Chicago White Sox

What really sucks is this will be our only taste of baseball until Wednesday. Why they have an off-day after the opener, God only knows.

Just need a couple grand slams and we're back in this.

Micah Johnson leads the AL in stolen bases at the All-Star break.

How has Danks' stuff looked compared to last year?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 09:45 AM) I fail to understand the rap Caulfield gets for namedropping. One person overstates it then the sheep follow. We are here because of our favorite team which consists of a 40 man roster , numerous players in many levels of minor leagues , plus all coaches and executives on those levels not to mention the possibilities of trades and free agency with 29 others teams who are similarly stocked with players coaches and execs. Most posts are talking about those 1000's of individuals in some way, shape or form. Besides name dropping is an attempt to impress others with a bit of snobbery involved to make yourself appear more important than the next person. Aren't we all mostly talking about the same people usually ? Name dropping isn't just using a lot of different names of players and people we are all here to talk about since we are FANS anyway. It doesn't appear to me that Caulfield does this to impress anyone or feel superior about himself. Lol, did you really just call me a sheep? I've read thousands of Caulfield's posts, I think I'm entitled to my own opinion. I enjoy Caulfield's contributions to this website and he seems like a good dude, but that doesn't mean I can't critique his strange need to drop any many names as possible in many of his posts. I usually keep my feelings to myself, but sometimes the drops are so unnecessary I feel obliged to comment. Quite frankly, if you fail to understand the rep Caulfield gets for name dropping, then you simply aren't paying attention.

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 07:29 AM) i think most here already knows not to get overly excited about this signing. it is confusing move but all i have to do is hope. i know i am not going to put too much faith in Lindstrom, remember he was cut from another team, the sox gave him a offer on a silver plate. i just have to hope in the best. I'm not sure what's confusing here, this is simply a minor league depth signing. Can't hurt to have a veteran in AAA that can also serve as an emergency policy in case a big chunk of our major league bullpen falls apart.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 07:43 PM) Insurance. Nothing to lose. Sox are familiar with him and his injury, obviously. Maybe they can catch lightning in a bottle, like Cleto for a couple of outings last year. Same thing with Leon...or Albers...or Crain...or Nate Jones. Jesus Christ Caulfield, you name drop worse than the rapper Game.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 01:22 PM) In order I'm worried about: catcher 2b back of pen back or rotation 3b conor, as long as he is protected against LHP, is a completely cromulent 3B. Honestly, your order looks spot-on to me. I have zero faith in Flowers offensively and we have no real backup plans at catcher if you assume Soto can't take on a regular's workload. At least with 2B and the pitching staff, we have actually some options in AAA that could possibly help at some point. As for 3B, I'm pretty confident we can get league average production out of the position if Robin platoons appropriately (again, assuming Beckham carries his weight).

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 01:09 PM) Good God, seeing it on paper it really hits home of how important Johnson is going to be to the bottom of the order. If he doesnt exceed expectations it will be a huge whole in the lineup for the bottom three. Conor put up a 124 wRC+ against RHP last year. Even with some regression, 3B is far from a hole as long as Robin platoons Conor with someone capable against LHP. I'm little worried about Beckham being in that role though.

Under 100%.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Mar 30, 2015 -> 05:51 PM) 80-82 I agree with this. Sox have holes at Catcher, 2B, 3B, RF, and back of rotation. Bullpens are always iffy. I wouldn't be shocked if things go right and they make the playoffs, but as they stand right now 80 wins seems about right. 2B, 3B, & RF may be question marks, but I wouldn't call them holes. Johnson & Garcia have legit upside, and Conor has been extremely effective against RHP. I think you could argue C is a hole if you don't believe Flowers can replicate his offensive output from last year and the #4 spot in the rotation is currently a hole, but that will likely be filled Rodon before June. I'm not sure I think Danks or Noesi as your #5 starter is really that bad. I think many posters on this site seem to think our competition is flawless when in reality they have as many question marks and/or holes as we do.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 29, 2015 -> 09:27 PM) DAYAN. VICIEDO. IS. NOT. ON. THE. WHITE. SOX. ROSTER. HIS OPS LAST YEAR WAS .686. HE'S NEVER PUT UP AN OPS ABOVE .744 IN A SEASON. YOU'RE INVENTING NUMBERS THAT MAKE NO SENSE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE ON OTHER TEAMS ROSTERS FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO CONFUSE ME. BALTA ANGRY. POTY

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Mar 28, 2015 -> 07:55 PM) Cleto isnt making the team . I don't think Albers is either. More and more looks like Rodon could be in the pen with the way the pen has been looking. No way Hahn is that short-sighted. The back-end of the rotation is much more concerning IMO and Rodon will be needed in the next 2 to 6 weeks to plug one of those spots. Therefore, he should start the season at Charlotte working on his changeup and overall command. Our team has a much better chance of competing with Rodon holding the #4 spot in the rotation than pitching 3 to 4 innings a week out of the pen.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 11:42 PM) just doesn't help get people to the park. Part of the reason attendance is so high is that at 90% of modern parks parking or public transit is a given. Doesn't really seem like enough people know to just park and take the train. Maybe it's the bad rep the neighborhood has it's a perceived safety thing for many. Dude, parking at the Cell is a complete non-issue outside of the occasional sellout. People are just b****ing because they'll have to park in the overfill lots if they don't get to the game super early, which is really just a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. I seriously doubt most MLB parks have much more parking than the White Sox. And if you don't want to do a traditional tailgate (BBQ, bags, etc), taking some form of train and/or L is an option, especially if you live in the city or it's a weekend day game. You can still get to the park early and go to Barcardi at the Park (or whatever it's called now) or one of the local bars within walking distance. The neighborhood is perfectly safe as long as you stick to the beaten path. The perception that the surrounding area is dangerous is pretty much outdated IMO. Not to be a dick, but have you attended games at the Cell before? You seem to be very unfamilar with the area.

Spring training stats are pretty meaningless, see Quintana's numbers from last year.

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.