Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 12:23 PM) Holy crap, they really said that? There are like 6 guys more likely than Hawkins. Yikes. He really did. Just an embarrassing comment for a guy covering local sports for a living.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 12:13 PM) Spiegel speculating Courtney Hawkins as a 4th outfielder this coming season. Turns off radio... lol, was just about to post this. The Score has always been a joke in terms of baseball coverage, but the shift to being the Cubs flagship station has made them unbearable.

I LOVE this trade. Gave up three talented but flawed prospects for one of the best 3B in baseball. With two years of control, you can give him a few months and then possibly discuss extension, but if he's not interested you'll most likely end up with a comp pick when leaves and hopefully have Trey Michalczewski ready to replace him at that time (obviously not a sure thing). Having said that, we still need to add an OF to replace Avi. Do that, and this team can be serious contenders next year.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 08:14 AM) He did take less $$ overall but yeah it sets up as a better deal for him. He's going to cash in again when he's 29 years old. Bryce Harper is going to get $500 million. Exactly, he took less guaranteed money, but took the deal that allows him to maximize his earning potential.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 07:23 AM) That's false Which is incredibly annoying. And the sad part is the entire media, the Cubs front office, and even Heyward himself are trying to sell this idea. At the end of the day, he got a 3/$78M deal plus a fat-ass insurance policy in the event his production goes south. Kudos to Theo for coming up with a creative deal and landing his guy, but for the love of God stop selling it as something it's not.

Caulfield, why is everyone of your posts in a "Todd Frazier" thread about the Royals!?!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 07:30 AM) KC isn't going to start the season with Dyson and Orlando both starting in the outfield and they're unlikely to get 0.2 out of 2b as they'll bench Infante for Colon/Mondesi or make a trade in June/July like they did with Zobrist and Cueto. Duffy and Young combining for 1.1 over two rotation spots is improbable as well. They will add another veteran pitcher (Gallardo?) and just picked up Gee for insurance. I guess this combined WAR stat right now is their best marketing tool for selling season tckets, but few Sox fans are going to be convinced until they start consistently beating AL Central teams in April and May. I can guarantee you not a single fan will be buying season tickets because of projected team combined WAR.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Dec 15, 2015 -> 06:34 AM) I just looked at Fangraphs' 2016 team projections and they have the Sox at 2nd in the division right now at 32.7 WAR, 5.2 WAR behind the Indians, and that's with a decent amount of regression from Abreu, Eaton, and Quintana. Picking up Upton and Frazier would put them at first in the ALC in projected WAR. However, it looks like once again the projection system undervalues the Royals, as they're dead last in the AL in projected WAR. http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Team While these projections may not mean much, I think they do suggest our division is wide open. I personally think going for it makes sense for us, as long as the two prospects important to 2017 (Anderson & Fulmer) aren't required to get us there.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:43 PM) So you have Tigers, Angels, Orioles, Cardinals, Nationals...the White Sox are a distant 6th in terms of financial resources or playoff-competitive roster/s. KC has a roughly 25% chance at keeping Gordon OR signing Cain/Hosmer/Moustakas to extensions into their FA years. You also have to think that Upton might be more comfortable staying in the NL, where he's spent his entire career. Aren't Moustakas & Hosmer Boras clients? If so, good luck signing them to extensions.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:38 PM) The highest is Gil Meche for $55 million and 5 years, not too far off from Abreu/Dunn actually. Of course, that was almost a decade ago, when nobody wanted to go to KC as a FA and Glass felt they had to set a precedent by overpaying. There are rumors they want to keep the Opening Day payroll roughly the same as last year, but they will open the bank for Cain/Hosmer/Moustakas and Alex Gordon if they can get any of those four to come close to signing reasonable extensions into their FA years. The odds would still have to be considered higher to keep a player than for the Sox to bring a new player into the organization, fwiw. Obviously it didn't work with Zobrist, so they decided that Colon/Mondesi/Infante (since he is already a sunk cost) are better options financially. For their perspective, they have a limited two year window left. The White Sox have the opposite problem, their window has been pushed back to 2017 and more likely 2018. If there is any time in history they would go out and spend that money, it's going to be now...defending a World Series championship. That said, they have one of, if not the worst local media rights deal in MLB, and it doesn't come up for renewal until the White Sox contract with CSN expires (2019). For the White Sox, they're just fighting to get to 3rd place in the AL Central. For the love of God, just admit you're a Royals fan.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:26 PM) How many $100 million players have the Royals signed in their history? And the news today said they will not be raising payroll. Royals or White Sox?

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 07:20 PM) Are there any veteran short stops who fit my profile? Ideally, he would be a guy whom the Sox could acquire for a couple of years, until and if Anderson is ready to take over. An outstanding young prospect would likely cost too much in talent going back to the trading partner, and the Sox should not be looking for a long term solution at SS, with Anderson in the wings. As someone already mentioned, why doesn't Saladino fit what you're looking for?

While some of the logic may be flawed, the underlying principle is what's important. The ownership group must invest in the team now if it's wants to acheive sustainable success. They need to stop blaming the fans for not coming out and supporting a garbage product. Successful organizations (in any line of business) don't blame the consumer for their financial issues, they find a way to invest in their product to generate value. Therefore, spend some money and add an impact free agent or two; go into the red for a few years if need be. Put a quality product on the field for an extended period of time (i.e. more than one year) and the fans & revenue will follow. Half-assing it like we do most years is the worst possible decision we can make. We need a clear direction and if "going for it" isn't a feasible option, then start selling pieces and start from scratch.

I've said it before, but I'm 100% behind a Frazier trade IF we can get him without giving up Anderson or Fulmer. That might be tough, but I still think we can put together an attractive package. Two arms (Montas, Adams, Johnson), Micah, and an OF prospect (May, Engel, Hawkins) or Avi might do it. I'm sure many would consider that an overpay, but you'd get one of the best 3B in baseball for two years at a below market rate (plus a comp pick when/if he leaves) while holding onto our two elite prospects. To me it's a no-brained if you can go out and also add one of the impact OFs.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 12:06 AM) There's no doubt that Cespedes and Eaton on the corners and Thompson in CF would give the White Sox a much better overall defense and a MUCH more exciting team. Cabrera would become the full-time DH and LaRoche would be essentially a PH and defensive replacement for Abreu. Once again, a win now move that still leaves the White Sox exposed to injury/quality depth issues and struggling to get league-average production from SS, 2B and CF (and possibly catcher). That said, it's 100% better than having 4-5 potential line-up holes, as is the present case. (You'd be simultaneously improving two positions by pushing Cabrera into LaRoche's spot at DH). Still think they'd need to get more offense from the middle than what Sanchez and Saladino are likely to provide, assuming Lawrie is a 1-2 WAR player. The problem is that at his age (assuming it's accurate and not in Alexei Years) you can't afford to give six years to Cespedes (let's say $160-170 million for six years) any more than you can afford to give $115-130 million to Alex Gordon for five years. Anything more than 4 years for Cespedes and 3 years for Gordon is playing with fire. As much as it's easy to assume we can heavily backload deals and easily dump Cespedes in the future, that doesn't happen quite as often as one would imagine with these huge free agent acquisitions... Heyward just got an AAV of $23M. Yes, he took a discount and his deal is front-loaded, but no way in hell Cespedes & Gordon are getting the contracts you are proposing.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Dec 13, 2015 -> 07:14 PM) 100% agree. Desmond or a guy like David Murphy would piss me off. Upton or Gordon I would be fine with. I think this team severely underachieved most of the year & there are a few players that are due to bounce back but I really think they need at least 1 bigger bat to put them in the mix to compete for a WC spot. Agree with all of this. One big bat is a must. I do think Melky & LaRoche bounce back some, but we can't completely rely on that. And we definitely can't give Avi another year, which is exactly why adding one of the impact OFs makes so much sense.

Hopefully we hear some whispers of the Sox being interested.

Ugh, caulfield is back for 48 hours and has already turned this place into a Royals suckfest. Leadership isn't our problem, it's a lack of positional talent.

Where did Trayce go?

With the Cubs getting Heyward, the Sox may need to expand the payroll a bit and add a big piece or two for the fanbase to have any interest in this team. I know it's very early, but it's incredibly frustrating watching us hang in the middle (small moves that make us appear like we're trying). If this ownership group isn't willing to spend what it takes to make this team competitive, then we trade off valuable assets and go the rebuilding route. Watching the Cubs continue to make our beloved team less and less relevant in heart of Chicagoans is getting painful. I think over the next four weeks we should get a better sense if the organization has a real short-term direction or if they'r simply continuing to roll the dice with small-scale moves.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Dec 12, 2015 -> 08:13 AM) He probably could do better than 2/37 though. Maybe not his AAV but more guaranteed money over 4-5 years. Sure, he'd get more years on the open market, but those teams aren't trading prospects for him. Does it really make sense to give up several good prospects for a guy being paid like an elite OF but only has two years of control with his red flags?

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Dec 12, 2015 -> 07:59 AM) http://m.rockies.mlb.com/news/article/1594...s?tcid=tw_share Says the White Sox have been long speculated as a possible landing slot for Carlos Gonzalez but rockies looking at Quintana. Basically they are looking for stating pitching and bullpen help I love that the writer calls CarGo at 2/$37M a bargain in this environment. I'm sorry, but I don't consider an AAV of $18.5M a bargain (for a second tier player no less) when one of the best OFs in the game just got a $23M AAV. If the Rockies expect anything of significance in return, they'll need to eat some serious salary. Saying that, I'd much rather have the Sox go after Upton or Cespedes than trade any top prospects for CarGo & salary relief.

Not sure how anyone is ripping this deal. I hate the Cubs as much as anyone on this board, but this deal is a no-brainer for them. With the opt-out clauses, it would take a catastrophic injury that saps into his athleticism for this deal to go south. The only good news from an anti-Cubs perspective is their rotation is far from a sure thing. If all goes right, it can still be one of the best in the NL, but given age & health concerns, things could turn for the worse very quickly.

Will be interesting to see how the team changes shake out. Feel sorry for whoever gets stuck with Jenna's sister.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Dec 9, 2015 -> 08:22 PM) He needs to be careful. That's how Sale hurt his foot. At least he didn't do a backflip like Courtney Hawkins.