rowand's rowdies

I think we double down on pitching and copy the Royals by investing in the bullpen and trade for Giles from PHI. I also think we sign Ian Desmond. Maybe not to play SS, but to play 3B, 2B, or DH. Maybe even on a 1 or 2 year rebuild value deal like 1/18 or 2/34. He could be looking at a 200 million contract next offseason or two if he has a season or seasons anything like his previous ones, and the South Side is a good spot to do that, potentially as a DH against LHP. Focus on offense half his games. Not sure he wants to lock himself into a 4 year deal for 50-70 million from a limited market when he could be looking at hundreds of millions and more choices on where to play.

Here is MLBTR Top 50 Free Agent List Picked to Sign: 22. Howie Kendrick – White Sox. Four years, $50MM. 31. David Freese – White Sox. Three years, $30MM. 37. Asdrubal Cabrera – White Sox. Two years, $18MM. Mentioned as Option: 2. Jason Heyward – Yankees. Ten years, $200MM. 6. Yoenis Cespedes – Angels. Six years, $140MM. 10. Ian Desmond – Mets. Five years, $80MM. 15. Matt Wieters – Nationals. Four years, $64MM. 16. Dexter Fowler – Mets. Four years, $60MM. 17. Daniel Murphy – Angels. Four years, $56MM. 21. Ben Zobrist – Yankees. Three years, $51MM. 32. Gerardo Parra – Nationals. Three years, $27MM. 35. Austin Jackson – Rockies. One year, $12MM. White Sox Related: 11. Jeff Samardzija – Giants. Five years, $80MM. 49. Alexei Ramirez – Padres. One year, $7.5MM. If we could add $50 million to payroll I'd like Kendrick, Desmond, D Murphy & Parra. Trade LaRoache and half his contract for a low level prospect to help offset the spending on the lineup. I'd be happy. Probably not possible probably. I like an OF of Melky - Eaton - Avi/Parra Platoon - Trayce. Infield of Saladino - Desmond - Kendrick - Murphy/Abreu (DH)- Sanchez - Micah Catcher - Flowers - Brantley SP - Sale - Quintana - Rodon - Danks - Johnson RP - Robertson - Petricka - Turner - Duke - Jones - Putnam - ? That team can compete.

Alexi came to our White Sox in 2006 and has been here ever since. Time for this era in White Sox History to close. We don't have great other options, but how many teams have great SS options? It's pretty much become a bottom barrel position. Find someone who can field, run, bunt and make contact. They can be our 9th best hitter as long as they can field, run & sacrifice. Now, if the White Sox sign Alexi to a 1 year I'm not sure a guy creeping towards his mid 30s (and is probably older than he says) is going to be looking for a 1 year deal if it's less than that. Might be his last major league guaranteed contract. Someone, probably a NL team, will be more than happy to offer him 3/18 because of his hitting resume and the TV contracts inflating salaries. 2 years can't be an option for us, that would just show the world how stubborn and committed to the train wreck this front office is currently.

This is one I'm really interested in hearing about. What's your philosophy on bullpens? Do you like what the Cubs did? Load up on failed starters & failed closers plus a couple strong arms? Are the Royals and Giants of the past few years the golden standard? Who would you KEEP on our current roster in our bullpen? Who would you call up or at least give a shot to win a spot? We don't need to hear why you don't want to keep someone - it's obvious - they suck in your opinion. What would Robertson bring in a trade? Could we ever unload Duke without eating most of the $ left?

I think it would be cool to hear everyone give their own "State of the Union" address about each position. Speak to your knowledge and give your thoughts on the current players, potential additions, bench & minor league depth, theory or anything really. What would you do in 2016? Who would you keep? Who would you trade? How much would you eat on a trade? Expected trade return? Cut candidates? Let's start with Starting Pitching.

If we're all as smart of fans as we think we are, we should be cheering for the Cubs to win it all. Yes, I said it. We should still hate them at the same time. Confused? Don't be. This White Sox Organization has been sitting back and lazily throwing the same crap at the wall since we won in 2005. We were hungry after the town got Cubs fever in the 90s and early 2000s. That hunger brought us a World Series. The lack of hunger has brought up Gordon Beckham. Twice. Adam Dunn. Twice. Sorry, correction - Adam Dunn and Adam LaRoache aka Adam Dunn 2.0. We are currently wasting the primes of 3 amazing baseball players at the top 5 at their respective positions in the world. Chris Sale, Jose Abreu, and David Robertson are amazing talents and would be quite possibly top 3 at their positions in the right city/situation if they aren't already. What has this White Sox Organization given you as a fan the last 5 years that makes you happy? Not much. Although I am excited about Carlos Rodon! As White Sox fans we pride ourselves in showing up when the team deserves our hard earned money. Making them earn it is our reputation. They simply haven't of late. It's a pleasure to watch some of the starting pitchers throw, we can't take that away from them, but outside of that and Jose... The future doesn't have to be dark. We have some top talent. We have some other pieces. We need to make some radical changes, yes. We need the hunger back. The Chicago Cubs winning the World Series might do it. The Chicago Sports media would be more Cubs heavy than ever before, which is fine. I don't want to hear any more from the White Sox until changes are made. REAL changes. Fairweather White Sox fans (and yes, we have them too) would head to the blue side. Fans of baseball that enjoy winning in the city might head north a lot more. Young fans will be choosing blue over white and black. The White Sox are losing more than just baseball games, they are losing a revenue battle in a highly competitive industry of business. A Chicago Cubs title will be a miserable thing to tolerate as a White Sox fan. It won't be fun. It won't make your life better...right now. However, if it brings upon radical and necessary changes to the Chicago White Sox organization, bring it on. I can take it. I've taken 10 seasons of crap since our White Sox won the series. I can deal with Cubs fans gloating about a World Series, because I know what it feels like. Just smile and nod and tell them "Welcome to the club."

Sale with K #8 at 98 MPH on pitch #98. Nicely done. Can our new bullpen keep it up?

Hit it! Yakety Sax time Avi!

There's definitely something to the thought that other teams have us figured out. Especially our offense. If you simplify our roster, we've pretty much had the same team for the last 15-17 years, as long as I can remember clearly. I don't know if it's our advanced scouts, or just the fact that the Chicago White Sox as a team are very easy to figure out, especially offensively, and easily dealt with most games. Some teams get cute with our stud hitter (Frank, Konerko, Abreu), and once in a while one of our underachievers achieves, but for the most part, you can shut down the Chicago White Sox offense by outsmarting it. We are defeated before we enter the batter's box a lot of games, it seems like. Here comes Smokin Jay Albers Cutler. Opening Day Baseball 2015

Is Matt Albers just Fat Off Season Jay Cutler? He looks so much like him. Kuck FC

Yes, Bickell has value. Maybe not a ton of value, but it's not like we got a lot for Leddy. One long shot yound DMan who could work out. Speaking of defensive mistakes, sure Leddy made some. He would have made far less than Oduya/Rozy/Runblad/etc make. He was also learning and getting better. He's a +12 on the New York Islanders. If Championships are the goal, then you play for them aggressively. If no one wanted Bickell, for anything (which would not be the case), you cut him if he's not worth keeping and you need the space. We needed Leddy, we all knew he was going to be traded only bc of cap room, and it sucked then and sucks now. I will be traveling up to Tampa to watch the Hawks play the Lightning this week. Not looking forward to facing that offense with our current D and Crawford's confidence questionable.

Yep, bad move Bhawks, nice capitalizing on it NY Islanders. Good for Nick Leddy getting the time and respect he deserves. We could have kept Leddy and shipped out/cut Oduya & Rozy. Let TVR, young kids learn in the 5-7 spots. Even if Leddy was going to walk & we couldn't afford him, we could have shipped him out at the deadline for depth. We could have also traded Bickell and Sharp to clear room. Keith, Seabrook, Hammer, Leddy should have been the 1-4 Dmen on this team through it's championship window. BHawks really screwed the pooch on this one.

If they are really "all in" this season and want to draw some crowds, they can do a few things IMO. It's time to have a concert going on outside the stadium before games, all games. Doesn't need to be a huge band, or any specific genre, just a band or DJ who can play good music and give fans something else to do before a game. The better the bands, the better the draw. There are plenty of musicians and local bands who would love to play outside a White Sox game on game night. Then they can also go around handing out White Sox swag to fans in the tailgate lots. Send some White Sox alumni out there with the swag to give autographs and take pictures. Doesn't need to be Paul Konerko or Frank Thomas, I'd be plenty happy seeing Chris Widger or Hank Perry walking around talking with fans. Make it consistent so people go there expecting to run into White Sox alumni. They can also have ticket reps walking the grounds with White Sox Swag to give away and an IPad to help take orders on special Tailgate only ticket specials. Example - A ticket rep may have a special tailgate lot ticket package for you and 7 friends to go to any weekday game (minus blackout dates), lower level, for $100 total. Crazy deals that have to be bought on spot at that time. Sell some urgency and the good feeling of White Sox baseball during tailgate. Then they can team up with sponsors to make tickets worth something after a game. Get a % off good or services the next day after attending a White Sox game, depending on Runs scored. Example - If the White Sox score 5 runs, and win, that gives you 10% off at (Sponsor) on the date following the game with ticket stub shown. If they score 2% and lose,it's 2% off the following date. Something like that to give the ticket extra value. Just a few of my thoughts. Go Sox.

Anyone else think we may carry Geo Soto as our 3rd C/DH vs LHP? Maybe even some 1B letting Abreu DH vs LHP?

I wrote about the Bears last 5 drafts and the Pace hire. Enjoy (or suffer through I should say) the last 5 NFL drafts of our Chicago Bears. http://blog.suncoastsocial.com/the-last-5-...ars-hire-new-gm

Myself and a few others wrote some long detailed posts about spring training and phoenix last season in a spring training thread. I can't find it now myself, but it's worth finding and reposting here if you can. I moved to Florida from AZ this summer, figures our Sox would finally give me something to see after 7 years. My last 4 ST WSox games the sox scored 0 runs, COMBINED.

Is Steve Pearce from BAL a trade target? He crushes LHP. Sell them on the Viciedo will be the next Nelson Cruz dream and throw in some prospects to get it done.

Sounds like Denofria, Valencia, and Ogando are the consensus go get them Rick!

Valencia and Ogando are two excellent and realistic suggestions. Is there a 1B out there who mashes LH pitching who could be had? Free Agency Adam Rosales is a Maine South Chicago alum who hit .281 in a small sample size vs LHP last season. He can play 3b/1b. Not a good DH option, but maybe a platoon option for Conor? Gaby Sanchez could be a 1B/DH platoon option. He hit .256 in a small sample size vs LHP last season. Would be cheap but by no means a great option. JP Arencibia could be another 1B/DH platoon option. His stats are terrible, but the power is there and LaRoache's stats against LHP are terrible anyway. Cheap but not ideal option. So it's slim pickings in FA, looks like trade is the better option. Any other ideas?

Hahn has been filling every need we have one by one. On this 10 year anniversary of the Rowand's Rowdies and the World Series victory, who are your recommendations (via trade or FA) for these 3 glaring needs? I for one don't think we need a catching upgrade, at least not yet. Flowers/Brantley/Kottaras should be ok until the summer, then it can be addressed. We still need: 1) A RH platoon option at DH/1B for LaRoache. If LaRoache sits against LHP, which he should a lot, Abreu can move to DH, but we need a RH 1B then too. 2) A RH platoon option for Conor at 3B. 3) A RH SP Depth Addition We don't have much $ to spend (or maybe we do?). Any ideas? There's a lot of baseball knowledge in this community and plenty of us called Shark and LaRoache, let's see how we can do finishing this roster off for a big 2015.

The Marlins wanted Prado that bad? Wow, the White Sox could have had Eovaldi. Not sure how, but we could have topped that package from NY. Maybe not...I just wanted Eovaldi to round out our rotation.

Since I called Shark (and his extension which he will sign), I'll call this one, too. Gerardo Parra from MIL. Gold glover, flexible, can play CF as well. Would fit nicely in the 9 hole of the lineup and play gold glove defense. I could also see Michael Morse as a LF/DH platoon, although he won't be too cheap or a good defensive option.

Looks like this might end up happening! Semien, Anderson, ? ?

Exactly Rooster. Jose F is their #1, and he will be back. They have a lot of SP talent, no one is sure how many actual MLB SPs they actually have beyond Jose. They aren't in love with Eovaldi, and pairing him with Salty for Viciedo/Semien/2 solid prospects could do it. Let's not pretend like the Marlins haven't made trades to save $, and that they haven't made some terrible trades, too.

I really like Nathan Eovaldi as a potential RH SP for our rotation. He throws heat, he's young enough, and Coop can fix his wildness. Not sure what it would take, but MLBTR says he is available for the right offer. I won't speculate on what that offer might be, but Viciendo would be nice and close to his fellow Cubans in Miami... Thoughts? Other RH SP thoughts? Masterson and McCarthy don't excite me and Scherzer and Shields aren't likely.