Chicago White Sox

I hate to say this, but it just seems like one of those games where Duke serves up a meatball to end it.

Eaton's had himself a game.

Good eye LaRoche. This at-bat is pretty much the game IMO.

Alright Spanky, slap one down the line and drive Carlos in.

Lol...Sanchez is due for a HR says Hawk. Who bets a weak grounder to 2B?

It's really sad when you go 8 innings, give up 1 run, score a run yourself, and still can't come away with a f***ing win.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 09:24 PM) It's the opposite, chris hasn't been on their level in anything other than the strikeout title, but I'm too tired to fight this one so I'll just link to the stats. Lol...at least put some effort in if you're going to be a whiny little b****. For someone who constantly quotes fWAR like it's the bible, I'm shocked your using bWAR & ERA as proof that Sale hasn't been on their level. Chris has the second lowest FIP & lowest SIERA in baseball. He's arguably been the best starter in baseball and anyone saying otherwise is simply looking for reasons to complain about this team.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 08:29 PM) Sox should dump Flowers, bring up Kottaras to back up Soto. Davidson will never be as valuable a hitter as Gordon Beckham and obviously not in the same league defensively. That's not good. Maybe, maybe he's useful on a big league roster as a platoon 3B/1B/DH. That would require first getting the left-handed 3B who is better than Gillaspie. If they haven't dumped Alexei, I'd rather they bring up Saladino to get at bats and man 3rd base. He might actually provide value by playing SS/2B in the future. Edit: Kottaras with 6 home runs in 22 games and an OBP close to .500. Trade LaRoche. Agree with everything above. Kottaras is worth a look IMO.

Lol...Sale might as well try to steal 2B if he wants some run support tonight.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 01:12 PM) The optimism last offseason didn't work out so well for those who had it. You continue to speak as if the season has already ended. Why don't you wait and see what happens over the next 180 days before you pollute every thread with your non-stop gloom & doom. Despite your best efforts to convince us otherwise, the majority of the offense is underperforming. There will certainly be some guys who improve in the 2nd half, the question is to what extent. Might as well wait and see where Eaton, Avi, Melky, & LaRoche end up before declaring the franchise is as good as dead. Without question, the outlook should not be nearly as negative as you're conveying simply due to the pitching talent within the organization.

QUOTE (Real @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 06:28 PM) yup, we can't groom young hitters, haven't been able to in decades this is a fundamental problem in this organization and it's actually pathetic that it hasn't been fixed yet, embarrassing really I really think this idea gets exaggerated to some extent. Go ask the A's if we can develop young hitters. They'll say thanks for Semien & Phegley, unless you honestly believe they retaught them how to hit in spring training. IMO, our problem isn't primarily grooming young players, but rather taking too many athletes and not having a clue on how to teach them to be disciplined hitters. Developing hitters is obviously a weak-point of the system, not arguing that, but we don't take a lot of position players high in the draft and when we do they are usually of the toolsy/raw variety. The few times we've taken more polished hitters, we've been somewhat successful (still not great).

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 06:12 PM) He has played basically one full season with the Sox (via parts of 3 seasons). In 153 games he has hit .272/.317/.414/.731 with 19 HR 79 RBI 42XBH 10 SB (in 18 tries). Those numbers at the plate look fine to me for a 22 - 24 year old during a period of time where the average MLB OPS is about .708. Garcia's usefulness as a starting outfielder will hinge on whether or not he can take his hitting up a notch and his fielding up 2 or 3 notches. As he currently stands, he is not proven to be a building block for the future but his athleticism allows for the possibility he'll improve in the OF in a way that Viciedo was never going to and his approach at the plate makes him more hitter than just whiffing slugger. Tank was given 3 full seasons to try to improve. We'll see where Garcia's at after his first full one is done in September (yes, September, I'm saying it here, this team will not make the playoffs). While I agree with everything you say here, I do think we need to find a way to get him out of RF. He's just too much of a defensive liability out there and I don't see him ever improving enough for that to change. Trading LaRoche would clear the DH spot and allow for Avi & Melky to rotate between LF & DH. Not ideal IMO but better over our current alignment if you can find a plus defender for RF (Thompson or trade/free agency).

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 05:51 PM) Oh great. He quit on the team he's dead to me. The day Ozzie brought up his contract when we were heading into a critical series against Detroit was the day I knew with all certainty he was no longer the guy for the job. Dude is a selfish ego-maniac and should never be welcomed back into the organization in any official capacity.

I've never been a fan of Robin as manager and this season reinforces my belief he needs to go. It's not his fault for the gaps in talent on the roster, but I think he should be held accountable for the magnitude of suckiness (sorry Balta, but the offense is not THIS bad), certain drivers of suckiness (1st inning woes and consistently poor base-running, defense, & fundamentals), & the general lack of counter-measures (guys rarely benched for poor play, lineup changes infrequent, etc). On top of that, I simply think he's a poor in-game manager. Maybe he's comes off better behind closed doors, but ultimately I can come up with no justification for keeping him beyond this season. Best-case scenario he's just another guy at the manager spot, and we should at least attempt to do better than that. There's literally no downside of going in a different direction IMO.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 09:02 AM) I love this post. To expand - Buddy Bell's job isn't high profile enough for Rongey to have to fend off angry callers about him, but he should be first out the door. Rongey had him on White Sox Weekly this Saturday and my god does he sound clueless. He literally offered no insights into any of our minor leaguers, but rather spit out high-level nonsense like "a lot of these guys can't do two things at once". He seems like one of those guys that pretends to have all the answers but simply spews a bunch of BS. Without question, Buddy Bell should be the first one to go if we shake up this organization.

Montas with a strong start so far.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jun 28, 2015 -> 11:02 AM) That's a ridiculous and stupid thing to say IMO. Screw what the rankings say, it only matters how the Sox view and evaluate a player. Reyes might be ranked #31 but he's signing for $1.5M so there had to be some serious interest from other teams, guys ranked that low by publications don't get typically get bonuses over a million dollars. Reyes might be #31 on the list but none of us know how the Sox or other teams ranked him on their big boards. Its also worth pointing out that you dont know who else the Sox are going to sign, they like to spread their money around. Look in 2013 when they signed Micker for $1.6M and signed (I believe) 3 or 4 more players to bounuses over 300K. Last year's class is a prime example of that too. I wouldn't compare amateur scouting in Latin America to the draft, July 2nd is basically a pissing contest between scouts as they try to out-scout one another. Look around MLB and check out all the quality, contributing Latin players (with the exceptions of the Cuban players) and tell me how many were signed to large bonuses, not very many. Overspending on July 2nd can really set an organization back, as you cant sign a player for over 300K for one or two years, KW said that when he hired Marco Paddy, he wanted to establish a pipeline that would constantly pump talent into the system, you cant really pump talent into the system when you can't sign any of the 'top guys'. I'm going to stop before my pacemaker zaps me. (Mic drop) Wow, you are a comedian on top of being a professional scout and screenwriter. How did you come up with that "mic drop" zinger? Such a creative and original rip, wouldn't expect anything less from a dude as talented as yourself. Let me say I disagree with almost your entire post. Already said the ranking are pretty meaningless, so I guess we agree on one thing (even though you ignored that point). And a $1.5M bonus is nice, but nowhere near the value it was back when we signed Micker. So perhaps this guy isn't the 30th ranked player, he's still not a top 10 prospect if you go by projected bonus size. Regardless, there are a bunch teams grabbing multiple guys in or above this bonus range. Despite our overall budget, we are getting less of the high-end talent than our competition. You talk about spreading our money to multiple guys, but a lot of teams are doing the same thing but to a much greater extent by simply spending more. And I understand the differences between the draft and international free agency. Your essentially buying a bunch of lottery tickets and the goal is to buy as many as possible to increase your odds of hitting on a couple. That's exactly why you blow past your cap, sign as many as possible, and then endure your penalties for a year or two. You can still sign lower-end talent during that time. If done correctly, you can ultimately add more talent over the course of three years through this method than by staying within your cap limits. There is a reason why most of the smarter organizations are taking advantage of this loophole. And this doesn't account for the fact that an international draft is looming and these penalties may ultimately be meaningless in year or two. Once again, we are behind our competition on a popular loophole. First was with the draft and refusing to go overslot despite there being no penalties, most likely due to Reinsdorf's ethics and loyalty to Bud Selig. Now we're seeing it with a refusal to go above our international cap limit. I hope Hahn proves me wrong and goes out and gets a Eddy Martinez type, because our competition is finding creative ways to infuse talent into their systems and we are not.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 28, 2015 -> 08:45 AM) The idea of counting on Trayce Thompson as a full-time player isn't going to find many advocates. And, if you're breaking in Anderson in 2017, you're probably wasting two more years of Robertson waiting for 2018, which means you can do without an elite guy (and he might not even be that) until 2017 or more likely ASB 2017. It's also quite possible Montas or Danish could emerge to take over that spot...so you can shift $25 million being allocated to Robertson and spend it more efficiently in the short-term. While I agree people will be skeptical of Trayce Thompson, I'm starting to think he deserves a shot in 2016. His defense has always been top-notch and he's been a top 10 offensive player in the International League this year (better if you exclude AAAA types) with a much improved K rate. I think you really need to find a way to get major league at-bats in August & September and if those go well, give him a look in 2016. His defense will at least provide a floor in terms of value. However, I'm not sure where this idea of not being able to compete while developing a young player comes from. Maybe b/c Balta screams louder than most here and he believes that only perfect teams can compete. That's just a ridiculous notion (look at the AL standings) and Tim Anderson batting 9th after a full season in AAA would likely not prevent you from winning.

Maiker Feliz not in the lineup for the DSL Sox yesterday. Given his performance so far, I wonder if they are bringing him stateside.

I really think this team can be legit contents by 2017, but it will take some bold moves between now and then. On the pitching side, sign Shark to a 5 year/$90M extension, trade Quintana & Putnam at the trade deadline (target two high-end hitting prospects for Q and the BPA for Zach), move Danks to the bullpen, & call-up Erik Johnson. Give one of Drabek, Guerra, & Beck an extended look the rest of the way. If you don't like what you see from those guys, then sign a reclamation project in the offseason. Either way, plan on Fulmer taking the #5 spot by 2017. On the offensive side, trade Alexei & LaRoche at the deadline for whatever you can get. Give playing time to Sanchez at SS, Micah Johnson at 2B, Garcia and/or Melky at DH, & Trayce Thompson in RF. For this example, assume you can get Schwarber & Baez for Quintana & Putnam. These guys would start at C & 3B the rest of the way. In the offseason, trade Garcia for prospects and open up the DH spot for Schwarber. Do whatever it takes to acquire the best available catching prospect that is major league ready. In this example, I'll assume that guy is Kevin Plawecki from the Mets. Let Sanchez, Saladino, or a free agent stop-gap hold down SS for 2016, but assume Anderson is ready by opening day 2017. Give Thompson a legit shot in RF in 2016. If he fails, sign or trade for a RF (Jay Bruce a potential option). 2017 Roster #1: Sale #2: Shark #3: Rodon #4: Johnson #5: Fulmer CL: Robertson SU: Jones SU: Duke MR: Webb MR: Phillips MR: Petricka LR: Beck 1. Eaton, CF 2. Johnson, 2B 3. Abreu, 1B 4. Schwarber, DH 5. Cabrera, LF 6. Baez, 3B 7. Thompson, RF 8. Plawecki, C 9. Anderson, SS Lineup too right-handed and there still would be some defensive concerns, but offensively it would have a lot of potential if Melky bounces back. Regardless, the pitching staff would have a chance of being very special. On top of that, the roster is very young and there would be money to spend to patch holes. While I think this particular scenario is unlikely (don't see us trading with the Cubs), I think something similar can be done if we extend Shark & capitalize on Quintana's value.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 06:01 AM) Kiley McDaniel has his July 2 board up now http://www.fangraphs.com/scoutboard.aspx?d...e=0&pos=all Has Sox tied to Franklin Reyes at projected $1.5m and Fernando Tatis Jr. at $600k. I know these rankings are fairly meaningless, but it's still a bit sad that the best guy we are linked to is ranked #31 despite having one of the larger budgets. Really shows how behind the times this front office is, as most of the premier organizations are blowing past their caps and realizing the penalties because they still come out ahead. IMO, this is no different than when the Sox wouldn't go over the recommended slots in the draft and passed on high-end talents.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 07:17 PM) Why Putnam? Dude has absolutely elite stuff. Feel like we'd be selling extremely low? The Feek, agree? QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 07:20 PM) Okay, so looked it up. Putnam is striking out 14 per 9!!!!! Holy s***, has to be by far best I'm the AL. Yeah, definitely wait until his era is out of the high 3s Selling low? Do you really think he'll maintain a 14 K/9 rate going forward? He's striking out guys at an incredibly elite level, his value right now should be incredibly high regardless of his ERA. He's a guy you definitely move in the next 30 days. Him & Shark are probably our best two trade chips.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 07:00 PM) Not really. If the Sox have any hope of trading Danks at the deadline, a few decent starts between now and then would be helpful. No one is taking Danks at this point, a couple decent starts won't change that.

I would try to sell high on Putnam at the deadline. Might be able to get something of value for him. And if someone would take on Duke's contract, I'd definitely let him go for the salary relief.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 04:54 PM) Danks isn't going anywhere.... Why? What is the point of keeping him in the rotation? He isn't going to return to his previous form. He is a sunk cost and no one is going to take him. Might as well cut our losses now and move him to the pen.