caulfield12

If the Texas gun was actually down, that means Miguel Gonzalez was actually throwing 92-95. That would be pretty hard to believe, giving the main reason the O's cut bait with him was diminishing velocity.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 10, 2016 -> 05:02 PM) Actually, Atlanta would send the Sox 5 mil. Umm...okay. Seeing as they just reported a $36 million loss, not sure if Liberty Media Braves group would agree with sending even MORE money out. They still have to deal with the Olivera contract on the books, to name just one. Then again, just biting the bullet and dealing Freeman and/or Markakis, at this point, it won't matter much either this season or next. One would think, though, they'd like to have a few recognizable names to open their new stadium.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...le76795062.html Yay, more "negative" KC Star articles to pacify Rabbit.

Maybe we should put Jewish star armbands on them to help with the identification process? Same thing we would do for any admitted Middle Eastern terrorists/jihadists/suicide bombers (not professors doing math equations on airplanes) to more immediately identify an imminent threat in the bathroom... This is reminding me of the scene from Borat when he brings the African-American prostitute to the "white traditional churchgoers" dinner party somewhere in the deep South and tries to make them feel uncomfortable.

Unless you consider essentially benching Avisail Garcia for the rest of the 2016 season "not upsetting chemistry." Nova and Pineda might be of more interest, but too early to assume the Yankees are going to sell off pieces in a firesale...Miller and Chapman would be priority target for most contenders as well. Plus, the Yankees are not just going to give Gardner away. It's definitely going to take some pieces Hahn doesn't want to trade.

Honestly, just throwing a bunch of names into a list isn't going to impress the Braves. Engel, still, at this point profiles more as a 4th outfielder than a sure-fire MLB starter. Hawkins is a bust. Danish looks more like a reliever. Adams is the main player they'd be interested in, but, since he's from that area of the country, I would think their local/regional scouts already have a good feel for whether they believe he has what it takes to make it as a starter. I can't see JR taking on $25 million in salary commitment for an aging Markakis (to send Melky to DH and bench Avi) AND sending even more money to ATL. I can't even remember the last time we sent $5 million to another team (maybe Linebrink to Atl?) The Sox are likely to ride Miguel Gonzalez as long as they can...just like Latos. There's no pressing need to overpay for Markakis. One interesting note would be adding another Colombian pitcher in Teheran to the rotation. You'd have the two winningest Colombian pitchers in MLB history together, fwiw.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 10, 2016 -> 10:38 AM) This is what I am waiting for. He needs to trust his stuff and challenge hitters more. I think he is either overthrowing the ball or trying to be to fine or maybe both. The guy has so much talent though If he was overthrowing or trying to throw it through a brick wall, you would see his FB velocity at 95-98. This version is more emulating the Sale "pitch at lower speeds with more command and contact" version. Maybe he tends to either lose his control (mechanical issue) and/or gets hesitant about throwing strikes when he gets hit around so he starts to nibble at times. Obviously, when he's getting ahead in counts and has that slider in the back of hitter's minds, he can be a nightmare for opposing teams. Of course, some pitching coaches would argue that "trying to overthrow" will lead to diminished velocity and poor/er mechanics, but I'm not 100% sure that's what he has been doing.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 10, 2016 -> 12:48 PM) So why hasn't Sands been DFA'd yet? The "don't mess with a good thing/manager superstition" thing. Same reason Rollins is still in there and hitting 2nd again. There's a 50/50 chance if we lost that game a Sands move would have been made. Then again, no idea no Shuck has been doing offensively at Charlotte.

Unless you consider Chris Young and Chris Carter good, that would be correct. Obviously, Carter's hitting a ton right now in meaningless games for the Brewers, but has been the definition of a three outcome guy like Pedro Alvarez. You can't just pencil in those same numbers for him at DH were he with the Sox. They've also given up a lot of guys like Harrell, Bassit, Ely, Devenski, Wendelken, etc., that haven't stuck anywhere as starting pitchers. I also remember David Holmberg being hyped by many as a future stud pitcher and that didn't quite work out. The bigger concern has been identifying these guys like Nestor Molina and Matt Davidson, locking in on them...and having it blow up in their face/s. Courtney Hawkins on the draft side. At least they saw some progress there, now with Trayce and Anderson. And Avisail Garcia looked like a bust coming into 2016 and has reversed that trend for now. That's huge for an organization that can't afford to just spend to fix every problem that can't be solved internally.

QUOTE (shysocks @ May 10, 2016 -> 11:31 AM) Which is true today, but coming into the season very few people would have agreed. Let's see where we're at in July and if short is still our greatest need on offense or if Avi pulls the rug out again and leaves us wanting a DH. We can afford to be patient at SS - the only other contender who would be eager to upgrade there is Washington, if the current landscape holds. The Rays and Tigers have underwhelming guys in Miller and Iglesias, but they're also invested in those guys. Texas won't want to wave the white flag on Andrus yet. Espinosa has been terrible there, but Turner lurks. Jurickson Profar's the most interesting name, because the Rangers have to decide if his arm/shoulder will stand up to the pressure of being a middle infielder or if the outfield would be a better long-term home (CF, for DeShields). No idea what the Rangers would be asking for either Profar (or Gallo), but both those guys are currently blocked.

Which right now is running in the $8-10 million of value range. We can all speculate that Adams would get it done...but I'm not sure Hahn is willing to part with one of two pitchers in our system best equipped to be a future starter with two future holes in the rotation opening up next season (and SOME concern about whether Fulmer's best suited for starting). Everyone knows how expensive starting pitching is on the open market, and the available 2017 FA options for pitching are narrowing as we speak (Strasburg deal)...which means the deals that are MOST logical from the Sox standpoint are ones like adding a Nolasco or James Shields and taking on salary. Of course, any deal for pitching that guarantees years into the future carries with it a certain amount of risk. The Twins had Hughes for one year and he was really good. Extension. Not so good since. Nolasco hasn't come close to earning his money. Santana was suspended, which wiped out any realistic chance the Twins had to compete last season. Overpaying for veteran starting pitching can also cripple a team's financial flexibility, especially a 3rd/4th quartile one like the Twins.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 10, 2016 -> 01:10 PM) Well it isnt June yet, so we can still sign Desmond It was the correct thought process, at least. Signing Jackson has obviously worked out well, Desmond will be fine and Fowler was the other one it was speculated could go over into the season, and he's been one of the top 5-10 players in MLB so far this season. Obviously THAT won't last, but once those players come off the board, you move to the next best alternatives. The reason I wanted Desmond was not being 100% sold on Tim Anderson. The Rangers have Odor, Andrus, Profar, Alberto, etc. They are a manufacturing line for Latin American middle infielders. Whether we could have given Desmond an attractive enough deal for two years, we'll never know, probably. As it is, SS is the weakest area on our team and I would argue worth a late first round draft pick, but whatever. It became obvious at a certain point that Hahn wasn't going to go there with either Fowler or Desmond. He stuck to his cards, rightly or wrongly, it remains to be seen how it all works out. Even if the pick turns out to be a bust, many will still argue it was the right thing to do regardless.

Would rather have Lawrie than Rollins, because you don't want to give one of your worst hitters than many AB's unless he's at least making really solid contact and advancing guys (like Iguchi with Pods). Jackson's another "meh" because of his strikeouts, but he seems to be making a bit more contact than Lawrie recently...but that's another one where you are just throwing stuff against the wall, hoping it sticks. Hence, the Markakis idea for the top of the order...which looks good on paper, but wouldn't look so good in the reality of the AL. And that obviously means giving up on Avi, who's out OPSing Markakis at the moment and doesn't cost nearly as much.

Markakis is the most realistic name because the Braves and their new tracking stock just announced $36 million in losses the first quarter, mostly related to the Swisher/Bourn/Chris Johnson deal/s. On the other hand, they've injected all that money from the stock sale to help cover some of those headaches, the biggest one of them being Hector Olivera with his domestic violence and non-production. They supposedly love Markakis and his influence on the younger players, but he can be had. But taking on his entire contract now would be a huge overpay, and his performance has actually matched or even outmatched his salary...which, for one year would be perfectly reasonable but is going to be ugly the next couple of seasons. His main attribute is doubles and OBP right now. And you're actually downgrading your defense by adding him, unless you're making Melky Cabrera the DH. It would make sense for a one year rental, but not two more years of commitment that's likely to get worse and worse. This is ONLY an option if Markakis can keep up his numbers (unlikely) and Avisail completely falls apart again (possible).

Which is yet another reason you won't see Tim Anderson AND Jacob May both starting on Opening Day for the 2017 Chicago White Sox...if Hahn has learned ONE thing from all his time, it's that position players need a number of years to "get it," like Joe Crede and Aaron Rowand. Except on the pitching side, where you can see more immediate impacts by the likes of Sale, Santiago, Reed, Santos, Quintana, Rodon, etc. In the end, we'll never know what would have happened with Marcus Semien had he stayed in the Sox organization, but it will be a topic that's much discussed and debated if Tim Anderson fails to make it as a big league shortstop. Needless to say, the jury's still far from out on either player.

It's the Kansas City Star, btw. I posted one just last night in the AL Central thread about Chris Young's struggles...guess you didn't notice it. Yes, Gordon, Perez and Morales are struggling mightily. The only pitcher worth a darn right now is the one everyone in baseball ridiculed for his seemingly exorbitant free agent contract. They signed Soria when they should have tried to keep Madson. Moustakas is injured, and they had really good health all last year except for Alex Gordon and Alex Rios (so did the White Sox, for that matter.) We might be able to count out the Tigers in the next month or so, but the season is really too long to be getting too cocky/overconfident...which is why the Indians are still favored over the Sox in some of the projection models. Finally, there's not as much reason to talk about the Royals because Hahn finally got the message. He prioritized defense and the bullpen, among other things...and finally cut bait on some players who just weren't developing or were never that good in the first place, at least not good enough to make the White Sox a playoff team.

Can't find anything to argue with Dick Allen at the moment. It's amazing what a winning baseball team can do for a message board. Speaking of the board, where the heck are Balta and LDF? Just curious.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 10, 2016 -> 08:09 AM) Right, my thoughts on this are get as many wins as possible. I align with the the posters that say things like "if we go .500 the rest of the way we will be 86 wins" or whatever we are. I also kind of look at baseball records as a series of floors, each 10 games apart. For the last 7 years, seems like the struggle was to establish the .500 floor. We would hit it, but not by more than a game and didn't allow a cushion to regress. Now we are establishing our new floor of 10 games over. If we continue climbing. If we hit the ASB with a new floor of 20 games over .500, I'll buy tickets to MD and we can high five. Basically what the Twins did (had a 20-7 stretch and held on for most of the season until the end) and the Astros ended up doing last year... Hopefully we're better than both those teams record-wise (won't touch the comparison with HOU until we have a better idea at the 54-60 game mark Hawk always goes by in terms of assessing teams and their playoff futures).

Yes, coincidentally would have been the better word to use. Deja vu. Grammar 101. Like continuous/continual.

Prohibitive. He's become a building block again by virtue of his being healthy and productive. Phillips, Bruce, Homer Bailey...maybe even Votto (although his numbers are down right now), that's who they are most looking to deal. And Devin Mesoraco has gone from one of the most promising catchers in baseball to an enigma. We would be better off looking at Gattis than Lucroy in terms of asking price...or Russell Martin if the Blue Jays don't pull out of their tailspin, although there's a possibility he's toast.

Just glad to get rid of Sally Field. For my money, I miss Cliff Robertson from the Tobey Maguire Spidey movies. James Franco, not so much.

The Black Panther "reprieve" at the end was more interesting in terms of his character development than the Iron Man/Cap detente. You just knew it was coming...felt more like a tease after they inserted the "i'll be there when you need me" note. Nobody has mentioned the Emily Van Camp/Captain America romance...is there a precedent for that in the comics? Someone said she might be joining the cast of Agents of SHIELD.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 10, 2016 -> 07:54 AM) As long as i never see another Bat Credit Card, i will live. I think it was smart of Marvel not to dwell on Tony Starks alcoholism, it seems like they replaced it with his want to be Iron Man(which is why Pepper said see ya) Too close to real life for Downey, Jr., perhaps?

Just responding to the TheTruth's post.

They're not 100% confident with Carlos Sanchez at SS. Certainly not enough to give him 70% of the playing time over the veteran Rollins.