Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 06:22 PM) He turned down a $75 million dollar contract from the Cubs. So I really don't know what he is looking for. $20M+ a years for starters. Cubs offer was not even close to that. I think to get Shark to avoid free agency you have to offer a competitive AAV and hope he's willing to shave a year or two off the length of the deal. I could possibly see him taking a 5 year, $120M extension early in the season.

I'm always amused at the "Sox should move ____ to give him a chance to play" suggestions. I'm not high on Leury in the slightest, but I think he has enough tools to see if you can turn him into a Bonafacio type player. Same goes for Wilkins. Probably a AAAA type hitter, but he's a better alternative for 1B/DH in the event of an injury than someone like Dan Black. At the end of the day, these guy are simply minor league depth, which is important to have over a 162 game season. We shouldn't be eager to get rid of these guys to give a slightly better chance at major league job somewhere else. They earn that right after 5 or 6 years when they become minor league free agents (or when their options run out). Until then, they are our minimally valuable assets and we should take advantage of them until their usefulness expires.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Mar 21, 2015 -> 04:09 PM) Nah, that's still Sale without a doubt. This is a good move though. I wanted the Sox to wait one more year on Eaton because of health, but for this price it's difficult to complain. Also love this MO of the double team option years. Really adds a lot to the potential value of these contracts. Just reviewed the Sale contract and you're right. For some reason I thought his two option years were quite expensive but I was wrong. The last option is only $13.5M, which is beyond ridiculous.

Honestly, there's almost no risk to this deal. Up until that last year and the two options, Eaton is basically being paid high-end backup money. IMO, this may be Hahn's best extension yet.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 18, 2015 -> 11:15 PM) More nit-picky, I think Johnson having "far more speed" than Sanchez is probably a stretch. Maybe not literally so much as the extent to which it makes for a meaningful difference between these two players. Jake, I think you're typically a very objective poster, but this line just screams Micah Hater and/or Sanchez Homer. The speed difference between these two is legitimate and quite significant. Not sure if you're looking at his SB totals from last year, but Micah has the ability to be an elite base-stealer. Sanchez is more of 20 SB kind of guy. Micah also has far better range at 2B than Sanchez. His overall potential is much higher than Carlos' almost entirely due to speed. Saying the difference in speed isn't meaningful is pretty ridiculous.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 01:50 PM) Not sure if I've posted this thought in this thread, but the lack of power on the bench worries me, especially from the 4th outfielder. With Eaton and Garcia seemingly tweaking something every week last year, I have a feeling the 4th outfielder is going to be the most important bench player on the team. 100% agree, which is my beef with Beckham. I'm fine with him as a reserve infielder, but I'd rather have used the money on a legit 4th OF that could also fill in for LaRoche against tough LHP and settled for Sanchez or Saladino in Gordon's role. I love Bonafacio as a pure utility guy, who provides value through his speed and versatility that WAR can't fully account for, but I'm terrified of him being an everyday OF if someone goes down. Our lack of OF depth is our biggest risk on the position player side IMO.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 01:05 PM) As a 25 year old in over 600 plate appearances, Ozzie Smith put up a 47 wRC+. Leury isn't a good hitter, and probably never will be, but 70-75 doesn't exactly say he ever will be. With his speed, if he keeps it on the ground, that should be attainable. He was in over his head last year, and wasn't ready for the major leagues. He'll be better than he was. He'll definitely be better than he was last year because he can't get much worse. However, I have no faith he will regress to at least a 70 to 75 wRC+ hitter, which is what Beckham was last year. Beckham's BB %, K %, & ISO even in a down year seem beyond what is reasonably attainable for Leury. Not saying it's impossible, but nothing we saw last year should suggest it's likely.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 17, 2015 -> 11:37 AM) Yeah I don't have him turning into anything significant, but I also think he just can't possibly be as bad as he's been. I think he'll regress to at least a 70 - 75 wRC+ or so just by continuing to swing the bat and focusing on contact. Wait what? You think a guy who just put up a wRC+ of 2 last year is going to regress to a wRC+ of at least 70 to 75?? I get it was an incredibly small sample, but I can't remember a single player who looked so clueless at the plate in recent memory.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 16, 2015 -> 07:38 PM) Of course, Micah has options and Beckham and Bonifacio do not. I'm not sure what you're hinting at here since there's room for all three and that's the most likely outcome at the moment.

QUOTE (Tex @ Mar 14, 2015 -> 09:29 AM) I agree, dumb hate filled people are the problem. When they sing about dumb, hate filled things, or celebrate dumb, hate filled things, it's a problem. That was my point. These guys were singing a dumb hate filled song. There are other dumb hate filled songs out there. Listen to a few narco-corridos for example. Which is worse? Singing about murdering people or playing a game and murdering people? The people in the song are representations of real people, so to are the images on the screen. But if you don't believe that song lyrics are a problem, why worry about their song? No matter how they sang their song, put a rap beat behind it or a metal sound, it is bad. Now are those really the only song lyrics that are wrong in our society? People are disrespected all the time in our culture. We celebrate disrespecting people in our music, our movies, and our literature. Sorry, but we don't celebrate disrespecting people for the color of their skin in our music, movies, & literature. And please name me one rap song that has a line about killing someone simply for being a different race. That s*** wouldn't fly in this day and age.

QUOTE (Tex @ Mar 14, 2015 -> 08:04 AM) I was happy to see the punishment was swift. I do have some empathy for what Rock hinted at earlier. The innocent guys who were not involved that were thrown out of their house and are labeled as racist for belonging to that fraternity. Maybe it is deserved, but I never have supported a blanket condemnation of everyone and punishing innocent people. Expel all the people you catch singing, investigate and nail every one of the morons you can, but the innocent people shouldn't be punished. People should be judged by their actions. I also wish we could eliminate n***** from our vocabularies. I especially dislike the current culture that n***er is bad but somehow n***a is ok for some people to say. Many of us older people still hear that as a ugly and violent word of hatred, no matter how you try and hide it. We also have a culture where we cheerfully accept violence when we are watching tv and movies, singing songs, or playing video games. Singing about murdering people by hanging = bad. Cheering as you murder people by shooting in a game = acceptable. There are way more than a dozen people singing narco-corridos which depict the same kinds of acts, and they are tolerated and even celebrated. Gansta rap basically falls into the same line as narco corridos. Violence against people. But if there is big money to be earned or entertainment value for the masses it is accepted. Instead we stop at rooting out a small group of people in Oklahoma and think we've actually done something important to stop this. The problem is bigger and needs to be addressed. Yup, we need to focus on the bigger problems like rap music and video games. Those are the things that are really bringing society down. Definitely not dumb, hate-filled people, it's Call of Duty & Jay-Z that should be blamed here.

QUOTE (LDF @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 05:53 PM) i really hate to say this, but i think no matter what, MJ will not make the team this yr. i think the sox FO wants him to work on his defense in the minors, less stress if he makes an error. You think Micah Johnson has no chance of making the team? Honestly, I would be shocked if he's not the opening day 2B.

I have no idea what Dick Allen is actually arguing, but what could have been an interesting thread now sucks.

As much as I think Taylor is a nobody, this makes the decision to sign Beckham over a legit 4th OF like Denorfia even more frustrating. We literally have no OF depth and if a starter goes down we're pretty much f***ed. Meanwhile, one of Sanchez & Saladino could fill Beckham's role without missing a beat IMO. Hopefully there's something I'm missing about J.B. Schuck.

Why does Micah Johnson need to be a 2 to 3 WAR player to warrant the 2B job when you think Sanchez is a 1 WAR player? If their performances are going to be even remotely similar, then you're better off giving the everyday at-bats to the guy who has a chance of being a long-term solution at the position. I think the vast majority of front office types & scouts would agree that guy is Micah.

With three off days in the first 11 days of the season, we really don't need a 5th starter. Assuming Sale is out, each guy gets two starts and they would all be pitching on five days rest in their third starts. Hopefully Sale is back by the 17th though, because we then hit a stretch of 17 games in 17 days (assuming no rainouts). It's after this stretch I would target a possible Rodon call-up. At this point, Hahn and the coaching staff would have five starts to evaluate Danks & Noesi on and four/five AAA starts to evaluate Rodon on. And more importantly, we'd be about a week past the service time deadline. I'll straight up say I disagree with Balta on the need to baby Rodon throughout the season. His issues in college last year were due to extremely high pitch counts, not because he pitched a ton of innings. If he's a better option than Danks or Noesi, then he needs to be in the rotation as soon as possible as long as we don't lose the extra year of service time. I don't really care if he can only give us 20 or so starts. Take those starts from May to August and then shut him down or move him to the bullpen the rest of the way. There is no reason for this skip a start nonsense Balta is proposing. We need Rodon this year to help keep us in the race while see how this team takes shape. There's no need to f*** around with the rest of the rotation in hopes of getting a few starts from him in September. Again, take your 20 starts from Carlos and call it a day. Those starts from May to July are ultimately just as important (if not more) in terms of making the playoffs. And the good thing is if we need to add a starter, at least we'll have a better idea if we're a legit contender.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Mar 6, 2015 -> 11:55 AM) I respectfully suggest that you are reading too much into this line up considering it's the third game of spring training. Beckham hit second lots of times in his tenure with the Sox. Davidson is a candidate at some point for the Sox at 3B and Beckham is considered a super sub (2B, SS and 3B) Plus Gordon is at 2B in this game and is a legitimate contender for that position with Johnson and Sanchez. Are you Hawk?

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 3, 2015 -> 04:37 PM) Hahn has said this plenty of times so this is my thought as well. Honestly, if Soto is healthy he could steal a lot of playing time from Flowers, especially if Tyler doesn't put a .355 BABIP again.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Mar 3, 2015 -> 10:34 PM) Everyone, including ZIPS (the machine that it is) saw Sanchez last year. Isn't likely to hit much more than 250/290/350 but he's a slick glove guy metrics and scouts both saw that. We saw it, dude has serious range and a solid arm at 2B. Micah is likely to be a poor fielder even if he's better offensively. I don't like that trade off on this team. What makes you think Micah is likely to be a poor fielder? And how does ZIPS value defense for a rookie with zero games played in the majors?

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 3, 2015 -> 04:36 PM) Looking at tomorrows lineup, which is very likely a regular season lineup we'll see against LHP, it's kind of sad to see that some ugly bottom third from last year. Beckham-Flowers-Sanchez has minimal offensive upside. If Micah gets the job and can get on base at a ~33% clip I want him batting lead off. Every time he gets on base he'll get plenty of chances to run with Eaton typically seeing plenty of pitches. The brain trust really seems to love the prospect of Melky hitting second and I understand why but I worry the team, as currently constructed, will be a little too top heavy. I hope they're flexible enough to hit Melky #5 or #6. Especially if Avi Garcia doesn't set the world on fire which is a very real possibility. I know a lot of advanced metrics say you should have your best hitter hitting second but I think we have guys with speed/bat control that could benefit from having speed on base in front of them. Essentially, Eaton should always be #1 or #2 and some mix of Melky, Micah and Bonifacio should make up the other hitter. I agree with everything you say here, but I think for 2015 at least Micah should bat 9th. First, I see his OBP closer to .300 than .330 given a typical rookie adjustment period, which is too low to bat in either of the two spots directly in front of Abreu IMO. Especially when we have two relatively high OBP guys in Eaton & Melky as alternative for those spots. Second, I want him to have the green light at all times and until he refines his technique/strategy against major league pitchers & catchers, it's better to limit the amount of outs he makes on the base-paths while Abreu is at the plate.

I love the idea of Micah batting 9th this season. If he can get on-base at even a halfway decent clip, he's going to score a f***ton of runs with Eaton & Melky batting directly after him. Hopefully he wins the 2B job, because he'll be fun as hell to watch.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Mar 2, 2015 -> 05:18 PM) Still hope we hold him back, even if he's ready. What is it, a month for a full extra year of service? More like two weeks. It would be really, really stupid not finding a way to keep him down for a couple of weeks to start the season. Hell, we really don't even need a 5th starter for the first two weeks due to off days. Even with the Sale injury, I see no reason Rodon would be needed short of another injury.

100% hoping that Micah wins the 2B job. I really like Carlos, but he projects much better as a reserve infielder. If I'm going to give everyday at-bats to a prospect in a season I'm serious about winning, then I definitely want it to be a guy who can possibly be the long-term answer at the position. Unfortunately, Sanchez's upside is pretty limited offensively IMO. I actually think a lot of people are sleeping on Micah. He might of had some struggles along the way, but the Sox pushed him through four levels over the past two years. And yes, I know he was a college draftee, but he missed half of his junior season due to an elbow injury. The fact is the Sox have been fairly aggressive with him and despite that he's had a couple stretches of dominance. His AA performance in particular was quite impressive and sold me on him as legit prospect. If healthy, and that's the biggest concern IMO, he can be a dynamic offensive player. Defensively he needs some work, but playing everyday with Alexei and working with the major league coaching staff might be good for his development.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 01:20 AM) Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually really liked The Order. I can see some of the complaints people had with the early game being a bit slow and not a ton of gameplay, but I had fun with it. I think it breaks down into two camps. If you're one of those people who doesn't care about the story in games and skips cut scenes, then stay far clear of this game. If you think of cut scenes as a sort of reward for beating a section of gameplay and don't mind watching the story unfold for a few minutes in between gameplay sections, then you'll probably enjoy this game. It's gorgeous, the world they created with the knights is cool, I enjoyed the story, the science weapons they made up are super fun. The gameplay is fairly average for a third-person cover shooter, but nothing egregious. There's a s***load of quick time events, which I normally can't stand, but this game's weren't annoying. I can see why a lot of people weren't thrilled with it (although there are very few bad reviews, simply average/ok ones), but I enjoyed it. It's not five hours long like leaked on the internet, you'd have to sprint through the game to pull that off, but it's shorter than an Uncharted game for example. If you're worried about it, get it for $20 at some point down the road and it will give you a good weekend. I actually enjoy story-driven games, even if they lack traditional gameplay. Heavy Rain would be a perfect example of such a title. And honestly I'm cool with shorter length games, but I can't justify paying $60 for a 5 hour experience. Glad to hear it's a bit longer and that the story/setting is as good as advertised. Like you said, probably worth a shot if it's $30 or less, which is likely in a couple of months.

Regarding Rodon and service time, a full year is considered 172 days. Given that a major league season is 180+ days, you simply need to wait two weeks or so before calling up the player to get that extra year of control.