caulfield12

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.

How the Red Sox rebuild will be the most fascinating aspect of this. If they want outfielders — Nelson Cruz, Melky Cabrera, Colby Rasmus, Nick Markakis, Alex Rios, and Cuban Yasmani Tomas are free agents. There’s Chase Headley, Hanley Ramirez, and Pablo Sandoval for infielders. As for pitchers, Jason Hammel, Ervin Santana, James Shields, Masterson, and Jorge De La Rosa will be out there. None of them as good as Lester — except for Max Scherzer — who is looking for a six- or seven-year deal that could get into the $175 million range. Shields is a bulldog, and he likely could be had on a four-year deal. The trade market for pitchers is tough. The Phillies may eventually move Hamels and Cliff Lee. Ian Kennedy also could be had. Old standbys Bartolo Colon and A.J. Burnett will be out there. Mark Mulder will attempt his second comeback. It really looks like shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is going somewhere if he tells the Rockies he no longer wants to play in Colorado, and we hear Boston and New York would be preferred destinations. The Sox’ rebuild will be different than it was after 2012 because there will be more reliance on their prospects. After 2012, they didn’t have enough of them, so they signed seven free agents and hit on all of them to win their third championship in 10 years. So the philosophy has changed. You’ll only see over-30 guys if they sign Victorino/Napoli types, good players who will accept short contracts. It creates a lot of turnover, but it’s also good business. Lester is Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neill right now. The polls overwhelmingly favor the Red Sox keeping him. The likelihood is he’s going to be traded for a bunch of prospects, which leaves the Red Sox with Lackey, Clay Buchholz, Brandon Workman, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo, Matt Barnes, Brian Johnson, and Henry Owens as available pitchers. The Red Sox will field a team in 2015, just like they did in 2013. And that turned out pretty well. www.bostonglobe.com

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 07:53 AM) Cespedes for a rental? Good job BoSox. Cespedes is just a slightly longer-term rental, like David Price.

Cespedes is a free agent after 2015. So they're trading two months of Lester (and post-season) for 8 months of Cespedes. The bigger question is what happens if Lester doesn't come back to Boston? They're already going to have issues with Lackey and his $500K contract, and they've also dealt Doubront and Peavy. Who is their rotation going to be? Rubby and Workman? Buchholz has had a terrible season. It's a huge gamble IF IF IF Boston can't turn around the talent on that roster again in the next 8 months.

The sturdy lefty is in line for a market-value contract ($24 million-$25 million per season) and that’s suddenly too rich for the Red Sox’ taste. It doesn’t matter that Lester is a player who has proven he can succeed in the crucible of Boston baseball and had the second-best pitcher WAR (wins above replacement) in major league baseball at the start of Wednesday. There is no question being burned by bad long-term deals given to Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Josh Beckett has distorted how the Sox view re-signing Lester. Aging baby-boomers can identify with the Sox’ new team-building approach. They don’t trust anyone over 30. Meet the risk-averse Red Sox, who are willing to cede one of the single biggest advantages derived from being in this baseball-obsessed market — the financial might to write off bad contracts. Deals that would be crippling for other clubs can be sold off by the Sox because they have a fan base that is willing to have its fealty monetized. But the Sox want to build their team now like they have the budget of the Kansas City Royals. You don’t have to be legendary political economist Adam Smith to figure out that if the Sox are going to try to legislate a one-team market correction for baseball they’re going to miss out on some quality players. The persistent trade talk and seeming inevitability of a Lester deal made being at Fenway feel like waiting in line at the RMV — tedious, joyless, but entirely mandatory. It only got worse during the game, as the Sox sank back to 12 games below .500 (48-60). At about 3:15 p.m, Twitter reports filtered in that the Sox had traded away a homegrown lefthanded pitcher who overpowered the Cardinals in the 2013 World Series. But it wasn’t Lester. The Sox shipped malcontent Felix Doubront to old friend Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs. Doubront just beat the Sox by two days in completely quitting on this team, after his embarrassing relief “effort’’ on Monday in a 14-1 drubbing by the Blue Jays. Lester, who has been one of the few bright spots for the Sox, going 10-7 with a 2.52 ERA, was originally supposed to start Wednesday night against the Blue Jays. But the Sox announced Tuesday that Brandon Workman would make the start. No need to risk damaging the merchandise before you hawk it for maximum value. www.bostonglobe.com

Aaron Hill, Chase Utley or Martin Prado...all of those guys are a lot more interesting to the Giants than Beckham, and they're all familiar with the NL West/NL in general.

QUOTE (SoxnGiants @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 07:31 AM) I think we will add a guy and trade a guy. 1. Gordon will be traded to the NL for a low level prospect 2. We will acquire Cervelli from the Yanks for a mid prospect, nothing special. Why would we want a veteran back-up in Cervelli? How is that the solution to the catching problem?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 05:21 AM) So you listed a 1B, two IFs, and two AA OFs as better replacements for Viciedo than Danks, which makes no sense. On top of that, the only one of those players that actually has a shot of being an important member of our next playoff team is Semien, who hopefully will be replacing Beckham at 2B in the near future. Him playing OF is possible but unlikely, especially this year. If we trade Viciedo, Danks or Taylor will take his spot on the roster until Garcia is ready. Saladino and Semien can both play the OF. Micah Johnson's most likely the choice for 2B, so that leaves Semien as a jack of all trades replacing Leury Garcia unless Alexei Ramirez is traded. I wouldn't put Semien in CF, but I'm sure he would be fine in LF. The point is that if Garcia is playing in September in RF/LF/DH, then they should give those at-bats to someone who has a future with the White Sox. Michael Taylor is already 29. We're dumping Viciedo at age 25, why would we want to invest time and development with Taylor at the major league level? Sierra makes just as much, if not more, sense than Taylor. We know what we have in Danks, he's a 4th/5th outfielder at best. Of course, they also have to trade/waive DeAza if they want to open up LF, since what's the point of keeping DeAza on the roster? DeAza is either going to sit on the bench or take away time from another player.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 07:14 AM) I very strongly diagree with the bolded. We're still a few core pieces away from being at that point. Maybe a couple of them will come in-house, like a 2B for one, but we won't know until they are here showing themselves as MLB ballplayers. For all purposes we're a contender no sooner than 2016, that's how we should approach the deadline & offseason. Danks is a back end starter getting paid like a mid-rotation starter. There are several contracts that are worse, and Danks isn't too much of an overpayment, and Danks *could* even perform up to his deal or even slightly exceed it assuming he continues to develop into a different type of pitcher. But I'm not seeing any leverage here in possessing a likely back-end SP at market value or above that isn't in demand. If there's no real demand where does our leverage come from? No we don't *have* to trade Danks but if we pass this up and keep him we could really end up regretting it. The Yanks are in a tough spot ATM where they need SP and can't afford much, and so maybe the extent of our leverage in negotiations is forcing them to take on at least 90% or more of the remaining deal. Maybe there's a good amount of leverage in that. You're assuming we could just basically give the Danks contract to the Yankees and they would take him off our hands, like Rios when KW claimed him off waivers. I think if that was the case, Hahn would let him go in a heartbeat. I don't understand why we would have much leverage with the Astros flooding the market with their top 3 starters...and the Yankees already having picked up Capuano and McCarthy. The only real leverage we have is working against us, those other AL East teams (Blue Jays, Orioles) knowing that Lester is out there and that the Red Sox don't want him to go to the Yankees. Especially if Hamels is off the market...looks like the Rays will hold onto Price until the off-season or next trade deadline.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 12:49 AM) I'm guessing Seattle finally gets Viciedo. I'm hoping Beckham gets traded to the Giants. Danks' brother replaces Viciedo the rest of this year. Semien replaces Beckham. That's one sure way to get a Top 10 draft pick next season, lol. If they're going to play someone, it might as well be Saladino, Wilkins, Semien, Mitchell or even Trayce Thompson in LF. Like, someone who's actually going to be an important member of our next playoff team.

This month’s Kenta Maeda watch: the 26-year-old Japanese righty is down to a 2.08 ERA in 15 starts. Can't remember the name of the Korean pitcher who was being hyped in the off-season. Found him. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1946537...xt-hyun-jin-ryu Here's a story on the Korean pitcher represented by Boras who has drawn interest from at least six teams... Suk-Min Yoon Yoon is on the small side, standing at an even six feet and weighing 180 pounds. He throws in the mid-90s, though, and complements his fastball with a hard, biting slider and a change-up that MLB scouts describe as above average. Though a starter, he has only thrown what we would consider an entire season's work (~175+ IP) once, in 2011. As best I can gather, the average starter in the KBO throws around 150 to 180 innings, making 25 to 30 starts, per season, often supplementing those starts with relief outings here and there. Based on the above video, Yoon doesn’t feature a devastating splitter like Tanaka or a tantalizing breaking ball(s) like Yu Darvish. However, as is the case with most Korean and Japanese pitchers, everything he throws has late movement, which should aid Yoon’s effectiveness as he transitions into Major League Baseball.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 12:48 PM) Exactly!! The closer job should have been between Petricka and Webb, once Jones was gone and Lindstrom first semi-failed in the job and then made the choice easy by getting hurt. Putnam should have made the 3rd guy in the "close games" bullpen group. In addition to getting better performance out of these guys, they are guys the Sox can potentially groom and cultivate like they did with Reed and Jones. Whereas Bellisario and Guerra and Downs were all rent-a-players with no future in the Sox pen. Except exposing Webb to that role would have had him back in AA before the end of another month of games. He's clearly not ready for high-leverage situations and they've been nursing him along hoping he could turn it around and get a run going to build his confidence. Petricka's never been a minor league closer, and was a starter for most of his time in our system. It would have hardly been fair to just thrust him into that role when you have experienced guys who have been in those situations before. You never know...this treatment has worked in the past, we protected Santos even with his great stuff and he evolved into the natural candidate. If there's one issue with Ventura this year, it's not misusing Petricka and especially Webb. Finding the most favorable closing situations for Petricka vs. Putnam is the right approach, just like Ozzie protected Viciedo from tough RH pitching from 2010-2011, and now we know why (although he's done okay against RHP, finally, this season).