Chicago White Sox

Absolutely fantastic move. We just locked up a potential top 5 starter in baseball for the next 4 or 6 years (excluding this coming season). The total cost of his abritration years (including his minor bump this year) is only about $19 million or $6.3 million per. For comparison, Tim Lincecum got $18 million in his 3rd arbitration year alone. I have no doubt if we went year to year with Sale he'd easily get $25 to $30 million over the next three seasons. On top of that, we get him for three potential free agency years all at affordable costs, with only one of them guaranteed. We're talking about $60 to $90 million in value for a total cost of $37 million, with only $12 million guaranteed. Having those two option years is just incredibly valuable. They mitigate so much of the risk associated with this type of deal. Also, just having the cost certainty is a huge plus. We don't have to worry about him winning the Cy Young award and then getting Lincecum type money in his arb years. With Sale now locked up at set prices, we should have more flexibility to spend in free agency to fill some of our offensive needs, especially as guys like Konerko, Dunn, & Rios come off the books. Hahn deserves a lot of credit for convincing Sale to agree to a below-market extension.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Mar 7, 2013 -> 06:42 AM) Tex is only out 8-10 weeks and we're still 3½ weeks away from the start of the season, so there's no way they give up anything valuable for someone who will be on the bench for 3/4 of the season. And let's not forget that Konerko makes $13.5 million this year and his hit to the Yankees would be roughly $20 million due to the luxury tax.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 6, 2013 -> 11:10 PM) I think a long term contract isn't a bad thing, but he's a season or two from Tommy John. This is just a terrible post. You want to lock up a pitcher you're certain will need Tommy John surgery in the next two years? That makes absolutely no sense. If you actually believe he'll need surgery you do one-off deals through his arbitration years.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 5, 2013 -> 08:06 AM) I'm one who really likes Wise as a backup outfielder right now. And, beyond that, you aren't going to get anything more than a future utility guy at best for Wise, which ultimately means you are essentially getting nothing. You don't ever want to close a door, but I don't see a match here. Yeah, I completely agree. I absolutely despised Wise when we tried to make him a starter a few years ago, but I really liked what he offered as a reserve outfielder last season. He can help in a variety of ways, which is great when you have a four man bench. IMO, he's a more well-rounded reserve than Jordan Danks and he deserves the 4th outfielder spot to open the season.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 08:44 PM) I think it would have been lazy to assume we had the 4th best offense and completely overlook the park factor. And yes, that means the pitching is effected by the park factor and is better than the pure numbers indicate. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 10:23 PM) But then, conversely, our pitching always has to be deemed better than it shows statistically, too. As you can see, that's exactly what I said earlier. And that's really the key point of the article. The pitching was the strength of the team last year and will need to be again this year to have any real chance of winning the division. That means Sale & Peavy need to be healthy and dominant, Danks & Floyd need to be above-average mid-rotation starters and eat a lot of innings, and Quintana or someone else has to be a reasonably effective as our #5 starter. There is some room for error but not much, because I don't see how the offense can be that much better than it was last year.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 09:06 PM) So if the offense is the same as last year, wouldn't they finish 4th in runs again? Possibly, but that's not the point. How did opposing offenses perform at the Cell last year? Is it really that hard to believe that both us and our competition are affected by the park? That was point he was trying to make. Being 4th in runs doesn't necessarily mean we had a good offense last year.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 08:54 PM) Because the heading it's under is "Will the Sox finish 4th in runs again?" Park factors are irrelevant to that question. I agree that the heading was stupid, but the point remains the same. The offensive wasn't great last year despite being 4th in runs. IMO, the offense should be about the same, but I'm expecting Viciedo to have a big season. If he doesn't or if Konerko suddenly ages or if Rios doesn't have another crazy year, then the offense could easily be worse than last year.

QUOTE (everafan @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 06:51 PM) Meh - as usual, lazy and superficial analysis. Nobody really wants to do any original work on the White Sox. Also, "First, their run scoring was inflated by their park." So does that mean the pitching was affected by the park? And it's even better than the numbers they put up last year? I think it would have been lazy to assume we had the 4th best offense and completely overlook the park factor. And yes, that means the pitching is effected by the park factor and is better than the pure numbers indicate.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 07:47 PM) Yeah, I felt like that was a particularly silly point too. Park factors help when comparing players to one another, not teams to themselves over time. Last time I checked, the Sox will still be in US Cellular in 2013. Yeah, but opposing teams will be playing 81 games at US Cellular as well. I think the point is more than legit. I've pointed out before that our offense wasn't bad last year because we were 4th in runs, but it definitely wasn't the 4th best offense. I'm not sure how you can deem the park factor as silly.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...white-sox-2013/ Very good write-up on the team's chances this year.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 05:46 PM) See the comments in his AAP. Not a big deal. Losing 6 weeks sucks though. I was hoping he'd start the year at Kannapolis and now he'll likely start in extended spring training. Not the end of the world, but still disappointing.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 06:22 AM) I read on PHT that Hawkins will start the season with the Dash. Is this a done deal? Pretty much, I believe both Hahn & Bell confirmed it in interviews.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Mar 3, 2013 -> 03:14 PM) We're gonna fly under the radar & win the division this year I can feel it. Baseball is rules & awesome. I agree with this post.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Mar 3, 2013 -> 09:49 AM) I mean, the point it, there were a TON of questions. Nearly everything went right last year. It happens. And to be frank, if Detroit had played up to their capability last year, it's really a moot point about last years season. While I disagree that everything went right last year, I think we can agree that a lot of things went wrong in 2011 and we only lost 83 games. To expect all those same things to go bad again in 2012 was foolish enough, but to expect the team to get 17 games worse on top of it is just embarrassing. I'm not saying people should have been optimistic about last year's team, but no MLB scout should be that wrong when evaluating an entire team.

Still, Mitchell is a potential second half spark, not an opening day reserve. He needs consistent at-bats for 2-3 months and if all goes well, maybe he can help us in the 2nd half.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 2, 2013 -> 08:05 AM) It happens all of the time in baseball. Go back and look at any draft's first round, or even a typical BA Top 100 for any particular year. I'm referring to the scout who said he thought we could lose 100 games last year. Two teams lost 100 games last year, the Cubs & the Astros, and I think most of us all thought those two teams would be in the bottom five. How anyone could think the Sox were that caliber of bad coming into last season, especially someone who is paid to evaluate baseball players, blows my mind.

I just want know how a scout can be so f***ing wrong.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 1, 2013 -> 05:02 PM) It is obvious he isn't a favorite of management or they wouldn't have cleared him off of the 40 last year. You keep saying this, but Morel is on the 40 man roster. Are you saying they removed him at some point last season only to add him back on since then? I don't recall anything like that.

God I hate B&B, listening to them right now is beyond painful. They gave a guy a hard time because he argued it's possible that this Michael Jordan illegitimate child may just want his dad to be part of his life and may not be looking for money. Instead of just respecting the caller's point, which was based on his own similar experience, they had to be complete dicks.

QUOTE (Jake @ Mar 1, 2013 -> 01:24 PM) I don't think so, but most posters on here would say Wise > Danks Even if he's not, the difference would be so small that I'd rather have Danks start the season in AAA so we have some additional organizational depth. Regardless, I think Wise is better suited for a bench role, at least right now.

The problem with B&B is that Boers simply repeats 99.9% of what Bernstein says. Basically, every time a caller challenges Bernstein, even if he has a good point, Boers calls the caller an idiot and just agrees with whatever Bernstein's point is. Very rarely does Boers ever disagree with Bernstein and when he does he's usually wrong. If they could replace Boers with a guy like Spiegel who would provide differenting viewpoints, I think Bernstein would have to accept he's not always right and would be more enjoyable to listen to.

QUOTE (Cali @ Feb 28, 2013 -> 11:45 PM) Obviously I'm jumping to conclusions saying this is lingering, but its really a good time for Gillespie to shine and he's doing pretty good for himself so far... Trade could wind up being a bigger deal for the 2013 Sox than originally thought. I agree. With Keppinger's ability to play 2B, we should be able to insert Gillespie's left-handed bat into the lineup several times a week. Given the absolute crap we had on our bench last year, I'm pretty excited about that proposition.

QUOTE (southside_hitman @ Mar 1, 2013 -> 02:39 AM) Yes he has hit .205 in those 273 at-bats. The 410 at-bat figure was obviously an error in reading the column at baseball reference, but subtracting 137 at-bats still leaves him hitting the same...exactly the same .205. Everyone who is a Sox fan wishes Tyler the best. However, many of us look at his numbers and are not buying into the notion that after 4 years in the big leagues, Flowers will start hitting. I am also concerned about his foibles on the base paths, and his conditioning. He needs to keep himself in the kind of shape that AJ did so he can be durable and dependable throughout the season. While his fate with the Sox plays out one way or another, I'd like to see more of Phegley at catcher. You're really basing your expectations of a player on 273 ABs over the course of 4 seasons? Honestly, that's not even enough ABs to count as one full season as a starting catcher. Judging a young player based on sporadic and limited playing time is foolish, especially when that player has serious contact issues. He may not fare better in a starting role, but more times than not, guys who strikeout a lot perform better with consistent playing, at least IMO. No one is saying you can't be concerned about Flowers, but try to use reason and logic in your counter-argument. Point out his 36% K rate last year, which has to improve for him to be a long-term answer at catcher for the Sox. But don't pretend AJ has suddenly found the fountain of youth or that Josh Phegley doesn't suck while at the same time bashing Flowers. Just be more objective in the future and people won't attack you in masses, because right now your argument reaks of bias.

QUOTE (southside_hitman @ Feb 28, 2013 -> 07:09 AM) He had a fine year but he also might be getting better with age. AJ hit 17 home runs in '05 so hitting 9 more last season is not exactly like a PED power explosion. His batting average last season was .278. He hit .300 or above three times in his career, hit fpor a better average in 2011, and is a lifetime .284 hitter. There are a lot of people and primarily Cub fans that dislike AJ, but that is all the more reason for Sox fans to admire his competitiveness and desire to defeat opponents. I would have let Peavy go, signed AJ and traded Flowers. Flowers is a lumbering ox, a big guy that is prone to weight gain and may not prove to be durable over the course of an entire season behind the plate. Just to compare body types, Fisk was also tall, but he was light and like a cat behind the plate. And Phegley seems to be left out in these conversations, but he may prove to be better than Flowers over the long haul. Flowers talks a big game so it is time for him to show us what he can do. I have heard some sportscasters suggest that his defense alone justifies starting him. A .225 batting average with 150+ K's coupled with slightly better than average defense is not going to cut it. And he is a load on the base path. There is so much wrong with this post, but I'll just pick the line that bothers me the most. You'd really pick AJ over Peavy? A 36/37 year old catcher coming off an outlier of a season over a possible top of the rotation starter? Without Peavy or a viable replacement we're not competing for s***, and I have no idea where you think Peavy's replacement would come from. Loyalty is a great quality and should be rewarded, but only with some level of reason. When you start using stats from seven years prior as support AJ's power surge last wasn't an outlier, you've demonstrated you've lost the ability to reason with this particular player.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 27, 2013 -> 05:15 PM) A 26 year old with a questionable back basically in AAA or above for his 4th season who already had a nearly full go at the MLB and put up a .653 OPS that only is non-terrible because of a rash of late-season HR's? I still wouldn't give up anything of use for him if he put up a .900 OPS at AAA this year; i'd expect there's a decent chance I can get him on waivers in the near future. He could very well be worth more than an A-ball pitcher to the White Sox if he can put up an .800+ OPS at Charlotte and suggest that there's a chance he's not a complete fail...but I'm not trading anything for him that I think I could use. A .900 OPS would have qualified him for 2nd in the International League last year. If he did that as a 26 year old, while playing excellent defense, he'd have pretty good value IMO, especially given how bad the position has gotten in recent years You claiming this would be his fourth season in AAA or above is a bit misleading. He spent 2/3 of 2010 at AAA and in the majors, despite being 23 years old and only having a 1/3 of a season of experience at AA in his entire career. He then spent one full season with the Sox in 2011 as an overmatched rookie whose manager did him no favors in terms of aiding his development. Last year he got about 250 plate appearances in AAA and with the big league club, but was injured basically the entire season. So right now, he's had about two seasons worth of playing time at AAA or above over the course of three years. However, if you think beyond that, you see a guy that was rushed, mismanaged, and injured during this same time. I'm not saying you completely ignore his performance during this period of time, but if he comes out and puts up a .900 OPS and can stay healthy, teams will focus more on the present than the past and be willing to offer something of value for him.