Links for Monday evening…
- If the Red Sox believe that third base prospect Will Middlebrooks is ready for primetime, then Kevin Youkilis might become expendable for them. If that's the case, then the Rockies would have interest, writes Troy Renck of The Denver Post (via Twitter).
- It might make more financial sense for Yu Darvish to wait until his contract expires in Japan to make the move to MLB, write Patrick Newman and Eno Sarris for ESPN The Magazine. However, Darvish might still push to be posted in order to chase the dream of winning a World Series.
- Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles reports that the Angels will not renew the contract of long-time pro scout Rich Schlenker. The Halos have been purging their baseball operation department since Tony Reagins resigned as GM two weeks ago, cutting loose an assistant GM, a special assistant, and their player development director in addition to Schlenker.
- "I thought it was constructive," said commissioner Bud Selig to reporters (including Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports) about his meeting with prospective Astros owner Jim Crane (Twitter link). Selig wouldn't comment any further as Crane awaits approval to take control of the team.
- Selig told Passan and other reporters that his 14-man committee voted 14-0 in favor of expanding the playoffs (Twitter links). Passan hears that Selig considers ten-team playoffs to be one of his legacy items.
I’ve had this feeling that Youk was on his way out. We’ll see.
budt selling and 14 puppets!
It does seem like he never met a yes-man he didn’t like (or hire).
While Youk’s days in a Sox uni are numbered, the organization does not think Middlebrooks is ready yet. They want him to get a full season in at triple-a before he comes to Boston.
Doesn’t make sense for Youk to be moved.
As a Sox fan, I’m all for bringing more homegrown talent to the big club but the last thing I’d want the Sox to do is rush a guy like Middlebrooks. He’s got the tools to be a special player, don’t bring him up until he’s ready.
Youk to the Tribe? Doesn’t sound too far off. We need a RH Hitter. Maybe trade Chiz Kid somewhere.
You shouldn’t let 1 season mortgage your future..
I actually think the Indians do make a lot of sense for Youk if he were to be moved. Not sure they have the firepower to get him as trading Chiz only opens one hole for another (Youk would play 1B, leaving 3B open possibly).
Red Sox did show interest in Carmona at the deadline. No way is he close to enough for Youk or the type of pitcher I’m assuming they’d want but could be a piece. Not sure the Tribe can afford to part with ML pitching but the FO has shown they are willign to make moves after the Ubaldo deal.
Red Sox also showed interest in bringing back Masterson this past winter…..now that could be an interesting deal. Really hurts the Tribe rotation so I say no way but would the Sox bite on Masterson for Youk? Or better yet, would the Tribe? (I doubt it)
Huge Masterson fan (and Tribe fan) and say no thanks on that…but as a baseball fan think it’s interesting…
If Grady were to come back (HUGE ‘if’ I know) but a lineup with Grady, Kipnis, Asdrubal, a healthy Choo, Santana, Youk, Hafner, and Chiz could make some noise. Again though…at what cost though is it worth the upgrade….
From a Sox perspective, I wouldn’t give up Youk for Masterson straight up. I like Masterson and I always did, but he’d get eaten alive returning to the AL East considering he STILL hasn’t figured out how to get lefties out on a consistent basis. Out here, he’d be back in the bullpen.
people underrate youkilis pretty consistently. i’m guilty of it myself
the most productive hitters in baseball from 2008-2011:
bautista – 174 (2 years)
pujols – 170
cabrera – 154
votto – 152
braun – 148
holliday – 147
fielder – 146
gonzalez – 146
youkilis – 144
berkman – 144
mauer – 138
rodriguez – 137
teixeira – 136
he’s had trouble staying on the field the last 2 years and his best years may be behind him. but in those past 2 years, he’s still produced a 141 wRC+. when healthy he’s a tremendous hitter and i wouldn’t be eager to deal him
I’m too lazy to look this up, but I believe in the past few years, he’s top 3 of something in OPS (cumulative and obviously excluding 2011).
’08-’10 he was #2 overall, also #2 in wOBA over that period (add in this year and he’s still 5th in OPS and 4th in wOBA).
And there you have it folks!
Kevin Youkilis is criminally underrated. Constantly.
Of course, people were finally starting to come around to him this season (Though still underrating him, he was one of the top third baseman in the MLB going into like June, but he still wasn’t getting that huge recognition as an elite position player he deserves). Then his OPS went down from the previous year for pretty much the first time ever and suddenly everyone’s immensely undervaluing him again.
no matter how many corrupt or stupid things sellig trys to devise, his legacy is steroid.
tricksy sellig, corrupts is he, always try to devise. my precious.
And the really sad part is he’ll get into the HOF. Thus changing my beliefs from the name should be changed from Hall of Hey They Were Pretty Good to Hall of We Probably Should Put This Person In.
To be honest, I am more interested in the whole 10 team play-off thing. That is ridiculous! It will allow players and OWNERS to get lazy and more cause for injured players even because playoff stress will mean more usage of high priced arms. and not have to spend to contend! Owners are bad enough with the whole small market stuff. They seriously pocket all the money and they don’t invest. This will give them more of a reason to hold back and not invest. I would prefer a solid salary cap like the NFL has. Baseball is getting out of control and losing fans rapidly due to the consistent and horrible marketing ideas set forth by the worst commissioner ever.
hallelujah!
I am more interested in the whole 10 team play-off thing. That is ridiculous!
But look on the ‘bright’ side: now folks in the U.S. will be able to watch baseball at Thanksgiving […Christmas…New Years…] :p
Gotta love “losing fans rapidly” with no actual evidence to support it. They keep setting attendance and revenue records. I don’t think the sport is in any trouble.
Attendance just went up for the first time in like 3 years…
didnt it rise from a record high, though? i remember hearing that somewhere, but i could very well be wrong.
Record high was in 07, declined since then until this year.
Before 07 it was rising for 3 years.
gotcha.
The “dream of winning the World Series”? Right, how about the dream of making $15 million per?
Except he wouldn’t make that much money as a posted player. At most he likely gets $10M per, and that’s not really a lot more than he’s already making in Japan.
Youk, Lackey, Bard, and Reddick for Bay and Wright
i’d do it if I were the mets if they paid for lackey
If we were taking on Bay’s equally preposterous contract, I wouldn’t give up a dime on Lackey’s contract.
Lackey for Bay straight up is a standard bad for bad swap (And honestly, Lackey could probably perform pretty well in that park). Bay is actually MORE expensive than Lackey through the life of their contracts (Though whose is a bigger albatros is dependent upon whether Bay is a club or player option, of which I’m unsure).
Then the remainder, well, I wouldn’t give up Youk for Wright straight up, much less while including one of the game’s best relievers (Late season collapse aside) and a promising position player. Youkilis and Wright are signed for the exact same timeframe, except Youk is a good bit cheaper, has similar defensive numbers, has a very similar injury history of late AND is a better hitter who can play two positions compared to Wright’s one.
I’d take that deal without even a second’s hesitation if I were the Mets. You’re upgrading at third, getting out from under Bay’s deal, adding an elite reliever and a decent potential option for your outfield and Lackey’s a big bounceback candidate in Citi Field (And honestly, 215 innings of 4.50 ERA ball is enough to justify him being around, even at an overpaid rate). That proposed deal is absolutely awful for the Sox.
The Sox will look to sign some pitchers to be on top next year, I wouldn’t touch the offense it led the league in runs this year.
Lets see he had .299 BA with RISP, 62 rbis, 134 AB’S, .339 avg. 2 outs with RISP. You dont think it hurt the Sox in Sept. he was out of the line-up? His avg. was much higher with RISP,before injury, was probably biggest loss down the stretch. I wouldn’t move him.
The point wasn’t that Youkilis was somehow ineffective, the point was that you could probably have inserted Ted Williams into that lineup in his place and the Sox still wouldn’t have made the playoffs. Our biggest problem was that our pitching absolutely imploded for the month of September.
The absolute BIGGEST loss we faced was Clay Buchholz by a mile. Not only because we were down a starter, but because being down a starter resulted in the bullpen being used even more, which resulted in guys like Albers and Bard collapsing in September. The few strong starting performances we got were undone by multiple bullpen implosions (Bard single handedly cost us like three or four games in the last month of the season).
Agree 100% the Sox still had Lester and Beckett, but a guy that hit .320 at Fenway this season was a big loss too. This is about moving Youk, and all Im saying is I wouldn’t.
I’m not arguing that he should be moved, I’ve made that position clear. What I’m arguing is this:
“You dont think it hurt the Sox in Sept. he was out of the line-up? His avg. was much higher with RISP,before injury, was probably biggest loss down the stretch”
Yeah, losing him hurt, but he was far from our biggest loss. With or without him, we were still scoring runs in bunches. The problem was pitching.
As for that .320 figure, all well and good, but you have to take the converse with it: a .320 BA with his final numbers means he hit an absolutely terrible .191 on the road this season. His OPS outside of Fenway dropped over .300 points (He had an exceptionally ugly .667 road OPS)and that’s an abysmal split. I love Youk, but that’s the same thing I’ve been riding Teixeira for as overrated on for like three years running now. Great home numbers are neat and all, but if you’re hitting like garbage for the other 81 games, your value is significantly diminished. Considering how much time they spent on the road in September, if he was sticking with those numbers, he wouldn’t have made a difference.
I really think we can match up well with Colorado, plus we dont have to see him in the AL.
Bettis,Nolan, and Pomeranz for Youkilis would work to give Sox youth in the upper levels in pitching.
The issue is, we need SOME depth, but quality depth at the high minors is not what we need at the moment unless we can somehow move Lackey. 1-4 is pretty much locked in as Lester, Beckett, Buchholz and Lackey for the next few years at least. We could definitely use a competent fifth starter and Bedard may fill that role. Past that, we’ve got Weiland and Miller developing in the minors and Aceves available for the fifth role if necessary.
Too much depth added to the high minors and we’ve suddenly got those guys blocked. I’d love to have some more depth,l but two of those three guys could very realistically be wasted here. IF we were to trade Youkilis for prospects, we’d want guys for the middle levels, AA guys with extremely high upside.
love youk long time, but if colorado dangled a sexy enough package of pitching prospects, i’d do it and bring ortiz back to DH
that seems completely unlikely however given colorado’s need for pitching right now, and i wouldn’t actively shop youkilis elsewhere
Hmm. I wonder at the possibility of a three way involving the Reds, Red Sox and a third team. Move Youk to Cincy to play 1B and save the wear and tear on his body at a decent contract (plus coming home) plus prospects, Votto to that third team (Jays, TB, etc.) and OF/SP help tp Boston. I think the right combo of prospects and matching OF/SP pieces from that third team could make it an interesting and viable possibility. Who knows… it’s fun to guess, though.
I don’t see it. The reason the Reds would move Votto is a) to play Alonso at 1B and b) to save money, and Youk is only about 1mil cheaper than Votto (assuming they pick up his option in ’13).
Not to mention the fact I doubt the Sox have much interest in helping the Blue Jays acquire a guy like Votto. We may as well just send them Youk with a note saying “there’s not enough competition in this division, enjoy with our compliments.”
Yes we need a 5th starter. Whether we go after Bedard, Capuano, Harang, Juroda or whomever. You are missing the point here. We have WMB ready but maybe he will play until June or July in AAA Youkilis is my favorite player but taking emotions out of this and being practical, the 3B market is horrid this offseason and we have a guy with a small injury track record but also a proven numbers track. I probably sold short on Youkilis but with Arenado, Pomeranz and Bettis that is a good sample of what is available.. We trade out Youkilis for Starting Pitching Depth. We give Bettis and Pomeranz a year more to develop. We dont have someone like Pomer in our system, as you can see by the struggles of Britton and from RHP side Ranaudo and Weiland. Weiland is only going to be a BP arm similar to the way Bowden was. Every scout from Gammons to Edes said the same thing.
Bud Selig’s legacy will be his love of money and his complete disregard for fans of the game (save one kid from Chicago that got interviewed after an All Star Game ended in a tie).
If they are this concerned about Youk, they should just offer Ortiz arbitration but not resign him, and just move Youk to DH/3b platoon with Middlebrooks in an effort to keep him healthy. Ortiz will most likely latch on with a lower level AL team considering most contenders (Tigers, Yanks, Rangers, Rays) are set at DH. This would mean that Boston is likely to get the draft picks of a team with a good draft position this year, making Papi a bit more valuable if he’s gone.
They can then use the payroll space made from Ortiz and Drew to bring in 1-2 high end starters like Wilson and Darvish, depending on if the find a way to trade Lackey. Adding Wilson and Darvish to Lester, Bucholz and Beckett would make their rotation extremely fearsome.
While you’re at it, you can lure Halladay from the Phillies with a bag of cheese doodles!
While you’re at it, you can lure Halladay from the Phillies with a bag of cheese doodles!
Check out my take on the Red Sox at http://thebestsoxblog.mlblogs.com