witesoxfan

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 12:35 PM) How is it adding fuel to the fire? They can afford to patch over their mistake by signing a couple of free agents over the next two years and by not cutting payroll. Because what you are assuming isn't correct either. There's no guarantee that a moral and ethical development in Latin America presents the Sox with 2 regulars from Latin America. Williams was not spending much as it was on the minor league system, instead using that money on the major league team. The $600K Silveiro signing was the biggest for the Sox during a period of time when top amateur international free agents were signing for $2-4 million. They weren't spending down there as it was. Right now, the major league roster is in very poor shape. With a ton of creativity and a lot of parts moving around, you can get some semblance of a competitive team this year. By simply throwing money at players on the wrong side of the aging curve and giving them 4 year deals, you are talking about buying their most productive years while the team is going to be poor and then seeing their performances fall off during the last 2 years when the team is supposed to be competitive. When you do that, you end up like the Mariners of the late 00s, fluctuating between 65 and 80 wins with one season where they found a lot of luck and ended up winning around 85 or 87 games. Instead, they should make like the Athletics and acquire packages of prospects, buy low on players, and bring in undervalued players. If you look at the current Athletics team, that's exactly what they've done with the one exception of Yoenis Cespedes. The Sox need to buy low on players (Josh Johnson and John Jaso are examples of that) while otherwise getting and remaining young. Signing, say, Curtis Granderson would not do that, especially now that they have to give up a 2nd round pick for him. He's older and had already shown signs of decline prior to this past (freak) injury plagued year.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 11:44 AM) I'm not supporting A-Rod, but this has turned into a witch-hunt and MLB is starting to look kind of silly. This is going to be amazing to follow. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Go ARod

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 11:53 AM) What do Rick Hahn, Jerry Reinsdorf and Ryan Braun all have in common? At least one of their proper names starts with R.

QUOTE (midway @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 11:59 AM) I just looked at the Sox 40 man roster and found a few names that could be gone....Brent Morel {please}, Blake Tekotte {Minor League roster filler at best},Frank De Los Santos and please, please dump Dylan Axelrod {I can't watch him pitch one more inning without throwing up!!! There's no need to get rid of Dylan Axelrod at this point. He might be the 7th or 8th best option in the rotation right now and the 10th or 11th best in the bullpen, but he's an arm with MLB experience that they can still stash in the minors. If they need a quick call up for a spot start, he makes the most sense of any player in the organization right now. Also, the Sox just acquired Frank De Los Santos. I doubt he's going anywhere at this point.

No way they'd take Dunn, but give them Viciedo and call it an offseason. I don't think the Sox would need to do anything else.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 10:55 AM) I'd love to send Alexei for Piscotty. Gives us a prospect for the corner that we need badly and opens up a job for Garcia/Semien. Would be a huge win for both teams, IMO. Agreed 100%

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 10:50 AM) what was the "jenks" game? cant remember http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MI...201007180.shtml

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 10:47 AM) With all due respect, when a team's former player personnel director is in jail because he embezzled funds by finding players who had no chance of playing in the majors, that's a little different than a bad trade here or there. Of course, signing a guy like Salty and adding another player next year is not the preferred way, but the organization made its bed when it hired Wilder. I understand and it's a little brash to compare, but to suddenly jump to conclusions and spend money simply because you hired a crook isn't rational. The only thing you can do is try to correct the initial mistake and move on from there. Spending $15-20 million on free agents because Wilder embezzled money is merely adding fuel to the fire.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 03:50 PM) Lots of people have said this because this country has a substantial amount of racist s***heads in it. That's why I added the "rational" qualifier to it. I don't consider racist s***heads to be rational.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 09:54 AM) That's fine going forward, but the Sox have to fix the problem that the criminal mismanagement of the farm system has caused with the current roster. I would say it cost them two core players, not stars necessarily, but say regulars. They should be willing to find those players via free agency. They made multiple $250K+ signings last year and a $1M+ signing this year in Latin America. The Wilder scandal was a knife wound to the chest, but signing mediocre to bad free agents to multi-year, multi-multi-million dollar contracts to fix a problem that occurred 7 years ago is absurd, ridiculous, and it outright does not make sense. That's similar to saying that the Sox need to make another trade this offseason to make up for the failed experiment that was Nick Swisher, or that they need to trade for a starter to replace Jon Garland because they traded him to LAA for Orlando Cabrera. No, they don't, because it happened forever ago. Let bygones be bygones

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 09:58 AM) It depends on the number of at bats he if going to get, a lot like Profar with the Rangers. He can platoon at 3B and spell the SS and 2B on other days. Its a way to immerse him without throwing him completely to the wolves. If he can not get consistent at bats, then you're right he doesn't fit on the club. Kinsler was also hurt for part of the year and the Rangers really did not have a set DH all year either. I just don't see how he'd get the plate appearances necessary to justify it. Keep him in the minors or start him in the majors.

Kozma is a worse version of Brendan Ryan. He is going to have a career in the majors, but it should be as a fill in player at 2B, 3B, and SS off the bench.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 09:34 AM) I expect Keppinger, Santiago, Reed, and Ramirez will be dealt. It makes no sense to move Viciedo now as his value is as low as its ever been. Beckham and Semien can battle for 2B and the other will fill the UT role that Keppinger has. Ramirez value will go up after Drew signs. The absolute, 100% worst thing you do with Marcus Semien is use him in a utility role. If he is a utility player coming out of Spring Training, I would personally consider driving to Chicago to request that Rick Hahn and Robin Ventura take a urinary analysis, because they would need to be high as s*** to keep Semien on the bench at the MLB level

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 06:39 PM) Having a catching tandem of Flowers and Phegley is the absolute worst option. It would not only show that they are indeed punting the 2014 season, but would show they have no pride in the product they put on the field or respect for the fans who pay to see major league baseball. Bringing back AJ at this point would not be high on my list of options but would be a last resort. Going into the season with Flowers/Phegley as the two catchers on the major league roster wouldn't even be an option. Over his first 765 career PAs, Jonathan Lucroy put up splits of .260/.307/.366/.674, including .253/.300/.329/.628 over his first 75 games. He's been among the league's best offensive catchers since that point, puttnig up splits of .295/.350/.477/.827. If the Sox go into next season with Flowers and Phegley, it shows that they are committed to the future and that they want to give their young guys another chance for one of them to separate themselves. Neither have them have much experience at the MLB level starting, especially Phegley, and that was the most he played in his entire career. He was probably a bit worn down by the end. I could honestly care less what the White Sox do with the catcher's spot because no matter what, it should be vastly improved next season.

Yeah, I'm not upset with $60 a year. It would make sense that they'd state a Silver account can access your MLB, Netflix, Hulu, etc, but that you need a Gold account for games. That really has been the best thing, and it's already paid for itself - I've gotten like 8 free games in the past 4 months or so, which is, at minimum, a $160 value.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 06:00 PM) Dick Allen made the best point in this thread. How do you feel when the Sox make $15M and finish second? It depends. I have no idea how I feel about it in that scenario. What's the alternative? Winning the division but spending $1 mill more? Winning the division, trading off all the prospects, and seeing them spend $40 million more with no hope of resigning players? Finishing 3rd and spending $15 million more? Finishing second and making nothing? All of those scenarios are equally likely and stating how I would feel either way is entirely hypothetical. Bottomline, the Sox are running a pretty tight ship right now, but they are losing people in the stands and need to start winning in the next 2-3 years. Signing a guy just to sign him is silly (Granderson), but making a short term investment at a position of incredible weakness to bring back a fan favorite to possibly increase attendance 2% may not be the worst idea (Pierzynski). The Sox are going to position themselves as best as they can for both the present and the future.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFan05 @ Nov 20, 2013 -> 08:18 AM) What about Jim Thome? The 2006 White Sox struck out 1,056 times, which was the 5th most strikeouts by a team in the league. The 2013 White Sox struck out 1,207 times, which was the 8th most strikeouts by a team in the league. The White Sox are making better contact now than they did in 2006 relative to the league. That's what you have to look at. You can't say "the 2005 White Sox team ERA was 3.61, which really isn't that much better than the 2013 White Sox, who put up a 4.00 ERA" because the talent level has shifted from the offensive side of the ball to pitching and defense. The 2012 White Sox scored 748 runs, which was 4th best in the AL. The 2005 White Sox scored 741 runs, which was 9th best; thus, the 2012 White Sox offense was far better than the 2005 White Sox offense.

I wouldn't sign Oswalt, but he was incredibly unlucky. There's no reason he should have put up an ERA over 8 with the peripherals he had.

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 07:17 PM) Then they won't happen. That's just silly talk. The Sox have made deals that have been rumored quite often in the past. This would be no different. QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 07:42 PM) Santiago is not going anywhere That's a silly thought too. He's really one of the likeliest pieces to be moved. It doesn't mean he will be dealt, but I think odds favor him going.

f*** squirrels yo

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 04:26 PM) Yes, Gronk had a 0% chance of ever catching that ball. Take away his defender and he still doesn't catch that ball. He's going to the back of the endzone whereas the carolina defender and the ball were towards the middle of the end zone. In .25 seconds he's not changing direction and diving forward 2-3 yards. I don't think it was catchable based on the where the ball was and where Gronk was headed even with the contact. There's no way he catches that ball even if it's not intercepted. The interception just further establishes that it was never going to happen. Are you kidding me? He's right there. Watch the GIF again, visualize no defenders, and look at where Gronkowski is. He has to take like maybe 2 steps. I've said all along that I don't think Gronkowski comes up with that catch, but I think he can at least prevent the INT from happening and perhaps punching it up into the air, and he can certainly make the catch too.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 04:05 PM) Paulie's major league clock started in '97 and Dunn's started in '01. Paulie also turned down better offers to stick with Sox where Dunn went where the money was. To show how much contract figures changed: Dunn's last year of his rookie contract: 13.5 million Konerko's last year of his rookie contract: 8.75 million This is said quite often, but I really don't believe this is the case. The 3 teams that have been interested in him have been LAA, Baltimore, and Arizona, and I really don't think he's ever really gotten a better offer from anyone else.

Was it a hometown call? http://regressing.deadspin.com/the-real-re...7689096/@kylenw I don't think that's absurd, and they aren't saying the refs are homers either.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 02:56 PM) I am curious to what you find interesting about Floethe. Guy can hit 93 with sink and has decent breaking stuff. I pay attention to any arms the Sox bring in. Odds are good it's nothing, but they can change a slot or add a pitch and suddenly they look good. Most likely, he ends up as organizational depth.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 19, 2013 -> 02:08 PM) But to keep on their big league roster for the full year? That's a stretch to me. Maybe the fact that he could be a utility guy would help, but putting him on the big league roster at age 22 when he clearly needs AAA level at bats would seem like a pretty poor move by any team that claimed him. For a team like the Astros or Marlins? I don't think it'd be that big of a deal. If you think his ceiling is, say, .300/.350/.400 and he can play a serviceable 2B or SS in the future, you can stash him as a 2B/SS/3B utility guy and let him struggle to the tune of a .225/.275/.300 season so long as he's getting ABs and getting better.