Vance Law

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 03:15 PM) The reality is that The "us vs. them" civil war that has ensued in the public sphere can be attributed ENTIRELY to the media, the center of which was Michael Lewis' "based on a true story" Moneyball effort. Michael Lewis wrote a book that was a true story. Hollywood made the fictionalized version.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 09:45 PM) Micah wouldn't fit the preceding criterion. While he most definitely could be in Law's top 120, he would be at least the 5th with Anderson, Montas, Rodon and Adams being the first four. Perhaps Danish over Adams but I doubt it considering what I've seen Law say about both of them. Ah yes, I see that now

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 09:01 PM) Soto can spell LaRoche against lefties, Kottaras can't. That's the key. But Kottaras could spell Flowers against righties. LaRoche will play a lot more than Flowers and won't be platooned. He'll get his days off when there's a lefty in there though hopefully. There is also another as yet undetermined bench member to go along with Bonifacio, Beckham, and catcher.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 11:57 AM) Gotta be. The fourth COULD be Micah Johnson, but I don't think Law is high on him. Considering MLB.com has Micah as the #2 second base prospect in baseball, I'd think he is that 4th one.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 04:17 PM) I agree to some extent. Some of the crap the White Sox have been counting on the past few years was a joke. Most rookies struggle a bit. Counting on Micah Johnson or Sanchez to be really good is a stretch. You do need some extra starters. But Rodon is one of the better prospects in the game. Johnson was supposed to be a good prospect. Beck, I would be dissappointed if they counted on him to be successful, and Montas, while talented, doesn't have a whole lot of work to hang his hat. Another starter would be great, but right now, unless you are going to spend a ton, you aren't going to get anything better than John Danks. And don't forget we've got a guy who pitched 129 innings for the Sox last year. Scotty Carroll.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 08:36 PM) Soto has 92 career homers in 2215 AB's (1 in 24 AB's), .436 career slugging. Kottaras has 32 career homers in 722 AB's (1 in 22.5 AB's), .411 career slugging. Not as big a difference as one would have thought. If you just go by the 2012-2014 seasons, Kottaras has done extremely well against RHP, .441 SLG and and a 785 OPS, versus Soto's more consistent .370-.380ish SLG and 670ish OPS against RHP and LHP. Soto has the bigger name, of course, and is more acclimated to carrying a heavier workload, but it's not as obvious as it seemed. You could almost argue that Kottaras should be the favorite based on that stat alone. Of course, Kottaras' numbers (and extrapolating them) are MUCH smaller sample sizes. Flowers is at .420 SLG vs. LHP vs. .371 vs. RHP, and a 683 OPS vs. a 659 against RHP. So Flowers would play full-time against LHP, and they would split time against righties based on the career match-ups...with Flowers getting 65-70% of at-bats and Kottaras 30-35%. Of course, that's not factoring in defense at all...which would give Soto the advantage, overall, but barely. Yeah I agree Soto, with his defense, will get the job if he's healthy. I hope it doesn't mean we have to let Kottaras go because he'd be a nice platoon partner if Flowers or Soto go down.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 08:17 PM) Well, I would guess the major motivations would be playing for a competitive team and the pretty high likelihood that Garcia, Eaton or Me.Cabrera will end up getting hurt. He's starting for the Giants now.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 06:45 PM) It also forces Soto onto the roster, because there's just not enough power with Viciedo gone coming from those other 3. Soto may get the job, but he doesn't have more power than Kottaras.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 06:16 PM) Wouldn't it have been better just to not bring back Beckham and give that money to Aoki as the back-up? Why in the universe would Aoki have taken a bench job with the Sox? Not even a platoon job. Same goes for whoever suggests throwing $2 million at "some" starting pitcher who would pretty much be guaranteed to start in AAA. Who is that pitcher? Why would they take that job?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 03:46 PM) Ichiro would have been the perfect fit. I'm dissapointed we didn't sign him. I don't know that 40 year old Ichiro is any better than Shuck.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jan 27, 2015 -> 04:31 PM) What happeneds to sanchez If Micah becomes the everyday second baseman? They add an infielder: Saladino, Sanchez, or someone outside the org and an outfielder: Shuck or someone outside the org. We could find that someone squeezed out of another team's roster is better than our current internal options for those bench roles. edit: I missed where you wrote "to Sanchez." Tough to answer that question with Viciedo still here. They could use Sanchez as the main infield backup, Bonifacio as the main outfield backup. But I don't know if you really need Bonifacio and Sanchez.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 24, 2015 -> 04:53 PM) Have to agree. Especially with Hahn saying that they are looking for a right handed hitting infielder. or even a hitting infielder. I hope Saladino's healthy and he gets a shot. Davidson, unable to play any positions other than 3rd, doesn't merit a spot on the bench even if he displayed that he could kinda hit spring training pitching.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 8, 2015 -> 12:48 PM) He's 6'0, 215 right now and running a 4.4? Good god that's insane. I don't think he's really 6 foot. Looks closer to 5'9'' to me.

Soto was awesome in 2010. Since then, he's hit .223/.299/.394 for a .693 OPS. 38 HR in 1100 PAs Kottaras since then .216/ .341/.425 .766 OPS. 22 HRs in 500 PAs. Those are pretty much exactly Kottaras' career splits against righties

Anyone know much about his defensive reputation? It'd seem kinda weird to keep the 2 righties, Soto and Flowers.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 12:19 PM) I'm not sure what you're getting at here, but I assume it's either (1) you don't need an awesome catcher to win the WS, (2) AJP wasn't as good as we remembered, or (3) WAR doesn't mean s*** for catchers. If it's #1: the fact that you CAN win without having an above average player at each position does not mean you wouldn't RATHER have an above average player at every position, so that's not a good argument for upgrading on Flowers. We should get as good as we can. Also, the key to what I'm arguing is that Flowers is not going to repeat even his mediocre 2014 season. If 2014 was "good enough," then we're likely going to have to deal with much less. If it's #2: Interesting If it's #3: You're right that we can't quantify C defense and gamecalling very well, but it doesn't change the fact that his bat is garbage. Again, 93 is passable if we think he's good at everything else, but he doesn't look anything like a true talent 93 wRC+ from his batted ball profile. You can throw WAR out the window and still see he's a bad bat. 1 and 2, I suppose. I get your points and agree it'd be nice to have a better catcher. His bat is not good, but neither are the majority of catchers. If you throw out Jaso and Gattis, who i assume are no longer catchers, his 93 wRC+ was 16th best in MLB last year. That's how few good-hitting catchers there are in the world. I get that he's probably due for a BABIP regression. There's also the possibility that his second half involved legitimate improvement. With a legit backup, he'll also get less playing time this year, and less at bats against righties.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 15, 2015 -> 01:37 AM) I really don't think it'll happen but regardless, they'd be able to fit him. They ran with three first basemen last year. One of Valencia/Gillaspie would make up one quarter of the bench. Then you have a catcher, Bonafacio and one more guy. You have already got every back up filled. By "the two of them" I was referring to Viciedo and Valencia (not Gillaspie). My point was just for if they keep Viciedo.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 17, 2015 -> 09:14 AM) Do you really believe WAR is that accurate for catchers? It should at very least be a good frame of reference. Would you argue that the value of the two seasons I referenced were drastically different? Pierzynski 2005 wRC+ 88 Flowers 20014 wRC+ 93 They both grade out positively as defenders and game callers. If you want to give a slight edge to AJ, that's fine. The point I was making remains: if Tyler Flowers is "a hole" on this team, well, you can win a World Series with a hole (see 2005).

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 16, 2015 -> 04:23 PM) Tyler Flowers, September: 43 PAs, .268/.302/.683/.985, 11 H (4 1B, 2 2B, 5 HR), 1 HBP, 1 BB, 18 K, 1.43 GB/FB, 71.4% HR/FB Bolded for emphasis. Tyler Flowers, June: 76 PAs .129/.187/.214/ .401 15 OPS+ .206 BABIP Sometimes he was lucky, sometimes he was unlucky, it all averages out to a Tyler Flowersy .700 OPS roughly. That doesn't seem unreasonable.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 16, 2015 -> 03:38 PM) I mean the salary is fine -- he's a decent backup catcher who just happens to be starting for us. I'm just arguing that he's a weakness. I know we can't expect Hahn to fix literally everything in a single offseason, I just want to make clear that C IS a hole on the current team. World Champion A.J. Pierzynski: 2005 WAR 1.8 Tyler Flowers : 2014 WAR 1.8

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 04:57 PM) You're right, out of 113 catchers, he was ranked 90th. So technically he was not the worst, but he's still far below average. Rene Rivera ranked 5th best, out of 113. Flowers was #28 in 2013.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 01:17 PM) Jaso is not catching anymore because of his concussions. I think we need another RH handed who could play 2B, 3B or a great defensive outfielder. In addition to Bonafacio, I thought Denorfia would have been perfect to round out the bench. Now my target would be Danny Valencia. I am worried the Sox are happy with internal options like Saladino and they think Valencia is not necessary when Davidson could put it together after Gillaspie proves to be unsatisfactory. Valencia would be a nice platoon mate for Gillaspie if the Sox get rid of Viciedo. But the 2 of them are too non-versatile to make up half the bench. I continue to assume Bonifacio is Gillaspie's platoon mate as of now. If they are keeping Viciedo, I would say please get an excellent outfield defender who hits left-handed. Someone like Danks. If there's one out there available who can hit better than Jordan, great. But who is that? Any mentions of Aoki or Rasmus would be silly. Those guys will get starting jobs

League-wide offense has finally come down to his level. Never forget Blackout Game final out. A genius stealth signing.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 05:03 PM) what, your point about the grievance? OK. It's a fair point but only tangential, thus I didn't bother to address it. He's (imo) unlikely to win, and even if he does, it probably won't be publicized. The issue of the potential grievance was what was pointed out in my original link. The other new bit of information (to me) was that if Viciedo stays through 2 weeks of spring training the termination pay goes up to $1 million. I don't know what your point is regarding whether or not the grievance would be publicized.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 14, 2015 -> 03:30 PM) Dumb question, but is it possible Viciedo made mechanical changes to improve against RHP which ultimately affected his ability against LHP? It's just amazing how much he's regressed against LHP over the past two years. Small sample size. We're talking about a handful of hits between his crummy numbers and respectability. Give him one more hit a month at his same hit distribution (3 more singles, 2 doubles, 1 HR) and his numbers look like this: .245/.311/.486 for an OPS of .797. My point is only that it's a small sample.