Balta1701

If you think "hey let's create an immigration enforcement gestapo and block anyone from a certain religion from entering this country" is a way of shaking this country up, then who cares what causes you support, you're terrible.

Talks involving the Rangers have supposedly involved Chi Chi Gonzalez and another piece. Gonzalez is a consensus top 100 prospect, #29 in MLB to start last season according to BP, and one of the top guys in a system much stronger than ours, with a big league stint already under his belt. Danish and Engel together does not seem a package that comes near rivaling Gonzalez on his own, let alone Gonzalez and another piece. A top 100 pitching prospect from our org basically means Fulmer would have to be the centerpiece to match Gonzalez alone, assuming of course they're not moving Rodon, which they shouldn't.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 11:54 PM) That penalty on Jones was a joke. Get Porter away from the opposition. Can both teams be eliminated QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 10, 2016 -> 12:00 AM) Jones just needed to stay away and calm down, but I didn't really see a penalty with Porter all over the field with the Bengals. What a f***ing s***show though. And you gotta think Big Ben is done with the way he answered those questions. And he could barely throw 10 yards downfield. The Jones flag came out when there was a crowd of like 7 Bengals around 1-2 of the refs yelling at the refs and someone, I think Jones, pushed the ref. Clearly was a bump or shove or something, enough for the ref to clearly be pushed backwards, and then the flag came out. Doesn't matter how mad you are about a call. You don't touch the zebras. You're wearing a huge amount of protective equipment and you're an athlete, they're guys trying to do their job. He had a point, it's unusual for an assistant coach to be out on the field. But that's not a penalty afaik, and you don't respond to that by pushing a ref.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 12:19 PM) Lol @ Trump. He's in for a real shocker come primary day. God I hope so. Because he has absolutely been the ugliest, most disgusting thing we've seen in American Politics in my lifetime. At this point I'm just hoping this country still has a soul, because the last few months has been an argument that we don't.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 01:34 AM) Here are his positions on issues. How can you not want him to give it a shot? Again ... can it be any worse? http://www.ontheissues.org/Donald_Trump.htm Muslim woman comes to a Trump rally wearing shirt saying "I come in peace". Does not make a disruption, does not start yelling, just had the audacity to stand up while wearing a Hijab. Crowd realizes she's a muslim, turns on her, purportedly starts shouting epithets at her. Gets escorted out by security. Trump's comments without irony. Yes, the kind of hatred you're supporting can be worse. It is worse.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 03:37 PM) So to become a better hitter he became less patient and stopped trying to go the other way. He's becoming more of just a pull hitter. Unfortunately I don't think Avi can do the "less patient" part.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 03:03 PM) 7 fewer total votes, but about 100 less people voting. I'd say it's not an unfair guess that 100 people who were cleared out due to not having covered MLB in >10 years would probably be a group particularly strongly biased against the roiders.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 03:05 PM) I think he was moreso referring to the 4th year. That part seems obvious, they'd give him the 4th year because the White Sox were offering 3 years and they upped their deal to beat that?

Shuck's replacement perhaps? Or Charlotte depth?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 02:22 PM) Maybe. If there was a profit, it was more related to their 40% ownership and share of Comcast profits related to the Cubs' surge in ratings and advertising rates than those extra season ticket sales. Don't forget that compared to 2013 when they took an approximate loss or were close to breaking even on a $120 million payroll to open the year, when they actually moved people to cut payroll, there's an extra $25 million in revenue shared money.

Um, because it was a mutual option that seems like it only will be plausible in a very specific circumstance What are the odds the team thinks he's worth an extra $19 million that season and his side is content with a 1 year, $23 million deal? That probably means it gives each side a tiny bit of leverage to hold onto him and negotiate an extension if he decides to finish a career there and if the Royals can afford his last couple years.

Did not realize this.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 11:36 AM) And that $31.9 million was invested into LaRoche, Cabrera, Robertson, Samardzija's deal, Duke, Bonifacio and Beckham. There's no way they made a profit last year. They couldn't even get legit offers on a lot of sponsorships and moved on instead of giving massive discounts that would be harder to raise price-wise in the future. IMO they probably made a moderate profit. They had enough room to consider adding payroll at the deadline and were not in a position where they were forced to cut payroll (as we saw them saying in 2013). They had a legitimate boost of several thousand season ticket sales last year. That's revenue in addition to the money that was made as profit with the lower payroll in 2013. That plus some advertising sales before the season started and the team fell apart probably kept them in the black all year even with the higher payroll.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 7, 2016 -> 11:53 AM) What a great article. I love those "relating eras" pieces. yeah, that was a real delight while having coffee this morning. Front page. Got to that quote and thought awesome. Glad someone else enjoyed.

Ken Griffey Jr. is “the second-best left-handed hitting, left-handed throwing outfielder ever born in Donora, Pennsylvania on November 21.”

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 07:46 PM) with all due respect, why??? Because if EJ can't be a decent MLB starter and they don't think he can be, then having him or Turner in the rotation the whole year will be a disaster for a team that keeps telling itself it is competitive and having EJ demonstrate to the league that he's not a quality big league starter would leave his trade value comparable to that of Avi Garcia by the end of next season whereas you could probably get someone to gamble something useful on him in a trade right now.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 07:10 PM) For the perhaps 20-25 times more often a season Fowler might get on base, I'll take the 10-15 extra home runs. Apparently I need to repeat this.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 06:09 PM) Let's take care of both and sign Upton then He'd help on this but if you look closely his OBP has a clearly worrisome downward signal. 2011: .369 2012: .355 2013: .354 2014: .342 2015: .336 So yeah, better than Cespedes at getting on base, more power than Fowler, but also gets on base less than Fowler and striking out a lot more. Again, if this team isn't competitive with Fowler, they're not competitive with the big 2 no matter how much bigger their names are. If this team is competitive with the big 2, they're just about as close with Fowler and need a tiny bit of additional work to match the bigger names.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 05:59 PM) I still think at this point I'd take power over OBP. I would have preferred Gordon, but I could not stand how it took 4 singles to get a run last year. The white sox were 14th in the AL in OBP last year and 15th in HR. They needed improvements in both, and they added an improvement in 1 of them so far, with 2 guys who can hit HR but do a weak job of getting on base. They are upgrades in on base over last year because the positions were so bad, but as of right now, this lineup is still near the bottom of the AL in getting on base.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 05:45 PM) I see your point and I like it Balta but I think it completey overlooks lineup impact. WAR fails to acknowledge the fact that the one player makes our lineup scary while the other doesn't. Who the hell wants to pitch to Abreu Cespedes & Frazier? Those guys can change the score with one swing. One bad pitch changes the game. Look at the other key stat though - Cespedes has a career .319 OBP. Fowler has a career .363. How many more runs score because Abreu hits a 2 run double instead of a bases empty double? And then throw in the extra work on the starting pitcher, etc. If this lineup is scary with Cespedes, it's pretty darn good with Fowler. If this lineup isn't competitive with Fowler, it's not scary with Cespedes.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 04:56 PM) I think the White Sox become instant contenders if they add one of the big 2 but if they fail to do that, I just can't see how adding a Fowler or Jackson gets them where they need to be. If Justin Upton, a 3.6 fWAR player last year and 4.0 fWAR the year before that, makes them a competitor, then Dexter Fowler, a 3.2 fWAR player last year and 1.4 fWAR the year before that leaves them still pretty darn competitive. That's not the difference between 88 and 82 wins. If Dexter Fowler doesn't make them competitive, then the big 2 probably doesn't make them competitive either. They'd have a tiny bit of extra work to do in the latter case.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 04:46 PM) Ozuna was a four plus WAR guy just two years ago, is still under control for a long time and can play CF. Like Inciarte, it's going to take more than Adams "plus" to get him. We just don't have enough quality minor league depth remaining to not have to surrender Anderson or Fulmer. If you're all in, it means trading Anderson and having no long-term deal in sight for SS or catcher. The other teams with top 10-20 systems are better positioned for this move. If you assume Anderson is worth 20+ WAR at SS, that's a tough pill to swallow. If you're not sold on him sticking at short, then you deal him for Ozuna, but it's an incredibly tough call to make for Hahn. FWIW:

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 04:50 PM) How much more can the Sox dip into their system at this point, though? That's my biggest concern. If you're not willing to trade Anderson or Fulmer and you hesitate on Adams then either: 1. You land Cespedes 2. You land Upton 3. You land 1-2 of the lesser guys and for some reason are confident that puts you over the top. If the Sox aren't willing to dip into their system at that level, and pay the price it will take for a guy in a trade equivalent to the top guys, they still need to come up with something and they better believe it makes them a division contender. Really no other options. It has to be one of those 3 or trading someone they don't want to trade.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 04:44 PM) I am not sold that Erik Johnson is our 5th starter. Turner or expecting another signing or calling him the 4th starter?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 6, 2016 -> 04:25 PM) The only rumors are the White Sox offered 4/$80 and the Cardinals were roughly in the same ballpark as the Royals but clearly unwilling to go five years. That's certainly not the "only" rumor I've heard. The other rumor I've heard is the White Sox were unwilling to go to 4 years. Here's an example: