ILMOU

As an optimist, thought I'd jump the gun on getting thoughts from the crew. The org has to believe we have a real chance for us to be buyers, obviously, but this Pecota -projection-style parity we're seeing could make it so. A starting pitcher heads the list for me, but who could be had at a non-future-damaging price that could actually help? OR who could be had that would also be controllable thru 2015 at a minimum? A LH RP to relieve Downs' high-leverage load would sure be nice. Rex Brothers will never be cheaper and I'd like to see his talented arm under Coop's wing. He needs fixing, but he's been really good in the past. Who else might we like? A LH OF who isn't De Aza is a need now and going forward, imo, and this is perhaps the primary reason I'm starting this thread. Due to relative low cost for possible high return, I'd like to target FA-to-be Seth Smith. He's having a salary drive kind of career year, but 930 OPS in Petco isn't sneezeworthy, and his level of power is bound to play up at the Cell. He's a platoon guy, but as previously discussed, that will put him in upwards of 80% of our divisional games. He also might be the best offseason option (especially if we go big on a SP) for a 3-4 (3 would be my limit, preferably) year deal, and we'll have a head-start and better intel on that possibility if he were brought in in July. He's NOT a good outfielder, but the #'s say he's semi-passable in LF these days, which could also allow DH flexibility/more left-handedness. He's always struck me as a professional hitter - maybe he's turning a corner in his career, the OBP has always generally been very solid. I'd really like to hear the opinions of oldsox (and re: Brothers too) and anyone who's seen him a lot in OAK or SD more recently. He may be a potential bargain, all tucked away down there with little publicity. What would it take? What say you, Soxtalk? Also, due to the MI potential in our system, I'm in the trade-Beckham-if-you-get-a-really-good-offer-even-if-we-ARE-competing camp. Who's with me?

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 11, 2014 -> 01:10 PM) I guess I have been talked off the ledge. I will not post concerning rodon until we signed him.... however I was wondering ....... does that mean I can't talk bad about borAss??? Slam away. I don't think this is his fanbase - it might be a Negotiations class at Kellogg.

It's very confusing between the two Leyer's, so specification might help a bit. I thought they were brothers, then noticed Robinson is 4 months younger than Euclides. Unless, of course, Mom is a warrior the likes of which the obstetricians had never seen.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 11, 2014 -> 08:42 AM) Any day now... Oh, you sir are a tease on the Alba in Sin City level.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 11, 2014 -> 11:18 AM) Not sure what caused it, but Cose had to have a discectomy. Leaving aside brief rehab starts, I'd guess Bassitt is in AA (McCully and Blough are suspect in that rotation), Brennan at Kanny. Just my guesses though. Lopez probably in A+. Thanks for the update, 72. Hope to see something on the Baron's site before too long.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 11, 2014 -> 09:45 AM) Seriously, any concern of Rodon not signing is completely unwarranted. There is a 99.999% chance he is signing. This. Our fear is Boras' only leverage. Don't let the bastard see you sweat. RH won't.

Charlotte's staff has been a revolving door of reclamation/recovery suckage, between Hanson, Paulino, Boggs, Surkamp, the mysterious EJohnson and others. Boggs by himself has probably cost them 5 wins, and has blown throughout, yet somehow remains. The Knights have "taken one for the team" this season - I'd hate to be season ticket holder there, though. And can someone give me some good news regarding Bassitt and/or Lopez returning to action soon? Those two, on top of Cose, Brennan and other injury losses, could have really helped.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) Former Cy Young winner Bob Welch dead at 57.........way too young. He was awesome with the A's And in the WS for the Dodgers he exacted some revenge on Reggie, IIRC.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) Seems we scouted Hawaii pretty hard. I'm sure the Scout had to justify that. Was not aware of this. Have to believe it was due to Medeiros, who went way, way higher than any mock I saw. Wondering if there's not a changing attitude from orgs in regards to funky pitching mechanics, along the lines of "Hell, all the perfect mechanics guys are having TJS too, maybe we're not as smart as we think we are on this stuff - let's just take a guy with excellent stuff and results."

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) Also worth noting, if we take my above scenario, while signing Rodon to a slot deal, that would mean we could offer $514,200 to De Oca without going over the teams allotment, and $989,684 without losing a draft pick. If Rodon signs at $6,000,000 exactly, those numbers drop to $235,700 and $611,184 respectively. If ~$1M doesn't get it done for BMDO, it would be bad money anyway, imo. We'll see how it plays out. Don't underestimate the $ juggling skills of Rick Hahn.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:46 PM) I don't think the PCL vs IL issue can come close to covering the downfall he's had in Charlotte. His K rate should ne relatively unaffected (unless his K issue is almost entirely due to swing-and-miss on big moving breaking stuff), and his numbers in general are significantly worse acros the board. Given his HR and K totals, I am concerned he's just plain swinging for the fences too often. Agreed. Just pointing out that the premise of an 831 OPS being considered "good" where he posted it is highly debatable, even at 22 y.o. I had trepidation at the time of the trade.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:20 PM) Here is the deal. Right now the only top 10 singing we know dollars for is Adams, who signed for slot. That removes $1,282,700 away from money we can spend. That leaves us $8,227,700 for all other top 10 picks AND for any picks outside of the top 10 going over $100k. We also know we signed 10th rounder Jarvis, as a HS pick, but do not know what the dollars are. We can safely assume that at very least it is for slot. It is probably for more, but lets just assume it isn't at this time. That takes away another $141,300, leaving the team with $8,086,400. They have two places they can make up cash for sure. That is with Lechich and Ziznewski as both of their eligibility is gone. Their slots are $272,100 and $162,100 respectively. If we low balled them for $10k each, that frees up an extra $414,200. The rest of the draft is made up of college juniors, who could go back to school. There probably isn't a lot of room to get them underslot. If we take the $414,200 saved up, and apply it to just Rodon, that means we could offer him $6,135,700 without going over the draft allotment. If we went into fining territory, without going into loss of draft pick territory we could offer him (a total extra $ of $475,484) is $6,611,184, under that scenario. Anything bigger means that we would have to come in underslot to other players. These scenarios also mean that no De Oca, or at very most, he signed for $100,000. If you want to offer him a bigger deal, it would have to come out of an offer to Rodon being smaller. So, you offer the minimum 90% to some guys you think won't take it and that you're not so crazy about anyway IF you think you can sign BMDO. But the numbers are appreciated. Bryant signed at slot - the northsiders called his bluff, it can be done. There's a reason why we drafted him, and Soxtalk has been pleasantly surprised by recent past signings if memory serves.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 12:29 PM) Does Davidson have a chance to be a young Alex Rodriguez? No. But he just turned 23 and has consistently hit for power over his minor league career. His power numbers are on line or above his career averages and his BABIP is 60 points below his career average. I think you could plug him into the lineup next year and take the 20-25 homers and live with the .240 batting average. And who knows, some players make huge strides after a couple of major league seasons, Chris Davis and Josh Donaldson for example. Davidson has the power and there has been no questions about his overall hit tool, I think he'll provide value for the Sox soon. I'm less bullish primarily because his numbers at Reno, an absolute hitter's paradise with altitude AND dry desert heat, are rather pedestrian in the PCL scheme of things. I like his AA performance and his time in MLB was too short for a "book" to have developed on him. Cautiously optimistic still, but with emphasis on the caution.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:07 PM) He's f***ed up a lot over the past several years, cost his clients lots of money trying to get teams to pay above average players like superstars. Even the second ARod deal IIRC he f***ed up, and the Yankees were willing to go crazy on that. I believe ARod had to reign in those negotiations himself and he STILL got the Yanks to bid against themselves and hand out what would become the worst contract in NY Yankee history. The offer of a fast track should really trump a few hundred grand or even a few million, imo. The delays anywhere else could be significant, on top of the extra year. I can't envision a universe where these added risks outweigh the benefits we can offer. He has no (intelligent) leverage vs. this situation, imo - don't cave needlessly.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:02 PM) then you really don't know borAss, for him it is about the money. No it's about the client. He's not smelling so sweet after the Drew, Morales debacles either.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 12:53 PM) We still have to get Rodon at pretty close to slot money to have a chance at that. So far any savings we get with underslots, may be taken up by Rodon. No doubt, but I think we're more worried about Rodon's demands than we should be. Offer him the Sale fast track, remind him that he could wind up with a team that's in an extended rebuild or a small market that will play arb-clock games, delaying his richness by two full years OR MORE, on top of the obvious injury risks. Then shut up, sit back, and dare Boras to give him the dumbest advice any agent ever gave. We should get him at slot or very slightly above, if that's what it takes for them to feel like they "won" the negotiation.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 9, 2014 -> 01:23 PM) Great sign (grabbed from Draft Picks threaD) Dan Hayes ‏@DanHayesCSN 2m Source said #WhiteSox have agreed in principle to sign 2nd-rd pick, RHP Spencer Adams, at slot. Suggested slot is $1.282 mill. edit: "Great sign" meaning this is a good sign that we need not worry about getting Rodon in the fold, obviously it is a nice "signing" as well. If it's truly at slot, this could be a significant step towards enticing BMDO away from Mizzou. He's the maraschino cherry of our draft, if we can pull it off.

Stay buehrlesque, Danksy.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 06:42 AM) Or try to get more Springer/Singleton (offered to Dominguez and Grossman as well) "pre-service" contracts out there...of course, Boras is already onto the Astros and has been quoted extensively about this issue, and is Bryant's agent. The Cubs have another problem, waiting for Almora and Soler will put them into 2016 or 2017. There's no way they can afford to have a five plus year rebuild before they can arguably be competitive (and even then, it's not a given). Soler's made of porcelain and Almora has little speed, less power, and thinks a walk is something for cooking Chinese food. He may be the most overrated prospect in anyone's top 100. Don't think they can afford to wait for the others - Baez and Bryant are the only real impact guys I see, we'll see about Schwarber. Due to a multitude of factors, I think they'll actually be "going for it" with the coming FA class. If he hasn't signed by season's end in Boston, I'm predicting they'll get Lester, and they'll add a veteran bat as well, though maybe not a super-expensive one.

And if Kendrick hadn't been given 5 strikes in his AB, that would have helped too.

I'm no fan of Robin's managing, but criticism in this case is just dense, imo. Every other hit in that inning, including vs. Petricka, was an average-hardness GB hit with Twin-like precision. Trout's a lock future HOF. S*** happens. Just hope this type of thing never happens in a game of greater import - playoffs, pennant race, etc.

I thought they were more hateable with Papa Fata$$ closing their games, but it's building again.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 7, 2014 -> 01:02 PM) Jon Heyman ‏@JonHeymanCBS 1m Kendrys Morales reached agreement with the #Twins Wow. Did not see THAT coming.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 7, 2014 -> 12:53 PM) Hoping we draft another one soon with the name of Derek Gibson ??? Now you're just making s*** up.

Jays need two in 7th to get 56 the W. Otherwise, at least his ERA went down.