Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 09:00 PM) Putting aside those small sample sizes of his play during his September call-up with the D'Backs and during spring training, an entire season's worth of futility in AAA is more than enough proof that he wasn't/isn't ready to be a full-time ML player. Your entire argument is based on "we don't know how he would have performed had he been with the ML team from the get-go." Well, based on his play in AAA, it probably would have been horrid. Your blatant disregard for Gillaspie and his "two month hot streak"as you called it is ironic given all the hoops you're willing to jump through to defend Davidson. Davidson has the higher ceiling, but Gillaspie is far and away the better player and there's a decent chance he always will be. You bought into Davidson's hype as a prospect and therefore anything Gillaspie did would not have been good enough in your eyes. Great post all around.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 07:49 PM) This is perhaps the most illogical post I have ever read on this site. Davidson has proven he clearly isn't ready. Gillaspie has proven he has taken a step up. If you really think the reason Davidson is one of the worst hitters on the Charlotte Knights is because he feels sorry for himself, i want whatever you have been taking. If his psyche is that fragile, there is no way he could be successful in the major leagues. 100% agree Dick. Blaming his season-long struggles on being sent down to AAA unjustly is one of the worst demonstrations of deductive reasoning I have ever seen on this site. It's beyond all logic to think simply being in the big leagues would solve all his problems. IMO, some people bought way too much into his inflated Reno stats and his strong but limited (88 PAs) cup of coffee. I'm not ready to write him off just yet, but he faces an uphill battle when he's striking at a 30% rate in AAA.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:15 PM) Not surprised one bit its Sanchez getting the call. Johnson is shutdown, Semien has struggled at Charlotte ( has hit better July/Aug) and Saladino is done for the year so who else would it be? Here are the Charlotte stats for your reference: Semien: .809 OPS, 123 wRC+ Sanchez: .761 OPS, 110 wRC+ Johnson: .684 OPS, 87 wRC+ Obviously these guys do other things than simply hit, but Semien has been by far the best with the bat. If he's struggling, then I'm not sure how to describe the other two guys' performance. And in all seriousness, he was never really struggling either, he was just getting really unlucky. His BABIP is finally getting back to normal, but he's still a good 25 to 35 points off his career mark. For comparison purposes, it's currently 68 points worse than Sanchez's. I still don't know why a decent amount of posters sleep on Semien. He's shown significantly more power and a much better ability to draw walks than Sanchez ever has. I get the age difference, but that only goes so far when we're talking about a polished hitter who doesn't project to add much power. I think some people may be overvaluing Sanchez's hit tool and defense at 2B. Obviously great tools to have, but I don't think they outweigh what Marcus brings to the table.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:00 PM) Man, I'm disappointed that the Sox seem to have Sanchez and Micah ahead of Marcus on their future board. I still think Semien will be the best of the bunch. I like Johnson a lot and would argue he has the higher ceiling, but I still think Semien has the best chance of being an an above-average 2B. He's got such a well-rounded skillset along with tremendous plate discipline. I love his bat in the two hole, because he takes a ton of pitches and gets on base at a high rate. I'm hoping calling up Sanchez is a bit of posturing by Hahn. I honestly believe one of Semien, Sanchez, & Johnson will be trade bait if we hold onto to Alexei, and I could see Hahn using the "Carlos is our starting 2B" line this offseason to build up some leverage for him. Also, Sanchez does have the age card going for him, which probably adds to his value in the eyes of some GMs. He's definitely the guy I'm trying to move this offseason if I'm Rick Hahn.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:55 PM) I have made no bones about not being a supporter of a trade of Gordon Beckham. But, I realistically thought that over the winter we might see him dealt. But, this return for a #1 draft pick with a gold glove future ... a PTBNL or cash .... That is simply ridiculous You just don't get it, he's a good not great defender at 2B that can't hit. That's not very valuable, especially not for +$5M.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:25 PM) Sox have a 1, a 3 and a 5. Sox need about 3-4 more 3s. Wait, what??

I still think James Shields and few other additions can make us a legit contender next year. Look at this rotation and tell me we wouldn't be in most games: 1) Sale 2) Shields 3) Quintana 4) Rodon 5) Danks On top of that, we'd actually have some depth in the upper minors with Beck, Johnson, & Bassitt in AAA and Danish & Montas in AA. I get that Shields is on the wrong side of 30, will be extremely expensive, and cost a draft pick, but we have tons of financial flexibility and not much to spend it on. Even if he regresses some over the life of the deal, he can be an extremely productive player and quality veteran for the clubhouse. Maybe he'll end up being overpaid, but teams win World Series due to production NOT surplus value. Honestly, if I were Hahn, I'd make him my priority while other teams are focused on Scherzer & Lester. I'd be willing to go as high as $80M/4 years if that would get a deal done. Again, would probably be an overpay from a surplus value perspective, but we can afford to pay a premium for Shields as long as he remains a 3+ WAR pitcher.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:56 AM) Yes, but I'd still take a pitcher, as 4/5, who can give you decent starts most of the time. I made a mistake, he's had 5 reallly bad games where he gave up 37 runs in 23.2 IP. In his other 20 starts he has an ERA of 3.27. I know people say that doesn't really matter, I'm just cherry picking, and it makes no sense, but to me it does. It only makes sense if you can show us how the rest of the league looks when you take away their worst starts. If the delta between Danks and the rest of the league remains the same, then your argument goes out the window. I have a feeling most starters would benefit similarly if you removed the worst 20% of their starts.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) The USCF gun had him at 90-92 his last start. I don't think Danks is done. I don't think anyone is going to trade for him, unless you take back some expensive garbage, but there are worse things than having him around next year. His average velocity has been at 90 or above in two of his last three starts. That's a 2-3 MPH improvement from where he's been most of the year. If he can be in the low 90s next year, I have no doubt he can be a valuable starter for us. I'm just not sure that's a reasonable expectation at this point.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 10:36 AM) We better be. We can't waste Abreu MVP and Sale's Cy Young years any longer. This is by far the most important factor people are ignoring. We need to build around these guys RIGHT NOW, as Sale or Quintana could down at any point in time. Wasting the surplus value these players are currently providing is the dumbest thing we could do. It blows my mind people are so concerned about draft picks and the lack of surplus value free agents will provide. We have $46M in payroll commitments for next year and yet some posters are against spending anything of significance in free agency. Having financial flexibility is great, but it's damn near worthless if you're afraid to spend it.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 19, 2014 -> 06:54 AM) For five of Cabrera's eight big league seasons, he's been a 1.2 or lower WAR player. He's even put up 2 or 3 NEGATIVE seasons, as recently as LAST YEAR. It can't be a coincidence that all of a sudden he's playing this well right around the time when the PEDS allegations hit? He's pretty much a completely different player. Can you say contract drive? That's almost never good news for the poor sucker team that comes in and signs a guy to a long-term deal and then gets stuck with his deal and an often diminished level of production. Finally, I don't see JR or Hahn taking the risk of bringing in someone with his history. Tyler Flowers was one thing, this is quite another. I would say that we would be better off hiring Toronto's hitting instructor to work with Steverson to revamp our entire minor league approach to hitting. You can't argue with the results that guys like Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Cabrera have put up in a Blue Jays uniform...even Rasmus last season. PASS. And four of those seasons were his first four, all of which were with New York. Since then he's been productive in KC, San Fran, & Toronto. Don't get me wrong, the steroid issue is a concern, but most free agents today are going to be flawed to some extent or else they'll cost an insane amount of money.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 18, 2014 -> 11:13 PM) I am a fan of making a run at Melky Cabrera. I am even guessing that 4/60 to 5/75 is the type of deal we'd be talking about. I would definitely be cool with a 4/$60M deal for Melky. At his current production it's a steal, and even with some regression it wouldn't be a bad deal. The only issue is that he's going to cost a draft pick, but so will most quality free agents.

The Sox have $46M in payroll commitments for next year. If they think they can compete, which starting the year with Rodon would imply, then they'll definitely spend some money this offseason. That means adding a starting pitcher that is much better than Noesi (or Danks).

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 07:26 PM) The assumption is he'll be in the the opening day rotation next year because the plan will be to try to win the division. So putting him in the bullpen in Sept is irrelevant to his arb clock. Exactly. There's no chance he's in our bullpen next year. We have at least two holes in our rotation and very few internal options to fill them. Both of these holes provide a much larger hurdle to being competitive than a left-handed reliever. Maybe they decide in spring training he needs more time in the minors, but either way he'll be a starter next year. The Chris Sale situation was the exception, not the rule.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 06:58 PM) Stoney said today on the broadcast that Rodon will get 3 starts in Charlotte, then join the Sox bullpen. Ugh. That tells me it's very likely he's in our rotation and on the Opening Day roster next year.

Jake Peter's numbers falling hard, never buy into the hype of Pioneer League stats.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) It didn't feel dirty at all. If I believe losing was the best thing for the franchise, why should I feel dirty about that? There's nothing wrong with wanting your team to lose or even cheering for it. It's another thing to come on a Sox message board and be obnoxious about it like a certain poster did.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 10:58 AM) Ya, I'd be a little surprised is he doesn't get called up now....The next question will be, does he pitch outta the bullpen next year, like Sale did, or do they start him right away? Zero chance he pitches out of the bullpen next year, not with Boras as his agent.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 17, 2014 -> 05:17 AM) Matt Abbatacola ‏@MattAbbatacola 12h Too bad the @whitesox allow Ken to use the team broadcasts to be sexist and to express his personal agenda to things not related to baseball Yup, because B&B never express their personal agendas on their shows. I hate defending Hawk, because he does say some stupid s***, but these guys have no right to call him out.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 16, 2014 -> 09:08 AM) I actually didn't do it intentionally...always seems like there's an extra line in there when you do a poll that's kind of superfluous. Just giving you a hard time, no worries.

Caulfield, I'll give you a lot of credit, you have to be the first poster to start a topic with multiple sentences in the title.

B&B are simply the worst, just full blown hypocrites. They're guilty of saying as much stupid and insensitive s*** as Hawk. Luckily for them, they are bullies and don't allow others to call them out on their constant bulls***. I'm glad Hawk sort of stuck up for himself, however, this will ultimately backfire as B&B will surely use this is in one or more of their daily gang-up ripfests of Hawk.

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 06:33 PM) matt davidson whether he is ready or not He doesn't deserve a September call-up IMO. That's not to say the Sox won't give him one, but it wouldn't be for anything he's done on a baseball field this year. Same goes for Jared Mitchell. Guys should be rewarded for positive seasons, not being high draft picks or former top 100 prospects.

Position Players: Josh Phegley, C Marcus Semien, IF Carlos Sanchez, IF Jordan Danks, OF (assuming Avi takes his place) Andy Wilkins, 1B/DH (added to 40 if Dunn or De Aza is traded) Michael Taylor, OF (added to 40 if Dunn and De Aza are traded) Pitchers: Andre Rienzo, RHP Taylor Thompson, RHP Eric Surkamp, RHP Charlie Leesman, RHP

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 15, 2014 -> 02:09 PM) The problem is that Hawk is held to a much higher standard than you or I, and has a microphone in his hand to reach at this point, millions of people. You have to be a lot more careful in those situations. I agree, but that doesn't mean he isn't allowed to be human. He obviously shouldn't be making potentially offensive comments on-air, but I think this level of slip-up doesn't warrant outrage. There are certainly things that we could say in our lives that would be totally unacceptable for Hawk to say on-air.