caulfield12

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...ing-up-momentum Cespedes back to Mets momentum increasing "Sign him to a five-year, $120 million contract with a two-year opt-out and a ton of deferred money. Cespedes, 30, could claim victory -- he would get the long-term security he wants and a higher average annual value ($24 million) than Justin Upton ($22.125M). The Mets would win, too -- the five-year term is shorter than Cespedes desires, the deferred money would lower the present-day value of the deal and the opt-out would ensure that the outfielder stays motivated."

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:55 AM) I would have spent the money on Upton but that's about it. I'm about the only one who is willing to give Garcia another year and think he will improve. He's only 24 and he's coming off his first full year. He should be 100% healthy and I'm willing to give him a chance rather than spend $80-100 mill on Cespedes, who has also put up pedestrian numbers earlier in his career. At this point, if I was the Sox, I would sign Austin Jackson to the 4th OF role and also Pedro Alvarez to be the LH DH. LaRoche is a sunk cost and can be a pinch hitter and give Abreu the occasional day off. Paying Jackson that much money to get less than 300 at bats just wouldn't be realistic.

QUOTE (MDWhiteSoxFan @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:49 AM) I agree with this completely. I didn't think Desmond had played OF it doesn't make sense to give up a pick for a stop gap turned project. I really feel Austin Jackson and a 2nd tier pitcher are the way to go now. Save that pick help 2 positions If you value Desmond as the type of player who was recently worth a $107 million contract to...compared to the $13-14 million value of the pick over the short and long term. How much would Fowler have gotten after 2014, for example, had an extension been offered?

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:47 AM) They only did ten and the Sox aren't in it. AL teams 2. KC 3. Boston 5. Rangers 6. Astros 10. Jays Honorable mention - Indians and Yankees Crazy prediction for Boston to have improved that much...compared to Toronto falling off quite a bit. Price shouldn't swing things by that much.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/20/trumps-real...p;doc=103316413 Progressive Democrats out to destroy America, so GOP should unify around Trump if he wins despite reservations

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:14 AM) Sure, risk the lives of the American Indians to only take it back when they're finished. I was joking...since they clearly have zero understanding of US history or approximately how many treaties the US government has broken when dealing with Native American issues.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 07:11 AM) That's their job, right? Each and every year, they should be investing in the team to try and continually improve it. And let's be clear about last year's so-called investment: it only brought the total team payroll to a mere $2M and $5M more than that of the small market Royals and Twins, respectively. Middle of the pack at best. So let's not ever make the mistake of describing last year's investment as some sort of effort to go above and beyond. As another poster has pointed out, that would be accomplished by going in the red for a year or two to try and lift this team up. To date, that hasn't happened. The Royals added Cueto and Zobrist and ended last year at $152 million...while we played the fiddle as the Shark Tank burned.

QUOTE (Real @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 06:25 AM) so a disloyal fan base is why the sox have had one of the leagues worst farm systems in the last 15 years or more? gmab. We have to keep trading our best prospects for veterans because our best prospects are either not good enough and/or fans don't have the patience for a Marcus Semien, Trayce or Micah to develop so we have to trade them for more expensive veterans past their primes because playing too many youngsters would constitute a rebuild and we have to be all in every season because of fairweather fans who didn't even fully support the 2012 team that was in first place for most of the season. The End.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 06:49 PM) Game times came out today. 25 of the first 58 are day games. Good luck with that. Your favorite topic, schedule forecasting and evolving projections.

They're not going to give Anderson the starting job even if he hits .350 and Saladino hits .150. If they could get Desmond for $40-45 million over three years, i'd do that in a heartbeat because he gives you a starting SS as well as insurance at 2b, DH and in the outfield. He could have taken 7 years and $107 million last year but turned it down. That was basically $15.3 million guaranteed through 2021 would he have accepted the deal. Much more likely to earn that money than Cespedes at $25 million per season for five years. Even two years, although three would be close to ideal because we don't have anyone penciled in for the 2018 lineup other than Eaton, Abreu and hopefully Tim Anderson.

Can we arm the Oglala Sioux to go in and take them out?...kind of like a real life recreation of the tv show Banshee without the gratuitous nudity.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 11:09 PM) f***... I just realized that Leonard guy is a racist asshat. How the f*** did the admins miss that s***? Leonard Pitts? Huh?

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:28 AM) Latos isn't going to get more than 6-8 mil after last season Will believe it when I see it. His velocity and performance picked up the second half last year...plus no draft pick. He'll grt at least $10-12 million for one year if Ian Kennedy can get $70.

As we discussed before, Jesse Sanchez was the one who originally pushed the Cespedes/White Sox story out there... Then it grew legs (Mibelt jumped in, among MANY others, and all the national guys) and faded into the abyss.

Well, the Mets already have Conforto, Granderson, DeAza and Lagares, right? Doesn't really make a lot of sense unless they're taking Granderson's deal off the books...assuming that finances are the main issue here with the Mets. Still, it's hard to believe they want to go with either DeAza or Lagares as an everyday player.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-202121746.html Article touting Tigers as wild card candidates...of course, according to FanGraphs' updated numbers, we're one game behind DET and two games ahead of the Royals. (By the way, the White Sox weren't mentioned in this article about AL contenders, fwiw). http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Standings http://espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=12122 Olney has the Cubs at #1 now and the Royals at #2 in his MLB Rankings (pay site, can't see past first two)

http://espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=12122 Olney has the Cubs at #1 and Royals at #2...

The only problem with that theory is: 1) Desmond's probably going to be close to $15 million, and Latos $10-12 million, so you're already well over what you were willing to pay Cespedes/Upton 2) Latos difficult personality/chemistry issues 3) Blackmon has reached salary arbitration, so you're adding even more salary compared to what's going out So the real question is whether JR would possibly okay a 25% payroll increase coming off last season's debacle. Desmond less than a year ago turned down a $107 million contract extension, btw.

Someone at another Sox related site claimed they made $31 million in profits, but that must have been 2014...? I think part of the hangup was determining which year Abreu's signing bonus was counted against.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 09:40 PM) They "invested in the team" last year. How'd that work out? Do you think Rick Hahn deserves a higher grade for his performance than the fans rewarded him with in terms of attendance last season?

The Sox are doomed already if their culture isn't strong enough to keep a new player from polluting the clubhouse. Maybe the wild card is fellow Cuban player Jose Abreu, a formidable presence who could help keep Cespedes in the right frame of mind. A big question is whether Sox manager Robin Ventura can earn the respect of a player like Cespedes. If he can't, the Sox have to start looking for a new manager because that's a huge part of the job these days. This part of the Daily Herald article could have been cribbed from SoxTalk.

Don't forget "Rick Hahn is the greatest poker player since...." As good as the Lawrie and Frazier deals still look (on paper), it's still curious why you would make those moves if you knew you were limited on the payroll side. Hopefully it wasn't all predicated on being able to move Adam LaRoche (to free up roughly $5-6 million), because that would be a sad state of affairs indeed. All we heard last year was that none of the players we gave up and none of the contracts we signed would have that much of an impact on the overall direction of the franchise. Well, clearly, that was not the case.

The sense I got early on was that their interest in Gordon/Upton was overblown, as they were never willing to do more than a 3-year deal. Cespedes may still be an option, but as we saw with J-Up last night, the long-term deals are still out there. This is what Chris Cotillo had to say about it...

There's one problem with this theory. If the Reinsdorfs were trying to sell, while they would want to keep the payroll from being encumbered with too many bad long-term contracts, you also have a diminished product without any nationally-recognized superstars as well (referring more to the idea of bringing in players to supplement the current core). And yeah, the problem is that Upton/Gordon/Cespedes aren't really superstars either, although Cespedes certainly played like one last year and has all the flair in his game. Illitch described Upton as a star, fwiw. Since the White Sox couldn't be moved until 2029 at the earliest, you'd think they would want to have teams in 2018 and 2019 that are playoff-worthy/competitive and also look like sound broadcast rights investments for 2020-2022. This current trend of the fanbase bouncing back and forth like a yo-yo (tremendous expectations coming into 2011 and 2015)...but ending up disappointed, whatever they do, whatever they have to spend...they need to field a consistent winner and soon. In some ways, they've also got to hope Sano, Buxton and Berrios don't all live up to their potential or Minnesota will be a starter away from being a serious threat...luckily, that Mauer contract has encumbered them (along with the disappointments from Santana/Nolasco) enough to dampen spending for this year while they wait on their farm. But you're to the point with the Tigers and Royals desperately all-in, the Indians with a better overall young core of players and the Twins with the highest upside of all, they're going to have to pick a lane and stay in it.

Cooper is irascible when the team's not going well and he's facing some criticism, but that goes with the territory and he's been in the organization so long he should be used to it by now. Sure, there are "meathead" fans but nothing approaching the amount of pressure and scrutiny a lot of teams are facing in places like NY, Boston, Philly, LA, etc. As long as you feed him with talented guys like Rodon, Fulmer and Adams, he'll largely be content. Now as far as him ever being the manager, the PR side of that would be a disaster. The "us vs. them/bunker mentality" works as a position coach a lot better than when you're the public face of an organization.