Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

by Allen Chace on Mar 5, 2008 2:28 AM EST in Open Thread

So I was thinking the other day. What if we had known about Schilling's shoulder issues prior to signing him to a contract? What might we have done differently? Numerous options abound:

Sign Hiroki Kuroda. I don't remember how involved we might've been with him from the start. He signed with the Dodgers for 3 years @ an AAV of ~ $11.8M. Would we have signed him for the same amount? Would he have been interested in coming to the Sox? These, my friends, are the questions.
Sign Carlos Silva. The proven mediocrity option. The Mariners gave him 4 years @ an AAV of $12M. I'm not sure the Sox would've signed him, but they definitely would've been more likely to explore this option.
Make a bigger effort to trade for Johan Santana. Would we have made this trade happen, had we known what we know now about Schilling? Would both Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester be in Twins camp right now? Definitely, the Twins would've had better leverage on us than they actually did.
Sign: Jon Lieber, Jason Jennings, or Jeremy Affeldt. Gambles all, in different ways.
non-Santana trades. Joe Blanton? Noah Lowry? (ed: Ugh...)

I guess what I'm trying to say is, what do YOU think we would have done differently? Had we known this in late October/early November, I'm sure we would have adjusted our game plan somehow.

0 recs | Comment 13 comments

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Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

What bothers me about the Sox offseason is that they did essentially nothing to improve the team. Clearly there were holes to fill. Catcher, starting pitching and perhaps another solid outfielder cum first baseman. I don't see any improvement in any of these with the few we did get. When you have a solid team, you still should continue to improve it year to year. That was not done. Maybe there is something in the wind, I hope so.

by Longsuffering on Mar 5, 2008 9:27 AM EST 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

i was always in the camp that thought signing schilling again right now was a bad idea. But what ultimately won me over then, is that schilling's contract is so full of incentive clauses that they really wont be paying him too much if he doesnt pitch. So i dont buy the idea that more signings wouldv happened if they hadnt signed schilling. Would they have pushed harder for santana? Maybe, but i like to think they were offering their best packages considering that wake and schilling were going to be big IFs during the season. What it boils down to is that the twins just overplayed their hand and this probably wouldv happened reguardless of schill's status.

by spinz on Mar 5, 2008 12:45 PM EST 0 recs

and...

we know from the past few years that the sox arent afraid to start a season with 7ish starters in the wings, so really cant blame a lack of backup signings on schill.

by spinz on Mar 5, 2008 1:04 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

Uhh, well I sat firmly in the "lets get Santana at almost any cost" camp, so I can honestly say if I were GM this would be a non-issue.

Speedy, young CF with possible gap power is nice, but we were talking about Santana here and I was happy for the team to put more on the table to make it happen.

You can never have enough pitching, never, ever, ever. Can I emphasise this enough?

by sydneysox on Mar 5, 2008 4:45 PM EST 0 recs

Agreed

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Mar 5, 2008 6:32 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

Would not have given up Ellsbury as part of a package for Santana;I think there would have been other options there.
Could have gotten Blanton for less. He would have made perfect sense,and is good. Some people seem to have a problem with him;not sure why.

by topsarge on Mar 5, 2008 5:00 PM EST 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

Blanton isn't very good, and he'd probably have been expensive. Beane probably would have wanted a few decent prospects in return.

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Mar 5, 2008 6:32 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

Well,Blanton is pretty good,the Sox could easily afford him....And he wouldn't have demanded the haul the Twins wanted for Santana...

by topsarge on Mar 5, 2008 7:34 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

I strongly disagree. Sure, the Sox could afford Blanton. They can afford just about any player, even Johan Santana. The question is the price, and Billy Beane would likely want good prospects. In my opinion, Blanton isn't worth it.

Blanton isn't anything special and away from Oakland, he's awful. His overall stats are inflated by the fact that he pitches roughly half his games at the McAfee Coliseum, a pitcher's park. Here are Blanton's road stats the past two seasons:

216.1 IP 5.12 ERA 1.52 WHIP

Those numbers are fairly close to what Julian Tavarez gave the Sox as a starter last year:

120.2 IP 5.22 ERA 1.49 WHIP

Would you part with either Masterson, Bowden, Lowrie, Kalish, etc. for that? As much as the Sox might want to move Coco, they'd be getting fleeced if they shipped him to Oakland for Blanton. Joe Blanton has little value.

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Mar 5, 2008 11:15 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

Well summarized.

"You know you're having a bad day when the fifth inning rolls around and they drag the warning track." - Mike Flanagan, Baltimore Orioles pitcher, 1992.

by SoxDevil on Mar 6, 2008 12:59 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

I fully disagree on Blanton. He is an overweight out of shape non-strike out guy with a low ceiling. If the Sox would have traded for him they would have lost more value in the trade then he would have brought back.

by E5 on Mar 7, 2008 4:36 PM EST up 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

I definitely would have been on the Santana bandwagon, but not willing to give up Ellsbury or some of the top pitching prospects they were digging for.

I've got a sneaky suspicion that Bartolo is going to help this team out some way. Granted that may mean someone in the rotation doesnt pan out, but I think he is going to find a role on this team.

by theyawkeyway on Mar 5, 2008 7:06 PM EST 0 recs

Re: Sox 2008: The What-If Machine.

I agree--everyone has said Colon's been impressive. I think he realizes his career is quickly going downhill and he has a chance to nail a spot on the rotation of the reigning World Champs (who are also sort of the favorite for a repeat year, knock on wood).

by Liza on Mar 5, 2008 7:44 PM EST up 0 recs