Jake

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 07:30 PM) Is his contract insurable? That's my biggest Q; you can't spend $30 mil a year on him then have him miss a whole season, either because of injury or other. I assumed if he was kicked out of baseball his contract would be voided. Injury risk is inherent with any big dollar players so I'm not going to get too worked about that

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 02:08 PM) Of course if you did something one way and completely changed it around, it would be weird. If you grew up eating lasagna for breakfast and bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits for dinner, it'd be weird to switch it around too. Except the proposed change makes perfect sense despite being different while in reverse it wouldn't make sense.

Good riddance.

I'd say it becomes MORE of a football play. If this was always the way change of possession worked and you suggested the kickoff instead, people would say huh? And this doesn't eliminate contact. It's a fourth down play and one player in particular is likely to get licked.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 12:31 PM) If the Sox can get something of value for Morel, they should leap at the chance. Sign me up to drive him to the airport. Hope he likes Southwest.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 12:17 PM) Way too many outs in this lineup. OBP needs to improve, specifically from 6-9 in the lineup. Is Konerko still a #4 hitter? On this team, he probably is, but the 2nd half of the season was ugly and he's now a year older. Alex Rios has been up/down/up/down...he's coming off an up season. I'm fairly comfortable with De Aza and Dunn in the lineup in their spots. Dunn will frustrate with his K's and low average, but on the hole, this is a poor lineup that the pitching will need to cover for. I'd like Dunn at 4, Rios 3, PK 5

Ellsbury wouldn't be a bad pickup, but it's tricky adding to a position of strength. A hiccup or regression for Ellsbury and you have gained nothing.

I honestly don't hate that idea at all.

I won't say anything about Carlos Boozer until his backup plays like an NBA player again. He's also pretty reliant on the PG position for scoring, and we don't seem to be high on those guys right now.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 11:13 AM) Well, would you even deal Viciedo for Gavin Floyd? Who on the Sox would you give up for Floyd? I think that shows how much value he has. Right now we need to package other assets if we want a starting bat. The crappy thing is his value would probably double at the deadline.

I don't want to bench/trade Dayan right before we have contracts expiring at 1B/DH

Based on the fact that a board this size doesn't have it, I'm guessing there must be a major hurdle to it.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 10:23 PM) Headley is not good. Agreed. I won't go that far but for the likely price, the risk that he goes back to a slightly above average player are too high for me. He'd instantly be our best 3B and would probably stay there for years... but at what cost?

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 10:12 PM) And why not? Given the likely cost, I'd prefer a player who has had more than one season of better than .800 OPS or more than 12 Hrs or more than 64 RBIs, especially when said player is 28 and has had several relatively unexciting seasons.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 10:00 PM) Not sure why everyone is so certain Keppinger is the full time 3B. Perhaps he was signed to be a supersub while KennyHahn chases an impact player nobody thinks we can acquire... Please no Headley

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 04:30 PM) If it's not about money and he wants to play in front of a big crowd, then there are other teams he can sign with. If he signs with Cleveland, then he's a hypocrite. Or he's been misquoted?

Yeah, you can't b**** about players following the money while simultaneously b**** about them prioritizing non-monetary considerations. Just because the non-monetary consideration is against your team, that does not mean that the player (Youk) is a bad guy. He practically chose the White Sox when he left Boston, but something about his experience here made him not especially eager to stay. Who cares? And if it is the attendance...are you going to say that he doesn't have a good argument?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 03:43 PM) He's got talent but he's a long, long ways away. You look for progress from a guy like Viciedo throughout the year. For Viciedo, he basically had an incredible May, hit for power in September, struck out a slightly lower rate in the second half(23.9% to 20.1%), and walked incrementally more in the second half (4.9% to 5.4%...he literally walked the same amount of times, just in 24 fewer plate appearances). There's hope, but if you can capitalize on his value, I would do so. I don't think the stats quantify the progress he made last season. The quality of his bats went up and there were a series of adjustments and counter adjustments that won't be happening for the first time next year. Every time pitchers changed their approach against him last year, it required more or less a first time ever adjustment from him. He made those adjustments too, but it took time. We have to assume that next year his turn around time on these adjustments will be quicker instead of spending a month trying to hit the inside pitch in play, etc.

3/$12 works for me. Even if it's a complete waste, that isn't exactly an albatross. I feel like risk of failure is similar or better compared to Youk and we don't have much invested if it does fail. Good low risk deal and Keppinger gets more than he ever would have imagined.

I doubt we're going to pay him any more than we paid Teahen. Even if he's a complete bust, 4-5M per year of wasted money isn't that big of a deal. In this market, not a bad get if the money is at 4-5 million.

His bat suits a particular need of ours. Like someone else said, the OBP is okay for our lineup. What he really brings, though, is a high contact hitter. He hits for average and he doesn't strike out...we needed more of that in our lineup if we weren't going to bring a real impact bat in instead.

How am I supposed to care about the years before I know the $$ per year? If it was $3M year, I don't give a f*** if it's 3. If it's $9M/year, I'll be getting suicidal

$$$$?

This thread is exciting. If the season starts, we should make a new NHL Thread that says, "Now with hockey!"

I'm not buying what they're selling re: Morel. This is all jockeying for leverage.