Chicago White Sox

That's fantastic that the Rangers won the claim. Definitely the best case scenario, hopefully Hahn can take advantage of the Ranger's need for a bat.

QUOTE (elwood5892 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 01:14 PM) @Ken_Rosenthal: #Rangers logical guess as claiming team for #WhiteSox’s Rios. Had interest in him in July. Cruz now suspended. Cruz, Murphy FAs end of year. This would be nice if his guess was right. Actually can get something for Rios If it's Texas then we might be in a great spot. Hahn's refusal to trade Rios for peanuts at the deadline could actually pay off now.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 01:07 PM) Really hope Rios has played his last game in a Sox uniform, and get Garcia in the lineup on Friday. I would expect this to take longer than 24 hours to figure out. Even if Hahn is willing to let Rios go for nothing, he's at least going to attempt to get something of value for him. Like iamshack said, expect a 72 hour game of chicken.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) They can try and work something out, but if they can't, we can just let them have him. By claiming him, they are now responsible for his salary if we are willing to let him go. Which can also create some leverage for us. Basically Hahn can say, "Either give us some prospects and we'll eat some money, otherwise, he and his $14M salary are all yours".

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 12:56 PM) Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal Sources: #WhiteSox’s Alex Rios claimed on waivers. Claiming team not known. Owed $13M next season with $13.5M club option in ’15. MORE 12:52pm · 8 Aug 13 Would be awesome if Texas claimed him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 12:40 PM) You can certainly buy players at some level...but I think what MLB is really trying to avoid is "The Yankees sent the Marlins $100 million for Jose Fernandez", almost entirely on competitive balance grounds. You know darn well both teams would do that if it were legal. The problem isn't competitive balance, it's that organizations like the Marlins exist who care more about the bottom line than winning.

The K rate improvement is nice, but the complete lack of BBs is not good.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 11:52 AM) Look at it this way. The Sox are offering any team in MLB a (for the sake of argument) $60M discount over the next 2 years on any player they acquire if they get the right prospects in return. You'd have to get a team's top 4 to 5 prospects for this to even make an ounce of sense. Otherwise, any potential surplus value from the prospects would be more than offset by the $60M you paid to acquire them. Since that's never going to happen, this whole conversation is beyond pointless.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 7, 2013 -> 11:14 PM) That lineup would be significantly better then the current lineup. I don't think I'd have McCann and his near .900 OPS hitting down in the 7 spot though. If we had the rotation this year with that sort of lineup and they played decent defense, then sure that team could legitimately compete, imo. The Sox aren't going to spend the amount of money it will take to sign those two though. And if they did, it would be because they cleared a hell of a lot of other salary. McCann could be a legitimate possibility and even that I doubt. What's funny is that the Sox should have enough money to sign both of those guys if they really wanted to. Again, I'm not suggesting they should go do that, Cano in particular will get a crazy amount of years, but at some point we are going to have to spend some money to improve our offense.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 7, 2013 -> 04:53 PM) Three team deal. Phillies trade Lee to Sox, Sox take on the contract and trade him Orioles. If the Sox wouldn't eat any of Peavy's salary at the deadline, what makes you think would they trade for Lee and then assume his contract while he plays for another team?

Not that this will ever happen, but for discussion purposes, how good would our offense be if we signed Cano & McCann? Could we legitimately compete next year with the following lineup? Again, not suggesting we do anything like this. 1) De Aza, LF 2) Beckham, 3B 3) Cano, 2B 4) Rios, RF 5) Dunn, DH 6) Garcia, CF 7) McCann, C 8) Viciedo, 1B 9) Ramirez, SS Bench: veteran IF, Phegley, Gillaspie, & Danks

Why is it stupid? Arod is a turd sandwich and deserves to get hit a couple times. Not like people want to see him dead or something.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 6, 2013 -> 04:45 PM) Hah...I don't think anyone is qualified to say whether Chris will certainly break down in the near future, other than maybe Chris. That being the case, again, I absolutely agree it would be a risk-filled transaction. I just don't see a need to take that risk when we already have a rotation of Sale, Quintana, Santiago, Danks, Rienzo, & Johnson and should be able to afford a $125M payroll on a regular basis. Fixing the offense in one offseason will be difficult, but I think it can be done in 2 years if we spend intelligently and Garcia & Semien develop into solid contributors next year.

Trading Sale will never happen anytime soon, as no team will give up the theoretical value it would take to get him. And I personally think trading him is the dumbest idea ever UNLESS you are certain he will break down in the near future. Otherwise, you would simply be gambling on unproven prospects using one of the most valuable players in baseball. The potential payoff if you hit on all the prospects is just not worth the risk you miss on them all, which is incredibly more likely.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 6, 2013 -> 09:07 AM) He was mid-90's as a starter when I saw him a year ago and hit something in the range of 97-98 with a fastball for his last strikeout of the game so he kept velocity for the full time. That'd be a huge dropoff just from "tired arm". Well if it's more than a dead arm, then they should probably have him see a specialist. That a crazy drop in velocity, especially since he recently moved to the bullpen.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 5, 2013 -> 09:50 PM) I wonder who will be with the organization longer, N. Molina or S. Castro? Seems like Castro is going through a dead arm period or something. As long as his velocity comes back, it's got to be him.

I don't see how there is any chance in hell that Dunn gets claimed. Rios & Ramirez maybe, but not Dunn IMO. That's not to say he won't be moved, but I don't think teams will risk being stuck with him for next year at $14M.

Garcia is now 2-2 with a triple.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 12:43 PM) I'm talking about overall value. Not only does Alexei lead us in WAR, he ranks 13th in WAR among all MLB SS. No other position on our team ranks in the top half. 18th in wRC+, which is pretty good on our team. You keep citing Alexei's WAR but don't acknowledge it's entirely based on his defense, since he's been a negative value hitter. Defensive metrics are still way too sketchy IMO and his overall value is likely inflated as a result. That's not to say he's a bad player, but let's not use WAR as gospel, especially when we're talking about a defensive-oriented player.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 12:27 PM) I think getting better production from the outfield is a key in how quickly this turnaround can happen. Say they got rid of even just $20M more in salary. That would bring their payroll down to ~$45M. A guy like Andre Eithier would be an interesting possibility at that point. I know he's over 30 (which I don't like), but he gets on base and is a left-handed hitter. If the Dodgers were willing to eat $10M-$15M (big if) next year's payroll would be under $60M and the OF would be De Aza in left, Garcia in center, and Eithier in right. Viciedo to first or available in a deal. Anyway, just thinking off the top of my head . . . What? Have you seen our infield this year? We have 14 HRs between Gillapsie, Ramirez, Beckham, & Keppinger. We've also had a corpse at 1B when Dunn isn't playing. They're without question the problem. If we can get a superstar OF in free agency, then sure go for the upgrade. Otherwise, we can field a solid to good OF between De Aza, Viciedo, Garcia, & Rios next year.

Man, our offense sucks balls this year.

This is a big start for Rienzo. With Erik Johnson back at AAA, there should be some competition for the 5th spot in the rotation. Rienzo has an opportunity to take hold of the spot if he pitches well the rest of the way. Any extended struggles and I think we see Johnson get a look, at least by September. Look forward to his start and hope he does well.

If Garcia is better than De Aza, then play him in CF next year. At some point in the near future, we'll acquire or develop a stronger defensive CF and Garcia will slide over to RF. Until then, find a way to get your best three OFs in the lineup. As long as Garcia isn't a butcher in CF, that's probably where he belongs for now.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 06:49 AM) Lake looks legit to me, but come on. An .803 OPS isn't very good for the Pacific Coast league. I wouldn't overreact to a limited major league sample.

I wonder when the Sox will try to pass Rios and some of these other guys through waivers. If I were Hahn, I'd do so sooner rather than later. I just think the earlier you put a guy on waivers, the more likely he is to clear.