harfman77

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 10:04 AM) That's crazy. Can't believe Cherington would do that. Granted, Jackie Bradley, Nava and Sizemore were huge disappointments, but wow. They also have Betts (blocked by Pedroia at 2B), Cespedes next year...well, even the vaunted Red Sox don't have complete success because this move smacks of desperation, and a lack of available options on the FA market. Finally, Shane Victorino is under contract as well for 2015, I'm pretty sure. The Red Sox will be spinning quite a few of those pieces for pitching in the off-season. I imagine Craig, Bradley, Betts, Middlebrooks Cecchini, and Swihart will be made available to upgrade their pitching staff. Their OF will likely be Cespedes, Castillo, and Victorino. I think they will be in on Hamels and could make a run at someone like Cashner from the Friars to go along with Kelly and some of the young arms they have in their system.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:11 AM) I realize that there are seven players who are at risk for the Rule 5 draft if not placed on the 40, but how many of the seven, if any, are really at risk of getting plucked? I know the Sox managed to stash a catcher on the roster for a year, but that's a lot harder to do at other positions. I would say the six of the seven have a decent shot at being selected. Smith is probably the longest shot as a 27 year old C who still hasn't made it to AAA. But the rest of the bats could serve as a bench bat next season, either for the White Sox or someone else. I think all of the pitchers would be appealing as bullpen options to try and hide them.

Looking ahead to FA, the Sox are going to have some interesting choices to make regarding the 40 man roster. There are currently 42 protected on the 40 man roster with Nate Jones and Paulino on the 60 day DL, both of whom will need to be re-instated after the conclusion of the season. Free Agents Dunn Lindstrom Konerko Team Option Paulino $4M or $250K buyout Non-tender candidates De Aza Beckham Belisario DFA possibilities Maikel Cleto Jared Mitchell Frank De Los Santos Raul Fernandez Players that need to be protected on the 40 man roster Andy Wilkins Kevan Smith Rangel Ravelo Tyler Saladino Scott Snodgress Chris Bassitt Francellis Montas Players likely to be added to 40 man roster Carlos Rodon So if everyone identified is removed and everyone added, the Sox will have room to sign one FA this off-season, and thats without leaving room for Micah Johnson to be added.

Wonder if this punches his ticket to the AFL?

I really think the majority of additions to the roster next season come from the trade market. I expect Alexei will be made available for the right return in the winter meetings and that Hahn will make a run at Tomas and probably at Pedro Alvarez as an alternative to re-signing Dunn. I think Alexei could go for a pretty good return as the Red Sox and Yankees are both likely to be in the bidding along with the Dodgers if they feel that Hanley either won't sign or has a future at 3B.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 18, 2014 -> 11:13 PM) I am a fan of making a run at Melky Cabrera. I am even guessing that 4/60 to 5/75 is the type of deal we'd be talking about. No thanks. Melky performs in contract years and that about it. That is awfully suspicious for a verified PED user.

I think the Sox will look at a college player next year in the first round again to try and add another piece to the core. Vanderbilt has two RHP's that should go in the range that Sox will be picking and OF DJ Stewart from FSU seems like a guy that could move quickly to fill a void in the OF. He hit .351/.472/.557 this season, numbers that compare favorably to this years #10 pick Michael Conforto.

Sox have made it up to tenth, so they are in protected pick territory. Sounds like a deep class of HS OF and some more pretty good HS pitching in next years draft. Nix and Aiken may also be available again based on rumors that they may be looking at going to a juco together.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 14, 2014 -> 12:59 PM) If you take Buddy Bell at his word on White Sox prospects, there is no reason they won't be fielding an All Star team the last few years.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 12, 2014 -> 08:26 PM) Publically. What are they going to say, "yeah, Tony tried to go at him." There's another liable law suit. They can't have this type of black eye in the sport.It wouldn't have happened if Ward hadn't walked on the track. It also wouldn't have happened if Stewart didn't happen to be in such a high line. As I've said it's pretty odd that out of all the times in the past that racers have done this, not a single one has ever been hit. Stewart must be an awful driver. Stewart was on a high line because he was directly behind the car that swerved to miss Ward, once that car swerved out of the way Tony started heading toward the bottom of the track and Ward ran to try to catch him. Confrontations ON the track do not happen very often in any level of racing. Confrontations in the pits and by the trailers after races are not that uncommon. Most times when someone has been on the track it has been to yell at the driver or flip him off (or throw a helmet at them), you NEVER see a guy run right up to a moving car in the middle of a race. The kid made a bad decision in the heat of the moment and paid the ultimate price for it.

QUOTE (Tmar @ Aug 12, 2014 -> 01:26 PM) You don't really needed to accelerate to get away from the confrontation, he is in a car, in less than a second he will be yards past him and the confrontation can't escalate. If the kid had a rocket launcher, then yeah accelerate to get away but otherwise there is no valid need that I can think of It is a pretty common practice in those types of situations. He would have no desire to stop get in a fight and be DQ'ed. While they were under a yellow flag, the race was still going, the yellow flag is not a pause button and if he stops and gets lapped in takes him out of contention. I am sure he had no idea that the kid was going to thrust himself into harms way the way that he did.

This makes sense for Boston as they are going to have a hard time protecting all of their rule V eligible guys on the 40 man roster. Blake Swihart, Matt Barnes, Sean Boyle, and Eduardo Rodriguez are all top 20 guys that will need a 40 man spot, they do have 4 FA's at the end of the season, but want to re-sign two of them in Ross and Uehara. So shipping out multiple prospects in a deal for a player makes a bit of sense to clear some 40 man roster spots and acquire an elite player without having to overspend in the FA market.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 04:20 PM) Why is Tony Stewart still racing on dirt tracks, that is my question in all of this. I know little about auto racing but what is the difference in that and Kane playing hockey in a church league? Its really a passion of his, its a hobby, and it means a lot to those small town dirt tracks that they can promote having a Sprint Cup level driver at their track. The sprint cars are not really like any other cars, they get so much lift that they are almost hovering on the track, especially a dirt track, which is why it is common for a car to fishtail when it is rapidly accelerated. The kid had no business being on the track. Yes, his car was spun around as happens in racing quite often, but running into the middle of traffic was not going to rectify the situation. From the video, it looked to me as if Stewart was following the first car around and didn't see the other driver until the front car broke to the bottom of the track, at that point it looked like he sped up to get around Ward to avoid an altercation on the track and when he accelerated his right rear tire caught Ward. What I could not see is what Ward did when Stewart tried to break to the bottom, did he run after him and put himself in a danger zone or did he keep his distance knowing the way that sprint cars handle very loosely on dirt tracks? You can not really tell from the angle of the video. In almost all racing venues you are discouraged from ever leaving the protection of your car on the track, unless there is some imminent danger - such as the car being on fire, until the safety crew arrives.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 12, 2014 -> 12:49 AM) Greg will have a coronary episode. You've got Headley, Morrison, Adam Lind, Sandoval, Melky Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Colby Rasmus...not sure about Dave LaRoche. Didn't he sign an extension? Seth Smith did, for sure. Parra's going to be out there. With how poorly Kendrys Morales has been hitting, he would surely be available. Morneau, if the Rockies dump Tulo/CarGo/Cuddyer, etc. It would be interesting to see what type of package it would take to acquire CarGo? The answer is one we probably don't have that doesn't require gutting our minor league system again. I am not sure any of those guys are real power options. Lind has a team option that will be exercised. Martinez, Rasmus, and Sandoval will each cost a draft pick. LaRoche is a FA, but he isn't much different than Dunn. Headley is intriguing but I think he will re-sign before he hits FA. Morales will be a FA, but again I am not sure he is an upgrade in anyway. CarGo is interesting, it would take a deal involving Q as the Rox need high end pitching, and I am not sure that the two sides could match up on a deal.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 11:10 PM) Yeah the Braves pitcher was Mike Minor or Ervin Santana too. Upton doesn't really make sense on this team though. Those are only two of the three teams though, you would have to imagine that Upton was headed elsewhere if that were the discussion.

QUOTE (QuickJones81 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 09:01 PM) Can someone explain to me why home runs are so rare, and hitting seems to be so far behind pitching in general in that league? It strikes me as really odd because I feel like that country is more known for producing exceptional position players. I think a lot of it has to do with experience, there are a lot of handlers in the Latin countries that will not let their position players hit off top flight pitching and some will keep them from playing live competition altogether and only allow them to be seen by scouts in showcases. Its why it is also really hard to evaluate the tools of some of these 16 year old players as a lot of the raw plus power that you hear about is from batting practice and not from actual games. For many of these hitters, it is the first time they have faced such a concentrated amount of quality pitching, you may see one or two quality guys a month instead of 3 or 4 every night.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 08:45 PM) He is a candidate to bounce back, but to pay him $1 million this year and then have an arb eligible player at his figure makes no sense. Someome will sign him in the offseason at a steep discount. If it is Hahn, fine. You can also negotiate a deal in the offseason to avoid arbitration. This isn't some guy like Henry Rodriguez that has never been able to put things together, this guy has 71 career saves and 3.46 ERA and 3.74 FIP over 273 IP. This season has been a trainwreck for him, but he just turned 29 and is a good candidate to bounce back. He is likely to make around $4M next season, and that isn't really an obstacle given the teams current payroll obligations.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 10:34 PM) I'm sure we will hear Jose Tabata's name bandied about more than a few times this offseason for the White Sox... I think Hahn is locked in on a LH bat to add to the OF, per his comments on Rusney Castillo.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 04:56 PM) $3.8m and arb eligible. Biggest change is he started walking way more dudes. Striking out a few less but still above 8 k's per inning. We need to take a flyer on this guy if he falls to us. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/08/pira...assignment.html Agree, relievers tend to be up and down, and Frieri still has a lot of talent even though his results this year have been less than effective. Great player to take a flier on and then hope for a bounceback season next year to trade him at the deadline.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 09:30 AM) Well that and apparently taking walks/getting onb ase. Thats why I said, drawing walks. He will be a useful player, I just think he had a really hard time recognizing pitches which contributed to his high walk and K totals. He really had limited exposure to AAA pitching before his time in the majors so seeing some of those pitchers will pay off for the Sox down the road. I don't see the benefit at this point of replacing Beckham with anyone in AAA, if this were a team in striking distance of the playoffs the move would make sense, but no reason to bring Semien up again until he starts dominating AAA. His numbers have come up to a level of competency in Charlotte, but he is not putting up the type of numbers that make you think that he is going to come up and thrive.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 07:36 PM) This is not to mention that the disappointing version of Semien this year still outperformed what we've gotten from Gordon this year. Thats not true. Beckham - .223/.269/.350 17.1% K Rate and a BABIP of .252 Semien - .218/.287/.327 31.5% K rate and a BABIP of .314 The only way that Semien outperformed Beckham this season was drawing a walk and getting luckier with balls in play.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:45 PM) The Cubs are not going to trade major prospects for guys making almost $25M per year. If they're willing to pay top dollar, they'll buy their pitching in free agency. Otherwise, they'll trade for pre-arb guys that are both cheap and have a better chance of fitting into their competitive window. Why take a chance on missing in FA when you can get your guy now? Why let the Phillies negotiate with all 29 teams when you can have an exclusive window?They have a surplus of prospects in the minors and need to really start turning things around on the ML level. Their IF is now full and they have 2/3 of their OF that they intend to compete with.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:50 PM) You mean other than hit for power, draw walks, reduce his strike out rate, and get killed by a poor BABIP. I'm not saying Semien is perfect, and perhaps there are still things they are in need of working out, but he has been a lot better than people think in AAA despite the .238 average. His OBP was .287 and his slugging was at .327, both numbers below what Beckham has produced this season and over his career. I am not saying the Sox need to move on from him, he is doing what he should be doing at AAA, working on adjusting his game to the upper levels. Coming into this season, I did not want him on the ML roster as I thought he was being moved along to quickly. There is no harm in keeping him at AAA for the time being. Semiens AAA K rate is inline with what he has put up all through his minor league career, then doubled when he hit MLB, which would lead me to believe that he was in over his head a bit. I think he should finish the season in AAA getting his work in defensively and come up once the Knights season is over.

I changed the tiers a bit Tier 1: Top of the rotation Carlos Rodon Spencer Adams Francellis Montas Tier 2: Mid-rotation Chris Beck Jace Fry Adam Lopez Tyler Danish Tier 3: Back-end stater Scott Snodgress Mike Recchia Chris Freudenberg James Dykstra Luis Martinez Jordan Guerrero Zach Thompson Tier 4: High Leverage Reliever Andrew Mitchell Brad Goldberg JB Wendelken Myles Jaye Kyle Hansen Chris Bassit Terance Marin

My tiers: Tier 1: Superstar Tim Anderson Tier 2: Star / Above Average Courtney Hawkins Trey Michalczewski Micker Adolfo Carlos Sanchez Tier 3: Starter Micah Johnson Matt Davidson Brett Austin Jacob May Marcus Semien Adam Engel Jake Peter Tier 4: Bench/Role Player/AAAA Cleuluis Rondon Rangel Ravelo Zach Fish Tyler Saladino Mason Robbins Andy Wilkins Keon Barnum