beautox

Really well written piece. Eventually Beckham will be traded for scraps and hopefully Ramirez gets moved to the likes of the pirates or reds during the trade deadline and Sanchez and Semien take over the middle infield while Anderson and Johnson continue to develop. I have faith Hahn will address the catching situation this trade deadline or next offseason. I think we spend a lot of money going after the likes of Rasmus in the offseason.

that high sun is making it tough on the fielders. DeAza misses it Fielder to second. Rios up

I will say I love both Semien and Eaton's approach at the plate and I'm looking forward to both of them at the top of the order for years to come.

konerko pops up to SS it gets dropped Semien forced at second

eaton grounds out, semien takes a walk on 5 pitches

Any of Rodon, Hoffman or Beede will be great picks; Beede has certainly been getting even more hype lately.

link A very good list. Even with the graduation of our top 4 this year our system after the international signing period, draft and midseason trades could be looking like a fringe top 10 system. If Hawkins, Barnum and Sanchez can reestablish themselves and Danish and Anderson make big pushes forward watch out.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Mar 1, 2014 -> 10:46 AM) Second-round pick possibility: Aramis Garcia, Catcher, Florida International. Baseball America had a nice write-up on him a week ago and he is projected to go right around where our second-round pick is. However, he may be exploding this year. Everything indicates he can stay at catcher, very solid defensively, great arm and a great leader. Offense has been great this year for FIU. .457 BA, .548 OBP (7 BB to 2 SO), .629 SLG (1 2B, 1 3B and 1 HR). nabbing a catcher like Reetz or Garcia with our second pick would be solid. Take a big arm with our first pick and continue to pick up high talented arms later in the draft like they've done for years.

being from blue island that houses 2 beggars pizzas, one being the original this is awesome.

you can check out the article here. Glad to see the system continuing to get some love, It wouldn't surprise me that going into spring training next year sox have a system ranked right outside of the top ten.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 02:28 PM) That is the lineup without spending a dollar in FA, getting anything of use in a trade, or getting a player in the draft that can make an impact quickly (Hoffman). So its unlikely, but not totally impossible. A lot of people would probably put Thompson in at CF, I am not convinced he is ever going to make enough contact to stick. I think Thompson has a break out year with the bat and the sox sell high on him ala Carter and Aaron Cunningham

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 5, 2014 -> 05:23 PM) A lot of young catchers are lefty or switch hitters, we'll need one of those soon. Also, if we move Tank to DH next year, or dump him, we will have an opportunity to fill that with a lefty OF, preferably one with power. The more I look at it, the more I think Colby Rasmus will be ours in FA next year, if we really want him. The Yankees have ARod back on the dole next year, don't have any major salary coming off the books, and need 2B,3B and SS if Jeter retires, and they'll need righty power more than lefty. Boston's loaded with lefty OF's as are the Dodgers. The feared-by-some biggest spenders likely won't even be involved. I agree the best looking free agents and strength of next year's class would appear to be Hanley Ramirez (I doubt LA lets him slip away), Asdrubal Cabrera and Jed Lowrie for middle infielders. Headley and Sandoval for 3B, Gardner and Rasmus for OF and a ton of pitchers that will all likely get paid way to much for their actual production. Looking into '16 if this core develops we might have a shot at Jason Heyward if the braves don't lock him up or he opts to test free agency. If our core develops either Rasmus and Heyward fit with our teams profile and age curve.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Feb 5, 2014 -> 01:08 PM) Gillaspie doesn't have a future on this team with Davidson in the organization. Even if Davidson doesn't pan out, a slashline of .245/.305/.390 isn't going to cut it at 3B in the AL. I disagree he can play a solid CI and he still has the potential to be a 2WAR player. At the very least he is a respectable solution off the bench and left handed something this team sorely lacks. I posted in another thread but a bench for '14 and 15 of Danks, Garcia & Gillaspie and possibly Nieto is very respectable and cheap, capable of producing 1.5-2WAR.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Feb 5, 2014 -> 07:29 AM) Good post, but the numbers for Viciedo just don't add up. There is really no way that he could hit .257 with 34 HRs and end up with a .412 SLG. Assuming he ends up around the 505 ABs he had in 2012, he would end up with 130 hits. Even if the rest of his hits were all singles, he would end up with a .459 SLG. I would say a much more realistic SLG for Viciedo if he hit .257 with 34 HRS would be about .100 higher at .517 or so. That would be 34 HR, 25 2B, and 2 3B. sorry that was a late night miss type should've been 19

Yes I think this core can win and as everyone knows once your in the post season its a crap shoot. On average you need about 45WAR to have a solid playoff run but you only need about 40 to have a shot at the WC. Lets take a look at what oliver says projecting for '15 and not taking into account our upcoming season. Side note: I was nothing short of amazed seeing Hahn pick up eaton and davidson after i was hoping something of that nature would occur during the trade deadline last season. Which brings me to thinking that we eventually land Grandal this trade deadline or next offseason. I think the padres make a run at the dodgers in the west and will need some more depth to pull it together as the season progresses. DH R Dayan Viciedo 26(in '15) .257/.307/.412 34HR 94wRC+ 0.5WAR - Oliver 15 C S Yasmani Grandal 26(in '15) .250/.353/.387 10HR 112wRC+ 3.8WAR - Oliver 15 1B R Jose Abreu 28(in '15) .270/.334/.465 25HR 122wRC+ 2.2WAR - Fans(19) 2B R Marcus Semien 24(in '15) .236/.309/.404 19HR 93wRC+ 2.9 - Oliver 15 SS S Carlos Sanchez 22(in '15) .312/.353/.423 5HR 105wRC+ 3.6 - Aybar '09 3B R Matt Davidson 24(in '15) .215/.288/.390 22HR 82wRC+ 0.7WAR - Oliver 15 LF L Adam Eaton 26(in '15) .265/.343/.380 9HR 100wRC+ 3.4WAR - Oliver 15 CF L Coby Rasmus 28(in '15) .243/.313/.451 26HR 107wRC+ 3.2WAR - Oliver 15 RF R Avisail Garcia 23(in '15) .289/.333/.448 18HR 112wRC+ 3.3WAR - Oliver 15 OF L Jordan Danks 28(in '15) .236/.321/.378 4 HR 91wRC+ 0.4WAR - Oliver 15 UT S Leury Garcia 24(in '15) .258/.307/.360 2HR 81wRC+ 0.6WAR - Oliver 15 UT L Conor Gillaspie 27(in '15) .248/.314/.402 5HR 92wRC+ 0.4WAR - Oliver 15 C S Adrian Nieto 25(in '15) .229/.305/.356 3HR 80wRC+ 0.4WAR - Oliver 15 SP L Chris Sale 26(in '15) 4.1WAR - Oliver 15 SP L Jose Quintana 26(in '15) 3WAR - Oliver 15 SP R Erik Johnson 25(in '15) 1.2WAR - Oliver 15 SP L John Danks 30(in '15) 0.6WAR - Oliver 15 I think our bullpen will be capable of producing 3WAR, last year alone we produced 5.7WAR cumulatively with the likes of Leesman, Troncoso, Heath & Axelrod dragging it down to tune of -0.3 each. Add it all up and we're at 37.3WAR with out the addition of another starter. This projection assumes we land Grandal, Sign Rasmus in the off season, Abreu repeats his projection for '14 and that Carlos Sanchez develops into an Erik Aybar type of player (which i personally believe he can, he's got a great hit tool and i think people are sleeping on his this offseason in prospect lists, I think both he and thompson really break out this year.) Personally I think the sox compete in '15 and our system gets a significant boost after we move through De Aza, Ramirez, Beckham and Dunn in addition to the likes of Jones and the other relief core mid season.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 3, 2014 -> 10:17 AM) Basically, our top 3 (EJ, Davidson, Semien) should graduate. The #3 pick and hopefully our 2nd rounder should replace them in our top 5. Would be really nice to have Anderson have a season that shows his potential along with a guy like Barnum or Michalczewski breaking out. I agree that combined with who we get when we unload from the likes of De Aza, Ramirez, Beckham and Dunn in that order will go a long way, strong possibility we're looking at a mid ranked farm system(13-18) next year.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 09:24 AM) Houston will not pass on him barring injury. They see Rodan and Appel a 1-2 punch down the road. I don't know I could see Houston and Miami passing on him for two reasons. The astros under Jeff Luhnow have shown a propensity for going under slot with #1 and landing as much talent as possible across the draft by signing the pick well under slot and spreading those savings across later rounds for above average signing slots. The marlins time and time again have gone with prep selections nearly 70% over the last 10 years. Their "window" doesn't line up with the likes of someone like Rodon, combined with the fact the strength of their system as it stands today is left handed pitching(Andrew Heaney, Justin Nicolino, Adam Conley and Brian Flynn) I wouldn't be surprised if they went with Jackson or Gatewood maybe Turner.

Such high praise for Semien, I love it. Honestly I think his floor is a utility player along the lines of Mark DeRosa with a bit better defense with his ceiling being in a similar caliber as Ray Durham, dream scenario he becomes our version of Pedroia. Honestly I think Davidson, Semien, Sanchez and Garcia all start down at AAA with maybe Garcia breaking with the team if Kepp gets moved to a team like the dodgers.

I think the season starts out something like this. De Aza gets traded to the reds for something like OF Jesse Winker and LHP Amir Garrett; a solid B / B+ prospect and a lottery pick for two years of De Aza whom should produce 4.5-5 WAR over the next two years while not costing a draft pick and more importantly draft pool money and possibly netting them a pick when he files for free agency. DH - Dunn C - Flowers 1B - Abreu 2B - Beckham SS - Ramirez 3B - Gillaspie LF - Viciedo CF - Eaton RF - Garcia C - Nieto UT - Keppinger OF - Danks 1B - Konerko Davidson, Semien, Phegley and Leury all wind up at AAA till injury or some moves are made at the deadline. After the deadline DH - Viciedo C - Phegley 1B - Abreu 2B - Semien SS - Sanchez 3B - Davidson LF - Eaton CF - Thompson (predicting a break out this year!) RF - Garcia C - Nieto UT - Garcia UT - Gillaspie OF - Danks Konerko either breaks down or is performing well in a platoon, a playoff team offers him an opportunity on their bench ala Thome with the dodgers.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jan 25, 2014 -> 05:37 PM) This is a huge a mistake they need draft a position player, so they can build this new core of White Sox hitters (Courtney Hawkins, Micker Zapata, Tim Anderson, etc) I disagree, in my opinion the next sox core looks something like this (given the fact they're going to give them 1200-1300 ABs before they move off those players. DH - Viciedo if he breaks out this year if not ? C - ? 1B - Abreu 2B - Semien SS - Sanchez 3B - Davidson LF - ? Viciedo but most likely getting relegated to DH due to his atrocious defense and provided he hits. CF - Eaton RF - Garcia That to me is our foreseeable core, with Thompson and Johnson a bit off in the distance and with question marks looming for both of them. I also think you could see both C and OF addressed by the trade deadline or next offseason in free agency possibly Colby Rasmus(28) or Alfredo Despaigne(28) if he defects.

I'm glad Hahn has come out and publicly said as of now that we're likely going with a pitcher at #3 and for all intensive purposes they should go with another pitcher with their second round pick, this class is deep. In addition to that since we didn't land tanaka our sparse hopes for a wild card spot have been dashed this year, thats ok. I'm willing to bet that both Davidson and Semien start at AAA this year to get another year of team control from them, while giving Gillaspie another 300 AB pre all star break to figure what exactly what they have in him and attempt to let Keppinger and Beckham regain some trade value before dealing them along with Alexei (provided Sanchez carries over his hot hitting VWL) since Abreu should be pretty settled in. Its all about maximizing assets right now for the franchise, which is why I doubt we see Dunn moved before hes had a chance to bounce back and nearly half of his salary paid for by the time he gets traded. Next years trade deadline should be a lot of fun for sox fans I imagine we add 2-3 B - B+ range prospects as well as a lot of depth after moving through the vets in the bull pen.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 24, 2014 -> 12:05 PM) I'm in this camp. Would like to see less robotic bullpen mgmt., though. I disagree Robin did a great job managing leverage in our bullpen last year nearly as good as the red sox link

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 05:56 PM) No. The upcoming draft should have 0 bearing on what we do with the major league team. I disagree, at #3 you have a very short list of who you're going to pick and their development table is going to be on average much shorter than most picks; especially with the white sox always being aggressive with assignments and promotions. I would consider that short list of players as good as in the system, and I think the sox go with pitching at #3.

If the sox land Tanaka do you move Johnson + to the astros for Castro? seeing how you can slot in Rienzo or Paulino in the 5th spot with Beck a stones throw away and a possible #3 pick of Rodon or Hoffman on the fast track?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 08:44 PM) Well, 1 WAR = $5M, right? So he'd have to average 4 WAR per year. Pitchers who had a 4 to 5 fWAR last year: Derek Holland 4.8 Doug Fister 4.6 James Shields 4.5 Mat Latos 4.4 David Price 4.4 Jon Lester 4.3 Jhoulys Chacin 4.3 Hisashi Iwakuma 4.2 Jose Fernandez 4.2 Cole Hamels 4.2 A.J. Burnett 4.0 Pretty sure that the price of WAR has gone up to something near the 7M mark, so he would have to be as good as Rickey Nolasco (3WAR 3.59xFIP 200 IP) last year to be worth a 20M a year, Personally I think he lands around 16.5-18m per with a 6 year deal with an opt out after 4 years