Chicago White Sox

An interesting side effect of this deal is the impact it has on our bench. Between LaRoche & Gillaspie, we're going to need two RH reserves that can platoon with them. One guy obviously has to be an IF, the other preferably an OF. That only leaves us with one other reserve for the IF/OF if you're assuming a four man bench. It will be interesting to see how those spots shake out, especially if they don't keep Tank.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Nov 22, 2014 -> 06:18 AM) This is a nothing move to me. In fact, it's probably an over pay. They probably cold have waited until after the New Year and signed him for 1 year at about 7 mill. I just don't think there was a huge demand for a 35 year platoon DH/backup 1b. Well there was a rumor out there that the Marlins offered 2/$20M, so I think you're pretty wrong here. One way or the other LaRoche was getting a 2 year deal in the mid $20Ms. If anything, the AAV of this deal is a bit less than I was expecting.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Nov 22, 2014 -> 01:45 AM) A trade of Alexei makes no sense after this LaRoche deal, unless Hahn is acquiring another SS from somewhere. The LaRoche deal is a "win now" move. Rebuilding teams shouldn't be signing 35-year-old DHs to $12.5M/year contracts. Honestly, it depends on what you can get back in return for Alexei. If it's a top prospect that is major league ready and fills one of our major holes, say Joc Pederson or Noah Snyndergaard, then I think it still makes sense to deal Alexei and attempt to compete in 2015. Not saying I think Alexei has that much value, but I don't think the Sox will deal him unless they get that type of talent in return.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Nov 22, 2014 -> 12:03 AM) I wouldn't mind Hahn trying to make a Danks and Papelbon swap. Maybe throw in a prospect to coerce them. Have Rodon start the season in the rotation and use the rest of the money on a left fielder. Offseason finished. Even with Rodon, we'll need another starter.

I'll say they add a catcher, most likely Grandal.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 09:48 PM) And extremely low for Headley Yeah, I'd say Headley gets double of what that poster suggested, somewhere around 3/$42M.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:31 PM) Kemp, Bruce and Me.Cabrera are all unrealistic at this point. Why is that??

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:18 PM) that tweet is hilarious. Yea, it's an impressive list...of guys...that met an arbitrary cutoff. Players credited with more than 3 fWAR over the past two seasons: not Adam LaRoche. He's going to be our DH, so who gives a s*** about his fWAR? If he can maintain his wRC+ against RHP then he'll be plenty valuable.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:09 PM) Like I said, not a huge deal. I'm not worrying about it... We'll agree to disagree on a lot of that though, except I'm in complete agreement that we have a great nucleus to build around. In my opinion we are like 3/4 of the way through the rebuild and there's no point in not finishing it. I'd much rather wait it out and build something potentially great than add veterans for a wild card run and cross our fingers from there. If it were up to me this would have been another off season of trying to add as much young talent as possible. But we'll see what happens....its early still and anything can happen. But we really don't have many veteran trade chips that can get us good, young talent. Alexei is really the only guy that fits the bill.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 08:03 PM) 2.2 bWAR and .5 fWAR -- almost all due to variations on his defensive value. Hopefully they've done their scouting on his defense, although judging from how often they trotted Konerko out there at the end they don't really give that much of a f*** about 1B defense. Really hope more dominoes are going to fall. They didn't sign LaRoche for his defense, Abreu is still going to get the vast majority of starts at 1B. The key is making sure Robin actually platoons him, as LaRoche is a negative player against LHP.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:47 PM) After looking at his splits and yea, no compensation pick, it's slightly more defensible. That said, still don't like it, unless it's part of many more moves that all make sense together, which could still happen. I think you have to assume more moves are coming. This won't be our big offensive addition, or at the very least there will be one of equal importance. Also, I'm not a huge LaRoche by any means, but he's been damn good against RHP and the price isn't too crazy. I'm cool with rolling the dice and hoping he can maintain his production during his age 35 & 36 seasons if Hahn is serious about competing next year.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:33 PM) Keep building for the future. Like I said, it's only 2 years so there isn't a ton to complain about, but I'm just not a fan of stop gap old players at this point. Unless Hahn has something big still hidden under his sleeve that would make us legit contenders... But LaRoche doesn't prevent us building for the future. He costs us nothing but money and is blocking no one of importance (sorry Andy Wilkins). Also, I think Hahn believes a lot of key pieces are already in place. We have legit #1 & #2 starters, one of the best hitters in baseball, and a very good leadoff guy. We are obviously not a finished product by any means, but if Hahn can fill our major holes with capable veterans and a few of our young, non-proven players like Avi, Semien, Rodon, etc. take that next step, we have a decent chance of being a playoff team. Burning cost-controlled years of Sale, Quintana, Abreu, & Eaton by refusing to sign/trade for veterans is by far the worst thing we can do IMO.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:22 PM) Mehh not the direction I want to see the team going in honestly....but 2 years $25M isn't going to hurt anything so I won't complain What direction would you prefer?

QUOTE (flavum @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:19 PM) https://twitter.com/MLBBruceLevine/status/535965162466185216 Thanks, Bruce. Back to your soup at Max and Benny's. What does the Max & Benny's line refer to?

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:10 PM) Despite a lot of message board posters asserting as fact what the payroll will be, they/we do not know. Why $25 and not $20 and not $30 and not $35? I don't know what their payroll will be, but all the writers have alluded to a payroll between $95 and $100M. Based on our current commitments including LaRoche, that would put our available money around $25M. Maybe my math is slightly wrong, but the point is we should have a lot of money to spend. And quite frankly, I think we can probably afford a payroll above $100M, but that's just my speculation.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 06:56 PM) Eh. Hopefully this isn't the big signing of the winter. They have another $25M to spend. I would say the big signing hasn't come yet.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 06:33 PM) Hmmm...not my favorite signing ever, but shouldn't hurt us. Agree with this. Not a huge LaRoche fan, but it's a pretty reasonable deal all things considered.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:52 PM) Maybe he "Shouldn't be", but he is in decline. I do classify them as declining if they are declining, which he is. Clown trades like that are a prime reason why the Sox have 3 playoff appearances in 15 years despite a top 1/3 payroll under Williams' watch. The second we have a decent prospect, got to move them. You guys want to pay top dollar for players off of bad years. It's like giving our top 2 pitching prospects for Edwin Jackson and his 5+ ERA. How is he declining? Exclude 2014 and you honestly feel you can stand by that statement?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:43 PM) Wow - you mean it will only take Quintana and a top prospect to land a high K hitter with a .654 OPS! . The love of declining veterans is getting sillier by the minute. Spare parts only. Do you throw everyone into the "declining veteran" box? Bruce is 27 years old and had a serious knee injury last year. You can hate on his high K rate, but the dude is not at the point in his career where he should be declining.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:41 PM) Would anybody do Avi, Semien, and Montas for Bruce? No way in hell. I like Bruce over Avi, but not enough to give up Semien and Montas on top.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:35 PM) Or he lands a RHP along with JB... Cueto or Axelrod?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:37 PM) Ooops, I was confusing him with Votto. Bruce really had a disappointing 2014 though, and had negative fielding metrics, yes? He had a bad knee injury that was likely the cause. I really like Bruce but Q is way too much IMO when you factor in salary and team control.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:26 PM) Well, that's a pretty big contract. And it would completely blow a hole open in the rotation. It would also force Rodon to be a 2, almost from the start. (Unless we do something truly unprecedented and spend big money for a FA pitcher). Bruce is not a big contract at all, something like 3/$36M IIRC.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:21 PM) Early. Revisiting talks. Might take Q + I'd love to add Bruce, but Q alone is counter-productive and adding more pieces would it a terrible deal for us.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 06:04 PM) Right, but he's just not a slamdunk player that would make me not care about the pick. He is almost Alex Rios-like in his sporadically good and bad seasons. Let me preface this by saying I know WAR is not the end all be all stat, but it's a good quick reference to a player's season, so check this out for his recent years..... 2009: 1.4 WAR (okay year) 2010: -1.4 WAR (epic bad season) 2011: 3.7 WAR (Very good, all-star caliber season) 2012: 4.5 WAR (Awesome season, all-star caliber again) 2013: -0.9 WAR (Only played 88 games, but was awful) 2014: 2.6 WAR (Decent above average year) That's 6 years worth of "What will he be next year"??? Giving him a long term deal is very scary, because his career is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you're gunna get. Seems like he has been pretty good since since 2011, with 2013 being an exception when he had a tumor on his spine. I guess I disagree with you here.