harfman77

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 19, 2015 -> 10:47 AM) Nick Hostetler is definitely a Rick Hahn guy. I want KW to leave because I'd like to see Hahn run it on his own. He may fail but at least we'd have clarity as far as knowing who's responsible for the moves being made. How is he definitely a Hahn guy? He is just another internal promotion, like re-arranging chairs on the Titanic.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 9, 2015 -> 05:16 PM) If they are serious, I wish they had played it smarter and taken full advantage of the 2 year penalty they'd get. It is likely to only be a one year penalty with the new CBA coming in the mean time. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 9, 2015 -> 09:23 PM) Yeah, they didn't envision teams taking this approach. The rules will change next time for sure. International draft.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 22, 2015 -> 01:34 PM) What are your reasons? I wrote that piece and listed all the factors I could think of. I see literally no reason to believe he'd be a good OF, other than speed. But I am open to discussion - what makes you think he'd be good out there? Playing the OF is much easier than playing 2B, especially LF where there isn't as great of a need to have a strong arm. We have seen a lot of guys with poor arms and good speed be ML caliber OF's Podsednik, Pierre, and Crawford as examples. I am not sure what the point at keeping him at position he cannot play long term is. He doesn't have the offense capability of Dan Uggla had to warrant having him as a defensive liability in the IF. There is no reason to think he would not be at least as competent at LF as anyone in the system. The Sox need to get away from the philosophy of playing subpar defenders at positions and work on finding better defensive homes for their players, and that would probably include starting to work Tim Anderson out in CF.

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 12:38 PM) for me, my main short list or favorite is Roger McDowell coach - atl That means you are likely getting rid of Cooper too though, same thing if you brought in Black. I don't see Don working for another pitching coach and having to take input from someone else on what he is doing. I doubt that Robin is fired, but there is a chance that he could get "promoted" to some off the field role where he does something like Thome does. I really want Alomar or someone like Tony Pena but I am sure that if a move is made we will get either PK or Thome.

I would have taken Masterson at the beginning of the year as a reclamation project/ placeholder for Rodon but he has gotten worse in Boston so no thanks.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 11:51 AM) Every time I read this comment I want to go back to the Samardzija trade thread where people kept insisting we'd be able to get equal or even better value for him at the trade deadline. I then want to slam my head against a wall. Yes and people were wrong, but no one knew Price was going to be traded at that point and that really disrupted the trade market quite a bit. The bottom line was that the market didn't unravel the way that a lot of people thought that it would and because of that, I do not have any regrets not selling.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 09:44 AM) So for Alomar that is four times. To me, that is many. I wanted him when Robin was hired and still want him to be the next manager. You do not get much more of a baseball man than an Alomar.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Aug 6, 2015 -> 12:40 PM) I'm unhappy we didn't sell. We really only had one piece of value to sell and the way the market unfolded, the return would not have been that much better than holding onto him and taking the compensation pick (and the associated draft pool money).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 09:37 AM) Well then I guess we should get used to sad Greg, like usual.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 10:56 AM) This pick better make the All-Star team. The last guys we had in that category were names like Lumsden, Whisler, Liotta, Lucy, Danny Wright, etc. As for now, I'm not buying we will get the equivalent of Lamb or Reed, let alone Finnegan. Again, you were never going to get the same caliber of package that the Reds got for Cueto he has been more valuable, so the package that Shark would have pulled in would have been less than that. Lamb and Reed are RP's that you could get, they are not extremely valuable guys. Scott Kazmir probably had a closer value to Shark and pulled in a package of two mid range prospects. Also the draft is much different now than we drafted those guys a decade ago. The Sox have not gone into the draft trying to pinch pennies, they have been pretty successful in working their slot values to maxmize the talent that they have been able to acquire. This comp pick will get you around the 30th best prospect in the draft which gives the opportunity to select someone like Tyler Danish or Spencer Adams.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:33 PM) So outside of pitchers, who was the last good talent to play major time for the White Sox after being drafted by the White Sox? Tyler Saladino? And who have they spent first round picks on since then? Tim Anderson - #1 Prospect Courtney Hawkins - #9 Prospect There is some talent in the pipe with Anderson, Michalczewski, and Johnson who would be in the majors if not blocked by Sox developed prospect Carlos Sanchez. The reality of the draft is that the Sox have been heavy into pitching with guys like Sale, Rodon, Fulmer, Adams, Danish, Beck, and Johnson all drafted in the top two rounds. They have just not really focused on hitting prospects in the draft and it shows. They have been trying to supplement that in the LA market, but all of what they have done there is really far away. It takes time to build a farm system especially one that was as depleted as the Sox when Hahn took over. Once the farm is rebuilt and it is consistently graduating players to the MLB level, the Sox will have the fire power to contend consistently.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:36 PM) Added comments in bold. None of this proves anything. I mean this is like ten names, not to mention we have sampling issues - we're looking at free agents, who are older by definition and thus more likely to decline; and guys who switched leagues, which means their old team didn't want them for some reason. I look at the guys you named and I can suggest a competing reason for almost every single one's performance drop, and I have just as much proof as you do that my reason is the reason - that is, none. The bottom line is you can't just blame a league switch when there are other reasons a guy's performance might have changed. The talent level of the AL and NL is basically even right now and 8 guys having down years doesn't tell me the 9th will. The problem with that logic is that guys got better when they went AL to NL. It is not a huge list, but it the complete list of free agents that have switched leagues in the last two seasons (that I could find). Its not a random happening, this has been happening for a long time. There is definitely more talent top to bottom in the AL, though the NL does have a couple more high end teams than the AL does.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:21 PM) When I say "rebuild", I don't mean "rebuild current roster", I mean "rebuilding your entire organization from the ground up and draft real talent you can develop internally" And that will happen as soon as JR sells and not a minute before. They have been drafting good talent recently, you cannot ignore that.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 11:37 AM) You're leaving out Torii Hunter, Jacques Jones, Shannon Stewart, Mientkiewicz, Koskie, AJ, Christian Guzman, Liriano, Radke, Johan, Nathan, Guardado, Hawkins, etc. The myth was the Piranhas, but they had a lot of talent as well. Not just utility guys. I am not leaving them out, they were not all that good (excluding Hunter). Yes they had some pitching, so do the White Sox, but check how those guys did when they Minnesota and you can see the job that Gardy did. AJ was barely there for a season with Gardy before being sent out for pitching.

A true rebuild will never happen when JR is in charge. The fans are too fickle and he is still mocked to this day for the last full rebuild he attempted (White Flag trades). It is not really fair to say the Sox cannot develop hitting talent, they really have not even tried. They had Semien and Johnson both reach the majors in the last year as 5-10 round draft picks. They have really focused heavily on pitching at the expense of drafting hitters with the potential to impact the game. The Sox scouts are also overly enamored with RH power. This leads to selecting/signing guys that have light tower power in batting practice but have an excessive amount of swing and miss in their game and often poor pitch recognition. Since Hahn has taken over the draft, they have done much better selecting hitting prospects, but they are still a ways away from contributing. A full rebuild would be tough to pull off, you have young, high quality cost controlled assets not that you would be turning around for young, unknown quality cost controlled assets. The biggest mistake that Hahn made was adding LaRoche and Cabrera this off-season and giving a piece of the fan base a notion that the team was going to contend this year and giving up a draft pick, this is only year 2 of the rebuilding project and it has a ways to go yet before success can be sustainable. You are barely into the last rebuild, why would want to tear it apart and start over?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 10:43 AM) JR will never deliberately operate at a loss like the Tigers. Fixed.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 11:09 AM) Interesting to think about but unless Robin simply resigns for whatever reason he's not going any place. JR and the front office still like him a lot. However if that possibility should occur I'm for anybody who has previous major league managing experience and who has absolutely zero ties to the organization. No more former players, no more former coaches, no more guys 'learning' how to be a major league manager with on the job training. Sox haven't hired a manger with former experience managing at the big league level since Jeff Torborg in 1989. Mark I could see the Sox giving Robin an off the field "promotion" after the season.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 10:58 AM) What least talent? Times change. People are doing things smarter and more efficiently now. Has he kept up with the times? Does he use modern analytics and analysis? And it's not just the manager. Whitesox are an incredibly un-athletic team with holes galore. But they continually sign un athletic players so I'm not sure they have any interest in fixing it. If you look at the Twins over the entire duration of Gardy's tenure, their roster was made up of Morneau, Cuddyer, Mauer, and a bunch of guys that would have been UTL guys on pretty much every other team. They played smart, were agressive, and won games. Analytics and analysis can be overrated. It is still baseball in the end. Dan Jennings uses the hell out of analytics and is 27-41 as the manager of a team that was thought to be near contention when the season started. Mike Sciocia pretty much ran his analytics guy out of town and is one of the best managers in baseball. Yes, analytics are usefull but are not a be all end all of what makes a good manager.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 04:15 PM) Based on what? I keep seeing this refrain and I need an explanation. Something more compelling than "two guys the Sox brought over from the NL struggled," if possible. Based on a pretty extensive track record. There are few exceptions for player decline when moving to the AL from the NL. Players to go NL to AL last season Previous league last season Other league first season Pablo Sandoval .279/.324/.415 113 OPS+ .259/.305/.385 89 OPS+ Hanley Ramirez .283/.369/.448 130 OPS+ .263/.304/.450 104 OPS+ Adam LaRoche .259/.362/.455 127 OPS+ .220/.312/.347 88 OPS+ Emilio Bonifacio .259/.305/.345 82 OPS+ .169/.200/.195 14 OPS+ Evan Gattis .263/.317/493 124 OPS+ .244/.274/.449 96 OPS+ 2013 Shin Soo Choo .285/.423/.462 145 OPS+ .242/.340/.374 100 OPS+ Brian McCann .256/.336/.461 118 OPS+ .232/.286/.406 93 OPS+ Carlos Beltran .296/.339/.491 127 OPS+ .233/.301/.402 97 OPS+ AL to NL Nick Markakis .276/.342/.386 105 OPS+ .293/.371/.369 108 OPS+ Alberto Callaspo .223/.290/.290 67 OPS+ .226/.310/.271 65 OPS+ Jonny Gomes .234/.320/.250 66 OPS+ .205/.313/.319 78 OPS+ AJP .251/.288/.337 114 OPS+ .302/.339/.446 124 OPS + 2013 Curtis Granderson .229/.317/.407 99 OPS+ .227/.326/.388 103 OPS+ Jarrod Saltalamacchia .273/.338/.466 118 OPS+ .220/.320/.362 91 OPS+

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 08:36 AM) This is the Hahn argument...when he wanted to fold 5-6 weeks ago. Duffy was injured, Ventura was struggling mightily and Volquez was the only one holding that rotation together. Young, Vargas and Guthrie were all worse for wear. That was the time to strike. They would have been buying half a season as well, compared to just 10-11 starts. The pick that you are going to get is going to be worth more to the Sox than anything KC would have offered. The package they gave up for Cueto was not really that much more valuable than the comp pick and Cueto has more value than Shark.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 05:30 PM) Would MLB even allow that...? Isn't there legal action hanging over his head, at least it still hasn't been sorted out how to punish the Cardinals, presumably. The FBI hasn't made any annoucements since, have they? That's why I said they would have to wait until the offseason to make the move. It couldn't go down now, and you would probably want to do it right before the winter meetings so that when the news popped it would get drowned out quickly by the trade chatter.

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:46 AM) This would be amazing. You can just imagine him calling the players out after each game.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:20 AM) 1, 3 and 5 are ridiculous. No gardenhire either. Modern thinking and ideas please. I dont understand what this means? The manager that has done the most with least talent in this division over the last two decades all of a sudden doesn't know how to manage? The guy that played the way the game is played now throughout the steroid era because he didn't have the bats can't fit into todays game? I am not particularly fond of the idea of Gardenhire but really don't get the "modern" comments related to him. The point is likely moot, we all know the next manager is going to be PK, hell he was almost the current manager.

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:24 AM) i think DD will be a hot commodity in the off season, LAA, Tor Bos for starters. I dont think the Angels are a fit, he is going somewhere to be the President, not GM. Toronto and Boston are the two most likely teams. It really kills the Sox if he goes to Toronto as that is probably our only shot at getting rid of KW for good.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 09:11 PM) Seeing the state of the team more clearly now that the 7-game win streak mirage is over, the Sox would be stupid to sign Samardzija. Waste of money for a bad team. Bring in Johnson and Montas, take your lumps, and stop fooling yourself that you're a good team. The issue is that there is no good way to upgrade this offense without making a trade. The Sox are not going to get an impact bat in free agency so they are going to need to trade for one, which means giving up a starting pitcher. If they do that they will need another SP to hold down a rotation spot to avoid being a bad team next season. If you fix the offense and then have two holes in the rotation you are robbing Peter to pay Paul and not really getting any benefit. With a top 3 of Sale, Shark, and Rodon, you are going to be OK with Danks and Johnson/Beck/Danish filling out the staff, especially if you can improve the defense and provide some consistent run support.