caulfield12

Soria is as close to RIVERA as automatic gets (KNOCK ON WOOD/REVERSE JINX CURSE!!!!) Will face Ordonez, Laird and Adam Everett (can't believe I saw him hit a GS in person this year).

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 6, 2009 -> 07:11 PM) If he can be C. Lee Part Two, I'll be thrilled. Many might not like the way he went about it, but Lee has had a hell of a career with regards to offensive production. C-Lee definitely had a huge payday, and we got Pods and cleared the way for all of our under the radar moves that led to the World Series title. Good for both sides, and El Caballo doesn't strike me as one of those players exceedingly distraught over not getting a ring. Always has been more of a me-first player from everything I've seen and read. Sometimes when you clear a Jimenez/Lofton here, a Sheffield there (Tigers), it's addition by subtraction. Same thing with Swisher over the long haul.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 6, 2009 -> 06:58 PM) ? If we acquired/bought the best Cuban pitcher to come along since Contreras, and one with a much higher upside due to his age.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 6, 2009 -> 06:57 PM) If he becomes a 40 homer guy with a .400 OBP, the Sox won't want him behind the plate. Short-term yes, he gives your line-up a huge advantage, like Mauer/Piazza/Victor Martinez. IF IF IF you have other huge mashers to play those positions. If Konerko/Dye/Thome are gone, then it's between Viciedo, Allen, Fields and Flowers for that DH/1B spot in all likelihood. Preferably, you have the athletic Allen at 1B (maybe in a platoon with a Ross Gload/Conine type from the RH side) and Flowers at catcher, simply to balance the line-up a bit.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Jul 6, 2009 -> 01:51 PM) Agreed, but look at the quality of prospects then to now. And no, I'm not overvaluing. I think there are a lot more untouchables in the system now than there were in the recent memory. And really, how many of those prospects Kenny dealt/cut have done anything? Frank Francisco (minus mental instability) is about the only guy we've let go you'd say would definitely have a place on this team. Of course you can make arguments for Sweeney and Chris Young in CF...and Daniel Cortes MIGHT become something down the line, although I wouldn't count on it happening. Cunningham hasn't done that much. Jury's still out on C. Carter. Gio and DeLosSantos seem like even bigger long-shots at this point.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 6, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) I agree, I think Danks is severely overrated on this site (and I'm probably the only person disappointed in Viciedo's season so far this year). I think Flowers can be a Mike Napoli type catcher for the Sox. BTW, has anyone seen what teams are possibly willing to offer for Javy in a trade now? KW better pray that Flowers pans out. Having Viciedo under our control for 6 years makes that contract a lot let stressful...he might not turn out to be Miguel Cabrera, but he seems to be a run producer...and the power was never a question about him until he started playing in BIRM. Sure, an 800 OPS instead of around 650+ would be much nicer, but if you bring in enough guys like Mitchell, Danks, Viciedo and A. Chapman, some of them will end up being All-Stars eventually. To hear Harrelson speak, Flowers is expected by him to hit 30-40 homers on a consistent basis every year, Mike Piazza type numbers (V. Martinez/Mauer, production levels etc.).

QUOTE (High Mileage @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 09:35 PM) Show me any team that is still competing after losing their starting 3rd baseman, shortstop, centerfielder, and closer. Anyways, interesting on your '00 team and their record against the Royals, but that 2000 Royals team scored a ton of runs... Last year we made it to playoffs without Crede, Contreras, Quentin and Linebrink (all injured for major portions of the season). And we had DeWayne Wise starting over Nick Swisher, with Uribe at 3B for Crede...pretty patchwork line-up. But you're right, losing Gordon, Crisp and Aviles has severely impacted the offense.

That was a team led by dos Carlos (Febles/Beltran), Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon, Sweeney and Randa? Or were Dye/Damon already gone at that point? Of course, the starting pitching and the drafts of the Royals from the mid 80's until today...especially first round...talk about Nightmare on the Country Club Plaza. The Royals did have the likes of serviceble starters like Suppan and Miguel Batista blow through town, but this is the most starting depth ever... Any rumors about Teahen, Meche or Guillen (and I would imagine patience is growing thin with Jacobs, too) being traded in June/July. Heard Braves were interested in Guillen, maybe that trade would be for Francouer and a quality prospect, with the Royals dumping a big salary at just a 700 OPS and questionable clubhouse leader for the future of the franchise. Gordon's career has been a disaster so far...a lot (pertty much the entire future) depends on Hochevar, Crow, Daniel Cortes, Moustakas and Hosmer. They should trade DeJesus when his value is up a bit...and have to build around Greinke and Soria. Aviles might be out of the picture, Callaspo hopefully will have more of a long-term impact than Esteban German. That's the Royals in a nutshell...players like DeJesus, Berroa and Febles looking like stars (and Jose Rosado, too), then disappearing almost...although David D. has been at least an average or above average player his entire career, not so much in 2009.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 10:07 PM) I can't imagine his arm slot is real conducive to any good breaking stuff outside of a slider. Isn't this basically the same issue with Poreda and Thornton in terms of throwing a consistent, over the top curveball, ala Doc Gooden, Zito (a bit more of an angle) or Gavin Floyd? Richard's change is getting some K's, but he really needs that change (see Danks/Buehrle) to keep the hitters from timing his FB. Maybe he can develop a slurve/frisbee pitch like Marte or Takatsu that's a 15+ MPH differential with his FB without changing his arm speed/delivery/mechanics too much?

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 08:08 PM) Question... could part of Jose Contreras resurgence this year be because we have a spanish (Castro speaks both english and spanish) speaking catcher behind the plate? Do you think this helps with the pitcher-catcher chemistry/communication? Not really. AJ's response to this topic was "look at 2nd half 2005/first half 2006 and then first half of 2008" and who was his catcher that entire time? I think the Spanish angle might be a bit too simplistic...but hey, if it works, why "fix" what isn't broken?

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 11:59 AM) He's a great player no doubt, but I really don't think we need that much of an upgrade to win another title. Look, aces start Game 1, Game 4, and in a huge pinch, MAYBE a Game 7. In 2005 we had 4 guys who, despite their awesome seasons, we nowhere near the type of pitcher Haren has been. And then look at guys like CC Sabathia, Jake Peavy, etc. and what they have done in the playoffs. We don't NEED a Dan Haren to win it all, and even if we got one, there's no guarantee that, just because he's a better pitcher than Jose Contreras was for his whole career minus parts of 2 seasons, he'll pitch as good as Jose did. All we need to do is do what Ozzie said when he first got this job, and that is acquire horses. "You don't take donkeys to the Kentucky Derby," was the quote IIRC. Instead of trading away everything we have got, I say we keep developing a core and then add those horses when we can afford them. One guy who someone made a thread about here was Chien Ming Wang. Apparently he's for sale, and that is a guy we need to take a look at. Kenny built a winner by being smart and finding bargains and projects, and if he does it again it's going to be the same way because that is his MO. Interesting trade partners....from Loaiza/Contreras to the Swisher trade. I do think there would be some hesitation at the very least for them to "dump" Wang without his value rebounding (which it has been doing recently). Especially to another AL club they might face, that 2005 season with El Duque and Contreras (not to mention Marte) playing key roles must have stung just a little, adding insult to injury.

Twins "man up" after a terribly disappointing 16 inning loss where they rallied from a 7-1 deficit...take 2/3 from the Tiggers and temporarily sneak ahead of the Sox. Sox still lurking 2 1/2 GB. Nice to see another VERY important Sox/Twins series looming this weekend, with the Dome not QUITE so intimidating as before (knock on wood, hopefully that doesn't guarantee we get swept, would take 1-2 and 2-1 against CLE) and just getting to the ASB at above .500 in a heartbeat.

QUOTE (beautox @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 05:30 PM) i would love to see us get wood Isn't the main complaint about him the same as Josh Fields? Inability to hit quality, "plus" major league FB's or even anything 88-89+ on a consistent basis?

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 05:19 PM) Since the idea has already been floated, how much might it cost in terms of prospects to get Rios and Halladay from the Blue Jays? Can someone give me a sample package? Well, two ways to look at it...we unload salary directly for Rios (it would have to be a Konerko type that has some value to the Jays) or we actually give up a little less to take on Rios WITH Halladay precisely because of that contract. Rios has a lot more value to us if he can play CF for us, but that's a 50/50 proposition. Long-term, he's a corner OF, although his power has been WAY down. Let's say we didn't give them Konerko to help offset taking on the contract of Rios? It would be an enormous deal, and I don't think they'd do it without bringing Beckham or Ramirez over to play SS. Probably Ramirez Tyler Flowers Poreda and/or Richard Fields/Anderson/Getz/NIx and Nunez/Santeliz/Omogrosso (pick one or two) Allen/Shelby III (hopefully ONLY one) Unlikely to see Jordan Danks, Viciedo and certainly Mitchell going anywhere. 1. Halladay 2. Buehrle 3. Danks 4. Floyd 5. Chapman That would be the best rotation, potential-wise, in recent baseball history. Chapman could end up the best of the group in the end from everything reported, although I am skeptical that Halladay's career could be topped.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 06:46 PM) you think she is stepping out on her husband for Rongey? lol After everything that has happened with McNair's murder (where the prime suspect is the girl's jealous ex-boyfriend apparently), I would think TWICE TIMES TWO about getting involved with a married person these days.

The only pitchers on are team with legit FB's at 96-97-98 are Jenks and Thornton at times...Thornton's more consistently at 96-97 and Jenks is the only one who can reach 98/99. Poreda and Richard might both touch 96, but they're a tick or two slower by all accounts, 92-95.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 07:11 PM) KW has to be looking at CF or one of the top end starters. I'm sure the Sox aren't completely comfortable with Podsednik roaming CF. I think there could still be plenty of AB's for him on a rotating basis by giving CQ,JD,JT, and PK occasional days off. As for top end starting pitchers, if KW obtained any of the afore mentioned pitchers, the Sox would become immediate threats to win the AL. Let's say Halliday is acquired. A rotation of him, MB, Danks,Floyd, and Contreras (especially if he keeps pitching the way he has)would be the best in the AL,maybe all of baseball. On top of that, you have the best bullpen in the AL. Then,you'd hopefully add a healthy Quentin for the second half and the Sox are as legit as it gets. I don't think Dye is going anyhwere. He's just too valuable right now. I wonder if Walt Jocketty goes to bed every night kicking himself for not making the Dye for Bailey trade. The Reds,in my opinion, would have a comfortable lead in that division if they had a right handed bat the caliber of JD in that lineup. All because they were too cheap to take on Dye's salary at the expense of Homer freakin" Bailey,who has started to show some life but is far from a finished product. Thank you Walt. Always those incompleted deals (Peavy, Garland for Erstad, Contreras/Dye/Buehrle not being dumped at different times in their Sox careers, now Bailey/Dickerson for Dye not being completed) that have broken KW's way about 90% of the time in the second half of his GM tenure.

Yeah, 6-6...I double-checked it. STILL...not so good, but the Royals actually looked like a legit contender the first two months of the season. And, it seems like we've faced Greinke every time (4 or 5 starts) and Gil Meche almost every time we've faced them. Pretty surprising our 99 win team in 2000 had a losing record against them, but that was b4 the 18 game overweighted against the division schedule started.

By my count, we're now 5-7 against them this season, with 6 more to go at USCF. I would be pretty shocked if they had won the head-to-head season match-up with us more than once or twice since the late 80's. Hopefully we'll got 4-2 or 5-1 to finish out the season against them, but it's hard to imagine sweeping the remaining six at home with the inconsistency this team has had for most of the season.

Don't count out Matt Wieters having a huge 2nd half surge, either. He has the huge name recognition, along with Porcello. Almost nobody outside of Canada/AL East cities without a roto team knows much about Romero...good "stealth" candidate.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 05:18 PM) That is simply silly. Richard doesn't have 1/5th the celing that Danks or Floyd did as they developed, and he doesn't have 1/5th the ceiling that Aaron Poreda does either. Richard is at best a 4th or 5th starter and more likely a long relief arm. He shouldn't be in the rotation right now, especially since Poreda is on the major league club and double especially since this team is in contention. Richard has a very good fastball (especially for a lefty), decent/above average change-up, decent slider and so-so curveball. A lot of teams see any young lefty throwing 92-96, they salivate and think they can take the time to develop him further and improve the crispness of his secondary stuff...versus someone like Sisco who was pretty much a one-pitch thrower.

Bringing in someone like Yadel Marti would be great, potentially he could have a Takatsu-like impact against teams unfamiliar with his stuff...pair with Contreras/Ramirez/Viciedo and give us yet another bargaining chip with young Mr. Chapman. Cubano, what's the latest with his visa/immigration/residency status?

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 04:45 PM) I wonder if the Angels might be willing to move Howie Kendrick in the offseason. While he is loaded with talent, he's been very frustrating for them. He's shown sparks and showed why some think one day he might be a batting champion, but he hasn't been able to stay healthy and this year he's really struggling for them. I would love it if we could buy low on him. Look how long they've held onto Wood, Morales and Kendrick. Before that, they were very stubborn about parting with either McPherson or Kotchmann. And they could have gotten at least something for Willits when he had his one statistically anomalous season at the big league level.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 5, 2009 -> 05:02 PM) Which Aybar are we talking about here? Willy? If so, I'd love to get him, but don't know why TB would trade him. I mean the Rays' Aybar, must have been thinking of a former Cardinals' pitching prospect. Definitely not Erick from the Angels...not for 3B. Kouzmanoff has a reputation as a better offensive than defensive player, but his offense has actually turned out to be somewhat disappointing (going into the NL) and his defense has been okay from what I've read. Chase Headley? Of all the names I threw out, the one that would really improve us the most for 2009 would be a healthy Melvin Mora.

The Rays might end up being the best team, but it's really hard for me to bet against the Red Sox winning that division...although they've had mixed results with their slew of bargain signings like Saito, Kotsay, Penny, Smoltz and Baldelli. They are supposedly really interested in Escobar from the Braves. Would like to see Escobar at SS, Ramirez at 2B and Beckham at 3B to finish out this season...we might have to take Francouer's contract and his 600+ OPS to get it done, but that would be a much more talented infield and far better defensively than what we have now up the middle as a DP combination.