Terminator

It's a good question but I don't think we can. His defense is atrocious and turns a good hitter into an overall replacement level player. I'd love to make him the DH who plays LF and 1B sparingly. With Morales here that's tough so I'd try to deal him but don't think we'd be able to. But that's not so bad, Pearce gets hurt a lot and Morales isn't so good that Pearce can't take some of (or even beat out) Morales' PT at DH. Plus, it'd be nice to have actual major league talent on the bench for once, even if it's guys who don't exactly offer up good defense. And having extra OFers allows Zeke to stay in an actual bench role instead of starting for 2/3 of the year like he seemingly always does. I'd probably do something like this: LF: FA Signing (Nunez or Kendrick would be ideal, they could move to 2B or 3B in case of injury and Pearce/Zeke can man LF) CF: Pillar RF: Hernandez DH: Morales/Pearce Bench: Carrera Bench: Pearce(1B/LF)/Morales (1B) If we do carry both Pearce and Morales I think it's kind of imperative to get a versatile LF who can play IF. Sign a decent backup SS and we then have some depth that should actually give Gibby some bench options. It seems like every year he doesn't have pinch hitters and his pinch runners suck and only come in because they are replacing someone who runs like their feet are set in cement. It could also provide the depth that would prevent us from seeing the abortion that our bench has given us this year. Just a quick look at our bench guys and they seem to have combined for about -4 WAR. What a joke.

I think they can both play 3B to cover Donaldson as well. I'd like to get a good backup SS too. Sogard isn't bad and I'm sure they'll be some guys who get non-tendered who would be good fits as well.

It would be wise to pick up another OF but with all the holes we have I'm not sure if we will. I think getting a LF who can play IF like Kendrick or Nunez would be a great addition. When Travis inevitably gets hurt then we could slide Nunez/Kendrick to 2B and plug in one of Hernandez/Alford/Pompey etc.

Carrera is a tough call. He makes some bone-headed mistakes defensively but over the past two seasons he's gotten 547 PA and has been worth 1.6 WAR. Not bad for a bench player who doesn't make much. My main concern is that he's a LF only so one of our other OFers has to be able to play backup CF. Hernandez can play CF so if he's on the team we are covered. Signing Jarrod Dyson to play RF would also allow Zeke to be a 4th OF.

I'd love to dump him but hes replacement level and makes a good chunk of money. I don't know how we could move him. He'd probably get 1 year and 6 million on the open market. We'd have to take a bad contract in return probably.

I just tuned in mid sentence. Did Tabler really just say that the White Sox are one of the toughest teams to beat? Because you don't know what they have and they keep coming at you? lol

That would work. Fire Tabler and bring Bautista on. Buck and Bautista could do the road games and Schulman, Bautista and Buck could do the home games.

He's probably my all-time favorite player and watching him suck this hard isn't fun. I hope he retires a Jay after this season as well. Would beat watching him hit .200 for the Marlins next year.

While I'm at it I'd also like to make some changes to the booth as well. Dump Tabler, bring on Schulman full-time or close to it, move Buck to a commentator role and then sign a retired Jose Bautista as an additional full-time commentator.

Yeah that team kind of sucks. It will definitely be a mix of 1, 2 and 3 year contracts which probably isn't enough to propel them to anything more than 2nd Wild Card contention. I hope they are active though. We don't really have a ton of prospects who will ready to contribute out of the gate next year but for Hernandez who isn't a sure bet to produce so we'll need to make several signings to at least remain competitive. Nunez, Chatwood, Sogard, Dyson, Kendrick, Estrada and others like them all fit the bill to me and I hope we make several of those type of signings. Rene Rivera wouldn't be a abd backup C. Can't hit but his D is good and his framing is solid. I'd love to find a way to get Pearce out of the OF and in to a DH role who plays LF and 1B sparingly. Would mean eating some of Morales' deal which I don't think they'll do.

I don't think it's fair to say that Hernandez can't start and then you turn around and suggest Alford starting. I get that Alford is the better prospect but Hernandez is further along in his development. I'd bet money that Hernandez (with big league ABs and hundreds of AAA ABs) is more ready than Alford (who has no AAA ABs, a handful of MLB ABs, and less than 200 AA ABs). It could make sense to bring in Jarrod Dyson or another OFer who bats left handed. Then you have Dyson, Pillar, Hernandez and Pearce as your 4 OFers. Mix and match them all season long. Alford, Pompey and DSJ can provide depth in AAA. We really need to focus on the rotation and infield depth IMO.

So he's just an org guy in your opinion?

That's what I thought but a lot of what I read seems to think he could do it. Maybe he'd be better suited for the 4th OF spot to start.

Excellent thread. Good job guys.

Yeah I didn't mean a straight swap just highlighting that if deals like the Liriano one were to be had then surely they could have gotten something for an even better pitcher.

I'd like to know what they were offered but the Jays managed to turn a s***** starting pitcher in to a guy who should be able to start in RF next season. You'd have to imagine that the Astros would have done the same deal minus Aoki for Hand. They do have him for two more years but I'll be surprised if the market for him actually increases.

There is no reason for them to suck either. Great city, nice park, they seemingly have a leg up on signing starting pitchers, etc. Just a terrible franchise though. Somewhat related, I foolishly read a Buster Olney article where he graded the trade deadline for every team. He gave the Jays a D+ which I thought was odd. I checked his grade for the Padres and he gave them a C-.

Tulo is essentially untradeable right now due to his contract but yes we would all be willing to trade him I think. Sanchez I'd move but might be wise to hang on to him for now so he can reestablish some value.

It takes two to tango and I don't think it's wise to just start dumping guys for next to nothing. Sets the precedent that you're a FO who will make deals for the sake of making deals when it comes to selling at the deadline. You also start down the path of dealing certain guys to certain teams and they just back out last minute. These deals take a lot of time it seems. I just saw that Atkins said there were about 15 deals on the table, they just fell through.

Doesn't seem like Teoscar is going to be called up just yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than just making it even. Why take Aoki at all in that case? Couldn't we just have paid all of Liriano's salary and not taken Aoki?

Just saw on twitter dot com that we gave the Astros cash too. I wonder how much.

Eh, I'm fine with it. Got something for Liriano which is surprising and got a couple of guys for Smith. The return for Happ would have to get something of value since he's actually worth something to us. As for Estrada he may not have gotten any interest. I wouldn't hate the idea of bringing him back on a one year deal either. I think the FO did a good job. I'd give them a solid B.

Does anyone know anything about Taylor? He's playing 2B which means his infield defense sucks or that his arm is bad. Something is preventing him from playing SS. He doesn't make a ton of errors for whatever that is worth. He's also pretty small and doesn't look to steal many bases. Not a lot of power though that is improving. He's skinny so maybe as he puts on more weight the power can develop more. Walk rate isn't great. K rate looks average. Just from what I see he probably never even sees the bigs but he's also not a total loser either. Worth a shot.