Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2013 -> 05:17 PM) They could go with a 6 man bullpen to keep him. When's the last time we went with a six man bullpen for an extended period of time? I honestly can't even remember. If they bring Konerko back, then I think they eat a big chunk of Keppinger's contract and straight up dump him.

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 12, 2013 -> 01:18 PM) There's zero chance that there is zero chance Beckham is staying or going. I'd just like to see a statement trade that the team is changing. If they return with DeAza, Ramirez, Viciedo, Beckham, Kepp/Gillaspie, Dunn...that's a lot of a bad offense returning. I think it's very likely that Hahn makes at least one statement trade. Signing Abreu was a great first step, but I think Hahn will address 2 or 3 positions this offseason with one major trade involving pitching for a young position player.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2013 -> 01:04 PM) There is zero chance Beckham is gone. Viciedo I'd be at about a 20% chance. I'd say the opposite. We desperately need middle of the lineup bats and Viciedo is one of the few position players in the entire system with that kind of potential. I doubt Hahn gives up on him yet, not with power at such a premium. Beckham on the other hand occupies a position in which we three of our top 10 prospects can play. I think he's far more likely to be moved than Viciedo.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Nov 12, 2013 -> 06:08 AM) Come on, Greg. Think about your statement. You want to pay Juan Uribe, who is 34 years old, $6 million a year to most likely give you what Keppinger and Gillaspie will. I like Juan, too, and he was awesome for the team in 2005...that will be nine years ago. He had a great 2013, but his 2011 and 2012 seasons were not so good. And again, this team should not be looking for a one year "solution", especially for a position like 3B. They shouldn't settle for Juan Uribe for a year if all he's going to do is be a one man version of Keppinger and Gillaspie. Agree with this. Gillaspie still has some potential and if Hahn can't find a legitimate long-term upgrade, he should be given every opportunity to be the strong half of a platoon at 3B. And while Keppinger was beyond terrible last season, he should still be a useful player against LHP going forward. I'm not in love with a Gillaspinger platoon by any means, but it's not worth using our limited sources for a minimal upgrade at 3B like Uribe. We should be using that money to fill a bigger hole for us which is catcher.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 11, 2013 -> 08:31 PM) How are you coming up with the money for multiple FA signings when we have no room for any right now? Esp. Since you're coming up with a lot of money to get someone to take Dunn? Why do you keep saying this? You have no idea how much payroll room they have left and what moves they could make to create more. Let's not overreact to some number Merkin through out there on the team's official website. I hope you don't think Hahn would openly communicate his payroll restrictions to agents and opposing GMs in early November.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Nov 11, 2013 -> 08:02 PM) Shall we make a bet of which number Uribe comes closer to next year? 5.1 or -1.5? For those not very privy to math, the middle point there is 1.8. Or instead shall we bet on whether he ends up being "worth" $6M next year, which would mean he would need about a 1.2 WAR (according to Fangraph's value of a win). I'll take the under on 1.8.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 11, 2013 -> 03:47 PM) (1) Says who? Steroid era position paradigms are long-gone. Only 24 OFers in the entire Majors even reached 20 HR last year. There isn't even one 20+ HR outfielder available per team. (2) Viciedo hit 14 last year. The problem with power is that you have to make contact for it to matter. Viciedo was injured and missed nearly a 1/4 of the season. He was also a 24 year old in only his second full year. I respect your opinion and thought process on most topics, but I think you're way off on Viciedo.

I'm not a huge Dunn fan by any means, but he's simply not blocking anyone at the moment and is still a useful player. Now, in the unlikely event a young, left-handed 1B/DH type with some upside gets non-tendered then I'd reconsider a potential Dunn move. Until then, there is really no upside to dumping Adam.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) Basto will be lucky to even be in the org next year, he certainly won't get in the way of any actual prospects. Sox not happy with him. Michalczewski not going to play SS either, he'll be at 3B most likely. I think Anderson gets the fast-mover treatment and starts at W-S, even though I personally think that's a bad idea. Danish is 50/50 to be at W-S, maybe leaning slightly in. What happened with Basto?

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 04:29 PM) Interesting article on Gammons website here regarding the drastic increase in power hitting. To me it adds up to Konerko getting an incentive based deal somewhere if he decides he wants to play next year. http://www.gammonsdaily.com/mlb-power-at-t...ly-meet-demand/ Some interesting numbers from the article: "In 2004, nine players hit 40 or more homers, led by Adrian Beltre’s 48, and including Jim Edmonds (42) and Paul Konerko (41). In all, 37 players hit 30 or more homers." "In 2013, two players hit 40 or more homers, Chris Davis (53) and Miguel Cabrera (44). Davis and Cabrera are included in the grand total of 13 players who hit 30 or more." And this is why you don't give up on a guy like Viciedo yet. He has 30+ HR potential and in today's game that is rare.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 09:53 AM) I'm all for rebuilding and I think the idea of trading Sale is ridiculous. We already have 1/2, and the hardest part, of rebuilding done with a good young pitching staff. Continue to rebuild the offense/defense this year and in 2015 we could easily be contenders with the right moves. Abreu and Garcia is a good start, but we are still a couple good bats away from having the necessary offense to compete in my opinion. And unfortunately I just don't see any of those type of guys coming from our minor league system anytime soon, so trading some more vets to continue to get younger. See, I actually think Semien will be a very valuable player for us soon. He can do a little bit of everything offensively, but his ability to get on-base is his most important skill IMO. I think by 2015 he'll be our #2 hitter and be great table-setter for us. After him, there aren't a lot of sure things though. I still believe Trayce Thompson has a chance, but this will be a make or break year for him offensively. It would be foolish to write-off Carlos Sanchez given how young he was for AAA. And then you have Micah Johnson, who I'm higher on than most around here. I honestly believe he'll have a big 2014 and will push for a spot by 2015. He could be a dynamic leadoff hitter for us if he can get on-base at a high enough clip. Those are the only 3 guys I really see at the moment as possible starters by opening day 2015 and all are far from sure things. We'll definitely need to move some pitching if we want to improve the offense quickly.

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 07:19 AM) Beckham gets married today, so I would assume Konerko, Ventura, and Hahn are in the same place to talk. I would bet a Konerko decision is coming soon. GM meetings this week as well. I think a Konerko decision was made the day we signed Abreu. Dunn is the better player right now (plus left-handed) and there is simply no room for Paulie on a 4 man bench. And you know Robin would give Konerko a decent amount of playing time at the expense of Abreu. In all honestly, bringing him back doesn't make any sense and I'm sure Hahn agrees.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 9, 2013 -> 07:29 AM) Joel Sherman had Sale as his surprise player traded this winter. If Sale goes, I think Quintana and Santiago should e moved too. With the reported asking prices of free agents it's hard to believe the Sox will rebuild that way. I would agree if we were to go full rebuild, you move all three of those guys and stockpile prospects. But you don't sign Abreu to the contact we just did and then go full rebuild. Sale isn't getting moved this offseason so it's a pointless discussion.

Any talk of Boras leaving money on the table is ridiculous. I despise the man and his negotiating tactics, but he pretty much will always get his players the most money possible (with a couple rare exceptions). There's really no denying this and Jay-Z's agency will not deliver as big of baseball contracts as Boras. The difference may be insignificant, but it will exist. Having said that, Jay-Z will most definitely open up more endorsement & branding opportunities than Boras ever could. He has numerous relationships in the business world that he can easily leverage. And let's he honest, he's going to sign star players with big personalities. These guys will all be extremely marketable and offer little challenge for him. I have no doubt Jay-Z will blow Boras out of the water in this area.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 8, 2013 -> 05:26 PM) I'm pretty sure that's what happens when you sell off 3 highly paid veterans mid-season, lose nearly 100 games, and replace your team's captain and longest-tenured player with a guy who has never played an inning of major league baseball. We could pull it off very quickly, but if that's not rebuilding then I don't know what is. Lol...I'd call that retooling. Crain was an injured, free agent to be reliever. Hell, you were the biggest fan of dealing Peavy regardless of his value because of our pitching depth. Trading from a position of strength to land a young, major-league ready hitter isn't rebuilding, it's attempting to address our biggest weakness. And clearly Rios became expendable once we got Garcia. Getting rid of his contract helped us land Abreu (as you've stated numerous times) and an interesting utility player with some upside. Obviously Hahn was trying to get our team younger at the deadline, but rebuilding would have meant trading a lot more than just those three. Also, Abreu just signed the largest first time contract ever for an international player. That's called a major free agent addition. Were Ichiro or Darvish considered rebuilding-type moves as well because they had no major league experience at the time?

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 8, 2013 -> 01:24 PM) Semien to 3B or as the super IF sub. Beckham to 3B if they think Semien is better at 2B, but ole Gordo just got named the defensive 2B star. I would rater go or someone via free agency like Uribe at 3B. Is Mr. AJ Perzynski available for catching duties? I want a team with some fire and I think AJ can motivate as well as produce. I think Gillaspie and Keppinger are trade bait or Conor is a fill in W.P.O.T.Y.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 8, 2013 -> 02:24 PM) Again, welcome to rebuilding. When you're rebuilding, you have to get the best value out of every guy you can, IMO. To some degree, that means seeing what guys can do and playing guys you have under contract until they're tradeable. Wait, we're rebuilding now?

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 8, 2013 -> 12:11 PM) Fair enough, but with no one on he's been a .251/.285/.342 hitter the last 3 years. I'd prefer he'd hit somewhere with the opportunity to hit with runners on. Call me crazy but I wouldn't mind seeing him hit 3rd again. I think our best hope of a good #2 hitter is Semien winning the 2B job. You're crazy.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Nov 7, 2013 -> 10:50 PM) Maybe Merkin got he hint from the Sox that he should start blowing smoke now in case they are trying to trade Beckham. Although I can't imagine any GM would be dumb enough to fall for a puff piece. Exactly, GMs aren't going to whitesox.com and reading a Merkin article for their "insider" information. These fluff pieces are intended to hype up the meatball portion of the fanbase for the coming season.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 10:07 PM) I'd rather see the Sox sign Salty to a 4 year deal if it were for something like $6M or $7M per year, but if he's going to cost $36M for four years the Sox would be better off signing AJ for something like 2yrs./$12M - $14M. Signing a 37 year old catcher to a multi-year deal seems like a bad idea to me.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 09:48 PM) It's the free agent market. It's like a convenience store, you will overpay. You don't want to field your whole lineup that way, but we've got no catcher in the organization with any hope of successfully hitting right handed pitching. If it's only 4 years, he's got a better chance of earning his contract than McCann. The key with Salty is we can add him without sacrificing a draft pick or any major/minor league talent. What other catching options are currently out there that only cost money that are better than Salty?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 09:13 PM) For $10 million a year, that doesn't hugely impress me. What's your solution for catcher then?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 08:46 PM) He has been a tolerable Cather for 2 of 3 seasons and had a great career year right before hitting Fa, and his numbers in those tolerable seasons weren't muh better than the numbers that made Texas let him go. Unless I'm missing something, he was replacement level up until 2011 when he joined the Red Sox. Since then, he's put up WARs of 1.6, 1.9, & 3.6. He's been much better than he was with Texas, not really much of an argument there.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 07:05 PM) How can his floor be a 2 WAR player when 2013 was the only year he was at least a 2 WAR player? Well he was a 1.9 WAR in 2012, but I guess that's pretty far off from 2. And he was a 1.6 WAR player in 2011 when he got about 20% less plate appearances than last year, but let's not factor playing time into the equation. Seems like a pretty safe bet to be a 2ish WAR player with 460ish plate appearances based on his last 3 years of performance. But you're right, technically he's only been a 2 WAR player once in his career.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 07:00 PM) The downside is that he puts up numbers close to his career numbers of a low-.700's OPS without great defense he's put up every year of his career before last year and you're paying $10 million for a guy who gives 1 WAR next year and declines from there. I have no idea how you look at his career and say te risk of a market value contract is minimal when he's been barely above replacement until last year. The risk is you're paying a fortune for the guy the Rangers let walk. Maybe it's the right move, but the downside is quite plain. Lol...I'm so sick and tired of this new assumption that players automatically regress at age 30. He was a 1.6 & 1.9 WAR player in 2011 & 2012 before his 3.6 WAR season last year. He's been a very solid catcher for three straight seasons, so I'm not sure where this "barely above replacement" comment is coming from. Also, in the AL Central, he'd be able to face RHP even more frequently, yet somehow with us at age 29 he'd become a 1 WAR player and then be even worse in 2015 at age 30. I forgot that all players follow a bell curve and peak exactly at 30 years of age before rapidly declining. And why do I care that the Rangers let Salty go? Why in god's name does that matter at all? I guess the Red Sox shouldn't have picked up David Ortiz way back when because the Twins let him go. Or are you saying the Rangers don't ever make mistakes on player evaluations? Just a very strange point.