witesoxfan

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 06:35 PM) And Yolmer Sanchez is DHing and batting clean up vs. Clayton Kershaw. The tank is on.

Well this was from nothing to something to nothing to FIRE EVERYWHERE in a span of like, oh, 20 minutes.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 06:13 PM) Just had a funny thought with a few ironic twists. All winter long Huntington refused to pull the trigger on Q because of Meadows. Meadows is having a down year as well as two (Glasgow/Newman) of the prospects offered for Q. Now, Q is with their division rival for at least the next three seasons. Oh, and the Sox got a better OF prospect to headline the deal. Hope Huntington and Meadows are happy together. I'm not sure the Pirates were ever serious contenders for Quintana. I know they were interested, but it sounded like they wanted him as if the market was going to undervalue him. This offseason always felt like the Astros or Yankees were the favorites, and then the Cubs rotation blew up and they became a perfect fit.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 06:13 PM) Does Hartford have some ridiculous park advantage for offense? Because McMahon put up a .326 average, .926 OPS, 19% K rate, and 9.8% BB rate in 205 PAs there before his ridiculous PCL stint. The nearly 400 PAs of excellent production in leagues where he is very young for level, including maintaining that ~20% K rate in AA and AAA as a 22 year old, make me think something may have clicked for him. You can be concerned about the PCL if you'd like, but I'd be excited about a player with his AA numbers, and the PCL isn't going to make his K rate deflated. I don't have an opinion on McMahon. He just speculated that Albuquerque was a good hitter's environment, and I think I probably cemented those beliefs.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 05:34 PM) JD Martinez traded to Arizona Really underwhelming return for Detroit, which is good for the Sox I suppose.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 04:59 PM) One thing that won't be the downfall with Kahnle is stuff. He figured out how to throw strikes. I have mentioned this before, but I really don't know of guys who all of a sudden found the strike zone for more than a couple of outings, and then just lost it again, but I am sure there are examples. To me he is like Matt Thornton who Copp changed in one side session and he was fixed forever. If Kahnle's control is fixed permanently, he is going to be really good as long as he is healthy. I was considering David Aardsma back in 2007, but even then, he had 9 BB in his first 20.2 IP. Again, I really don't care either way, because the Sox are going to make what they feel is best for the organization. Frankly, you do mitigate some risk moving Kahnle now, and given the returns the Sox have gotten for Sale, Eaton, and Quintana, maybe that's not the worst thing in the world. But maybe holding on and hoping that he continues pitching his ass off pays off and you get another huge return for him. I guess I'm just glad I'm not the one who has to make that call.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 04:53 PM) If Kahnle does the exact same job for the next 1 year that he's done for the last 4 months...he's worth a top 50 in baseball prospect. Maybe top 25. Reliever putting up 2+ WAR seasons, still pre-arb until after 2018 and under team control through the end of 2020? That's a top 10 in baseball reliever being paid $500k. The only reason he's not worth that yet is he hasn't established a track record of consistency. You might move him now just to get a head start on things, but you absolutely need a return to make it worth the trade. Exactly, but we've seen relievers come out of nowhere, pitch like this for a year, and then fall by the way side for one reason or another. You trade him now, you can probably get a top 100-150 plus a lotto ticket. You wait and he continues, then you are bringing in even better prospects. You wait and he flops, you are looking at a DFA and hoping to get a live body.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 03:58 PM) Their AAA team is in Albuquerque now, but I believe it's also a pretty serious offensive ballpark. And agreed on the BABIPs, his numbers scream out flukisk to me. I would say this is a safe bet considering Albuquerque is also a mile high (actually higher than Denver, 5,312') and has even thinner air due to the desert. EDIT: I have always wanted to say "higher than Denver," because there's not many times when you can say that and have it be true.

At the end of the day, the Sox should be shopping Tommy Kahnle very heavily, but if they do not get a substantial enough offer, they should keep on to him. I look back to Andrew Miller. The first time he was traded at the deadline, he netted the Red Sox Eduardo Rodriguez. The next time was dealt at the deadline, he netted the Yankees Freyereisen, Sheffield, Frazier, and Heller, which is a much larger and better package. The Sox are going to be bad again next year. If teams have roughly 100 innings to see a new and improved Kahnle, they are going to be more willing to meet the asking price. At the same time, if he gets hurt, then you're SOL.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 12:13 AM) Honestly shocked we haven't heard s*** about Melky...good Lord. Dude is swinging a ridiculous bat lately...doin it on the field. How have we not heard any contenders in on him? Melky is a one dimensional player, with that one dimension being his hit tool. He is not the worst defender, but he is not good. His arm is not a liability, but it's not a strength. He has a bit of power, but he's not a 20 homer guy. He is not the slowest guy, but there's a reason he doesn't have a stolen base this year. Thus, given all of those attributes, Melky Cabrera rates as a slightly above average player, currently on pace for just under 1.0 WAR for the season. Thus, teams in contention will be looking for other alternatives in the meantime, using Melky as a fall back option. It really wouldn't surprise me if the Sox have a couple packages lined up with teams for Melky, but Rick Hahn is letting them do their due diligence in seeing if they can't find someone better. Hahn isn't dumb and he knows what Melky Cabrera is. Melky will move, and I think he'll move before the deadline, and he'll be moved for a guy we probably haven't heard much of.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 16, 2017 -> 08:30 PM) If that is the market for bullpen guys, I'd still probably consider trading Robertson (his money could sign a comparable value trade chip next year and the extra 1 year on the contract has to be worth something), but he'd be the only pen guy I'd even think of moving. I'd be surprised if that's the market based on what we've seen spent on bullpen pitchers the last few years...but who knows. You HAVE to move Swarzak. No questions asked. You aren't resigning him and you aren't extending a QO. Send him for the best offer you get, even if it's organizational filler, which it won't be.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 17, 2017 -> 12:07 AM) Is the plan to only win 2-4 WS titles with young guys? Hope they are SO talented we just blow away the opposition? It seems to me teams that win WS often have a few veterans to splice in with the young studs. Royals had Zobrist and Wade Davis and some other older guys. Didn't the Giants have a few oldies like Uribe? The Cubs had Zobrist too as well as some veteran pitchers. If the Sox are unwilling to pay big bucks to anybody (like the Royals) they are going to have to copy the Royals financial strategy when they won their one title. That's all they are getting out of their run, though they did get in two WS. So the Sox already signed Anderson for a few years just as the Royals signed a handful of guys a few years back like Perez for a while. My question is ... are the Sox going to win 2-4 WS with only young players who will be winning the WS before they reach free agency? Will the Sox revolutionize baseball by winning WS titles with one of the lowest payrolls in history? Or will they have to suck it up and actually pay the piper on some guys like a good closer, a good setup man, a veteran starter to go with all the young ones, and a Zobrist type guy to go with the younguns. Will Abreu or Avi be around? It seems to me everybody is suggesting we will win multiple WS with these young superstars and will be able to do it on the cheap. Every time somebody mentions $$ even for a guy like Avi or Rodon, people say no way we'll be able to sign 'em or want to sign 'em. The Cubs spent some $$$ to go with their youth. The Royals didn't. The plan is to win ONE World Series with these guys while being competitive for an extended period of time and building goodwill with the fan base. If you win more than one World Series, then it's gravy.

The White Sox want to trade James Shields, Derek Holland, Mike Pelfrey, and Miguel Gonzalez. They do not want to trade Carlos Rodon. They would trade Rodon if the correct offer came, but it won't. Assuming my math is correct, by setting up the rotation the way they did, other teams have 3 games to see the first 4 pitchers. They have 2 games to see Rodon. It's that simple.

QUOTE (mac9001 @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 09:03 PM) I'd rate Bryant Flete and Matt Rose ahead of this kid. I would not. When I posted a small little update in the Sox transactions catch-all, I expected him to be a nothing. This kid has a shot at being a respectable player, as in the type of player the Sox should be looking for when it comes to returns on Swarzak, Frazier, Melky, Holland, and Gonzalez. Instead, they got him for international slot bonus money. I hope they make about 4 or 5 more deals like that. Also, it really says something about the Sox system when he's 17 in Texas and 30 in Chicago. Give it 3-4 years, and this Sox team is going to be looking awesome.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 09:38 PM) Pathetic offense Yes, because this team is bad and they are going to lose a lot of games. It is OK. In August, this is the exact game we want the team to have.

QUOTE (miracleon35th @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 04:11 PM) I didn't say that or think that. Hahn could have waited for another trade opportunity. This wasn't the first offer for Q and it would not have been the last. Who was more desperate to make this trade, Epstein or Hahn? There are reasons why the Sox and Cubs seldom make trades. Depending on how this one works out for both teams and both fan bases, this might be the last one for a long, long time. If we found out later that the Cubs had offered Jimenez and Cease for Quintana and Hahn turned it down, Soxtalk would have burned to the ground. I haven't seen a trade that made so much sense for both sides since December, when the White Sox traded Chris Sale to Boston.

QUOTE (StrykerSox @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 04:03 PM) I'd be interested to hear the rationale for this one. Jon Gray is a 25 year old with a career ERA of 4.95. His FIP is consistently 3.6 and his K-rate is decent. It's not a Coors thing either, since he's worse on the road for his career than he is at home. He got absolutely throttled last night, which will happen. He'd pitched quite well prior to that. Maybe I was a little overly aggressive about what I'd give up, but I would take Jon Gray in a second. Career FIP of 3.6, career xFIP 3.7. Way, way too early to write him off.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 03:45 PM) Cabrera probably has negative trade value unless the Tigers are pitching in 70-120 million, and I don't see them doing that. He's a 3-4 WAR player going forward, at best, and he's being paid like a 6 WAR guy. He's on one of the worst contracts in baseball given his decline, which was incredibly predictable. He's 34 and his been injury prone for a few years now. Oh I completely agree, don't get me wrong. I just don't see the Tigers doing something like that for a guy they've had for like 10 years now. He'll still hit 500 homers and might still get to 600 as long as his health holds up, which is no certainty given his size and age.

QUOTE (SonofaRoache @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 03:25 PM) My point is that picks 1-4 aren't sure fire to bring stars any moreso than 5-13. The bolded are the only guys I would call game changers, You always want to draft high but I'd rather draft 7-10 if it meant our young guys were playing well. I think you're underselling a few guys on this list. Rickie Weeks was a 2-3 WAR player with a WAR of 6 in 2010. In hindsight, yes, he was not worth it, but you can predict injuries and his talent and production while he was on the field was absolutely worth that of a #2 pick, even if he didn't age particularly gracefully. Melvin/BJ Upton too was well worth the #2 pick, as he was consistently a 4 WAR player for the Rays. Like Weeks, he also did not age well, but if you got 6 years from a top 5 pick like the Rays got from Upton, you take it and don't look back. Same with Justin Upton, who was a 4-5 WAR player during his prime, and he's still a solid player to this day. Alex Gordon was a late bloomer, but if you think the Royals were upset about taking him in the top 5, you'd be sorely mistaken, because he averaged 5.5 WAR per year from 2011-14. That is the definition of a game changer. Also, you'd be insane to say Jon Gray wasn't worth it. There is no one player currently in the White Sox system that I wouldn't trade straight up for Jon Gray, and other than Moncada, Kopech, Jimenez, and Robert, there are no two players together I wouldn't trade for him. He's one of the best young pitchers in the league.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 03:09 PM) He seems to be saying the opposite. I guess I interpreted it differently than that, but I may be wrong. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 03:16 PM) I don't think there is any way the Tigers would trade him for anything but top of the line prospects unless he really was sliding, which he will eventually. Time beats everyone. Who would have guessed Pujols OPS with the Angels would be .250 lowere than it was with the Cardinals while he still had 4+ years and around $130 million left on the contract? Right, it's similar to Abreu with the Sox right now. It would take a ton to acquire him because of the goodwill he's built with the organization. Even in a down year, he is much more valuable to the Tigers than anyone else. It may be fun to speculate what it would take, but I'd say the odds are similar to Cabrera playing for the Red Sox as they are for the White Sox.

QUOTE (credezcrew24 @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 03:03 PM) I'm really not sure that is a fact He's saying it wouldn't cost a ton of prospects to acquire Miggy. I don't think it would cost much, but I don't think the Tigers would do it anyways.

QUOTE (Quin @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 02:52 PM) I don't think so... So basically, they are getting Yrizarri for, uhh, free, I guess?

How do the new rules work? I always get confused. Would the Sox have even been able to use this money during this signing period?

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 02:44 PM) OT but A-Rod just said on FS1 that he thinks Dombrowski may trade for Miguel Cabrera LOL OK A-Rod.

QUOTE (Quin @ Jul 15, 2017 -> 02:25 PM) I like this, but why did the Rangers just sell him basically? Building up international slot money to sign Otani.