chw42

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 10:16 PM) + $400K Castro + $3M+ Danks + $2.25M Floyd + $500K Linebrink + $1M Peavy + Tony Pena salary increase + $2M Pierre + ~$1.8M Quentin + $1.65 Ramirez + $2.3M Rios + $2.5M Teahen + $750K Thornton Our payroll is at about $98M right now not counting Pena, Quentin or Danks and assuming Dunn will be paid $14M in 2011. I wonder if JR is willing to spend $12 million extra on Putz and Lee...

Didn't KW say something about how he wanted to deal with PK first and then A.J.? If that's the case, shouldn't the A.J. signing mean that the PK ship has kind of sailed?

QUOTE (bschmaranz @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 09:55 PM) Is there anything new on the LaRoche front? What about him instead of D-Lee? LaRoche is a bit too inconsistent for my liking over the course of an entire season (I'd take him at the deadline though). Plus, his defense kind of sucks.

We better get Paulie back or some guy who can hit 5th to play 1B. I don't want to see AJP bat higher than 7th in this lineup.

A.J.'s definitely worth $4 million. Not bad. Now we just have to re-sign Putz and get ourselves a 1B.

QUOTE (bschmaranz @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 04:32 PM) They just mentioned on the score the Sox are looking at Tim Byrdak. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/byrdati01.shtml Maybe Thornton can finally be the closer now that there's a LOOGY. If they sign him of course.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 07:02 PM) I hate him already. His game isn't far off from Andruw's, except he's not any good in the field or anything. Pena's a pretty good defender.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 06:57 PM) Carlos Pena. Seriously. I think last year was an outlier for him. I would easily go 2 years on Pena before Konerko. Can you imagine the amount of Ks between Pena and Dunn? They're a bit too similar.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 07:43 PM) A.J. in 2008 - 504 AB .300 BA 13 HR 49 RBI .728 OPS 30 CS runners 23% R.C. in 2008 - 504 AB .219 BA 23 HR 81 RBI .699 OPS 33 CS runners 30 % (prorated to equal AB) A.J. in 2009 - 474 AB .270 BA 9 HR 56 RBI .688 OPS 27 CS runners 26% R.C. in 2009 - 474 AB .278 BA 33 HR 107 RBI .832 OPS 37 CS runners 28% (prorated to equal AB) Castro sucked a lot more than A.J. in 08.

It's time for the Tyler Flowers era I guess.

Edit: NVM

There was a lot of stuff in the Dunn thread about this topic, thought I'd make a poll about. Lee had a bad year, he might have played hurt, but he was pretty good down the stretch. He's got a plus glove and he's very likely to bounce-back with a .850+ OPS season. If he does that, he's probably 3-4 WAR player and he can't be that expensive. $5-6 million for a year might be enough to get him. Konerko, on the other hand, is coming off a career year, a year that he's most likely not going to replicate. He's not getting any younger either. If you sign him now to a 3 year deal at $12 million a year, he's most likely not going to get you back the money you pay him back in value. Either way, I think the two are going to have pretty similar careers from here on out offensively, with Lee being a better defender. I think the Sox just need a stop-gap 1B until Viciedo can fully step into the role a year or two from now. Plus, since Lee will be cheaper, the remaining cash can go to Putz/A.J., making this team pretty much complete for next season. Thoughts?

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 06:01 PM) I think people are either overrated Pauly's defense or exaggerating Dunn's defense at 1B. Pauly ranked dead last in +/- last year (yes, behind Dunn). Dunn had a surprisingly weird/good year last year at 1B. I don't think that will continue though. He just doesn't have the talent/make-up of a good defender. I think he's a -10 defender at 1B at this point. At least he's not gonna be a -30 in the OF on this team next year (I hope not at least).

With both Konerko and Dunn, the Sox payroll would be at around $110 million, no? We'd have to trade somebody making a ton of money and it's not going to be Jake Peavy.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 05:55 PM) Look at his WAR, I bet you the less defense Dunn is allowed to play the greater is WAR. Dunn could easily be a 6 WAR guy in a DH only role, which is RIDICULOUSLY GOOD. The only way Dunn can be bad is if he is allowed to play defense and costs enough runs to negative his .900+ OPS. Eh, not really. The positional change would take off 1.75 wins automatically over 600 PAs if he's a DH. Dunn's D wasn't all that bad last year, according to UZR at least. His bat also wasn't as good. I think Dunn should be good for about 4 WAR, which is what PK put up last year.

QUOTE (Cali @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 05:46 PM) SO...death not being an option, who's the better RF'er. CQ? or Dunn? Quentin. Dunn would probably hurt himself while costing the team 40 runs. Quentin might only cost you 25-30.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 05:38 PM) Just sign DLee and take the 2 comp picks for Pauly. Save the cash and spend it on the swiss cheese pen. I actually like this idea. The likelihood of Paulie doing what he did last year isn't all that high. The likelihood of a bounce-back by Lee is pretty good.

JP actually had a good season last year. I don't see why we should trade him. $5 million for a good defender who can still steal bases efficiently has value at $5 million.

$14 million is about right. Although having him until he's 35 worries me a bit. I would have liked 3 years a lot better.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) Heyman is now saying they are closing in on Dunn and still negotiating with Konerko. Maybe JR has a few Little Ceasers franchises he hasn't mentioned before. I don't see how we can sign both at around $12 million for the next 2-3 years. We're not the Red Sox or Mets.

QUOTE (kane0730 @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 03:16 PM) What's everybody's speculation on Lee based? Have the Sox been linked to him by any media source? That he won't be all that expensive and he's familiar with the city, as well as his relationship with KW and Ozzie.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) Dunn + Lee would be awesome. Give Dunn $12 million per year and Lee $5 million + incentives for one year. I would accept losing AJ if we gain both those. With Morel at third, we would have arguably the top defensive infield in baseball. Definitely, so I guess we can live with Quentin's horrible glove in RF.

I was just looking at Bill James projections on FanGraphs... They really like Morel and Flowers...apparently. They have Morel at a .339 wOBA and Flowers at a .352. Quentin's at a .362, Dunn at .383, Lee at .367. Beckham at .338, Rios at .343. That is one hell of a lineup if this comes into fruition.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 2, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) Rios Dunn Lee Then you have Quentin after that who's at least good for a .350 wOBA. Now if only he can not play RF...

Derrek Lee would be great as as #5 hitter in this lineup.