caulfield12

Sure, over Jordan Danks. But then you're spending another $3-5 million on a role player.....when we've done that in the past with DeAza and Keppinger. If we were THIS close to the playoff picture and within budget, sure. Right now, as it stands, that money has to go to a starting/close to everyday player.

Is this thread really necessary? Everyone in the world knows we need another LF, starting pitcher and a bullpen piece...and that 3B, 2B, C and even Avisail Garcia are far from certainties. But what's the point? We should spend another $20-25 million to "finish the job"?

QUOTE (kwill @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 07:35 PM) I would trade for Crawford then have Viciedo platoon for Larouche and Crawford. I don't want to give up on him yet. Crawford is still a very good fielder, could deepen the lineup and add some speed to the bottom of the lineup. Plus, he seems like a great guy in the clubhouse. He is not too old to be productive throughout the rest of the contract. I really think there is not much difference between Crawford and Melky. Lyndon? We're heading for SoxTalk armaggedon if Viciedo APPEARS to be the starting LF for the White Sox heading into February.

Dodgers now have Kershaw/Greinke/Ryu/Heaney http://lasordaslair.com/2014/10/21/lets-st...rting-rotation/ According to this article, Zach Lee's their best internal option. Danks would still make some sense for the back end.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 03:17 PM) Anyone following the Sony hack? So much egg on Sonys face, from the leak of movies like Fury and Annie, to ripping Angelie Jolie and Adam Sandler, the internal anger over the Spider-Man franchise and direction(as well as negotiations with Marvel). Every day something new Probably not too smart after Maleficent did so well...and her husband's Fury leaked as well? Not exactly that best idea to have Mr. and Mrs. Smith pissed off at you. They are kind of the royal family of Hollywood right now.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 03:09 PM) And they barely squeeked into the playoffs and got real lucky they advanced past the WC game, and are losing their ace. They are going to need some guys get a lot better with the bats in 2015 to win as many games. We can say the same thing about the Red Sox getting "lucky" to get past the Yankees in 2004, can't we? Sometimes, you make your own luck, too. The 2005 White Sox had almost everything go their way. Their pitching staff was more dominant and they had a great bullpen as well, but most consider the need for both factors to kick in. I've been surprised the Royals are holding back. They were talking Tomas and Cruz and Markakis and Hunter and now that's shifted to the likes of Peguero and Paulo Orlando for DH/RF, which must be scary for their fanbase. If they figure out a way to rest Sal Perez and give him more time as a DH, he'll be a much more dangerous hitter like we've seen over and over against the Sox. Is the second half Cain the real one? How much of what he did is sustainable offensively? We've seen glimpses of what Hosmer, Escobar and Moustakas can do....stretches where they put it all together and look like All-Stars. Which versions will show up in 2015? Can Dyson play everyday...is he part of a platoon or is he relegated back to a bench role because of his lack of offensive pop...sort of a poor man's Billy Hamilton? The Hochevar signing obviously is beneficial for them as well, and quite affordable going by this year's FA pricetags.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 02:28 PM) DeShilelds Jr sounds really intriguing. I could 100% see him as a guy the White Sox target. Agree 100%. If he was 75% of the player his father was his first 5 or so years in the majors with the Expos, you'd have a nifty piece and a base-running threat to counter what the Royals do with Dyson and Gore.

1) Masterson if knee checks out (because he'll want to sign a shorter term contract and that will properly motivate him to get the next big deal) 2) B.Anderson, even if he can only give you 100-140 innings, that's probably enough....two year deal, second year option activated at 100 IP 3) Volquez 4) Vogelsong 5) Santana 6) McCarthy 7) Liriano Neither of those last two will happen with KW and Coop still around.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:48 AM) hmm, what if Noesi has turned into a valuable piece. That would be interesting. I want to see him for another year, but I do want rotation depth this year. Last year we all thought we had it and then EJ happened and suddenly we all had to be like "ugh, marty was right". E.Santana or Jimenez would have done jack squat for last year's team. Except knocking us out of the protected picks and giving us 2-3 more wins. And there's no way we should give him $48-50 million over 4 years with Rodon and Montas/Danish on the way. You hold onto your aces and keep your 4/5 or back of the rotation starters on 2 year contracts.

I just watched four seasons of Prison Break and really enjoyed it until about midway through Season 3. The final season's just not up to par. For whatever reason, it was one of the most popular, if not #1, American t.v. shows in China at that time....every woman in her 20's or 30's knows who Michael Scofield is...and Lincoln Burrows, and even Sucre. Of course, they're always disappointed when I tell them he later came out of the closet. Interesting actor/career. Didn't realize he'd gotten involved in writing screenplays and directing (Stoker). He even went so far as writing them under a false/fake name so they would be divorced from everything he's done as an actor. I think the first time I remember seeing him was a show called Boston Public.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:33 AM) durability issues. How many times has he made it over 150 innings in a season since 2007? Once? Or twice?

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:32 AM) There is literally no need for Volquez, would be wasted money We can pick apart McCarthy, Erwin Santana, Liriano and Peavy just as easily. The fact of the matter is we spent much of last off-season on this topic. The difference is that IF IF IF you could offload Danks' contract (and you're going to take back Ethier, Crawford, Kemp or Victorino in return, so you're not SAVING money)....it would be a pretty critical get to add one more veteran piece to hold down the 4th starter's spot. We all saw what happened with Erik Johnson, Paulino, Rienzo and Carroll out there last year. There's no guarantee that Noesi won't end up like Phil Humber. On the other hand, there's a good chance he will pitch better than Rodon this season. Who really knows?

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 06:34 AM) They spent $60M to get Addison Russell. Over the life of that contract JS will out perform JL. They got a top flight pitcher with a lot of wear and tear who may decline as these hitters start to excel. Going after Longoria will cost Harvey plus Russell. It was a move they had to make. Who is Harvey?

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:19 AM) Bruce is going to be expensive prospect-wise. The other three - not so much. I think Victorino could be had for very little. Problem with him is that he only had 1 year left on his contract (at $13M), and then we're in the same position again next year. But hell, it lots like we're going for it, so why not. Victorino would only make sense to clear Danks' salary. Then you'd have to pray he's healthy AND sign Volquez/B.Anderson/Masterson. Most of the other pitching options are going to be too expensive or even riskier, guys like Medlen, Beachy, Floyd, Josh Johnson, etc.

There's just no way McCarthy comes back. Too much water under the bridge with that one.

I know what Balta's going to say.... 1) We can't entirely trust Ventura with a potential playoff team saddled with high expectations...for example, Francona's made a pretty big difference in CLE (seemingly) and despite their critics, Yost and Ausmus have guided teams to the playoffs/World Series as well 2) Baserunning....Eaton hasn't established himself as a stolen base threat, Ramirez is aging and we just lost Semien's speed as well...seemingly the main hope is going to be Micah Johnson and Tim Anderson in the future, unless we add another speedster in LF 3) Goes with #1....with DeAza/Dunn/Beckham/Konerko already gone and Viciedo on the way out the door, are we going to see better execution (for example, runner on 3rd with less than 2 outs) and more "team play" from an almost completely different roster....or will the same mistakes keep cropping up?

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) Exactly what I was thinking... Oh well. No one is going to burst my bubble. With a better closer, this was close to a .500 team last year. Good pieces so far this year lead me to believe they can contend. We're a 79-83 win team right now. Not 87-88 or even 90+. That's the main point. It's easy to play the Devil's Advocate part and talk about the negatives. Obviously, there are an equal or greater number of positives, and I've pointed them out in both the Robertson and Samardzija threads as well.

I wouldn't go past four years with Samardzija, but maybe JR will change his mind...depending on how this season goes financially. They did give Danks five years and they've been willing with Buerhle in the past to go 3-4, but five would be a shocker for a pitcher in his 30's (for the White Sox organization).

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 02:57 AM) "The Mariners have renewed interest in outfielder Dayan Viciedo, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune reports." Must be their back-up plan in case they can't sign Melky Cabrera. Adding him and Cruz in one off-season would be quite expensive, no doubt about that....on top of Hernandez and Cano. Luckily, Paxton and Walker are cheap and have a ton of promise if they can stay healthy.

Rays would be stupid to sell off Longoria coming off his 2014 season when they're going to expect teams to ante up MVP-caliber minor league pieces in return. It does make sense if they're going TOTAL rebuild. Desmond Jennings is a player that KW has always coveted and would be available for the right price one would think...getting more and more expensive and his salary's steadily increasing.

SOA finale was a little predictable...the previous episode was better, although the scene with his kids and Nero was pretty heartbreaking...along with Chibbs' reactions throughout the final few episodes. Losing Bobby and Opie really wiped out the heart of their gang...there was almost nobody left standing in the end, which is kind of the point of that outlaw/criminal lifestyle...eventually it catches up with you, the "bad guy always loses in the end," as he so eloquently put it. There was another reference to the Original Redwood/First 7 in his back and forth with the DA (CCH Pounder). She's on NCIS: New Orleans now...first time I saw her was ER, one of my favorite 90's shows.

Maybe it will be the end of Buddy Bell if some of these players like Semien, Thompson and Mitchell actually enjoy some success playing for other organizations. Will believe it when I see it, though.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 01:50 AM) Lester to the Cubs. You're as late to the party as Gordon Beckham on a letter high heater. On the plus side, Balta should temporarily add 34 to his board name based upon his reaction to everything going on this week. Fun times.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 01:39 AM) Soler, Coghlan....to be announced I think we'll start hearing that they're interested in Zobrist or CarGo pretty soon Can't believe I forgot about Soler. Maybe I just assumed he'd be injured or they would be treating him with kid gloves, but he was as impressive as Baez was a disappointment last year. Alcantara's kind of in the same boat as Semien. Is he a CFer? A 2B? SS? 3B? Trade bait? Insurance for moving Bryant to LF or RF so he could play 3rd, or Baez there (with Russell/Castro up the middle)?

What's their OF going to be? Alcantara, Coghlan, Sweeney, Gomes, Junior Lake?