caulfield12

QUOTE (StrykerSox @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 04:03 PM) Pitchers. Great. f*** you, Hahn. Pitching is the most volatile and in-demand need in the game, whether starters or relievers. Andcwe have the minor league development staff along with Cooper that theoretically excel in that area. One only needs to go back through 1998-2001 BA prospect lists to see how many busted from our #1 system in baseball. Once Sale was gone, it was natural for Eaton to go, and we already knew their system intimately. We can turn Eaton (who was Santiago...a low low draft pick) and a waiver claim in Q into one of the Top 3-5 farm systems in baseball. Logical enough. Just need to hit on at least 60% of the Top Ten names.

QUOTE (StrykerSox @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 04:03 PM) Pitchers. Great. f*** you, Hahn. Pitching is the most volatile and in-demand need in the game, whether starters or relievers. Andcwe have the minor league development staff along with Cooper that theoretically excel in that area. One only needs to go back through 1998-2001 BA prospect lists to see how many busted from our #1 system in baseball. Once Sale was gone, it was natural for Eaton to go, and we already knew their system intimately. We can turn Eaton (who was Santiago...a low low draft pick) and a waiver claim in Q into one of the Top 3-5 farm systems in baseball. Logical enough. Just need to hit on at least 60% of the Top Ten names.

Q to the Astros for a slew of young hitters is the logical final move...the Dodgers seem to be closed off as an avenue.

Taylor, Avi, May, Engel, Coats....welcome to tanking.

So it has to be Giolito and Severino and one more piece...Fedde? Lopez?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elliott-negi...b_10055448.html Koch Industries fingerprints continue to abound with new cabinet...

Maybe KC is gambling they can bring back Greg Holland or a Madson type...save money, and still compete. They were going to enter the year at $148 million, which was their supposed payroll max. Subtracting Davis and Dyson and getting a bit cheaper makes some degree of sense...but not gutting their chances of getting back to the playoffs completely. Soler gives them a much bigger bat than Dyson/Orlando. The deal for Soria and injuries killed them last year, not to mention their pitching just wasn't good enough. Ventura and Volquez went backwards, Kennedy was close to solid but faded a bit and Young/Medlen were disasters. They lost two solid bp guys in Madson/Blanton and Strahm was the only pleasant surprise to emerge. Same with Cuthbert on the offensive side. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to decide if getting immediate players back (like Soler) is better than gambling on QO's and even lower draft compensation compared to past years. It would have seemed that they were forced to go for it....even without the money to replace Morales, which they partially freed up trading Davis and now Dyson theoretically. Stripping Dyson away seriously hinders their ability to manufacture a run with a PR late unless thry keep that spot for Gore, but that's only the kind of thing you can do with a 26 man roster. Beyond all that, Hosmer and Gordon were disappointing and Cain battled injuries all season long, with Perez. Mondesi couldn't hit. And Lots of extra games in 2014-15. Not unlike the 2006 White Sox wearing down.

http://www.royalsreview.com/2016/12/6/1383.../blow-it-all-up Looks like the Royals are going to make everyone available...theoretically...including Duffy, who would be a cheaper one-year rental alternative to Q. Kind of crazy...if the Tigers deal Verlander, Kinsler and JD Martinez...could have essentially 4 rebuilding teams out of 5 in the AL Central, with the playoffs practically ceded to the Indians for at least the next two years despite their microscopic payroll.

C'mon, that's the best anyone can do? Disappointing.

QUOTE (Two-Gun Pete @ Dec 6, 2016 -> 11:53 PM) Whew! That's a relief. I naturally assumed that the front office f***ed up another decision. And yeah, BR is great, but the contracts section doesn't load on my cell phone. Cot's Baseball Contracts is much better...although maybe they're integrated now? Used to be stand-alone site, but if you enter CHICAGO WHITE SOX COT'S BASEBALL CONTRACTS, it will give you direct links to every team updated in real time, almost.

Bullpen: Adams, Stephens, Ynoa, Kahnle, Danish, Beck, Guerrero, etc. Obviously Shields will be gone after 2018, if not sooner. FUNNY.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Dec 6, 2016 -> 11:34 PM) Apparently the Nats increased their offer to Robles, Giolito, and Lopez this morning. Tough to turn that one down, that's a lot of faith in Moncada and Kopech turning into stars. Or their way of saving face with the fans as the "also ran" in the competition, granted, the talent on the table was unprecedented. Maybe part of it was the mess with Bryce Harper as well this week and how they they were likely to let him go to NYY. Lopez's name was on that "untouchable" list earlier in the week for the third piece. And, as someone else noted...Moncada being much closer to the majors and THE impact position player probably was the deciding factor, along with Giolito's TJS. If Robles was a AA/AAA player and Moncada was still in the SALLY League, it might have changed the calculus a bit. And someone like Basabe with "plus" power theoretically projects to be a more important piece in USCF than a doubles/triples guy like Robles with 10-15 homer power.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Dec 6, 2016 -> 11:36 PM) True, he'd be worth several more wins at his potential, but for upgrading the lineup significantly we lost our ace. The goal is improving significantly at the expense of losing now. I'd be very disappointed if Moncada is the only player to come out from the deal. Another way to look at this...if you clear Shields/Cabrera/Abreu/Robertson/Frazier from the payroll, you basically become the Padres or Marlins (minus Stanton's mega contract) and are in the running for any player in baseball, theoretically. Otani, the Japanese pitcher, for example. Of course, it depends on his arrival date, 2020 seems a long ways off, but there are only 3 seasons to get there (and to the new broadcasting rights deal and that influx of higher revenues, hopefully). They once said they were willing to go after an ace like (in his prime, which is obviously Sale as well) Tanaka or even Shark (who's clearly not an ace), so if they do clear the decks over the next 12-18 months, then there's no reason they can't simply buy one on the open market. Of course, they're also going to get two Top 5 picks (likely), and then you already have Rodon (who SHOULD progress), Burdi, Hansen and Kopech with top of the rotation ability. So it's going to have to come from one of those three ways...or the stockpiling of minor league talent and flipping it for a pitcher at some point down the road.

As things currently stand, though...Shields and Gonzalez are currently insurance to protect Fulmer next season (as well as not having to rush Burdi/Kopech/Hansen). Guess we have to wait and see what prospects we get back. Giolito, for example, probably would have been inserted into the rotation from Opening Day had he been traded to the Sox. We still have some other prospects or fading ones in Adams, Jordan Stephens, Tyler Danish, Beck, Ynoa, Kahnle, etc., that can soak up innings in the race to the Top 5 draft pick.

Is Eaton the player you want leading your franchise moving forward? That's the main question. The so-called, Face of the Franchise? As for me, I would go with Anderson/Q/Rodon/Abreu (for now), but then we're going to have to turn around and trade some of those guys. It could also be Frazier if he showed an interest in sticking around through a rebuild, but he just went through that in Cincinnati so one would think he'd be looking for some stability. As far as Eaton goes, yes, he's the union rep for the team...but is that because nobody else wanted to compete with him for it (someone like Avila or Rollins?), or is he really that well-liked or popular in the clubhouse? Does he have that unique ability of Juan Uribe to be equally-liked by Latin American and African-American as well as white teammates? Or is he part of a clique?

The odds of Eaton going to the Cardinals are about zero without Reyes...and Reyes isn't going anywhere. Even it was, let's say Martinez and Wong/Grichuk/Piscotty/Adams, well, they're just not going to trade two pieces off their big league roster to get better at one when they just traded Garcia and god knows how long Wainright and Molina will last, not to mention Peralta. Isn't St. Louis in on Wade Davis/Lorenzo Cain in a possible mega-trade with KC? Who are the rumored pieces in that deal? Renting both those guys for a single season.

Pederson, Alvarez and 2-3 lower pieces for Q at least starts to get interesting.

A lot of people will disagree, but it would be cool to have Moncada on it. That said, Eaton/Q/Anderson/Rodon are the best remaining choices, along with Abreu. Two of those first four might be gone by July, so we really need to come up with a combination of players who will at least make it to 2017 with the White Sox. Or you could go with Kopech, Burdi, Nate Jones and the Nasty Boys II Theme...perhaps. Another option would be having the 11 players most likely to be gone and XXXing them out when traded. Q, Eaton, Jones, Cabrera, Frazier, Robertson, Abreu, M.Gonzalez, Shields, Lawrie, Avi.

Yep, lost is the hype from the Trump side was the fact that 700-800 jobs were moving regardless...they (Carrier) weren't going to invest in all that infrastructure/logistics development in Mexico and then turn around and abandon it all of a sudden. One positive, though, about Carrier is that they actually have a progressive training program (corporate-sponsored) that might end up being a model or template for moving lower-level workers to sustainable employment opportunities in the future if they are made redundant. Theoretically, 25-50% of workers could continue on with the company, as an engineer or tech specialist/analyst, for example. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/06/amazon-go-s...hoo&ref=yfp How will Trump stop Amazon Go from costing jobs?

QUOTE (StrykerSox @ Dec 6, 2016 -> 06:02 PM) I get the nuance of saying "like Basabe", but that particular dude hit .258 in A ball. I would say " like Tilson" long before I'd say "like Basabe". Still, but for now, I'm much more optimistic about another team's Latin American prospects developing...since it has been nearly two decades since our last two impact position players from that region of the world. Not being optimistic or hopeful at all, that's been our condition for going on a decade now. So why not at least be 50% optimistic? One thing we can be 100% sure about is that we weren't about to overspend (again) in a terrible FA market, leaving another half-baked +/- 5 games of .500 team again.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 6, 2016 -> 05:31 PM) In what world is Moncads's jersey number continuity needed in a thread about Quintana trade rumors? See post 98. Then put it into the Moncada ones. Heaven forbid having the first really young position player since Beckham (Anderson was unfairly lost in the shuffle last year, with the season falling apart) that White Sox fans could get that excited about. So that's two Moncada jerseys sold already, just in this thread alone.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 6, 2016 -> 05:09 PM) I get the Carrier deal is less than ideal, and Trump is obviously playing the game and getting rewarded for doing it (something I would actually give his team/campaign credit for...I honestly didn't think they had the skills to do something like that). Howeva, I have to say, the response is kind of funny. That tax break move to keep jobs home isn't anything new. Illinois has done it for decades. Caterpillar a few times, Exelon just recently. And while it's not some great fix and i'm not really a fan of it personally, the cost is negligible. I read it was like $870 per job "saved." That pays for itself in income taxes in one year alone. Yes, and the cost of a trade war/tariff on incoming Chinese tires (under Obama, this happened already) made saving those jobs (in terms of lost consumer surplus) cost roughly $900,000 for each job preserved. Not exactly an efficient tradeoff.

You would think for as big as Moncada's going to be, they would hold the same jersey number in Charlotte and make it clear from today he'll have that same number with the Sox when he's called up. Did Under Armour get the jersey deal for minor leaguers too...or will it still be Majestic until 2020? Other than Eaton, I can't think of anyone who will be in the vicinity in terms of jersey sales for the next year or two. Anderson, Kopech and Burdi...the other possibilities. Fans have sort of moved on from Abreu after 2014-15 already. Of course, we'll have even more exciting names to speculate about if Q and Eaton both go.

Still don't see the logic when a Gomez or Tilson can hold the spot before a natural CFer like Basabe takes over in 2019. Maybe we get Robles, too? We left Anderson at SS instead of moving him to CF and that worked out fine. Let him find one comfortable position on the infield before we end up moving him to yet another position. Plus watching him and Anderson together will be a scout's dream, barring any injuries. About the best argument is protecting him from injuries (in the middle of the diamond), and we've seen our share in the outfield (Jared Mitchell, Schwarber, Avi, Tilson, Rowand, etc.) as well.

What is Moncada's jersey number going to be with the Sox? Press conference scheduled, or is he out of the country? You would think with season ticket renewals going out that they'd try to milk Moncada for all he's worth, along with Anderson and Rodon. Yeah, and after 2018, they'll have a much better idea where they at in the rebuilding process. Serious players...not for Harper and Machado, but the next tier is certainly a possibility.