Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 25, 2012 -> 08:18 AM) Quintana for Buehrle. Do it. Wow, that would a terrible deal when you consider the money. No thanks.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 25, 2012 -> 07:16 AM) While they all have solid walk rates, they equally have horrible contact rates. If you can't make consistent contact in the minors, you will have no shot in the majors. I think they are all graded accurately. All could be solid MLBers, but all have serious flaws that could easily make it that they never make the majors or have bench careers. For comparison sake with Thompson, Chris Young was 21 years old in AA (a bad hitter's park, too) and hit: .277 AVG, .377 OBP for a .922 OPS. He added 26 HRs, 70 BBs and 129 Ks. Young had more power, a better contact rate, a better walk rate and more speed. He also was a GG-caliber defensive player. And he never really took off in the majors like people thought because of his contact (or lack thereof) skills. He had a couple good years initially, but then never could improve as pitcher's learned how to handle him. I fear Thompson is a poor man's Young. The tools wow you, but he just hit the ball consistently. No doubt all three guys are high risk, high reward prospects. I just like that all three are demonstrating a strong ability to get on base and along with some signs of plus power and/or speed. These guys are still extremely raw, so rapid improvement could happen at any time as they continue making adjustments. They still have time to cut down their strikeout rates. All three could easily flop, but I've liked what I've seen from them this year.

QUOTE (Wedge @ Jul 25, 2012 -> 07:51 AM) I'd personally rather spend Floyd's $9 million on Youkilis's option, but that's just me. Losing Peavy sucks, but we'd be getting back Danks. I don't see why we couldn't bring back bother if we bump up the payroll a little and replace Floyd with a cheap, internal option like Castro. I'd be happy with a rotation of Sale, Peavy, Danks, Quintana, and Castro next year. From a payroll perspective, it can't be that much more than what we're paying our staff now, even with Danks' raise. Obviously the tricky part would then be fitting Youkilis in the budget, especially with AJ an unknown. If I had to, I'd trade Thornton to a team like the Yankees to clear his salary. I think it can be done with some maneuvering, but we'd definitely need to increase payroll by $10 million or so.

Here's why I think our trio of OF prospects are underrated: Mitchell - 62 BBs (3rd in Southern) Thompson - 41 BBs (9th in Carolina) Walker - 54 BBs (top 10 in SAL before promotion) Also, Thompson is currently 2nd in the Carolina League in HRs & TBs. So while he has a low BA, he's getting a ton of XBHs. Plus his BA has actually been .283 since the all-star break, which is a great sign for someone young for the league. He's a very slept on prospect.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 24, 2012 -> 05:49 PM) If we're more worried about Jake Peavy's feelings than the welfare of the ballclub, someone's got to man up. I really don't think this is the case at all...and Jake has to realize it would be insane for us to pick up that option. He's getting paid like an ace, and he's been close to an ace this year, but gambling on it happening two years in a row, with how he's been a lot more hittable in the 2nd half, it's just not a logical move. I would rather have Youkilis, Floyd, AJ and Simon Castro rather than one Jake Peavy (maybe you can erase one of those names of Floyd/Youk/AJ), but the point still remains, if the only other option is Morel, Flowers and Peavy or Castro, Youk and AJ, no way do I think about retaining Jakemeister. What's more insane, taking on the $18 million (the marginal cost) for an ace or trying to replace said ace for less in free agency or via trade?

11 of our remaining 66 games are against the Twins.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 23, 2012 -> 09:12 PM) Morel's hitless so far, and you'd be losing a ton of range at 2nd. If the choice is Beckham or Morel at 2nd, give me Beckham. Totally agree.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jul 23, 2012 -> 08:20 PM) Josh Johnson likely gonna cost Viciedo+Jones+quality prospect right now. No thanks.

Morel should spend the rest of July and all of August in AAA. We should call him up for September, but he should not replace Hudson or Escobar on the 25 man roster now or for the playoffs. He is simply not a bench player. As for next year, I think Youk is the guy right now. If we can remain competitive until the end, I would expect the payroll to go up next year. I think KW will find a way to fit him in the budget for next season (assuming he stays healthy).

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 23, 2012 -> 04:57 PM) Lol I love the white flags from some of you guys. Seriously the season is no where close to being over and were 1.5 games out of first. Give the doomed crap a rest. Agree completely, I've never seen a fan base so eager to quit and start selling. We were in first place as recently as two days ago. We are currently 1 1/2 games out of the division lead and 1 game out of a wild card spot. There is still a ton of baseball left and we're right there. The non-stop panic on this site really needs to stop. Also, Sanchez and Infante are not impact players. They will help the Tigers some, but let's not pretend they're world beaters.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 22, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) I do not care about a person's personal or religious beliefs. I don't care if you're an adulterer or a racist or whatever. I do care about a 6'4, 240 pound man striking his wife in the face multiple times. I will not cheer this scum at all. So you won't cheer for a guy that hit his wife on one drunkn occasion six years ago, but you'll openly support a man who enabled and protected a serial child rapist for years? Anyways, despite Myers being a total douche, I think this is a smart baseball move. He is a very good reliever and people saying otherwise are letting his personal issues affect their judgement. He will help stabilize the bullpen and didn't cost much in grand scheme of things. Good move IMO.

We're going to see what Peavy is made of today. This is a big, big game and a win can totally change the tone of the series. Let's hope Peavy ain't a coward like Thornton and doesn't fold under the immense pressure.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 19, 2012 -> 07:40 PM) HA! I get the sarcasm, but it's funny how fast the tide can turn with a player. Also, Walker is in LF leading off for the Dash. Trayce remains the CFer. Makes sense when you think about it. We already know that Walker can play CF, so we might as well keep Trayce out there and hope he can stick. If he can, his value increases significantly as a prospect.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 19, 2012 -> 05:16 PM) The way Jones has pitched for the last month or so you have to wonder why he wasn't sent down instead of Martinez. I think it's because he's one of the guys they're looking to deal. I like Jones but if a team overvalues him, I'm cool with using him to upgrade another area, most likely the rotation. I could see some teams viewing him as a future closer.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 19, 2012 -> 12:33 AM) Um, yes. The Sox have won 6 more games than the marlins. There's no team as good as the nationals in our division. Robin Ventura is not the f***ing angel from angels in the outfield. I think he's done a good job. But that's it. Everybody is lining up to take shots on ozzie now. where were you guys before he left? Are you serious? Plenty of people wanted Ozzie gone prior to the 2011 season, myself included. Even more saw the light last year. You were actually one of the group who wanted Ozzie gone. I guess I don't know what your angle is here.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 08:37 PM) What's wrong with getting a cheap insurance policy like Pierre? I'll wager his OBP will be higher than Viciedo's against righties in August and September. And no one would bet against you, but I'd wager that Viciedo's OPS against RHP will be higher than Pierre's in August and September. Is there a reason you continue focusing on OBP and completely ignore slugging?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 08:26 PM) Blaming Ozzie for Rios not playing hard is just as ridiculous as any praise Greg continues to throw Ozzie's way. Alex is supposed to be professional. Playing hard should be assumed. I am glad he's playing hard now. . Except that Rios wasn't playing hard under Ozzie. I'm not even trying to blame Ozzie for Rios being lazy or not caring. For whatever reason, Ozzie couldnt get through to him. Having said that, Robin has found a way to motivate Rios and it shows when you watch him. I think Robin deserves some credit for that.

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 04:48 PM) These Ozzie fights are ruining the board. Please keep it to the Marlins thread, which is ruined already. I agree but it's hard to ignore Greg's Ozzie ignorence.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 04:25 PM) Stay classy. Lol...keep ignoring my questions

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 04:19 PM) Alex Rios should not be praised for finally earning his money. Give me a break. It's on him for being a piece of crap last year and the other years he sucked. Kudos to him for this year, though. Must be nice to earn the kind of money Rios earns. Critics can say a new manager brought it out of him. That pisses me off. It's ALL ON THE MILLIONAIRE RIOS, not his f***ing coaches. Rios isn't be praised, Robin is and rightfully so. Guess what? A big part of a manager's job in any profession is to motivate his employees. Money only goes so far, especially when we're talking about a player with a $55 million guaranteed contract. The fact is a lot of major leagues get lazy and/or stop caring as much once they get that big payday. A good manager will find some way to motivate them anyways and prevent a poor effort from happening. Robin has clearly done something to get Rios going. For whatever reason, Ozzie couldn't do it.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) The idea that you would tie an apology to something as silly as a "logical explanation" for my opinion that Juan Pierre will be better than Viciedo for the remaining 2 months of the season against right-handers does not reflect well on you. Lol...I'm not going to apologize to someone I think is purposely going out of their way to get a rise out of people. If my conditional apology hurts my Internet reputation so be it. If you can counter the flaws I pointed out in your "opinion", then I'd at least know you were trying to be objective with your Juan Pierre idea. However, the fact that you continue ignoring my previous questions shows you don't have logical explanations.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 01:19 PM) It takes a big man to offer a conditional apology. So you have no logical explanations then? Didn't think so.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 01:03 PM) A respectable player is going to cost a respectable return. Pierre might come cheaply which was the whole point of the idea. A cheap insurance policy. Viciedo's OPS against RHP this year is .673. That's higher than the .621 and .642 OPSs Pierre had in the 1,000 ABs against RHP prior to this year. I want you to tell me why Pierre is doing so much better this year against RHP and why I should expect his 2nd performance against RHP (for us) to be better than what he did in 2011 & 2010. If you can provide logical reasons, I will actually apologize for my comment earlier. Otherwise, you are completely ignoring his recent trends and overlooking what should be obvious regression for him in the 2nd half.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 11:52 AM) I think he will continue to get on base at a far greater clip than Viciedo against RH'ers for the rest of the year. You're a f***ing joke if you're honestly suggesting Pierre over Viciedo in any capacity. Pierre put up .621 and .642 OPSs against RHP the last two years. Unless you think he's suddenly found the fountain of youth, he's going to regress significantly in the 2nd half. On the other hand, Viciedo has a decent chance to improve in the 2nd half. There is no debate here. Had you chosen a respectable player for your platoon idea, people would have been more willing to listen, but most would have ultimately disagreed. However, you're clearly trolling and went with the idea that would cause the most anger on this board.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 18, 2012 -> 09:02 AM) As for Hudson, I am pleasantly surprised with how he has handled his benching...not that he could argue, but he doesn't seem to be pouting. Probably happy just to have a spot on the roster of a winning team. He's very professional about his change in roles, but hopefully he won't be on the team much longer. We really need a right-handed bat off the bench, preferably one that can play some CF. Reed Johnson would be the perfect acquisition for the role. He'd basically be in the lineup anytime De Aza or Dunn needed a rest, with Viciedo moving to the DH spot on Dunn's off-days. That would leave Danks as the primary backup for Rios & Viciedo and Escobar for 3B, SS, and 2B. There wouldn't be a reason to keep Hudson around at that point.