Balta1701

We need to play the jeopardy theme during these.

Nice f***ing pitch.

oh ok they corrected

wtf, so the run scored on the strike three and a stolen base?

Rodon struggling with his control now that there are runners on.

1-0 Cards thanks to Eaton.

Nice f***ing pitch.

Oh Adam.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 07:19 PM) Agree 100%. In the off-season, I didn't want the Sox to sign any reliever to a lot of money. Then they signed Robertson for a lot and then I kind of figured "Well now that he's here, I won't complain as long as he's getting the job done." He's doing his job but it would be nice to clear his salary and potentially receive something for him. He's got what, 3/36 left on his deal? 3/36 is what he has after this season, in addition he's due right around $4 million for the remainder of this season.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 07:12 PM) i have always liked Ramirez and for his contract of $10M for next year is cheap. the reason is, his defense. that alone will solidify the infield defense esp if MJ is at 2b. Saladino, i would like to see more reps of him at 3b and see how he is doing offensively and some reps at ss, same with Sanchez with reps at ss. for a key position of ss, Aelexi brings in a known commodity and a familiar presence. btw, i still think he will rebound next yr. You cannot do both of the things you state in your first paragraph. You will not be able to get both Sanchez and Saladino "reps at SS" while still paying Alexei a lot of money unless Alexei gets hurt. If Alexei's healthy, even if he's terrible like he's been this year, he's going to play 150 games. He's on pace to play ~157 this year. If you want Sanchez or Saladino to get any reps at SS you have to trade Alexei Ramirez or not pick up his option.

So I'll just say this once and you can trash me for it. I'd remove Robertson. Take best available offer and clear out that contract. Goal: something similar in value to a 2nd round pick.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 05:01 PM) Oh I know. The emoticon was to indicate a half-joking stance. He may get semi-competent with the bat after enough MLB AB's. But that semi-competent bat will best play at SS, if he's up to it defensively. This is exactly why I want to see us move Alexei. I think picking up Alexei's option is crazy with how he's played this year, so play the kids. See if you can manufacture either a cheap utility guy or maybe even a starter/trade candidate out of one of them. Worst case scenario...Tim Anderson takes the position in 2017 and we still need to find a utility guy. Big loss.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:47 PM) Yeah, nothing in the same area code as entrenched. And I don't think he brings as much to the table, tools or versatility-wise, as Saladman, for the utility role. So I wonder if there's a future for him on the South Side, or should be In hindsight, Sanchez should have been traded already. If he's a starter, he'll have to do it at SS as the stopgap/bridge between Lexi and Tim A, imo. I think Sanchez's trade value in the minors was probably comparable to what Leury Garcia's was when the White Sox dumped Rios's salary for him. To get something decent for him we've got to get him to produce decently in the bigs.

QUOTE (Brian26 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:42 PM) IS there actually talk that people want EJ back? LOL. Good Grief. Erik Johnson, not Edwin Jackson.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:43 PM) I think you're missing my point, though -- there's a chance he'll be good. There's (virtually) no chance Flowers will be good. So if you can only replace one, you're better off with a decent player and a bad guy with upside than you are with a decent player and a bad guy with no upside. I agree with you if we're thinking long term and we're not selling out to win next season. Think of it this way, let's say Flowers is a ~0.5 fWAR guy. Garcia could be either a -1 fWAR or a 1 fWAR guy if he improves a lot. Hypothetically we could upgrade to one of the top 10 catchers in the league and get a 2 fWAR guy or one of the top 15 OF in the league and get a 2 fWAR guy. If you upgrade over Flowers to a top 10 catcher, you're upgrading by 1.5 fWAR compared to this year. If you upgrade over Garcia, you're getting an upgrade of 3 fWAR over this season. Garcia himself has to massively improve next year to offset the difference in upgrades and I'm not going to bet my roster on that. I'm totally ok with upgrading over Flowers and playing Garcia next year, but that's 2017 thinking. I'm totally ok with 2017 thinking but we need to do that with the rest of our roster too and understand that's what we're doing.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:15 PM) i like it. but would saladino be a better option for ss?? Potentially yes, but I don't think I'm ready to count on either of them as a starter long term. I think Micah has a much better chance of being a starter than either of them do, but I'm ok with giving them both a chance for a year to see if either can hold down the spot, given how weak the FA market is, how much money the White Sox have invested elsewhere, and how many other underperforming players they have. Worst case scenario we play through the season with them next year and pick the better of the 2 as the 2017 utility guy, maybe best case scenario we can actually turn one of them into a tradeable asset next year. I'd like to see both Sanchez and Saladino in the lineup most days for the rest of the year and if Micah is called up that means one of them must play 3b and the other plays SS. Play em both and see how things shake out. If one of them is terrible, oh darn, we might end up a below .500 team. Then figure out if we want to add a cheap veteran somewhere in the mix next offseason based on that.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:12 PM) And it sounds like the Dodgers are only looking at guys signed past this season as insurance for when Greinke opts out at the end of the year. If they want that, they're going to have to trade one of the guys they don't want to trade. That does set them up to get Hamels.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:22 PM) Yeesh. Not sure I'd go that far. All Avi has to do is learn to elevate IMO, and I STILL think he has a chance to do that. Perhaps that is just me being the optimist I am, but I still haven't given up on him yet. I would say he's a better bet to be worse than Flowers because he has been worse than Flowers this year. He's among the 10 worst corner OF's in the league (the White Sox have 2 of them). I wouldn't give up on him either....but if I was going to spend money on free agents and declare that we're going to win in 2016 he would be the #2 guy I'd replace (after the 3b slot). IMO, he's the kind of guy the White Sox should actually be targeting. Still cheap for 1 more year, a couple years of team control left, talented, vastly underperforming. Throw him out there and play him, but stop thinking he's a "Win now" player because you're more likely to wind up with results like this year than to have him help you.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:44 PM) I went to the games. There wasn't a bunch of them in the park that were noticeable or announced. Dustin Hermanson did surprise a guy who correctly answered jersey numbers and signed a ball. That was it. I was on the Club Level, and the did advertise Carlos May AND Mike Huff signing autographs there on July 31st, so get your club level seats while you can. Other than Hermanson, the only other guy they showed was Pods sitting in a suite. I guess that is a gimmick that could double attendance, but it seems more than far fetched. Just remember this conversation when we see how terrible the April game attendance looks next year when this season hits the season ticket sale numbers. Next year is going to be UGLY.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:50 PM) I mixed it up. The slot amount would be around $4 million. I meant that you could go under there. My bad. Points well taken. I just don't think the comp pick is the worst thing in the world if they don't get offered something more valuable. it's not the worst thing in the world...but you guys can't tell me this team has a shot at competing in the next 2 seasons and then take a comp pick for Samardzija. It just totally does not match up.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:38 PM) If you were expecting that un Sunday, you would have been SOL. They still had a bunch of them in the park, including during the broadcast. They probably also sold "3 game" ticket groupings for those events.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:38 PM) You won't find me arguing much to defend Garcia -- I'm just saying he's a better bet to be productive than Flowers is. He's also a better bet to be much worse than Flowers.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:31 PM) There was over 30k there on Sunday. What was the gimmick? Tickets were bought months in advance. There isn't going to be announced crowds of 14,000 every night except for the Cubs and Yankees like some suggest. Hell I'd have gone for that.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:18 PM) I think Johnson could be a similar player to Scott Podsednik in LF, his speed gives him range to make up for bad reads. The more experience he receives in the OF the better he will get at making jumps and fielding fly balls and he can be at least an average defender in the OF. With Sanchez entrenched at 2B, Johnson's only real path to the majors is LF unless the Sox want to dangle him as a trade chip. Move Alexei. Sanchez takes over SS for the year. Possibly shares it with Saladino. Micah takes over 2b. Sanchez moves into either SS or Utility Player role depending on whether you think it's worth it to spend a bit of money on the SS position in the offseason. Johnson works in as your 2b, Saladino and Sanchez see what they can do in a season along with maybe a stopgap, and then whoever is the weaker of the 2 gets out of Tim Anderson's way in 2017 and we see if we can actually produce a decent top of the order/middle infield pair. And then maybe you also find a 3b candidate in a trade this year on top of that.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) You are underrating the flexibility part of the situation though. Let's pretend that the Sox pick #6 overall. That pick would require a bonus of close to $3 million. Their comp pick would require a bonus of say $1.8 million. They would also have just over $1 million for their 2nd rounder. That's tons of flexibility. They could conceivably take a college hitter at #6 and pay him $4 million. That gives you room to draft talented players that fall in later rounds. It would also conceivable allow you take 3 top 50 players if you chose that route. To me though...all of those are setting up long-term except for the "taking a hypothetical college hitter at #6 and overpaying him" (which of course only works if there is a worthy college hitter at #6 who somehow falls). A comp pick isn't worth nothing, but taking the comp pick is 100% a "long term move". Even in the case of trading a guy like Gage said...how much would Adams bring in a trade right now? He's not chopped liver, but he's so far from the big leagues that he's not going to bring back much on his own, and he's about as good of a look as you can get from guys outside the first round. Oh, and we'd also be paying an extra $4 million to keep Samardzija around this season...and denying Johnson a chance to work in the big leagues for 2 months like he should get, on top of all the other things. It's just a pretty rotten call to make.