caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 09:52 AM) So you want a guy with something to prove, but a guy who also supposedly caved under the pressure of turning down $107 million. His defensive liability comes from the fact he makes a lot of bad plays, but apparently makes up for them as well. I think also people look at his offensive decline the last several seasons with an increased strikeout rate, and see a guy who if he came to the White Sox would be switching leagues, and the team hasn't had too much luck with that, at least initially. I advocated signing this guy back before the got Lawrie, and then Frazier. I thought he could move to 3B. But signing him has a couple of issues. First on a multi-year contract, if Anderson is the SS of the future and that starts next season, how would Desmond react to having to change positions for a rookie? Some guys don't go for that. And assuming Lawrie and Frazier work out, where would he play? The OF? He loses a lot of value there. Sure, but you're assuming Anderson and Lawrie won't have any setbacks AND he wouldn't be open at all to a Jose Valentin-esque career change. If anything, showing that versatility and willingness to sacrifice over the next two seasons would make him even more valuable when he hit the 2017-18 free agent market. He's also a consistent 20-20 threat, and how many middle infielders can you say that about? As far as playing for a contract goes, I don't recall Jackson or Fowler were ever offered $107 million extensions before the season by the Mariners and Cubs only to turn them down...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 09:26 AM) Why don't you post them? Desmond might be fine, but excuses, except for an injury don't work. Just because someone speculates about it on the internet doesn't make it true. If he couldn't handle turning down $107 million, maybe he shouldn't have turned down $107 million. We made lots of them for Alexei and Dunn and numerous others throughout the years... http://deadspin.com/ian-desmond-solves-the...scre-1711269609 And he made 8 errors in the first 15 games and played quite well after that...but those two weeks planted the idea in the minds of some fans he was a defensive liability. If anything, you want to have guys like that with something to prove on your team...the old chip on the shoulder often works wonders. Fowler won't have the same edge on the Sox that Jackson and Desmond would bring, trying to reestablish themselves and prove the doubters wrong.

Can someone please post the drs and uzr and range factor numbers for Desmond? He was terrible offensively and defensively the first 2-3 months last year but it doesn't fit at all with his career numbers in those two areas. Most of it has been attributed to the stress and pressure of rejecting a 7 year, $107 million contract extension. Not to mention the Nationals have been better judges of offensive talent than the Sox, they can't be totally wrong about a player who spent his entire career there and is still just 30.

Which means the Orioles, Nats, Angels, Cards, Rangers, Brewers, Cubs....could all still be in on Jackson or Fowler.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 08:48 AM) To be fair, he doesn't say that....In fact, he says: Anyway, I do disagree with signing both Fowler and Desmond, but the sentiment behind making those moves is dead on right. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseba...very-incomplete Last sentence...without any additions

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 08:39 AM) So they are a last place team, but if they sign Fowler or Desmond they are a contender? LMAO. You can say that about the Twins, Indians and Tigers, too. That's how close things could be bunched. If Verlander and Sanchez aren't very good or Norris has a setback with his health, the Tigers will have rotation issues all season long. Right now, most have it KC, Detroit or Cleveland and then Minnesota/Chicago at the back end.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 08:25 AM) Hillary talking about Reconstruction in the south was pretty damn terrible Hillary Clinton Goes Back to the Dunning School Notably absent from it is the fact that Lincoln was killed by a white supremacist, that Johnson was a white supremacist who tried to curtail virtually all rights black people enjoyed, that the “hope” of white Southerners lay in the pillage of black labor, that this was accomplished through a century-long campaign of domestic terrorism, and that for most of that history the federal government looked the other way, while state and local governments were complicit. Yet until relatively recently, this self-serving version of history was dominant. It is almost certainly the version fed to Hillary Clinton during her school years, and possibly even as a college student. Hillary Clinton is no longer a college student. And the fact that a presidential candidate would imply that Jim Crow and Reconstruction were equal, that the era of lynching and white supremacist violence would have been prevented had that same violence not killed Lincoln, and that the violence was simply the result of rancor, the absence of a forgiving spirit, and an understandably “discouraged” South is chilling. Why exactly would she learn that in the northern suburbs of Chicago and Wesleyan? From her time in Arkansas?

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseba...very-incomplete Cbssports writer implores Sox to sign Fowler/Jackson and Desmond. Seems to prefer Garcia/Cabrera platoon in rf to Garcia/LaRoche dh platoon. DH Navarro or Saladino against lefties? Last paragraph seems to be pretty spot on, albeit tough.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseba...very-incomplete Cbssports writer implores Sox to sign Fowler/Jackson and Desmond. Seems to prefer Garcia/Cabrera platoon in rf to Garcia/LaRoche dh platoon. Last paragraph seems to be pretty spot on, albeit tough.

http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-do...-twitter-2016-1 Fox News had quite the clever retort...

You almost have to get regression from Davis and Herrera. That said, Collins and Duffy will be a huge upgrade over Morales from the LH side, one of the biggest weaknesses last year. Soria is possibly a wash with Madson, but Madson put up some pretty eye-popping numbers. Hochevar's better two years removed from TJ, in theory. Chris Young, Duffy, Dillon Gee all in the running for long man or fifth...no Blanton as well, who had surprisingly good numbers last year, aided primarily by stadium and defense.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 07:13 AM) I know I put too much emphasis on high draft picks, but Sox would not be giving up that pick for Desmond; they would be giving up that pick for the difference between Saladino and Desmond. I hope they keep the pick. Depends on how confident you are Saladino can put up a 2 war and how likely Desmond at age 30 is to be a 2 like last year as opposed to the 3.5-3.6 he averaged from 2012-2014. On the face of it, it's easier to find the 4ish war upgrade from replacing Avi and platooning him or someone else with LaRoche. That said, my confidence in Saladino lasting the season as the starting SS isn't high, either.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-w...risis-michigan/ What went wrong in Flint, excellent and detailed article...

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/does-d...ed-to-win-iowa/ Does Trump have to win Iowa or New Hampshire?

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 27, 2016 -> 05:46 AM) Sanchez doesn't have to cover third. Our backup 3B plays.2B. That's fine...so then we have five outfielders or three catchers? What about pinch-running? Sanchez is pretty slow. I suppose they can use Shuck, but it would be nice if we had a player off the bench capable of getting into scoring position by himself in the late innings. That's not Fields or Sands, either. And Carlos is probably going to be similar to Beckham at SS. Saladino will have to play nearly everyday like Alexei.

Just curious, but what's the latest with Eloy Jimenez? He was probably the most hyped of the Cubs' prospects...like Adolfo for the Sox, but multiplied by a factor of 3X-5X. And we can also say the team payroll luxury tax system in general is a joke, because we counted out the Tigers for most of the off-season and then, poof, Illitch authorized the Upton deal. Surely the Angels will be next to "surprise but not really surprise" everyone... Then again, the World Series winner last year had a payroll in the mid to high $120's for most of the season and the Yankees/Red Sox haven't taken over the world, that's "balance" in another sense. The Blue Jays would be another example, the Astros, the Mets and the Cubs, all those teams were successful without huge payrolls until the deadline last year or going into this offseason. Finally, the Dodgers sank like a rock with Boston, and the White Sox and Padres efforts to buy their way into contention fell flat.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 03:49 PM) and not much free agent talent to bid on. $30 million or bust for 2017 on Cespedes!!! Except his WAR is more likely to be in the 3.5-4.0 range than 6+. So if we're not going to spend $25-27.5 million on those projections, it seems highly unlikely we'd be able to acquire him in the low $20's, not to mention one year older/additional wear & tear on his body (not to mention the smoking and finally age uncertainty with Cubans). Remember, the original goal was 6 years and $140-150 million...so that leaves 5 years and $112.5-122.5 remaining to pick up.

ESPN’s Mark Simon cautions Mets fans to temper their expectations for Yoenis Cespedes in 2016. While he went on an otherworldly hot streak early with the Mets, a good chunk of that damage was done on the road against weak Rockies and Phillies pitching staffs. Additionally, Cespedes’ career averages prior to 2016 were considerably lesser than his averages this past year, and it’s not reasonable to expect him to maintain his peak-level performance, especially not with the minor injuries he sustained late in the year. Simon notes the projections at Fangraphs boosted the Mets’ win total by two after signing Cespedes. While some will argue that not to be a large enough differentiation, the point Simon seeks to get across is not a specific number of wins which Cespedes will provide but rather that the difference probably won’t be as striking as it was upon his acquisition last July. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman conducted a Q&A with Braves GM John Coppolella, during which Coppolella discussed a number of the moves made in the offseason. Coppolella told Bowman that the biggest surprises of the offseason, to him, were the trades of Andrelton Simmons and Shelby Miller. “We didn’t want to trade either player, but we also felt that the talent we received back in those deals made it too good to pass up those opportunities,” said Coppolella. Additionally, the GM discussed the importance of stockpiling young talent in light of the “hyperinflation” of the free-agent market, noting that this offseason illustrated clearly that most teams cannot simply buy a considerable amount of talent in free agency. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

Leury, Olt/Davidson (depending on how confident they are in Sanchez covering 3B) or Fields/Jerry Sands...doubtful they would go with 3 catchers. Last year, we started with Beckham and Bonifacio on the infield. However you look at it, that's five pretty uninspiring possibilities.

Well, that much is true...the problem is the White Sox never seem to be able to face reality and force guys like Dunn and now LaRoche into straight platoon situations until it's way too late. Otoh, for a long time, it seemed Melky would never get his average above .100 against LHP and he finally sputtered to life, but seeing as LaRoche only has one more season left (and probably less than that), it would behoove the White Sox to start looking at some realistic alternatives.

But we know if he was on the White Sox...somehow...he would just end up with a 650-675 OPS, be exposed defensively and hit about .050-.075 cumulatively against the Tigers and Royals.

Somehow, Raburn will end up on the Cubs...just to torment Fathom.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 10:09 PM) Given that some of the best remaining options require draft pick compensation, has there been any thought that perhaps the best remaining course of action is to do nothing? Yes, you're banking on Garcia, La Roche and others rebounding from down/bad seasons, but you're not giving questionable deals and losing picks while retaining payroll flexibility. You're also exhausting Garcia - he either makes it or not. Depends on your downside prediction in terms of the consequences of being knocked out in the first 2-3 months and having yet another "development/al" year...where all the attention will be vacuumed up by the Northside. And also facing a major decline in revenue/attendance going into 2017. Would you bet your house today that the team as currently constructed will be within 3-5 games of first place nearing the end of July? Or at least 3-5 games of the 1st/2nd wild card spots?

Will just state that there's no way that Desmond will end up under $10 million IMO... Would definitely put him in the $13-17 million range. From 2012-2014, he was a consistent 3.5 war guy, which is about where everyone assumed Cespedes would be THIS season. 3.5 X $7-8 million value for WAR on FA market=$26.25 million. Even if you go with last year's terribly disappointing year, you're talking $14 million and change valuing him at a 2 WAR. Plus he plays a premium position in SS. And is only 30.

If you go with a one year remaining on a player you trade for, let's just hope the results are better than Shark because you're really emptying out the farm system then. I'm not sure Hahn wants to have all the pressure on himself and Ventura to win THIS year...because trading for a Reddick almost forces you to show results ASAP. Of course Hahn can't blame JR for not being able to acquire Gordon and Cespedes, but he absolutely has to do something with the season prospects partially resting on the shoulders of Saladino, Garcia, LaRoche and Erik Johnson. You can find other teams with similar issues, but they have either the current depth or the financial resources to recover from setbacks more easily. With Saladino, you could probably "survive" with Sanchez out there for a couple of months at SS, but it would be far from ideal. The other three, as things stand right now, there aren't logical replacements that are going to be ready the first half of the season.