caulfield12

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 07:17 AM) Or their manager. What is his WAR??? Or WAR is just another statistic that is nice to look at but really doesn't translate to wins and losses. You could make a legitimate argument Rusty Kuntz (ironically a former Sox player not coaching for us) is the most valuable coach on that staff...and makes an equal impact to Yost.

KC isn't going to start the season with Dyson and Orlando both starting in the outfield and they're unlikely to get 0.2 out of 2b as they'll bench Infante for Colon/Mondesi or make a trade in June/July like they did with Zobrist and Cueto. Duffy and Young combining for 1.1 over two rotation spots is improbable as well. They will add another veteran pitcher (Gallardo?) and just picked up Gee for insurance. I guess this combined WAR stat right now is their best marketing tool for selling season tckets, but few Sox fans are going to be convinced until they start consistently beating AL Central teams in April and May.

About the only time we made moves that (supposedly) didn't make us sure-fire playoff contenders were pre-2000, 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2012. There was a lot of skepticism before each of those seasons, especially with getting rid of fan favorites in Valentin, Ordonez and Lee (of course, they'd already added Garcia and Contreras in 2004) and adding a huge collection of unknown quantities/rehabbing players/Iguchi/AJ, etc. It's almost impossible to be optimistic after seeing the Dunn 2011 fiasco and what happened in April and May after all the optimism and positive puff pieces last off-season.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 08:14 PM) KC is rumored to be after Gallardo. Can they afford to sign a FA pitcher and hitter? Not unless it's a second or third tier guy like Austin Jackson, Snider, Pearce, G.Parra, Victorino, etc. They would probably be hoping to pay less than Alex Rios' $10 million...Dyson and Orlando would platoon in RF, Cain in CF and ? in LF. They'd almost have to go with a free agent option or trade to fill LF, as the internal options like Starling are a year away at least. Among Lane Adams, Fuentes, Eibner, Martinez and Bonifacio, can't see them trusting a position to a rookie at that position with the Royals already committed to using Dyson/Orlando in RF...and Colon/Infante/Mondesi at 2B is yet another issue. Perhaps they could try Colon or Mondesi in LF...but doubtful. Rotation with Bonifacio is improved. Ventura Volquez Gallardo Medlen Chris Young or Duffy Zimmer or Almonte That provides them insurance for Medlen (two TJ's) and also the ability to stick Duffy back in the bullpen, as they have no LHR until Tim Collins returns in May or thereabouts. Overall, a lot more depth than a month ago if they were to sign Gallardo. They could also trade top pitching prospect Kyle Zimmer (but often injured) or Raul Mondesi, Jr., for a LF.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:53 PM) Bring back Mark for one year Does anyone really believe they're prepared to add $30-35 million to this year's payroll? There also has to be some concern about what Buehrle has left in the tank and how sad it would be to see two franchise icons go out in less than stellar fashion, after the way Konerko's farewell tour played out and all we could think was how he USED to be the best fastball hitter in the game before injuries and age finally took their toll. As much as I'd love to believe he would do just fine, a large part of me is concerned he would be better off retiring...especially if the team's out of the race early, it would be especially sad to see him pitching in meaningless games, rather than starting for the Cardinals, for example. As a lifetime Buehrle fan, he deserves that opportunity. Just don't think either will happen at this point.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:48 PM) Aren't Moustakas & Hosmer Boras clients? If so, good luck signing them to extensions. That's why I said the odds weren't that good. Not sure about Cain's situation/agent, to be honest. I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up with the Braves helping to sell out their new suburban stadium when they're ready to compete again. As far as Gordon goes, it's similar to Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle. He stays with the Royals, he owns that town for the rest of his life, gets his statue, Royals Hall of Fame, he and Sal Perez end up as the two biggest iconic symbols, with Hosmer essentially in 3rd when he departs via FA.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:41 PM) For the love of God, just admit you're a Royals fan. Just like I was a "fan" of the Twins and Tigers over the last 15 years. I knew just as much about those organizations as the White Sox when we were competing with them...but it's human nature to follow or emulate "winning teams" so there's much less focus on the Terry Ryan/Gardenhire Way than there was from 2001-2010. Surely that will change again if Sano, Buxton and Berrios continue on their predicted trajectories. I'm more than happy to discuss any of the AL Central teams at length, but I hardly see any comments here about the Twins or the Indians, other than the fact that Cleveland is looking to trade one of their young pitchers like Carrasco, Bauer or Santana and there's concern that Brantley will miss 3-4 months and they're also contemplating moving Kipnis to 3B if they trade for a premium 2B. What organization do you want to discuss? I've made a number of posts here in the last 2-3 days and 85-90% of them are about the White Sox off-season.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:37 PM) For the Royals, it's Gordon or bust. It'll be a battle with Angels, Orioles, White Sox and Nats. So you have Tigers, Angels, Orioles, Cardinals, Nationals...the White Sox are a distant 6th in terms of financial resources or playoff-competitive roster/s. KC has a roughly 25% chance at keeping Gordon OR signing Cain/Hosmer/Moustakas to extensions into their FA years. You also have to think that Upton might be more comfortable staying in the NL, where he's spent his entire career.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:26 PM) How many $100 million players have the Royals signed in their history? And the news today said they will not be raising payroll. The highest is Gil Meche for $55 million and 5 years, not too far off from Abreu/Dunn actually. Of course, that was almost a decade ago, when nobody wanted to go to KC as a FA and Glass felt they had to set a precedent by overpaying. There are rumors they want to keep the Opening Day payroll roughly the same as last year, but they will open the bank for Cain/Hosmer/Moustakas and Alex Gordon if they can get any of those four to come close to signing reasonable extensions into their FA years. The odds would still have to be considered higher to keep a player than for the Sox to bring a new player into the organization, fwiw. Obviously it didn't work with Zobrist, so they decided that Colon/Mondesi/Infante (since he is already a sunk cost) are better options financially. For their perspective, they have a limited two year window left. The White Sox have the opposite problem, their window has been pushed back to 2017 and more likely 2018. If there is any time in history they would go out and spend that money, it's going to be now...defending a World Series championship. That said, they have one of, if not the worst local media rights deal in MLB, and it doesn't come up for renewal until the White Sox contract with CSN expires (2019). For the White Sox, they're just fighting to get to 3rd place in the AL Central.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:23 PM) I'd like a backup plan just in case Danks or EJ completely fall apart, but the top 3 is just about as solid as it gets. Not to mention that Fulmer is waiting in the wings if they need him. Assuming Fulmer's just as ready to go in the first half of 2016 as Rodon was last year at this time is as dangerous as those who thought Rodon might fly out of the gates with Chris Sale-like impact. The one major blessing of entering the season without a fully-competitive roster is that young pitchers like Montas and Fulmer don't have to be rushed and pushed into the major league bullpen in order to shore up weaknesses there in order to "win now." At least that will be the case until we actually see the trade for Frazier/Cargo and simultaneous signing of Desmond, Cespedes, Davis, Upton or Gordon.

Where are these percentages coming from? Off the top of my head, you have the Orioles, Angels, Cardinals, Tigers and Royals who are all in a much better position to spend money than the White Sox (particularly KC if it's Gordon)... The last five years has demonstrated that those organizations with the benefit of new broadcast rights deals are typically the one who make these kinds of moves like Upton, Cespedes or Chris Davis that will clearly be over the $100 million mark.

Have gone through this drill enough times (eliminating teams that may be in on a player or trade candidate) to know it usually doesn't end up in the White Sox favor when the numbers are over $100 million. There's a basic theme here though: The White Sox need to make at least one "big" move before spring training, Two, even that big move PROBABLY won't be enough to push them into playoff contention or boost season ticket sales alone, not at this point, not without adding a second tier bat and second/third tier veteran pitcher. Three, making a pedestrian move (let's say Parra, Snider or Austin Jackson) while keeping Robertson as the closer for another non-competing season (and maybe 2017 as well barring trades, due to the dearth of help on the FA market next year at this time) is close to absurd. Trading prospects for a Frazier or CarGo type HAS to be accompanied by spending additional money or they're simply making moves based on perception/marketing and not really having an actual plan to compete.

New marketing tagline White Sox 2016-17: Stuck in the Mud

The Braves want to dump Markakis and might send prospects along with to sweeten the pot or subsidize the remaining $31.5 million due over three years...

One rumor is the Cardinals are offering Gordon around $80-90 million for five years.

Can Ethier still play CF 100+ games? Not sure we'd want to keep moving Eaton from a corner to CF and back again on a daily basis.

Why would the Reds also give up Cozart? It would be the equivalent of us trading Adam Eaton...if you want to be realistic, Mesoraco's more of a possibility but also extremely unlikely for a different set of reasons.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 12:45 PM) There's really no such thing as a low-risk, high-reward signing. Esteban Loiaza, Scott Kazmir, Colin McHugh, Jose Quintana, Bobby Jenks, Sergio Santos, JD Martinez

Why? Will Rongey stop being overbearing and condescending and magically produce a new and improved personality that doesn't shove down how great the front office is down our throats at every turn? I would honestly prefer Scott Merkin.

QUOTE (BigFinn @ Dec 13, 2015 -> 10:48 PM) How would you feel about a trade with San Diego: Adam LaRoche for James Shields. The Sox take on a big contract, but Shields is a still serviceable 3/4 starter. I don't think LaRoche is serviceable anymore. Shields will take away whatever remaining payroll flexibility we have to add a big bat. Not that the odds are that great of doing so. It would ONLY make much sense if you were trading away Quintana to support your offense, then adding Shields as essentially your #3 after Sale and Rodon. Still not sure what he has left in the tank, though. His stuff has degraded considerably from 2013.

There's no doubt that Cespedes and Eaton on the corners and Thompson in CF would give the White Sox a much better overall defense and a MUCH more exciting team. Cabrera would become the full-time DH and LaRoche would be essentially a PH and defensive replacement for Abreu. Once again, a win now move that still leaves the White Sox exposed to injury/quality depth issues and struggling to get league-average production from SS, 2B and CF (and possibly catcher). That said, it's 100% better than having 4-5 potential line-up holes, as is the present case. (You'd be simultaneously improving two positions by pushing Cabrera into LaRoche's spot at DH). Still think they'd need to get more offense from the middle than what Sanchez and Saladino are likely to provide, assuming Lawrie is a 1-2 WAR player. The problem is that at his age (assuming it's accurate and not in Alexei Years) you can't afford to give six years to Cespedes (let's say $160-170 million for six years) any more than you can afford to give $115-130 million to Alex Gordon for five years. Anything more than 4 years for Cespedes and 3 years for Gordon is playing with fire. As much as it's easy to assume we can heavily backload deals and easily dump Cespedes in the future, that doesn't happen quite as often as one would imagine with these huge free agent acquisitions...

Whoever signs Adam Dunn to a one-day contract for the SoxTalk softball game wins for sure...

But how many times last year did we hear how all of those FA moves weren't going to really set us back at all...or the Samardzija trade and fatal non-move at the deadline? 1000 times?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 13, 2015 -> 09:21 PM) Just remember, the plan last year was to "acquire big names via trade and open the team's wallet for big bats". This was also not the first time we had tried that plan. Those who do not learn from history... See Boston Red Sox for 3 of the past 4 years. DD will attempt it again, inevitably. The difference of course being that Danks/LaRoche/Cabrera/Duke and even Robertson wouldn't stand in the way of their going out and spending again and taking their losses in terms of sunk payroll costs. When we take a hit like that, such as Dunn, Rios, Danks, LaRoche...there is seemingly no moving on as the FO continues to attempt to extract any value possible unless it's someone like Keppinger, Bonifacio, Downs, Ohman, Belisario, Paulino, MacDougal or Linebrink that's under the $10 million threshold. Heck, even the Teahen deal was significant enough it forced the Sox to include Edwin Jackson in that particular trade in order to dump the dollars remaining.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 13, 2015 -> 09:18 PM) At the very least, right now you have to wait because the MLB domestic violence response is literally unprecedented. The rule is brand new and has yet to be used. Until you have some context for how at-risk you are for losing him for months/a season+ if there are multiple issues, you have to leave him with the Dodgers. From everything out there, they've backed off any assertion that he assaulted his sister or a family member and that whole investigation has cooled off significantly from how it was originally reported out of Miami. Chapman will probably be the one who ends up in hotter water, albeit he doesn't have the stigma of Puig's history.