harfman77

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 02:28 PM) And $15 million for a front line starter. That was a decrease from his previous salary of $17M.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 01:10 PM) If Ventura was actually doing any of this, I could agree with you. The team isn't. The White Sox expanded their payroll by somewhere in the range of $20-$30 million this year depending on how the bookkeeping is done. What is really happening is they tried to field another competitive team this year and it has absolutely blown up in an explosion of stupid play, poor focus, poor preparation, and a few injuries to boot. The payroll expansion was a result of scheduled contract increases/arbitration increases. They did try to remain competitive this year on the chance they caught lightning in a bottle like they did last season and they will continue to try field a competitive team as they continue to rebuild to try and sell tickets. With about $33M coming off the books at the end of the season, I expect that the Sox will resign Gavin Floyd to a team friendly deal with performance incentives and fill in the rest of the gaps with some mid range free agents and farm hands. I think Hahn will try and be an active seller at the deadline, though I am not sure that the Sox have a lot of marketable assets at this time. Beckham and Peavy need to prove healthy and consistent. Ramirez needs to get out of his funk. And there are not many contenders out there that need help in the OF, so moving Rios will prove difficult.

Ventura is falling on his sword taking this team through its rebuild. No reason to run him out of town for the mess of a roster that the Sox are throwing out there. The results of KW's handling of the farm system are coming to roost now and there will be a little bit of a dip as the Sox burn off their overpriced contracts and produce quality players from the farm system. Hahn is doing a great job of adding talent into the farm system, the development of that talent is obviously a big question mark. You could tell in free agency this year that this was the direction the team was heading, Keppinger was nice player last year but is really more of a utility guy that will not block any prospects. Hahn really needs some players to start performing to their norms so that he can make some moves, otherwise there isn't much sense in making a deal. I would like to see him talk to San Diego about Amarista and Blanks for some pitching, two guys who dont have a starting role and could play a role for the Sox.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 5, 2013 -> 12:47 PM) Is he seriously going to be good enough to get back draft compensation? He might have under the old CBA but he'd have to be ridiculous this year to get it under the new one. Under the new CBA, it doesn't matter how good you are, only if your team makes a qualifying offer (which will probably $14M this season). Seattle is not going to let their only decent offensive player out of town. Odds are he gets extended before the end of the year.

High hopes that he can get it all figured out, could be a future cornerstone for the franchise.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 4, 2013 -> 06:16 PM) I'll keep repeating it, but I think Morales makes perfect sense as Paulie's replacement. We need a left-handed middle of the order bat and Morales is still relatively young and hopefully shouldn't be too expensive. Plus none of the 1B types we have in AA & AAA profile as major league regulars. I have little faith in Wilkins or Black. Not sure that Morales is worth the draft pick, he is not going to save the offense by himself. Viciedo or Dunn will be at 1B next year. There aren't any plug and play 1B any team is going to give up for what the Sox are willing to trade.

Anderson seems like a safe pick, with a floor of a bullpen guy and a ceiling as 3-4 in the rotation. Manaea probably returns to school at this point, unless the Astros take him in the second round and use their extra slot money to sign him.

The Sox are in the process of a rebuild right now. The draft last year and free agency this year were strong indicators of that. Last years draft was more focused on high upside players as opposed to the traditional draft of going for college players that were either very toolsy or very close to contributing. In free agency nothing was done to improve this team, Youk and AJP walked and were replaced with Keppinger, relatively inexpensively. Its not the White Flag, because we dont have the players to move in a white flag scenario. There is just not really a whole lot of demand at this point for any White Sox players. I think what you will continue to see is the Sox spend just enough to try and be competitive, but concentrating more on building up the talent level of the farm system.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 16, 2013 -> 01:45 PM) It seems like a lot of analysts aren't sure what to expect from the Sox this year due to Hahn being "in charge". I think last year threw everyone off.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 16, 2013 -> 11:57 AM) A simple scouting report, giving his current position, right or left handed, big and fat, or muscular and athletic, etc. Right handed athletic OF, projects to RF. Lots of power/lots of empty swings. http://www.baseballamerica.com/internation...tch-for-july-2/

The Sox are far from loaded in the OF. By the time whomever is drafted is ready to contribute none of the current OF will be there, and while some of the upper level guys have shown some flashes, there is no sure thing in the system. I also think that drafting for need is a good way to have a terrible farm system. Its not like you are going to plug a guy into your lineup next week or even next season to shore things up. Drafting value is the most important thing, if you have a surplus of talented players at a position you can always trade them to fill needs on the ML roster. Hunter Harvey is intriguing for a couple of reasons. One he has a top of the rotation upside already throwing in the mid-90's with a tough CB to go along with it. The other piece is that he is thought to be very signable, which if the Sox can work out a deal with him, will allow them to be more aggressive in the later rounds as the Blue Jays and Astros were last year.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 25, 2013 -> 08:55 AM) He did have a couple of nice outings last year. Could be a long man, but he gave up a ton of homers. Its really a zero risk acquistion. He's not being auditioned in games that count. Yeah, could take the long man role in the bp and come in when a game is out of hand to save the rest of the bullpen. Zach has potential, just needs to keep the ball down. Power sinkers go a long ways when they are thrown belt high.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 11:43 AM) Platooning Viciedo was the easiest problem to fix. It amazed me that they kept sending him out there against RH'ers when he was so overmatched. I thought it was because they were trying to keep his trade value high, but after the deadline he continued to contribute to sucking the life out of the bottom of the order vs. rh'ers. Hes a young guy who needs to figure things out at the plate, he is not going to get a chance to do that on the bench. Platooning him would really hamper his development in the long run. If he is going to be a cornerstone for this offense, as appears to be the plan, he needs to get at bats and learn to make adjustments. There were a lot of players that slid in the second half of the season, no reason to damage the future of your franchise to try to cover up for that.

I think they are taking the right approach at this point. Adding some pieces that will keep this team competitive, Lindstrom and Keppinger are upgrades over the players they are replacing, with reasonable contracts and not tying the front offices hands when they need to replace Peavy, PK, AD and Rios in the coming years. At the same time start to amass talent in the minors that can potentially step in and contribute. Its rebuilding but not a white flag style rebuild. This also means that you are open to trading anyone on the roster if it can help you when are ready to make a run again. When you build organizationally as Tampa has, you can sustain your success by drafting players to build your system, using those players to acquire needs, and trading soon to be budget breaking players for replacements and upgrades elsewhere. The advantage the Sox have in this model is that they will be able to spend more money to lock up key players or fill in roster wholes.

If things go to hell this season, he will be very tradeable at the deadline with that contract and history as a closer.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 10:25 AM) If they are willing to make him a qualifying offer, he is worth a first round draft pick. Not sure any teams are going to give up a 1st round pick to sign a 37 year old PK, no one would give one up to sign LaRoche. He would more likely accept the qualify offer of what will probably be about $13.5-$14.5M.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 10:17 AM) He's making $6.5 million this year, with $1 million a year deferred for the next 7 years. You are right, there probably are only a couple of teams that would be a fit for Konerko with his veto rights, teams ability to take on money and his position. Getting anything close to what he is worth to the White Sox is very slim. After this season he is worth nothing to the Sox, so getting anything is more valuable than that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 16, 2013 -> 09:49 AM) Take a second and think about how limited the number of teams he fits with are. Konerko is under contract for 1 year, so the team trading for him needs to be ready to compete this year. Konerko is well paid, >$10 million, so the team needs to have money to spend. The team needs to have a hole at 1b, and it helps if the team also can move Konerko to DH for part of the time, as that helps keep him healthy. How many teams are left that this fits? Now throw in the fact that Konerko's a 10/5 player and thus has a full No Trade Clause if he wants to exercise it. Getting a significant offer for a guy usually means that you have multiple teams in the running for him who will drive the price up. I have trouble thinking of any teams that fit all of those. As I said, there are a few teams. Baltimore, Seattle, Toronto, San Francisco and Tampa probably is the scope of them. Sure he has to agreed to the trade, but at this stage of his career if he could get to a contender and help the Sox in return I think he would agree. The return is not going to be significant, what I meant was a player that could develop into something down the road. With Seattle for instance, a deal around Justin Smoak who has struggled, but has a lot of upside still. They had money to pursue Upton and Hamilton so I am sure they can fit Paulie in for a season. Toronto needs an upgrade at DH than can spell Encarnacion at 1B. The Red Sox may be an option as well if the Napoli deal falls apart.

Frank did a ton of damage to opposing teams with very little protection in the lineup. Frank was a pretty good athlete too, defensively he was adequate and had better range than Paulie ever has. Frank loss a few steps defensively towards the end of his time here, but was not a black hole at the position by any means. Franks bat is akin to that of Albert Pujols in St Louis, except teams pitched around him much more.

Trading Paulie now for a decent return would make a 2014 youth movement more palpable. There are a few teams that could use his bat and offer back something that could be significant down the road.

The free agent market this year has materialized much slower than most anticipated. Lohse, Bourn, and perhaps Napoli are all still out there. There are a several dominoes that need to fall into place before teams finalize their rosters headed to the spring. There was a report that the Sox checked in on Justin Upton, so maybe they are still trying to work that. The season is still a ways off and there is no harm in doing due diligence before making any moves. Other than Toronto, there are not many clubs that are being that active this offseason.

QUOTE (Bubba Philips @ Jan 14, 2013 -> 06:32 PM) I am going to spring training in early March with my son and grandson. I remember is some of my last visits I was dissapointed in players I thought were going to help us. I also saw players begin well but never amounted to $%^&* I saw Beckham look like he was ready to make the team with his first visit to Glendale. What pitchers position player or just invitees would any of you bet on to make the team.. At a horse race this would be call handicapping. Anyone with some insight? If the Sox can figure out how to close the hole in Bells swing, he will have a shot as a backup CI. So far he has been a switch hitting Josh Fields.

When is the Sox deal with Comcast up? Many teams have been able to spend more money due to new TV deals. Live sports is at a premium right now and sports networks are paying through the nose for the right to broadcast (thanks to DVR's). This team is going to go through a transition the next few seasons as contracts expire and the organization attempts to build through the draft. Three of the top ten prospects came from last years draft, and I think you will see another strong draft year now that MLB has standardized the draft rules.

It seemed to me that Rock was speaking more in generalities of how this board responds to trades - like Javy to the Braves for example (and he wasn't even well liked) - and how that moves for the sake of moves are not necessarily a good thing. I may not be reading enough into his comments, but it did not seem anything was imminent from his comments. Obviously some payroll needs to be cleared if the Sox are going to have flexibility in free agency. The candidates would be: Paulie - getting older and probably has some decent value on the trade market Rios - Rebuilt some value last season but no one on the roster to replace him Dunn - Dug himself out of a grave last year, still not sure he is tradeable Floyd - Not much value on the open market, Sox have been trying to move him for a year Danks - Probably negative value until he comes back and shows he can pitch Peavy - Most likely not happening after the extension Thornton - Overpaid for what he is, might find a taker though Alexei - Probably the most valuable trade chip, but again no real in house options for fill the hole he would leave

Soler could end up playing a number of positions. He has played CF, though everyone expects him to move to a corner as he continues to fill out. He is alleged to be a five tool player with a higher upside than Cespedes. Viciedo may be the key for the Sox in getting Soler, mainly because of the way the organization handled his development, because whatever Soler signs for now, he will be looking for more six years from now. The Sox have always been mentioned as a contender in the Soler sweepstakes, the issue will be if KW holds money back to make an acquisition at the deadline to help the current roster or if uses it as a long term investment.