Balta1701

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 12:50 PM) I'm game for Zaleski, but I also wouldn't mind Bassit comin up from AA...Give em a day to be with Coop and kinda give the org a better idea where they should start him next year. If he does well I'd start him in AAA, if not, give him some time in AA. Bassit just got roughed up in his last outing.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 11:06 AM) I agree, but you can definitely see the talent when they are playing. We have pieces in the lineup that can do damage, just have to surround them with a little more. (Eaton, Abreu, Avi, Alexei, Sanchez) And we also have to work harder to keep them on the field. 3 of the guys you note have hit the DL this year, 2 of them for substantial times (and one was in the minors most of the year).

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 10:53 AM) Yeah, lol, but what you're really saying is "we haven't got much of a look at Avisail Garcia." The one thing that prevents me from completely calling this a successful season is the rash of injuries. It's prevented development for some guys and shown for others that it could be a long-term risk big enough to keep this core from ever being competitive.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 10:02 AM) If we are going to take back Upton, I think we would want to hold out for Heyward rather than Gattis. Gattis is not a very good defender and he will likely soon be stuck in a 1B/DH role and the Sox. Heyward would give the Sox three legit ML OF's and another much needed LH bat in the lineup. If we're after Heyward, it's crazy to trade for him. Free agent after next season, seems extremely unlikely to sign a long term extension before that since no one seems to know what to make of him.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 09:46 AM) The average is inflated, as it is overall, with a .367 BABIP. It’s not a huge surprise that he’s been a factor in the average department though he was just a .286 hitter in the minor leagues. One thing pointed out several times with Conor is that his line drive rate this season has been exceptionally high and that's the kind of hitter that profiles as maintaining a high BABIP. If he's able to sustain that type of line drive rate then the other numbers could be sustainable as well.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 09:42 AM) Considering he has appeared in 95 on August 26th, I find your comment ridiculous. A bit of thought and you'd get the point. How can you possibly say the White Sox know what they have in Adam Eaton going forward? If you go based on this season you'd have no confidence in his ability to stay healthy and be a major lineup contributor on a contending team. You'd need to expect to have a 2nd starting CF on your roster to handle ~50 games a year. If you based it solely off this season you'd say Adam Eaton can't be a regular contributor on a contending team because he gets hurt too often. Do you have reason to think that will change in the future?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 09:25 AM) I don't see where knowing who needs to go makes a season successful. People get fired because they aren't successful. Other than the obvious, Sale, Q, Rodon, Abreu, who with his contract, they had to know was going to be around for a while, and Alexei, Eaton, there still, IMO, are questions everywhere. Garcia looks like a keeper, but it has pretty much been a lost season for him. No one knows how the Sox minor leaguers will be as major leaguers. If your job was on the line, would you commit to Hector Noesi and Zach Putnam going forward? Even Gillaspie. He's had a nice year. Has definitely earned his position, but moving forward, is anyone really sure what he is? There has been a lot of brilliance, but also some things that make you think if he hit's .240 next year with little power and a mediocre glove, it wouldn't be surprising. I guess what I am getting at is IMO the only Sox player who has gotten over the hump that they really didn't know what they reasonably could expect from him moving forward, besides Abreu, is Eaton. And they now know they shouldn't expect him to play more than 100 games a season from here on out?

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 04:33 AM) I agree to a certain extend. Hahn should have never have all his egg in 1 basket to start the season. esp with Paulino and Veal. while other teams pick serviceable pitchers in the offseason. however with his shortsightedness, he did turn this team farm systems around and has made many good deals. I am for a nice turn around and predict playoff next yr. And yet, when some of those guys blew up, we had spaces opened for Noesi and Putnam to actually have successful enough seasons that they can reasonably be looked at as cheap roster options for next year.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 09:20 PM) Sammy Sosa standing on first base?He took the only walk in that game. IIRC Mark then picked him off.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 07:55 PM) Uribe was never anything close to a good hitter. It didn't matter in 2005. You put Beckham in the 2005 lineup, his inability to hit would not be a problem. Uribe and Beckham are apples and oranges. He was a really good and even spectacular for a stretch hitter in 2004.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 06:33 PM) Speaking of Heyward, that's a guy who could fit the mold of this team young team Hahn is assembling. Lefty bat, can play RF and would force Avi to LF where he's possibly destined to play anyway. Could work an extension out that would cover Heyward's prime years. As for Gattis, no thanks. He's a free agent after next year and if OF remains a need then he'd be a reasonable but likely extremely expensive target because you'd still be paying for potential to some degree. Espeically if he has a career year next year.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 05:35 PM) Sounds like they were close to a deal with the Cubs swapping Upton for Edwin Jackson. I assume the Cubs planned to then move Upton to their starting rotation?

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 03:58 PM) I think we would be comparing Shields vs. Carroll here, not Noesi. Not if we want a rotation spot for Carlos Rodon early next year. If Rodon is in the minors for all of 2015 fine, but if Noesi was just doing what he was doing right now for the Sox next year, replacing him with a rookie would be something of a "white flag" move, a step backwards mid-season.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 05:24 PM) Thats interesting. The last I had heard they were planning on moving him to LF, playing Heyward in CF and dumping BJ Upton. You figure out where to come up with the money Upton has remaining.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 03:16 PM) I think IF we bring in an SP, it will be more of a Cooper special, than a top flight guy. A guy like Masterson wouldn't shock me coming off of his bad year. This would make sense to me if they think there's a rotation slot for him out of spring training. If they're intent on bringing Rodon north with them, then they better be willing to put him in the bullpen if he struggles in the Spring or early in the season. Or they could get rid of Danks beforehand, etc. The situation you don't want to create is the one where Masterson is terrible in the spring, Rodon is great, Noesi is great, and you're dumping one of them or sending them down when that wasn't your plan because Masterson's contract gets him a rotation spot locked up.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 03:09 PM) See, I don't necessarily think you need to sign players based just off of precisely when you're ready to compete. I think you need to be signing players you really like as they become available that fit within your competition window. If someone becomes available through free agency or via trade that you really think fits into what you are trying to build, then you've got to strike, even if you're still a year or two away. I'm ok with that, but now you've made this a hypothetical player which could be anyone. Attach a name and I'll be more willing to reply. James Shields was the name I noted who has come up several times. Next year he's not a strong upgrade over Noesi and he turns 33 this December. He's the definition of a "win now" player and it's just crazy to sign him if you aren't sure you have a fully stocked roster that season. Are you willing to say that James Shields at age 34 is going to be the last piece? I'll give a counterexample myself. If the White Sox decided that they wanted an almost full time LH hitting DH, Pablo Sandoval hits free agency this year and he just turned 28. If you locked him up for 5 years, then even if the team wasn't competitive this year, you'd still have his rights the next few years and there's no reason to predict him falling apart at age 29. But, that throws out all the other issues. Do we know for sure we'll need a DH? Do we want to commit money to that position and risk having a bigger need crop up in the next season? Are there other options available the next offseason we could target if we saved that money instead? And so on.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 02:32 PM) Balta, I'm convinced you want a $60M payroll next year. Even if we aren't major players in free agency, there is nothing preventing Hahn from acquiring an overpaid, but productive player that costs minimal minor/major league talent. In fact, I'm pretty sure Rick recently hinted at doing just that. I've said this many times, but financial flexibility is worthless if you're afraid to leverage it. I understand you'd like to use your resources on guys like Abreu that offer some potential surplus value, but those guys come few and far between. Sometimes you simply need to add production and pay accordingly. I'll take 3 WAR from James Shields for $20M rather than 1 WAR of Hector Noesi for $2.5M. You may be losing out from a surplus value standpoint, but you've added a decent amount of production to your rotation. And I get you're effectively paying $17.5M for two incremental WAR, but you only have 25 rosters spots to work with. Limiting yourself to a 1 WAR player in one those of spots simply because he's underpaid is quite foolish IMO. If Hahn thinks we're close to being competitive, then he'll use his financial resources to upgrade the roster regardless of potential surplus value. Real simple statement in reply. The only time I want this team spending money in the free agent market is the offseason I think they're ready to compete. If you don't have that, then you're spending money just to spend money. I don't see that yet. Too many holes to fill, too many kids to insert. With the limited number of options on the FA market, you just can't fill out a roster mostly in that way. Free Agency has to fill the last pieces, not be the foundation. Do you think that signing James Shields and replacing Noesi with him makes this team competitive next year if it is teamed with $10 million worth of guys for the bullpen? That's a $30 million+ payroll boost and it still leaves a lineup loaded with kids, holes in the OF, relying on guys like Danks and Rodon in the rotation, and a bullpen that might still be average at best. Given one more year, we might have Rodon ready to go 200 innings, we'll be down to the wire on Danks's contract making him more easily replaced, we might well have filled some of those bullpen holes internally, and we'll hopefully have a better idea of whether guys like Sanchez, Micah, Marcus can hang in the bigs.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) They are going to bring in some combination of power and LH hitter(s). Given the (lack of) available options and costs, I still wish we'd see if Wilkins could fill that role, at least as part of a platoon.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 01:23 PM) I wouldn't be surprised to see over the course of the next two years: Gillaspie moves to LF Semien becomes the 3B M. Johnson becomes the 2B Sanchez becomes the UTIL INF Davidson continues to struggle. If Davidson could hit lefties (he's actually hits them worse than righties the last two years), I could see a platoon of him and Wilkins at DH, allowing the Sox to have more roster flexibility as Wilkins can play 1B and Davidson 3B to give Abreu/Semien a rest. The sheer number of moves there makes me think it won't happen. A single one of those breaks down and the whole setup breaks down. Let's start with next year first. I have thought the Wilkins/Davidson combo you outline makes some sense, but you can't give Davidson a big league role after last season and the Sox have shown no evidence that they're going to give Wilkins a shot no matter what he does.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 12:04 PM) Also, I'm interested to see if this creates any marketing strategies in US from BK competitors. With so few company owned stores, I'm also wondering how much more difficult it will be for them to get any new food item/campaigns out. Isn't that the case anyway?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 11:31 AM) The Sox need to send Leury to winter ball to work on the offense. If he could just be mediocre, he's a nice guy to have on the bench. I think he ought to spend the entire year next year at AAA (and I could be convinced if someone made a case for AA out of spring training) playing every day. If developing him was the long-term goal then he should have been at AA as the starting SS every day this year until now. We have higher ranked players and other priorities so its clear they didn't care if they screwed him up, but having him in the bigs did slightly reduce our chances of having a long-term, solid-defense/tolerable bat option out of him.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 11:30 AM) Wouldn't you lose a ton of tax revenue doing that? Read the phrase "increasing the personal tax rate to make up for it". It would be a genuine simplification of the tax code that would put a lot of financial wizards who do nothing but poke holes in the corporate tax code out of business. Of course, since Congress won't do that it's just imaginary, but when you look at the amount of money being blown for no good reason on these accounting tricks to avoid the corporate tax, it starts becoming a decent case.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 11:22 AM) Should be interesting next year. Have to imagine that we will have a new LF along with Eaton/Garcia. Sierra looks like he probably has done enough to warrant a bench spot, but he doesn't play CF. So Danks probably has a line on another outfield bench spot. But the thoughts of a bench next year of Sierra/Danks/Leury Garcia/Nieto (??) and another INF looks pretty uninspiring. At the very least it seems like Semien would have a decent shot at an IF/utility position next year if they wanted to go that way, and depending on what they do at other positions there could be some at bats available at DH for him as well. Leury should clearly not get a chance to be the UT guy again until he does more in the minors to improve with the bat.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 11:00 AM) If that's the case why are all of these companies moving their headquarters? Taxes can be avoided to a point, but the US still has the highest combined corporate tax rate in the world. It's sad that Canada offers them THAT much incentive. I'm seeing several gradually more convincing perspectives from the left after this arguing that we'd actually be better off cutting the corporate tax rate substantially and raising the personal income tax rate to make up for it since so much money is spent every year on finding and creating loopholes in the corporate tax rate that it impacts the economy and the ability of the government to operate.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 10:49 AM) I don't think lobbyists care much about morals. Ask Jack Abramoff. There are plenty of areas where native americans own land that would be ideal for mineral and hydrocarbon extraction. You don't want them realizing your company sponsors a team name that they wouldn't want to be called.