caulfield12

4 or 5 players being involved in a trade isn't important, it's the ability of those players. It's not like we traded away Anderson, Rodon (as PTBNL), etc. We traded from our biggest area of strength, middle infield, where we now have Sanchez/Johnson/Bonifacio/Saladino/L.Garcia/Beckham/Anderson... The ONE and only concern most have is that Bassit looked really good at times, but nobody knows if he can make it as a starter long-term. And that's the biggest area of weakness, the 4-5 spots. In the end, adding a 2-3 starter outweighed having insurance for a 4-5 starter in Noesi. And to reiterate, Ynoa still has lots of potential. Not to mention the fact that we've got plenty of catching options now (Soto/Kottaras/Brantly) and Nieto/Kevan Smith passed Phegley in the eyes of the front office.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 01:13 PM) The research has shown midseason acquisitions rarely pay big dividends. I hope the Sox get away from the philosophy of being OK being a little short thinking adding in July will put them over the top. That hasn't worked. If you are trying to win, try to be as strong as you can day 1. Hahn has admitted they still are not where they want to be. It obviously takes some time. But there is no doubt they can win. There have been seasons they weren't as highly thought of as they are now, and made the playoffs. This team might win 95 games. They might lose 95 games. No one really knows until the games are played. See Oakland A's, 2014.

Look at the way the Royals and Giants are approaching this season. They didn't add any foolish risks or big contracts, in fact, they were almost risk-averse. With the price of pitching in the game today, you develop 5 Adamses (see the Nationals), go into April with six quality starters and expect at least one of them to get hurt. You also don't overpay middle or back of the rotation starters with long-term deals...but you do bust your balls to do everything possible to develop as many top-line starters internally.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 11:33 AM) That's why I said 2017. If we don't win this year, 2016 looks like a "retooling" year because you get several contracts off the books at the end of the year and you start working extremely raw rookies into the lineup. Well, every good team breaks in 2-3 rookies per year across the roster. We're lucky to succeed with one (outside of pitching) every five years. At some point, the law of statistical averages has to break in our favor. Yes, Anderson's going to have a ton of pressure on him as a starting SS in 2016. It might be that he has to play 2B in 2016 and then move over to SS in 2017. A lot of things can happen between now and then. Nobody's exactly sure what will happen with Johnson or Sanchez, so they're going to have to adjust in real-time. As you always say, the 2006 White Sox could/should have won with Brian Anderson in CF for the whole season. There's no reason to believe they couldn't do the same with Tim Anderson playing 2B for one season to get his feet wet.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 11:29 AM) I think they should too. They have money to burn and there's no commitment beyond this season and their current outfield starters are Grady Sizemore, Ben Revere, and Dominic Brown with Ryan Howard at DH. There are plenty of ABs for Viciedo on that team. The Rays, too. They have to replace Myers and Joyce in the power department.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 11:26 AM) The only one I'd count on to be a contributor by 2016 is Rodon, and at the same time I can easily see other holes opening as Alexei, LaRoche age. That leaves me with zero confidence, frankly. After 2016 at least you clear several contracts, but "wait for 2016 when we have 0 money to spend" is the plan, it is a poor one. This team either will win this year or its going to circle 2017 for the next time it has money available. Or we can start to be optimistic that some of our prospects like Anderson and Hawkins will make an impact. Especially our young pitching prospects. Their development saves a LOT of money (see Sale/Quintana). Let's not forget, Danks eventually will be off the books, too. The worst-case scenario is we're muddling around .500 at the All-Star break and get something nice back for Samardzija. The reality is that nobody should be running away with the AL Central this year, and the Tigers and Royals have both taken a step back to the field, if not two steps.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 11:23 AM) If this team is not a winning team in 2015, how does it become a winning team in 2016 with the team having to commit $130 million+ to keeping Samardzija? It doesn't. You subtract Ramirez's money (putting you around $105 million) and you still have $20-25 million to play with. That money shouldn't go to an overpriced 3rd starter...for the same reason $90 million hasn't gone to James Shields yet. HOWEVER, if Shark proves himself to be a 2 or better, then it starts to become more justifiable based on the lesser wear and tear on his arm. Of course, a LOT is also dependent on what happens with Noesi/Danks and then the development of Rodon/Montas/Danish/Beck and Adams might very well be a fast mover as well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 10:24 AM) Then trading for a starting pitcher 1 year away from FA and blowing all of our FA spending money this year ($110 million already on the books next year counting Alexei's option) was really silly. 1) It's very possible that Anderson takes that final leap and takes Alexei's spot for 2016, injecting even more young fire into that line-up. That saves you $10 million and/or gets you another piece if he's dealt. 2) The cost of acquiring Samardzija wasn't prohibitive. The cost of signing him long-term might be. This team will be expected to compete, but not at the cost of the 2016-18 window. 3) Viciedo and DeAza being off the roster are positive developments for those who believe in accountability (Beckham's another story). 4) We had the unique situation with a protected 1st rounder where we could add as many FA's as we did without losing anything more than 2nd and 3rd rounders, so, like the teams going over budget in international spending, we maximized the one year window, as we certainly shouldn't have a protected pick next season. 5) Back to point 2, if Rodon/Montas/Beck/Danish turn out as expected, there's not nearly the pressure to keep Shark around. 6) With LaRoche at least, we're not stuck with a four year contract like Dunn's...there's still some flexibility or fluidity built into this situation. 7) The farm system is starting to improve at just the right time to feed players onto the roster (2-3 per year) and/or trade them for more experienced pieces to put you over the top.

Is Adams the only 2nd rounder from 2015 to make the list? So essentially we've added Rodon, Anderson, Adams, Montas, Davidson and A.Garcia....so six Top 120 guys in less than 2 years. That's pretty impressive. Not to mention the fact that we didn't have to give up any of them for Samardzija. And that's not even including Danish or Courtney Hawkins, with Beck still having a shot. Wonder if Boston would like to have Montas back about now, haha? Otoh, our $10 million investment in Viciedo turned into a bust, which has been replaced by the $4 million investment in Ynoa.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 08:07 AM) Boras, I think the owners are making huge profits and should pay more to the employees. Plus, I represent some of the best players playing. If Boras signed up for an account on an internet message board then he can make suggestions on how the game should be played, but not until then. Baseball's history and traditions are both keeping it alive and killing it at the same time. I don't mind exploring each and every idea for merit. The DH was sacrilegious to many baseball purists. It improved the game in my opinion. OMG! They are proposing a wild card game in baseball?! Why play the regular season? That was a terrible idea we now have embraced. I'd like to hear a fully thrashed out conception of a neutral site World Series. The media currently sets up in two cities and moves back and forth. Corporations set up for 6 days at golf tournaments all the time. This would not quite double that. The bad news is the northern teams without a dome would be screwed . Which may actually be a benefit. Baseball games with fans dressing like they are snowmobiling to a football game are ridiculous. I assume the season is as long as it is because of revenue. But I could easily have the season start a week later and end a week or two earlier. I can't believe those games are much of a money maker. Baseball can't afford sacred cows. Only reject some of these ideas after a serious look. It woudn't kill them to go back to the old 154 game schedule. Each team would only be losing 4 home games. Another "innovation," the World Baseball Classic, just hasn't worked well in the U.S. On the other hand, it has been a tremendous marketing asset in Cuba/Latin America, and especially in Korea/Japan.

Alibaba (BABA) getting hammered... down to $90 in pre-trading So between the Chinese government leaking their "attack report" six months late...to the disappointing earnings announcement today...and then earlier in the week the announcement that Yahoo was spinning off its stake, lots of moving pieces. Has zoomed from around $82-83 (IPO time) up to $120 and now back to the low $90's with more room to fall. So the logical play here is wait until Alibaba's around $68-70 or Yahoo (because they have a 15% stake in BABA and will spin it off in the 2nd half of the year) is around $34-36...because most are arguing the stock's being punished unfairly at the moment and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with their strategic position in e-commerce.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 29, 2015 -> 07:14 AM) No it's the Dottie character

"Jared Mitchell has really positioned himself well to make a strong impact in the 2015 campaign." Buddy Bell

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 08:01 PM) Soto can spell LaRoche against lefties, Kottaras can't. That's the key. Have we seen any indication that Ventura's (or Hahn) envisioning a strict platoon system with LaRoche, or just our idea based on the splits?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 10:48 AM) It seems like a snippet to me, but please feel free to delete this post if you think it's too much: It could also have been referring to Davidson and Avisail Garcia?

QUOTE (farmteam @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 07:36 PM) What? I'm assuming he means the lower interest rates.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 07:23 PM) He's starting for the Giants now. But the Giants are terrible every other season, haha. I actually think they'll struggle a ton without Panda and Morse, Cain's just coming back from injury...and then Hudson and Vogelsong are both nearing the end. Unless Lincecum has an amazing 3rd act/career performance, they're a .500ish club at best.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 07:18 PM) Soto may get the job, but he doesn't have more power than Kottaras. Soto has 92 career homers in 2215 AB's (1 in 24 AB's), .436 career slugging. Kottaras has 32 career homers in 722 AB's (1 in 22.5 AB's), .411 career slugging. Not as big a difference as one would have thought. If you just go by the 2012-2014 seasons, Kottaras has done extremely well against RHP, .441 SLG and and a 785 OPS, versus Soto's more consistent .370-.380ish SLG and 670ish OPS against RHP and LHP. Soto has the bigger name, of course, and is more acclimated to carrying a heavier workload, but it's not as obvious as it seemed. You could almost argue that Kottaras should be the favorite based on that stat alone. Of course, Kottaras' numbers (and extrapolating them) are MUCH smaller sample sizes. Flowers is at .420 SLG vs. LHP vs. .371 vs. RHP, and a 683 OPS vs. a 659 against RHP. So Flowers would play full-time against LHP, and they would split time against righties based on the career match-ups...with Flowers getting 65-70% of at-bats and Kottaras 30-35%. Of course, that's not factoring in defense at all...which would give Soto the advantage, overall, but barely.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 07:14 PM) Why in the universe would Aoki have taken a bench job with the Sox? Not even a platoon job. Same goes for whoever suggests throwing $2 million at "some" starting pitcher who would pretty much be guaranteed to start in AAA. Who is that pitcher? Why would they take that job? Well, I would guess the major motivations would be playing for a competitive team and the pretty high likelihood that Garcia, Eaton or Me.Cabrera will end up getting hurt.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 02:20 PM) Do any of our comic book people know who that blonde ninja is on Agent Carter? http://uproxx.com/gammasquad/2014/12/watch...e-scenes-video/ This is Agent Carter I'm pretty sure.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 06:56 PM) Imitation Game was pretty great. Lot more to the story than I thought. The real story isn't quite as dramatic or compelling, but there's a lot to learn that I wasn't even aware of as a former history teacher (who's probably too American-centric). WILD with Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed was, at least to me, a lesser version of 127 Hours. It's more of a "self-help/empowerment" film and strong performance within a decent film than anything else.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jan 28, 2015 -> 05:22 PM) So what does our bench currently look like? Who will be the backup catcher? Beckham (3b, SS, 2b) Bonafacio (Inf, OF) L. Garcia (INF) Catcher? Garcia and Saladino are out of the picture unless there's an injury, Johnson/Sanchez completely fall flat on their faces and one of those guys hits .400+ in spring. That's highly unlikely. I do think they're going to be scouring the waiver wires at the end of March to find a more suitable option than Shuck, with a bit more power. As far as Leury goes, the ONE advantage he has in his favor is his versatility, speed and ability to cover CF in case of an Eaton injury...but you already have enough versatility with Sanchez, Bonifacio and Beckham. This bench doesn't give you that game-changer off the bench like Dyson and Gore with the Royals, who can swipe bases at will. It also forces Soto onto the roster, because there's just not enough power with Viciedo gone coming from those other 3.

I don't think we want to see a system where those with 2000+ SAT scores to 3.5+ GPA's get more access to government loans. Maybe those are better bets from a private lending perspective, but you can't punish all the students from poorer-performing schools (who are logically at higher risk of eventual defaults) by assuming they won't be able to get higher-paying jobs or won't even graduate. That's just going to end up (once again) concentrating more wealth in the hands of fewer people at the top of the pyramid. I do strongly believe the government shouldn't allow loans to be used for those for-profit schools like the University of Phoenix or Kaplan University where the disconnect between future promises made and the actuality of the job market graduates are facing is so high. In the end, that's just another version of the payday loans scam (the monthly fees for those who don't have access to a banking institution/checking account/ATM or debit card) for many minority students...they get sucked into paying higher interest private loan rates for a lower educational return on investment. The pendulum has really shifted in that regard, back to the vocational/trade schools side...although how long even those positions will survive the technological revolution is debatable.

Forgot about Taylor, but hopefully there are better options by the end of ST than Taylor, Shuck or Campana. Don't the Padres have 7-8 outfielders right now? What's next, bringing back Carlos Quentin? I don't see Sierra anywhere on the Royals' roster. They do have former White Sox/Brazlian/Wilder fiasco name Paulo Orlando. I think they also released Carlos Peguero, another OF option. Wouldn't it have been better just to not bring back Beckham and give that money to Aoki as the back-up? Oh, well. Guess they valued Beckham's experience and "marketing value" over Saladino...and the possibility they're going to need Bonifacio and Beckham to cover 3B and 2B, not to mention LaRoche's at-bats against lefties.

Saladino and Leury are the ones who really are pushed to the outside looking in... I'm assuming they weren't 100% convinced that he was going to be ready to begin the season....coming off the TJ surgery. So Shuck's now the favorite for 4th outfielder? Of course, we also have Bonifacio, but that's still a bit scary. Where did Moises Sierra end up again? I seem to recall he was picked up by a team and then quickly dropped from their roster, maybe KC? Campana? Mitchell? Thompson? Those last two can't be serious possibilities, one would think.