***Official 2011-12 MLB HOTSTOVE OFF-SEASON THREAD***

I'd take my chances with the Sox/Yankee team over the Rangers/Angels.

 

And who's is the Rays and Jays!? East is ridiculous and no one is close.

 

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Not the Yankees and Red Sox lol

 

The combo bullpen would be sick.....

C-Toss up
1st-Gonzo
2nd-Cano
SS-Jeter
3B-Youk (when healthy)
LF-Crawford
CF-Ellsbury
RF-Swish (Ugh)
DH-Papi

SP-Beckett
SP-CC
SP-Lester
SP-Nova
SP-?

BP-Mo.....lol

 

Solid approach...

 

Agreed. The Blue Jays would probably be the best team in the AL Central and they'll probably end up in 4th place again. The Orioles are the only team in the East that's pretty light in terms of overall talent at the MLB level. In the AL West you have Seattle and Oakland and in the AL Central you have pretty much every team.

I'd probably stick Granderson in RF instead of Swisher and possibly think about DHing Cano/Pedroia instead of Ortiz. And I'd probably put Montero behind the plate and hope for the best.

You're forgetting that the bench would be Pedroia/Ortiz, A-Rod, Teixeira, Gardner, Granderson/Swisher.

As far as SPers: CC, Lester, Beckett, Buchholz and maybe Nova/Hughes as the 5th starter.

The pen would be Joba, Bard, Robertson, Enter Sandman. They wouldn't need anyone else.

The West would probably look like this:

C- Napoli
1B- Pujols
2B- Kinsler
SS- Andrus
3B- Beltre
LF- Hunter
CF- Hamilton
RF- Cruz
DH- Young/Abreu

SP: Weaver, Haren, Santana, Wilson and I don't know Feliz or Davish maybe?

Pen: Walden, Ogando, Oliver, Feliz.

Bench: Young/Abreu, Kendrick, Bourojos, Aybar, Murphy

They would be pretty evenly matched up but I think the Sox/Yankees have the slight edge. Now if you want to include the other East and West teams, I think the AL East would have an even better advantage because of the pitching depth with the Rays/Jays and the offense in terms of adding Longoria, Upton, Zobrist, Bautista, Lind, Wieters, Jones etc.

 

I totally forgot about him, I just EDITed my original post to include him. But you're right we're FORGETTING Teixeira, that's how stacked that team would be.

 

Just don't play him if it is the playoffs....Gardner and Ellsbury could be 9th and 1st....both stealing like 50+ a year, and scoring 100 runs...

 

With Gardner as a "defensive substitution"

 

I wonder why it wasnt compared to a Rays/Yankees team, ya know the two teams that made the playoffs out of the east. Those two teams combine would beat any other combo.

 

On a sad note, another pedophile....this guy held a vote for the Hall too...

http://phillysportsdaily.com/topstory/2011/12/20/report-bill-conlin-accused-of-child-molestation/

 

Just to kill some time:

AL East All-Star Team (in my opinion of course):

30 Man Roster:

C- Wieters
1B- Gonzalez
2B- Pedroia
3B- Longoria
SS- Jeter
LF- Bautista
CF- Ellsbury
RF- Granderson
DH- Cano

Bench:
C- Montero
INF- JJ Hardy
INF- Texieria
INF- Rodriguez
INF- Youkilis
OF- Jones
OF- Upton
DH- Ortiz
ULT- Zobrist

Biggest Omissions: Markakis, Gardner, Saltamacchia, Martin, Escobar, Swisher

Pitching:
SP- Price
SP- CC
SP- Lester
SP- Shields
SP- Romero/Beckett
LR- Romero/Beckett
LR- Buchholz
MR- Joba
MR- Soriano
SU- Robertson
SU- Bard
CL- Rivera

Biggest Omissions: Hellickson, Moore, Morrow, Nova, Hughes, Farnsworth, Davis, Lackey & Burnett (yes last two are jokes).

My only concern is the lack of LHPers in the pen but the AL West doesn't have many LHHs.

And yes I'm aware I have tons of offense, but it's hard not leave off an Arod/Youkilis/Ortiz/Texieira from that list.

 

because that wouldn't sell tickets fool you know that...

 

Youk, Arod, Ortiz, Tex, and Zobrist ON THE BENCH hahahahahahahahahah

 

Because I still think the Red Sox, when healthy, are a better team than the Rays. I just think there's more overall talent, especially offensively than Tampa. Don't forget the Sox won 89 games without a healthy Buchholz or Youkilis from June on and with black holes in LF, RF and SS for almost the whole year. I feel pretty confident in saying if one of Buchholz/Youkilis were healthy the Rays would have been home in October. Again that's taking NOTHING away from Tampa but I think people are sleeping on the Sox because of their historical collapse.

 

I know, it's insane at how much talent is in that division alone.

 

Anyone else surprised Prince Felder hasn't landed anywhere as of yet?

Would have to think the teams that missed out on Puljos would offer for his services.

 

Not really, he's a Boras client. Boras likes to be the last guy in town so he can try and squeeze anything he can out of teams that are desperate. His clients usually sign around or a little after Christmas.

 

I think the opposite. People still think the red sox are the class of the division, which is why they were mentioned and not the Rays. People don't respect the rays which is my issue. Rays are the ones that went to the playoffs 3 of 4. They are the younger team with better pitching and defense.

People have been saying we aren't as talented as the next team, and that's a shame. True Saux are more talented with the bats, but I'd say Rays are much more talented Arm wise, which is what wins out. Not taking anything away from the Saux, their not going anywhere. But excuses can be made all you want, last year was not suppose to be a year for the Rays to compete, yet we were in the ALCS. We are only getting better, while I'm not sure you can say that about tyhe Saux. JMO
Z

 

Well FML, here's what Mets fans' offseasons are reduced to:
-Talks of a Jon Niese trade to either Toronto (for Travis D'Arnaud) or Colorado (no idea what the return would be).
-Colorado and NYM talking about Eric Young Jr...it was originally said to be about Justin turner but that wont happen. Mets should try and make this happen and maybe mold EY into a CF since Andres Torres wont cut it though his D is amazing.
-Mike Pelfrey is still here and thats not a good thing
-Kirk Nuewhenhuis is close to being ready as a major league OF once he finishes rehab. Mets want to see him start quick at AAA before promoting him.
-Johan should be ready to go by opening day
-Talks of a Lucas Duda for Jeff Niemann or Wade Davis swap. If Neuwhenhuis were ready i think this would be done from the Mets end even though Duda can club the ball.
-Mets are talking to Jack Wilson about being a back up SS in case Rueben Tejada needs more time. Seems unlikely since Tejada had the 4th best OBP in the NL among SS but I guess covering all bases.
-The bullpen looks strong....which is good because Mike Pelfrey is still here.
-The Mets are not going to have a Gulf Coast Rookie league team anymore. Heard they also fired a minimum wage employee. Penny pinching Coupons.
-Great read for any baseball fan...even Met fans get a little bit of enjoyment. RA Dickey is a good pitcher: http://www.metsrospectus.com/2011/11/dickey-report.html
-Daniel Murphy is working hard at 2B...fielding wise hes fine, turning the DP hes a disaster. He has to fix that and maintain that nice 310BA he had last year.
-Can someone explain why Mike Pelfrey is still here?

 

Oh I agree the Rays have the better pitching staff and better defense, with that being said I still think the Sox were a better team. Again not taking anything away from the Rays but the Sox's September was a fluke in the sense that you'll probably never see something like that again. And no excuses, the Rays ended up with the better record than the Sox at the end of the year but I do think it's completely fair to say the Sox had more significant injury problems last year that factored into what happened in September (again injuries are part of the game) but I think a healthy 2011 Red Sox team is better than a healthy 2011 Rays team. Unfortunately for me, injuries again are part of the game and hey sometimes the better teams don't make the playoffs because of the divisions they play in.

And it's not just the Rays, I think a healthy 2011 Red Sox team was better than a healthy 2011 Yankee team too. Injuries and bad luck and bad replacement players just caught up to the Sox by September.

 

That's the biggest disgrace. I mean seriously, you're eliminating a whole minor league team to save money? Just sell the freaking team already.

 

People respect the Rays.

 

you guys lost in 4 games in the ALDS....

 

Fink not bad luck, that had nothing to do with luck, that team didnt prepare along with a lack of ANY sort of leadership from the coach or the players, their priorities where elsewhere....

Blaming what happened on "bad luck" is holding that team unaccountable for their actions, because frankly I agree with you....they should have made a long push towards the World Series...

 

Oh the team/players absolutely should be accountable for the collapse. However I do think its fair to say that there was also a combination of bad luck involved, along with the injuries, player performance etc. The Sox were a good team, they weren't playing over their heads like the Pirates or Indians were at the start of the year or even the Cardinals at the end of the season.

Let's put it this way if Clay Buchholz was healthy the whole year, the Sox would most likely make the playoffs whether players ate fried chicken, played video games or drank during games. Hell, I think someone can make a strong argument that if Matsuzaka stayed healthy the Sox probably would have made the playoffs simply because he was hands down an upgrade over Kyle Weiland, Andrew Miller and Tim Wakefield (guys the Sox were forced to start in must win games at the end of the year). As bad as Matsuzaka was in 2010 he was still good for a 2.6 WAR, he contributed to a .2 WAR in 2011. Miller had a .2, Weiland -.3 and Wakefield had .8, between those 3 guys they didn't even equal a 1.0 WAR, that's how bad the Sox replacements were. But hey again injuries are part of the game and it's entirely the FO's fault for not getting or having better replacements, unlike the Rays or Yankees.

Again this is not taking anything away from Tampa Bay but I truly think people forget how good the Sox were in 2011 up until September. They won 90 games and that's including the 7 wins in the month of September.

Hell the Braves had almost as big of a collapse as the Sox did, and I bet Brave fans will tell you that they were a better team than St. Louis and that a mix of bad luck, injuries and player performance played a part in their lost season.

 

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surprising...

 

I had no idea he was 26. I thought he was a late bloomer or something.

Surprising, though.

 

Doesn't make a lot of sense to lock him up when the White Sox are apparently in rebuilding mode. He's someone you trade to acquire prospects to build on. But then again it's Kenny Williams and the moves he does rarely makes much sense.

 

Thats the thing, at this point I am trading the above prospects for the King, Justin Upton, Kershaw, or Timmy only IMO.....

Kenny W. wanted 2 of those above guys, AND another prospect or 2.....GTFO....

 

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Interesting, not a huge Gio fan mainly because I think he's a bit overrated due to playing in Oakland's home ball park and having their D behind him and also his walk rate scares me. But hey if they can get him cheap he's a better option than any FA pitcher available.