caulfield12

Are we really going to have Leury Garcia on the roster? That hardly screams all-in, even as the last player on the team.

If you carry Shuck, Avi, catcher and Sanchez as the back-up for three INF positions. The way we played Bonifacio, it might as well have been Beckham only last year.

Accounting for defense as well, Eaton has to be somewhere around #8-12 (individually for CF, overall MLB) over the last two years, right? But yeah, it's remarkable that the numbers could be skewed so much by other Sox players at that position in limited action. Wasn't he next to the bottom in DRS for CF last. Lots of inconsistencies. How much of it is coaching? Stubbornness? Having Cabrera and Avi on his flanks?

$10.5 million, going by the roughly $7 million per war average this offseason, way up from $5 million. You want to get rid of Laroche, Adams would have to be thrown in...in the same way we included Edwin Jackson to dump Teahen from the payroll.

Leake is the reason the Cards are one of the main competitors with the Sox for Gordon stead of Cespedes/Upton. The Tigers and possibly KC are in there as well...

Well, how much would teams have paid for Jared Mitchell at his peak value? Or for Adams now?

Balta must have received coal in his stocking from Santa.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 26, 2015 -> 08:31 AM) in this post, i just remembered several other teams. i will mention 1 team in particular. Pitt. they are committed and they will need to do something. going into the off season, their press or the press of the sporting community broke them down, before the northside answered with their moves. Pitt needed a another sp, 1b they will also move both walker and marte b/c their prospects are ready to step in. looking back, they did the 1b, 2b trade now, i would pitt move marte and take a chance on 2 rookies in the lineup??? i still see them needing a better sp and if they do move marte, i can see it being done for a young cost control #2 or #3 type of sp. or would they just look into the fa market??? i am seeing teams as needing to make moves, just be keep up and to keep being competitive within their division. you know, i really do like this off season. a lot to think about. Why trade Marte, or Polanco for that matter?

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 26, 2015 -> 08:23 AM) They have Chris Young and Brock Holt in the Of as well Seems Young is their fourth and they're willing to take an overpay on Bradley...Castillo needs to re-establish value and Betts is definitely part of the new core there.

Betts, Castillo, Bradley, Jr., and then what to do with Hanley? 1b probably. Detroit's still going to be a player here, imo. And don't discount the Angels and Royals if the price drops... Houston has too many outfielders already, they were willing to deal Domingo Santana but they seem pretty well set with their younger core guys and unlikely to spend huge dollars. The Cardinals after Leake can really only go after Gordon. That still creates a situation where you have the Red Sox, Angels, Tigers and Orioles who could take runs at Cespedes and Upton, and the White Sox, Cards and Royals for Gordon. I can't imagine the Cubs unless they were willing to move Schwarber to RF and that just feels like way too much spending for one offseason already with their debt load.

That's all fine and good, but we haven't had much luck since the Dunn signing pulling off this feat, or you can go back to Rios and Peavy. Jake might have had the most disappointing career overall with the Sox, but ironically he fetched us the most talent back of anyone. Actually, when they announced their resigning him, it seemed a bit nuts but it worked out fine. Just looking at everyone we brought in last year, the only player we could currently trade without eating any salary would be Robertson. This kind of "hoarding talent" type of strategy would work better for a rebuilding team with all their minor league talent at least 2-3 seasons away from being ready. With the White Sox, anything you get for Frazier, Lawrie, Cabrera is likely to be Avi Garcia type talent with flaws...but the hardest problem to resolve is selling "high" on players who are performing well when the team's contending. See Shark last July after the Blue Jays series. In the past, we held onto Crede and Jenks too long, not to mention Quentin, Ramirez, Floyd, Danks, Crain, Humber, Thornton. Also, you're looking at budgetary constraints...playing time issues...just look at all the surplus talent the Dodgers acquired the last 2-3 years and what they have to show for it all now. And that's a team spending 2.5x what the White Sox do. As it is, we're going to be 15-20% over projected budget adding one of the Big 3 (theoretically). Finally, it would make more sense to stockpile young, cost-controlled talent than veterans with a negative WAR roi unless you can hit on the perfect Tier Three veterans and flip them like Epstein has done 2-3 times in rebuilding the Cubs.

All Spielberg's movies ranked first to last. Pretty amazing career when War Horse is 28th/29. https://www.yahoo.com/movies/best-and-worst...9586109247.html Paramount's The Big Short moved up one spot from Wednesday to claim third on Thursday with an estimated $1.72 million. The critically acclaimed Adam McKay directed film was down 26 percent from Wednesday, which represented one of the day's stronger daily percentage holds among wide releases. In a similar situation back in 2009, Up in the Air increased 1 percent on Christmas Eve to gross $1.75 million. The Big Short has grossed $5.49 million in two weeks and looks like it is in store for a very solid first weekend of wide release. www.boxoffice.com Interesting counterprograming debuting quite serious (some would say depressing in the case of Up in the Air) movies at Christmas.

Things can change a lot in just a month. Half of the media still is refusing to believe Trump can win NH, South Carolina or Nevada, assuming Cruz wins Iowa. The closer the reality of him potentially becoming president hits, the harder it will get.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 25, 2015 -> 12:27 PM) I want to see A few more things before revealing my annually highly anticipated Top 10 in January. Does it merit its own thread...? That is the question. Also, the Man from UNCLE sucks...thought it could be watchable due to the presence of Alicia Vikander. But no such luck. There's always The Danish Girl I suppose, but can't find the proper motivation to watch that one.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 25, 2015 -> 11:45 AM) Steve Harvey says Happy Easter! He's going to manage to make Miss Colombia even more money if he keeps this up. Btw, Merry Christmas from China, where almost nobody knows the original religious meaning of the holiday and young people just see it as an excuse to buy something on discount, go out to eat with friends or attend a movie.

Not to mention Jay Bruce, Brett Gardner, Carl Crawford/Van Slyke/Thompson, Desmond Jennings, Avi, haha. Then Fowler, Span, Austin Jackson and Parra as well.

Unless he wanted a flexible opt-out to not be locked into a long-term relationship with an organization he was uncertain about... For Gordon, it's just as much about finding a comfortable fit with the right team and environment. We all were sold this idea Shark would be willing to sign a long-term deal, and it couldn't have turned out to be any more the opposite or both sides. Likewise, Heyward cost the Cardinals a ton in talent and he was content to jump ship from one of the best organizations in baseball after just a year, so that has to be part of the hesitation...along with the belief KC can come up with 4 years and $70 million at the last minute when the rubber hits the road on decision day in the next couple of weeks. I don't think no trade is quite so important...unless he really wants to keep his family close to Omaha.

That would be quite an unusual amount of FA spending for StL, I can't ever remember them spending $160-170 million on just two players from outside their organization in a single offseason. http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jef...27d3e3bdfa.html Please send this article to KW and Hahn (about the consequences of not developing enough homegrown hitters.) Still, not going to feel sorry for the Cards.

It would also give the White Sox flexibility perhaps to get out of the contract after 2-3 years. The problem, though, is those types of scenarios these days almost always work to the benefit of the player...he's playing well and can get more money elsewhere in 2018 but if on the decline he can just collect guaranteed money over the remainder of the deal. That situation really left the Dodgers short of pitching with Greinke, but it also prevented disaster with Albert Belle for the Sox almost twenty years ago. That said, you still have to replace that production somehow. That said, Gordon wouldn't stick around just for the salary or paycheck if his skills greatly diminished...he would retire early like Meche or Cud dyer recently with the Mets imo.

Desmond Jennings would be a good buy low, shorter-term commitment guy. Only a 724 lifetime Ops but does everything pretty well except hit for power. More like Span. Coming off an injury-riddled season. Let's hope not scraps or leftovers like Victorino or Travis Snider.

Probably just meant who they're currently in on most...

Considering lots of speculation about $14-18 million per season after the playoffs, that's one of the more seemingly reasonable deals so far this offseason. The World Series brought him back to reality a bit, as his defensive shortcomings reared their ugly head.

Gardner might be more palatable if not for the last two years... Really think the White Sox are targeting additions for 2016-17 and might look at 2018 for the right guy but you don't want to have contracts for speed/athleticism-based players who quickly seem to lose those skills in their early to mid 30's these days. We typically tend to be 2-3 years late on those types of veteran additions for name-brand players coming over from other organizations. For that reason, CarGo makes more sense as the fallback option, but more based on what they're asking for...or Inciarte at the right price as well. All things considered, Gordon's a lot surer bet for roughly the same money per year...as long as you don't go five years. I think four years and $70 million is the max contract KC would be willing to fork over. So CarGo minus talent for two years (obviously not Q) or a Gordon commitment for two very productive years and two potentially declining years, and losing a draft pick but having a lot more confidence because of the AL/ NL disparity, Coors splits and a long history of injury problems versus Gordon missing hardly any time before 2015. Otoh, LH and plays RF and at his peak more dominating than Gordon...like a Cespedes or Upton in that sense. Streaky.

Regarding RF issues.... They'd have to try Cabrera in RF and hope for the best...unless they bring in two out of Span, Parra, Fowler, Jackson and forget the Big 3 (or make a trade for one OFer). Feels like the best we can possibly hope for is Big 3 now with an additional midseason acquisition if we're in contention.

CarGo and Ethier are those two interesting case studies for how much return they can get now compared to being pure salary dumps a year ago. Ethier I believe has the longer deal, so wouldn't cost as much...and is more of a complimentary player for LA. CarGo, otoh, is the remaining franchise player (most identifiable) for the Rockies, and rebounded significantly...so they will definitely ask for Fulmer or Adams....and it's unsure whether Adams alone gets it done now. Another factor is he's a lot more expensive than Frazier...but we don't unfortunately have the equivalent of another Montas/Micah/Trayce package we're willing to deal. Maybe Hawkins and Adams, that feels like their ask in terms of selling it to the fanbase.