2014 Offseason

[saddles]

I say go with Smolinski in LF if Rua is at 1B. When Mazara is ready to come up in a year or so he can take Choo's place and then we will have some power in the OF. Smolinski has 3 HRs in Winter League ball so maybe he can provide some pop next year.

 

[DT LUNA]

Fox 4 reporting Dodgers are interested in Elvis Andrus

 

[darrylgann]

Fox 4 reporting Dodgers are interested in Elvis Andrus

It would clear up a lot of money, but won't happen.

 

[Justinkm83]

It would clear up a lot of money, but won't happen.

Elvis for Kemp is still a possibility. We wouldn't trade EA unless we were positive Profar was ready.

 

[Justinkm83]

As a dh or OF?

OF

 

[Justinkm83]

By Mark Polishuk [November 14, 2013 at 11:28pm CST]
The Rangers and Dodgers discussed trades during the GM Meetings, looking to fill the other team's respective needs in the outfield and infield, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports. The Dodgers had interest in shortstop Elvis Andrus while the Rangers had interest in Matt Kemp, though they were concerned about the $128MM owed to Kemp through 2019 and his recent injury problems. Talks between the two sides didn't go anywhere, Rosenthal said.


This is funny: Shin Soo Choo could be on the decline and will cost too much for the Rangers to pursue in free agency, ESPN Dallas' Todd Wills opines. McCann is a better fit for Texas' needs, Wills argues.

 

[Bmurph]

Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre won a 2014 Silver Slugger Award, the fourth of his career.
Beltre has been the AL's Silver Slugger award winner at third base in three of the last five seasons.
Beltre’s four career Silver Slugger Awards are the most of any of the 18 players selected for the 2014 A.L. and N.L. Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards.

Consummate professional and badass all rolled into 1

 

[donaldson79]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants are planning their offseason around efforts to re-sign Pablo Sandoval.

General manager Brian Sabean and his staff have told free-agent starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong that the World Series champions need time to try to strike a deal with Sandoval before turning their attention to the mound or any other position.

Sandoval is seeking at least a six-year deal, his agent, Gustavo Vasquez, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.

If you were the Giants, would you be interested in this long of a commitment?

 

[donaldson79]

Elvis for Kemp is still a possibility. We wouldn't trade EA unless we were positive Profar was ready.

This is somewhat concerning to me.

I know we've all been disappointed in EA over the past 18 months or so. But, I sure don't want to see him go elsewhere, prosper under new management, and see us putting all our eggs in the fragile Jurickson Profar basket.

Besides, I'm kind of giving a little bit of a mulligan here due to him having a new voice in the dugout. And he does seem to have a new attitude with his weight loss, and workout regime.

 

[saddles]

By Mark Polishuk [November 14, 2013 at 11:28pm CST]
The Rangers and Dodgers discussed trades during the GM Meetings, looking to fill the other team's respective needs in the outfield and infield, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports. The Dodgers had interest in shortstop Elvis Andrus while the Rangers had interest in Matt Kemp, though they were concerned about the $128MM owed to Kemp through 2019 and his recent injury problems. Talks between the two sides didn't go anywhere, Rosenthal said.


This is funny: Shin Soo Choo could be on the decline and will cost too much for the Rangers to pursue in free agency, ESPN Dallas' Todd Wills opines. McCann is a better fit for Texas' needs, Wills argues.

I miss Todd Wills.

 

[saddles]

This is somewhat concerning to me.

I know we've all been disappointed in EA over the past 18 months or so. But, I sure don't want to see him go elsewhere, prosper under new management, and see us putting all our eggs in the fragile Jurickson Profar basket.

Besides, I'm kind of giving a little bit of a mulligan here due to him having a new voice in the dugout. And he does seem to have a new attitude with his weight loss, and workout regime.

I don't want to see Elvis go and especially not for Kemp. As soon as Elvis leaves he would have a different hitting coach and would probably prosper and then everyone would have to break out the "he needed a change of scenery" excuse for the Rangers. No thanks to any of that.

 

[saddles]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants are planning their offseason around efforts to re-sign Pablo Sandoval.

General manager Brian Sabean and his staff have told free-agent starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong that the World Series champions need time to try to strike a deal with Sandoval before turning their attention to the mound or any other position.

Sandoval is seeking at least a six-year deal, his agent, Gustavo Vasquez, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.

If you were the Giants, would you be interested in this long of a commitment?

It is usually better to say goodbye to a player too early than it is to say goodbye too late. I think the end of that contract would be too late for a guy his size.

 

[ESPN Refugee]

Elvis does not need to go anywhere. He will be just fine. I think he realized he screwed up last season and I think if he's utilized much better than he was under Wash I think he'll be the player we've been expecting to see since he arrived on the scene.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

This is somewhat concerning to me.

I know we've all been disappointed in EA over the past 18 months or so. But, I sure don't want to see him go elsewhere, prosper under new management, and see us putting all our eggs in the fragile Jurickson Profar basket.

Besides, I'm kind of giving a little bit of a mulligan here due to him having a new voice in the dugout. And he does seem to have a new attitude with his weight loss, and workout regime.

Kind of agree with you here donaldson.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants are planning their offseason around efforts to re-sign Pablo Sandoval.

General manager Brian Sabean and his staff have told free-agent starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong that the World Series champions need time to try to strike a deal with Sandoval before turning their attention to the mound or any other position.

Sandoval is seeking at least a six-year deal, his agent, Gustavo Vasquez, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.

If you were the Giants, would you be interested in this long of a commitment?

No way. Giants are not the type of a team to make that kind of a commitment to position players anyway.

 

[WilltheThrill]

I'm gonna be the lone voice of dissension here and say I'd be all for the Rangers unloading Elvis to the Dodgers, depending on the return.

I do still like Elvis, but my opinion on him has definitely soured over the last couple of seasons. My problems with him are:

1) The contract- the Rangers are getting nowhere near that value out of him and that's money spent on a big-time game-changing starting pitcher. I'd rather have Max Scherzer and Jurickson Profar than Nick Tepesch and Elvis Andrus.

2) The maturity level- I know he's still young, but Elvis too often for my taste acts like a total clown when the situation doesn't call for it. I'm all for guys having fun, but Elvis just goofs off too much for me to take him seriously. Beltre is an example of a guy who strikes a good balance between fun and serious.

3) The lack of offense- for $100M+, you'd better be an exceptional hitter or the best fielder ever, and Elvis is neither. His power is non-existent and I can live with that, especially at the SS position. But he's not even a great contact hitter. Is a .270/3/50 hitter with above average defense really that valuable and worth tying up that much money over?

4) The guy waiting behind him- Sure, Profar is very unproven at this point. But I guess, to me, he's already shown enough that he could be a serviceable replacement for Elvis. He's gonna hit more HR than Elvis by a wide margin. Even if he's only a .250 hitter with an average glove, wouldn't it be worth it to take whatever downgrade he represents at SS and upgrade big time elsewhere with the Elvis money?

I know you will all disagree with my take here, and that's cool. Certainly there are valid points to be made for keeping Elvis. I just won't be all that upset if JD trades him and gets a solid return.

 

[saddles]

I'm gonna be the lone voice of dissension here and say I'd be all for the Rangers unloading Elvis to the Dodgers, depending on the return.

I do still like Elvis, but my opinion on him has definitely soured over the last couple of seasons. My problems with him are:

1) The contract- the Rangers are getting nowhere near that value out of him and that's money spent on a big-time game-changing starting pitcher. I'd rather have Max Scherzer and Jurickson Profar than Nick Tepesch and Elvis Andrus.

2) The maturity level- I know he's still young, but Elvis too often for my taste acts like a total clown when the situation doesn't call for it. I'm all for guys having fun, but Elvis just goofs off too much for me to take him seriously. Beltre is an example of a guy who strikes a good balance between fun and serious.

3) The lack of offense- for $100M+, you'd better be an exceptional hitter or the best fielder ever, and Elvis is neither. His power is non-existent and I can live with that, especially at the SS position. But he's not even a great contact hitter. Is a .270/3/50 hitter with above average defense really that valuable and worth tying up that much money over?

4) The guy waiting behind him- Sure, Profar is very unproven at this point. But I guess, to me, he's already shown enough that he could be a serviceable replacement for Elvis. He's gonna hit more HR than Elvis by a wide margin. Even if he's only a .250 hitter with an average glove, wouldn't it be worth it to take whatever downgrade he represents at SS and upgrade big time elsewhere with the Elvis money?

I know you will all disagree with my take here, and that's cool. Certainly there are valid points to be made for keeping Elvis. I just won't be all that upset if JD trades him and gets a solid return.

Scherzer's contract is not a substitute for Elvis' contract though. Schezer will make several million more per year than Elvis. To clear up enough money to pay Scherzer you would probably have to rid the team of Elvis and another fairly sizeable contract like Holland's.

Even if Scherzer and Elvis' contracts were similar that doesn't mean we have any chance of getting Scherzer. Like I have stated before this team has had zero success signing a pitcher like Scherzer. They never have. So, it won't be Scherzer instead of Elvis; it will be a lesser pitcher or player instead of Elvis.

If this team wants to save money then they should wait until Choo is healthy again and then trade him either at the deadline or a year from now. That is the route to go to save money. Either that or they can simply start spending a little more of that new TV contract money and forget about saving money.

Then there is the whole question as to whether Profar is ever going to have a healthy shoulder. That is a gamble this team simply can't afford to take after last year's injury situation.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Scherzer's contract is not a substitute for Elvis' contract though. Schezer will make several million more per year than Elvis. To clear up enough money to pay Scherzer you would probably have to rid the team of Elvis and another fairly sizeable contract like Holland's.

Even if Scherzer and Elvis' contracts were similar that doesn't mean we have any chance of getting Scherzer. Like I have stated before this team has had zero success signing a pitcher like Scherzer. They never have. So, it won't be Scherzer instead of Elvis; it will be a lesser pitcher or player instead of Elvis.

If this team wants to save money then they should wait until Choo is healthy again and then trade him either at the deadline or a year from now. That is the route to go to save money. Either that or they can simply start spending a little more of that new TV contract money and forget about saving money.

Then there is the whole question as to whether Profar is ever going to have a healthy shoulder. That is a gamble this team simply can't afford to take after last year's injury situation.

I was only using Scherzer as an example, not that we would specifically trade Elvis and then use that exact amount of money to sign Scherzer. But for Elvis money + a little extra we could absolutely sign a top 2 caliber starter.

As for the whole "can't take a gamble on Profar" reasoning, there are other SS out there who could play the position for us at a fraction of the cost of Elvis should Profar not pan out. There are several from just last season alone who had better numbers than Elvis at a far lower salary hit. Look at the offensive and defensive numbers and then tell me that Elvis is worth tens of millions more than a Brandon Crawford or a Kolten Wong or even a Jed Lowrie.

 

[donaldson79]

I don't want to see Elvis go and especially not for Kemp. As soon as Elvis leaves he would have a different hitting coach and would probably prosper and then everyone would have to break out the "he needed a change of scenery" excuse for the Rangers. No thanks to any of that.

How about especially for Crawford? That's what I heard on the radio today during Blasick's segment on the fan.

I wouldn't want Crawford on this team for fucking free! Seriously

 

[saddles]

I heard Mike Bacsik on The Fan this afternoon talking about the rumor coming out of LA that the Dodgers are interested in Elvis. He said the rumor says they would be offering Crawford who is basically a platoon OF who makes over $20 million per year.