Kenny Hates Prospects

According to his Twitter, Tito expects to be back in the Octagon soon.

Holy s***! Every person who has ever posted in this thread NEEDS to check out this video: http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/?go=forum....age=1&pc=12 The video is in the thread. It's Bas, and it's quite possibly the most hilarious thing I have ever seen in my life - and I've seen some funnyass s***.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:30 AM) but even for Giles, you are implying that is in case CQ doesn't work out. The deadline is in like, 15 days, would you really write out CQ after that much time, enough to block him? Giles' contract will have no trouble whatsoever getting through waivers. The waiver deadline and playoff roster deadline is August 31, so we'd have a month and a half to make a decision on CQ. And not only would it give Giles more regular playing time to get back on track, but it would also mean more of his yearly salary is paid. On top of that, we wouldn't make that deal unless we were a playoff contender at the time, and if we are, being that Giles has a full NTC, it would make him likelier to waive that NTC to come here. Of course there might be other contenders looking for bats around that time too, but there is sure to be quite a few big bats hitting waivers around then. Non-contending teams that have players who either will not qualify for Type A or Type B status or who make too much money to be offered arb over the offseason will want to dump salary at the end of the year when tickets have been sold and walk-ups are dwindling.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:19 AM) Please read http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/rios-wells I wouldn't say he's been fantastic, but I do like the idea of bringing in Rios. Unless he's hurt, he should be able to turn it around at the plate, and if he does his contract is near or possibly even below market value as a CF. He is a natural CF and his contract takes him through his prime. I don't expect the Jays to eat any salary in a Rios deal, nor should they be expected to, but he could be available for next to nothing other than salary relief. I'd really like the Sox to take a look at him. Wells OTOH - yeah, the Jays would have to eat a ton of that contract, and Wells would have to have a couple more of those .317/.359/.550 33 HR years just to get another team interested. That contract is really, really bad.

I'd rather deal Fields outside of the division or to the NL on the off chance that if he does ever start hitting for power at least it won't be against us. Even Fields is capable of putting together a couple of Craig Monroe-like seasons. Since we'd only get marginal talent at best for him, there's no reason to take that chance. Since Teahen is a UT guy, give them UT/5th starter/MR type prospects. If they don't want that, sign Adrian Beltre over the offseason on a 1-year deal for about the same amount Teahen will make in arb. Teahen is near the $4M mark already.

You're probably right. We can make our own meth for free and give it to the porn stars in lieu of money. Then we turn around and sell the porn on the internet for money. And the best part is that, even if we did get caught, we could always say at least we weren't as shady as Dave Wilder.

I wouldn't give up anywhere near that much talent for Teahen. All three of those guys have higher ceilings than Teahen. Even Fields has a higher ceiling than Teahen, albeit a minute shot at reaching it. Richard would be shutting us down out of the pen for the next several years, and Carter we could possibly see once per series. No way. Now if you're talking about Anthony Carter and Josh Fields the pitcher, and some fringe guy named Richard something, then that is a different story. I think CJ Retherford for Teahen straight up is a fair deal because it saves the Royals money. Otherwise Tyler Kuhn and Egbert, something like that.

I'd take Lugo for nothing if we needed a guy to sit on the bench, play the field once per week, and also pinch hit every once in a while, but we've already got a better version of that in Jayson Nix. And if anyone is moving to 2B it should be Gordon IMO. Giles, if the Pads eat his contract and we could acquire him for very little, would be a fit if CQ either doesn't stick around long when he comes back or won't be able to play the field regularly.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 11:27 PM) That's what I thought as well, but I learned not to guestion JPN. He's right virtually 99.9% of the time it seems like. +1 It's great to have someone who sees players on their great nights AND their off nights. Most other scouting reports cost money and can be fairly inaccurate.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 11:08 PM) Either that, or futuresox becomes a million dollar scouting agency, and we hire people to scout all of our minor league affiliates..... Even the DSL! Sounds like a great idea! But first we need to make lots of money quickly for FutureSox. Which direction do you think we should take? Should we start an illegal gaming ring, begin committing armed robbery, open a chop shop, deal drugs, start up a porn company, or come up with some new, fresh online scams?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 11:03 PM) Yes, he has a nice fastball that gets up to 97. I think he throws a power curve and maybe a splitter or sinker to go along with that. Big strong kid, could be a sleeper. Mabee? I thought he was a high-80's guy who was finessing people to death? Who am I thinking of then? Maxwell maybe?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 10:59 PM) He's been kinda enigmatic this year. More often than not though he throws a lot of pitches and nibbles and doesn't last as long. I'm guessing that's when he's throwing more off speed stuff. If I remember correctly, his slider was about 83-85 MPH. The one thing that's holding him back is finding the balance between nibbling and attacking hitters. He has a surprisingly good fastball that he can run up to about 96. Considering his shoulder issues in the past and what I've seen of him, I honestly think his future is as a two pitch set up man. Not that I don't think he can't start, he's just the one pitcher whose role I would like to see change to see what he's capable of in set up relief. I saw him this spring in one of those televised games and pretty much fell in love with that fastball/change combo of his. I don't know how he's looked all year, but that fastball was hard with a lot of movement and that change had sink and looked pretty much unhittable after that fastball. I remember him getting behind everyone though and not being able to finish off hitters. I think he actually came in for a fresh inning and walked a couple guys, and ended up giving up a run just because he couldn't get ahead and stay there. Maybe you're right about the setup role, when I look online I keep seeing him listed as a setup guy in the future, but I just can't help but think that if he had something else he had a little confidence in that he could throw over the plate here and there, and maybe something he could try to get by on a little more when he's got nothing, he could be a starter. Maybe he'll get moved to the pen and come up that way, and then learn a cutter under Coop like everyone else does.

Agree on Pods. And actually, he might be able to provide some hitting tips too.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 10:53 PM) One guy who has gone unnoticed but has been mostly money out of the pen (struggled a little when he got promoted to WS last year) since we drafted him is Henry Mabee. Anyone know much about his stuff? JPN, you see him pitch yet? Are you familiar with the Raelians? Or do you know your way around the black market? Because we need to figure out a way to clone JPN and put versions of him at Charlotte, W-S, Kanny, Great Falls, Bristol, and in the DSL. Either that or we need to get some Sox scouts to start anonymously posting here somehow.

It looks like it's about time to promote Justin Greene. I am kind of curious though why he only has 14 SB this year when BA rated him the speediest guy in the organization going into this season. There's 7 CS with that, so does that maybe indicate situational running where the odds are more against him, or is that a sign he's not the best base stealer? Because if he's not the best base stealer he should be working on it, but maybe the numbers are down because he's got the technique pretty much down and the Sox just want him to concentrate on hitting. Anyone know?

Can someone who has seen Harrell this year (*cough* JPN *cough*) tell me how much Harrell has been throwing his slider this year, and where the pitch is at right now? I really like Harrell and with a third pitch I think he can be a starter.

In hindsight, if the Sox could have thrown in a relief prospect or something and gotten the Rays to agree to Jackson + Niemann for Dye that would have turned out gold. Even though Dye has been terrific, getting those two guys would have set up our rotation for the future. We probably would have brought in Abreu too if that were the case.

I wouldn't give up a whole lot for Teahen, but I do like him and he'd certainly help this team. I think he's a guy that before too long, he'll start getting paid in arb more than what he'd be worth to us. He'd be a nice stopgap at 3B until Viciedo if Beckham moves to 2B after the year, or else a nice UT guy who gets more AB's than your average UT guy. Shelby and a RP (not Jones or Santeliz) or an arm like ACarter, Ely, Rasner, etc. would work for me. But just watch Kenny trade DCarter and Upchurch for him.

Great interview.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 03:34 PM) But that trade I speak of was also never offered. Money is a factor yes, but they did go out and sign Burrell. The Edwin Jackson stuff was more or less speculation by Soxtalk. I've seen that a few places. Somewhere, I think on a Rays board, it was said that the Sox and Rays had discussions about Dye for Jackson but the Sox nixed it because they wanted more, while the Rays only wanted to give up Jackson.

Agree on Akiyama, although they seem to have backed off a bit on their plans for the Asian market. They were talking a lot about Korea and the Phillippines, and they've got enough talent to stack cards for each venue, but they've been talking more about Japan lately. But with Akiyama as a main event, plus Uno, Okami, Yoshida, DHK, etc. they could definitely put on a show. CC, Rampage, Hendo, Wandy, Brock, and Kimbo should all be big over there too. Actually, it might even make more sense to have the WEC go over to Japan first before the UFC heads back there. I believe the WEC sent Rani Yahya over to K-1 to fight Kid while he was still under contract, so maybe there's a framework for a relationship there. Plus a lot of guys like Mizugaki, Maeda, Takaya, Beebe, Micah Miller, Pulver, Brown, etc. have fought in Japan before, some recently. So maybe that's an idea. Bring a smaller show with great action to the Japanese fans that like the smaller guys, and try to make in-roads that way. IIRC even Dream has had trouble filling arenas, so maybe a big UFC show could end up being a disappointment.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 15, 2009 -> 09:21 PM) Here is the question... how many of those guys make their major league debuts in a uniform other than a Sox one, and who is the highest ranking one to do so? I'll go with a reliever because we've got some guys pretty close. I don't know who because Kenny loves both relievers with sink and power arms, and whoever we trade as a reliever is probably going to fit one of those descriptions.

Here are a bunch to mull over: Do you pay any attention to trade rumors around baseball, knowing that if the Sox make a big deal there's a good chance you'll be one of those names requested? Do you follow the Sox at all? What was your favorite team growing up? If you could make yourself as a character in a video game, and you could give yourself any one extra pitch that you feel would enhance your current game, what pitch would you choose, and why? Who is the toughest hitter you have faced? Who are some of the best arms you've seen in the Sox system? Other than your teammate Dexter Carter, are there any other players you have met in the Sox system who you have found to be especially influential or helpful, either with your game or the adjustment process? Have you ever been to SoxTalk or FutureSox? Do you even care? Which would you rather have: five dollars or a WNBA Championship? Do you have any interesting bus ride stories? What is it like when you're riding the bus and someone rips a nasty fart and/or dumps a huge pile in the on-board chemical toilet? And does it sicken you to walk in there with piss all over the floor, and then have to fight to aim for the toilet while the bus is moving but still maintain enough balance so as not to touch the walls which your fellow prospects have urinated on? Have you begun to hate the Cubs yet? Did you ever expect to rocket through the system this fast? At this time last year, at what level would you have predicted yourself? You realize we're counting on you, right? We don't develop many good starting pitchers around here. ....err, that's it for now.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 15, 2009 -> 12:31 PM) Because it's been a grand total of 5.2 IP. Pitchers go in slumps like hitters. You can't ignore what a player has done for practically his whole minor league career because of a cop of coffee so far in AAA. Yeah. I think he's a reliever but he's definitely got a Major League arm and he is close. As it stands right now, outside of Flowers/Danks/Viciedo/Hudson/Mitchell I think you can make a case for a lot of guys to fill out that top-10 or top-15.

Some awesome fights announced: Mike Brown vs. Jose Aldo for the belt at WEC 45 Kampmann vs. Swick at UFC 103 for a shot at GSP Rumble Johnson vs. Zenko at UFC 104 Going to go nuts for that Brown-Aldo fight!