caulfield12

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Nov 5, 2014 -> 08:11 AM) Rasmus lost his starting spot last year. I think he may be open to taking a one year deal (plus incentives) to rebuild value to enter free agency next off-season still at a decently young age. The only way Rasmus is going to pay off is if we AT LEAST control him into the 2016 season. Otherwise, we're just another version of the Cubs for the last 3-4 years, and acquiring assets to turn around and sell them to the highest bidder.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Nov 5, 2014 -> 07:59 AM) If the Sox are going to compete, they must have one really potent, middle of the order, left handed bat. Hitting RH pitching is always of greater value than hitting lefties, simply because there are so many more of them. In the American League, and particularly in the Central Division, the Sox will arguably have most of the best lefties in Sale, Quintana and an emerging Rodon. It makes little sense to have a lineup full of right handed hitters, with most of the good southpaws in the League, on your staff. Whether or not you agree is less important than the fact that R. Hahn has openly stated this need for a potent left handed bat. There is simply no better option available to fill that need than Victor Martinez. The arguments have already been eloquently made for signing him, including the payroll flexibility and draft protection that makes his acquisition feasible. One of the arguments against signing him has been the need to fill other holes, and the inability of the Sox to contend without first doing so. I agree in principle with the position that it only makes sense to acquire V Mart, if the Sox can contend. In fact, Martinez himself has indicated that he only wants to play for a contender. The issue for me is whether or not the front office can fill the other holes this season. Many of you have expressed concerns about needing another outfielder. Filling that hole may not be that difficult. The Sox would not need a big offensive threat at that position. With Abreu and Martinez as the 3 and 4 hitters, Eaton leading off, the on base ability of C. Gillaspie, the solid offensive contributions of A. Garcia and Alexei, they could get by with a good defensive right fielder, with a good arm and decent on base skills. That would enable them to move Garcia to LF, where his raw defensive skills would not be a liability. Remember, Avi does at least possess good speed and a strong arm. It appears that Hahn has had interest in Aoki for that role. I first thought that Shuck might be that kind of guy, but the more I read about him the less convinced I am. Aoki is intriguing because he profiles as a good 2 hole hitter as well. The problem is that he is not very good vs RH pitching. However, someone like him, with reverse splits, would be adequate, and not that expensive, or hard to find. You would think that a team like Seattle, seeking a right handed power bat, might be willing to trade a good defensive right fielder, for Viciedo. I don't think that it matters from which side of the plate that outfielder bats. With Martinez in the middle of the lineup, the need for the left handed hitter would be filled. Someone suggested Saunders, and that would be fine, if Seattle were willing to make that trade. Then there is always the international pool of talent. Again, the Sox do not need a big bat in the outfield. The bullpen is a big concern, but with the additions of Babbit, one good left hander, Montas and Cleto the pen could well become an asset, rather than the liability it was in 2014. After all, while they lost Lindstrom and Jones, the Sox did witness the emergence of Putnam and Petricka as solid set up guys. J. Guerra also looks like he's back, and can be counted upon. Of course, they will have to find a closer, but they do have candidates, including the aforementioned Montas and Cleto. That brings up another issue. The Sox record was much worse than the teams overall effort, due to all of the games which the bullpen blew. How many times did Sale and Quintana give the Sox a great chance to win, only to see the pen implode? Fix the pen, and the won/loss column would look dramatically different. So, in summary: Sign V. Martinez? Find a good defensive R.F. with the ability to get on base and provide a little speed. Sign a #3 RH Starter Sign one good LH reliever That should be within the budget of the front office, and could very well put a contender on the field this coming season. Providing management could accomplish those other goals, I'd vote to try to sign Martinez. For me the question is; Would V Mart consider signing with the Sox, not should they offer him a lucrative contract. So, what would I offer him, if it were my decision (not necessarily my money)? I'd offer him what I speculated it would take to sign him; 4 years and $70 Million. It would be shocking for the White Sox to sign Martinez. And without Martinez, you can't have Aoki in the outfield. You're just giving up way too much power to acquire a platoon hitter who's a below average defender. The fact of the matter is the Royals have six Gold Glove caliber players in Moustakas, Hosmer, Perez, Cain, Escobar and Dyson. We can't afford to add position players who aren't going to be both above-average offensively and defensively, unless they're close to Gold Glove/Silver Slugger caliber.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Nov 5, 2014 -> 07:53 AM) I think Anderson will be lucky to get $5M + incentives based on innings pitched . Rasmus way too much, Romo and LaRoche very speculative as I think both are NL players. But it is probable LaRoche gets $10M+. The thing is, Rasmus remains the only young outfielder on the market who can be bought on a dip...but that doesn't mean he's going to be supercheap, because he had a very solid 2013. His age, more than anything else, works in his favor. I can't believe Rasmus is going to sign for something like $24 million for 3 years when Andrew Freaking Miller is going to make more simply based on 2014. C'mon. A LH SET UP guy is going to go for the same price as Rasmus? I'm not buying it at all. Let's say you're the Royals. Here are your choices for RF/DH: Nelson Cruz, Melky Cabrera, Torii Hunter, Michael Morse and Nick Markakis. Do you at least not seriously consider Rasmus, when all five of those players come with huge warts themselves? I'd have to imagine that signing those players for the White Sox would be even riskier than controlling an outfielder in the prime of his career for the next three seasons, two of them being years when the White Sox will desperately need LH bats and power. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-colum...cle3503545.html By the way, the Royals are another good match for Brett Anderson and there's even a thought they would be willing to "sell high" on Greg Holland...along with the opposite thought, that they'll add Hochevar to the mix next year and try to make their bullpen even stronger for innings 6-9 so as not to overuse Herrera and Davis. At any rate, there seems to be a decent supply of those "mid tier" starters who would help the Royals bridge the gap to Finnegan/Manaea/Binford/Almonte.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 5, 2014 -> 07:42 AM) Even adding the link from Oct. 24. Setting up the White Sox for the franchise-altering Domonic Brown deal.

It's going to be eerily reminiscent of when they overreached with the House on the Monica Lewinsky affair.

http://news.yahoo.com/how-hillary-clinton-...-075943434.html Why it's exceedingly likely that Hilary Clinton will win in 2016...and nothing that happened last night runs against that momentum, except for the possibility of Booker's win in Colorado serving as a template for "Bill Clintonesque triangulation" all over the US....good luck finding candidates capable of that

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 5, 2014 -> 06:55 AM) for the most part I am with you on this. but this got my head scratching. LaRoche will get his 15 mil. At his age, and with his splits....he could get $10 million, perhaps, but I don't believe he's a $15 million a year player in his mid 30's. Not at 1B/DH.

Someone will give Rasmus $36 million for 3 years because of his youth, ability to play all three outfield spots and "potential." Romo one year at $8-9 million. (If guys like Andrew Miller are getting $20 million plus based on one season...or Gregerson, that's not hard to imagine at all). Anderson's hard to predict...he won't want to sign a long-term deal, so he's going to try to max out a one year deal or a single year with option/s attached. If Jake Peavy's going to get $10 million (plus), then I'll put Anderson at $8.5 million (roughly where Josh Johnson was). That gets you to $29 million. Then LaRoche at $8.5 million for 2 years, for a total of $17 million. (Remember, Gold Glove caliber, etc., that comes with a price even if the White Sox want Abreu to play there the majority of the time). There's $37.5 million.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodg...1104-story.html Another Zaidi article......Pakistani raised in Philippines with a family of basically academic freaks, baseball is truly becoming globalized

Let's say they added Rasmus, LaRoche, Brett Anderson and Romo...along with the idea of Rodon joining the team at mid-season. Does anyone believe that's enough to put the White Sox in contention in 2015? We have to face the fact that outside of signing Scherzer, Lester, Sandoval, V-Mart or Hanley Ramirez, there aren't many INDIVIDUAL players who will move the meter until the Sox start winning again. The combination I listed above is going to cost around $37.5-45 million in added payroll, just a guess.

27. Brett Anderson, SP: The best gamble of the 2014 offseason is Anderson, still just 26 years old, still throwing hard from the left side despite myriad injuries. Because he’s coming off back surgery, he’s a bargain worth pursuing, big markets and small, for the significant upside. One of these years, he’s going to throw a full season, and when he does, his teammates will be thrilled they’re wearing the same uniform. from yahoo.com/sports (Jeff Passan, Free Agent Tracker) Of course, that leaves the left-handedness issue again...but if they could somehow trade Danks for Ethier (just an example), that would upgrade LF (although I'm still concerned Ethier is strictly a platoon guy at this stage) and exchange Danks for Anderson, you MIGHT just have something. Sale Quintana Anderson Noesi Bassitt (loser to bullpen)

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 10:19 PM) Sure its possible, just ask the Yanks. If it were up to me, this is how I would go about making the Sox a contender in 2015. Headley and VMart would be great additions and if Toronto signs Melky then the Sox could try for Rasmus. If not Rasmus, the Sox could look into an exchange of bad contracts like Danks for Andre Ethier. Essentially Ethier would add 3.75M to the current payroll which should allow plenty of space for Headley, VMart and a bullpen arm or maybe even two. IMO, this would would be the best way to fill in some holes while not trading away any prized prospects that the Sox have so few of in the first place. Since the Sox have so much room in payroll and a protected first rounder, it makes sense to hit the FA market. Problem is, will JR spend on multiple free agents. History says no but one can hope right? That strategy provides you an opening day rotation of Sale, Quintana, Noesi, Bassitt and Carroll/Beck.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 04:49 PM) Bleacher Reports thinks Ervin Santana would be a good fit for the Sox .http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2253830-projecting-1-impact-signing-every-mlb-team-will-make-this-winter/page/7 But remember that article just says if every team signed 1 free agent who seems the most likely candidate. Yuck. Perfect candidate for regression coming back to the AL in an increasily-difficult division. We'd spend $10-15 million to get, what, 2 more wins (arguably) when we already saw the fallacy of this with Ubaldo Jimenez...Santana's not going to move the meter enough to put us over the top, and he might not even pitch any better than Noesi/Bassitt (I do feel comfortable stating that he would outperform Carroll, though). You're going to get a LOT more bang for you buck when you make bigger upgrades in the LF/DH slots. That's when you look very closely at upgrading the final starting spot, assuming Rodon's looking like a killer. In the final opinion, since we wouldn't be likely to sign Santana for more than one year, it's kind of pointless. We can find more inexpensive "filler" in another throwaway season like the Cubs have consistently been able to find and leverage for trade.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 12:06 PM) John Wick is only 90 mins? Not paying $8 plus popcorn/soda for 90 mins. Haha, by your argument, baseball should become twice as popular as basketball with games lasting nearly twice as long...of course, we've reached the point (with MLB) where consumers want "more for their money" but 3 1/2 - 4 hours is TOO much time "wasted" if you have a family. As for me, I'd MUCH rather spend that money on John Wick, than, say....Gone Girl, because GG came in around 2 1/2 hours and could have been cut to 1:45 and it probably would have been a better movie. By trying to include a majority of elements of the book, the overall story got watered down somehow, because they still glossed over many elements of the book that were important/memorable to readers. Regardless of their length, I'd happily spend that money for The Raid 1/2, John Wick and the majority of animated movies (How to Train Your Dragon 2 or even The Book of Life).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 04:21 PM) I can't think of him as an insurance policy because I can't think of him being useful in a backup role. An insurance policy is what you use when something goes wrong, so what do we do if things go right and we find a better starting OF somewhere? Like I said we can't keep him on the bench because he's such a poor fit for that role, he's shown no success with the bat to justify thinking of him as a DH option, basically he's an insurance policy against us failing to find a replacement for him. But Hell, play that guy we just picked up on the waiver wire, he literally cannot be worse. You'd rather have JB Shuck as a DH option than Viciedo? Unless we fill BOTH LF and DH this offseason, Dayan's likely to be given one more year...let's call it the "DeAza/Beckham Effect." In Dick Allen's scenario where we're spending $40-50 million this offseason on FA's, I'd agree that he should be jettisoned. It's just that very few see that (amount of spending) coming, realistically.

Nah, would rather you see John Wick, lol. Or lose 30-40 pounds like Jake G and gauntly haunt SoxTalk. Nightcrawler doesn't have that "event status" movie feel like Gone Girl or Interstellar...or, gasp, Hunger Games.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 09:49 AM) The difference being is that no one is talking about the White Sox as a World Series team next year, while the Royals are looking to get back there next year. Take away your ace, and that becomes incredibly harder. The Red Sox (if they spend a mint on free agents), Orioles (if they keep Cruz and Markakis and continue to improve the rotation), Angels and possibly the Tigers (depending on what happens with Victor and Scherzer) all will be favored over the Royals at the start of 2015. A lot depends on Richards' time frame for the Angels...but it wouldn't be a shock to see Las Vegas betting line setters favor the Angels over the Royals even if Richards isn't projected back until mid-season. After 29 years of drought, nobody in KC actually has the brazenness to expect the World Series again in 2015.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 09:47 AM) Haven't you heard? The Royals pitching prospects are all guaranteed to immediately succeed and have zero injury risk. Well, the difference is they have 6-7 options for the final spot in the rotation. The White Sox have Rodon, and then: Bassitt, who would actually prefer to be a reliever Beck, who can't strike anyone out and looks to be a long man or pen piece for now Montas, who is more likely to become closer out of necessity Danish, who's unlikely to be in the Sox rotation plans until 2016 or 2017 Right now, it's going to be either Carroll or Bassitt unless they sign someone or make a trade.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 09:45 AM) Don't compare the Royals with the Giants. That is beyond silly. The Royals had not "been there" in 29 years. There is no reason to think with their limited resources ( I actually read where trading Alex Gordon is a possibility) that they are the next Tampa Bay Rays. You seem to have Finnegan in the HOF already, but chances are you are more than a little overboard. I'm sure more have Rodon there already. They're not going to trade Alex Gordon. Who would be stupid enough to come up with that idea??? He's their franchise player right now, along with Sal Perez and Yordano Ventura.

The good thing about this is the GOP will be expected to, like, produce some type of results and IDEAS that aren't from Cantor in the next two years... What will really irritate them is if they blow it (the coming opportunity) so badly it gets another DEM elected president in 2016. I remember 1994 like it was yesterday...but that scale/scope of that was much more unexpected than anything that will possibly go down today election-wise.

Other than signing Lester or Scherzer, what team in the majors is going to have the perfect rotation? The Giants are probably going to lose Peavy and Vogelsong. They're going to plug in the gaps with Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, in all likelihood. Is that a surefire plan? As always, it depends on health. Tim Hudson's 39 going on 40. I remember something about him being the oldest pitcher to start a Game 7. Y. Petit was ONCE a top starting prospect a long time ago but he doesn't throw much harder than Dylan Axelrod.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 09:25 AM) That rotation doesn't have questions in it? lol. Is that even an argument? At any rate, it's still going to have questions in it even if they idiotically re-signed Shields with 257 innings pitched and 7 or 8 years or whatever at over 200 IP (just like the 2006 White Sox starting rotation and KW discovered far too late). The only ones who wouldn't lead to questions would be Scherzer and Lester...but those questions would be when those contracts would blow up in their faces. Even if things go right with Rodon, the White Sox have two more huge question marks. If Finnegan pitches as expected as a starter, they will have a pretty competitive rotation, and they can reallocate Shields' money to improving their offense at DH and RF. Not only that, but Aoki isn't a very good defender, so someone like Rasmus and Martinez would vastly improve their offense and defense...at two positions.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 09:15 AM) Their bullpen is about to eat a lot of their payroll, and as bad as Shields was in the postseason, he was really good in the regular season. It is highly doubtful they can replace that, (227 IP 3.21 ERA) and this is a team that barely made the playoffs and 99% of the time would have lost the wild card game. They could be decent, but I doubt we are looking at a run Royals contention. The Giants have averaged about the same number of regular season wins (87-90) in 2010/12/14 and have three World Series championships to show for it. It's simply a matter of getting there. Seattle was badly fading down the stretch. It wasn't THAT close where you can say they BARELY made it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 4, 2014 -> 09:12 AM) World Series teams don't go into seasons with that many question marks on their team. Is it really THAT difficult to replace Billy Butler's DH production and Aoki in RF when Dyson might already be better? That's not a lot of question marks. Imagine they add Victor Martinez and, let's say, Rasmus. That suddenly becomes a team where Omar Infante is the only "breather" in the line-up for an opposing pitcher, if you want to call him that. Moustakas struggled in the regular season, but they're not going to replace him after hitting five homers and playing so well in the post-season, any more than the White Sox are going to replace Conor before 2015.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 3, 2014 -> 07:08 PM) They are going to have pressure to go after a starting pitcher, whether it be Shields or someone else. WHY? They have Ventura/Duffy as co #1's going into the season, then Guthrie and Vargas for the back end. It would be like assuming the White Sox would need a pitcher when they only have one rotation hole, when in reality there are probably two more(depending on your feelings regarding Danks and Noesi) and that's IF Rodon makes it in 2015. Ventura Duffy Finnegan (the Royals see him exactly as the White Sox view Rodon) Vargas Guthrie Kyle Zimmer (depending on health, was pulled from AFL) Sean Manaea Liam Hendricks Lamb Binford If they're going to make ANY move in their rotation, it's for a one year veteran "placeholder" to have as additional insurance for Finnegan, but I'm not even convinced 100% they will go that route. They might even look at Aaron Crow as a possibility, although it's a longshot.... The Royals have DH and RF (do they add another big name or platoon Dyson with someone?), and the only other starting position that's open for debate about changing is 2B with Omar Infante, but they absolutely don't HAVE to get rid of him, either. So you're telling me if the White Sox had THREE high draft picks all close to ready for the majors....and there was only ONE available spot in the rotation, and then you had three or four other realistic possibilities in Hendricks, Lamb, Binford and Aaron Crow, that you'd STILL pull the trigger on expensive/overpaid veteran starting pitchers in the McCarthy/AJ Burnett/Peavy/Volquez/Hammel/Vogelsong/Masterson/Kuroda, etc., tier???? Even with the injury to Zimmer, I think a big-time pitching move is highly unlikely.