chw42

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 04:36 PM) Keeping their young Major Leaguers while trading unproven prospects for someone like Garza, and then extending him to a reasonable deal, would qualify as rebuilding. Rebuilding projects usually fail when they try to have all their prospects come up at once and turn into viable Major Leaguers. That rarely happens. I don't think the Rays want unproven prospects for Garza. Tyler Colvin might be someone the Rays would want back, although that's not likely to happen.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 04:03 PM) They have Trout about ready too, who by all indications can be better than Crawford. Scioscia loves Trout so much that he was think about calling him up last season all the way from A ball. A Trout-Bourjos-Hunter OF should be very good, at the very least it will be elite defensively. Though a Crawford-Trout-Hunter OF would have been absurdly good. Bourjos is ridiculous. The guy had a 16 UZR in only 50 games. A +15 DRS as well. If you stretch that 16 UZR out over a whole season, that's around 45 runs saved, in freakin' center field. He had a .930 zone rating and only misplayed 9 balls out of 129 while making 29 out of zone plays. He can't hit much, but his defense is so good that he'd be a 3-4 WAR player if he got 600 PAs.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 01:10 PM) Yeah, that would have been dumb. But I think the Bruce signing makes a lot more sense since he's much younger than Q was when he broke out. Bruce is a lot easier to sign because he doesn't suck on defense. Quentin bat's still alright, but he's nothing but a DH now.

lol just what the hell are the Cubs trying to do? Weren't they going to rebuild?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) Yeah, it's pretty brutal. Perhaps they're saving money to go towards payroll but hiring a child to do all signage work for them, not to mention a bizarre choice for the featured players. For anyone that can't see the link here's the billboard: I see what you did thar.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:43 PM) Poops? lol I thought I was seeing things... Ha Poops would be a nice nickname for Mr. Cowley. Damn, they changed it back.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:43 PM) Or maybe he's not a part of the 2011 All-In White Sox. Beckham not in the picture also, wouldn't read too much into it. That's probably due to his bad 2010 season.

lol @ thread title.

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:35 PM) No CQ? Hmmmmm He must have been injured at the time these photos were taken.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:25 PM) All in? I dunno, doesn't really do it for me. There's a joke in there, too. I hear Adam Dunn is going to bring a big bat to the offense.

Sox have a new marketing slogan for 2011 already. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2010/12/09/whi...-and-billboard/

It appears that they're asking for quite a bit for Garza. Or at least that's the impression I get. I used to be pretty high on the guy, but now, I don't see him as anything more than a decent to good starter. All that talent he has isn't translating into Ks and good control. His FIP is constantly around 4 and he always ends up around 200 innings. That's a formula for your typical 2.5 - 3 WAR starter.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 03:52 AM) Thome officially said he wants to play 2 more years. I just hope it's not with the Twins.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 03:03 AM) I love this trade from the Sox perspective. Hardy is a great defensive shortstop and he's solid offensively, while Alexi Casilla is simply not a good player in any manner, and I will always have my doubts about the defensive prowess of Japanese middle infielders. I would say that it is certainly possible that Nishioka will replicate what Hudson did last year; however, I don't believe the same can be said for Casilla and Hardy. Considering the Twins had a WAR of 5.5 in their middle infield last year (Hardy 2.4, Hudson 3.1), I would say it's likely that they'll take a 1.5 WAR hit there next year (say Casilla at 1.5, Nishioka at 2.5), and it's very possible that it could be as much as 3 (say Casilla anywhere from 0.5-1, Nishioka anywhere from 1.5-2). That's a pretty big hit they are taking in their middle infield. It's early, I know, but I think the Twins are in trouble next year. Their bullpen has as many holes, if not more, than the White Sox bullpen does, I don't think their starting pitching is nearly as good as the Sox is, and quite frankly, I don't know how good their lineup will end up being, and I don't think it will be as good as last year's lineup. I hope Thome retires. Because if he does, that Twins offense takes a huge hit. They'll still have Young, Kubel, Mauer, Morneau, and Cuddyer, but what made the Twins offense so good last year was its lack of bad hitters. They had mediocre to very good hitters in every spot of that lineup. Alexi Casilla sucks and like you said, their bullpen is kind of in shambles. They also have to try and retain Pavano. After that great season of attendance, you'd think the Twins would spend some money. It appears they're trying to do the opposite.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:55 AM) K Law did writeups on the Crawford signing and the Konerko signing. http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=l...&id=5901522 http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=l...&id=5899670 If you don't have insider I'll paraphrase for you. Boston made a great signing (Law gave it an A+) and Crawford will age very well and be worth every penny, Chicago overpaid and Konerko sucks. Boston has Crawford signed though his age 35 season, unless he turns out to have the body of Ricky Henderson he will start slowing down very soon and probably be worth only 15-20 steals the last couple years of his contract, combine that with marginal power for a corner OF and a bad walk rate/OBP and you have a 35yo LF with an OPS around 700-750 getting paid 20 million. I think that they are going to be seriously disappointed in this deal a few years down the road, it won't be as bad as Vernon Wells or Soriano but close. Keith Law and his agendas...

QUOTE (Pale Sox @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:43 AM) He's put together an epic farm system though... that's where the scouting director thing comes into play. His problem is he's too loyal to his initial opinions of guys he had an involvement with in amateur evaluations. This is a silly quality to have in a GM. In a scouting director, it's less silly. He has a good eye for amateur talent...just a total lack of rationality for how to handle a major league roster. The epic farm system might never see the light of day though. Because Dayton will be asking his manager to play Francouer every day. The guy blocked Kila because he had a fetish for Mike Jacobs. I mean seriously, WTF?

QUOTE (Pale Sox @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 01:25 AM) I think it's become more than apparent Moore is better suited as a scouting director and not a GM. Dayton Moore only loves acquiring former Braves players and guys who can't get on base.

Pitchers are: Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey. I guess the Twins didn't want to pay Hardy the money, they're signing a Japanese player. Looks like the Twins' middle infield is going to take a hit unless they re-sign Orlando Hudson. Meanwhile, it looks like the Orioles have themselves a decent infield with Reynolds, Hardy, Roberts, and maybe Derrek Lee at 1B (or Luke Scott?).

QUOTE (Pale Sox @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:14 AM) haha...I'm not sure if you're talking about me, but I've never considered myself a sabr guy. I like to scout first, and check that stats to see where I'm agreed and differed with. I was talking more specifically about the last page.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 01:35 AM) lol. I mentioned that the other day. In 5 years will see wOBA, WAR and UZR listed instead of BA, HR, RBI when watching games on the tube. And honestly, I'd love it. ESPN's bottom line said something about how PK and Dunn are two of the worst defensive 1B according to advanced metrics this past year. Too bad 1. that's not true (according to UZR, Dunn was a -3, not that bad) and 2. we all know 1B UZR is usually more skewed and unreliable in a small sample sizes than any other position. This was the case for both Konerko and Dunn last year. Dunn, with the reputation and skill of a butcher, got a -3 in UZR after posting a -30 in 09. Konerko, who has a career UZR/150 of -2, posted a -13, one of the worst in the league. What pissed me off was that they just had to mention that in the bottom line. Like seriously, what was the point? To make Cubs fans happy about Carlos Pena?

Wow, this thread turned into a sabr orgy.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 01:05 AM) Crawford has career numbers of .300 avg and .330ish OBP with a sub .800 OPS. Part of his numbers are skewed downward due to his poor season two years ago, but man, this is a lot of dough for a 4-5 WAR replacement player at his prime. Really shows you the importance of developing from within and staying out of the FA market at times. The good thing is Crawford has shown no major health problems and is unlikely to have a high bust factor, but man, when you look past his freakish athletic build, he's just an above average player, nothing more. When he's healthy, Crawford is a 6-7 win player, like he was last year. But a couple of years down the line, he might only be a 4-5. Eventually, he'll be average (2 wins) or less by the end of the contract. Who knows what stat we'll use by then... And I'd say he's one of the best left fielders in all of baseball. I wouldn't take too many others before him in left.

QUOTE (scotty22hotty @ Dec 8, 2010 -> 11:36 PM) hmmmm Crawford- ~5 WAR player for $20M over 7 years Dunn- ~3 WAR player for $14 over 4 What a steal for Boston... I'd say Dunn's at least a 3.5 WAR player.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 8, 2010 -> 11:16 PM) RM is bad at baseball, though. He's better at it than Jason Varitek.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Dec 8, 2010 -> 11:12 PM) They're scary good on paper. Hope for injuries(ya that makes me a bad person but I don't care)! If they sign Russell Martin, that's gonna go up to maybe 950 runs for the season.