The Ultimate Champion

Competitive Balance Round A Rockies Orioles Indians Marlins Royals Brewers Competitive Balance Round B Padres Diamondbacks Cardinals Rays Pirates Mariners Any of these teams want Gordon or a reliever? Rienzo+? Maybe we could eat all of DeAza or Dunn's contract and send a prospect/second piece. Putnam, Petricka, Belisario would be nice gets for any team in need of RP ATM. I can't believe the Pirates got such a great deal. On June X next season, if the Marlins offer that same player back to the Pirates striaght-up for the player they draft at 39 the Marlins probably get laughed off the phone. Dumb.

I wish we could have traded a RP for the #39. Even aside from the pick itself, that bonus added to the pool would have been terrific. I can't believe the Marlins shopped around much & I can't imagine they called the Sox at all. Stupid Marlins. Anyone else looking to deal off competitive balance picks before the draft? Please call us. Please.

QUOTE (daggins @ Jun 1, 2014 -> 06:23 PM) EJohnson - no hits, 7BB, 1K thru 3 Has a high profile guy in our org flamed out like this before? Like, a top 100 prospect just not able to find the strike zone at all? There has to be something wrong with him right? Can't remember the last time that happened but we did get someone from the Angels that did the same thing, Reckling IIRC, pretty sure he's done. It happens. You never want to hope for an injury but I hope there's an injury with Johnson because otherwise it's not good at all.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 1, 2014 -> 03:52 PM) What do we do with Davidson? He's been left out in all of these replies. Let him rebound. Nobody wants him now unless you're selling way low. If he makes himself look like an MLB player then you make your decision later. You don't HAVE to deal him, but if he looks good and Connor's your 3B, then maybe you use him to fill a need elsewhere.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jun 1, 2014 -> 03:50 PM) No mention of Alexei in OP... The guy he's traded for might be. LH power bat & RHSP. Make Alexei available to a contender that needs a SS badly and that's what you're targeting.

I believe in Connor, no question. He's a Major League player & a potentially very valuable complementary piece. These types will matter a lot more once you have your stars already penciled in. Biggest needs: #2 RHSP and big LH power bat in the middle somewhere, as a young guy though.

Well, the PA are great. Can't help but think a trade is coming though, and probably 2 guys, either 2 MiLB players, 2 MLB players, or one of each between Gordon, Alexei, Leury, Semien, Micah, Sanchez, and Saladino.

2 legitimate league-wide superstars in Sale and Abreu, first time since....? Jose Quintana, what a stud, great Robin to your Batman Viciedo maybe as the DH? Connor? Flowers looks like he'll be at least solid. What about Avisail when he comes back, what a player he could be. And then we might be adding someone else in a few days here in the draft. Sleepers in the minors are Beck, Danish, and Montas who could be part of this a couple years from now. I think we have an excellent core. Add a couple more pieces and let's tear this s*** up.

One thing that is great about Q's development is that he seems to have created a fairly wide strikezone for himself. He'll work up and down, in and out. He's a control pitcher who can hit the corners and get the borderline calls, which is going to naturally prompt a hitter to chase more often. And the fact that he'll pitch inside, that's really where he's going to continue to become more dangerous. When hitters get looking away & he keeps going back out there his fastball doesn't play that well, but he can routinely blow guys away on the outside part of the plate with it by mixing things up and going in with fastball. Someone posted a video of Pedro in another thread, and while Q is not Pedro, it is amazing to watch a pitcher than can front door a slider and then go away with the fastball, or go in with the heat and back door the slider. Q isn't nasty like Pedro but he's got better stuff than Brad Radke & Radke was someone who used the whole zone to his benefit. If Q is a better Radke then that's a pretty good pitcher. And Q is someone that can really shut you do in sequence, which really is a tough thing to do in reality even if it's easy to do in a video game. Most guys can't go in and out at the same time without leaving something right over the middle of the plate. Q doesn't do that much & when he does miss he's usually missing off the plate rather than over it. I expect him to just get better. I'm in the boat with those who think we need more pitching, not less. But if you get something stupid thrown at you then that's different, but it has to be much more than a fair deal for sure. It's unlikely that would happen.

I still want Kolek the most & am liking that there's more out there now about the Sox wanting him. The Nola stuff was scary to me. IF Kenny/Rick/Jerry feel they'll get Rodon at a price which allows them to still make use of their overall draft figure (because IMO it's absurd to blow that $9M wad on pretty much one guy) then one of the three, I'll take that all day. Rodon has all the talent, just the threat of demanding a #1 bonus or something, that scares me. Especially when there's deep pitching overall in the draft.

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 31, 2014 -> 07:51 AM) Same with Mitchell and Walker. Walker has now struck out in over half his AB's. Cannot imagine Thompson, Mitchell, or Walker being on the 40 man next year. Mitchell's off the roster by mid-June IMO, as soon as we start making deals. We'll probably get at least 1-for-2 or 2-for-3 deal where we remove one guy from the 40 but have to add 2 more. Nestor Molina's time is about up as well, but given the comments of the org, Mitchell is gone first.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 30, 2014 -> 10:43 PM) Trayce just can't get it going this year. Disappointing to see his development go backwards. At this stage, it's hard to imagine him becoming a big leaguer. If you've ever seen his swing it's always been hard to imagine him as a big leaguer. He cut it down some, not enough though. Buddy Bell still thinks he's going to win the Triple Crown though. IMO it's about time to trade Joe Borchard, Jr. for Matt Thornton, Jr. Great trade before, do it again now. Somewhere under that golden moon there is another Buddy Bell dreaming under it, only he's working for somebody else, and whatever Coop projects they have we need. Especially lefty ones because all ours blow.

BTW is BlackJack anyone else's least favorite former great Sox player? Always has seemed bitter and noncomplementary of the organization. He seemed to me more like a smug prick when he did Sox games, riding Scoscia's nuts and so forth for no reason. Just seems like a tool to me. Doesn't mean he's wrong though, I'll wait for ptatc's thoughts on Andrews first. But James Andrews has performed surgies on everyone famous in the history of sports, so he is pretty good at least.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 30, 2014 -> 05:49 PM) I would have to question the motivation of a man who makes his money performing surgeries, coming up with ways to prevent theses surgeries. He's got all his money, doesn't need anymore. It's a legacy thing, a name thing IMO. Maybe he has a small dick? Not sure but BlackJack is in a s***ty rock band so maybe he knows.

PTATC WHERE ARE YOU AGAIN YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED

Tyler Perry's House of Pancakes, the marathon. sounds great.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 30, 2014 -> 08:56 AM) Mechanics is only one of the factors related to the injury. I wouldn't rule anyone out based on mechanics alone. Workload and economy of effort are important factors as well. As for the the second part, that isn't one of my areas of research as I don't have that problem. Thank you. So ptatc is an arm Steverson, a mechanics Steverson, an overall health Steverson AND he's a LOVE Steverson too. Not surprised by any of this.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ May 30, 2014 -> 09:59 AM) sometimes it seems people are more concerned about the Sox being #1 in prospect rankings than actually keeping good young players under reasonable salaries. Yeah and right now here's the thing, we trade Reed for Davidson and the better MLB player ATM with a better looking future is Connor Gillaspie who we acquired for a song. Erik Johnson was a high draft pick but now he's in the minors performing at a level below Noesi who we claimed free on waivers and Rienzo who wasn't nearly rated as highly & was considered a fringe big leaguer. Plus there's all those top pick s***ty OFers in the minors right now who unlike the free Moises Sierra have zero shot at any MLB playing time in the reasonable future. So if you make a big trade and give up an excellent player you'd need a whole lot back. And if you get a massive deal thrown at you on anyone outside of Sale & Abreu you at least have to listen, but no way I'd trade Q at a price other teams would want to pay. Now Toronto or Baltimore, would they give up a fortune to get Q and his contract over Samardzija, who they'd be unlikely to extend? Maybe if the right situaiton pops up you think about it, but it would have to be a bowl-me-over thing if you're Hahn, because good players already come more or less free all the time as it is if you can do the scouting.

You'd listen but it would have to be one hell of a deal & the main piece would need to be already in the big leagues performing at least somewhat decently. Yeah it would definitely have to be an overpay. Kind of like the A's deal for Haren from the DBacks, which was Dan Haren + Connor Robertson to AZ for Brett Anderson, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith. You get that kind of return offered to you and then you have to evaluate things differently. Especially if we draft a 4th LHSP in a few days.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 29, 2014 -> 07:10 PM) There definitely aren't enough cases to actually make an argument. Cory Luebke and Daniel Hudson jump to mind. But either way, even it's not likely it'll happen within a few years, it's still true that you essentially lost a safety net. Like if Chris Sale had TJ, we'd all be really bummed, but not THAT bummed because we're pretty sure that we'll just lose a year and it'll be alright. But if we get Hoffman, say he pitches 2 years in the minors, then we have six years of him. For an eight year period, if TJ hits him, he's essentially done. This risk is maybe worth it if he's the consensus top talent in the draft, but he's not. Some didn't even think he was the top tier before his injury. Okay I get what you're saying now. My whole thing on Hoffman though is just under the assumption that this was the guy the Sox wanted. No matter what happens I would like to see upside & I would like to see them get the guy they want. Ex, if they wanted Hoffman #1 but Aiken & Rodon close #2, Kolek distant #3 or something, then take Aiken or Rodon if they're there, but if not, go get Hoffman, don't be a-scared, buy a dog if you're a-scared.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 29, 2014 -> 06:54 PM) The point is that if you have one TJ, you've just moved up your timeline for a second. And almost (if not literally) no one has come back effective form the 2nd TJ. Okay but is this really a fair thing to assume? What % of pitchers have to get a second TJ within a few years of the first?

I'll put out the PTATC signal... ATTENTION PTATC PLEASE RESPOND IN THIS THREAD WE NEED YOU AGAIN Okay I couldn't find an approprate image in google (actually I did find the perfect one but I'll link it rather than post: http://maneggs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011...nal_vandals.jpg ) So here's this instead:

Josh Johnson had an excellent career overall in his Marlins days. I'll take that exact same thing from whoever the Sox get a #3. We should be looking for a guy who can get through the minors and put in 6 years, not hope on a 15-year career and so on. As far as Hudson, no TJ before the draft. Mechanics didn't look all that great to the Sox, that's the rumor anyway. 2 TJ surgeries after being traded to AZ. Not sure how any of this applies to Hoffman. From what I gather, the act of pitching alone, regardless of mechanics, will lead to TJ in a large number of cases. Recovery should go well. If the Sox liked Hoffman's mechanics before then I'm not sure how you would look at him as a candidate for a second TJ immediately thereafter.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 29, 2014 -> 06:24 PM) Please don't ban me for Kyle's silliness. Don't worry cuz Wite will Fite for your Rite to Post s***e.... ...okay, no he won't. He loves to wield the ban hammer. All talk, no action. Wolf tickets, that's what they call 'em.

PTATC should come in here and talk more about this. He is our Medical Steverson, or Health Steverson, etc. Arm Steverson. Edit: also I downloaded a penis enlargement program I'm at a solid 8 but was thinking about trying some techniques to get that sucker up to about 11" or so, was wondering if PTATC has any info on proper enlargement practices & so on. Thanks I'll hang up and listen.