Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (QuickJones81 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 08:57 PM) Peter dominated rookie ball, and the fact that the Sox promoted him straight to Winston Salem might indicate they see more than a guy who had a flukey streak in rookie ball. We shall see... Here's the list of guys who posted .900+ OPSs for the Great Falls White Sox from 2003 to 2007. This period represents the entire time Great Falls was a Sox affiliate before they changed their name to the Voyagers. Brian Anderson: 1.081 (2003) Ricardo Nanita: .991 (2003) David Cook: .968 (2004) Francisco Hernandez: .929 (2005) Chris Carter: .968 (2006) C.J Retherford: 1.002 (2007) Jim Gallagher: .953 (2007) Christian Marrero: .945 (2007) Salvador Sanchez: .938 (2007) . . . Jake Peter: 1.023 (2014)

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 05:29 PM) So if we picked him up, the only way to keep him next year would be to offer him arbitration which would probably involve a 20% raise because arb usually does, meaning that he'd cost us $5 million next year to keep? That seems ugh. I think you may be using the 20% average increase incorrectly, but either way, why couldn't we simply offer him a contract at his current salary and tell him to take it or leave it. Guys that get DFAed aren't typically looking at big free agent contracts.

I'm sorry but Jake Peter being rated so highly is ridiculous, although not quite as bad as Semien being in the the sub category. Marcus won the AA MVP last year, has performed extremely well at AAA other than being unlucky, and yet you judge him based on a month or so of big league plate appearances when he had essentially skipped AAA? On the other hand, you base Peter's high rating on a small sample of inflated Pioneer League stats. I know these lists are just for fun, but the above bothers me greatly.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) A year ago I would have agreed with you. I think he is pegged correctly. Stop evaluating players by only using batting average.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 11:29 PM) Jesus christ. In case anyone is wondering, tonight's 0-3 makes Leury the single worst hitter in the majors (min. 100 PA) in wRC+ at 13, 379th of 379. Doesn't matter, fast guy on bench = automatic backup leadoff hitter. Apparently there is no other option.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 08:07 PM) Johnson ended up having a mediocre start. Continued the trend of him falling apart after a few innings. Makes me wonder if his future might be as a reliever. Not sure I agree with this. Yes he blew up in the top of the 7th, but through the first six innings he gave up one run on five hits with five strikeouts and one walk. That's incredible improvement from where's been at this season.

I think Micah Johnson may be the most underrated prospect on this site. Not sure if it's because he wasn't a high draft pick or the fact he's never been a top 100 prospect. Both can be explained by an elbow injury in college that cost him half his junior year at Indiana. Had he been healthy, he would have gone much higher than the 9th round and would have likely done better at Great Falls to start his professional career. Despite having legit 80 speed, the kid was a relatively unknown coming into the 2013 season. Since then he's gone from low A to AAA, being very productive at each stop along the way. People used the age excuse last year, ignoring his plus speed and athleticism. Not sure what the excuse is now given how well he's played at AA & AAA in just his second full professional season. Micah Johnson is a way better prospect than Sanchez. I don't care if he ends up average defensively at 2B when he has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff hitter. Not saying he will reach that potential, but I just have to laugh when I see someone call him a max 2 WAR when he's got 80 speed and a decent ability to get on base. To me he's easily the #3 prospect in the system, with Rodon & Anderson the only guys clearly above him. Sanchez is a nice prospect, but does not have the potential to dominate any aspect of the game.

I'm sorry, but Leury Garcia has no business being on this team right now. He should be playing everday in AAA, working on his offensive game. If he could just hit a little bit he'd be a useful utility guy, but unfortunately that's not the case.

The Cubs are not going to trade major prospects for guys making almost $25M per year. If they're willing to pay top dollar, they'll buy their pitching in free agency. Otherwise, they'll trade for pre-arb guys that are both cheap and have a better chance of fitting into their competitive window.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 09:52 AM) If I were the Cubs, I'd strongly consider throwing a couple of those big position prospects their way and trying to get a deal done. It's time for them to take a step forward and they've got the depth to do it without wavering from their course. And if it doesn't work out, they could trade him at any point over the next few years assuming he's healthy. So the Sox aren't ready to sign major free agents yet, but the Cubs are ready to take on a $100M contract and should give up significant talent do so??

I'm not ready to write off Davidson just yet, but I think the lesson here is to always be skeptical of PCL stats, especially if the guy plays in Reno. Adam Eaton put up a .995 OPS when he was at Reno, while Davidson put up an .831. Yes, Eaton was a year older, but he's also not a power hitting prospect. That should show you exactly how inflated PCL/Reno stats are and why Davidson's first AAA season wasn't that good.

Nice work Alexei!

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 07:16 PM) This is horrible.. It has to suck as an offense to know you are already in the hole by multiple runs because of your less then average pitcher Abreu will hit a three run jack in the bottom of the 1st to tie the game.

We're going to have to score a f***ton of runs tonight.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 05:09 PM) I am with you on this. If you look at the fastest way to make the biggest improvement to next year's team, it's to add the best right-handed starting pitcher we can stomach giving a contract to. We are 12th in the AL in starting pitching this year. How many wins would we add with, for example, James Shields instead of the 5th man carousel? There is no one in AAA knocking down the door for a rotation spot. Add a left handed outfield bat that is better than De Aza and a bullpen arm or two and the team could/should be in the mix for a wild card and believing they can compete and win without the pressure/expectation that they have to win this season. That's a good spot to be in. 100% agree with this. And quite frankly, I think wasting another year of a cheap and healthy Sale/Quintana pairing would be foolish. One of those guys could go down with injury at any time, so now that we have some semblance of an offensive core we shouldn't be waiting on internal candidates to fill all the remaining holes. Obviously we shouldn't do anything stupid, but waiting another full season before signing decent free agents would be a huge mistake IMO. This team is pretty close to being legit if Rodon lives up to the hype.

Wow that Ethier deal is horrible. If the Dodgers would eat about $10M/season and ask for nothing in return, I might be willing to roll the dice on him as part of a rotating DH. Best case scenario he's a platoon guy, but he's been very effective against RHP prior to this season.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 07:53 AM) There will likely be one or two free agents thrown into the mix, at least one (maybe both) of the Felipe Paulino/Rich Harden ilk. I'd be shocked if we go big this year on FA signings unless the team really finishes exceptionally strong. Why do you think this? We signed Abreu last offseason and tried to go even bigger with Tanaka. Hahn is going to spend money if he finds the right fits. He's just not going to sign aging veterans to extremely long deals.

Based on some of these roster predictions, it seems like people want a payroll in the $50 to $60M range. The Sox probably won't get back to a $120M in one offseason, but anything short of $90M won't happen. They'll definitely at least one bat, one starting pitcher, and a couple of pen arms.

As Vance pointed out, Flowers' K rate has been around 25% since wearing the glasses. If he's in fact seeing the ball better now, that could change the discussion on Tyler's role going forward. Still too early to jump any conclusions, but I remain skeptical he'll be able to sustain his recent production. I would love for him to prove me wrong though.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 10:10 PM) It was apparently 7/9 He's hitting .390 with 11 xbh and 23.4% strikeout rate with glasses That K rate is a pretty nice improvement for him. If he can maintain that rate along with the increase in power the rest of the way, maybe we can revisit the possibility of him being our starting catcher in 2015. Until then, we should consider nothing more than backup material going forward.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 09:03 PM) Much has been said here recently about the 2014 pitching staff. It needs help next year. Free Agency will be discussed in off season, but you can't count on that as a savior for next year. Even though most of Sox better pitching prospects are in lower minors (W-S on down) there are several at Charlotte and Birminghame who will probably be given serious consideration sometime in 2015. Alphabetically, they include Bassitt, Beck, Blough, Bucciferro, Casey, Fuentes, Recchia, Snodgrass, Vance. The following roster pitchers probably don't figure to be in the mix Belisario, Guerra, Jones, Lindstrom, Paulino, Rienzo, Surkamp, Thompson. I didn't include Rodon, only because he is still at W-S. I don't know where I'm going with this, just looking for some positive comments on Sox pitching next year. Hopefully the Sox figure out what is wrong with Erik Johnson before the start of next season, because he has been by far the biggest disappointment this year IMO. If they can somehow fix him, which is a huge question mark, it would do wonders to our rotation next year. Unfortunately, we can't count on him being anything more than competition for the #5 spot right now. The only good news is that three of our four best pitching prospects could start 2015 in AA. Rodon will probably be ready for the majors at some point next year, and it's not out of the realm of possibility for Danish or Montas to force their way into the big league as well. We still need to add a veteran #2/#3 starter this offseason, but at least we got some interesting arms coming soon.

Anyone know what Flowers' K rate is since wearing the glasses?

He'd be a solid left half of a DH platoon, but he's going to get expensive real quick and Boras is his agent. Unless he comes cheap, which is unlikely, I think we pass Alvarez.

Baez' power potential is unreal, the only thing that may hold him back is his ability to make contact against major league pitching. Don't get me wrong, he's obviously a top 10/20 prospect, but that's more based on his ceiling than floor. Guys that strike out in the 28 to 30% range in AA & AAA typically struggle in the pros. He's still so young that there's plenty of time to improve in that area, but he's far from a sure thing offensively and he doesn't have defense to fall back on either.

Cleto will have one dominant outing, we'll all get excited that he's actually been fixed, and then he'll proceed to walk 33% of the batters he faces.