If your name was Brian Sabean....

This is a hypothetical quesiton chief.

You test the waters, an event which may result in finding favorable conditions to leap in.

Sabean kicks tires, which rarely provides more information than a simple visual inspection and often ends with the kicker recoiling in pain.

He was worth -3 WAR last year, and has been a league average player twice in the last 5 years. And you would be willing to give him 9mil? You’d also be on the hook to pay Dunn through 2014, so that’s pretty risky.

I like the idea of trading Affeldt and Wilson, though. Belt for Ramirez would be interesting.

How much of Dunn’s 44MM is coming from the Sox in this scenario? 9MM a year? 3/27 then, you need him to put up at least 3.5 oWAR to compensate for the terrible D.

Dunn’s defense wasn’t terribly rated in 2010 (-0.3WAR BR) but 2009 it was miserable (-3.3WAR BR). 2008 was bad (-1.4). So you’re taking a big risk with age 32-34 seasons to rebound. He should get the bat back some, but that’s a pretty big risk. I would expect at least -1.0 WAR with the glove conservatively.

Hembree going straight into the Wilson roll might crash and burn in spectacular fashion, but on a slower schedule looks like the plan anyway.

You’d be trading for Ramirez’ age 30-33 seasons, at 32.5MM total plus the option for age 34. Giving up Belt’s cost control is a pretty expensive risk as well. Pretty sure Alexei is who he is, he looks like a better bat version of Alex Gonzo, with not as good a glove. If he continues on his last 2 seasons (3.7 & 3.3 WAR BR) he’ll be a good bargain at about twice the value of his salary.

But the defensive metrics of trading Crawford & Belt for Dunn and Ramirez will hurt a lot. You add over 60MM in salary versus cost control, and you’re buying into the over 30 years for both players. I wouldn’t do it, but the ChiSox are definitely an interesting trade partner if you could peel off something for less. I wouldn’t trade Belt.

Ramirez is locked up for awhile at below-market, and they have Konerko and Dunn and Viciedo. I think they’d want pitching more than hitting, and that they’re looking to rebuild and Belt isn’t the type of package they’d trade Ramirez for. Nor do I want to get anywhere near Adam Dunn – he would be a good buy-low if he weren’t owed so much money.

I also don’t see them eating Huff’s contract in any way. He’ll get another shot at 1B.

I would gladly take Aybar or Maicer Izturis. Both play solid enough defense and they’re both offensive upgrades from Crawford. And now that they have King Albert, once Kendrys returns to health, they’ll have 3 legitimate hitters who play 1st, and if Aubrey shows signs of what he gave us last year, would be sweet to take one of those pieces off the Angels hands