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2013 Offseason Red Sox thread
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Post by grandsalami on Feb 3, 2014 14:58:38 GMT -5
David Ortiz ?@davidortiz 1m Finishing my workout to have another monster season for all those media hater that still doubting!!! pic.twitter.com/Aoorrc1egG
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Post by brianthetaoist on Feb 3, 2014 15:14:57 GMT -5
Media haters? Whatever keeps him motivated, I guess ...
He looks like he's in the best shape of his life! [seriously, tho, he looks pretty good]
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Post by godot on Feb 3, 2014 15:20:38 GMT -5
Photoshop. If not, it is like he has a new body, almost Lackey like
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Post by grandsalami on Feb 3, 2014 15:25:46 GMT -5
Media haters? Whatever keeps him motivated, I guess ... He looks like he's in the best shape of his life! [seriously, tho, he looks pretty good] *cough* shank *cough*
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Post by patrmac04 on Feb 3, 2014 15:54:57 GMT -5
Rob Bradford ?@bradfo 2 min. Villarreal has cleared waivers, been assigned to Pawtucket and invited to big league camp Good I was a bit surprised that Villarreal cleared waivers... happy, but surprised.
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Post by patrmac04 on Feb 3, 2014 16:14:38 GMT -5
@gordonedes: Sox sign former Oakland first-rounder Corey Brown for CF-RF depth. Brown, who was in Nats system, gets big-league invite. He's 28 That's a bit misleading since he was the 59th pick, but either way he has a good AAA power history and plays 2 positions we needed depth for. It'd be nice to see a similar depth signing at SS/3B before P & C report. I love the depth signing of Brown. I was impressed at the Red Sox ability to find a good defender who projects for a little power to back up JBJ and Victorino. I'm very happy with this move right now and I think we are pretty much ready to rock spring training at this point.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 3, 2014 16:25:50 GMT -5
Most people here still think Lavarnway will be released. I think he served a useful function last year as injury depth. He had 77 AB in mlb last year and he's still only 26. I see no reason why they wouldn't hold onto him in AAA to serve the same function this year. Edit: Do you think it's just possible that the Redsox don't want to trade him unless they get the value they are looking for in return? With the logjam at catcher they may have going forward someone probably has to go but it could well be Butler rather than Lavarnway. I think he will be released if he can't handle 1B but not for another year. If teams were interested in Lavarnway, he'd be gone. Think of him as Montero-lite. Montero isn't finding a MLB job either. His only realistic shot is first base. Butler profiles as the perfect shuttle catcher for years to come and he's already familiar with a lot of the staff. The future looks pretty clear to me, Swihart/Vasquez with Butler at Pawtucket unless Denny or a dark horse emerges. ADD: I think Butler could be a backup catcher on some major leaugue teams right now and that the Sox could get more for Butler in a trade than Lavarnway. On the other hand I think his value as the 3rd catcher exceeds what we would likely get in a trade.
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Post by grandsalami on Feb 4, 2014 19:27:53 GMT -5
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 5, 2014 10:22:54 GMT -5
www.fangraphs.com/blogs/who-should-hit-leadoff-for-the-red-sox/Good article about who should hit leadoff this year. 2012 seems like a long time ago when you remember that Pedro Ciriaco was batting leadoff. I like the idea of Xander batting first, but agree that he likely won't. It'll probably be Victorino. I also found it interesting that Ellsbury had the 7th best wRC+ for the Red Sox last year. (The Book says to put the 3rd best hitter at the top of the order)
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Feb 5, 2014 11:07:55 GMT -5
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 5, 2014 21:16:20 GMT -5
I have a question that if I read the entire wiki, I still likely wouldn't know the answer to.
When a player signs a minor league contract with opt outs, Rich Hill for example, do the players agent and other teams have the right to explore alternatives before the opt out date or is the player making a blind decision ?
In other words, does an opt out give a player the right to shop his services ?
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Post by jmei on Feb 5, 2014 21:37:59 GMT -5
A team cannot be in contact with with a player (or his representatives) under contract with another team, as that would be tampering. Players with opt outs or their agents cannot engage in talks with other teams about potentially opting out and signing elsewhere, and evidence of a team doing so would subject the team to penalties ( here's one example that came to mind). However, you can be sure that agents do their research about potential opportunities, and there are plenty of indirect ways to get information across that skirt the tampering prohibitions (again, see the above link). ADD: On the other hand, I don't think the tampering rules are enforced very rigorously, and after a cursory search, I couldn't find a situation where MLB actually fined a team for tampering. It usually requires a team to file a formal complaint, there's generally not a lot of evidence, and MLB's investigatory powers are limited. I don't even think this incident resulted in a fine, and that's pretty unambiguously an open-and-shut tampering violation. ADD2: I did find a few tampering fines on this Steinbrenner timeline, but it's pretty rare for a team to be fined for this kind of stuff.
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Post by soxfanatic on Feb 7, 2014 14:30:45 GMT -5
Sox have signed RHP Chris Resop according to BA's ML tracker
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Post by soxfanatic on Feb 7, 2014 16:58:16 GMT -5
Jerry Crasnick ?@jcrasnick 4 min. Ryan Madson threw 93 mph in open audition for about 15 teams today in Phoenix. Multiple clubs expressing interest.
Red Sox were rumored earlier to have interest. 93 is promising
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Post by michaelgelbwasser on Feb 7, 2014 19:07:35 GMT -5
Madson would be great on a minor league deal with a spring training invitation.
His injury history scares me. And the bullpen is deep without him.
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Post by semperfisox on Feb 8, 2014 17:12:05 GMT -5
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Post by soxfanatic on Feb 8, 2014 17:34:54 GMT -5
@nickcafardo: The Red Sox were one if the teams who watched Ryan Madson's workout in Phoenix Friday
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Post by soxfanatic on Feb 9, 2014 11:21:08 GMT -5
@jimbowdenespnxm: Ben Cherington told us they continue to pursue adding another reliever and continue to working the phones
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Post by bjb406 on Feb 9, 2014 16:13:16 GMT -5
am I the only one that thought hey had plenty of relief pitching like 3 relievers ago?
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 9, 2014 16:19:37 GMT -5
am I the only one that thought hey had plenty of relief pitching like 3 relievers ago? LOL, I'm kind of blown away by it. Without the question marks, we were fine. If any of the question marks pan out, we'll be in one hell of a good trade position with those that are tradeable. I think we've pretty much cornered the lefty market, the easiest to trade.
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Post by jmei on Feb 9, 2014 16:49:24 GMT -5
am I the only one that thought hey had plenty of relief pitching like 3 relievers ago? That's kind of what everyone said last year when they signed Uehara ("We already have Bailey, Hanrahan, and Tazawa!"), and he turned out to be invaluable. I think the bullpen is pretty deep, but they could always use another arm or two. The top three guys in the bullpen (Uehara/Tazawa/Breslow) all threw career-highs or near-career-highs last year, and Miller and Mujica are coming back from injury. The right-handed relief pitcher depth chart is shallower than you might think, especially if guys like Workman, De La Rosa, Wright, and Hinojosa are strictly starting pitchers. After Uehara/Tazawa/Mujica/Badenhop, the next few names are Wilson and Villarreal-- closer to replacement-level guys than real assets. They could definitely still use a Bailey or Hanrahan or Madson, ideally on a minor-league contract; in the case of Bailey and Hanrahan, the Red Sox could maybe even do a major-league contract, since they would probably start the season on the DL.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 9, 2014 22:02:37 GMT -5
am I the only one that thought hey had plenty of relief pitching like 3 relievers ago? That's kind of what everyone said last year when they signed Uehara ("We already have Bailey, Hanrahan, and Tazawa!"), and he turned out to be invaluable. I think the bullpen is pretty deep, but they could always use another arm or two. The top three guys in the bullpen (Uehara/Tazawa/Breslow) all threw career-highs or near-career-highs last year, and Miller and Mujica are coming back from injury. The right-handed relief pitcher depth chart is shallower than you might think, especially if guys like Workman, De La Rosa, Wright, and Hinojosa are strictly starting pitchers. After Uehara/Tazawa/Mujica/Badenhop, the next few names are Wilson and Villarreal-- closer to replacement-level guys than real assets. They could definitely still use a Bailey or Hanrahan or Madson, ideally on a minor-league contract; in the case of Bailey and Hanrahan, the Red Sox could maybe even do a major-league contract, since they would probably start the season on the DL. True but you forgot about Dempster and Ramirez is on the horizon as well. Since we are talking in terms of depth, even "if guys like Workman, De La Rosa, Wright, and Hinojosa are strictly starting pitchers", they would still be near the top of the list for emergency replacements at the ML level in the bullpen. I also have a different opinion of a healthy Villarreal. I don't think we are at all right handed shallow but it's a debatable position. Saying that though, it never hurts to add even more depth.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 9, 2014 22:37:26 GMT -5
In a related topic, it's going to be very interesting to see exactly what the Sox are going to go with for starting pitching. In addition to the aforementioned Workman, De La Rosa, Wright, and Hinojosa, at AA and above, we also have Barnes, Webster, Ranaudo, Britton, Owens, Couch, Johnson, Pena and Aguilara. That also assumes Hernandez and Balcom-Miller are bullpen permanent. Either way, somebody(ies) are likely to find themselves forced into the bullpen or sent to Salem.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 9, 2014 22:39:45 GMT -5
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Post by jmei on Feb 9, 2014 23:12:17 GMT -5
That's kind of what everyone said last year when they signed Uehara ("We already have Bailey, Hanrahan, and Tazawa!"), and he turned out to be invaluable. I think the bullpen is pretty deep, but they could always use another arm or two. The top three guys in the bullpen (Uehara/Tazawa/Breslow) all threw career-highs or near-career-highs last year, and Miller and Mujica are coming back from injury. The right-handed relief pitcher depth chart is shallower than you might think, especially if guys like Workman, De La Rosa, Wright, and Hinojosa are strictly starting pitchers. After Uehara/Tazawa/Mujica/Badenhop, the next few names are Wilson and Villarreal-- closer to replacement-level guys than real assets. They could definitely still use a Bailey or Hanrahan or Madson, ideally on a minor-league contract; in the case of Bailey and Hanrahan, the Red Sox could maybe even do a major-league contract, since they would probably start the season on the DL. True but you forgot about Dempster and Ramirez is on the horizon as well. Since we are talking in terms of depth, even "if guys like Workman, De La Rosa, Wright, and Hinojosa are strictly starting pitchers", they would still be near the top of the list for emergency replacements at the ML level in the bullpen. I also have a different opinion of a healthy Villarreal. I don't think we are at all right handed shallow but it's a debatable position. Saying that though, it never hurts to add even more depth. Noe Ramirez has yet to pitch an inning in AAA, will probably start the season in Portland (having only pitched 28.2 innings there), and is at least a half year away. Dempster is probably traded by the end of Spring Training unless a starter gets injured, but you're right that he's an option as of Spring Training. Neither this front office nor other front offices think that highly of Villarreal, considering he was DFAed and went unclaimed on waivers. Some of the starting pitchers could certainly step into the bullpen and perform admirably, but you'd ideally want anyone you think (a) is high-up on the SP depth chart (Workman) or (b) want to be a starter long-term (De La Rosa, maybe? Certainly Webster/Ranaudo/Barnes) to stay on a starter's schedule to stay stretched out and get innings under their belt. So that leaves Hinojosa (total unknown) and Wright (your guess is as good as mine), neither of which is ideal. I realize I'm really picking nits here, but I really don't see any downside to adding another veteran arm in AAA (pushing Hernandez or Balcom-Miller to Portland seems like no big loss; they're more org depth than anything else), especially if it's a high-ceiling injury rehab guy like Bailey or Hanrahan. Plus, injuries will inevitably make the depth chart look shallower.
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