QUOTE (Fantl916 @ Oct 10, 2011 -> 10:54 AM)
Curious if anyone believes that it could be good for the team long term future to trade Paulie. While on the surface I am opposed to it, it's a solid discussion point.
Pros:
-Paulie is the one player on the roster that could bring the biggest return. He's an all-star caliber 1b and a team needing a power bat could feasibly provide a sweet package of prospects to get him.
-He's getting older, and we'd be selling high to say the least
-There are options. While not necessarily good ones, you can start with Dunn. Perhaps getting him back to playing the field keeps him more engaged and he hits better. If not, Quentin/Viciedo could fit here as well.
Cons:
- He's our team leader, captain, and best player. Guys like this often are your franchise centerpieces and not trade material unless you're doing a massive rebuild
- He's relatively affordable for his production and is only signed through the next two years which gives us the option to pay him appropriately to finish his career here
- His replacements...
While I understand that trading your most productive player is bad business, could it make sense in our current situation? THink about it: we have Peavy on our books for this year, Rios for the next four and Dunn for the next three. Peavy aside, that's more than 25$ tied to two underacheiving players heading into Paulie's walk year and beyond. If we hold Paulie and play it out then our competiveness is tied to Rios and Dunn's production, while having no financial means to supplement what's already in place. We would be dependent on trades of Danks, CQ, etc. to provide reinforcements.
If indeed a "youth movement" is taking place, this perhaps we should explore trading our aging vets. Everyone's talking about trading CQ but the return is likely mediocre, one that is sure to bring out mass anger on this message board. Perhaps trading Paulie allows us to keep Danks and Quentin and move forward with the additional youth gained from a PK trade?
I'm not condoning this, just guaging the temperature of the Sox folk out there on how we could possibly position ourselves for success 2-4 years from now with our contract situations.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If Paul brings all of these great things to this team, which he does, why risk losing that by trying to solve a problem area that may or may not be resolved?