caulfield12

The Orioles aren't just going to give us Chris Davis. He's coming off a troubled 2014, and they're not going to get 2013/prime value for him, so why would they sell at his lowest value and put all their eggs in the Pearce (a guy waived/DFA'ed a number of times, even last year) basket? It just doesn't make much sense. Another name to consider in the Ike Davis category is Garrett Jones, if the Marlins make another move on the infield to go with the Stanton extension.

The Reds aren't going to get Q with Bruce Almighty. Of course, Cincy's going to overvalue Bruce as the player he was before 2014 when it might take him another year to get back to that form (not to mention the league adjustment and the fact he's never done any better than an average LF/RF outside of their bandbox stadium)...and then it might never happen. As has been noted, declining BB totals and rising K numbers, etc. Some alarming trends, at the very least. And the Reds certainly aren't going to give us Latos or Cueto to replace Quintana unless there are SIGNIFICANT prospects coming back from the Sox.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) Bruce is not a big contract at all, something like 3/$36M IIRC. Ooops, I was confusing him with Votto. Bruce really had a disappointing 2014 though, and had negative fielding metrics, yes?

Well, that's a pretty big contract. And it would completely blow a hole open in the rotation. It would also force Rodon to be a 2, almost from the start. (Unless we do something truly unprecedented and spend big money for a FA pitcher)...so all the resources we need to improve the team would basically be absorbed by contracts for Bruce and another more expensive pitcher to replace Quintana.

If you're Wade Davis and can lock down the 8th around 95% of the time instead of a mediocre 5th starter, sure.

Iowa for three years now having troubles in the 2nd half. They led Tennessee by double figures in the 1st round of the NCAA's, they led 13-2 and 30-24 at halftime and got overwhelmed (I'm guessing athletically) in the 2nd half. Uthoff has to take that next step for them to make the tourney...he's an incredible athlete, just gets timid and disappears at times.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 07:37 PM) They'd also be able to offer him a QO if healthy right? Yep, so if he overperforms and they want to keep him, there's protection. If he falls off a cliff, they're not wasting another $10 million...which is still important to the bottom 20 teams in MLB payroll.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:21 PM) No Reddick has 2 years and Jaso 1. Youth please. Okay, for some reason I thought he was still at 3. If it's just 2, no deal.

Well, they would be buying in for TWO years of Ramirez. I couldn't imagine any team would be absolutely sure that they'd even want to keep Alexei in 2017. It's completely a "win now" move.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 07:09 PM) 2013 he was hurt. Take that out, and things look a lot different. And you're willing to give him essentially the same deal Adam Dunn had? 4 years/$60 million? I love how exchanging Dunn for Ethier and Viciedo for Rasmus leads to a worse season than 2013. If everyone believes in defensive metrics/DRS/UZR so much, getting Viciedo out of the outfield alone should give you a tremendous benefit. We can't, on one hand, say how great it would be to add Heyward for one year and then turn around and totally discount defense with Rasmus, at least in LF.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:45 PM) Come on man, that's a 90-loss team. We could do that for free. So Cabrera makes us an 83-85 win team? I'm not even certain he will outproduce Rasmus the next four years straight up, let alone when you take costs into consideration, and finally the advantage Rasmus has of being able to take over for Eaton in CF and play the position at least adequately, compared to Cabrera at this stage of his career.

How many "if he could only find his control" have we had??? I know, I know, you have to take your shots with the Cleto's of the world....in the past, it might have been Santos Rodriguez, now Olacio, etc.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:06 PM) Melky can hit and doesn't strike out much, but I wish he played decent D. That was a real weak spot on this team. We can trade Alexei and get a good outfielder plus a couple of good a/aa prospects. Sandoval is the position player available, and by far, imo. I'd take Hanley Ramirez's impact bat over Sandoval any day of the week. I might even take Cruz if I believed his 2nd half wasn't a warning indicator of an impending age-related decline (Dunn in 2010) but happened for other reasons (see league pitching around Jose Abreu). The question is Hanley's health, of course...but that's the same as Kung Fu Panda's weight issues next year, or especially 4-5 years down the line. We've seen it blow up with Prince Fielder already.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20874139,00.html This is a typical review. Lots of B-'s and scores in the 50's, 60's and 70's from critics. Lots of criticism for "wasting" our time and money dragging the process out into two movies, studio cash grab, etc. (Of course, if you're the head of the studio and you can gross $750,000,000 X 2 or one billion on a single, longer final film...it's obvious what the SOP is today with gold mine movie franchises...and it works the other way against making sequels when there's a major disappointment, like John Carter, Green Lantern, the CS Lewis movie series or P.Pullman novels). It's STILL going to be a huge event, not unlike Twilight or the second to last Harry Potter film...but we all know we're going to leave the theatre disappointed and irritated at the same time.

I GUESS that's where a "professional" veteran leader in Ethier could come in. If you did have Cabrera, 3 months from now the line-up COULD look like this. Eaton M.Cabrera Abreu Ethier (Danks contract swap) rotating DH A.Garcia Gillaspie A.Ramirez T.Flowers M.Johnson 1-7, that line-up has a lot of threats, compared to the last couple of seasons. Pairing Eaton and Johnson at the bottom of the order leads to some exciting "small ball" possibilities as well when you need to score a single run against the Royals or Indians in the late innings, for example. You've also added two veteran bats in Ethier and M.Cabrera (couldn't figure any way to also add Morse and split the AB's). And I'm not 100% convinced at all that Avisail is ready to hit behind Abreu. But we'll see. What we're MORE likely to see IMO in terms of spending/financial commitment/s. Eaton Gillaspie Abreu Ethier A.Garcia Rasmus Ramirez Flowers M.Johnson With Saunders as the 4th OF. Of course, you'd be expecting a new starter, Noesi and maybe Bassit to hold the back end of the rotation together and keep them within shouting distance of the division leaders for 6-8 weeks until Rodon joined the squad. (And there would be a tremendous amount of pressure on Rodon upon arrival, not unlike Daniel Hudson in 2010).

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 02:07 PM) Jaso's concussion issues are serious. I don't think anyone is going to be trading for him unless he gets cleared completely. In that case, all the more reason they have to hold onto Norris and Vogt.

Remember Hahn's comments last year about justifying going after Tanaka because it was believed he could be the ace of a rotation....which turned out to be true for a half-season? And he was beginning the prime of his career? That's never been applied to Maeda. Once. I still think if he was another Iwakuma, Kuroda or Chen (Orioles/Taiwan), it would be a nice addition....but then you have the Safeco effect to take into consideration with Iwakuma. Even veteran Chris Young looked pitchable there. Maeda could just as easily end up as another Kei Igawa, Irabu, Dice-K. The biggest problem for me is his upside is Iwakuma, not Tanaka. And that's not the kind of $100+ million wager you make. You go after two Moncadas before you take one Maeda.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 05:15 PM) I like winning. I like Melky because he's a good player, and good players helps teams win. I don't care if he's the worst person in MLB. /thread That's fine. So are Scherzer, Shields, Lester and Hanley Ramirez, but we're not going to be paying them, either. It's not about "good." It's about weighing past results/risk mitigation versus future return on investment.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 04:20 PM) I like Melky too but if trhe Sox refuse to go 5 years they probably don't get him which means a much less talented list of FA's left to sign. There's still Saunders who can be traded for especialy if it's the Mariners who sign Melky. I think Rasmus would be much better off just being one of the guyts rather then "The" guy he was always supposed to be. Still rather have Melky and Rasmus or Melky and Saunders than Melky and LaRoche even if it means Rasmus trying to re-establish his value on a short term deal. LaRoche has been consistent but not sure I trust Robin to bench him against LH's and he is 35. I value 4 good OF's being fresh playing DH or sitting out a day per week as a way to keep them healthy and productive. Rasmus would benefit greatly from that since he might be more like Eaton in that the daily grind in CF is just too much to handle. At this point Rasmus should be a corner OF where I think his defense will be much better but can also play CF to rest Eaton. He wouldn't be the 1st athelete that needs to be coddled and appreciated rather than blamed for everything. LaRoche just doesn't do it for me as far as age and overall team versatilty . Rasmus and Cabrera are youngerish vets who fit better with the core. If Melky signs elsewhere you know the next articles we see will be " Sox interested in Colby Rasmus. " How far down the FA agent list will the Sox have to go before they actually sign someone who has any amount of talent and upside ? Sox have interest in VMart, Sox have interest in Sandoval, Sox have interest in Miller, LaRoche etc etc until we're settling for scraps once again and the compete year is pushed back to 2017 . The only bit of light I'm still capable of seeing is the Sox getting a good piece or 2 for Alexei and some, if not most, of this website will be saying "well ,there goes competing for 2015 down the tubes." Pretty much agreed. This is where you have to look at remaining asset allocation. I'd prefer to trade Viciedo (since he's not going to improve with us at this point) for Saunders, bring in Rasmus and sign Morse for DH. That gives you two younger players who have underperformed expectations but have upside and a solid/experienced veteran bat in Morse to solidify the middle of the order and take some of the pressure off Avisail. Same with Rasmus. And you just don't want to go into the season without a decent fix for a possible Eaton injury again. With Rasmus, you don't have to surrender that 2nd round pick that turned into one our more exciting prospects in Adams. I could be misreading things, but Cabrera at $48 million for 3 years or $60 million for 4 just isn't enticing enough because of the PEDs, his so-so defense, erratic results (and sure, Rasmus has been equally inconsistent), in general being leery about overpaying another veteran who could quickly decline and the fact that main reason we're chasing him is that he hits LH. If the main reason is that you could feel confident putting Cabrera behind Abreu in the line-up...that's not enough.

QUOTE (bear_brian @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 09:30 AM) Not sure where you are getting the $10 million remaining number from. The Sox could go anywhere from $90 to $100 million total payroll. Right now, including Viciedo's estimated $4.5 million, the total is about $ 62 million. that could leave them with as much as $40 million to spend - $14M for Melky, $9M for Kendry Morales, $12M for McCarthy, Masterson, Maeda or Hammel, and $5M for Luke Gregerson is one way of spending that money. Getting Cabrera as a switch hitter, and getting Kendry Morales as a switcher, greatly improves the overall lineup and its flexibility. Gregerson's going to be more pricey than Duke in this market, especially if his agent can market him as a potential closer option. BTW, I thought someone said we were at $66 million with Duke added? Maeda's probably going to be over that $12 million....McCarthy at or below, Masterson below and Hammel a bit below. They're not going to shell out any more than $6-8 million for Kendrys Morales based on his aging and performance last season with the Twins and M's. At any rate, I don't see how they can make all their fixes this offseason without going well over budget, which most are projecting at around $90 rather than $100 million, based on attendance/overall revenues/diminished ratings from Comcast/lost sponsorships, etc. They could PERHAPS jump that high, but only for the right players at the right prices, and that's unlikely in the FA market. Not without trading Ramirez, Danks (which means taking back another bad contract, or adding more payroll ostensibly) or one of our better prospects (Montas, Danish, Hawkins or Anderson).

I saw a couple of projections in the $145-155 million range. That's a LOT more realistic. Still, he hasn't been completely consistent the last five years...on the other hand, he was better than Scherzer in 2014, arguably.

I'd rather go for broke and trade Alexei Ramirez and B pieces for Cespedes + Craig, Middlebrooks OR Bradley, Jr...but that wouldn't even make any sense unless they could extend Cespedes, who's reportedly asking for a $100+ million contract (which probably isn't even warranted).

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:50 AM) They probably still need a shortstop They're very unlikely to trade Norris, and Vogt or Jaso isn't the type of return we'd be looking for on Alexei. If they're willing to trade Josh Reddick AND Vogt or Jaso for Ramirez, then it becomes at least a more interesting discussion. I could see Reddick/Jaso as the offer. Not including Norris and probably not Vogt since they control his rights for a long time.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 09:14 AM) I've been meaning to make a thread about "Who bats 2nd" because I've grown tired of seeing Lexi ground into DPs but man, I didn't realize the 2 hole was THAT bad at getting on base. A .279 OBP??! Yikes. Fixing that ahead of Abreu and coupled with Eaton should go a long way in helping the offense. See Gordon Beckham's stat line.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 09:12 AM) Until he started juicing, he used to be a good defender. He can throw. One good thing is if he gets suspended the Sox won't have to pay him. Does anyone really think he didn't juice in 2014? I also don't think that scenario is part of the "dream package" KW promised, either. We might as well hire MAYHEM from the All-State Commercials to patrol LF in that case.