witesoxfan

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Oct 16, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) 3 years 45 million for Melky Cabrera is "outstanding" and a "no brainer"? Wow, I'm not opposed to signing him, but I guess my value of Melky is way different. $15M a year just seems like too much for a LF who will struggle to keep his OPS above .800 and plays below average D. 35 players had an OPS of .800 or better this year. The law of averages suggests you should probably only expect one per lineup. I'd gladly pay $15 mill a year for Cabrera so long as he can remain even a 110 wRC+ player, let alone the 125 he put up this year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 16, 2014 -> 09:41 AM) They spent nothing on that pen. They are all failed starters they collected and move into the pen. And Kenny Williams was doing the collect guys who throw 98 thing long before KC was. Yes he was, and I wish he'd (or they, rather) would go back to that. You can teach guys to throw curveballs and sliders and changeups but you can't teach guys to throw 100 MPH.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 16, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) I am just so sick of Jake Peavy. I get why he would make sense. I am just so sick of him, his attitude, and how that played out in Chicago. Call it personal all you want, I'm allowed to have a visceral reaction to a guy. Ugh. I personally loved his attitude in Chicago. He wanted to take the ball at any given cost and all he wanted to do was win. To me, that's more an indictment on his intelligence (pitching hurt or pitching when he should not have been), not his attitude.

Yeah, the KC model is to collect as many guys as you can that throw 98 MPH and go from there.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 16, 2014 -> 09:17 AM) Is there any such thing as a pitcher in this day and age who DOESN'T scare the hell out of you? Scherzer, Lester and Shields? Check. Masterson, check. Liriano and Volquez, check. Peavy? With how poorly he pitched for the Red Sox, and then how well he's done with SF, who knows what to expect with him at this point in his career. On a playoff team and potential World Series-winning team, he's pitching like a 2, whereas we only need a 3/4. John Lackey? Is he motivated at all to pitch next season? McCarthy? Check. Santana? Covered over and over and then over again. I would feel much more comfortable with Peavy or McCarthy next year than I would Volquez. Guys who exhibit good command of the strike zone. Frankly, I feel that way about Masterson too. I think those may be targets 1, 2, and 3 for the Sox going into the offseason. No draft compensation, no long-term commitment, no extraordinary cost.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 16, 2014 -> 09:24 AM) I'm so salty cause I only know of one World Series between Houston and Chicago This is awesome

Edinson Volquez scares the absolute hell out of me and I think he probably scares Cooper too. I don't think he's the worst option, but his command and control seems far too shaky. It's amazing to think that a guy who had a BB/9 of 3.32 just exhibited, by far, the best control of his career. It also came at the expense of his K-rate. If it were early to mid January, I'd be OK with it, but it definitely wouldn't be my first move.

I would call him up after 5 starts in Charlotte, assuming he's throwing fine (which I think he will be). He'll be working on command or stretching out his arm or something, but the reality is just that the Sox want to extend their time with him. I could not care less about his Super 2 status, but I do care about maximizing his service time with the Sox.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 16, 2014 -> 08:03 AM) After last night's game, Bassitt tweeted: "Oh bullpen how I have missed you" Without knowing or talking to him personally, Bassitt seems to have a very intense and focused demeanor and it's hard to use that out of the rotation. As much as I like Bassitt as a potential starter moving forward, I think using him out of the bullpen could prove to be a fantastic move for the Sox long term.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 11:13 PM) Erik Johnson was so bad. Man. Sox have money to spend and could easily swipe needed righty Shields from the Royals' grasp. In fact, it might be wise to steal Shields, Aoki and Butler and take away their mojo. Suddenly we have to worry about the Royals being the new Tigers. Hahn could really strip the mojo by signing those three Royals. Shields ... 3 years 45 million. Butler ... 2 years 12 million with option year. Aoki ... 2 years 10 million. Is it worth the risk? Throwing 67 million at Royals over 7 years? It's just 26 million to Royals for next season. Sox payroll is fine after adding the 26 mill. Just because the Royals are in the World Series doesn't mean you have to sign their entire team.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 04:03 PM) Thanks man, I knew I could count on Soxtalk to get me out of that awful situation. I won't go into details, but I lived in a fraternity house in college, and we ran out of toilet paper once and our treasurer was being a dbag and not approving the purchase of toilet paper. Needless to say, that's where the answer came from.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 03:30 PM) I hope you're right, I just don't see any reason to believe. Danks is a command-based pitcher, and from what is now a pretty generous amount of "rebound time," he can only touch his old velocity of low 90's by sacrificing his command. He's comfortably in the mid to upper 80's. When he's on, it'll play, but the margin for error is SO slim there that if he's having even a slightly mediocre night, he's going to give up BOMBS. I predict 4-5 good starts out of him next year that make you drool a bit, but also 4-5 total meltdowns and 15-20 starts of 4.50-5.00 ERA. To be effective he really needs to be near his best every night, and that's just too much to ask of anyone. I trust Hector Noesi far more than I do Danks. It's one of the reasons I'm a proponent of eating salary to move him. FanGraphs had a nice article today on Dan Duquette basically summarzing what he did and how teams can improve. Most people think of a GMs job and they think "he needs to bring in good players," which is true of course, but they also don't look at the exact opposite of that where GMs also need to get rid of bad players (the old addition by subtraction). I appreciate all Danks has done for the organization at this point, but I think if you can get rid of him, you can improve on his numbers too fairly easily (or at least replicate his numbers much cheaper, which opens a roster spot for another player...say some guy like Carlos Rodon). If you can't move Danks without eating too much, it's understandable and you try and figure out a way to work him into the pitching staff, but I don't feel he should be guaranteed a rotation spot due to seniority or a contract.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 03:12 PM) On another forum, I made some prospect ranking predictions that I got absolutely crucified for around midseason. I said by season's end, Rodon would be ranked around #20, Anderson would be in the 50-60 range, Micah would be around 80-90, Montas might sneak in the back end of a couple lists, and maybe even Hawkins if he continues his strong season. I think Hawkins may be the only one I get wrong, although I DID state a caveat in which he did not fulfill, so I'll give myself credit for the whole thing if the BA, BP, ESPN, and Fangraphs lists confirm some of my guesses. Yeah I see Hawkins' name mentioned a bunch. He has a pedigree as a top pick, but his numbers look nothing like that of a top 150 prospect, let alone 100. I'm one of Hawkiins' biggest supporters too, but anyone suggesting he be in the top 100 is a little too optimistic.

This Royals team is eerily reminiscent of both the 2005 White Sox but also the 2007 Rockies. Unfortunately, I was betting on baseball back in 2007 and lost about $100 betting on the Rockies.

Erik Johnson is very much in the Matt Davidson boat right now. You give him this year to figure it out and improve. Maybe he needs the offseason to recover, or perhaps it was a case of the "yips" where he was uncomfortable pitching and couldn't figure out what to do and everything compounded from there. This is definitely not the time to move him and he could certainly still develop into a capable pitcher for the Sox down the road. Even a move to the bullpen is possible at this point. Don't rule him out, but the Sox and we as fans are definitely in a "wait and see" mode.

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 14, 2014 -> 06:30 PM) Mike Rosenbaum , MLB Prospects Lead Writer Sep 24, 2014 top 100 prospects. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2209149...rankings/page/8 20. Carlos Rodon, LHP, Chicago White Sox 38. Tim Anderson, SS, Chicago White Sox 76. Micah Johnson, 2B, Chicago White Sox I just now got to actually looking at these and I think I'd disagree a little. Given his ceiling and proximity to the majors, I think Rodon is arguably a top 10 prospect, but he'd atleast be in the top 15 for me. Anderson seems high at 38 to me, but somewhere between 45-55 seems more realistic. I also think Micah should be more in the 85-100 range, perhaps with Montas in that same area. QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 01:17 PM) Maybe I'm just late to the party but I wasn't expecting Anderson to be that high on any list. Obviously means nothing but fun to see. There is genuine, legitimate hype around the kid right now. Needs to work on his hands defensively, but the bat is very legit.

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 01:58 PM) does anyone have a reason for this mass improvement. Magic glasses.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 02:35 PM) This year as in April 1st? Not much. Maybe 5%? This year as in, before Sept 30, absolutely. Barring a big fall in production this year, I'd put it at 90% he sees at least a Sept call up. I'd say there's a better chance than that. I really like what I saw from Sanchez, but I think the organization is much higher on Johnson. Perhaps as a way to limit service time, he stays down for a while, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Johnson makes it. I think the best man takes that job no matter what.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) Belt: You're right, prob not available. Just saying that's the TYPE of guy to target with a guy like Montas. Snider: Holy god Hahn would be instantly fired if he traded Montas for Snider. Yes he would. I really do and always have liked Travis Snider though, so it was weird when his name was brought up. He's kind of established himself as a perfect complementary player in Pittsburgh though and I think you are going to have to pay way too much to acquire him.

QUOTE (LDF @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 02:23 PM) is there any chance of MJ making the team this yr. Absolutely. I think 2B will be a wide open competition between Sanchez, Semien, and Johnson. I think Semien makes the roster regardless and will be used as a super sub.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 02:01 PM) This thread is a microcosm of what makes Soxtalk great. We got from WSI, to strange and disturbing, to Jose Paniagua, in under 100 posts. #soxtalkrules There is nothing strange nor disturbing about me taking my pants off.

QUOTE (SnB @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 01:36 PM) Jose Paninagua year right? First game of a huge late series w/ the twins - he comes in - we lose - we get swept. The only game he pitched for the White Sox and the last game he pitched in a major league uniform. I remember a lot of us were really excited about that move because it seemed like such a perfect low risk, high reward move. The Sox actually won the game he pitched in, which is commonly forgotten because it seemed to spark the Twins, and they won the next 5 games against the Sox. No matter what, 2008 was so awesome because it seemed like the Sox finally climbed and beat that hurdle of getting their asses kicked by the Twins. Then 2 years later with Kotsay and Thome and it was back to square one.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 11:32 AM) Not sure that is true. Below quote in September could be Hahn blowing smoke but September 4, 2014, 8:47 PM White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said this week Josh Phegley "forced himself back into the conversation" about Sox catchers with the work he did with Triple-A Charlotte this season. It's hard for Hahn to say "we don't feel he's not a capable catcher though" because that ruins any value he has. I don't see a lot of room for Phegley moving forward and agree with NSS that I think it'll be a minor for minor deal.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 11:12 AM) Among catcher talk, I just want to throw this in... there have been numerous signs in the past year that the Sox are not enamored with Phegley's approach and attitude. It is possible he's changed that, but he was benched midway through a game and through a second game in Charlotte during the season. And his defense is still a struggle. My point is, if I had to guess, I don't think he's in the org next year, let alone in the majors. I'd bet the org is happier with Nieto and even Smith as possible 2015 backup options than they are with Phegley. I think he can be a decent hitter too, but where do you play him on the field? OF? 1B? 3B? Not sure he can handle any of those or if it's justified to do so. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him traded.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Oct 14, 2014 -> 07:52 PM) October 15th: hi8is takes a massive poop and realizes all the toilet paper has been used. All you have to do is jump in the shower