The recent discussion on A.J. Burnett got me thinking, so I’d like to open up a bit of a fun exercise for all of us. Let us pretend that you’re the general manager of the Red Sox right now. You’ve decided not to make any further changes the rest of the year, but you want to start planning for 2009.
OPTION A: You can trade Michael Bowden, Daniel Bard and Coco Crisp to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Miguel Montero, but you will be forced to sign either A.J. Burnett or Ryan Dempster (minimum contract: 4 years, $50 million) as a result of that. It is up to you if you want to resign Jason Varitek in this scenario or go with a Montero/David Ross combo. OPTION A can be combined with: OPTION C only.
OPTION B: Replace Kevin Cash with David Ross, let Mike Timlin walk and sign Will Ohman (3 years, $18 million) and Kyle Farnsworth (1 year, $3 million with a vesting team option for $4 million) to contracts. OPTION B can be combined with: OPTION D only.
OPTION C: Salary dump Julio Lugo along with Coco Crisp and Justin Masterson to the Cincinnati Reds for Edwin Encarnacion. OPTION C can be combined with: OPTION B if not combined with OPTION A.
OPTION D: Trade Coco Crisp for a minor league position prospect, resign Mark Kotsay to serve as backup outfielder. Allow Alex Cora to walk and inform Julio Lugo he is now the backup middle infielder. OPTION D can be combined with: OPTION A if Jacoby Ellsbury replaces Crisp in the Montero trade and Crisp is retained instead of being traded for a minor league prospect.
OPTION E: Give the job back to Theo.
What would you do?
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E. Sorry brah, none of those sound too pleasant.
No, they don’t. It’s not that easy to be a GM, and this should give some people insight into how hard it really is.
I’d do option D. Montero is an interesting option, but I don’t think he’s worth Bowden, Bard and Crisp and he’s definitely not worth Ellsbury. Option D makes sense to me, Kotsay is more than serviceable as the 4th outfielder and he brings more stick than Crisp. I’m fine with letting Cora walk and keeping Lugo as a very expensive bench player (this is Boston they can afford it). To the right team Crisp could probably be worth something valuable maybe a high upside/high risk prospect. The Braves certainly could use a guy like Crisp and he’d play much better in the NL.
I don’t see anything that makes me believe anything other than Varitek is resigned and the Sox continue to hunt for a younger catcher to replace (i.e. Fedorovich) through the college ranks. They may make a deal for a catcher, but I don’t think they’ll overpay for a young offensively able catcher. I think they would rather pay a catcher to work with the pitchers and be “average” at the plate.
I don’t see Encarnacion as someone on the Sox radar…and certainly not with Masterson in the deal.
Option D is the most realistic, although I think we’ll see Lugo dealt in the offseason with the Sox paying much of the salary and bringing in someone else to replace Cora as the utility guy.
I would expect Coco to be dealt and think Kotsay would be a great 4th outfielder. If he’ll take the job.
I wasn’t on board with the whole Pedey for MVP before but I’m a believer now! Without him, Red Sox lose today’s game and possibly fall another game back of the Rays. He’s on FIRE!
MVP!
MVP!
MVP!
MVP!
MVP!
MVP!
MVP!
MVP!
My 2 cents:
A: Montero isn’t worth all that, IMO. Bowden or Bard alone, definitely. One of them and Crisp, I might be willing to do. All three is definitely too much.
B: This one looks pretty good, assuming Ross can handle the knuckleball. Reasonably priced relievers are always nice to have on hand, given they’re so unreliable.
C: Meh. Dumping Lugo is a plus, but both Crisp and Masterson are useful pieces and I have to believe we can find a better option for third than coughing up both for Encarnacion. Even assuming Lugo has negative trade value (which he does), I would be very lukewarm about this deal, especially since we just extended Lowell. Getting Encarnacion just seems to be a sub-optimal use of resources, since the need isn’t really there (that I can see, at least; maybe there’s something I’m missing).
D: This is another meh. We won’t miss either Crisp or Cora too badly, I don’t think, but they do provide positive value to the team. That, combined with the fact that I don’t believe Crisp will net anything better than a B prospect (maybe two B’s), and I could take or leave this deal.
Among the options given, I’d probably go with option B.
God I hate the Rays. They kill everybody all season long, but when it comes to burying the Yankees, they fold like the last 10 years. It’s Carl freaking Pavano, score some damn runs.
E. Agree Steven MVP MVP MVP
C’mon Rays, you need to tie it here
DAMMIT! Why do the Rays have to go back to sucking?
Should we have a Rays/Yankes game thread….how about that bases loaded no-one out escape!
When the Yankees take over the WC in late September, you’re gonna wish you were rooting for the Rays. The normal rules of baseball and logic don’t apply to them; the deal with satan might have weakened as of late, but it’s not broken.
Go Rays.
I think a trade for Encarnaci??n is a very bad idea. Dont forgett Lars Anderson is nearly ready, and that means the future of Youk is in the third base IMO.
The trade that has more sense to me is Saltalamacchia. maybe he don
I find myself agreeing with Sean so often now it’s getting kind of scary. Looks like the Yankees are getting hot again, which is not good news. They’ve underachieved all year long and are more than capable of making a run. I would have liked to seen them buried now instead of watching them come back to take the wild card. a sweep of a 1st place team can only do good things for them. Sean’s right, you’ll wish you hadn’t been so gleeful at their winning.
Oh and Salty is the epitome of an overhyped prospect. He hasn’t even produced with the bat this year in the best hitters park in the AL. On top of that, nothing he’s done indicates that he can be a full-time catcher with the glove. Give me Max Ramirez or Teagarden any day.
However, Sean, instead of 5.5, we are now 3 games out, and the Yanks haven’t gained on us at all, or much on the WC. It’s in our court now.
About the trades, I’m not keen on any of them either.
IMO, we have a superior OF for several years: Bay, Ells, Drew with either Kotsay or Crisp . . . or big bats Bailey, Carter, Van Every. 80 – 90HR, 80 -90SB, speed, 4 – 5 E’s. No trades here unless it is for a Sizemore.
The infield of Lowell, Lowrie, Peds, Youk is, despite minor range issues, awesome. A bench of Cora, Lugo or Thurston; Casey or Bailey. 80 – 90HR, 30 – 40SB, 20 – 30E’s.
Leave the rotation alone unless it’s for CC. We are 9 excellent pitchers deep, and will be among the best again next year. Free Pauley and Zinc.
Just Two Impact Trades: We only need a Fuentes/Street level reliever; and the next Tek. We currently have money, and room to wheel and deal for them with desirable, tradable prospects and players from every level, without touching our starting lineup or rotation.
With high OBP and power throughout a lineup that can hit 180 – 200HR and steal 125 bases (do the math), and gold glove caliber defense for several years, why mess with it?
We’ve got so many good pieces close to rotting on the vine and an even bigger crop of players in the pipeline, if we’re gonna deal, I think we should deal big. Setting our sights on a Holliday (Sorry J.Bay) or a Sabathia. I just don’t see AJ being markedly better than Bowden/Bucholz/Masterson unless the Org really has doubts about their (starting pitching) futures. Any or all of those could serve as great relievers along with Bard or any of the other standouts on the farm… and they are cheap.
Agreeing with Gerry, I think we need a tek protoge more than anything. I’d love to give Tek the Wakefield deal and really look at someone to apprentice under him for as long as he wants to stay. Let’s make up for what we did wrong with Fisk.
I’m with Gerry and Munghero here. All those options stink in my opinion. If you’re going to trade a guy like Bowden or Masterson, it has been for a definite need on the team now or in the future, like a replacement for Tek or even a replacement for Ortiz down the road (is this just a down year? Does he bounce back next year when he’s 100%?).
I’m tempted by all the Holliday talk, but the fact of the matter is that he hits, currently, something like 50 points worse on the road then at Coors. So you have wonder if that hitting would transfer. On the other hand though you could disregard that argument simply because it could be made against a number of current Sox players as well. Ortiz is hitting about 80 points better at home, Youk 40, Crisp 60 and Tek 50. So Holliday still interests me.
I know someone else mentioned Sizemore and I think that would be an amazing trade if it could happen. I just cringe though at what the front office would have to give up to trade for not only the best player on that team, but arguably someone who be in that “serious consideration” talk for MVP talk along with Peddy, Carlos and Youk.
If I had to pick an option, I’d go with E. Theo seems to know what he’s doing with development and trading. Free agent signings he hasn’t been so great on. I’d love to have an inning-eater like CC, but his price tag will be too high and we really don’t need him. We have so much depth right now, with more coming down the pike.
Your options suck, let Theo do his job