caulfield12

Revere has struggled this year, right? I can't see any way they can afford to trade someone like Hicks or Gibson.

Well, a year ago, Wilson Ramos gets you a lot more. Actually, the Twins' bullpen was doing pretty well recently...I hope this is a case where the tinkering will mess up the roles of Rauch, Guerrier, Crain and Mijares... In hindsight, they should have held onto Breslow and Reyes IMO.

Wilson Ramos for Capps, it's official now.

QUOTE (TomPickle @ Jul 29, 2010 -> 08:50 PM) Capps a part of the Dunn deal if we give the DBacks Santos in a three team trade? Would you really take him back? It would be a bit embarassing for the D-Backs to bring back Sergio now.

I hope that's the end of Garcia in this game with 5 IP, but Ozzie will probably let him start the 6th until he gives up a baserunner. For whatever you want to say about Freddy, he's probably the MVP of this team because of his pitching the first half keeping us from completely sinking. If you look at the money we spent on Andruw Jones and also Vizquel, you can't overstate how important each of them have been at different times this season, all for around, what, $3 million combined?

Gordon Beckham is now about 15th from bottom in MLB OPS. We still have Pierre and AJ in the bottom 10, somehow AJ is one ahead of Justin Smoak (629-628). Seattle and Jack Z. had better hope that he turns out to be the player everyone projected.

Didn't realize Aubrey Huff was rolling along with a 942 OPS. He looked so bad with the Tigers down the stretch last year...nobody thought to make that move. Can the NL really be THAT bad? That's why I worry about bringing in Dunn, not to mention the fact he doesn't want to DH.

Gordon Beckham (657 OPS and rising) has finally passed Mark Kotsay in this category. Hope that run for the 4 run lead we left out there doesn't come back to hurt us...but, with a 17-1 streak at home, we've dodged quite a few bullets. Just don't let up and allow the M's back into this game, please.

If we do make the playoffs, you know that Ozzie will argue the reason for that happening was the time he was able to rest/DH Quentin and Paul Konerko, not to mention rotating Pierre, Rios and Ramirez (did he DH once, or maybe it was Lillibridge) out of the field occasionally. I'll give Ozzie this much...he stuck with those Sunday line-ups for most of 2005 and almost all of our bench players had significant roles in the post-season that year and peformed admirably.

But since we've already invested $6-7 million into Viciedo, I think KW will be less likely to part with him...largely because he has to prove to the rest of the MLB GM's how much smarter he is than them. It's not like trading Gio or Clayton Richard, he's the biggest investment our club has ever made in a player, bigger than Joe Borchard even. Trading The Tank would be like acknowledging a mistake was made, which is why I doubt it happens.

I think the 17-1 streak at home is even more impressive than 26-5 and 32-11. Didn't the Braves have a similar streak at home earlier this year? Don't know why, but I have the feeling that when Kotsay is replaced, it will be like leaving Mark Johnson off the 2000 playoff roster for Josh Paul. It will become the excuse for the negative change in the clubhouse chemistry. Mark Kotsay OPS=651, Gordon Beckham OPS=650. Funny.

Slightly below competent defender at 3B? (Vizquel) What? Are you sure you're not thinking of Viciedo?

Here's one thing I don't get. If I were the White Sox, I would go after Terry Ryan or Jim Rantz of the Twins, and basically give them a blank check to run the scouting department. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...but is KW's ego too big to admit to himself this weakness? It's not as if the Twins have unearthed lots of Dominican, Venezuelan or Asian players or outbid many on the international open market. In fact, they've PROBABLY done a worse job than the White Sox in this area, Christian Guzman is the lone player that comes to mind in the past decade, along with David Ortiz (you can also look at them letting him go as a failure of sorts developmentally, since they undoubtedly would have won at least one or two World Series titles with him batting like he did in Boston, but they could never get that kind of performance out of him, for whatever reason). I will give them credit for holding onto Young so long, but they've reportedly tried to deal him the last two offseasons and couldn't find any takers that would give up what they felt he was worth...so perhaps they were a bit lucky here.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 29, 2010 -> 09:10 AM) Thats why you dont sign Linebrink to that ridiculous contract in the first place. Its called being smarter with the resoruces given to you. It's easy to say that now. But the market for experienced set-up men coming into the 2008 season was a very different place. Look at all the money that was spent on the Jamie Walkers, Jose Mesa's and Chad Bradford's of the world. That was the market for Linebrink and Dotel AT THAT TIME. If we had a better farm system, will be the argument, we wouldn't have had to spend that money, yes? We certainly wouldn't have won the ALCD without Linebrink in 2008, you agree? I'll just put it this way, which GM hasn't made at least three BIG mistakes in the last five years? We keep saying how brilliant the Rangers are these days, but they traded away Danks, Chris Young (pitcher), Adrian Gonzalez...they've also dealt Armando Galarraga, Francisco Cordero and Edison Volquez, although Josh Hamilton is looking like the better part of that deal for now. KW hasn't made nearly that many mistakes with the most precious resource in the game, young pitching. The only starters you can argue that "got away" are Clayton Richard and Gio Gonzalez, and I bet 90% of the board would say trade for Peavy was the right move at the time, at that price...since you're pointing out Halladay, Lee and Oswalt as examples, certainly you agree with the acquisition of Peavy, yes?

The Phillies were so smart they gave up Gavin Floyd, Gio Gonzalez, Thome and a huge chunk of $20+ million to us for what exactly in return? The fact of the matter is that we're not as desperate for pitching as they are...because we have two starters with ERA's under 2 for the last 6 weeks, along with an established veteran workhorse in Mark Buehrle. And if the Phillies would have been able to retain the services of Lee and Halladay at the same time, they wouldn't find themselves in the embarassing position of having to make a 3rd move just to stay competitive.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:07 PM) You would still be adding salary, which makes the move impossible. It would be adding $1.25 million for one season. However, if you kept Pods at the same number he's getting from the Royals, you make up the difference with Pierre and you can use that extra money you save on Pierre in 2011 and Teahen in 2011 and 2012 to invest in the draft. That's theoreticallly speaking, of course. And what's done is done.

Ozzie is a genius, Ozzie is a genius!!!

Is Jenks really throwing at 98 and 99?

There's one thing for sure, there's going to be a meltdown from the entire board if Jenks blows this one...the only good thing is that Ichiro and Figgins are out the way already, so that's a BIT comforting that the bigger swingers are up to bat.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 05:25 PM) Can't bring in more salary. You are spending that money on the draft. I didn't, I took Hudson over Teahen.

Well, that's not good. We're getting close to building a hole that will be difficult to dig ourselves out of. First homer for Figgins all season, and one of those outings hopefully Buehrle can battle back and get through 6-7 innnings and keep us in while the offense rallies.

How close was that Quentin ball to going out? At least he's getting closer...he seems to be in a bit of a mini-slump after returning from the injury, we need him to heat up again.

Well, you kind of felt this coming...with how well the Twins have been playing. And 7-1 against the Mariners (should be 8-0) is pretty unreal...although Toronto is 11-0 against BALT this year I think.

Torres/Hudson/Threets/Santeliz/Nunez for the Linebrink's spot I said before I would have kept Beckham at 3B and brought in Orlando Hudson (which would have created a hole at 2B with his injuries, in which case we'd be using Vizquel, Nix or Lillibridge there)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 04:19 PM) So which five million-ish dollar player on the roster would you not want to have this year to pay for the drafting of players and international signings? That's too easy, Teahen and Linebrink. But I don't think there's any GM who hasn't made a single contract mistake....the Tigers had about 7-8 in recent years. Or look at the Flubs. In my recent memory, we've only had MacDougal, and you can debate Contreras/Konerko. Linebrink was a key player in 2008's ALCD, and the jury's still out on Pierre and Teahen.