bighurt4life

This situation will lead to significant changes in the way pre draft physicals are handled, injured players are negotiated with, etc... The Stros are really screwing the pooch IMO, they may save a small amount of money this year but will end up losing in the long run. Nobody will want to be drafted by them and their agents will let the team know about it prior to the draft in the coming seasons. This is a case of the Stros trying to game the system...it's a very short sighted way to conduct business One of the things that I like about the Sox front office is that they don't really try to screw people over (Blue Jays excluded) when they conduct business...they seem to have a moral compass when negotiating with players/teams/etc... that goes a long ways in my eyes

"The White Sox have signed 16-year-old Colombian catcher Jhoandro Alfaro for $750,000. The younger brother of Rangers catching prospect Jorge Alfaro, Jhoandro also has a strong arm and is a more advanced defensive catcher than his older brother was when he signed, though he doesn’t have Jorge’s raw power or speed. Alfaro, who has been training in the Dominican Republic with Rafael Montero (known as “Spilman”), has grown taller since the beginning of the year and worked hard to transform his conditioning, now checking in around 6-foot-1, 180 pounds. Some scouts felt his righthanded bat will need time to catch up to his defense. Alfaro played in the Dominican Prospect League."

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 05:31 PM) I like the line of thinking on Hawkins. Hopefully the more spacious park will help Hawkins try to hit the gaps more leading to more doubles and triples and raise the batting average. In theory anyway. Or swing harder to clear those deep fences.

I saw that Michael Blanke pitched yesterday, I think in an AZL game, is he now officially switching positions? It just donned on me yesterday that he hasn't been catching so far this season.

QUOTE (Butter Parque @ Jun 11, 2014 -> 06:33 PM) Anyone know anything about Kevin Escorcia from the DSL? It looks like he's 18/19 years old. I believe he was signed for a $50,000 bonus by Marco Paddy in 2012. Seems to have gotten off to a good start in the DSL. Any chance he makes it over to the states for rookie ball? Pay almost zero attention to DSL stats at this point in the season. Maybe after they've played 30 games or so the numbers will start to mean something although the DSL is notorious for having guys put up meaningless stats (both good and bad) compared to their actual ability and or potential.

Saladino. Not a bandwagon pick either, was a good looking prospect for a couple seasons until injury bug bit him. He's shown a pretty decent power/speed combo for a middle infielder and looks like he's finally putting it together this year. He's been a favorite of mine for a while now, hoping he can keep healthy.

Saladino off to a hot start in Charlotte. Would love to see him regain his form after a couple down seasons.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 23, 2013 -> 07:22 PM) Nice, this clears a spot on the 40 man right? Could use it to grab another catcher now. I think Davidson is MLB ready, even if he goes 220/290/400 we need to re-evaluate that slash line in today's run environment. 10 years ago that's a DFA candidate, not that's a 1 or 2 WAR 3B depending on his defense. If his defense is really that bad then put him in AAA and let him work on it pressure free, but he's gotta be working his ass off right now on it right, similar to Gillaspie if he just goes from "bad" to "cromulent" his bat will play. Excellent use of cromulent

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Aug 31, 2013 -> 02:40 PM) That is definitely debatable but I am not looking to open that can of worms again. I only took issue, as everyone else, with the fact that you instigated an argument with him to turn around and bash him for arguing with you. Not many people here take issue, or even disagree with the assessment that CH is pretty immature. If I were you I'd stop trying to defend your behaviors and let it go.

I love what Recchia had to say about being a pitcher. Hawkins sounded like he was being a bit petulant, like a kid sulking because he didn't get his way. We may have a mental midget on our hands

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:56 PM) Yep.. no need to make a deal if the prospect isn't right. At this point I would much rather bank on those supplemental draft picks. I am sure he will at least be a type B free agent. Type A,B,C free agents do not exist anymore. We'd have to make a qualifying offer on him to get compensation after his contract runs out. That basically means you're offering a very expensive one year contract to the player, if they decline and sign somewhere else then you get a first or second round pick. If they accept, you're stuck with paying them a bunch of money, this year the qualifying offer amount was about 13.3 million if I recall. It's pretty much like the franchise tag in the NFL except in the NFL nobody ever signs someone who's been franchised and this season many players who received qualifying offers were signed to other teams like Josh Hamilton, Kyle Lohse, etc...

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 07:50 PM) FWIW, Rollins cleared waivers. We're stuck with Ramirez unless we eat salary. Rollins has stated that he will veto any trade and he has full trade vetoing rights. He's not going anywhere, probably why he went unclaimed.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 02:08 PM) Great post. I would not surprised to see De Aza in LF, Garcia in CF, and Viciedo in RF next season. Beckham at 2B, Phegley at C. Gillaspie and Keppinger will both be here. Dunn will most likely be here. I think you give Andy Wilkins 1B next year. You have nothing to lose by doing so. This Not saying I like it, but, unless there's a major overhaul this offseason (which I don't see happening) then we're in for a long 2014 as well. Give some of the kids a chance to show their stuff and look towards spending some $ for the 2015 season to fill in the gaps and replace the prospects who don't pan out. We'll also see Semien a lot next year too most likely. Probably in a role backing up Alexei and Gordon.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20130803

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) Semien is becoming my 2nd best friend behind Chris Sale. I want to be his friend, I want to go on a road trip with him.

Semien doing what he does. I'm so impressed with him this season and he's only getting better and better as he matures. He could give us the insurance we need to dump Alexei this offseason.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jul 29, 2013 -> 07:01 PM) Jake Peavy listens to Ryan Adams. Get him out of here... now I must contest this. I enjoy Ryan Adams. And a Tool fan too.

I just checked in on this thread for fun and would say its pretty out of control. Entertaining at least though.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 28, 2013 -> 08:53 PM) But you're forgetting that the guys you get in return might never turn out to be productive players. That's part of the benefit of trading for prospects - because although they are somewhat unknowns at this point, at least they're saving you money. If you give that benefit up by paying all kinds of salary, then what the heck are you trading for anymore? You've got to be getting some kind of consideration out if this, or else you may as well never move a productive veteran. Totally agree and understand this part of it. That's where the risk comes into play and part of the reason why teams always insist on several prospects in return, you assume that some of them won't pan out. But if you have good scouts and a good minor league system, you can take the right prospects in return and turn them into valuable pieces of the big club.

It would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity to get 3-5 young talented players into our minor league system because the owner is too cheap to pony up a few million bucks. That is a very short sighted point of view. You go from paying one guy 14.5 million per season to paying several guys rookie scale salaries (provided some of the prospects pan out) for the next several seasons. This is an obvious win and much cheaper in the long run. Reinsdorf only sees the 5 million coming out of his pocket right now instead of the 20 million he'll get to keep in the next 3-5 years because we replaced an expensive and aging player with several cheap and young players. Thats one of the great follies of any business(baseball) man, only seeing the short term loss/gain instead of looking at the long term savings of having a constant stream of young talent. This is why teams like the Rays compete nearly every season on a shoestring budget. They plan for the future by always looking to stock their minor league teams with talented players. When these guys mature, they come to the big team and play for relative pennies keeping the overall cost down while still providing quality play on the field. When someone starts to get some years under their belt and become too expensive they swap him out, let someone else pay the big salary and take on 3 or 4 young guys in return and start the cycle all over again. Case in point is the James Shields for Wil Myers swap this last offseason. They dumped Shields and his big salary for a 22 year old who is going to be a perennial all star and get paid peanuts while doing it. It's a smart way to do business, I wish we did things the same way.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jul 28, 2013 -> 11:37 AM) And he's been playing 3B for the past month anyway. Not sure if he can stick at SS long term. Not sure where you get your info but he plays the vast majority of games at SS and 2B, he pretty much switches with Saladino and they each play half the time at the center infield spots. He's only played a handful of games at 3B

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 28, 2013 -> 04:25 PM) What I have no idea about is whether it would be commonplace to pull a traded minor leaguer in the middle of a game Yes it is commonplace, in addition, the fact that the announcer took time to tweet about it is telling.

Does anyone think that he's already been told that the trade has gone down with team X but isn't announced yet and he's just holding his tongue. Is there any precedence for someone to clear out their locker like this in anticipation of a trade? That doesn't make any sense to me, I would guess that the trade has taken place and the league just needs to sign off on it before anything is announced.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jul 28, 2013 -> 04:05 PM) It's fitting how Semien and the opposing team's SS are total different players. It will be fun to see who actually pans out for their major league team. I'll take the guy with great plate discipline, high OBP any day of the week over a free swinging guy who doesn't get on base but flashes lots of power.

QUOTE (CyAcosta41 @ Jul 27, 2013 -> 02:35 PM) Big deal. My BS sensor is going off big-time. Totally stinks of a certain Mr. Hahn being tested. Haven't some of you been in schools, fraternities, sports teams, business organizations, the military, and so on, where the "new guy" is tested every which way to see what he's got? One or more teams trying to lessen Hahn's leverage probably called the Cubs to inquire about Samardzija. Or perhaps Ephoyer started "shopping" Samardzija in order to mess with Hahn and the Sox a bit. In either case, the perception is that Peavy isn't the only top pitcher on the market -- there's Samardzija or Lee or Santana or the ghost of Walter "Big Train" Johnson. Lots of smoke and circus mirrors this time of year, folks. Lots of misinformation, disinformation, and noninformation. Lots of plain old BS. Stay the course, Rick. You've got some good chips. And most of your leverage is that you don't actually have to trade those chips. Sure, Peavy, Rios, and Ramirez can be had if we're excited about what you're giving us back. If not, then we'll see if someone else will. And if nobody does, then there's the off-season and next year's trade deadline. Test underway, Rick. Show 'em what you've got, kid! PS - That said ... MUST ... TRADE ... CRAIN. First one to offer us a fair PTBNL sliding scale deal gets one of the best "potential" difference making arms to be had for a stretch run. Sox aren't going to sign him for next year. Sure, wish he wasn't currently injured and we could have got more, but let's quit with the crying and get what we can. One of the best posts I've read in a while.