caulfield12

It also makes ZERO sense unless there's a trade for Quentin (Phillies/Braves) or Rios (Brewers) already signed off on. KW doesn't want to get in the same quandary he was with acquiring Jackson and then not being able to successfully spin him. Having Rasmus, Rios, Quentin and Viciedo in the same outfield obviously doesn't add up. Actually, I'd say ANY trade putting Rios at a starting corner outfield spot is a disaster in waiting with how he's been trending.

I think we're nearing the point of no return with Rios where nobody can be sure what we're going to get out of him in 2012 or were he to be magically "reinserted" back into the starting line-up with a Quentin trade. It's almost starting to feel like the Swisher/Cabrera/Javy situations where you just had a feeling their days were numbered with the Sox. There's just no way you can be "All In" with Pierre/DeAza/Rios as your outfield. Nobody could sell that to the fanbase. If it's someone with Domonic Brown's ability, I'll buy that as a logical move to improve the future of the franchise. But not trying to compete for the AL Central (especially the next two weeks) with Rios playing a key role. No way.

It all depends on what we get out of Stewart and Frasor (comp pick), etc. Six weeks ago, you never would have imagined that you 1) could get rid of Teahen for 2012, 2) get one of the top 5-10 RH set-up men in the game, and 3) get a top pitching prospect who has more than a good chance to have a better career than Holmberg, and possibly to be the equivalent of Hudson (unlikely, but definitely possible) One can't underestimate the dumping of Teahen from a financial standpoint without any future obligation. That alone basically wipes out a lot of the salary/payroll we spent on Jackson this past year, more or less.

“We all have warts,” Anthopoulos said, according to the Toronto Star. “It comes down to what type of human being are you. In the end, if you're a good person, you might be flashy, you might be arrogant, or you may not run hard all the time, but if you're a good person down to the core you'll be fine. “If you're a bad human being, well, you're not going to be long for this organization. We're probably going to cross you off the list. With Brett (Lawrie), with Yunel (Escobar), it came down to they're great kids, good human beings. They care. Do they make mistakes? Do they always do the right things? Do they always say the right things? No, but to their core they're very good human beings and that's the way with Colby. We tend to forget that these are young players. “Bautista, when we acquired him, there were a lot of grumblings about him, too. But I bet if you asked anybody about Rasmus, they'd say he's a great guy. He might do some things that rub people the wrong way. That's where you sort of have to sift through it.” Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2011-...i#ixzz1TOu6CdZu

Bruney has always had issues with control. But for the last guy in your bullpen, along with Ohman...to have someone with "veteran" experience who consistently throws 94-97 mph isn't something to be totally sneezed at, either. You'd like to see what Cooper could do with him...if there's a progression with him over time with the big league club.

If they can get a similar package to what the Phillies are SUPPOSEDLY offering the Astros for Pence, go for it. The best case scenario would be to trade Quentin/Thornton for Domonic Brown. I think all White Sox fans who are still reluctant to support this team would at least hopefully get behind the idea of building a team that can compete for 2-3-4 years rather than just in 2012. They've reached a crossroads with the roster and unfortunately it's going to be next to impossible to get rid of AJ, Rios, Konerko, Dunn and Peavy. What is it, we have something like $73 million committed to 8 players already for next season?

KW isn't going to get Domonic Brown in all likelihood (unless Thornton's part of the trade)...but the "get" for Pence should be pretty similar to the asking price for Hunter Pence, who will be a bit more expensive than CQ these next 1 1/3rd seasons. Pence is the most recognizable Astro left (not counting Carlos Lee, who they're stuck with obviously)....whereas KW has more leeway to trade Quentin. ESPN.com reported yesterday that it believed the Phillies "had a deal" for Astros outfielder Hunter Pence, but that Houston had "backed off." Reportedly the Phils had been willing to part with righthander Jarred Cosart and first baseman Jonathan Singleton, both at Class A Clearwater, and a lesser pitching prospect. It's hard to decipher exactly what that means. It could mean the Astros, upon further review, simply decided that they needed more. That would suggest the deal remains a possibility if the Phillies are willing to sweeten the pot. Or it could mean that the team with the worst record in baseball, in the throes of an ownership change, is scared that nobody will show up next season if it moves one of its most popular players. So the internal tug of war continues in the executive offices at Citizens Bank Park. And it will only intensify after a 2-1 loss to the Giants last night in which the Phillies were held to an unearned run on four hits in the only pitching matchup of this series - Cole Hamels vs. Matt Cain - that could come close to being replicated in the postseason if these teams meet again. Should the Phillies dangle even more young talent to obtain Pence, or somebody very much like him? If so, are there any players who should be declared off-limits? The opinions here, from left to right: yes and no. Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/philli...9#ixzz1TOoYiQA8 Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else

The Quentin to Phillies rumor is currently the "headline" at MLBtraderumors this morning, for what it's worth. The same thing we've already heard from Nightengale about the Phils being impressed with his recent stretch of offense.

Because if he (Saladino) keeps hitting this way, he's 1 1/2 years away from a major league impact....and Ramirez would still be under contract. We also don't know how Beckham's going to turn out (with us), but surely to get above-average pop from a 3B in the system is the biggest need, along with a future catcher and obviously pitching and leadoff/OF (Mitchell/Thompson/Walker, etc.) Escobar just seems like he's going to come up short offensively to be anything more than a utility infielder. He's not exactly the PRing weapon that Lillibridge is, either.

I think the Cardinals must be really nervous about offering Dotel arbitration and him accepting it. Mozeliak should think twice about that one, especially with Octavio at age 37/38. Don't think we'll DFA Bruney. Ozzie really likes him a lot and has consistently used him in more high-pressure late inning/close situations than he ever did with Tony Pena. Still feel the thinking with Viciedo is that he should be playing at least 5-6 times per week. Maybe you can do that if you rotate him with Pierre/Quentin/Dunn/Konerko, but I can't imagine that KW or Ozzie want him to play all those multiple positions. They'd much prefer to keep him at one outfield position and let him get comfortable. You could see Dayan taking all of Dunn's AB's against LH starters, but that's not going to be enough playing time. Ozzie won't bench Pierre or Quentin, that's obvious. And 3B is our real dire need from an offensive standpoint at the moment.

Looks like his fastball has pretty good movement when he's throwing it dialed down to 90-92 MPH. Stewart pitched around some pretty shoddy defense. LOL at Bautista's deke to fool Mark Reynolds into thinking he wasn't going to catch a pop-up and then doubling him off first with the strong throw from RF. Noticed he wasn't throwing all fastballs...mixed in a nice assortment of offspeed stuff, enough to keep the hitters honest.

Arguments for Leyland over Dave Dombrowski....this situation has a LOT in common with the one in Chicago with KW/Ozzie. Except we don't have two superstars on our roster. http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/SPOR...-has-Tigers-1st

What players are we currently looking at with the Phillies? Obviously, Dominic Brown's the name always mentioned, but is there anyone else in play as a possibility? More "major league ready" prospects under club control for 6 years?

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Jul 28, 2011 -> 01:03 AM) Yeah, I was wondering what he's done to build the Royals' system. I'm trying to think of the best piece he sent them. Daniel Cortes? Remember the posts about that guy? http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_...ype='R' His only appearance of the season was against us, for the M's. Amusingly, he was replaced by former Sox hurler DJ Carrasco....oops, Jeff Gray, I mean. He was once a consensus top 40-80 minor league prospect as a starter. He did look pretty decent against us, but he just never developed the full repertoire of pitches needed to have success with the Royals, and that's saying A LOT.

Chris Getz is just a junior version of Aaron Miles, and I remember all the crying over that "loss" when we got the much more important Uribe. Let's see, Pods/Fields/Brian Anderson/Getz/Daniel Cortes/Tyler Lumsden. We've REALLY improved the Royals!!!

Petricka with a nice effort. Looks like they had Hector Santiago limited to a 70 pitch count in his first start since leaving the White Sox. Will be interesting to see where they eventually move Saladino...3B or 2B.

Well, nobody is asking why we didn't/couldn't get Rasmus for Alex Rios yet. It hasn't reached THAT point.

Yeah, we all know about Richard, Hudson and Gio. Blah, blah, blah. But to include Chris Getz as someone we'd actually want on our team is really pushing it. Royals' fans don't even want him on their roster. At least today, we made steps in erasing (partially) the Teahen and Rios mistakes. That only leaves Peavy and Dunn to perform up to expectations. Two very big if's, obviously. And Rios can just pout all he wants until Opening Day, 2012.

What Alex Anthopoulos wants, Anthopoulos gets. And now the Blue Jays’ 34-year-old general manager can add centre fielder Colby Rasmus to the list that also contains the names of Brett Lawrie, Brandon Morrow and Yunel Escobar. The latter three were all Anthopoulos acquisitions, all young players who are controllable with great upside. They are thought to be key pieces of the Blue Jays puzzle and now a fourth and much needed centre fielder has been added. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and afternoon were hairy and frantic ones for Anthopoulos, who engineered the three-way trade that sent six players the Blue Jays way and six players packing, including starting pitcher Edwin Jackson who was acquired then traded again. But for the Blue Jays GM it was all about Rasmus and Rasmus alone. The other players in the deal were of absolutely no concern, they were simply the parts that needed to be moved and acquired to land the grand prize — Rasmus. In the end the deal boiled down to two players that the Jays deemed to be of worth — Zach Stewart and Marc Rzepczynski — for Rasmus. It’s a deal that any GM would make and for Anthopoulos it took a lot of dogged determination and digging around. Toronto Sun

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/27/rasmu...-tony--la-russa

Mozeliak, who began taking offers for Rasmus last week, declined the Tampa Bay Rays’ late bid that included starting pitcher Jeff Niemann, lefthanded reliever J.P. Howell and a prospect for Rasmus. Mozeliak insisted that the Rays surrender one of two other starting pitchers, Jeremy Hellickson or James Shields. "I guess it's a new start for me,” Rasmus said after slipping from the rear entrance of the Cardinals'’clubhouse Wednesday afternoon. “Everything I've known since I got drafted has been Cardinals. I liked the guys. But I guess it's time to move on. Other than that, I don't know if there's much left to say.” Before departing, Rasmus hugged many of his former teammates then exchanged only a brief handshake with manager Tony La Russa, with whom Rasmus never shared a comfortable relationship. Mozeliak described the trade as a “bold” way for the club to fortify itself for this season while also gaining flexibility for the near future. The Cardinals immediately inserted Jackson into the starting rotation and transferred Kyle McClellan to a relief role. Rzepcynski, 25, may become the lone lefthanded reliever for now but is projected by some within the organization as a future starting pitcher. Dotel, 37, offers flexibility from the right side and carries a club option for 2012. If the Cardinals decline Dotel’s option, they would receive at least a supplemental round pick in next year’s amateur draft, or a first-round plus a supplemental pick if he graduates to a “Type A” free agent. "This is a window to win. We feel like we do have some things coming back and draft picks to get in return. Today we feel like we’re a better team than we were yesterday,"” Mozeliak said. “It’s definitely exciting. Like I’ve said, I’m said to see [Rasmus] leave because he’s one of my buddies,” Jay said. “But on the other side of it, we’re making moves to win this year and go on a run, which is huge.That’s what you want from your team.” Jackson was the centerpiece of the deal as Mozeliak conceded the trade would not have been consummated had the White Sox not first dealt him to Toronto. The pending free agent managed a 7-7 record and 3.92 ERA for the White Sox but has been especially effective lately. Jackson is 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA in his last five starts. Jackson also threw a no-hitter last season and has worked more than 200 innings each of the last two years. Said first baseman Albert Pujols: “Until we go out there and go three or four weeks from now, that’s when you’re going to see the results. Right now I assume we can be pretty good, but we’ve known that since spring training.” With Rasmus (.246, 11 HR, 40 RBIs) fighting to reverse a two-month slump, La Russa made clear on several recent occasions that his enigmatic player was receiving instruction from “outside” sources code for Rasmus’ father rather than from hitting coaches Mark McGwire and Mike Aldrete. Before starting to emerge from a protracted slump last Sunday, Rasmus had hit .181 with six home runs and 21 RBI in 177 at-bats since May 14. La Russa thought some of his adjustments “unorthodox.” Club sources thought the simmering issue reached hard boil earlier this month when Tony Rasmus was discovered in the Busch Stadium clubhouse video room after working with his son in the indoor batting cages. A number of coaches and teammates indicated they had exhausted their patience trying to reach Rasmus, who requested a trade on more than occasion last season. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/pr...l#ixzz1TMxDaBRN

Teahen, while paid like a major league player, simply isn't one. At least not recently. If you play him everyday, you're going to get something like a 700-725 OPS (it has been a lot worse with sporadic playing time in Chicago)...but any "plus" his offense might give you is more than undercut by his atrocious defense. And he's never going to hit well enough to justify a corner spot in the outfield or DH. The Blue Jays have used Encarnacion over there for a while, and both Teahen and EE are the bottom of the barrel among starting MLB 3B. If you platoon him or play him more selectively, he could be a somewhat productive player but he's definitely not the player a rebuilding franchise sticks at the position for the next 3-5 years and then looks at other positional weaknesses to cross off the list. Wherever you put Teahen (3B/1B/DH/LF/RF), you're creating a problem rather than solving one.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jul 27, 2011 -> 11:33 PM) It's definitely tougher to move Quentin because he and Konerko have supplied most of the power numbers for the offense. Viceido is still a risk, and there's the potential for a significant drop-off. Still, if Williams believes that it's unlikely they will keep Quentin beyond this season, and he can get a team desperate for offense, it's got to be tough to pass on acquiring a prospect who will come cheap for the next several seasons and gives the team a bit of financial flexiblitiy. Yeah, only KW seems to be privy to the "predicted" 2012 budget and whether we can afford to keep Viciedo and Quentin together. Quentin will cost $7.5-9.0 million, arguably. We just shed Quentin's price tag by jettisoning Jackson/Teahen (and eventually Pena/Vizquel), but then we've got all those contracts like AJ's that go way up next year.

QUOTE (buhbuhburrrrlz @ Jul 27, 2011 -> 11:24 PM) I don't see how they can trade TCQ at this point. They're 3.5 games back. They just won 4 out of 6 against the division leader. Or lost 15 of their last 21 against DET. Depends on how you look at it. If you do take the 8 losses in a row (2010-11) out, then 6-7 or 4-2 does sound a lot better, right?

Depends on how much salary they have to eat and how much other talent (Thornton/Danks/Quentin) they have to give up. Most would agree that Rios is as close as you can get to a negative "net presence" (especially sulking on the bench, in what looks to be his future role)...but how much is JR willing to eat from his wallet for KW's mistake? It has to sting even more when we undoubtedly could have sold high on him this offseason. Yeah, hindsight being 20/20 and having no replacement beyond DeAza/Danks/Lillibridge, obviously that was a big part of the reason the move wasn't made, too.