[Sox/Rockies talking Abreu or Frazier]

Does having Moncada make it more likely that we would keep Abreu around for another year (kind of a stabilizing Cuban presence to help Yoan assimilate)?

 

I think that's part of it, and also the fact that Abreu is year-to-year now and is a really nice #3 hitter when healthy.

 

If I'm Hahn, I'm definitely listening to offers for Abreu right, but I'm not scrambling to deal him. Especially considering that I expect Abreu to bounce back to an .830-ish OPS this season. I think that Abreu will have more market value in July than he currently does.

 

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

Not if he performs.

 

If he's a headcase in the clubhouse (again), but performs, that's fine. But if he fails to adjust his attitude and has bad outing in October, the Boston media will be all over him.

 

I hope that Sale uses his time in Chicago as a learning experience and takes advantage of his fresh start.

 

[Frazier Trade Discussion]

He's only averaged 3.7 fWAR per year in his career. What a bum!

 

If the Sox aren't able to acquire a young 3B via trade and aren't interested in signing Abreu to an extension, they should consider offering Frazier a four-year deal. With Melky on his way out and Abreu getting older and more injury-prone, the Sox are going to need a reliable power bat in the middle of the lineup. His defense at 3B is also a plus, though he may have to move to 1B in the last year of that contract. His age and good-but-not-great bat should make him affordable and relatively low-risk financially.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

After the Drake Laroche incident, I just really stopped caring about Sale. After the uniform cutting incident, I realized that Sale just had to go.

 

It'll be interesting to see what gets leaked about Sale in the coming months.

 

Sale needs to tread lightly in Boston, or the media there will tear him a new one.

 

 

[Soler to KC for Wade Davis]

Chapman reportedly has an offer of 92 million dollars and Melancon just got 62 million. Wade Davis is every bit as good but yeah he needs a clean bill of health.

 

This of course hurts us for Robertson

 

Are you implying that the Sox may have dealt Robertson to the Cubs? I'm not so sure that the Sox front office wants to help the Cubs win another WS.

 

[White Sox looking to deal Robertson]

Robertson's value now is lower than it's been for the past few years, so there's no point in selling low. Unless he morphs into Billy Koch, there will be a market for him by late July.

[Your response to Sale getting traded to the Red Sox]

While it's unfortunate that the Sox couldn't build a contender around Sale, I'm happy that the Sox now have the #1 prospect in baseball and two other players who will help them contend a couple of years down the road.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

Yeah, we talked about Moncada a lot in the weeks leading up to the Winter Meetings and I don't think we ever assumed anything other than the Red Sox would be paling that money. In fact, some folks thought that is the very reason they thought the Red Sox would never deal Moncada.

 

Not until I saw the posts and tweets saying that the Red Sox were doing us some favor by picking up money did I think otherwise.

 

Eating that much money would've likely been a problem for a number of teams, but the Red Sox definitely can afford it.

 

[Sox see Moncada as 2b]

I imagine that the Sox will ultimately end up using Moncada where he's needed, and not necessarily where his value is maximized. If the Sox don't re-sign Frazier and don't get a 3B from elsewhere, there's a good chance that Moncada could move to 3B. If the Sox fill the long-term need at 3B but can't fill CF, he could move to CF.

 

[Sox see Moncada as 2b]

It's easier to find a 3B with a good bat than a 2B with a good bat. So I can see why they'd want Moncada at 2B.

 

It'll be interesting to see what they do with Frazier now. Do they offer him a four-year deal? That would keep him here through 2020.

[Chris Sale Appreciation Thread]

I got to see Sale pitch live once: versus Seattle this past August. Sale went the distance and struck out 14, but the Sox lost 3-1. That game epitomized Chris Sale's time with the Sox. It was great watching him dominate, but that excitement was tempered by the lack of team wins.

 

I wish Sale good health and October wins in Boston.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

Yes, Jose has opted out of his contract and will have an arbitration/1 year deal each of the next 3 seasons, unless a contract extension is reached.

 

If his issue was injury last year, then he hit the DL his first season with us, had some days that he missed with injury and some days at DH with LaRoche playing 1b in 2015, and then had injuries sour a full 1/2 season in 2016. That kind of trend would not augur well for a recovery in 2017.

 

Yep. 2017 will be a critical year for Jose, which makes me wonder why he opted out of a contract that was north of $10M/year. If he's hurt for half of the year again, he's going to have a tough time negotiating that salary during arbitration and may even get DFA'd if his production really slides.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

I'm iffy on that - my big issue is the performance dropoff. Stepping back and considering season by season, he's gotten progressively worse each year he's been here, and we haven't gotten a good reason why.

 

Maybe the problem in the 1st half last year was health. He's had health issues since he arrived, so we can't say "that will get better with time" because that's not how Health works. If the issue wasn't health, then we have no answer about why he is trending down or about what happened with his first half slump last year. Last thing you want to do is offer him another $60 million to extend for a couple years and then have him turn into Ryan Howard.

 

We've got 3 years of control left on him, at the very least I'd say add another year of data to see what his bat is like next year before you talk extension. If that costs us an extra $20 million in the long term I'm ok with that, that would mean his bat recovered next year and that's a gamble I'm ok with losing a bit.

 

My understanding is that he was hobbled by a leg injury early last season. If that's true, it would explain why he was still getting on base but couldn't hit with power early on, and then began tearing the cover off the ball in August.

 

So I don't think that there's a skills loss yet, but I agree that he may become more of an injury risk over time. (I'm also skeptical of his age, as players who come out of Cuba are sometimes older than what their documentation indicates.) And that's why I'd want to see him play a full, healthy season next year and put up 2015 numbers before extending him through 2020 or 2021.

 

I recall reading that Jose opted into arbitration recently. Is that true? If so, does that mean that he's out of his current contract and year-to-year now?

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

I was gung ho on moving Abreu until we traded for a top flight young Cuban. I'm a little more open to holding him now unless we get a good deal for him for that reason alone.

 

Abreu is an interesting case, as his contract/team control has maybe a one-year overlap with the Sox's rebuilding process now (assuming that they don't go scorched-earth). If he can stay healthy this coming season, I'd be in favor of giving him a very generous three-year extension. A healthy Jose is a real boost to this lineup.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

You implied that Sale changing his approach to "pitching to contact" was because of injury concerns. Where's the proof?

 

You also implied that it's abnormal and cause for concern for a major league pitcher to experience dead arm periods.

 

It was more like "dead arm after the ASB" and "getting shelled in September" concerns.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

What, too much work for you??

 

@BNightengale

The #WhiteSox getting besieged with calls now for Jose Quintana, but the Sox are expected to step back, catch breath, before dealing him

 

If the Sox deal Quintana, they may as well nuke the entire team by dealing Abreu and Eaton as well. Because it sends the message that they're not going to even try to win for another three years.

 

It would be interesting, but I don't think that they deal Q and go the scorched-earth route. Too much money to lose at both the gate and negotiating table when the TV contract is up.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

It's not debatable. Sale was second in the league in pitches per start behind Verlander, has throw over 110 pitches 16 times! (that's half of his starts) this season, to only 7 starts for Q.

 

Sale's never thrown more than 226 innings in any season, which is a far cry from what guys like Madison Bumgarner and Randy Johnson have done. So the argument that Sale has been subjected to over-use is just silly to me. If they can do it and still maintain velocity late in the season, why can't Sale?

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

It might never catch up with him. The guy's a freak of nature. I don't think injury risk was that high on the minds of teams that were willing to give up half their farm system for him. He's never had any issues with his arm, especially not as of late. He had some dead arm periods/starts when he first converted to a starter, but that was it.

 

The dead arm issues really never stopped, which is why Coop had him pitching to contact more often than before this past season. This is probably the bigger issue going forward than a potential arm injury due to his mechanics. I'm sure that Dombrowski is aware of this, and it's likely the reason why Hahn didn't get more of Boston's Top 10 prospects in the deal.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-education...WQDBHNlYwNzcg--

 

Reading a previous link, this jumps out

 

If lots of strikeouts are accompanied by lots of walks, I'm OK with that.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

I wonder if because he was an international signing, if that would have counted against the caps for this year if the White Sox had started paying it?

 

I didn't even consider that. It just seemed so typical of Reinsdorf to refuse to pick up contract money like that.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

To be fair, he never had the opportunity to prepare for October. I also think he was overused for better part of the season, constantly throwing 110-120 pitches a game during the summer.

 

He wasn't overused. Sale and Quintana have thrown roughly the same number of innings over the past few seasons, yet Sale is the one who's been mediocre in September and has had to alter his pitching style to keep his arm fresh.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

Bruce Levine ‏@MLBBruceLevine 3m3 minutes ago Fort Washington, MD

Wow-The Red Sox will pay the entire $31.2 million left on Yoan Moncada's original $63 million deal. White Sox get sweet deal on the money.

 

Wow.

 

That has Jerry Reinsdorf written all over it. No way that JR was going to pick that up.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

Boston Sports Info ‏@bostonsportsinf 1h1 hour ago

Chris Sale AL ranks since 2012 (min 100 GS)

 

ERA - 1st

WHIP - 1st

CG - 1st

SO - 1st

OPS against - 1st

 

alrighty then

 

That looks great until you look at Sale's September splits. Cooper had to ask Sale to not throw as hard this past season just so that he wouldn't put up a 1.4 WHIP again down the stretch. One has to wonder how much of an asset Sale is going to be in October, and that's one of the reasons why I'm fine with dealing him.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

Kopech broke his hand fighting with his roommate.

 

Sale is several years older than Kopech, so I'm willing to let some of Kopech's immaturity slide. Sale has no excuse.

 

[Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, White Sox get Moncada+]

And as much as I enjoyed watching Chris pitch, I also didn't get too excited to watch Chris dominate only to get a no decision or take the loss because we can't score runs.

 

I'd rather watch us develop and lose than be "mired in mediocrity."

 

I was at the Sox/Mariners game in August when Sale struck out 14 and the Sox still lost. I don't want any more of that.