Balta1701

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:45 PM) Well if you want to see an opinion that is as negative as possible about the team here it is. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 08:58 AM) We're a 79-83 win team right now. Not 87-88 or even 90+. That's the main point. It's easy to play the Devil's Advocate part and talk about the negatives. Obviously, there are an equal or greater number of positives, and I've pointed them out in both the Robertson and Samardzija threads as well. QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:06 AM) Couldn't agree more .... Incredible amount of holes to fill .... Not there yet. Robertson signing was just plain stupid. Just for reference, I actually see a couple potentially major issues Caulfield left out (that's right, Caulfield's list was not long enough). But I will add a different set of edits. I think this is still a sub .500 team if we see the normal mix of "things going wrong and things going right". A big difference from last year though is that "if everything goes right, we actually have a shot to be really good". You can tell I'm not confident about everything going right and I think my biggest reason for thinking that has been made pretty clear, but I thought that was an important point to add to Caulfield's list.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 08:45 AM) Again, his OBP is .300. He is not a viable option to lead off. He is also not a good enough outfielder to replace Eaton in CF, in the event of an injury to Eaton. QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:10 AM) umm i never said replacing Eaton in CF. i said replace him leading off. if one is looking for a player to meet the advance stats, all the time, nothing will be accomplish. QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 08:45 AM) Again, his OBP is .300. He is not a viable option to lead off. On base percentage is not an advanced stat.

QUOTE (glangon @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 06:39 PM) 23 blown saves we had last year. Robertson saved 39 out of 44 chances last year, Take that he blows 5 of the 23 we blew. Simplistically, we'd have won 18 more games with Robertson as closer. That would have taken us 91 wins. That is worth the $11.5 million a year we are paying him. No team in baseball only had 5 blown saves last year. The team with the fewest, the Padres, had 8. The Royals, who rode their bullpen to the playoffs, had 12. The Yankees, who employed Robertson, had 21 blown saves. The White Sox also had 21, although in fewer chances. That's just not how bullpens work.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 06:05 PM) His command has improved with more time as a starter and he has plus stuff and a good makeup. I think the best of the Shark is still to come. This is the one real key in last year's stats, his walk rate went way down. He sacrificed a fraction of a K's per inning to make it happen, which seems reasonable, but the reason why he's on a trend of improving last year is that his BB/9 was 1/2 of what it was in 2013. He also has trended towards more ground balls every year of his career, which seems like a worthy improvement as well. That does look like an improvement he has a decent chance of keeping up. Nothing of his numbers otherwise last year scream flukey in any obvious way.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 06:05 PM) We should expect Samardzija's current trend to continue and he should be a good pitcher for the next 5 years or so. Anything more than a 5 year contract would get hairy (no pun intended...because Samardzija is hairy). He's been a very good pitcher the last 4 years and there's no reason for that to suddenly stop barring injury, which can happen at any time. Ok, come on, the last 4 years, counting 2011 when he only pitched half a season? I'm trying not to be too dour, but come on man.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 05:29 PM) I think he was on his way to the stadium. it was on a street literally right next to it, off of the highway that loops past the stadium. I'm assuming early morning, pre practice, rush hour traffic?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 05:08 PM) So Cam is out late, flips his car, doesn't want to go to the hospital, and had injuries. And that's not weird or fishy at all Um, it seems like this happened in broad daylight and his car was hit by another?

Literally the most interesting reaction to this report I saw was the ACLU's reaction - that the President should issue a blanket pardon for the criminals in the CIA and the last administration. Their logic was that the country had decided not to prosecute clear lawbreaking, this should be a complete outrage but it isn't, and the only way that "not prosecuting them" could be squared with the US Constitution is for them to receive a pardon. In that case, at least legal procedures would have been followed and no new standard would be treated as set by our decision to ignore these crimes and let the criminals in the CIA and in the last administration off the hook. In the more likely case of nothing happening, well, we all can feel proud that we allowed people to be sodomized in our name for freedom and expect more of the same.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 04:12 PM) Also highly doubt they'd put in Beck as a long reliever. I actually wouldn't be too terribly surprised by that if there's a bullpen opening. I don't think they'll leave him hanging in AAA if there's some room for a righty in the pen.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 02:29 PM) He needs innings but only a limited number based on his previous workloads. I understand the logic behind the moves and there are positives. Personally, I would start him in the minors on an innings limit early in the season and then bring him up about half way. I'd be totally ok with that, but that's not how I hear those statements. I hear them as "like Sale did in 2011" meaning "full season wasted in the bullpen throwing 60 innings like Sale did in 2011".

Sigh.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 01:57 PM) So is there any chance we could still trade for this guy? It sounds like they no longer have that much room to add salary, but I guess anything could be possible - they could maybe do it if the Rockies took on both Danks and Viciedo to make the numbers close this season and sent along some money to cut the impact the next couple, but why would the Rockies want to do that?

QUOTE (scs787 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 02:14 PM) Micah has been talked about as a possible top 100 prospect. They might give him some more time in AAA but at some point he is no doubt the second baseman of the future. Without Semien on this roster we really do have a need for Sanchez on the bench, unless we want Leury on the big league roster again.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 02:12 PM) Seriously though, it seems that everything has pointed at the Sox organization being in love with Micah for a while now, I think he's your starting 2b. I think it's completely at odds with the kind of "win now moves" we just made, but it definitely fits the White Sox's classic mold.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 11:08 AM) Kind of why I am thinking Melky is out of the cards now. Either Rasmus or someone via trade like Ethier/Crawford/Victorino/Joyce are more likely at this point. I'd say that signing another QO free agent seems to make even more sense now. We've already given up the 2nd round pick, why should we hesitate on giving up a 3rd round pick? The issue sounds like they're running out of funds available to spend on those free agents, not that they're worried about giving up the pick.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) Do you really want to risk 20mill a year on the hope it was just a "loaded" of? The counterpoint is do I want to risk the White Sox's season on Viciedo being a vastly improved, tolerable OF to save that money?

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:59 AM) So the Sox just get skipped over in the 2nd rd? And the Yankees receive a compensatory pick between the 1st and 2nd round. The White Sox also lose a portion of their draft signing bonus pool commensurate with the value of the 2nd round pick and I think it hurts their international pool a bit as well. If we sign someone else, we lose the 3rd round pick and that signing team would get a comp pick after the first round as well.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 11:02 AM) Does Crawford ever stay healthy? How much of him only playing 100 games last year was injury and how much was the Dodgers being overloaded with OFs?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 11:01 AM) I'd rather keep Danks if that's the kind of money on the line here... It does kinda make sense I guess, maybe you get the Dodgers to chip in a portion of the difference in the first 2 seasons in exchange for the White Sox taking on the extra year?

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:58 AM) Crawford is someone that I think the White Sox have always liked and could be a good fit in LF. If the money works out, then yes please. Danks has 2/$29 remaining, Crawford has 3/$62.25. Ouch.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) Lots of days off, skip him a couple times. 2012 convinced me this isn't the best thing to do for a team in contention. Taxes the rest of your rotation and your bullpen, makes everyone else seem weaker, and maybe worst of all it winds up with the whole rotation burning out in September. Maybe we're strong enough to do it now since we have a deeper rotation, but ask yourself this - if Rodon is one of the 5 best starters, do you want him pitching in September or do you want him taking lots of games off in September and October?

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) I'm amazed in this day and age the 3rd player hasn't been leaked yet. Sox and A's front offices are sealed tight. The bolded pretty well disagrees with everything else we've seen for the last 2 weeks. I'm half stunned this deal happened because we heard so much about it in advance.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:50 AM) Well, depending on who that other free agent is, that team could get the #2 and the Yankees bumped down to #3. Isn't the new rule that the signing team starts losing picks in either the first or 2nd round depending on their record but the team that lost a player always gets a sandwich pick in-between the first and 2nd round?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:50 AM) Right. If it's a PTBNL, then no, it won't be someone on the 40-man. I recall that there are stipulations that sometimes require you withhold the identity of prospects until after a certain date too. When the Sox traded Garcia to Philadelphia, we all knew it was Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez, but Gio couldn't be announced for some time. I recall the press conference announcing the trade was rather humorous because they kept trying to get Williams to talk about Gio and he would start doing so and would catch himself and there was a quote, something to the extent of "you guys are trying to get me in trouble, aren't you?" Anyways, yeah, I was thinking it'd be someone on the 40-man. If it's not, then yes, the 40-man is full. IIRC Gio was an actual PTBNL. This is more vague but I think Gio may have been on the 40 man to protect him from the rule 5 draft that year - he was a high school draftee in AA at the time right? So he'd have been in the system for several years? And so the Phillies couldn't take him until they cleared a 40 man spot if that memory is accurate.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 10:45 AM) I am assuming it isn't. Why would the 2 teams do that unless it was a guy who needed a 40 man spot? Waiting until late May to complete the deal & seeing how guys do early in the year?