caulfield12

This is kind of like the majority of construction/public works projects in China right now. Half-finished. Is it better to walk away and lose all your investment or finish the project?

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 10:17 PM) No its not a certainty. But we know they won't have a budget even asbig as theCubs so it is thebest chance to have a consistent winner. Posters keep using the criticism of "only one playoff appearance since 2005". This is because they haven't taken the time to build it, they have just tried to win this year. Therein lies the problem...even if Anderson and Fulmer are even better than expected (in 2017), you're wasting another season and lowering your aggregate revenues even more prior to next year. Unless there are tremendous breakthroughs in the farm system, then we'll be in that rare position of having a 3rd quartile payroll, a Bottom 5 farm system and lacking the front office willpower to take on any more longer-term deals because of the fear they'll bust like Dunn/LaRoche/Cabrera. Our orientation is neither towards the future nor towards the present. It just makes giving four years to Robertson when now two of them might have been wasted seem even more ill-advised...we would have been better off letting the Yankees claim him and freeing up that money for hitting, because we've historically been much better at unearthing closers than developing outfielders.

Ilitch made it clear last month at a news conference to announce the signing of Zimmermann that he’s not afraid to keep spending. “I’m telling them you gotta get out there and get me the best players, and I don’t care about the money,” he said. “I want the best players, and that’s it.” freep.com/sports I wouldn't say it's the best division. That has to be the AL East. Probably it will end up being the most competitive. I'd even argue with Houston, the Rangers, the Angels and the Mariners...you've got just as much if not more talent in that division, especially if Cespedes ends up on one of the first three teams.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-net-value-of-draft-picks/ Another reason following up the loss of Cespedes/Upton with the signing of Fowler would be foolish... Where exactly is that Samardzija compensation pick as of today, btw?

Is the contract front or back-loaded? Is there a year by year breakdown yet?

Your move, Jerry Reinsdorf. It's hard to make an argument that as things stand today, despite our 3 young/cost-controlled aces at the front of the rotation, we're NOT still likely a 4th or 5th place team. If Minnesota can get another starting pitcher, they might actually be the most dangerous team in the AL Central, but Sano still has to follow up his impressive debut and adjust to the pitchers this time around. Buxton has to stay healthy and put up at least a 700 OPS. Mike Illitch....balls (or, more accurately, a bank vault) of steel.

This whole situation is making the White Sox negotiating or bargaining position look a little less nuanced than previously. Gordon got six years at age 32, granted, he remained with his hometown team. 1. Royals 2. Indians 3. Tigers 4. Twins (can obviously move up based on Buxton/Berrios impact) 5. White Sox That's where things stand as of right now, at this exact moment. 1. Maybin/Gose 2. Kinsler 3. Miguel Cabrera 4. Victor Martinez 5. Upton 6. JD Martinez 7. McCann 8. Castellanos 9. Iglesias Whether Gose and Maybin can hold up in the leadoff position is another question... They might have to hit Kinsler leadoff, and move Iglesias to 2nd (not sure if last year was an anomaly yet)...and Gose/Maybin/Tyler Collins at the bottom.

A showcase workout for Cuban left-handed hitting outfielder Yadiel Hernandez will be held Feb. 23 in Mexico City. Hernandez, 28, batted .369 for Mazanzas in 2014, has a .324 lifetime batting average in Cuba, a team can sign him without being subject to the international signing bonus pool rules, according to his representatives. www.chicagotribune.com Here's another opportunity. Anyone want to do some research?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 05:39 PM) Scott Merkin ‏@scottmerkin 28m28 minutes ago Merkin: Even without further moves, '16 White Sox should be decidedly improved: http://atmlb.com/1SsDc8Q via @mlb "So, ONE team has won the World Series in the past 23 tries with a below-average team payroll. What does that say about the effect of money on baseball success that I haven't already said? For a reference, if all teams were evenly talented, the odds of a Q3 or Q4 payroll team winning only 1 of 23 World Series is about 1 in 365,000, or roughly three times less likely than being struck by lightning." http://beneathdata.com/blog/does-money-buy-wins-in-baseball/ If the White Sox go into the regular season with this payroll (around $118-119 million), they're going to be in the 3rd quartile. KC was at $152 million last year when they won, fwiw. That Merkin tweet has all the oomph to it of a Joe Crede pop-out down the RF line. It might actually dampen fan expectations. In all seriousness, I'm not sure how it can be considered helpful. If you're not going to make any more moves, at least be honest about it. Don't try to sell or spin the fan base when everyone can see right through it. "The market for the remaining impact players isn't one we're comfortable with in terms of long-term return on investment. We strongly believe in Avi, Saladino, LaRoche and Erik Johnson (obviously they're not going to say that part) as key contributors to this year's team. Rather than move now and be unable to adjust at mid-season, we prefer to retain the financial flexibility to adjust on the fly as the season unwinds. We're understand

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 03:03 PM) Alcides Escobar, Alex Rios, Omar Infante Escobar and Perez over their careers have been much better offensively than last season. Dyson and Orlando will share RF unless they add Fowler or Jackson. The war numbers there should be better overall because Dyson is even better than Cain defensively and should hit well enough in a platoon. Rios was terrible/injured. Infante's the biggest question mark (which is why Royals fans wanted Zobrist back instead of Kennedy). Colon is the replacement, or Mondesi...eventually. Theoretically Gordon won't miss two months again. Honestly, there isn't much difference offensively if the Sox can upgrade one more position. Team defense/speed, starting rotation depth to compensate for injuries, and then a huge difference in bullpens (although Davis is due to finally regress and Soria's a question mark, adding Duffy/Collins helps a lot compared to Franklin Morales). Clearly, the White Sox big advantage on everyone is the top of rotation. If Lawrie, Frazier and the catcher hit as expected, the White Sox will score more runs. Morales falling off is just as likely as LaRoche improving.

The line all season was to attack Semien on his error total and not his actual effectiveness...and overlook the cost factor as well. Also not considering his bouncing around from spot to spot with the White Sox without ever becoming comfortable, the improvement defensively over the second half, the fact his offensive numbers were being put up in Oakland and the fact he never received the individualized mentoring he got from Ron Washington last year. Knowing you're important to a team's future and that they're willing to invest in you makes a huge difference. It always felt like the White Sox perceived him more as a utility guy than a regular...even during his minor league career.

The Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox are among the teams considering Cespedes, Heyman notes. In a separate tweet, Heyman calls the Tigers an "interesting" candidate and reveals that they seriously considered Davis before he re-signed with Baltimore. Meanwhile, the Houston Astros could also be in the mix for Cespedes, Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com reports. http://espn.go.com/blog/mlb/rumors/post/_/...l-cespedes-sign

We will be devastated if Fulmer and Adams both flop and Montas becomes a star...but what are the odds of that happening, all three together? It will nevertheless be more disappointing in the next two FA signing periods if we do have to buy starting pitching at the going rates because we don't have sufficient quality depth left to trade from.

QUOTE (L. Ron Paultard @ Jan 17, 2016 -> 07:57 PM) LOL, take a deep breath, Senor Greg, and please grow a spine. Trump's in like Flynn. Since June. (The only thing stopping him is his virtually non-existent ground-game; Donald honestly didn't expect to be in this position this late, hence why he's thrown nickels around like manhole covers, as old-timers liked to say. It takes years to built up the required infrastructure, recruit army of volunteers & cultivate relationships with various local power-brokers.... Whereas the Soros GOTV Machine is absolutely legendary; poor Mittens!) Irregardlessly, there is no reason for you to change your entire worldview & personal feelings on a dime - just because of some irrelevant dafuq-bloggery of Lenny Pitts, or the 'Washed-Up White Witch of Weiseltier', et al. Have some self-respect. Seriously. It's all house-money, anyway: GOP as a viable political movement, was pronounced dead circa 2006-2008. Obama's Veep in '08 could have been Bin Laden; McCain had no chance from mid-Sep. onward IIRC. Outlook beyond grim. Made all the worse by the fact that while the New Democrats play in ruthless big-leagues; rally their warring factions, rainbow coalition around the Consensus candidate... Republicans find themselves torn apart by the whopping 5-way (five, Carl!) intra-party Civil War: -Neo-Cons VERSUS -Ron Paul Libertarians VERSUS -Christian-Evangelicals VERSUS -Moderate-Establishment VERSUS -(secular) Tea-Party Constitutionalists so it's a small miracle GOP even survived, haha ------> And yet with some luck, not only could the next POTUS come from your party, Greg, Congressional-supermajority is not out of the question, either. Obama/Clinton Horror-Show is a gift that keeps on giving. If RBG pancreas can hold on for a little while longer, 3-4 Supreme Court picks might be at play. Some serious stakes right there. PS. all the fashionable "Trump = only 3-to-5% of popular support" duh, derr, derrpity McDerp, that's been thrown around lately? Bwaa-ahahaha. --- np: Did Obama personally splinter the GOP? It's like blaming "social values/demonization of liberals" campaigns run by the Atwaters and Roves of the world for 20/24 years of GOP control before Clinton or 28/40 before 2008. Run better candidates!...Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry weren't very good, and then you have the SC issue to blame the GOP being able to hold on in 2000 (thanks to that 20/24 run of presidents), as Gore foolishly ran against or away from Clinton with his populist campaign. Nader's votes also hurt...but then Republicans have almost cursed Ross Perot for the same reason, helping to elect Clinton with only 38.5% of the vote in 92. Besides, the GOP has control of Congress, most governorships, a majority of state legislatures and even more local boards like city councils and school boards.

Any cigarette manufacturers in Chicago willing to step up?

He just completely fell apart his last month with Detroit and subsequent two months plus with the M's. If only we had a Don Cooper for hitters...

QUOTE (glangon @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 08:11 AM) Never believe what you read in the media. If the money is right, he'll come. What slugger wouldn't want to come to the Cell. I feel like we've been saying that about every new power hitter since Nick Swisher with less than ideal results to show for it...

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 08:01 AM) The worst part of that entire scenario with Jackson is that the Sox are just about the least likely organization to fix a hitter's problems. They may play in a homer friendly park, but when is the last time a guy suddenly figured it out, at the plate, in a Sox uniform? Quentin, but already a very accomplished minor league hitter. Juan Uribe bounced back with the Sox. Figured it out, though, is pushing it. Rowand, but he and Crede took 2-3 years to break in as full-time players. It happened more with castoff outfielders in the 80s and 90s. Abreu and Ramirez are tough to credit the White Sox coaching staff more than scouts.

But has no interest in playing for the White Sox apparently...the only AL team currently connected to him is the Rangers.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 07:12 AM) If we get Jackson, what do you do with Eaton? Put him in left and move Melky to DH? I don't know if Melky or Eaton could play right. Cabrera in right...Eaton in LF. Cabrera has the bigger arm. I just dont see adding Jackson or Fowler to have them play LF. LaRoche would DH with Garcia. Granted, it's not ideal. The problem is there aren't many natural RFers on the market. Who knows...we'll probably end up with Markakis 2-3 years too late.

Can someone find a specific breakdown of his numbers in Safeco vs. Comerica in 2014...? He was absolutely atrocious on the road that year. Maybe the trade shook him up and he has a hard time adjusting to a new team? http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2014/10/13/6...-austin-jackson Possible explanations for what happened...long but interesting article. "In July, Jackson hit .349/.390/.505 with the Tigers. Then, upon joining Seattle, he promptly went into a massive offensive slump that lasted the remainder of the season. Look at his ISO with the M's. Look at it! Maybe you can't see it because you don't have a magnifying glass handy, but let me assure you that it's miserable. In 236 PA with the Mariners, Jackson racked up SIX extra base hits. This was a man who'd averaged an XBH every 12 PA over the past two and a half seasons and then all of a sudden he couldn't hit the ball out of the infield. He also started striking out a lot more and walking a lot less. This was a shocking, disappointing, frustrating turn of events. But what happened? ... The thing about these numbers that I find to be the most striking is Jackson's GB/FB ratio after leaving the Tigers. Jackson went from a GB/FB ratio of 0.98 with the Tigers (23rd percentile for GB rate in 2014) to a ratio of 2.16 with the Mariners (90th percentile for GB rate). I should point out that Jackson's career GB:FB (GB:FB of 1.33) isn't quite as flyball-heavy as it was at the beginning of this year, but the dramatic change in his numbers after joining the M's is more or less unfathomable to me. Park effects can certainly impact a player's performance, but that is just absurd. (Also, according to Fangraphs, the difference between the park effects for groundballs at Safeco and Comerica is negligible.)" He basically turned into Alexei Ramirez with even more grounders to the left side...

A lot of people thought Granderson was done...look at getting away from Comerica has done for his career. Here's a stat that makes no sense...Jackson hit almost 200 ops points better at home than on the road in 2014. 566 vs. 750. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/.../austin-jackson Yet his two home parks were Comerica and Safeco. 729 ops vs. lhp and 688 ops vs. rhp over the last three years. Still, if you stick Jackson in CF, Eaton in LF and Cabrera in RF, the defense would have to be much improved. With our four lefties, quite a few more balls are pulled into LF, as well. Pehaps Eaton would be more confident in that position and not try to do too much?

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 05:26 AM) I assume that you meant to refer to Lee, not Fister, when you suggested that "we already have enough lefties" Yeah, I keep forgetting he and Kennedy are righties for some reason...

Now whether it will happen or not, we might have to be content with just one... Both are buy low/er guys. Both give us more speed and athleticism. Jackson, as opposed to Fowler, wouldn't cost the draft pick. Both are still "younger" players in their primes. Jackson has had success in the AL Central already. Desmond can theoretically move to the outfield, 2b or DH (rotating) depending on what happens with Saladino, Anderson and Lawrie. Both would probably be willing to take shorter term deals (1-2 years), so the Sox would have more financial flexibility going forward...fwiw, i'd rather have Desmond for three but his agent probably won't go for that. Other than taking a stab at Latos or Lincecum, there aren't many starting pitching options left on the board. Fister...we already have enough lefties and he's lost so much velocity. Cliff Lee, but he wants too much guaranteed money in order not to retire. At the very least, the White Sox need to add one more significant contributor if they really want to create some excitement in the fanbase...the momentum has pretty much ground to a halt. Next year is horrific for free agents and we already know a ton is coming off the books for Danks and LaRoche. That money would more than cover Jackson and Desmond. Taking a loss now is increasingly more attractive than having to overpay next year at this time.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 17, 2016 -> 09:39 PM) The Sox have three prospects worth anything and no depth at the MLB level. Good luck acquiring an impact player with those resources. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. In many ways, the future of this franchise and the ability to compete is resting almost completely on the shoulders of Anderson, Fulmer, and, to a much lesser extent, Adams. If we have any type of setback (performance or injury-wise) with those two, it would be hard to envision exactly where they're going for impact players other than Cuba or the Asian markets (more Korea than Japan for position players recently). Even then, winning bidding wars for Japanese starters has turned out to be a fool's game, with the exception of Darvish, and he still has to prove he's the same pitcher he was before TJ.