TheFutureIsNear

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 11, 2014 -> 12:03 PM) Sox have been quiet for a while. Wonder if Hahn is working on something or waiting to see what happens today. Yeah its been a whole 48 hrs...what is Hahn asleep at the wheel?!?!?! On a serious note, I think the Dodgers and Red Sox still line up best if Hahn plans to make another trade. If we can get 1 of Crawford, Eithier, Victorino, or Nava for a reasonable $ amount while giving up very little talent its a big win for us. Those guys have no spot on their current teams and all would be a big upgrade in LF for us, just have to figure how to make the $ work with the Dodgers or wait for the Red Sox to dump their guys for nothing.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 10:05 PM) Yep, the LA / Phillies trade is what I was wondering about. If the Sox are looking for athleticism/speed then Revere would be a nice grab, if he's even available. Would you really even want Revere? Sub .700 OPS and despite his speed he's actually pretty bad in the field. Constantly takes horrible angles and has no arm. I'm not saying he'd be horrible, but I hope Hahn is aiming higher than Revere if he's trading for a LF.

I'm trying to some how convince myself that the Dodgers trading Haren increases the odds of them taking on Danks....not sure it actually makes any sense though.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 05:46 PM) The poster above me didn't know it... ? Which part of my post made you think that? I even stated the specific $ amount we would have to pay if we didn't keep the player.

Rollins for Lee is what Jason Stark said. Good move for both sides

We absolutely should take someone. Worst case scenario is that it's a $25,000 loss....I mean will anybody really care if we have to drop Raul Fernandez off of the 40 man roster to create space? http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/nota...e-rule-5-draft/ I would either go the KW route and grab a guy that throws 100 and see what happens or Ryan Rouke from the Twins makes sense for a really cheap 2nd lefty in the pen. Taken from the above article.... "O’Rourke’s overall numbers say stay away: 2-4, 4.02 with Double-A New Britain with 51 strikeouts and 16 walks in 40 innings. But O’Rourke was awesome against lefthanded hitters (.105/.159/.123 with 42 strikeouts among the 74 lefthanded hitters he faced) and awful against righthanded hitters (.326/.398/.573). Those numbers aren’t a one-year fluke. O’Rourke struck out 53 of the 137 lefthanded hitters he faced the previous two seasons and held them to a sub .450 OPS. He does it with a below-average fastball (87-90 mph) and a slurvy breaking ball that he can tighten up or slow down to vary the size, speed and break. It’s easy meat for a righthanded hitter, but it’s a baffling assortment for lefties."

Ryan Vogelsong really isn't a bad option I don't think. We could probably get him on a relatively cheap 1 year deal with an option or something like that. Take out the bad/injury riddled 2013 and between '11, '12 and '14 he's averaged 185 IP and an ERA of around 3.75 (advanced metrics back it up too). 2 weeks ago I would have been against a move like this, but if we really are going all out for this year Vogelsong would bring a lot of stability to the back of the rotation. Of course Danks really clutters things up financially though and getting rid of at least a decent chunk of his salary could open up a lot of options. Take away Danks and our rotation is really cheap relative to other teams that will be competitive in 2014.

I'd definitely want Volquez @ 2/20.....If Danks could somehow be moved 1st. We can't have $25M invested into our #4 and #5 starters, just doesn't make sense given the other holes we still have left to fill

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:44 AM) And Ackley is way better than Lillibridge. Ok how about Gordon Beckham 2.0? That work better for you? Either way he's a bench player and the fact that anybody is discussing him as a starting LF for the White Sox is absolutely ridiculous.

Dustin Ackley is Brent Lillibridge 2.0...no thanks unless he's a 4th OF'er. Tank for Carson Smith would be a pretty good deal for us but not sure if that would be asking for too much

I think Sanchez gets a little underrated. Not saying he's going to be great or anything but I can see him hitting something like .270/.330/.380, which will be fine if he plays a + 2B.

Is Gordon incapable of playing SS or do the Dodgers just not like him? Seems like he would be obvious to step right in for Hanley.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 01:15 PM) There were 47 guys who threw more innings than Danks last season. I wouldn't say that's a lot. I said Could throw that many innings. Most teams replace a Danks level pitcher. He's barely a replacement level player and had pitched to a 4.7 ERA in his last 250 + innings (and the metrics say that he could easily be worse). I'm not convinced Chris Beck can't do that.

QUOTE (peppers312 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 12:58 PM) i think people really underestimate Danks' value in terms of just pitching. he's an innings eater for sure. we all know he's overpaid, but he's not the first (or last) pitcher to have been overpaid. i still think he has some REAL value whether he pitches for us or for another team. we know what we're going to get with Danks and maybe, just maybe, he can turn it around this season being 2-3 years removed from his arm issue. like Stoney was saying on the Score this morning, if he wins 12 games from the #4 spot that's a PRETTY good thing we have going for us. would we love to unload his contract? sure. do we still need to address LF? yes. but Danks being on the roster is going to kill us. Yay he's a starting pitcher that has a pulse! There are A LOT of pitchers who can throw 190 innings if there is no one better to replace them. He's done man, he's a soft tossing lefty without a great breaking pitch. And its a shame because I like Danks and he was on his way to have a good career, but some guys never recover from shoulder surgery and its pretty obvious he hasn't. If some other team wants to pay a decent amount of his contract then we should let them and move on.

Let him pitch limited innings in AAA until June and if he's ready he joins the rotation. No need to rush anything

Micah is actually the one I think we could end up regretting trading, more so Semien.

Well this should be interesting....if Semien is really the biggest name attached I can't be mad. I like him, but if he can't be an everyday SS his value isn't that great to this team. Semien, Bassist, and Noesi is fine with me.

Danks + $10M for Travis Snider? That's a 2 year $10M per year gamble on Danks for their 4th OF and we get a fairly young LH corner OF who was once a top prospect. IDK, makes some sense to me....

One has to wonder how many of these rumors are true at this point. Is there anybody we are NOT interested in?

Seems like a guy they brought in to compete with Phegley/Nieto for the backup spot with Smith likely gone. Wouldn't surprise me to see Brantley open up the year as the back up though. Nieto did the best he could last year, but it was pretty clear he didn't belong in the majors so he'll likely be Charlotte's catcher next year. No clue how Brantley's D compares to Phegley, but I imagine whoever is the better of the 2 will win the job.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Dec 8, 2014 -> 10:33 AM) Why on earth would anyone want Phil Coke in their bullpen? That's the equivalent of wanting Belisario back. Ok bad example. I knew he was a LH free agent and thought he had a pretty good year last year for some reason. Obviously wrong on that.....either way I still think 2 quality arms > 1 expensive closer.

We could probably sign both Gregerson and Phil Coke for less than Robertson over 4 years and not have to give up the draft pick either. This team has too many holes to fill to be spending top dollar on a closer.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Dec 7, 2014 -> 10:19 PM) Based off those 3 opinions, more like an $8M posting fee and a 3 yrs/$12M deal, which I feel is absolutely worth risking on the best player in Korea. That's basically the cost of a 7th inning reliever. That does sound better....but would still depend on whether JR would count that $8M(I assume it has to be paid upfront) against what he's willing to spend on the team in 2015. Not sure if I'd be willing to risk $12M of whatever we have to spend on such a risk.

So $5M posting fee and 3 years $15M seems to be about the consensus? I'd have to be pretty convinced he could definitely start at either 3B or 2B for that. Realistically he'd probably be a UTL infielder and the right handed platoon at 3B. I think there are better uses of $20M for this club ultimately.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 7, 2014 -> 08:30 PM) Of course not. The decade and a half of research that is freely available for you and anyone else to read, though, DOES make it fact. I'm just telling you what I've read. My opinion has nothing to do with it. I mean, if you're interested in this stuff, I can point out some stuff for you to read so you can see it for yourself. I know that some random dude just SAYING something is true isn't convincing, but you can look and scrutinize these studies yourself and see how it works and that it's real. I don't have any reason to lie to you, I have no vested interest in making sure Voros McCracken's legacy lives on. I'd change my tune TOMORROW if some new study came out that proved all of this wrong. I fully understand McCracken's interpretation and have read plenty on it. And despite that I still choose not to put heavy stock into FIP. What I think you're not understanding is that isn't NOT fact, it's merely 1 man's interpretation that gained traction. As you said, there is no way to factor in pitcher's influence...yet. Will you honestly be surprised if FIP is irrelevant in 5 years? Look, if the stat works for you then go ahead and use, I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong. All I'm saying is that a stat that interprets the skill of keeping hitters off balance and missing the barrel of the bat as "luck" or "random" isn't for me. Not sure why that's so hard to understand.