Eminor3rd

Everyone knew Viciedo was terrible except Chicago and, apparently, Seattle.

Live arm, makes sense, aligns with my expectations from the start.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 4, 2015 -> 03:19 PM) Yes, but they could see where he's at in spring training for a few weeks for next to nothing. Someone will sign him, and probably wind up saving a couple million. There obviously isn't a team out there that thinks highly of his ability, because they don't seem to care about losing him over $1-2 million. I wouldn't be shocked if he signs one of those "minor league deal with invite" contracts where he makes like $2m if he make the ML roster.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 4, 2015 -> 03:06 PM) I am pretty stunned they couldn't find someone to give them garbage for him. I think the defensive limitations just made his downside too low. As many have argued on this board, his skillset makes him an exceedingly poor fit as a fourth or fifth outfielder, essentially meaning that he needed to break out to be of any use at all. I imagine several teams would have taken a flyer on his bat if they felt they could at least use him on the bench in any instance. Even though $4.4m isn't a ton these days, it'll still buy you a pretty high-end bench player, so to commit it on a guy who likely won't even be that useful doesn't seem like a prudent use of resources, especially given the nearly every team is "going for it" to a certain degree this year.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 31, 2015 -> 11:10 AM) The problem with the White Sox system before was not that they traded away good prospects and therefore had none left, they traded away except for one or two exceptions, guys that turned out to be not so great, but they still had no one any good in the system. Hopefully the guys they have now are different. Prospects are BS for the most part, and some guys all of us really like now will be considered garbage in a year or two. I wasn't exactly a KW supporter, but by dealing prospects that didn't amount to much, he wound up with a lot more value than if he had let them develop into what they would ultimately become in the White Sox system. The sin wasn't trading prospects away. Indeed, a major part of this "sustained winning" model has to do with the changes in how amateur talent is acquired. It isn't simply trading/not trading prospects, it's investing in the health of the system in general. The KW era was characterized by a lack of spending on amateur talent at the benefit of increased ML payrolls (allegedly). Now that JR has the draft system he likes, the analog for "spending competitively" is now "drafting effectively." One exception to this is the extent to which signing free agents can cost draft picks and pool allocations. So, the bigger picture is really about balancing resources. The game has changed a bit, but you can still make a good case that the KW-branded administration often focused on the current year's ML team at significant cost to the farm system -- though it wasn't always simply a matter of trading prospects.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 4, 2015 -> 01:35 PM) Until Conor Gillaspie picks "Spanish Flea" Someone will need to be designated with veto power.

I say a player picks it, staff maks it clear who the pick is, and it goes on as long as they win. Then they move onto the next one. Would be cool for the fans and the media.

QUOTE (asindc @ Feb 4, 2015 -> 10:29 AM) I'm not as high on Shields as some others here seem to be. At his best he was a #2.5-#3 starter and is 33 years old. He wants solid #2-#1.5 starter money. I'll pass. I'm with you, and have been for months. That said, I'd take him in a heartbeat at $15m per for 3 years. The problem is that so would everyone else, and so he isn't going to sign that. I still think he's got a shot at coming in at $90m+

The 26th and 27th men wouldn't be starters, they'd be relievers, which would further depress offense and make the game even longer.

Practically every team in baseball would be considering James shields at 4/55, therefore the winning bid will be higher than that. I think wite is correct in that if he truly does go for less than we expected, he's still gonna get $70m or so.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Feb 2, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) He's made it pretty clear he wants to see what the team and management etc is like for a half a season or so before committing here long term. That's why. QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 2, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) See my previous comment. I think they are going on his word that he will pick a comfortable situation. But the money needs to be close. I don't think a monetary discount is expected. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 2, 2015 -> 02:41 PM) He grew up a Sox fan, wants to live in Chicago. If he can get close to market rate in that scenario why wouldnt he? Right, but if it takes a half a year, and he wants close to market rate -- he's hitting free agency. That doesn't mean he won't end up signing here, but it's not going to be until he finds out what the best offer is and gives the Sox a chance to get close.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Feb 2, 2015 -> 04:54 PM) Things I disagree with..... Alexei is better than Castro. This isn't a "future value" discussion, this is based on 2015. Castro IS a better offensive profile, and Alexei IS a better defender, but one aspect he forgot to include is baserunning. Alexei always grades out as one of the best baserunning SS in baseball. Castro grades out as one of the worst, mostly to his laziness and admiring flyballs that don't leave the park. If those other 2 categories wash out, Alexei takes the edge for baserunning. I mean, the guy is 10 years older and he swiping 2-3x as many bags as Castro. Q is better than Arrieta. The guy did it for "most" of 1 season in the big leagues. We've seen plenty of pitchers have flukey years as a young pitcher. Not saying Arrieta is no good, but I'll bet on the track record of Q versus Arrieta. The bullpen argument he doesn't even complete. He mentions the Sox got Robertson but "The rest of the crew returns". If that's true, how do we also then add Zach Duke, one of the best LRP in baseball last year, and Dan Jennings? When it's all said and done, we could have more than half our bullpen revamped over last year. Not saying the Sox bullpen is better, but come on, the guy didn't even lay out the facts here. Yeah this is pretty much spot on. I can agree with Castro over Alexei though, but it's close, and the author acknowledges that. But yeah, I LOVE Arietta and I'd still take Quintana every day.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 2, 2015 -> 01:51 PM) The fact that they are already mentioning the possibility of talking extension IN season should say a lot. I'm not arguing that you have some legit info to the contrary, but the whole thing just seems so nonsensical to me. Why WOULD we agree to an extension in season, unless it was a significant overpay? The Sox aren't going to want to give him free market money unless he shows them success, and by the time he shows them success, he'll be a free agent anyway, which, at that point, is only upside for him. If he was going to sign an extension, he should/would have done it already. The reason you do that is to sell your injury/performance risk to the team. But he's already taken the risk and now he's set up to reap the benefits. I just don't get it.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Feb 1, 2015 -> 10:42 PM) Not trying to be a smartass. I actually want to know what his splits look like. I can't seem to find that information. In general, all the index stats (anything with a + or -) are league and park adjusted, so FIP- and ERA- would be great places to start comparing NL pitchers to AL pitchers. EDIT: Here's a quick league leaders table I made up with those stats on it: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...r=&players=

QUOTE (Douglas Rome @ Feb 1, 2015 -> 08:59 AM) what did Samara ever do? Are we forgetting that Danks pitched a shutout in arguably the most important game in White Sox history? thanks, douglas Right. By that logic, we should try to pull Frank Thomas and Jim Thome out of retirement, because they were both REAL good for us.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 04:15 PM) Their are inherent biases in the algorithm which will tend to favor certain teams, thus making where you fall, relatively biased based upon the team you have. Like what?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 02:17 PM) The White Sox number is 78. What does that tell you about the team you didn't already know before this number was revealed? Last year, Baltimore and Chicago each had a number of 75. One team won 96 games, the other 73. Washington had a number of 88, they won 96. Boston had an 89, they won 71. The number doesn't matter. They didn't take Baltimore's division title away because PECOTA gave them 75 wins before the season started. Here's what I thought when I saw the projections: "Whoa, shouldn't that be higher? It seems like they added enough talent to be projected at at least .500. Christ, I keep forgetting about Danks and Noesi. The projections don't like them. Yeah, it sure makes sense why they don't like them. Those guys were both worse than they seemed last year, and could easily be even worse this year. I guess that's more of an issue than I originally thought. Also, this projects Sale and Quintana and Abreu all to take major steps back. I guess i can;t really EXPECT a Cy/MVP season out of those guys. Sure they're capable, but I wouldn't BANK on it. Why are these guys so high? Ah, they get a ton of value from their depth. When I look at the White Sox, I don;t see a lot of capable backups. i suppose it makes sense that when people get hurt, Leury garcia has to play, and that's going to make a big difference."

I'm not saying I care, but this would slow the games down, and it doesn't seem like they're gonna do stuff that slows the game down for a while.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 01:26 PM) But even what they are saying should happen is open to debate. I like BP. I get it every year. In fact, it was delivered yesterday. But I don't know what makes their projection something we should hold up on a pedestal. At the end of the day, if they project the White Sox to win 60 or 95 ,it doesn't matter, and that has been my point all along. It IS open for debate. That's what we're doing. No one is holding anything up to a pedestal! In your issue of BP, does it say anything at all about how these projections are so accurate we don't even need to play the games? Or, instead, does it say something about how they provide a useful and interesting frame of reference and then go onto cite its shortcomings? They DO matter. The number they land on doesn't matter, but that number in context of the other tell us things about our team. Every week, some random sap wins the freaking lottery, even though his odds were one in 2,000,000. He didn't actually buy 2,000,000 tickets to ensure a victory. But the odds were the odds.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 11:56 AM) Projections feed discussion. You just don't like opinion that is different than yours. Sorry. If you want to ignore the past and think this is a really accurate "tool" as you like to say which lets you know where every team is at, fine. I think you are wrong. That's a ridiculous thing to say. You have asked, like seventy times, "what is the POINT of projections?" and we have answered it all seventy times. I'm not telling you to like them or agree with them, I'm just telling you why they're useful. It has nothing to do with my OPINION of them. You haven't even ASKED my opinion of them, and I haven't even offered it. I HATE chapstick. But you can tell me why it's useful, and I believe you. But its benefits don't interest me and I don't like using it. But I'm not trying to s*** on everyone who DOES use it. My opinion doesn't change the fact that it has uses. It doesn't objectively suck simply because it doesn't permanently cure chapped lips.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 11:29 AM) But why? Projections are made for fun. At the end of the year, most will look like a fool, and if you didn't one year, chances are, you will the next. It amazes me how serious some are over these things. It's a freaking projection. Not a tool. I feel sorry for anyone who bases their excitement of their team based on something like this. Fandom is also made for fun. Nothing about sports really MATTERS. But we all get a lot of enjoyment from following this team and sport closely, so we do. Projections feed discussion and discussion is why we're here. You don't have to care -- but if you don't, then just don't participate. Don't crap on everyone else for caring about stuff you don't give a s*** about.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 10:36 AM) I was just typing this, got exasperated, and stopped. Thanks for doing it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 10:36 AM) Quit talking down to me, or anyone else that doesn't take these things seriously so we obviously miss "important things." This isn't an important thing. It is a projection that has proven to be way off in the past. I am not a White Sox fanboy who just assumes they will win 150 games a season. I don't even like Samardzija. I think Duke is a waste of money. If this projection had them 25 games better than anyone else, I would still be saying you have to play the games. The most accurate thing at the end of the day isn't xFIP, or WAR or any other advanced number, it is the actual record at the end of the season. I'm not talking down to you -- I'm talking about "fans" and "human beings," both of which are groups of people I also belong to. I'm not exempting myself from these baises, I am part of them. We all are. That's why this is useful.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 10:03 AM) Here is how teams really fared compared to their 2014 projection: Boston -18 Tampa -12 NYY +2 Tor +3 Balt +21 Det +2 Cleve +6 KC +10 Sox -2 Min -1 Oak correct Ana +11 Tex -18 Sea +5 Hous +4 Wash +8 Atl -6 Phil -3 Mets +5 Miami +8 Stl +2 Cinci -7 Mil +2 Pit +10 Cubs +2 LAD -4 SF +1 SD -4 AZ -15 Colo -8 That is 11 teams who have a projection 8 games or more inaccurate. If you did a projection which said every team would finish 81-81, there would be 16 8 games or more off. So a little better than mindless. Still meaningless. I don't see anyone but BP getting paid for these projections. I like looking at projections just like anyone else. But I can't understand why people think they actually mean much. You can still look at rosters and see which teams should be better than others. I cannot fathom why you're still hung up on this record-for-record stuff. I'm trying to tell you that isn't the point. The record is a frame of reference that is based on projected player performance. It's a ROUGH total of what you'd expect to happen if every player acted exactly like they were a typical guy of their age and ability. It will NEVER work out exactly this way and no one has EVER said it will. They are still useful because they stack teams up against one another on a mean-performance basis, which is a reasonable proxy for "true talent." This can be eye-opening for a lot of people, primarily because it provides an objective method for factoring playing time somewhat accurately (whereas fans only seem to look at the starting 9, assuming they'll all be healthy not doing a good job of factoring in how important bench and depth are), and because fans have a tendency to assume that players that have had good seasons will repeat those seasons, whereas players with bad seasons can improve, despite the fact the the good players regress downward just as much as the bad players regress upward. For the 2015 White Sox, it illustrates that our talent drops off sharply from our stars, it illustrates just how bad John Danks and Hector Noesi really are despite the fact that we seem to feel comfortable with the former because his name still carries value and we can hang "innings eater" on him, and the latter because he appeared to improve when he came to us last year, even though he faded BIG time down the stretch. It also reminds us that we likely saw Chris Sale and Jose Quintana's ceilings last year, and that while those guys are still good, it isn't likely for them to perform at the same level again. Once again, the actual number of win ISN'T the point -- the point is how the teams stack up against each other, and the utility is to encourage further analysis of the completeness of each team. Teams can project shockingly HIGH too -- like the 2015 Mariners. Why? Well when you look closely at them, you start to see how quickly having a decent player EVERYWHERE can add up. You also see how much of their success is pinned on the further development of James Paxton and Taijuan Walker, and so you can easily see what could go wrong with that team. The way fans are wired misses some important things. It's not different than how our brains perceive everyday life. Our brains filter input that they haven't evolved to retain, but we KNOW some things are happening because we can measure them with instruments. Fans tend to overvalue stars versus solid players, for example. Fans tend to ignore depth, underestimate the risk of injury, and irrationally favor positive regression more than negative regression. Tools like these are like sensors that measure radiation -- they tell us about things that are happening that are bodies aren't able to reliably sense on our own.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 30, 2015 -> 09:49 AM) Ohhh. You're in trouble now you old guy that doesn't like stats. Where are you people finding people making a case that baseball is a mathematical equation?