Balta1701

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Sep 13, 2016 -> 11:04 AM) I do agree with you that they have really no rush/incentive to move Votto but the last years of that contract will be ugly. Votto will 37-40 being paid $25 mill and probably a shell of himself for a team that would probably barely start to be competitive. Sox want to maximize their window now, even if they get 3-4 good years out of Votto (which is the exact window for Sale,Q,Abreu) then the trade is a win for both. If Cincy looks at the state of their team (the worst pitching staff this year in MLB) and the Sox dangle Fulmer+ to Cincy I don't see why they might not bite. Like you said, Cincy FO is prone to do some pretty weird things so maybe Hahn can make them bite. Fulmer+ a couple other solid pieces with virtually no money coming back to Chicago is the kind of return that might make them interested. They'd be getting a good return out of moving him and would not be picking up money on their side. Less than that and there's no good reason for them to make that deal. The last years will be ugly in total value yes, but stop and ask this - what will $25 million look like in 5 years with continued revenue growth? The average salary has gone up 25% in the last 5 years, and that's with the fraction of revenue going to the owners still going up. A $15 million contract for a guy at the end of his career today hurts your franchise some, but it's not murder any more. With revenue growth, a $25 million deal then will probably look like a $15 million deal today. They can deal with that if they have to - so if your org wants him, you're going to have to give the Reds a good reason to give him up.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 13, 2016 -> 11:00 AM) When you see a story like Charleston Southern on one day, and then this the next, yeah, it is pretty easy to question the motives of the NCAA> Great. So let's criticize them when they do the wrong thing and give them credit when they do the right thing, not ignore them when they do the wrong thing and then question their motives when they do the right thing.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 13, 2016 -> 10:42 AM) 0.0% chance companies like State Farm or Coke or whatever are going to pull ads for the NCAA tournament because the NCAA hosts one regional final or semi final or whatever somewhere in North Carolina where two of the top teams in the sport play. Zero chance. I agree that it was an easy decision to make because they can find another site to host the tournaments. This is the NCAA riding the PR train, that's all. So, standing up to bigotry = riding the PR train. Good. I wish more people would ride that train.

I'm generally unimpressed by the way Cinci runs their organization so they could do unexpectedly poor things, but I don't look at their roster and see them desperate to move Votto. They've moved everyone else from their roster already who is expensive and not Homer Bailey. They're at well under $100 million committed for the foreseeable future every year, and Philips's deal expires after next season. So let's say the Reds moved Votto, what would they be able to spend FA money on that is more valuable than him? They could go out and spend $25 million on a Cespedes, but Votto has outproduced him each of the last 2 years both in total offense and in fWAR terms. Plus, assuming no big changes from the CBA, in signing someone for that money they'd have to give up a draft pick themselves. On the other hand, as they've pretty much moved all their veterans, Votto is the one constant organizational presence and even I'll say that when you're rebuilding it can be useful to have a guy or two who have been there forever, just to help the newbies get more comfortable. Bonus points if he's putting up a .950+ OPS every year. So yes he's highly paid and under contract for longer than you'd want, but I don't see major pressure on the Reds to dump him. They're in fine shape payrollwise, and they're not going to get better production by spending the money on him elsewhere. So if you want Votto, you're going to have to put up a good offer - talent and taking on the money, to make it worth it to them. I could certainly see them trying to move Bailey next season if he's recovered enough to get off to a good start in the first half after TJS, that would remove some risk and probably bring back a good return. Move him, and their payroll is under $80 million.

Tangentially related and found this interesting in my weekend paper - the State of Texas appears to have decided to enforce an upper limit to the fraction of students in public schools that they are willing to consider special needs. Once a school goes past 8.5% of their students qualifying as special needs, officials get on them to reduce the numbers in order to keep the costs down. Enforcement has Texas with the lowest fraction of students in special needs and a number of stories of people trying to get their children into that program but with little response from the state. Anyway, sorry for the hijack, just found that a worth sharing article.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 13, 2016 -> 10:09 AM) No, you can't trust his defense. And really, you can't trust his offense, but there is always the possiblility he becomes a middle of the line up bat. It's against the odds, but if he did, there would be no sympathy for the White Sox for letting him walk. The thing with Avi is you watch him, you see him hit the ball hard, you see him come up big in the clutch, you see him run hard and fast to 1B just about every time. You see his huge boday. You hear the sound of the ball off his bat. You think the Sox really have something. Then you look at his barely .700, usually a little below OPS, and think, nevermind. He probably has a better shot at being someone who can hit after the start he has had than most, but I think they will let him go unless he goes Jose Abreu the next couple of weeks. One thing you explained well the last time the White Sox had a guy like this was the arbitration/non-guaranteed contract setup. Assuming that is not changed in the next CBA, they can offer him arbitration, sign him to a contract for about $4 million, then cut him for what, $50k at the end of spring training if they've replaced him during the offseason?

The announcer in the Seahawks/Dolphins game yelling about how the winning touchdown was coming back because of an incredibly clear pick play that the refs were all over, then immediately changing his tune to "no penalty" when the flag was revealed to be something else was really remarkable.

Hillary being treated for pneumonia per the NYT.

First time I ever joined a Fantasy Football league, and ESPN.com's page has been down the whole day. Great work ESPN, not like anyone checks that on opening day!

QUOTE (Scoots @ Sep 11, 2016 -> 01:49 PM) Yeah but you really don't need more than one "stud" hitter. Look at the 05 team. Konerko was the stud hitter on that team, Jermaine Dye would be next but idk if he is "stud" worthy. Who would be next? Crede? Iguchi? AJ? They weren't stud hitters either when they were in their prime. Thing is, need Abreu to be Konerko-esque in terms of hitting ALL YEAR, not just in August, September. Then you better be planning to also have the best pitching staff in the league, including a top flight rotation and top flight bullpen and strong defense. Because a "top 5" pitching staff wouldn't have put that team in the playoffs, it took a top 1 rotation. In an era with higher offense, that team put up a 3.61 ERA. The best ERA in the AL this year is 3.80. There's no rotation in the AL right now dominating like that one did. Put a rotation out there that good and you're fine with an acceptable offense.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 05:22 PM) After scanning the trends, don't see it. Apparently they manually pulled it. You should trust Google News for these things

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 04:10 PM) Entertainment outlets devote a lot to the Bachelor. 9/11 conspiracies don't really trend. It's why people keep focusing on Hillary's emails or why Trump got all that air time. People want to hear about it and speak with ratings, clicks and shares. LOL, one trended on FB today.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 03:57 PM) Boston traded Felix Doubront, Andrew Miller ( who they got for Josh Reddick), Jose Iglesias, Will Middlebrooks, Daniel Nava as well as several veterans as part of a total roster rebuild. It looks like it worked. Nobody is saying you trade the core 6. But you trade from strength and the only strength this team has is young starting pitching. I doubt you are able to trade Sale so he stays. Anderson is too valuable to trade. Abreu stays since his value to Sox may be more than what he returns in a trade. You shop Q, Rodon and even Fulmer to see what the market offers and trade one to fill some holes on the roster. See what Frazier, Melky, Robertson, Jones and Eaton are worth. I think Lawrie and Shields are also not worth trading due to value. Maybe Robertson and Jones are in the same category Trade the core 6. At least trade a lot of it.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 03:31 PM) Agree. I don't think Sale is really trade-able so you choose between Q who probably gets you 3 pieces in return and Rodon who now may get you 2. You still have other pieces to trade like Roberton, Frazier etc that could add additional young players and prospects. Hopefully the demand for pitching will be over-valued this winter and the Sox have at least 2 very tradeable young pitchers. Again, I don't know why you would trade Quintana and Rodon for prospects while holding Sale. That sets you up to rebuild for 1-2 years and then have Sale walk as a free agent right when your team is getting good. If you want to rebuild - you send Sale and Quintana out to look for guys that will help your team in 2-3 years. If you want to win right now, you look at trading Fulmer and perhaps Rodon to get better right now. This is the only case where it would make sense to trade Rodon - you're willing to give up a future ace because you need another ace right now. Trading Rodon and Quintana for prospects makes holding Sale really odd.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 09:50 AM) Valid points. I'm sure Joe Maddon isn't the only good manager on the planet, and I'm not necessarily looking for them to hire a proven track record. Seeing them go through a process where they interview people and choose the best candidate rather than begging someone out of retirement that doesn't even really want to be there would make me think that maybe they've actually found someone who wants the job and can do well at it. I think given a similar poll you'd have 70% expecting the Sox would just switch to Renteria, and another 10% will guess they'll jump Thome or Rowand.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 9, 2016 -> 10:46 PM) Not really . The time to get rid of him was the year before. I know many here wanted it. Hahn was right to not pick up his option, but having traded him for a solid return a couple years earlier would have made the current situation a lot less dire. So, one right, one eh.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 03:02 PM) Nah, we should just keep pretending nothing is wrong. That only allowed NK to obtain and test nuclear materials. No harm there. Yeah, in 2003, while we were busy.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 02:57 PM) 2 months ago I was completely on board with the total rebuild train. However, the emergence of Rodon, better than expected performance of Anderson, and total 180 by Abreu has changed everything. A core that appeared to only consist of 3, has turned into 6 in a matter of months. I mean I always thought Anderson and Rodon would be solid contributors but with the both of them already flashing all star potential at such a young age is something I did not anticipate. And the sad thing...this is exactly how someone in the front office is going to convince everyone to go with the route that they've taken the last two years - pretend that everything will go right and we're only a tiny sliver away. Maybe we'll get lucky and it will turn out to have all been Robin Ventura's fault.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Sep 10, 2016 -> 01:51 PM) Hopefully he keeps it up and his trade value is enough that the Sox can trade him this winter for a couple of prospects and keep Q and Sale. Trading Rodon (Under team control for 5 years) for prospects while holding onto guys under team control for 3 and 4 years seems totally backwards. If you're trading Rodon, you want a top flight guy who makes you better right now, while you still have those other 2 guys.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Sep 7, 2016 -> 08:50 AM) Which team currently earmarked for the postseason would we presumably supplant next year if the Sox made all of the acquisitions you suggest above? Who do we leap frog over, given the starting point is the current roster, and then adding the guys you want? Make it simpler than this; ignore the wild card for a minute. Pretend it doesn't exist in your planning. Is that team, on paper, clearly better than the Indians? They'll have some people like Napoli regress yes, but that roster is still pretty loaded, they'll have money to spend after a playoff run too, they'll be looking at having Brantley back and Miller for the whole season, plus other guys farther along. Does that patched together White Sox team stand out relative to them? If not, then you're in "and if everything goes correctly we can compete for the wild card" territory, and that's not good territory to be in.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 7, 2016 -> 07:00 AM) Where are they going to get the money to add roughly $40 million in payroll for next year? I think $40 million is a good estimate for the max they'd have to play with. They were above $130m this season counting LaRoche, and they're under $100m committed for next year.

So Fulmer's innings total for the season ends at 103, a drop of nearly 50 innings compared to the previous year. I think they wanted him to avoid having any other bad starts so that the team trading for him will still look positively on how he finished.

@MLBBruceLevine Rick Hahn said 2015 first Rd pick RHP Carson Fulmer had thrown enough innings for this season . ( no call up ) @ChiTribKane Rick Hahn says Carson Fulmer made strides last few starts at AAA. Didn't think he'd get enough quality innings with Sox over last month... @scottmerkin Hahn on Burdi: "We wanted him to finish the year on a positive note. We felt his workload was such that it didn’t make a lot of sense .. @scottmerkin More Hahn: ".. to bring him at this time." Hahn stressed Burdi had a great run and will be in big league camp this upcoming ST in Ariz.. @ChiTribKane ...But Rick Hahn says they still see Carson Fulmer as a starter who can help in near future moving forward for White Sox.

@MLBBruceLevine White Sox starter James Shields declared himself healthy and ready to pitch Saturday. Shields had back discomfort and missed a start @scottmerkin Shields' back checked out ok. He is on target to start Saturday. So my weekend guess would be: Rodon, Shields, Sale

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 02:35 PM) and Greta Van Sustern resigned. Yeah, we have no idea what is up with that yet so I didn't include it.