TheFutureIsNear

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 04:47 PM) Melky Cabrera can hit the baseball pretty well. He doesn't have a ton of power, he isn't fast, he doesn't play great defense, and he doesn't have much of an arm. He is a 1 WAR player, and there legitimately are not a lot of teams looking for an outfielder. Look at the outfields for contenders and find a spot for him where he is going to get significant playing time while representing a large upgrade. You really are not going to find it. Melky Cabrera WILL have use for a contender as a situational bat off the bench where he gets 2-4 starts a week and can be used as a pinch hitter. He will not get the Sox much of a return. Both the rays and royals are AL playoff teams who could really use Melky. And if either the Pirates or Cardinals want to make a playoff run adding a bat like Melky's would seriously help their chances. Not saying there are a ton of suitors or that the return will be great, but someone will give us a semi respectable prospect at some point between now and August.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 02:55 PM) Way, way better chance. JD Martinez was traded for squadoosh because there isn't a market for corner outfielders who don't play much defense. Best the Sox are really going to get for Melky is an organizational type player, and they'll still probably have to eat part or all of his contract. I'd be very surprised, assuming he's on the Sox past July 31st (and there's still a good chance of that), if he is claimed on waivers. Very, very surprised. The JD Martinez trade wasn't THAT bad. People on this board keep acting like he was traded for literally nothing. Dawel Lugo was 21 last year and hit .311/.339/.492 between High A and AA, plus was putting together another very respectable season this year before the trade. He'd probably rank close to our top 5 hitting prospects. And Alcantara is 20 and supposed to be a wizard with the glove at SS and has shown at least the ability to make consistent contact. Is that a haul? No. Is Melky worth as much as Martinez? Again, no. But that doesn't make Melky literally worthless. I think the Tigers traded Martinez too early and hurt their leverage as well. Not a whole lot left out there after Melky so there's definitely a possibility we can get some team to bite out of desperation. Not expecting a whole lot in return, but even a useable bullpen piece in 2 years would be a major plus.

Rays and Royals are the teams that make the most sense to me, maybe the Pirates but not a whole lot of fits for Melky. The best case scenario (for the white sox) is someone's starting OF'er getting hurt between now and the waiver deadline. Really, the longer we have him and the more of his salary we pay the better the return will be.

Didn't think it would actually happen but was hoping someone would trade for Avi. Don't have a whole lot of confidence in him next year. Hopefully he proves me wrong...

Sounds like Engel but actually capable of hitting...I'll take it. Swarzak is going to be overpaid in a few months anyway and won't be on the team anyway

He's a little old but Ryan Cordell would be interesting. Jake Gatewood too.

Really curious to see what comes back

Anybody else surprised by the general attitude towards Melky's trade value in the media? I'm not suggesting he has a ton of value and should net us a top 100 prospect, but I keep reading that he has pretty much 0 value. Mlbtraderumors had an article about tradeable Of'ers and suggested we'd have to pay all of Melky's contract just to be able to get rid of him. Am I missing something? He's top 14 in OPS among AL Of'ers (and that's including a slow 1st 100 ab's) and isn't THAT bad in the field. I definitely wouldnt call him good in the field, but he's not an absolute butcher in the field that hurts the team either. He's a flat out professional hitter that can give really good AB's to most contenders for the rest of the season in my opinion. Or am I wrong on this? And I'm usually more pesimistic about sox players than most.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 22, 2017 -> 11:43 PM) The Sox aren't paying money while trading Quintana to the Cubs or while trading with the Yankees, but that doesn't mean that if they are trading with the Rays, they can't. Yeah and really what are we talking about? $4-5M? Melky probably has about 7ish mil left on his deal and swarzak makes peanuts. I don't see $4M that we were going to have to pay Melky anyway being the hold up of getting a good prospect back. At least I really hope not.

Both free agents and pretty good chance neither will be on the team next year. Makes sense to package them to a playoff contender looking for an extra push without giving up top prospects. 1 team that seems like a good match is the rays. They are known to be looking for bullpen help and have some combo of Bourjous, Brad Miller, and Trevor Ploufe at DH currently after the Rasmus deal went horribly wrong. If we chipped in a little $ I think we could get a pretty good prospect back from them because they are deep in the minors. Justin Williams, Jesus Sanchez, or Lucious Fox would suffice as headliners to me + another pitcher in the 25-35 prospect range sound like enough? Too much? Any other teams make sense?

What would you really expect in return for Yolmer? At best I think it would be a prayer on a "Coop'll fix 'em" type relief pitcher. Can't see it being anything significant in return. Sucks Luery got hurt for so long. He would have been the guy to cash in on in my opinion.

Let's not excuse Anderson's lack of execution and hustle. 2 strike bunt obviously isn't the smartest move, but not being able to bunt the pitch before from Anderson was bad. The lack of hustle out of the box is just inexcusable. He would have stayed in the dugout if I were the manager

Just horrific baseball all around.

Pre cubs Jason Heyward? Pure guess because I've never even see the kid play, but skill set wise I'm trying to think of good all around, athletic RF's that don't have huge power. Maybe even Nick Markakis circa 2008-2010?

Would I have liked 1 more player in this deal? Sure. Was the caliber of player I think should have been added enough to hold up the deal? No. A guy like Solak at the back end would have been nice, but really not the end of the world. I also think Clarkin is underrated and people are a little down on him just because where he was ranked in the Yankees deep system before the season started.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 10:24 PM) I would bet under barring a huge shift in what he's doing at the plate. He is literally swinging for flyballs in an attempt to hit home runs, and hitting flyballs otherwise. His IFFB% is right around 17% over the past 3 seasons. His BABIP is s*** because it deserves to be s***. Exactly. I'm all for advanced statistics, but at some point the common sense eye test needs to come in play. You can't just compute #'s like there is no human factor going into it. Watch 1 Todd Frazier AB and watch him pull off/try to hook every single pitch he sees no matter the speed or location and it should be obvious why he has a low BABIP. And to the original guy...sorry I don't to fake internet bets.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 10:08 PM) Just ran Todd Frazier's expected BABIP through a calculator and his xBABIP is .284. That would mean (assuming a similar split between types of hit, slightly weighted towards singles) a batting line of .264/.375/.546. That's a lot more of a valuable deadline piece than he looks now, simply attempting to remove luck. But luck has nothing to do with Frazier's crappy approach and swing. And his BABIP has been under .240 for 1000 straight AB's. That's not luck, that's called a trend.

Mateo, Andujuar, Florial, Abreu, Solak, Clarkin...if we could get a package of 4 of those I'd be a happy camper.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 07:49 PM) If Robertson is involved also, then we will. That's the trick here. I would also not be surprised if the White Sox were sending some cash along with those 2 somehow. Yeah obviously Robertson adds a ton of value to the deal compared to Frazier. If Robertson is involved we should be getting 2 top 10 guys back +.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 07:48 PM) hahn >>>>> avila Martinez >>>> Frazier

Don't get me wrong, he should be traded no matter what, but after looking at the JD Martinez trade I'm not all that optimistic what the package will be. I'll be surprised if we get any of their top 15 prospects

QUOTE (beautox @ Jul 16, 2017 -> 09:09 PM) Yeah Solak fits this organization's recent strategy like a glove and I like what he brings to the table. I find myself preferring Andujar or Mateo over Florial because they're closer to the show and don't have the pronounced strike out problem. Sheffield to me is a interesting arm and fits the sweet spot of another very interesting lefty that is close as well. I like Mateo because if he needs to be moved off SS he still profiles so well at 2B/CF and maybe the yankee brass doesn't appreciate his attitude and wants to "sell high" on his recent promotion. It would be another opportunity to just reaffirm that development isn't linear and doesn't always make sense, well below average at A+ goes to AA lights the world on fire etc. I too would be extremely interested in acquiring Mateo to transition him into CF. Billy Hamilton with 15 HR potential? Yeah sign me up. Assuming Mateo could use his speed and transfer well to CF of course.

Yankees with interest in bringing D Rob back...Wonder what kind of return we'd be looking at? Something like Mateo or Andujuar + a pitching prospect like Abreu or Tate. Or is that not enough? I just can't see us getting Torres/Frazier/Rutherford for Robinson. But maybe an outside shot at Rutherford. Something like Mateo, Abreu, + another prospect in their 20-30 range would be more than enough for me.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 07:06 PM) I was big on drafting Dalbeck...but he seems overkill right now IMO. Overkill? How? To what? Do we have an abundance of 3B prospects in not aware of? Or just hitting prospects in general?

I'd call Groome for Frazier a pipe dream at best. As for Travis? Ehh doesn't seem far fetched, but is he really much of a prize? Doesn't seem to offer big power for a guy that is limited to 1st base only. The problem is the Red Sox seem pretty limited as far as position player prospects. The 2 most interesting guys are Michael Chavis (3B) and Josh Ockimey (1B). If we could get 1 of them + a low level reliever with a big arm (preferably LH) I'd be pretty happy. I just think it's pretty important to get rid of Frazier ASAP before he inevitably gets into another slump.