SCCWS

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Mar 3, 2014 -> 09:17 PM) Just noticed, on one picture I saw it looked like a 9. With that eyesight, you must be an umpire.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 2, 2014 -> 04:01 PM) While I think the people who think this guy is going to be really good have ignored a lot of things, I really don't think anyone should take much out of a first spring training start. It probably means we will see a story this week that Rienzo is ahead of Paulino.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 28, 2014 -> 06:57 PM) Just like last year, Sale's awesome, everyone else sucks. Time to look to 2015. We need DeAza, Kepp and Dunn in today's lineup so we can score some runs.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 28, 2014 -> 06:29 PM) Eaton is not an issue. This I promise you. He needs to hit and stay healthy.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 28, 2014 -> 05:20 PM) listen, if Beckham could hit then clearly he's our #2. he cant. I really don't want Lexi and his sub-300 OBP in the two hole. If Avi isn't 2nd to start the season I'll eat all the crow you want a What you are not considering is the complete lineup. IF Avi hits 2nd, that probably leaves 6-9( SS-2B-3B-C) as all singles hitters. That also leaves Viciedo/DeAza as the protection for the 4th batter. I think we will see Beckham or Alexei or whoever wins 3b as the second batter. the bigger issue is Eaton. If he fails, who bats 1st.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 27, 2014 -> 10:03 AM) Not necessarily. Many people believe that a team's best hitter should hit 2nd in a lineup. It's not surprising to me that a team with Rick Hahn as its GM would adopt this line of thinking though. Then again, the Red Sox decided the best hitter should bat third. So they moved Pedroia from 2nd to 3rd, which raised a lot of eyebrows. They won a World Series doing it.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 27, 2014 -> 12:22 AM) I normally wouldn't start a thread for this but I can't find the thread in which I said Avi would be our #2 hitter and I was shouted down by the masses. Just posting to gloat really. Avisail to get look as No. 2 hitter Reader beware. Bored sports writers churn out more garbage than fact especially during the pre spring games. Padilla at ESPN wrote that probable opening day lineup will be Alexei at the 2 and Garcia at the 3. Next week someone will have Beckham at the 2 and Dunn working out with a catchers mitt.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Feb 20, 2014 -> 06:09 PM) That is what I am thinking. Keppinger. Paulie will be nursing a sore back and Abreu will be back in Cuba visiting an ailing grandmother.

QUOTE (vegandork @ Feb 16, 2014 -> 01:58 PM) They've also moved away from big deals. One has to wonder what's the plan for when Lester leaves. They're going to be in the market for a sixth starter anyway. They'd probably pay a heavy price for a young, controllable guy like Quintana. Lester is supposedly close to resigning w Boston. His agent is the same one Pedroia has and they are rumored to be doing the same approach of signing before summer.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 13, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) Eaton was pulled from 2 games last year. He made 1 pinch hit appearance. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/...b&year=2013 He was used as a pinch hitter, pinch runner, and (I'm assuming here) a fielding replacement late in games as well. Eaton played 30 games in CF. He started 28 and came in late in 2. Of the 28 he started, he finished 21. In RF he played 4 games, started 3 and finished 1. Maybe I am reading it wrong???? http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/...d02-field.shtml

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 12, 2014 -> 07:16 PM) Let me rephrase this: Having De Aza as a starter going into the year is stupid and against EVERYTHING THE WHITE SOX ARE DOING. So if De Aza is the best outfielder out of spring training, you don't think Robin starts start him because winning is worse than hoping Viciedo eventually blossoms or Eaton eventually proves he is not a 4th outfielder. Remember, Eaton was pulled from more than 25% of the games he started in CF and RF last year.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 12, 2014 -> 09:49 AM) Viciedo's value will be 0 in this case. You can keep De Aza as the fourth OF then trade Viciedo if he's mashing for someone like Yasmani Grandal and then play De Aza, but you may wish to hold on to Dayan in that instance. Also, De Aza wouldn't leadoff at this point. That's Eaton's job to lose. Eaton is a young player and hopefully will have a great spring and take the CF/leadoff spot. But his play in Arizona is equivalent to a 4th outfielder. He hit .250, was not a good basesealer and showed limited range in CF for the 300+ games he played. Now some of that may have been injury related but he has a lot to prove before he is a regular.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Feb 12, 2014 -> 09:01 AM) Breakout player should be Avisail Garcia. I had forgotten what a great year he had in 2013 at two AAA stops -- Toledo and Charlotte. That, plus he looked pretty solid in September makes me think he will be a star this year. Geez, he hit over .370 in AAA last year. This kid should be ready to take off. DeAza plays LF and leads off. Hits .300, steals 30 bases , hits 25 HR and drives in 75 runs. Hahn then trades Viciedo mid-season for a young catcher.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 05:48 PM) Sorry but what does this have to do with asking prices of staring pitchers beginning to fall? If the asking prices of FA starting pitching falls, most likely the asking price for trading extra starting pitching will fall also. Boston has 6+ starters and may be looking for outfield help.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 01:31 PM) Not necessarily. A lot depends on where Bogaerts ends up. They already have Nava, Gomes, Victorino and Jackie Bradley. For the moment, he's the starting SS and could be moved to 3B, but he could also end up in LF (let's say they brought Drew back at mid-season, for example). Obviously, they have a big hole to fill in CF, but Bradley has a ton of ability and they'll give him half the season to prove himself (see Brian Anderson in 2006). They also have Grady Sizemore for what that means. Bradley has some injury concerns, Sizemore has many more and Victorino is a wall-crash away from another one. So local media thinks they still could add another CF type.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 01:01 PM) Sans 1 bad game Paulino has a 3.40 era over his last 150 innings as a starter. Why sign the guy if you're not even going to give him a chance to prove himself? Red Sox have 6 starters and may need an outfielder. How about we trade A. Garcia for Peavy ...................

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 09:18 AM) Baseball is an absolute crapshoot in the draft, even at the top. Mike Trout was taken 25th or whatever, Pujols in the 13th, yada yada yada. The entire point of baseball is just collecting as much talent as you can by whatever means possible in a rebuild. Wins 74 or 76 games would be a great step in the right direction, especially if it means young players were playing well. That's still a likely top 10 draft pick and, if not, it's like 11, 12, or 13. Frankly, I couldn't give a s*** where the Sox end up in the draft. I agree to some extent. Draft position is less important when you have good scouting. Boston has drafted real well despite having success on the field----and money to spend. Hopefully Hahn has people he can rely on not so much for the 3rd pick but for later rounds.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 12:32 PM) By the time they get to opening day, I hope it's something like this, unless they get another catcher: 1. Eaton - CF 2. Ramirez - SS 3. Abreu - 1B 4. Dunn - DH 5. Garcia - RF 6. Viciedo - LF 7. Davidson - 3B 8. Flowers - C 9. Beckham - 2B Bench- Konerko 1B/DH, Danks OF, Garcia IF/OF, Nieto C (rooting for Nieto to be good enough to keep) Move De Aza, Keppinger, and Gillaspie by opening day. Teams don't usually make a bunch of moves during spring training. You may see players released or traded for cash but I don't think Hahn will dump these guys. My guess is you will see one traded for catching and 2 will be kept going into season.

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.