the post-season. He's doubling down on having enough dominant pitching (see Atlanta Braves 1991-2005) to compensate for some of the gaps offensively...and also gambling that Gomes will be reinvigorated by playing with a team in a pennant race. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Gomes will put up better numbers than Cespedes for the final two months of the season. 1. Lester 2. Samardzija 3. Gray 4. Chavez 5. Kazmir 6. Hammel 7. Millone That's the best pitching depth in the majors. It's also a possibility he'll trade one of those pitchers as well.

IF IF IF Cherington can find a rotation. Right now it's a discontented Lackey, Buchholz (check out his ERA this year), Workman, Rubby and maybe Ranaudo.... The Red Sox offered 4 years and $70 million. That price is now at 5 years, $125 million and could be climbing closer to $150 depending on how he does the rest of this season and the playoffs. Playing in Oakland's cavernous mausoleum will certainly help his stats.