Well, the Red Sox are the clear winners of the trade deadline.

[HammerDown]

I hate the Tampa Devil Rays, Joe Maddon and most of the players so I can only hope that this will signal the call for this moribund, shitbum franchise to be relocated to Montreal or Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Would be proud to call this post my own.

 

[BF4L]

Tampa Bay has such a great farm system. They are always in the running and in 2014 spent 68 million on players salaries yet they are in it.

WHat did the Red Sox and Yankees spend?

 

[BF4L]

To the Op's point though. What choice did the Red Sox have? They had to jettison players for a rebuild.

Who knows really if Jon Lester is really going to be true to his word and take a home town discount? Hammerdown did bring up a great point though when he said that if Lester had joined LA he would have seen life in the big leagues as far as luxuries. He probably would have preferred to stay comfortable versus what really is a shit hole of a baseball stadium Fenway Park.

 

[HUBSTER]

Clay Buchholz is a gigantic piece of shit.

[MEDIA=twitter]495017361783918593[/MEDIA]

I can't take watching that scrawny slimeball pitch.

 

[da55bums]

Winner is difficult to determine and can be debated all night. The loser is a whole lot easier.


What the fuck was Tampa thinking?

Franklin was a pretty high prospect just a few years ago, Smyly has proved he can at least pitch in the bigs, who knows about the 18 yr old ss...they tend to go after quanity also...or guessing they could have had Cespedes, especially speaking spanish or AARP is a bonus in florida.

 

[fordman84]

That's great, but at this point he is shopping for cast offs and anything that might be intriguing can be blocked by any other AL team..

And Texas will be doing plenty of blocking.

 

[fordman84]

Yeah, the Rays got hosed. The last few years when Texas was trying to get Price, rumors were that the price was so freakin high we couldn't even get traction. Now they get back a guy Seattle was looking to get rid of, a middle of the rotation guy, and an 18 year old who might end up decent in 2 years.

Not trying to be a homer, but I like the return Texas got for Soria and Frasor more than what TPA got for Price.

 

[navamind]

Tampa Bay has such a great farm system. They are always in the running and in 2014 spent 68 million on players salaries yet they are in it.

WHat did the Red Sox and Yankees spend?

Not right now.

 

[RegentDenali]

Mariners did pretty good today.

 

[Davis_Mike]

There is zero doubt that the Rays got a lot less value for Price than they would have had they traded him this past offseason. I like the pieces they got back, but they should have been able to get more than that. The trade reeks of desperation to unload money.

 

[SoPortland]

Tigers didn't do bad.

But I think the A's are retarded for giving up Cespedes for 2 months of Lester and a backup outfielder.

Then you don't understand baseball or you never watch A's games. Cespedes isn't the stud you paint him to be. And it's a 2 month + post-season rental of Lester/Gomes for an 8 month rental in Cespedes.

 

[SoPortland]

And those home run derby titles sure win you championships.

 

[navamind]

And those home run derby titles sure win you championships.

ESPN:

"But the Athletics paid a hefty price for Lester in Cespedes, the two-time reigning Home Run Derby champion"

Lofl.

 

[Lemon Harang Pie]

Then you don't understand baseball or you never watch A's games. Cespedes isn't the stud you paint him to be. And it's a 2 month + post-season rental of Lester/Gomes for an 8 month rental in Cespedes.

I think people are really downplaying what a loss Cespedes is to Oakland.

Oakland went all in on the World Series with this trade and how good it was will be decided by where they finish up. It is a great move if they win it all but it will be a train wreck if they're knocked out in the ALDS, especially if Lester has a bad outing.

 

[gandydancer]

I hate the Tampa Devil Rays, Joe Maddon and most of the players so I can only hope that this will signal the call for this moribund, shitbum franchise to be relocated to Montreal or Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

What do you have against the great people of Moose Jaw?

 

[Jim Rome is Flaming]

Seriously.

How do they talk Oakland into giving up Yoenis Cespedes. 2 time home run derby champ, one of the best LFs in the game with a cannon arm for 2 months of Jon Lester and an old Jonny Gomes?

Then to top it off, they send John Lackey and a player I have never heard of to St Louis and they get a quality young starting pitcher in Joe Kelly(who should have been more than enough to seal this trade) and Allen Craig.

It's real possible the Red Sox are a better team after "selling" some of their players.

Cespedes, Craig and Kelly all have multiple years of team control left and they've all had successful careers thus far in their young age.

Red Sox GM should win executive of the year for this. I envy Red Sox fans right now(and I hate the freakin Red Sox too)


This Braves fan gets to drool over the exciting acquisition of Emilio Bonifacio and James Russell.

They had a good deadline, but I think a lot of people are overrating Cespedes. He has the flashy tools (power, cannon arm), but among MLB LFers, he ranks:
13th in AVG
16th in OBP
13th in OPS
Not bad by any means, but to me he is an above average, and nothing more, LF that gets vastly overrated because of the Derby.

 

[SoPortland]

I think people are really downplaying what a loss Cespedes is to Oakland.

Oakland went all in on the World Series with this trade and how good it was will be decided by where they finish up. It is a great move if they win it all but it will be a train wreck if they're knocked out in the ALDS, especially if Lester has a bad outing.

Are we? Have you looked at his stats? His actual offensive production? It's not that amazing. He's not even a top 5 run producer on this club. Why do people act like his presence is irreplaceable?

I loved me some Cespedes, but let's not act like he was this batch's Giambi.

 

[Rex Racer]

What do you have against the great people of Moose Jaw?

Nothing, I should have left them out of it. My bad

 

[navamind]

They had a good deadline, but I think a lot of people are overrating Cespedes. He has the flashy tools (power, cannon arm), but among MLB LFers, he ranks:
13th in AVG
16th in OBP
13th in OPS
Not bad by any means, but to me he is an above average, and nothing more, LF that gets vastly overrated because of the Derby.

He's 9th among LF in fWAR (2.1). Ahead of him are:

Alex Gordon - 5.1 (117 wRC+, but metrics *love* his defense. 36.5 UZR/150 (1st) and 21 DRS (Heyward's the only OF with more DRS))
Michael Brantley - 3.9 (150 wRC+)
Brett Gardner - 3.2 (he's hit a career high 14 HR (previously was 8) and it's only August 1)
Justin Upton - 2.9
Christian Yelich - 2.9
Seth Smith - 2.5 (only 349 PA)
Melky Cabrera - 2.1 (133 wRC+, but defense takes away a good chunk of his offensive value)
Nelson Cruz - 2.1 (134 wRC+, he's split his time between OF and DH)

 

[HammerDown]

"The trade deadline was our World Series and we won it!" - BoSox fans, desperate for anything to grasp on to