caulfield12

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 05:42 PM) What would Reddick cost?! Read a tweet from Fox Sports saying A's might trade him http://www.csnbayarea.com/athletics/notes-...ension-possible Could be posturing to increase his trade value, anything's possible with Beane. One would guess it starts with Adams OR Danish/Guerrero and Hawkins, something like that.

I guess the pride of passing up $107 million for 7 years and playing his entire career for one team is getting in the way of reasonable contract expectations. Maybe $45 million and 3 years seemed possible a month ago, but now you'd have to guess he's looking at maximizing his salary for 2016 and going back on the market next year. That could still be a decent deal for the White Sox...if the numbers for one year don't get totally insane. He doesn't have the extreme market demand working in his favor that benefited Cespedes with the Mets.

Unless "science the __t of it" being one of the few comedic lines (and making fun of Jessica Chastain's music choices)...fits the definition. Seems they simply wanted to stick some mainstream films like that and Trainwreck into a category to draw more Golden Globes viewers.

How is going from 3.2 to 3.7 to 3.8 war over 2012-2014 and then having an outlier/anomaly in 2015 the sign or indicator of a consistent decline? I could see if he went 3.8 to 3.7 to 3.2 to 2. Then you'd have a good case. Especially if he wasn't 30 years old, but was 33-34.

Here's why I am picking India: 1) China already has NBA and then soccer/football that are far and away the two most popular sports for young boys today... 2) Taiwan already has baseball, but there's a tremendous amount of animosity between the two (Taiwan and China)...and the idea of "America's Pastime" being inculcated into the mainland culture is a bit hard to imagine, especially with both countries becoming more and more nationalistic in their rivalry. Baseball represents "western values," although I suppose you would have to say the same about basketball but that's overlooked because it's more of a global game already, versus something uniquely American. 3) Going along with Point 2, it's impossible to imagine baseball becoming more popular in China with a President Trump, as he's already threatened to put a huge tariff on imports and has railed incessantly about currency manipulation, unfair trading practices and the loss of manufacturing jobs. After that, I'd probably go Brazil and Colombia. Australia was more of a hotbed in the 80's and 90's for baseball but that cooled off, and then you have the tremendous travel distance to consider. You could have C-Lee running a White Sox academy in Panama, that's another possibility... As far as MLB International goes, the biggest irony here is that the most successful method of promoting baseball in China is one you would never think about and was almost entirely accidental. It's primarily through fashion, with many South Korean stars (especially females) in the K-pop industry sporting major league baseball caps....and the export of the Korean culture (drama and K-pop music) has become hugely influential with other Asian countries, China in particular. (Just like in the 90's and early 00's, you had many rappers sporting the White Sox caps, for example.) There are actually quite a few stores here in mainland China selling jackets, caps and shirts...mostly the Yankees, that must be 50-60% of the market, then teams like the Mets, Dodgers, Cubs and Red Sox would probably be #2. Of course, I'm not even sure what percentage of those kids in their teens and twenties and early 30's wearing that merchandise even know what sport it actually represents...they just think anything with NY or B or LA or whatever is cool/hip/trendy.

Nick Hostetler definitely deserves a chance to make his own imprint...that shouldn't overwhelm a "too good to pass up" deal with a Desmond or even Fowler, but you have to consider the possibility he just might be the one who does draft that great player at 28. We already found one further back in Adams, and there were a lot of scouts thinking it was possible to get the same impact out of Beck at the time he was drafted.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 03:51 PM) The Powell is example is why it will take 10+ years to generate any sort of return, which indicates that the up front costs prior to any potential pay-off are significant. To be able to get these to work, you have to reach the youth cricket levels and convert those top players into baseball players and build them up from there. Than you are going to have to hit some guys who actually make majors, to create a potential pathway for others to look / gravitate towards. All the while you might put in this investment only to see an international draft pop up and thus all that money was spent for not (other than you do have additional contacts). The reality is for this to be successful, baseball should invest in putting together facilities and resources in these parts and make it an MLB platform, leveraging MLB scouting channels and specific teams could send reps, etc, out and provide resources, but the best path to success is MLB driving this vs. individual clubs (and if you are going to grow the game, one can argue this is a good use of MLB's resources (i.e., all the owners essentially pay for this together butin theory benefit from it together as it provides potential path towards expanding market / driving global game). Agree 100%. As is, it's only the type of niche one of the richest trams could exploit...and then the door would quickly be shut if it proved too successful for being anti-competitive. In the end, something like the NBA Developmental League or the European League for the NFL would have to be put in place in India first...and the talent level, salaries and general excitement level would have to be high enough in the beginning to attract more and more players and grow the league. Then again, as John Cusack asserted over and over again in Say Anything, kickboxing's the sport of the future. He was twenty years off, but still prescient. Something seems ridiculous until it suddenly isn't.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 02:37 PM) The problem with Austin Jackson is Scott Boras. Wasn't that all overblown with KW? Hahn apparently had no problems dealing with him over Rodon (yet.)

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_y...20high%20school There aren't many Brett Gardners out there, but great illustration of persistence/perseverance... At the very least, they need to be the first team with an academy in Cuba. Or Brazil...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 02:22 PM) Here's a SSS article on the Avi/Peavy trade. The Sox were asking for the right guys from Oakland. http://www.southsidesox.com/2013/7/31/4573...-trade-analysis Michael Choice, not so much. Couldn't the argument be made that every team in baseball was interested in Gray and Russell?

I'd honestly rather have Carl Crawford at half price and Desmond than pay Ethier AND give up talent to boot. Crawford would have to morph into more of a power guy like Tim Raines later in his career. It could work at USCF. It worked well with Thome, just not sure how much LA is willing to eat. In terms of risk, it's still fairly significant even at half off discount...ala Ryan Braun or Jay Bruce. At least Harrelson and KW would be elated for awhile.

The whole premise is you need to get somewhat lucky and find one superstar. Yao Ming singlehandedly put basketball on the map in China. If you had an American version of Pele and the US Men won a World Cup, things would definitely start to change...look at the incoming talent (albeit non minority) drawn into the PGA the last decade because of Tiger Woods, for example. Russian female tennis players or South Korean female golfers...just takes one.

If you really believe Fulmer ends up an elite reliever but another team perceives him as a starter...but then why would you have drafted him so high there in the first place? He's not Royce Ring or Aaron Poreda.

$22.5 million just might do it.... http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2016/1/24/1082...-of-free-agents See last paragraph and then the sentence below it, haha. White Sox a cost-efficient line-up? Well, if you take Cabrera and LaRoche out of the equation, sure. You can argue all the other guys might even be underpaid, like Frazier, Eaton and Abreu. Lawrie and Avila still have some decent upside if healthy.

Jeff Conine would be another example, growing up as a racquetball champion...pretty sure he went to UCLA if memory serves correctly.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 01:50 PM) That Astros route didn't work out so well for them. I think the would have been better off with Bryant and Rodon rather than Appel and Aiken. Of course, at also depends on how quickly their top four from 2015 make an impact, with Cameron as a huge upside wild card just like his father.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 01:45 PM) 100% agree with this. I'm a Saladino fan, but Desmond provides a better floor and much more upside. Also, worry about where Desmond & Anderson fit in next year. As for Jackson, he has his warts and his Seattle numbers are a bit worrisome, but his defense provides a floor and allows us to move Eaton to a corner where his defensive value improves. And if the contracts are structured right, I think we could squeeze them both in at $20M next year, which in theory should have been Cespedes type money. Still think it's closer to $25 million...we'll see. I don't think you'd want players who are resenting the feeling they are underpaid...but maybe that's the sting of motivation both guys would need. We know that Fowler is still likely to be overpaid despite the QO attached. As far as Desmond vs. Anderson, one of them could see more time at DH or in the outfield...but you have this entire season to assess. Basically, getting some positional flexibility and speed/athleticism at two additional spots, compared to Avi's physical potential which is largely untapped or underutilized.

The logic of timing a signing to coincide with Soxfest or not seems at best short-sighted. Unless you believe Upton would have come to Chicago for the same deal which most observers feel is foolish for Detroit, you're arguing Davis, Cespedes and Gordon could/should have signed here instead, which doesn't pass the logic test upon reflection.

I'm not seeing the compelling need to overpay Fowler based on last year. Jackson automatically starts out with $11-13 million more value preserving the pick. He improves the defense automatically, the single biggest issue for the Sox last year. At much less the cost of Fowler, he preserves payroll flexibility to add Desmond and/or more talent at the trade deadline. He's spent a lot of time (successfully) in the Central and would be even more motivated to beat Detroit. Finally, his offensive slump wasn't so much about Safeco as playing anywhere outside of Michigan after the first three months of 2014...compare his home to away stats, there's a 200+ point shift in favor of home vs. away. Frankly, though, I would much rather have Desmond than either outfielder if I could only choose 1/3 for now.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 07:25 AM) Spin that any way you'd like, but Spencer Adams had better numbers across the board at High A last season...and he was a year younger. Any time you're drafted top five to ten, you tend to get the benefit of the doubt...unless you're Carson Fulmer apparently.

Mets have Colon for insurance too, right?

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/31101/adam-warren Warren's line was pretty solid with the Yankees last year...maybe they're also accounting for depth.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 07:07 AM) That 1.5 K/BB ratio, so elite http://twinsdaily.com/topic/19651-nice-read-on-kohl-stewart/ The same story we heard on Beck. Working on sinking two-seam fastball, getting groundballs and keeping pitch counts lower... Here's another on the same subject... http://twinsdaily.com/topic/10905-kohl-stewart-68-k9/

Fwiw, the premise of the Rays' addition would be for him to split time with Brad Miller at SS and play some left field and DH as well. Right now, there's little consensus how well he would adjust to that role, ala Zobrist and now Logan Forsythe.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 06:54 AM) Are you referencing the same Kohl Stewart that's striking out less than 5 per 9 in high A? Lol! I'm not, USA Today is....