caulfield12

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 04:50 PM) Totally out of the blue, but... Would the Astros take Connor Gillaspie and Tyler Flowers for Jason Castro? If you think Connor is more a platoon type, and Flowers isn't going to get any better, then anyone think those 2 could get us Castro coming off a bad year? Of course you'd only do it thinking that Castro would turn it around here & could be extended. If this deal had been proposed several months ago it would have been laughable, but I think both Connor & Tyler have raised their status significantly since the offseason while Castro's stock has really fallen. To start who at 3B then, Semien or Davidson? Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez or Headley? Castro's WAR this season is less than a half point higher than Tyler. You can make an argument we're giving away the better player going forward in Tyler, and then weakening the offensively production at 3B in the process. I simply don't see them shelling out $75-100 for two huge injury risks in Sandoval or Hanley...but, I suppose it would be Sandoval, since the LH vs. RH issue vis a vis Ramirez. And I think he'd be more willing to accept a 2+option, 3+option deal at this point, coming off a mostly disappointing but now seemingly rebounding season, where his overall stats look fairly in line with his normal production levels. If it's Chase Headley, yuck!

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/93893...ogaerts-taveras Interesting that guys 2-6 have all been pretty big disappointments so far this year, further supporting the concept of patience (and high bust rate) with young position players. It's doubtful he's right on all those guys, especially Baez. And, IMO, Stroman and Ventura should be ranked higher, with Tanaka lower. There's no guarantee TJ surgery leaves him with the same type of stuff in terms of velocity and movement, as he wasn't a mid 90's FB guy to begin with, he was most successful in the lower 90's. Now if he still has movement on his pitches and the 10+ speed differential, maybe he'll be fine, but I certainly wouldn't expect him to be any BETTER than he was before he went down to injury. And while Anderson's a fine prospect, and will be a Top 50-75 guy, I think most of the board would prefer to go back and take Stroman in that spot...saving the need to trade all of our prospects for a legit 2 guy OR spend $100+ million on the free agent market class. Steve ETR • 43 minutes ago Does fanfare=potential? There have been a lot of callups this year that really didn't have tons of fanfare yet have incredible potential. Kennys Vargas? Danny Santana? Kevin Kiermaier? DeGrom? Matt Shoemaker? ETR Steve • 13 minutes ago Kind of what I am alluding to. The writer only seems to list the prospects who had high regard when drafted. Kind of picking the low hanging fruit, it's easy to pick these guys. Let's see a more challenging article from someone who has been in baseball since the 80's and pick guys like you mentioned and rate their chances of success. Ken • 14 hours ago No mention of Joe Panik at all? Wow.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 12:32 PM) In regards to Utopia last night, I'm very disappointed that in order to get electricity, they just had to bury a cable from the barn to the electric box at the front gate. How lame is that? I wanted to see something like in The Colony where they have engineers and inventors in the group who figure out how rig together soler panels and hang and run lights and do everything except make their own lightbulbs. I found that way more interesting than telling them to go plug in some cables to a prewired and outfitted barn. That takes no brain power, just the manpower needed to bury a trench. I see what you did here, clever! Subconscious Cubs' marketing ploy. They would have been better suited not coming up with a cast that includes the likes of Red and Josh as their "intellectuals" in terms of figuring things out. And one random Asian girl as their "hot/naked" girl, along with the yoga "doctor" and that annoying chicken farmers/composting girl from Georgia. Heck, I would much rather watch the original cast of some of the Real World shows back in the 1990's on the Utopia set than this collection of misfits.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 09:00 AM) Just last year Ethier was a 119 wRC+ player and he's consistently been in the 120s and 130s in his career. If you replace Viciedo with Ethier, you are talking about a huge, huge upgrade both offensively and defensively. That's nothing to scoff at. He's a better hitter and better power threat than Markakis is. He's also better than James Loney too. You are also missing the points where Hahn is looking for a left handed bat, Kemp bats right handed, and he's still going to cost much more on the trade market. Why have you not acknowledged those points? I also don't understand why you're justifying not acquiring him because he wouldn't be the centerpiece of your offseason. That's ridiculous. Andre Nieto wasn't the centerpiece of last offseason, so did the Sox make a bad move in bringing him in? Who cares if he wouldn't be the "centerpiece?" You would assume more than one move is made. In the 2004-05 offseason, who was the White Sox "centerpice?" I ask because there was no centerpiece, there was a collection of moves made that seemingly all worked out and the Sox ended up winning the World Series as a result. Or you get the player who's falling off the map as he's reaching his early to mid 30's in the new game of baseball. You also get a player who will struggle to adjust coming from the NL to the AL, as typically happens. If we're buying him for his 2011-2013 production against righties, and we can guarantee he's the same player, sure....but you can look at examples of players like Juan Pierre we acquired a couple of years late in the aging process (albeit a different type of player, more like getting Carl Crawford now would be for the Sox.) What I meant was if Andre Ethier is the BIGGEST move of the offseason, that's NOT a good thing for 2015. Because he's a platoon guy at this point in his career. If memory serves me correctly, Dye, AJ, Iguchi and Pods were all pretty much everyday players in 2005, although Pods struggled some against lefties I think. So giving Ethier 400 at-bats and Viciedo 150-175 makes that position league average....unless his OPS is closer to the 700 he's put up this season against RHP than the 900 he's recorded the previous two seasons...and Viciedo struggles with even more timing issues because he's not acclimated to such sporadic playing time. We would have thought Keppinger and Gillaspie could be well above league average, and the same's being projected now with Semien and Conor, but would anyone be totally shocked if we ended up WORSE than replacement player level there if you combine offense/defense at that position? As far as Nieto goes, he's the 24th/25th man on the roster. He wasn't promoted in any way, shape or form by the Sox in the offseason to sell season tickets. At least Ethier's one of those more familiar names in baseball who would have his own banner in Moneyball, kind of synonymous with Dave Justice at this point in his playing career. Remember...Hahn said over and over again he wants to acquire players closer to their prime/most productive years who'll be a part of the present and future of this team??? Andre Ethier on paper this year looks like a downgrade from Alex Rios even.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 09:00 AM) Just last year Ethier was a 119 wRC+ player and he's consistently been in the 120s and 130s in his career. If you replace Viciedo with Ethier, you are talking about a huge, huge upgrade both offensively and defensively. That's nothing to scoff at. He's a better hitter and better power threat than Markakis is. He's also better than James Loney too. You are also missing the points where Hahn is looking for a left handed bat, Kemp bats right handed, and he's still going to cost much more on the trade market. Why have you not acknowledged those points? I also don't understand why you're justifying not acquiring him because he wouldn't be the centerpiece of your offseason. That's ridiculous. Andre Nieto wasn't the centerpiece of last offseason, so did the Sox make a bad move in bringing him in? Who cares if he wouldn't be the "centerpiece?" You would assume more than one move is made. In the 2004-05 offseason, who was the White Sox "centerpice?" I ask because there was no centerpiece, there was a collection of moves made that seemingly all worked out and the Sox ended up winning the World Series as a result. Or you get the player who's falling off the map as he's reaching his early to mid 30's in the new game of baseball. You also get a player who will struggle to adjust coming from the NL to the AL, as typically happens. If we're buying him for his 2011-2013 production against righties, and we can guarantee he's the same player, sure....but you can look at examples of players like Juan Pierre we acquired a couple of years late in the aging process (albeit a different type of player, more like getting Carl Crawford now would be for the Sox.) What I meant was if Andre Ethier is the BIGGEST move of the offseason, that's NOT a good thing for 2015. Because he's a platoon guy at this point in his career. If memory serves me correctly, Dye, AJ, Iguchi and Pods were all pretty much everyday players in 2005, although Pods struggled some against lefties I think. So giving Ethier 400 at-bats and Viciedo 150-175 makes that position league average....unless his OPS is closer to the 700 he's put up this season against RHP than the 900 he's recorded the previous two seasons...and Viciedo struggles with even more timing issues because he's not acclimated to such sporadic playing time. We would have thought Keppinger and Gillaspie could be well above league average, and the same's being projected now with Semien and Conor, but would anyone be totally shocked if we ended up WORSE than replacement player level there if you combine offense/defense at that position? As far as Nieto goes, he's the 24th/25th man on the roster. He wasn't promoted in any way, shape or form by the Sox in the offseason to sell season tickets. At least Ethier's one of those more familiar names in baseball who would have his own banner in Moneyball, kind of synonymous with Dave Justice at this point in his playing career. Other than Victor Martinez, how many players in the last couple of seasons have started to decline in their 30's and then turned it around, especially if you combine that with a change in leagues? Cuddyer or Morneau, maybe? 90% continue that downward trend. At least in this "post PED's" era of baseball, where players are done at 34-36 rather than 38-40.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:36 AM) He's hardly playing because the Dodgers have better options. That's not his fault. Acquiring Ethier now would be reminiscent of the Sox trading for Thome. Not due to the careers, but just given the situations. Thome was coming off an injury plagued year where he put up a wRC+ of 90 and was heading into his age 35 season. How did you feel about that move at the time? To compete and get better, you have to assume risk, and if you can minimize that risk by receiving money or paying less in terms of prospects and shortening the long-term commitment while also taking on a guy who could very well bounce back, you can go ahead and take that risk. Right, but given this situation, he'd actually be paid pretty similarly to Dunn was during his time in Chicago. I felt okay about it because Jim Thome was perceived as a HOF level slugger, careers were lasting longer at that time, and he had no PEDS allegations or even whispers. Finally, Thome was also reported to have one of the best work ethics in the game of baseball. If there's a better parallel, it's someone like Jermaine Dye. Let's not forget, it's USCF....someone like Ethier's just not nearly the threat level of a Matt Kemp. At this point, he's a nice complimentary player, like a Nick Markakis. He's not the centerpiece of your offseason campaign or strategy to improve the team. If he is, disaster awaits. A lot like James Loney, he's a nice player to have on your team, he's a SOLID player for a couple more seasons, but he's a platoon guy and not the kind of thump you need to hit behind a Jose Abreu.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:18 AM) So would other teams, which is my entire point. You are talking about giving up a fairly valuable package of prospects plus eating anywhere between $50-75 million of his contract over a 5 year period when, other than the second half of this year, he's been fairly mediocre in recent years. He's also very bad defensively despite his athleticism. Victor Martinez is not going to happen. There's just nothing about Victor Martinez that fits the Sox agenda right now. Sandoval is also likely going to cost $15+ mill a year for 5 years when he's got the type of body type that simply does not age well. Andre Ethier also makes sense too, giving the same type of circumstances, but he may cost more in terms of players too. The Dodgers do need to move at least one of those outfielders and maybe two. I'll finish this up by basically saying that I see no way the Sox will be involved with Kemp, nor do I see them being big players in free agency, and that their focus will likely be set on Ethier or Hamilton. Why would we want to spend ANY money on a guy with a 710 OPS against righties....and 7 years older than Viciedo? Just because he's left-handed? He's beyond Adam Dunn bad against lefties, with a 533 OPS. I just don't see any point in paying platoon outfielders that kind of crazy money when they're clearly on the downside of their careers. If we're doing that, we might as well bring back Alex Rios. Ethier's going to be 33 on Opening Day next season and 34 in 2016. No way. He's got a 656 OPS after the ASB and is hardly playing. If you were talking 2011-2013, when he put up a 900ish OPS in a large sample of AB's against righties, we might have something. At this stage, in his twilight, he's just not worth it. We don't want a roster like we had in 2013 with a majority of players closer to the end than the beginning of their careers.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:16 AM) The Sox had Adam Dunn at DH for the last four years. Hamilton at least could provide the ability to field a position, and I doubt he ends up with worse production than what we saw from Dunn for most of that time. That's not a very high standard or bar to clear. Our defense has been terrible the last two seasons, we should not be making marginal improvements unless the offensive upside is so overwhelming it mitigates some of the defensive shortcomings.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:06 AM) Yeah, no to all of that. The only thing that has a chance of happening out of that entire list is AJ Ellis having an issue with the Dodgers and no, they're not solving all their problems by trading Matt Kemp. Kemp's the only guy we should be targeting, forget about Crawford and Ethier at this point in their careers. 15:$21M, 16-19:$21.5M annually $107 million's a scary number. That said, if they could get it down to around $68-84, it's doable. Danks would definitely have to go...and I think I might balk more about taking on John Danks' deal if I was LA than selling low and sending money along with Matt Kemp. I'd probably offer to chip in $6 million per season...making our payout $77 million over 5 years. That's fairly similar to the Abreu deal.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:00 AM) How about the Halos chipping in ~$30 million and having the return be Jon Danks? Matt Kemp is a better answer...although we're not going to get away with a Danks dump probably. They would undoubtedly want Alexei, maybe Gillaspie depending on Uribe's situation at 3B and Hanley Ramirez...I haven't followed their two Cuban middle infielders, but they have a lot invested in them as well. They also need more production out of catcher, AJ Ellis has been bad after being very productive last year. So the conversation's centering around Alexei, Conor, Flowers and Johnson/Semien/Sanchez, whoever they like the most...with the preference being the three players I listed first.

Hamilton's been between a 1.25-1.75 WAR player for two consecutive seasons. He'll turn 34 early next season and he's probably older than that in terms of overall health/body damage-wise from the drug abuse earlier in his career. Kemp is 29, only three seasons removed from an absolutely monster season....and has really rallied statistically the 2nd half of the season, which is evidence of a more reliable turnaround. He's got the 963 OPS in the 2nd half, whereas Josh Hamilton's at 659 and dealing with yet another problem, this time a shoulder. Kemp fits that profile of a player at least close/r to his prime (29-33 when we're contending), and younger than Adam Dunn, for sure, when we acquired him. And of course, there's that never-ending dream that an outside free agent just comes in and lights it up at USCF, even though it never really happened with Swisher or Dunn as projected. I'd definitely try to work out a deal for Kemp (either with or without Danks) before I'd give 4/$60 to Melky Cabrera or whatever it would cost us to take on the Josh Hamilton contract disaster. Ideal, no? An MVP talent still....probably.

DeAza, in case you missed it, hit two homers for the O's last night.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 08:09 PM) Hopefully that year is next year...? Shoppach, Greg...

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 05:23 AM) And the Mariners are only 0.5 game back for the 2nd wild card spot, so a postseason big in general is in jeopardy. Time for "Big Game" to step it up I guess. Royals just haven't gotten enough offense their last 20.... They had that huge 24-6 run but they've been going along around 2-3 games under .500 now for the last month since they took over 1st. And their bullpen's getting worn down into the ground, as they can't use Davis/Escobar/Holland every single game that's tied or where they have a lead.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 06:04 AM) And to think, everyone couldn't figure out why Hahn hadn't made room for these guys already, and people were looking forward to this. Welcome to letting the kids play. It ain't pretty. A LOT prettier when it's Durham, Konerko, Magglio, Foulke, Howry, Chris Singleton, C-Lee, Rowand, Crede, etc. Of course, we went through some hiccups too, like Mike Caruso/Mark Johnson/Chris Snopek/Greg Norton/Jeff Abbott. Most of our current position player prospects are "fringy" compared to that list, at best. It's no secret the depth our system fell to...other than Rodon, Adams, Anderson, Hawkins, Montas and Danish, there's not a whole lot to be SUPER excited about now.

Utopia was a bit predictable, but I'm going to give it a little more time. Anyone catch Sons of Anarchy? I knew it was going DARK, but that was a lot for the first episode. Basically, it's going to be a swath of destruction throughout the whole season, just don't know how long Gemma can last before the truth comes out finally. It's not going to happen quickly, Sutter will let it percolate...her and Jax have to become as tight as ever to fit the Hamlet parallels as the ultimate tragic finale unfolds over the arc of the final season. Still enjoy watching Jimmy Smits' character whenever he's given something to do.

Darned Cubs!!! If they wouldn't keep losing more than us, we'd be at 8. Interesting how in 2013 and 2014 we're almost parallel records.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 11:55 PM) Thank you. This was what I was looking for. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...emiumvideo.html - Hahn on Viciedo What did he say? About plate discipline/strike zone management....cutting down on his swing with two strikes and going more to RF? Throws to the wrong bases? Missing the cutoff man? Bad jumps/reads? Defensive "awareness" and thinking ahead of the action proactively instead of reacting?

http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-will-b...lash-jon-lester Another article touting the Cubs' future and possibilities of signing Jon Lester.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 10:03 PM) Royals getting owned by Detroit again. Detroit has won 11 of 15 this year vs. KC. Royals are trying to ride their excellent defense and pitching into the playoffs. Thing is, KC's offense is so putrid (nobody walks; nobody ever homers) it is putting the postseason in jeopardy. Can defense and pitching win out as the cliche says? Or do you need some hitting too? Shields really needs to earn him "Big Game" moniker tomorrow against Porcello to stop the bleeding. He definitely showed up against the Yankees in his last start.

http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/white-...who-homers-loss White Sox continuing to evaluate Dayan Viciedo...no decision/s made yet for 2015 on some guys

At -103, except for the Rangers, we now have the 2nd worst runs scored/runs allowed differential in MLB.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 08:45 PM) Most mental and physical errors I have ever seen in a Sox game. Absolutely unacceptable Getting rid of DeAza, Beckham and presumably Viciedo was supposed to correct this....Dunn, Keppinger, etc. Seems it's only getting worse and comparable to the darkest/bleakest moments of 2013's abysmal finish.

Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes. Maybe Shane Spencer or Kevin Maas, although I think Spencer's numbers with the Yankees were in the 2nd half. Garrett Jones?

How in God's name do you make 4 errors in half a game? Not even Jackie Robinson West did that...they were better coached and exemplified better fundamentals IMO.