Vance Law

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 22, 2015 -> 02:13 PM) To be fair, 2013 was Arenado's age 22 season. He is just now blossoming offensively. I do understand Quintana's value, but I assume the asking price on Arenado will be very high. .256/.291/.436 for a .728 OPS in his career away from Coors Field. While, sure, most hitters fare worse away from home, Coors is THE true outlier stadium. He'll be a good player no matter where he is, but it's hard to get a handle on what to expect from Rockies players after they're traded.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2015 -> 12:16 PM) My fun hope for a solution? Play Saladino at SS next year. Yes, this should be a no brainer. No reason spend money on Alexei. Get some 3rd baseman who can add some offense. As to the larger question, what anyone (including the front office) thinks today is pretty meaningless. We have all of these guys. The ones who perform the best should have the starting jobs/ should have their starting job taken away and given to another guy when/if they suck.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 19, 2015 -> 06:23 PM) Yes there is. He doesn't want to. He is lazy and has no interest at working at getting better in LF, why would 3B be different? His entire career he played short, which is 3rd but harder. 3rd is just shortstop for lazy people. By your definition he's a perfect fit. Near as we can tell, he's never played outfield in his life until starting this year in Fenway.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Aug 19, 2015 -> 04:35 PM) Also, Ramirez would have to DH as there is no way he should play 3B. Nope. He was an above average defensive shortstop 2 years ago and an acceptable one last year. There's little to suggest he couldn't handle third base. I'm not arguing that Hanley's without warts or even that this is the best solution. More arguing against dumb counterarguments at this point. With a team that has been deficient offensively and in need of upgrades at least somewhere, and with a glut of middle infield options under control, and with the virtual non-existence of catchers who can hit, so far I've seen the suggestion of no human who could/should play 3rd base for the White Sox in 2016 other than Tyler Saladino. Anybody who is smart and often has interesting things to say have any other possible thoughts? Eminor? Anyone?

There are a relatively finite number of humans on earth with a shot at being an average-or-above major league third baseman in 2016. If not Hanley, who could/should the Sox plausibly get to play there and upgrade the offense next year?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 05:48 PM) Hanley Sure . Hey Boston please pay all of his salary and then pay the Sox more to make him not your problem anymore. Literally the worst type of player to get for every reason all the previous posters have stated. There is nothing positive he could contribute that wouldn't be completely and utterly destroyed by the jumbo jet full of baggage on board. The Dodgers didn't mind his baseball hitting.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 08:49 AM) If Adam LaRoche insisted that he needed to be an everyday player and couldn't platoon then signing him was another foolish move. If Adam LaRoche was open to it and we didn't do so then that was a foolish move. And in either case, it was a problem that could easily have been seen coming. By this flawed logic, you'd rather have a guy with a .750 OPS and no major splits than a guy with an .817 OPS overall. Do you think that White Sox front office was unaware of this imperfection in LaRoche's game? Like you thought to look at his splits but all these guys who are ostensibly smart people and run a baseball team for a living never thought It's a f***ing guessing game. The Royals are GENIUSES because they signed Morales to a cheap deal because everyone else passed on him. The Royals are also f***ing IDIOTS because they signed Alex Rios for $11 million. The White Sox are IDIOTS because they signed LaRoche. The A's are bigger IDIOTS because they signed Butler. The Red Sox have Pablo Sandoval for 4 more years. The Mets signed Michael Cuddyer. Everyone sucks. It's baseball. The relatively tiny number of at bats LaRoche gets against lefties is not enough to drag his value down much if he's hitting righties like he always has.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 18, 2015 -> 09:31 AM) The bat has been essentially league average so far (101 wRC+) and projects to be a bit better going forward (111 - 125 wRC+ depending on the system). If you thought what he's doing now is what he's going to do going forward, you;d be insane to acquire him. But yeah, a ~120 wRC+ isn't worth $20m per year anyway. .907 OPS for 2013-2014. 8.4 fWAR in a season and a quarter (216 games) with decent defense all at shortstop. There is some price in $$ and prospects at which it is a good idea to acquire him. I don't know what that is. If not him, who, to improve at 3rd base? If not 3rd base, improvement from where? Throw infinity dollars at Matt Wieters and his 104 wRC+ (career 99 wRC+)?

Sox need of offensive upgrades wherever we can get them and particularly at 3rd. But there are no good free agent options unless maybe Ben Zobrist could be an everyday 3rd basemen despite having only ever played 6 games there. The other problem with bidding on Zobrist is that literally every single team could use him somewhere. Red Sox have 1 million outfielders and both Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez signed for multiple years. Ramirez has been completely brutal in the outfield and I can't imagine a scenario where they start next year with him as left fielder again. Sandoval has been brutal defensively at third, subpar with the bat, and has an additional year on his contract. He's presumably a lot harder to move unless they eat some of that salary (yes those were fat jokes). Red Sox need pitching, we've got arms in the minors. They should be motivated by the fact that they're paying Ramirez a lot of money to make them a worse team than with Bradley Jr. in the outfield. $68 million is a lot and maybe they'd kick in $$, but I don't see too many other avenues for White Sox to make a significant offensive improvement unless you're talking about a complicated overhaul with multiple trades. Perhaps something structured around Eric Johnson? Call me crazy. Do your worst.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 11:38 AM) No it isn't. There was absolutely no hindsight whatsoever in saying "Adam LaRoche should not play regularly against LH Starting pitchers and we shouldn't sign him if he insists that he must". Yes he's been worse against righties, but for the first 3 months of the season his failure against lefties was a major problem too. Hell, he's still put up a .700 OPS against righties on the year, even though that's fallen off over the last month+ while he's been terrible against everyone. He put up a .405 OPS against lefties and that's not that far from what he did last year. If he wasn't willing to platoon he wasn't worth signing. Laroche was 1 of the 20 MLB players who managed to hit as many as 26 home runs in 2014, and 1 of the 3 who were free agents . His .817 OPS was good for 28th in baseball despite hitting lefties poorly. It's reasonable to assume he had enough interest to pick a non-platoon job. It's also reasonable to assume that if he were putting up an .817 OPS right now, Sox fans wouldn't especially care that he wasn't hitting lefties well.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 11:12 AM) If he wouldn't have, then they shouldn't have signed him. That is fine hindsight. We all wish they hadn't signed him now. If he simply hit how he did last year, a good overall season playing every day despite bad splits, no one would be complaining. The fact that he can't hit lefties this year isn't the main problem, it's that he hasn't hit righties.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 17, 2015 -> 09:11 AM) I'm not convinced the White Sox ever planned on sitting LaRoche vs. LHP. I believe they signed him to be an everyday player, splits be damned. Do you think LaRoche would've signed if the agreement was that he'd be a platoon player from the start?

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Aug 16, 2015 -> 11:47 AM) Keppinger, Emilio, LaRoche. That's a lot of guys The Chairman has paid to do nothing. I wonder if he is ever going to call Kenny and Hahn into his office and say, "Fellas...." Look at how often the exact same thing happens on all of the other 29 teams and then decide if it seems like "a lot."

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Aug 16, 2015 -> 12:09 PM) In all seriousness, there is now just the one infielder on the bench now. But 4 infielders that can play any infield position. So for the 1 in a billion game where we lose 2 infielders to injury during the game, Abreu will have to play 3rd base. The chances of that happening in the next two weeks before rosters expand would be pretty minuscule.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 23, 2015 -> 04:31 PM) Daryl Van Schouwen ‏@CST_soxvan 1m1 minute ago Ventura on Soto: "He’s been in there more and more. The way he’s swung it has been pretty good. He’s going to get more time." Soto beating Flowers numbers has White Sox catchers up to an OPS of .677, good enough for 14th in MLB. That is the best ranking out of 30 that the Sox have for any position.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 23, 2015 -> 02:12 PM) The Astros are without a doubt the most sabermetrical team in baseball. So if you're a saber guy, and knowing how thin catching is league-wide, and they trade him for a rental, wouldn't it make you think they aren't very high on him? They released JD Martinez last year.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 23, 2015 -> 12:45 AM) Miller would be a league average hitter, so an average SS would probably be a little worse. I took a real quick glance and a .670 OPS looks to be middle of the pack for the position. That ended up being a pretty solid estimate. If you go espn, team batting, select 'as a SS' under splits it will give you the league averages. It is currently a .657 OPS in the AL, .686 in the NL for an MLB average of .672

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Jul 23, 2015 -> 03:22 PM) Exactly. That's why I followed it up with the bats part. But why don't you defend you asinine comment. Do you stand by your statement then? The only hitter better than him is Abreu? Bottom 9, Abreu just hit a triple, tie ball game, on deck ..... and you want .... De Aza over everybody on our team. That's essentially what you just said. The only hitter other than Abreu who has been better than De Aza this year is Soto. And that's in a lot fewer plate appearances.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 23, 2015 -> 03:06 PM) Close, Irish Ahh, very cool

My main takeaway from this is that Feeky is British?

I would rank Davidson in the #20 to #30 range. I would not bet money that he will ever produce a positive WAR in the big leagues.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 06:27 PM) I don't think it's that people are jumping off the Ramirez bandwagon just because he's down from his career norms. He's 33 yrs. old. How many average/slightly above average MLB regulars continue to put up career-like numbers once they get around his age? Not too many unfortunately. I personally think Ramirez's ability is starting to decline, and the last thing the Sox need is to pay a guy hitting like Ramirez $10M for next year. I agree and wouldn't be upset if he's traded. We'll see what happens. No way they pick up his $10 mil option, but that doesn't preclude them from declining it and signing him to a cheaper deal. I don't yet have a firm opinion on who is a better overall SS in 2016: Saladino or Ramirez.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 11:23 AM) The A's were always insane to think Semien could play at short. They can move him to second once they trade Zobrist, which can't be far away. Acquiring Zobrist was one of the Bill Beane-iest things Beane has done. Grab a guy to flip at the deadline who's an excellent hitter and can play several positions so literally every single baseball team can use him as an upgrade somewhere. Maximum competing suitors. Maybe we can ship them Alexei to fill SS.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 05:19 PM) Jordy Mercer is out 6 weeks with a leg contusion and knee sprain. Pirates are already without Josh Harrison so that's the whole left side of their infield now out. They have Kang who can fill 1 of those spots but they genuinely need another player over there ASAP. Called up some dude named "Brent Morel" and I think we all know how well that goes. Hard to believe we can't send them Gillaspie or Beckham or Bonifacio if not Ramirez.

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 01:53 PM) Adam LaRoche says hi! Yeonis Cespedes also says hi.