SoxFanForsyth

It wasn't the end all be all suggestion. It was just an idea to get the ball rolling. I'm not sure what their internal needs are, but I'm sure Cherington can figure it out and match something up well with them. If they need a couple spare parts, give up Reddick + Aviles + Doubront, or something like that. I hate to eat away at our SP depth, but if that's a deal breaker, make it work. We just signed Punto to help out with us in IF depth, so Aviles is redundant (even though he can technically play OF). The asking price for Chris Young is not going to be sky high. He's coming off a down season, hitting .236. Buy relatively low on him

1. Take a look at the graph I put up. At least 5-6 of his fly outs at Chase would have been doubles or HR at Fenway. 2. A guy capable of 30 HR and GG D at CF. Also a guy who has 1. Never hit 30 HR, 2. Never hit .260, 3. Strikes out 20%+ each season, and is on a team filled with guys (Upton, Montero, Drew, Kubel) that all strike out around or above 20% of the time. Look at their team. Who is their leadoff guy? They need someone who is going to hit .290 and get on base at a .355-.365 clip. They don't need an OF who hits .245 with a .335 OBP and strikes out 22.8% of the time. Especially not at $7mm more per season.

Young is due 2 years/15.5mm on his contract with a club option for $11.5mm in 2014. He's solid defensively (14.8 UZR last year), will see his numbers rise at Fenway (pull hitter, see graph from my previous post), but he does strike out a lot (21-22% of his AB). Parra made 426k last season, has put up a combined 23.7 UZR over the past 2 seasons, is a .355 OBP guy, and strikes out about 16% of the time. The DBacks only had 3 guys with OBP's over .350 last season, and Parra was one of them. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they put Chris Young on the block and stayed with Parra, and then picked up a 4th OF in the trade along with a young prospect. I'd trade Reddick + 2 mid-level prospects for Young, and I think that could well get it done.

Exactly. I don't even want to think about what he would say if the Sox had the Yankees pitching. It would probably be something like: "CC is good, but he had that knee problem and he's thrown over 230 IP in each of the last 5 seasons. He's largely overweight and it's only a matter of time until he breaks down. Nova is ok but he was helped out by a .283 BABIP, as his xFIP was 4.16, and he showed that he can't throw under pressure, as he got hit hard and lost control in the post season. Burnett will continue to regress, he can't cut it for a big market team. Hughes lost all velocity on his fastball and his control went too. From my medical background, it's likely that he'll never return to baseball and, in fact, will probably have to have his entire right arm amputated. Garcia was lucky he didn't get his tits lit on fire everytime he went out there, and he should regress to a high 4's, low 5's ERA. As for the bullpen, Soriano is just an injury waiting to happen and Rivera is another year older. He will start to lose it this year because of deteriorating stamina. Robertson will probably post an ERA in the low 4's. He may have been the luckiest pitcher in the MLB last season, with a 4.73 BB/9 and an 89.8% strand rate. That's pretty ridiculous. Basically, if a big name SP isn't acquired to pitch behind CC, it's going to result in a sub-.500 season." But for the Yankees? "We'll win the AL East as is. No need for another pitcher. Hughes will be a lightening rod, CC will throw 240 IP and is at no risk for injury, Burnett will bounce back and post a 3.7 ERA, and Garcia has completely figured everything out. Robertson will post probably a 95% strand rate and his ERA will drop to 0.17. Soriano got stronger because of his injury. Rivera got a stem cell injection and now throws 104. We win."

That wouldn't be bad. Not going to kill you with power, but hits well for average.

FWIW, here is the link to the site that lets you display a spray chart from one field on another (i.e. from Chase onto Fenway) http://katron.org/projects/baseball/hit-location/ You can see the image better if you go there and do it yourself (Chris Young from Chase to Fenway)

So the D-Backs just picked up Kubel. Wonder if that makes Chris Young available? His average is pretty terrible, but he still gets on base at a .330-.340 clip and crush LHP (.939 OPS vs LHP last year). He plays good defense (14.1 UZR last season), and Fenway would suit him well (see picture below of his hits at Chase Field placed over a graph of Fenway Park. Doubles in blue, fly outs in red). From what I can tell, I see 5-6 balls that were fly outs that would easily turn into at least doubles at Fenway. Plus some of those doubles may turn into HR (depending on where they actually landed vs where they were picked up). Regardless, tack on 5-6 hits to his numbers, and his numbers go up from .236/.331 Avg/OBP to around .247/.340. Not incredible, but with 20-25 HR, I'll take that from a guy who will be in the bottom 3 of our order.

Including Theo's compensation via a throw-in on a trade could make Sox fans feel like they got something in return while letting Cubs fans feel like they didn't give up anything. It's a win-win situation! :thumbsup:

Haha pretty much. But they could work it in there somehow, even if it was a bag of seeds. If anything, just include it to put the who situation to rest.

I'd trade Youk + a mid-level prospect for HanRam. No question about it. Even though he's a bit of a defensive liability at SS, he may be ok with moving to 3B if he's on a team that is going to compete every year. Why haven't we heard any more about Garza? I thought he was on the block. Cherington better be doing everything he can to get his foot in the door for a trade for Garza. That's one player I would definitely dish WMB and Lavarnway for.

Damn. Is Gio Gonzalez worth Will Middlebrooks, especially with the inconsistent Youkilis at 3B right now? Tough call.

Yes - I agree that their biggest needs are a closer and a SP. Bard can close for us, so I think the SP is the most pressing need. I would like to hear them checking in on more than just Gio and Oswalt, that's all I'm saying.

Yeah but with the preseason hype and their quick exit, fans were up in arms.

I see what you're saying. I was just explaining how most people think they know better than the FO.

Plain and simple, we were extremely spoiled last offseason. Made 2 monster moves by 12/10 last year. I guarantee you that next offseason, the Angels will be complaining if Arte takes his time to make moves like Cherington is doing this offseason. Plus, it took them forever and a day to hire a manager, while the Cubs and Cards both moved quicker and go on with their offseason.

Because it's all subjective. Everyone's opinions are the best in their own mind. So if it is my opinion that we should go trade for Gio, while the FO thinks we should build a bullpen and move Aceves and Bard to the rotation, in my mind, I know better than the FO, and thus the criticism. People will only criticize if the FO did something that they don't agree with. If they don't agree with it, they think that another option would have produced a better outcome, and thus they know better than the FO.