Balta1701

Jordy Mercer is out 6 weeks with a leg contusion and knee sprain. Pirates are already without Josh Harrison so that's the whole left side of their infield now out. They have Kang who can fill 1 of those spots but they genuinely need another player over there ASAP. Called up some dude named "Brent Morel" and I think we all know how well that goes.

If we could get Alexei out of the way (and save $4-5 million in the process) I'm totally game for seeing if Saladino can give us a solid 2 months at that spot. If another team is going to get the benefit of his numbers snapping back to normal, I'm ok with that (and the Pirates right now could really use an IF unless Mercer is less hurt than it looked like).

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 03:57 PM) Saladino will be around next year, too. I don't see any harm in giving Alexei a chance to bounce back/rebuild some value. As it is, a trade at this point would probably be a salary dump anyway. If he's this bad next year, he can be DFA'd or dumped for Saladino. Like I said in the article, it's certainly possible there's something the numbers are totally missing, but from what I c an tell, betting on a bounceback here makes a ton of sense. Might not happen, but it looks more likely than most of the other lottery tickets we see. With Alexei having a $1 million buyout/$10 million option next year, there's very little reason to "give him a chance to bounce back". You do that with guys who are under contract, not guys where you're picking their options up.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 03:02 PM) I think there will be some teams interested in LaRoche. IMO, his problems this year are tied to facing too much LHP (should really be platooned), DHing rather than playing 1B (some guys can't handle the adjustment), & to a lesser extent inconsistent playing time by being forced to the bench when we play in NL parks. I think there's a useful player still there, and other GMs would probably be willing to give up a halfway decent prospect for him if he came with some financial relief. You definitely won't get anything of value if you force a team to take on his full salary. Regardless, LaRoche is a guy we should definitely try to move. Would much rather rotate the DH spot between Avi & Melky next year and open up RF for a significant upgrade defensively than go with a pure DH. One problem I'm now noticing...who would play 1b? Abreu looks like he's about to fall apart right now and that's after 5 days off. I don't exactly care about losing more games, but seriously who plays 1b for the next few games/if Abreu goes on the DL and LaRoche is shipped out?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 02:31 PM) Why wouldn't putting too much innings on pitchers coming back from major injuries be a bad thing? 2 months in the bullpen shouldn't be that heavy of a workload anyway and if a guy's going to get hurt during August and September pitching "innings for a team out of the playoff race" then I wouldn't have confidence in that guy being healthy or usable next year either. Look at Crain right now - he keeps having setbacks. May as well give him another shot in the org next year if he wants it, but would you count on him as a key piece in your big league pen as assembled in the offseason? Of course not. If you want to know if Jones can handle the load next year he's got to pitch.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 02:20 PM) Seems like we'd need Carroll up if we have both EJ and Danks. I doubt either could consistently go 7ip Frankly, with the guys coming back from injury "too many innings on the bullpen" isn't a bad thing either. Get Putnam traded to somewhere that he can be useful and give Jones and company a workout.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) So, EJ on the big club after the Shark trade, no? I want a two-month, at least, evaluation of EJ for a spot in next year's rotation, and truly DO NOT want to rely on ST 2016 for that determination. As the person who kept loudly saying we needed to be patient with EJ in June...absolutely.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 01:58 PM) Beware the jinx of the Nationals.... Dunn, LaRoche, now we want Desmond? Suppose it would be better than Stephen Drew, Asdrubal, etc., so there's that. Might as well trade Quintana for Strasburg and pray real hard. Basically our options for next year are Saladino, one of those guys, or trading legit talent away for a legit shortstop. And that's just one of multiple positions where we have major issues. Ponder that for a minute and you'll start understanding why I'm down on this team's chances for the near future.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 01:49 PM) Q will get you more, unfortunately However, Jose Q does not have an obvious flashing red flag about his performance in future years like Samardzija's K-rate.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 12:51 PM) Great article, nice first blog post, Mike. While I totally disagree with the conclusion, I also offer compliments on the article and post. Well done.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 08:21 AM) Of course, the White Sox will keep Danks until next August...just the other day, there was yet ather article about swapping the two, Jackson for Danks. Guess that's off the table. As soon as we're in a playoff race and we desperately need to replace that roster spot with a reliever, you can tell us how it's time to DFA him.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 12:28 PM) I always suspected his odd motion where he very quickly brings his arm up and then leaves it there made him less deceptive. For a guy who throws 100 with good movement, I always thought guys got surprisingly good swings on it. And yet his numbers were always pretty darn solid for a guy who has less than overwhelming offspeed stuff.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 12:24 PM) I'd be curious to see who are free agent infielders / shortstops for next year. Maybe the Sox can get one on a short term deal. They need to get rid of Ramirez in my opinion. He is the poster boy for "baseball-stupid" that has been plaguing this team for the past few years. Mark Alexei Ramirez is as good as any other FA option, which should tell you a lot. Hell, I'm not sure I'd be all that mad about picking him up for $5 million as a 1-year stopgap. Alexei, Cabrera, Stephen Drew, JRoll, and a couple of utility guys.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 07:25 PM) does that mean get a new ceo, forcing jr to step down?? Can't hurt.

How about we just clean house entirely? You know, just to be certain.

Well Tyler is just rolling right now.

I still don't believe Duffy had anything close to "shutout" stuff today.

LOL tyler

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 04:30 PM) Still don't see why they didn't option him to Charlotte... Not that they need him or anything like that, but you never know. They have the space on the 40 man. Pretty sure he's out of options? That's why SF traded him in the first place.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 04:26 PM) Am I wrong in assuming that we could've gotten Iglesias from Boston instead of doing a 3-way with Detroit to get Avi? The original deal was Peavy to Boston for Iglesias and the other 3 young guys, then we flipped Iglesias for Avi. It works out as a 3 way deal but we had Iglesias if we wanted him and instead flipped him for Avi.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 04:23 PM) I see a problem sending the big 2 110-120 game after game after game. There's no reason to do it every time. I'm not a pitch limit guy. But in this hot afternoon games, you can give them a break. And the back of the pen isn't that bad and they could use more work. As for Rodon ->100 pitches 7 of the last 10 starts, at least 90 in 9/10 and the one time it was only 69 he gave up 7 ER. I still don't know why they are wasting a year of service time on him, when he doesn't have his command. And I'm also biased because I never saw this team as a playoff team and want to preserve assets until it is. Rodon's been good enough that I have to admit they were right to call him up & have him work against big league hitters. He still has work to do but having to deal with major leaguers is an important step. It also doesn't really cost a year of "service time" since they weren't going to keep him in the minors until May 2016, they kept him down long enough this year to gain an extra year before he hits FA.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 04:16 PM) I disagree. Seems like Sale and Shark usually go 110-120 give or take, Quintana a shade less, Rodon they baby, and Danks well, let's just hope he can go 6. I don't see the problem letting the big 2 go over 100. Nothing wrong that glaringly jumps out at me. But that's me. I guess you're 100 pitch limit guy, which is fine, but I think we have horses that can easily handle a bit over 100. I have no problem with Sale going 110+ if he's up for it. But....if you're making him sit out the AS game because he's worn out, you're giving him extra time off because he's worn out, he hasn't been 100% sharp today, and he's starting the 7th inning close to 100 pitches...at least have someone up in the pen to start the inning in case he does get in trouble. It wouldn't change the 4-0 lead, fine, but if he's as fatigued as the "give him extra rest" indicates...then act like it. He hit a wall and Albers wasn't even up until the 3rd consecutive hit (the 2nd left the park).

QUOTE (harkness @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 04:04 PM) another finally managed game by Ventura... At least Robertson should be ready to pitch the 9th, he probably needs the work.

Hanging him out to dry and hoping for the DP.

And of course...Sale at nearly 100 pitches to start the inning, and Albers now only just getting up. Good, proactive managing guys. It's not like you just asked for this pitcher to not pitch in the AS game and held him out a couple extra days for rest because you were thinking he was getting tired. If anything like that happened and you just assumed he was easily ready for 115 pitches of dominance you'd get laughed at.