2014 Offseason Plans Thread

[donaldson79]

A couple of things based on all the posts. First of all when I go to Denver and see how the downtown was revitalized with the sports facilities down there and how you can take public transportation and go to restaurants and all before and after a game I would love to see something like that. Arlington fails miserably at this.

Second thing Kemp is a risk but so was Josh Hamilton. But if the cost on our part is too high including no break on salary and having to give up too many top prospects then forget it. I do not want us to knee jerk to all that has gone on and do something stupid just to do something. Leave that to the Angels.

There's little doubt about a stadium in any downtown helps revitalize the city. But Dallas, politically, is a rudderless ship and they will work at screwing everything up.

Do you know the makeup of the crowds who attend games in Arlington? Like which counties they're from. And I wonder what the Ranger research shows regarding relocating to downtown Dallas and what to expect attendance wise.

 

[romeo212000]

It was us but he wanted on the field.

I haven't read anywhere that's been confirmed.

 

[Hambombs]

You're right there for sure. The FA market by design is overpriced.

But I'm betting the team which had the highest offer for Nap was Seattle, not us.

Didn't terps just confirm it was us??

 

[Justinkm83]

I haven't read anywhere that's been confirmed.

I read it, but now I can't remember where. I knew that would be the deciding factor anyways.

 

[jta4437]

Wow, looks like I gotta lot of catchin up to do! I'm gonna read all your posts and see what the talk has been about today. Sorry about that guys. I know I said I'd be back on and a lot of you guys rely on what I hear, so hopefully I can make up for the days news in this post. Here it goes.

1) Mike Napoli signed back with the sox. I was absolutely shocked at this. I got a text message that we actually had offered him MORE than them. Don't know numbers. But he really wanted to play in the field, and that was a big hurdle in our talks. I know a lot of you guys wanted nap back, but in my personal opinion this is a good thing. I mean, truly think about it. Why would we sign him? We don't need him. We would look like the angels, signing people we don't need. I love nap, but the fact is we need an outfielder. That hole in the outfield is staring us down right now, and signing other guys isn't gonna fill the void.

It was 3 years, thats no where near Angels level stupidity

We needed a hitter, didn't have to be an OFer, if we were smart we would have said nothing to the effect that Fielder was in the field until ST and we weren't able to sign anyone else to play 1B to clear up the debate between Moreland and Fielder

Napoli could've played 1B and Fielder DH'd, which is the logical thing to do anyway, allowing playing the field to be a sticking point in negotiations is just asinine to me, completely idiotic

If Napoli was a bad fielder thats one thing, but the man just came off a season where he was roundly acclaimed for his glove work by people who actually know things about fielding... why would you tell that guy Fielder is your 1B, to me that puts off the impression that we are a bunch of imbeciles

Making Fielder happy and playing him at 1B makes sense if his competition is Moreland, but when it comes to bringing in outside talent JD and Wash need to keep their mouths shut about who's playing where until ST

What we need now is a leadoff hitter, moreso than a middle of the order bat, hopefully thats Choo

If we go into the season with Martin and his .315 OBP leading off then we're in for some trouble

 

[jta4437]

Also the Yankees have a surplus of OFers now

Maybe they'll be willing to part with Gardner

 

[donaldson79]

It was us but he wanted on the field.

Can't blame him then. Got himself a very nice payday, and gets to play a lot of 1st too.

 

[Hambombs]

It was 3 years, thats no where near Angels level stupidity

We needed a hitter, didn't have to be an OFer, if we were smart we would have said nothing to the effect that Fielder was in the field until ST and we weren't able to sign anyone else to play 1B to clear up the debate between Moreland and Fielder

Napoli could've played 1B and Fielder DH'd, which is the logical thing to do anyway, allowing playing the field to be a sticking point in negotiations is just asinine to me, completely idiotic

If Napoli was a bad fielder thats one thing, but the man just came off a season where he was roundly acclaimed for his glove work by people who actually know things about fielding... why would you tell that guy Fielder is your 1B, to me that puts off the impression that we are a bunch of imbeciles

Making Fielder happy and playing him at 1B makes sense if his competition is Moreland, but when it comes to bringing in outside talent JD and Wash need to keep their mouths shut about who's playing where until ST

What we need now is a leadoff hitter, moreso than a middle of the order bat, hopefully thats Choo

If we go into the season with Martin and his .315 OBP leading off then we're in for some trouble

I do agree. Lead off is our biggest need

 

[Hambombs]

Also the Yankees have a surplus of OFers now

Maybe they'll be willing to part with Gardner

He's a really good lead off hitter also

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I read where one of the posts talked about FAs not wanting to come here which I cannot say that is true or not. But we seem to have a hard time keeping our own FAs. It just seems like we are nonchalant about it much of the time. Again that is just perception on my part and could be way off base.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Also the Yankees have a surplus of OFers now

Maybe they'll be willing to part with Gardner

He is one of those types of players that just irritates the daylights out of the opponent. We need some of those players.

 

[Justinkm83]

Also the Yankees have a surplus of OFers now

Maybe they'll be willing to part with Gardner

They want a pitcher back for him. I wouldn't trade any of our pitchers for him.


That would be a very good def OF, but I would like some power from that spot.

 

[romeo212000]

I read where one of the posts talked about FAs not wanting to come here which I cannot say that is true or not. But we seem to have a hard time keeping our own FAs. It just seems like we are nonchalant about it much of the time. Again that is just perception on my part and could be way off base.

I think it might be more about knowing when to walk away.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I think it might be more about knowing when to walk away.

I think that may be true for the most part. But I think Cruz still has value and we obviously thought Napoli does too.

 

[jta4437]

They want a pitcher back for him. I wouldn't trade any of our pitchers for him.


That would be a very good def OF, but I would like some power from that spot.

We need a leadoff hitter, and the Yankees aren't getting a starter for him, they might as well accept that now

Thump is nice but when you have nobody worth a damn in the leadoff spot, it doesn't matter how good your 3-4-5 hitters are

After you have leadoff hitter you can go find you a DH, Morales maybe

 

[Justinkm83]

We need a leadoff hitter, and the Yankees aren't getting a starter for him, they might as well accept that now

Thump is nice but when you have nobody worth a damn in the leadoff spot, it doesn't matter how good your 3-4-5 hitters are

After you have leadoff hitter you can go find you a DH, Morales maybe

I think this is a good plan. I wish we would just go ahead and lock up our DH, and I don't mean Moreland.

 

[jta4437]

I think this is a good plan. I wish we would just go ahead and lock up our DH, and I don't mean Moreland.

Granted I'd still rather have Choo

But Gardner is a solid stopgap and allows Martin to work on his skills for at least one more season... Then hopefully h might be able to take a sizable jump into that leadoff spot

 

[romeo212000]

I think that may be true for the most part. But I think Cruz still has value and we obviously thought Napoli does too.

Having value and being worth what the player is demanding are two different things.

 

[romeo212000]

Granted I'd still rather have Choo

But Gardner is a solid stopgap and allows Martin to work on his skills for at least one more season... Then hopefully h might be able to take a sizable jump into that leadoff spot

Wash designating Martin the lead off hitter in November is just stupid. For one thing, I think Rios would be a pretty good choice.

 

[jta4437]

Wash designating Martin the lead off hitter in November is just stupid. For one thing, I think Rios would be a pretty good choice.

Rios is a bad candidate b/c he also doesn't walk enough, he's not a high OBP guy

And agreed about making any definite proclamations before ST, unless its to a FA you signed