SCCWS

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 24, 2014 -> 11:28 PM) Well, that article concluded that there was little correlation, if any, between leverage matching and performance, so not sure of your point. BoSox struggled thru Hanrahan and Bailey before giving Koji the job he should have had from day one, so not seeing any brilliance there either. Not true .Hanrahan started as closer and did well but went down with a season ending injury in May. They then went to Bailey who had injury problems as well. He struggled and then they went to Uehara. Remember Uehara had more saves in July-Sept than he did in his 4 year ML career. He was mostly a set-up man previously.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 24, 2014 -> 01:17 PM) I see why some don't like it and why some like it. Me personally, I like it because like others have mentioned, it gives stability to the young guys through this rebuild. Remember, we have young guys that are wiling to prove themselves now, now that they finally have a chance to play everyday unlike Rios and Keppinger last year (I think Davidson will start at 3B). JR agreed to this move because he thinks Robin is going to play 3rd base.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Jan 24, 2014 -> 09:17 AM) Also, the suggestion that we should just trade Sale if we don't buy pitchers now is...well, you're partially trolling, so I'll just say it's silly. Just because we shouldn't buy now doesn't mean we shouldn't buy next year, and Sale's value will be intact for several years. I think another consideration is the #4 and #5 projected starters. If the Sox don't feel they have young pitchers that are better off in the majors than at AAA, then signing a free agent does not make sense. But if the thought is that you are rushing a young pitcher to the majors, then go ahead and sign someone. Next year most likely is a year of experiments at many positions as we look to the future.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 06:13 PM) I trust neither Mr. Moreno's "Oh, he doesn't fit into our budget at this time" claptrap, nor do I believe the Bosox wouldn't try to steal this guy away from the Yanks, who could really use him. I'm wary of both of those organizations at the moment! I don't think the Red Sox will be involved. They are going into spring training with 6 or 7 starters. I can't see them dropping $100 mil for another starter. Remember they backed off Abreu when the price went above $50 Mil.

QUOTE (onedude @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 09:00 AM) He faced the same competition as Puig, Cespedas, and Viciedo.....which he absolutely killed, and we have guys predicting he do no better than last years Dayan? GMAB... My expectations of 20 HR and .260 avg. are lower than many are projecting. But I am basing them on what I read on Abreu from Red Sox media sources when they were involved in the bidding. They basically felt that he needed to start in AAA and work on hitting AAA pitching and especially defensive fundamentals. Now the Red Sox have Napoli at first( although he was a free agent at that time and Ortiz as a DH) so they didn't need Abreu immediately. The feeling in Boston was Abreu would be Ortiz's replacement in 2015 since they felt he would be a defensive liabilty even at 1B. Hopefully they are wrong.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Jan 12, 2014 -> 06:56 PM) I'll be upset if he approaches 200 k's. We already have Adam Dunn for that unfortunate feat. 400 k's for both combined is gross. I think .260 with 20 HR. I think he starts slow at AAA or platoon at IB /DH in Majors. Then produces 2nd half of season.

Closer is important in that it is the one position on a team that can really affect morale. Reed did close 40 of 48 on a bad team. With a young team, morale is something you want to build on next year even if the outlook is not great. If next year's closer goes 24 for 48 the team and fans will be heading for a cliff. But catcher is also an important position especially with a young pitching staff. Hopefully Hahn can bandaid both.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 04:53 PM) Doesn't every team that wins require everything to go right? If things didn't go right they wouldn't win. No they need "enough" things to go right not "all". Boston this season lost their No 1 and No 2 closers but their No 3 worked out. They signed Dempster as their 5th starter but he struggled so they acquired Peavy who got them through September. Middlebrooks struggled and got sent to the minors. They called up Bogarts a shortstop to play 3rd and he produced.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 10:38 AM) If his workout is impressive enough to sign him, use the closer role as incentive for Ryan Madson. I don't agree with several people who said "who cares who closes, next year is a lost year" I don't think the White Sox will contend next year but I think it is important to have a closer who is somewhat effective. Hopefully next year the Sox will put 4 or 5 young players on the field who represent our future. We appear to have pretty good young starting pitching. We need to create a winning atmosphere both for the young players as well as the fans. If we end up constantly blowing games in the late innings it could affect the clubhouse and fan interest. Reed was a pretty good closer in that he had 40 saves to 8 BLSV. I don't expect them to find another 40 game save guy next year but we also don't want them to throw out a 20/8 guy either.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 7, 2013 -> 03:10 PM) Shouldn't Sale be in the pen then? He threw harder out of the pen, most pitcher do when they don't need to worry about 5-7 innings of work. Matt Thornton is available and he would probably come cheap.

Heard on WEEI in Boston that Peter Gammons said the Fister and Fielder moves may enable the Tigers to sign Choo or Ellsbury. Gammons also thinks salty to Marlins as others have speculated. I am not sure if Gammons is as reliable w rumors as he used to be.

QUOTE (staxx @ Dec 3, 2013 -> 02:35 PM) I'd say so. I would be comfortable with it I would not be comfortable. Salty is one of the worse catchers defensively in baseball. His throws on attempted steals go everywhere but to the guy covering. He is supposedly good at working with pitchers. Lets not forget he lost his starting position in the playoffs to a .225 hitter in Ross.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 01:32 PM) That should not be a veteran catcher's job, that should be a coach's job. I'd rather go with 2 young catchers who can feed into each other while having a guy who has played catcher in the majors bring them along. You totally underestimate the role of a catcher. Almost every year in the World series a rookie plays for one of the teams. This year Boston had a rookie 3b/SS play a pivotable role. But in history, there has only been 5 rookie catchers start in a World Series. Even more amazing, only 1 rookie catcher in history has played for the winning World Series team-----Buster Posey. Pitching coaches work with the pitchers all the time but the catcher is very important during the actual game. The old adage of having strength up the middle starts at catcher. Now maybe Flowers or Phegley are really good working with pitchers. But usually young catchers struggling offensively are not because they are working on their own problems.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 2, 2013 -> 10:53 AM) I disagree with this mentality. You are going to have to give up something of value - it might be small or have little value, like a AAA reliever or a fallen prospect, but it's still value for a rebuilding franchise. Hanigan is 33 and turns 34 in August. The most you can ultimately expect him to be productive for is 2 years. If he's non-tendered, sure, I don't care, bring him in. Then it just costs money. Right now, you are looking at giving up players, which is something the Sox are not in a position to do for a guy who is quite a ways on the wrong side of 30. Agree but don't forget we have a young starting pitching staff w 2 basically inexperienced catchers. A veteran catcher even if he is a back-up can help w the development of the pitchers.

Maybe another name to thorw in the mix. According to Providence Journal Red Sox are looking at Ryan Hanigan of Cincinnati as a stop gap for a year or two. was injured last year but has a strong arm and good OBP.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 17, 2013 -> 02:50 PM) With Abreu in the fold, they can put a roster out there where they can legitimately say "if everything goes right this roster can compete". If they sign Paul Konerko, and especially if they dump Dunn to clear a spot for him, that's a move saying they aren't even going to try to field a competitive roster. Does "if everything goes right" mean Beckham leads the league in batting. Flowers and Viciedo each hit 50 homers, DeAza steals 60 bases and Sale wins 20 games and doubles as the closer. Lets realistically hope that they go from 99 to 80 losses next year. That may reguire a lot of things to go right.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 16, 2013 -> 05:42 PM) Bill Toasted Almon FYI---- Bill Almon is now the marketing Manager at his father's company Claflin Company in RI

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Nov 13, 2013 -> 01:53 PM) I was the one who brought up Weiters for the sake of argument because we need a catcher. But I agree with this because Weiters has declined the past 2 seasons and getting Salty at 4/40 is a nice piece for what Hahn is trying to build. Then trade Santiago + to get your franchise third baseman. If Salty is already one of the worst catchers in baseball throwing base-stealers out, what will he be by Year 3

Castro has had knee issues on and off for for 3 seasons. He had another surgery in September after going on DL late in year. Maybe why he is available.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 10, 2013 -> 07:51 PM) Again, why are we trading Dunn? There is nobody in the system to take his place in 2014. If by the small chance you compete in 2014, his home runs will be a reason why. Keep him. Maybe an AL team gets desperate at the deadline. Well there may be. If Paulie comes back ( hope not) he may be reduced to a DH. Abreu is going to play 1B but we are not sure how well. When the Red Sox were looking at him, they projected him as a DH when Ortiz retired.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFan05 @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 01:08 PM) Salty was well above average at throwing people out stealing. I agree with Murphy.. I do think Alexei will turn it around because of his defense in the past. Abreu is more athletic than we think, according to several scouts. I agree that the defense is bad but I think it's better than last years with De Aza and Beckham gone. HUH???? Salty had a 21% success rate at throwing out basestealers. That ranked him 35th out of 40 AL catchers. Now some only caught limited games but to put in perspective, he was less successful than Flowers and Phegley.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFan05 @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 12:46 PM) I haven't done one of these for awhile, so my lineup would be: OFFSEASON MOVES Abreu 6 yrs Saltalamacchia 2 yrs Joe Smith 3 yrs Dave Purcey 1 yr De Aza and Kevin Vance for Daniel Murphy and a A bum 1. Alexei Ramirez .285/9/44 [r] 2. Daniel Murphy .294/16/82 (L) 3. Jose Abreu .282/18/70 [r] 4. Adam Dunn .203/38/88 (L) 5. Avisail Garcia .294/16/75 [r] 6. Dayan Viciedo .256/22/60 [r] 7. Jarrod Saltalamacchia .264/14/54 (S) 8. Conneff Gillapenger Platoon .249/15/46 [l/r] 9. Jordan Danks .257/8/46 [l] The lefty/righty combo would drive opponents insane. That would have to be the worst defensive team in baseball. You do not believe in strenth up the middle?? Salty and Murphy were two of the worst defensively at their positions. Alexei was also bad but somehow some think he will have a miracle cure and Danks may be okay in center. We can expect Abreu to have a learning curve year and hopefully he can eventually play 1st. The pitchers may go on strike by May 1st w that defense.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 06:15 PM) I agree. The players I mentioned I feel like can be the core of the offense. And then just find or develop other player thy fit around them or even become part of the core. Hopefully Thompson an Hawkins figure it out this year in the minors. I trust the Sox to develop pitching. Go after Gatewood at #3 and he can be apart of this in a couple years to replace Alexei. When considering Salty, he was horrible throwing out runners, worse % than Phegley and Flowers. Ross the other Red Sox catcher was one of the best in the league so the problem was not with their staff.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 31, 2013 -> 11:26 AM) I'm interested in how good the BoSox are going to be next year. Have a lot of expired contracts as well as guys that seemed to play over their heads last year I think they will be loaded next year. They have expired contracts but they also add two young studs in Bradley and Bogaerts to replace Ellsbury and Drew. They had 3 relief pitchers on the DL who will return next year. Their AAA and AA teams have 3 or 4 highly rated prospects after the 2 mentioned. Heck, Peavy is their No 5 starter at this point. My guess is they resign Salty and Napoli. I think they are a heavy favorite to repeat in AL

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 31, 2013 -> 05:51 PM) I think Ellsbury is a great fit. Great baserunner/stealer, solid defense , hits for a decent average. Just a heady pro for CF or even LF if the Sox pick up someone like Bourjos in a trade. Saves his legs which are his greatest asset if you stick him in a corner . I can always hope no matter what Merkin writes or Hahn says in public . You sign Ellsbury, trade for Kendrick and Bourjos then the lineup starts looking very solid with good speed and defense and probably with a payroll not any higher than last year if we can avoid giving Konerko any money. Pick up a cheap switch hitting catcher like Brayan Pena to add to the Cuban Connection or Dioner Navarro who would be a pretty reasonable free agent pickup . I think Ellsbury is a pipe dream. He already turned down 5/$75 mil. Boras will probably want 6/$120 and after Abreu I doubt the Sox will go that high.