moonslav59

He sure did his homework on opposing hitters though. I suppose now they have those new-fangled computer thingies doin that there stuff nowadays.

I think he might get $90M/5 with a $15M option and $5M buyout, so essentially $95M/5 or 105M/6. I hope to hell- not here!

The Sox had a major boner for Salty. I imagine it was the promise of power? But the package sent was flaccid.

I think we'll wait, at least until the deadline, to deal away one of our catchers, but I do think the day is bound to come.

Really? You're going to use one example from history? Come on man; you know Swi's value is higher than Salty's was back then.

I never said increasing his trade value was the number one priority here.

Any love for Fernado Rodney? I'd rather risk Koji.

If we sign Beltran, it might make trading JBJ a little more possible. It might also allow Moncada to switch to LF by 2018 with Beni going to CF. That would free up Devers to win the 3B job by 2018. Getting Beltran, Hill and Melancon would be a coup. We'd be over the luxury limit, but not by a whole lot, and maybe with Hill, we could trade Buch for another RP'er and/or a 3Bman. (Buch, Shaw and Dubon for Frazier & Robertson?)

..and it should build up his trade value, unless he looks awful on defense.

EE may be able to play 1b FT, but I doubt any teams signs him to do it. With Moncada and Devers banging on the door and Travis and Dubon maybe having a longer shot at cracking our line-up in the next year or so, I think, if anything, we go short term at DH. Only Young comes off the books next winter, so we're talking significant prospect blockage coming up. It doesn't make sense signing EE to 4-5 years. Short term options other than Beltran may be Holliday or Morales.

Papi made $16M. Where's the precedent for this amount for a DH, let alone a 34 year old DH for 4 years? This is a big spike- just as Chapman's projection would be.

I suggested maybe trying Moncada at 1B, if he is too slow developing his 3B skills, but I almost got my head taken off.

I'm not saying I want to sign Turner, and the only way I see that working out is if we end up trading Moncada and/or Devers with one of our existing starters for a TOR SP'er (maybe Moncada, Pom, Dubon, Basabe and Johnson for Quintana/Sale and Robertson).

Oh, Swi's far from a sure bet allstar catcher. My point is about how poor the catcher position has become in MLB. Several teams had god-awful numbers with their catchers last year, and no young catchers looking better than Swihart. Some have nobody young & close to his potential. It's those teams that will likely overpay for Swihart (or Leon/Vaz). BTW, did you notice Steamer had Swihart with 6 PAs for 2017?

Believe what you wish my friend, but Swihart has a lot of trade value, even before proving he's healthy. The guy was a top 20 prospect in 3 major ranking services before 2015. He's got 383 PAs scattered over two seasons. I don't think GMs put a lot of stock in that sample size over what their scouts think and what they feel his ceiling is. By the way, this year there were 18 teams with a team catcher wRC+ of 92 or less. This year, 14 teams had a team catcher wRC+ of below 86. There's a great need for catchers in MLB today. The Guardians had a catcher wRC+ of 46. Six other teams were below 70. All it takes is one GM, whod oesn't have the budget for Ramos or Weiters, seeing his catcher position as his highest need area.

MLBTR projects... EE to BOS at $92M/4 (or $23M x 4) Chapman to NYY $90M/5 J Turner to LAD $85M/5 (I'll take 5 from Turner over 4 from EE.) Jansen to Cubs $64M/4 (I'll take Jansen at $74M/4 over EE at $92M/4.) Fowler to STL $64M/4 Hellickson to TX $60M/4 (shows the state of the SP'er market) Melancon to SFG $52M/4 Bautista to TOR $51M/3 Ramos to HOU $50M/4 ' R Hill to NYY $50M/3 Weiters to ATL $39M/3 M Saunders to BAL $33M/3 Napoli to CLE $28M/2 Morales to TOR $26M/2 G Holland to WSH $18M/2 Ziegler to BOS $16M/2 Beltran $14M/1 M Holliday to TEX $10M/1 Uehara didn't make their top 50! I know it's not as simple as this, but if I had the choice and these contracts are legit, I'd spend the $94M/2 EE and $16M/2 Ziegler on... A) Jansen $64M/4 & R Hill $50M/3 Melancon $52M/4, Ziegler $16M/2, Beltran $14M/1, Valbuena $14M/2 & Koji C) $85M/5 Turner & Beltran $14M/1 (maybe we could still afford Ziegler or Koji) Any of these options look better than just EE & Ziegler?

Beltran or a HanRam-Young platoon (HanRam playing 1B vs LHPs)

Agreed, and I'm not sure his stock has fallen too much to warrant him needing to "prove his health" before trading him. Too many MLB teams are dying for just the promise of a decent catcher.

How about Pat Gillick? https://pursuitofpennants.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/2-pat-gillick/

Two words: Branch Rickey https://pursuitofpennants.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/1-branch-rickey/

..and the lefty-righty thing too.

Interesting view, but can I add the trade of Stephen Fife for Erik Bedard because Buch got hurt in 2011?

Isn't there a limit on bonuses as a percentage of salary?

True enough, and what else is important is the fact that the Guardians went much deeper than just those two! Dan Otero 71 IP!!! 1.53 ERA/0.906 WHIP Bryan Shaw 67 IP!!! 3.24 ERA/1.26 WHIP WOW!!! Cody Allen 68 IP, 2.51 ERA/ 1.00 WHIP Andrew Miller 29 IP, 1.55 ERA/ 0.552 WHIP Compare these 4 to our top 4: Kimbrel 51 IP 2.65/1.33 Ziegler 30 IP 1.52/1.25 R Ross 55 IP 3.25/1.25 Barnes 67 IP 4.05/1.40 or Uehara 47 IP 3.45/0.96

I do too, but I didn't bash Sox brass for letting him go. He clearly had a tough time with the 2012 team, particularly in September. There were mitigating circumstances, as we all know, but I wish we still had him here. I rarely partake in day-to-day manager bashing, so that's why you rarely see me on the game threads. I really do try to avoid hindsight bashing, especially when it involves an unforeseen injury (like with Lackey) or steep decline (like Pablo, although he had shown decline before the signing). I'm highly critical of some moves and do go back to beat the dead horse, but I rarely use the performance after the acquisition to make my point, unless I made the point at the time of the deal. Take the CC signing. I hated the deal down to my bones. I called him a "glorified platoon player" due to his terrible numbers vs lefties. I pointed out that he only played vs lefties, because the rays had nobody better to take his place. Thing were different with the Sox. I did bring that up later "in hindsight", but just to show that we should have expected it from the start. I never criticized CC for sucking vs RHPs or on defense in hindsight. How could I? I never expected that anyways. I loved Theo, even though I disliked many of his moves. He proved me wrong more than other GMs did. I liked Dan D and defended him for a long time. I thought Ben got blamed a little too much "in hindsight" as many fans and posters from BDC loved the HanRam & Pablo signings, then turned on Ben in a flash. I have liked a few of DD's moves and disliked others. I'm far from calling for his removal. He deserves a chance to let his moves prove themselves. If Kimbrel sucks, I won't blame DD for it, because I, too, thought he'd be great: I just thought we grossly overpaid for him. If Price sucks, I could say, "I told you so", because I showed how most big signings don't even work in the early years, but I won't, because I thought Price was the best SP'er to come along in several years. I expected him to do well. If he doesn't, it's not DD's fault. Spoiler alert: I may have a hard time not saying "I told you so", if Espi becomes the next Pedro. I know it's a slow time in baseball. I respect the hell out of you cp, even though we disagree on several issues.