caulfield12

But with all of his talk about early retirement, I think he'd be very content with either a 2 or possibly 3 year deal, then reassessing where things stand again with his family. I don't think there are very many teams out there who will be throwing 5 year offers out there, let alone 6.

The Mariners traded Asdrubal Cabrera, a middle infielder batting .236 at Class AAA Tacoma, to Cleveland for veteran first baseman/DH Eduardo Perez on June 30, 2006. Perez offered little assistance to the M's attempt to win the AL West, batting .195 with one home run and 11 RBI in a half-season. Around 12:50 p.m. Monday, Cabrera waited back on an Anthony Swarzak changeup and whacked it into Target Field's right field bump-out for a three-run homer. This increased Cleveland's lead to 4-0 in what became a 5-2 victory for the first-place Indians. This increased Cabrera's totals to 17 home runs and 58 RBI in 380 at-bats. That is quite an upgrade in power for a 25-year-old who had 18 home runs and 166 RBI in four prior seasons and 1,415 at-bats for Cleveland. The moral of these tales is this: Seattle should never trade a shortstop to Cleveland -- particularly if he happens to wear No. 13 and come from Venezuela. (The other trade was of course Felix Fermin and Reggie Jefferson for Omar Vizquel 15 years earlier) As Twins followers try to convince themselves the Indians are not a factor, there's no better place to like Cleveland in a matchup than at shortstop, the most important fielding position on a diamond. The Twins have a shortstop who looks as if he learned the fundamentals at a baseball academy in Liechtenstein, not as a Gold Glove winner in the Japan League, and the Indians have the best shortstop in the American League. "Flat out, Cabrera has been our MVP,'' Cleveland manager Manny Acta said after Game 1 of the split doubleheader. "He has saved a lot of runs with his defense. We knew he would do that. What surprises everybody is his power." Patrick Reusse, Star Tribune

Coming into this season, you would have thought he was a combination of Roy Hobbs and Shoeless Joe Jackson the way some raved about him.

http://www.csnchicago.com/07/18/11/Buehrle...&feedID=661 How many years and how much money do you offer? If you "lowball" him (based on this year's salary...remember, we had the same situation with Magglio coming off the $14.5 million he made in 2004 but he was injured and his career looked to be in total jeopardy)...compared to his 2011 salary, how much lower can you actually go without insulting one of the two most important players in recent franchise history? Will it be one of those situation like in the past where they APPEAR TO TRY to sign him but make him an offer (or offers) that SEEM reasonable to fans but which they know will never be accepted by Mark and his agent? Do you gamble and try to get Jackson back instead (of Buehrle)? Can we keep Buehrle AND Danks in the same rotation in 2012? With Rios, Dunn, Teahen and Peavy "wasting" so much of the already-allocated payroll for next year, will JR decide against keeping Mark purely for financial reasons? What will the corresponding loss in revenue to the franchise be in terms of lost season ticket sales and bad PR for the Sox?

And the one positive about Reed coming so fast is that it heads off ANY possibility KW will deal Viciedo for a rental "top-notch veteran RH reliever" to complement Crain/Bruney the last 2 months.

Should they trade Buehrle right now? Probably. Will they? Definitely not, KW would face an insurrection. And they're still not going to get Rasmus straight up for Buehrle, because the Cardinals are still taking on around $5 million in additional salary. If the White Sox paid for most of the rest of the year, you POSSIBLY could get Rasmus, but they won't do that. #2, they're not going to do it simply because it means you have to bench Rios or Pierre, and/or trade Quentin. Otherwise, you're acquiring Rasmus and basically writing off $43 million in Rios. Unless you're going to bench Rios for two whole months, then name him the starter again coming into 2012, along with Dayan. And you know how much KW and Ozzie love their "traditional" leadoff hitter. Just not a snowball's chance in hell that the organization would have any credibility with the fans approaching 2012 with Rios as the annointed leadoff hitter to replace Pierre.

Don't you dare say that Rowand!!! I remember when Joe Morgan and many others said the same thing in the middle of 2008 and it kind of fell to pieces in the 2nd half when Linebrink couldn't return to form after the injury.

I think after the DH sweep, the Twins will be hard-pressed to pass all three teams in front of them. The odds are definitely not in their favor. What's going to have to happen is that they get Span/Kubel back and they start getting on base in front of Mauer and Cuddyer. Revere's just wearing down playing everyday and Casilla's erratic at best. I think they were 1/17 in getting on base in the DH, but even 9 hits from Mauer and Cuddyer aren't producing anything because they're mostly not for extra bases (Cuddyer's homer the exception). Plouffe has shown some definitely pop but he's still hitting in the low 200's. What they need more than anything is a good #2 hitter. It's not Casilla, and it's not Nishioka. Huge problem.

Because Buddy Bell worked so much with Teahen when he was with the Royals, that's reason 1. His success against us made him SEEM to be a better player than he actually was/is.

Greg, there are a LOT more issues than his defensive miscues late in games during April. I don't want to have this debate, but your batting average argument for Juan is about the same as saying Brent Morel should be the everyday 3B, or Omar Vizquel. But yes, Juan's definitely not a bigger problem RIGHT NOW than 3B, Dunn and Rios. That's 100% accurate. Nobody could argue otherwise. And it doesn't mean Juan has been anything but "average" or "below average" for the course of the entire season, cumulatively. The White Sox were 2nd in the AL in steals last year. This year, we're 12th. largely due to Juan and Rios...and sitting at a 55% success rate. When speed and hitting for average are his two tools, and he's down to just hitting (but with zero power), it's not going to balance out unless he hits 350-400 with RISP.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 18, 2011 -> 10:45 PM) Cmon folks! Let's get excited. We did win. Offense was somewhat shaky whiffing eight times against Davies, but who cares? We won. Props to Juan, Lexi for immediately lifting the sac fly, Paulie. Good job by the relief corps not blowing it. Crain, Thornton and Sergio all were nasty. I hope we can keep beating KC; their record the last 2 months is so bad it's hard to believe. Except it was actually 9 K's, a career high...and the guy's won what, one game? In some ways, this was worse than the Bruce Chen fiasco, it's just that we got bailed out by their poor defense. Didn't feel like we BEAT them by playing better. They Royals are just so fundamentally flawed they usually get in their own way and give games away to opponents.

Moustakas has been horrible the last month. They might as well have brought in Ohman to get him to feel more confident about getting a lefty out.

Mitchell 0/3 with 3 K's, but at least 2 BB Keenyn Walker 1/2 and hitting .387

Guillen can't get a double salary unless he's working for ESPN/ESPN Deportes for one year. Or FOX, if they dared to see how long Ozzie would go before getting fired.

I think Rios is even more scary going forward than Dunn. Alex's OPS on the road is now closing in on 400 for the entire season. That's almost impossible to do. PLEASE NEVER MAKE A STATEMENT AGAIN ABOUT LEADING THE WHITE SOX in the 2nd half. Thanks for your time and consideration, guys.

Well, it's amusing that a walk-off balk and a game-changing error by Escobar have basically given the last two Sox victories in the season series to us. But we have to take every win we can get. And at least Pierre got a two-out RBI. Adam Dunn, now at .158. Alex Rios on the road, 30/187 (.160), 2 HR's, 10 RBI, 27 K's OPS closing in on 400

Nothing here to see at all. Cabrera and Francouer are the obvious targets, with Betemit being a throw-in if they need another hitter off the bench. Not sure, since I don't follow the Pirates' roster that closely.

From the way Ozzie and Cooper were conferring in the dugout, I think they forgot the rule and cost Santos/Thornton a save in the process. It doesn't matter in the overall scheme of things, but I would be pissed if I was Matt going into free agency. He has a guaranteed contract for 2-3 more years now, so it's irrelevant in that sense. You could see Matt had that look like "you've got to be kidding me, right?" when he was pulled. I think there's more value there for Thornton to get out the side 1-2-3 and keep rebuilding his confidence.

Because the tying run wasn't on deck when he entered, apparently.

Oh, forgot Santos can't get the save here. This is just weird. Why take the save away from Matt? And then have Santos face a lefty? Do the White Sox get a "TEAM SAVE" but not an individually-credited one for a pitcher?

Would anyone trade Dunn for Joe Mauer's contract??? I don't think that would be a good idea. Mauer doesn't even have a homer yet this season. Why Thornton? This is weird. I know there a lot of lefties coming up, but Matt still scares us as the closer, doesn't he? OZZIE, if you put Santos in against Moustakas, you're the dumbest manager in baseball. Why would you take Thorton out there? Just to get Santos the save???? WHAT???

WHERE THE HELL WAS BAINES THERE? YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE STADIUM you're in....c'mon!!!! I guess Ramirez probably went on his own on instinct...but Baines barely glanced back. Guess it happened too quickly to stop him. Still doesn't seen that Baines was very demonstrative.

Tiger Woods isn't a winner! Still can't believe those stories that he's having financial problems. That would be simply incredible, after he appeared to be on the verge of lapping anything Michael Jordan did in terms of endorsements and his actual payout for performance. I remember all those stories of him being the first billion dollar athlete. Now? Not so much.

Lester was always the example in front of Danks, but you'd have to argue that Lester's on a whole different level...certainly the last season or two. LeBron James. Wilt Chamberlain. A-Rod. Lionel Messi. Danica Patrick. Dale Earnhardt Jr. JOKING.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 18, 2011 -> 08:26 PM) I wonder what would happen if you offered him $10 mil a year but made it for like 12 years. His agent and the union would fight it. I'd be concerned about the US economic disaster looming, and hyperinflation setting in and eroding the value of that contract. Of course, if interest rates stay flat or close to zero, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Crain has been so steady all season...as expected, some big-game meltdowns, but what relief pitcher is perfect these days? None.