Eminor3rd

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 11:15 PM) Can someone explain to me why I keep seeing Michael Saunders name all over this board? Why do people want him so bad? He looks like a worse version of De Aza, whom we all hated. He just put up a half season of 126 wRC+, which is better than all our current outfielders.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 04:57 PM) Fixed it to reflect an accurate comparison. QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 11:41 AM) But his bat is like Alejandro De Aza, with a few more walks and a lot less strikeouts, and a lot less value on the basepaths, and worse defense, and, at this stage in their careers, less power. Edited again for more detail. I don't like to put too much weight on a single projection system, but since there's only one out so far, Steamer has them at 103 wRC+ and 104 wRC+ going into next year, with De Aza actually on the high end. Even if you think Markakis ends up being better (which, honestly, I do), the point is it isn't going to be by too much when you add everything together. Definitely not 4 years at $12-15m versus a potential non-tender of 1 year $6m contract for De Aza. And no I don't think we should get De Aza, I just don't think we should get Markakis either.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 01:39 PM) Did they make him cut his hair? They tried, but he wasn't having it. So he quit and got a job in baseball.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 12:52 PM) I just want to note how much I hate these types of statistics. This acts as if Samardzija's arm is fresh and young despite his age. Between college, the minors, and the pros, Jeff Samardzija has thrown over 1,500 innings. Are they going to be saying the same thing about Jake Arrieta in 2 years too when he's "only" thrown 12,000 pitches? Because between college, the minors, and the pros, he's already thrown 1,269 innings. I mean, if you looked at this and solely this, you'd assume that Lester has throws more than twice the number of innings. In reality, he's thrown fewer than 600 more. Max Scherzer has only thrown 100 more innings. Just because a guy has only thrown in the MLB for so long doesn't mean there isn't extra mileage on his arm. While all those other guys were in the minors, Jeff was working at Best Buy. Duh.

QUOTE (glangon @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) I think Hahn is willing to spend the money but spending the money and the 2nd round draft pick for Cabrera may be too much for Hahn. If you look at last year, that second round pick was Spencer Adams. There are some free-agents out there that don't require a draft pick which may be more realistic for us, someone like Nick Markakis could be the free agent signing from Hahn that would not only give us a plus defender in the outfield, but would also give us a good left-handed hitter without giving up that draft pick. I'm surprised we've not heard chatter that the White Sox are in on Markakis for example. He's NOT a plus defender, though. He used to be, and he still wants to paid like he is. But his bat is like Alejandro De Aza, which is fine, but not 4/$60m fine or whatever he's asking for.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 11:01 AM) If he isn't that great, why would any team give up much to get him? He's old, he's falling apart, but he should net a really good prospect. How does that make any sense? He IS good. I don't want to oversell his decline, he's a very good player, he just doesn't have long-term value. For us, it's more about the fact that our roster isn't very good, so we need to extract as much long-term talent as we can in as man different areas. If our team was better, I'd definitely want to hold him.

Cruz just signed with Seattle, which takes away a suitor of Dodgers DH/OF types.

Nelson Cruz to Seattle, 4/$57m, via Enrique Rojas of ESPN

QUOTE (AlSoxfan @ Nov 30, 2014 -> 07:14 PM) Here's my thoughts for whatever they're worth Alexei just won the silver sluggers award and was a finalist for the gold glove. I think he's one of the best SS in baseball right now and I do not see him declining as bad as most people seem to think he will. He's cheap at 10 mil for the next 2 yrs. Our defense was terrible the last 2 yrs. and to replace him with a lesser SS would only make it worse. He still steals bases pretty often an his bat is pretty darn good for a SS. Trading him to fill another hole just seems foolish right now, if indeed we're trying to win the div. I do not believe we have a good enough ss ready to fill in right now. I think the best we have ready is L. Garcia. The fact that so many other teams are looking for an established ss tells me maybe we should hang on to ours. Give em LGar or whoever else we have other than Anderson. ss's are worth more to me than outfielders or bullpen arms.(2 of our remaining holes). I guess I value Lexi more than most. Alexei is good, but the Silver Slugger was propped up by a super strong first half that turned into a pretty ugly second half that feels closer to his true talent based on his career arc. I mean, he hasn't hit as well as he did during the first half of 2015 since the year he broke into the league. And the gold glove means nothing -- he's been robbed of it in the past, but both the eyeballs and the sabermetrics agree that he's lost a step on the field over the past couple years, and there's no reason to believe that won't continue as he ages. I think Alexei is a good player who is pretty close to turning into an average player. We have a bunch of holes to fill, and he's our best chance at spreading our talent around the diamond and turning it into some more future control. I think our in house options for a replacement need a shot to stick, and I think that even if they all fail to hit, we have some good options defensively that will not be so bad as a fallback option. I'd like to see us try to move him.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Nov 30, 2014 -> 02:34 AM) If Semien/Beck/Ravelo get the deal done, Samardjiza would have been on the roster yesterday. I would have to assume Anderson is the sticking point here, and while I have no faith in any sort of White Sox hitting prospect, I still think it's a mistake to give him up for a one year rental player(at this point at least). Agree with all of this. I just can't see this one getting done, or if it does, I can't see feeling like it's a good move. Our prospects drop off hard after Anderson, and Anderson is too much for one year of Samardzija for a team in our position.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 04:09 PM) And seriously, the White Red? f***ing laziness from Gammons. East coast indifference. He's like 90 years old and has always been embarrassingly bad at typing on his phone.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 02:28 PM) SS is usually very reliable. Slusser? Yeah, I agree. I was responding to someone mentioning that Hahn deals haven't been leaking lately.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 02:26 PM) I'm still bitter for the fact if your throwing around Anderson's name...why weren't you in on Donaldson earlier? Samardj doesn't put the Sox in the true contender category like adding Donaldson would have. Oh well... Anderson is speculation based on a cryptic tweet someone made. But also, we had no Lawrie to send back. Anderson = Barreto probably.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 02:25 PM) Ricky has no reputation of having things leak so far. Only one that was predictable by name beforehand that I can think of is Abreu. Other people made sense but we didn't see "White Sox talking to Boston/Detroit" even before the Peavy deal happened, we just knew it made sense. We didn't see "White Sox talking to Duke/LaRoche", we just saw it happen. But there are two sides to all of these deals. Seems like the A's side is looser lately.

Honestly, Brandon Moss makes a ton more sense for us, assuming he can actually play LF.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 01:44 PM) It was couple of sad smiley faces. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 01:44 PM) hugwatch #tweetwatch QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 01:45 PM) And then someone originally described as his best friend tweeted "best of luck in Oakland, bud." Turned out to not likely be anyone he knew. Haha, thanks guys

Just getting here, can someone please repost this Tim Anderson tweet everyone's talking about? Digging through the thread but can't find it and don't know how far to go back.

Juan Pierre bobblehead? Lol

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 06:38 PM) Of course it's his age. Just 3 or 4 years ago Alexei was a borderline elite SS....me or anyone else shouldn't be denying that. But as all athletes who get into their 30's he's declining. His RZR (revised zone rating) is pretty damming of this. He went from exceptional in 2012 (.837) to pretty poor (.730) this past year. Maybe it was an anomaly, but betting on a soon to be 34 year old SS to turn his D around is a pretty poor bet in my opinion. The biggest change was the range factor, at least in UZR. Do you really believe he lost 15 runs worth of defensive range over the course of 12 months? I think your point is generally correct -- he's declining. But it's not likely that he's already "bad." I mean, I'm down with trading him. I was creating threads about it LAST offseason.

Shocking. Cannot understand the deal for OAK at all.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 03:27 PM) So they were flawed 3 or 4 years when they were in Alexei's favor too right? Or just when you choose to disagree with them? QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 03:33 PM) Any stat that said Alexei was mediocre last year was crap. I think you guys are both wrong. - Having a -0.7 UZR is the same thing as having a zero UZR, which means average, which MIGHT be your definition of "mediocre," but is really just that it doesn't hurt you or help you. - The public, for some reason, tends to act as if defense is a remarkably consistent skill where guys are constantly playing at their exact true talents, whereas everyone accepts that offense is streaky. There is no evidence, however, to suggest this is the case. - The public assumes that UZR/DRS are inaccurate without multi-year samples, when the truth is that they are just not PREDICTIVE without multi-year samples, which is very different. That Alexei had a "mediocre" season defensively does not make him a true-talent "mediocre" defender, just as the fact that he was previously elite does not mean that he is currently elite. Probably his age has slowed him a bit, but probably it did not turn him from high-end to below average in the span of one season. He is most likely a tick above average and just didn't have a great season. Both the eyeball test AND the sabermetrics point to this conclusion.

Minor league deal, I assume? Seems like they're doing everything they can to squeeze Jordan Danks out.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 12:28 PM) I would take him in a heartbeat. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 12:38 PM) Obviously, although Boston was thinking about trying to make Abreu a third baseman.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 02:56 AM) Signing a 35-year-old DH is about the biggest "WIN NOW" move they could have ever made. Rebuilding teams don't spend like that on aging assets that aren't easily moveable in a "flip for prospects" scenario like you can easily do with pitchers, and sometimes OFers. There's a huge difference between a "win now" move that risks future assets and one that doesn't affect them at all. The LaRoche signing is in the latter category. The truth, as always, isn't black and white. Our "window of contention" is less of an open/shut thing and more of a continuum. Yes, we're trying to win in 2015, but we're not trying as hard as we expect to be trying in 2016, and definitely not as hard as we expect to be in 2017. Rick Hahn's behavior to this point has been to do everything he can to win today so long as it has close to no effect on winning tomorrow. That's not punting the season, but it's also definitely not a situation where he's giving up prospects, draft picks, or future dead money to get the best guys on the field next year.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 28, 2014 -> 11:32 AM) Votto would be pretty nice. Not at 9/$200m for ages 32-41 coming off an injury-riddled season.