Eminor3rd

Here's the thing about all this spending: there's only one signing that "mortgaged" the future at all, and that's Robertson. IMO, Hahn's model of sustained winning is still in play. Even in the Samardzija deal, you figure that with a midseason trade or, if things go well, qualifying offer pick, Hahn will get back much of the value he gave up. It was Semien and a bunch of prospects that didn't even crack the top ten in a weak system. Essentially, Hahn is doing everything he possibly can to win SO LONG AS it doesn't affect the future. Scherzer would most definitely affect the future, so I don't think there's any chance we get him. The plan now is just to get better every year, not to "push the chips in" and go for broke when the iron feels hot.

Biggest thing is health. The lineup and rotation look fine until you subtract any one piece. We have no depth and it may kill us.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 05:05 PM) Hypothetical: What happens if Rodon comes out and absolutely tears it up this spring? You still send him down? I do, for at least three weeks.

I heavily disagree with this. 1. We need to keep him down a few weeks so that we can push his free agency back a year. 2. You're not going to get anything for Danks anyway, so why not let him cover those 50 innings you won't get from Rodon? Otherwise it's going to be like Chris Beck 3. What happens if Rodon isn't ready? You either rush him to his detriment or get even more worse innings from Chris Beck/Parker Frazier (?) or some other random. Look, I was ALL about dumping Danks for nothing before Hahn went on his balls out spending spree -- but now we need depth more than ever. Danks is bought and paid for, and there's nothing we can do about that. If he's our best 5 man, let's just use him.

I think we'd be better off finding strong, right-handed bench pieces to share time with Gillaspie/LaRoche at this point. Sanchez won't hit like Lowrie, but the glove will be substantially better, and you gotta figure the resources are running out at this point. May not have enough to make more than one more move, if any.

QUOTE (WKamm @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 08:21 AM) Went to 2 games last year. No, I don't like Harper. Having both Melky and FLowers is too much. I legitimately feel sorry for you. It must be frustrating to be so caught up in some off-the-field crap that it interferes with your ability to root for your team in a rational way.

QUOTE (professa @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 12:55 AM) This is just my opinion, but if I'm Rick Hahn, I keep Viciedo as a power guy off the bench. He can spell LaRoche against lefties (I know, Viciedo hasn't hit lefties well since 2012, but still) and is a good insurance policy due to the injury history of Melky and Avisail. If one of those two gets injured, that means Jordan Danks is your starting LF/RF, and that is not a good first outfield option off the bench for a playoff contender. I don't think we can afford the 4th OF to be so bad at defense. This team still needs a ton of defensive help. I'd like to see them be aggressive with late inning replacements to protect leads this year. I'd honestly rather have Danks than Viciedo.

These dudes are SO fast, lol: http://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-chicago-white-sox/

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 12:42 AM) As in? Danks???? I really hope its not Quintana QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 12:44 AM) Almost has to be Danks. Wait, that actually makes a ton more sense. Roughly the same salary in as out.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 12:40 AM) Corresponding roster move. Juiciest bucket comment of the offseason so far Could you be implying that Viciedo is gone?

Guessing this was the third guy. Well, I was hoping we'd get a good defender out there, but at least this is the switch-hitting #2 batter I wanted.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 13, 2014 -> 12:34 AM) The equivalent of Kotsay and A.Jones five years later. Troof. QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Dec 13, 2014 -> 12:37 AM) As great as this off season has been so far, it has also been a big reminder at just how many holes this team had. Hard to fix it all in one off season without spending $130M in payroll. Troof.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 04:30 PM) White Sox and Seattle taking Dayan Viciedo has been on going for two years . One club more serious now ! https://twitter.com/MLBBruceLevine/status/543515457073192960 Pags ‏@HEELPags 1h1 hour ago @MLBBruceLevine Please tweet in English. lol

I'm actually really hoping Sanchez nails down 2B out of ST because I think he can be a plus defender there. Sounds like Micah has the bat, but is fringey in the field, and I just don't think we can afford to add another fringey defender next year.

QUOTE (AlSoxfan @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 11:56 AM) I'm sorry but I can't believe for a sec. that we're only good enough for 77 wins. Am I being to much the Homie fan? I think Hahn made some pretty shrewd moves an improved us to at least a better than 500 club. and with a good yr. I really believe we can compete for the central or at least a wild card spot. I think we still need a left fielder at least but otherwise I'll take my chances with this team. QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 12:03 PM) I'm sorry but I take some projections with a grain of salt. I can guarantee you that no one projected the world series last year would have the royals and giants in it. To me you can project things a bit better when games are being played but look at the A's having a lead and looking like favorites until the faltered down the stretch. There is also teams that surprise every year or teams that are supposed to win and falter. To me the biggest things that people can't project is luck and you definitely need some luck as the season to go on for things to bounce you way. But you can also have things bounce against you and nothing that you can go about it. Yeah, I'll reiterate my last post: QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 11:44 AM) Yeah, I mean those are the "grains of salt" we have to take these projections with. I think it's more useful to look at these projected standings in a relative sense than to get caught up in the actual numbers. What this tells us, essentially, is that there are still a lot of teams that look better than us. If one year of Samardzija is going to make sense, we need to make a couple more upgrades yet. Speaking to the broader issue, though, is that this team has some serious weaknesses. Offensively, we've got "black holes" in LF and C, and are expecting regression from 3B and probably SS. Garcia in RF is a HUGE question mark -- we assume he's going to hit, but he hasn't yet. Defensively, we're still a rather bad team. Both OF corners are completely ridiculous defenders, both IF corners are just a notch better, and our CF is probably overrated. The rotation falls straight off a cliff after Quintana at 3, where our two best options had ERAs near 5 last year. We all hope Rodon will save one of those slots, but he isn't going to show up until May at the earliest, and it isn't safe to assume he's going to be a star right out of the gate. There's still a lot of work to do if this team is going to "project" to be in the hunt. We certainly have enough talent today to luck ourselves into the race if everything goes well, but I'd like to think Hahn has a better plan than that.

RE: OP. 'Ware Justin Verlander. He's struggled learning to pitch with diminished velocity, but he absolutely has the changeup to do it well, and the body and mechanical profile to maintain his command. And he started looking like had it figured out toward the end of last year. I guess what I'm saying is that Samardzija might actually be ranked third here. Regardless, those 1-3 ranks are very close together. EDIT: Also, Ervin Santana > Jason Vargas by far

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 02:53 AM) http://www.blessyouboys.com/2014/12/11/738...2015-al-central Manaea's not the #4 starter for the Royals. It's just impossible to put someone who started important post-season games behind him. With the Royals, it's probably Ventura, Duffy, Vargas, Guthrie and then there are about 5-7 possibilities for 5th starter, among them Manaea, Finnegan and Zimmer (if healthy). The Indians would probably list it Kluber, Salazar or Bauer, THEN Carrasco at this point. Minnesota would be Hughes, Santana, Gibson, May and Millone. No Nolasco...or, at best, he's 5. Did you see Carrasco's numbers last year? http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playe...&position=P You're right about Manaea, though. Much more likely that Finnegan slots there, IMO. For MIN, I can't see any way that May starts the year in the rotation ahead of Nolasco, even if that's the better choice.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 09:12 AM) I would have loved to see Kemp land on the South Side. It would have been fun, for sure, but my god at some point this team has to stop getting worse defensively, right? It's really looking difficult to make that type of an upgrade right now.

QUOTE (gatnom @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 11:30 AM) Obviously, this is an extremely small nit to pick, but I find it interesting that BaseRuns is giving Erik Johnson 103 IP as a starter, Michael Ynoa 25 IP as a reliever, and completely not projecting any contribution from Rodon (probably due to lack of stats to project). Also worth noting, we're giving Matt Davidson 150 PA at 3B, though he's projected for more WAR than the 350 PA we're projected to give Leury Garcia. Yeah, I mean those are the "grains of salt" we have to take these projections with. I think it's more useful to look at these projected standings in a relative sense than to get caught up in the actual numbers. What this tells us, essentially, is that there are still a lot of teams that look better than us. If one year of Samardzija is going to make sense, we need to make a couple more upgrades yet.

QUOTE (LDF @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 10:15 AM) i must be reading it wrong, i thought i saw 85 wins. the difference between 1 and the sox in a net of 3 wins difference. I think you were looking at the wrong column -- it shows 85 losses, 77-85.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 10:08 AM) You guys get my point at least though...another LH hitting outfielder basically also requires us to go out and find 2 other decent enough right-handed hitters to take some of those at-bats away from them, otherwise we're looking at a lineup easily destroyed by lefties both as starters and as relievers. Definitely -- that's the value of a well-constructed bench, which is probably something that's been overlooked as a major weakness for this club that past few years.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 09:53 AM) The great thing about the MLB playoffs.....all you have to do is make it. And with our front 3 starters we have as good of shot as anyone in a 7 game series. We for sure need to add minimum 1 more at least above average bat, but I don't think there is any team in the AL that is head and shoulders better than us currently. Not to mention that steamer projections team WAR is a pretty ridiculous measure to use. I get his overall point, but its still a pretty big reach for the basis of an article. Must not have much to write about. Well, he's not using projected WAR to try to calculate a record, but instead as a measure of projected total "true talent" that each teams currently have. I think it makes much more sense there. If you asked Cameron to predict records, he would point to projected BaseRuns records (which is a much, much better version of Pythagorean record), which very quietly got put up on their site last week: http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Standings This model currently has the Sox projected for 77 wins.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 09:52 AM) Think about it against a LH starting pitcher though. Here's ~OPS against lefties throughout that lineup from last year: .720 .744 .620 Insanely good new left fielder - pretty weak .992 - only 50 PAs though .565 .732 .618 for sanchez against lefties in AAA. You've got Abreu and potentially garcia who are legit threats against lefties, but they're bracketed by guys with ~600 OPS's against lefties. You've got at least 3 guys with sub-.620 OPS numbers against lefties in there, potentially more if you get a LH hitting left fielder. Hypothetically let's use Ethier as an example - you stick him in there in that new left fielder slot and you have 4 guys in the lineup with OPS below .620 against lefties, 3 guys around .730, and 2 potential monsters. That lineup would be destroyed by left handed pitching and we don't have any strong righties on the bench to take those roles. Well, I think it would be reasonably easy to find corner platoon partners for "new LF" and Gillaspie. The corner OF could spell LaRoche too if he's in a slump and "new LF" is hitting okay or is at least valuable defensively.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 09:22 AM) He says it unartfully but I think he has a point. If we bring in a LH hitting OF whose platoon splits are normal, we're setting ourselves up to be extremely vulnerable to LH pitching all year. LaRoche is terrible against lefties, Gillaspie is terrible against them, our main backup OF right now is a lefty, we don't seemingly have a reliable righty on the bench other than Sanchez, if Sanchez is on the bench that means Johnson, a lefty, is starting at 2b, and Eaton's a little worse (but not terrible) against lefties. Maybe you can live with a few of those guys in a lineup against ordinary lefties, Eaton's fine, maybe Johnson will be ok, but if you run out a lineup with Gillaspie, LaRoche, and a LH hitting right fielder against an average lefty pitcher, this lineup will look like swiss cheese. They won't pitch to Abreu and that'll be about the only real worry they'd have. Most lefties are bad against lefties. The lefty platoon splits are significantly wider than righty platoon splits. I'm with Cali -- I don't understand why it matters if the OF is all left-handed, all that matters is that the lineup overall is balanced. Also, it's much easier to find platoon partners in the outfield corners than anywhere else. I guess this is what the lineup would look like today: L Eaton R Ramirez R Abreu L LaRoche R Garcia L Gillaspie R Viciedo R Flowers S Sanchez But I'd rather it look like: L Eaton R Ramirez L LaRoche R Abreu L New LF R Garcia L Gillaspie R Flowers S Sanchez That, my friends, is a nightmare for bullpen matchups. Alternatively, Melky would allow you to maintain the same balance while allowing you to feel like you're "protecting" Abreu: L Eaton S Cabrera R Abreu L LaRoche R Garcia L Gillaspie R Ramirez S Sanchez R Flowers

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Dec 12, 2014 -> 12:13 AM) How exactly? I think you're focusing on the result rather than the process. He didn't really do anything better this year. He made a bit more contact, and doubled his HR output (from 1 to 2!), but the walk rate halved, to a pretty awful 4.8%, which is a major negative for a player whose value is tied to his ability reach base and utilise his speed. The big difference is that his average increased 50 points thanks to a rather high BABIP (.346). While you would expect a player with Gordon's skill-set (e.g. his bunt hit ability) to be able to register higher than average BABIP marks, this was still significantly above his career BABIP (.326). The problem with someone like Gordon is that, due to the fact that he doesn't walk, hit for power or make elite level contact, so much of his offensive value is tied to his BABIP. If he has a good year with balls in play, such as in 2014, then you can buy him as a league average hitter and a valuable player, but in the years when he will have bad or even neutral luck on balls in play, he's going to go back to being the awful Dee Gordon of 2012 and 2013. He's below average in the field too. The Dodgers sold high and got a nice return. Precisely