caulfield12

QUOTE (brett05 @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 08:32 AM) Excellent Well you made it thru one sentence of one post. Top notch! No. Your Supreme Commander's words, not mine.

Let's all just move on now. By the way, the Russians are now are friends. We can trust them implicitly. And when all the unions are gone, ObamaCare, the minimum wage, the environment, the Department of Education, all public lands, gay people, the National Endowment for the Arts...who will you go after next? Oh, that's right...all those senior citizens and members of the middle class who have paid into Social Security and Medicare their entire lives. Then who in the world will be left to consume the products graciously bestowed on us by the job creators?

QUOTE (Tony @ Dec 29, 2016 -> 07:43 PM) The "tank-to-rebuild" strategy as you call it is a very poor interpretation of what the Sox are trying to accomplish. The goal is not to lose. That wasn't the Cubs goal, and it isn't the Sox goal. The difference between the goals of the 2016 White Sox and the 2017 White Sox is more about development than anything else. The Sox goal is not to obtain the #1 draft pick. The baseball draft is so much more of a crap-shoot than any other draft, the goal is to continue to develop the young talent within the organization. Have them take steps in the right direction. Would it be an added benefit for the Sox to obtain a Top 3 pick? Sure, but that isn't the objective. And in the specific case of Rodon, his develop is VITAL to the success of this franchise. In my eyes, getting a quality backstop to anchor the rotation someone to guide Rodon and others is vital in the development process. OTOH, we've seen numerous studies showing a HUGE difference in career WAR from the Top 3 picks in the draft, compared to say Picks #8-10. The especially hard part of this might be the race to the bottom from the Royals/Tigers (especially after this season) and if Buxton/Sano/Berrios don't break out, you've suddenly got 57 "very winnable games" (a disproportionate affect from the AL Central) for the 2018 Chicago White Sox. The obvious plus is the path back to second place isn't hard...but then you have to deal with the loaded AL East and AL West and even the Angels can't be down forever as long as Trout is healthy. To summarize, the Cubs aren't the World Series-winning Cubs without Kris Bryant. You need to get AT LEAST one impact/superstar position player from the 2017/18/19 drafts, and, IDEALLY, TWO MORE. With luck, we already have ONE in Collins, AND ANOTHER in Moncada, but the jury's still out.

I'd also like to bring back Dayan Viciedo, since we already gave Gordon Beckham that accolade/honor. So it's the Rymer Liriano/Dayan Viciedo Sox Reunification Tour. If all else fails, we can bring in Pedro Alvarez as part of a platoon DH, assuming we don't splurge on Jose Bautista.

Okay, just to be a contrarian, where can we start a Rymer Liriano Fan Club? Coats is just getting way too much attention, haha. The stated goal...to create a White Sox line-up with totally Latin American players. We've got Avi and Liriano for the OF (Basabe the most promising current prospect), Yoan Moncada, Carlos Sanchez and Jose Abreu for the infield, and Omar Narvaez at catcher. P.S. PLEASE RE-SIGN ALEX RIOS!!! Or Armando Rios. Just to annoy Greg.

Ooops. Thought this was Filibuster and we were discussing Sen. Dan Coats. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/dail...0904-story.html According to this, Scott Merkin should be around 51-52 years old. In that position, dream job, I think he'd stay as long as he possibly could. Especially to wait out the fruits of this rebuilding process which should have been started after 2012/13 but was deferred.

Except with that knee injury, you never know if he'll come back at 100%. Don't think they would trade for a player unless they've scoured all the doctor's reports and monitored in the spring. Possible, but unlikely. Plus projecting players from Mercer Univ. isn't a simple equation, either.

Upside Down. Balta now on the side of good, at least somewhat....while former SoxTalk heroes are being chastised for questioning the rebuild strategy and not drinking the Kool Aid the way they're supposed to.

Does anyone want to put statistical odds on Coats, Liriano, Engel or Jacob May being on a major league roster at the start of the 2020 season? The main benefit of them playing is the POSSIBILITY that just one of them is a 4th outfielder on a good team, like Saladino being a supersub/utility guy on a playoff-caliber squad. I'd take driving down the White Sox record into the 60's win total from the low 70's if it means not having to watch Avi Garcia for another full season. That said, the odds seem HIGH that they would continue with Garcia for more than 2-3 months if he's still in that 675-725 OPS range (due to his obvious defensive limitations). At that time (late June/July), you'd have playing time to give to the guys previously mentioned, as well as Davidson and anyone acquired via trade for some of our other veterans.

Or Frazier could go to the Indians...and they move Ramirez back into a Javier Baez-like role, with an emphasis on the corner outfield spots (especially if Brantley struggles with his health again). Lonnie Chisenhall is obviously not the first name that comes to mind for starting RFer on a World Series-caliber team, but they managed to get by with him last year. What were Ramirez's DRS numbers at 3B last year, compared to other positions over the last couple of years?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 28, 2016 -> 08:47 PM) Todd Frazier being a decent player is not the point. Todd Frazier not being a solid upgrade from what any other team has at those positions, and Todd Frazier basically being paid his market value for a 1 year deal, is what makes Frazier worth very little in trade. http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/po...ARBR/order/true He had a similar value to Matt Carpenter and Javier Baez, essentially 12-14 in WAR. Let's just put it this way, he was 14th out of 37 MLB players who had 300+ at-bats primarily at 3B. A season-ending injury to any of those Top 10 guys makes him extremely valuable. Not to mention that Jose Ramirez and Turner have to prove they can repeat, Longoria has a huge contract and has been spotty the last 2-3 years overall (rebounded in 2016), Rendon's battled a ton of injuries with the Nationals and hasn't repeated his breakout season. Carpenter's supposedly moving to 1B, as well. So you've got a clear Top 6 (or 7 if you include Turner), but any of those players 8-12 are pretty interchangeable.

Coats/Engel/Liriano/May...there's no compelling argument (yet) for any of them being everyday MLB players. Those are the ones who would potentially be blocking Avi (or vice-versa), along with Matt Davidson potentially getting some at-bats at DH. IMO, Engel and Liriano deserve a shot at least, especially if Engel can shore up the defense. It's easy to imagine some combination of Tilson/Engel (maybe Rasmus) and Liriano at some point as the Sox OF over the next 9 months. With Tilson's hammy and Saladino's back, we simply don't exactly how long they can hold up until March, at the earliest.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-blast...ory?id=44431926 Trump sniping at Obama now...that peaceful transition lasted almost two months, longer than most would have predicted. It's now coming into full conflict with the Obama administration's rearguard actions to protect his legacy. Hopefully the foreign policy issues don't blow up into a war while we're waiting for actual Trump directives to be put in place after the 20th.

I think everyone needs to start watching THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE to get the full taste of Nazi/Aryan Supremacy hegemony. http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/us/lost-cause-trump/index.html Confederacy's "Lost Cause" and how it parallels to today's charged racial climate under Trump.

Everyone is undervaluing Frazier here... He has a more than reasonable contract, and he's definitely not close to over the hill. Sure, we can play some combination of Saladino, Davidson, Lawrie and Carlos Sanchez (4th option) there...but Saladino has been the only one who has shown a hint of being a major league regular, at least so far. Lawrie (and Avi, to a lesser extent) are simply there to hold down the fort for Moncada and/or better things to come in the outfield. As far as Melky goes, with that contract, he's much easier to trade with $6 million remaining and another solid/very good first half, but AL teams will still be more his limited market (due to his defensive shortcomings). To summarize, Frazier is a much better defender with a fair contract at a much more important position. I'd put the odds of Frazier hitting .240-.260ish at a much higher level of probability than Cabrera repeating his offensive performance...and his defense is declining by the year. He's probably not worth what Nate Jones is (due to the current over-inflated values of back-end relievers), but he's definitely ahead of Jennings/Gonzalez/Cabrera. And probably fairly close to Abreu, for teams in need of a nearly guaranteed offensive injection with a solid track record health-wise.

Play Davidson or Saladino at 3b. Real outfielders like Rasmus or Saunders could be interesting, but only if they don't believe in any of their internal options for CF and that giving Tilson/Engel/May etc. time out there won't change their minds. Saunders had really good numbers the first half last year...not as much of a buy low guy compared to Rasmus, who could also raise his trade value demonstrating his ability to handle center.

Passengers was not easy to watch...the tepid response is understandable. (From a male's POV, Jennifer Lawrence is the only reason.) The premise could have gone in so many different directions that would have been more compelling.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 28, 2016 -> 12:56 PM) See that's the funny part. Two months ago, this front office should have been fired, and never allowed to work again. People were hoping the owner of this team would die, so that someone else could own the team. The same people who are posting gigantic lists of failed players now somehow believe that this same front office that brought us all of those players can't be questioned unless you have your own fully detailed plan in place to counter it with. The same people that brought us Rollins, Jackson, Latos et al are still the same people in charge. But now I have people telling me that I should not be allowed to question them, otherwise I might hurt somebody's feelings because they won't believe in the rebuild anymore. Literally nothing at the top has changed, but now they can't be questioned, even when fans have unrealistic expectations. Seriously I feel like I have walked into a Scientology convention. 50% of this is the Hahn is finally being given free reign to steer the ship...if you believe he and KW were at cross purposes. Personally, not even the worst GM in baseball can consistently mess up with these three huge assets in play.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Dec 28, 2016 -> 12:53 PM) The Twins minor league system is not in awful shape moving forward, but they are not a sure bet to improve (neither are we). Kansas City appears to be exiting its window of contention, Detroit is also exiting its window. Cleveland is in great shape for the future and will be the hill we need to climb. But, even there, their budget was stretched by EE and a series of pitching injuries...two starters and Miller, for example...would have the Sox right there in 2018 and definitely 19 if the plan is executed. We already saw it with KC hitting $148 million, despite their two year trend coming into last year. That CLE market, with the second worst media rights deal, seriously hampers them. And most hitters this past decade like EE just lose it fast in their mid 30's. 2017 is the only guaranteed terrible year.

And one legit criticism before returning to Quintana Talk...no overspending on cap limits for Latin American talent. Obvious that pushing the MLB budget once again took priority, but dumb in retrospect.

Someone please answer this.... Other than the Indians, nobody in the AL Central is well-positioned at all for 2018-20 so the overall loss totals won't come as easily as expected after this season unless the first wave has/had an 80% bust rate. Minnesota would have to see incredible turnarounds from Buxton/Berrios/Sano and they still will have to dump Dozier, for example. What team in the Central is better positioned...? To me, it's a no brainer that the Sox have jumped to second with their reboot, with KC and Detroit stuck and Minnesota perpetually unwilling to spend. What other course was realistic or possible coming into this free agent market? There just aren't many plausible scenarios. Three, we have no choice but to hit this right by 2019 or Hahn/KW will be gone and the team will likely be sold if the media rights deal is a bust. Otoh, with a Trump presidency...the business climate/expectations have increased tremendously, whether I agree with him or not politically. Either way, it's positive one way or the other. The White Sox doomsday scenario of abandoning Chicago feels much less likely today than half a year ago. 80-85% of this board is ready for a new/fresh ownership voice. JR's day came and went to control the sport with Selig. Having spent the better part of eight years being critical...it's a relief to see a light at the end of the tunnel, finally.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 28, 2016 -> 10:38 AM) You can have whatever you want. I just don't see it as very realistic. Neither were the Cubs getting to the NLCS so fast, coming back from 3-1 down in 2016 or Donald Trump winning. Nobody totally believed in those things happening until they actually did.

Cashman looked pretty dumb with the Loaiza/Contreras move and letting Q get away for nothing...it's not impossible to imagine bringing him back, but it MIGHT complicate matters a bit. He would have to face a new battery of questions about what they missed the first time, and giving up a haul like Torres/Frazier/Rutherford (2 of 3) would put a ton of pressure on him (about as much as possible) because of the fact that "casual" AL East fans or non roto/saber people just aren't familiar with how good Quintana really is. You ask the average Yankees or Mets fans, they'd tell you Jose is maybe a 3 or 4 starter, simply because most aren't familiar with him, and then there are lot of fans that just look at ERA, wins and losses, K numbers and the fact that he throws pretty hard for a lefty but isn't a fireballer who racks up 12-15 k's every month will make those same fans blanch a little bit at the cost when the hype around Torres/Frazier/Rutherford is so big (any Yankees' prospects, for that matter). Most Yankees' fans believe the team is just made out of money and can buy any starter they want...that's another perception issue to overcome. And then there's the fact that even WITH Q the Yankees might be coming up a bit short against the Red Sox and Blue Jays, and then the Orioles will always go bargain shopping for the next Nelson Cruz or Trumbo and strike gold yet again in that market.

Frazier really isn't connected to trading Q or not. It's whether they think he will be worth a QO, if they want to give Saladino/Sanchez/Davidson time at 3B this year...if they want to extend him, what they think they can get at the trade deadline compared to the offers they're seeing now, the cost savings on his contract (not completely irrelevant, especially in the case of Robertson's deal). Plus, holding him, Abreu and Cabrera pushes the White Sox into the mid 70's in the win category, and that's not going to get you anywhere close to a Top 3-5 pick with all the other rebuilding organizations around MLB todayl.