Eminor3rd

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 03:41 PM) Let me guess, because they were traded away, the fact that the Sox drafted Daniel Hudson, Gio Gonzalez, Clayton Richard, Chris Young, etc., doesn't count. Correct. This isn't controlling for development though, so we're talking about judging both drafting prowess and player development in total. With the exception of Hudson, I can't think of any significant instance where we essentially polished a player and then sent him off to be successful elsewhere. I would assume that the effects of half-polishing a player and receiving half-polished players would cancel each other out on a league-wide level.

For anyone who has been on the "Sox have had a better system than the media gives them credit for, we just graduate our guys quickly" wagon: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/b...t-of-the-worst/ For those of you who don't want to click the link, the link shows a graph of total WAR from homegrown players drafted since 2002. The White Sox rank 29th of 30, with a grand total of 11.9 WAR. Before anyone brings up the "we haven't had enough high draft picks" argument, take note that the Red Sox rank first, with a total of 100.3 WAR.

Additionally, for those saying he'll be a good defensive replacement, his UZR totals over the last three years are, from oldest to most recent: 0.2, -5.6, and -11.5

This possibly slightly improves our team. Assuming he would be better than Lillibridge. Which, defensively, I think he's not. I mean, I don't know, it's only $1m (including obvious buy-out). I'd be pissed if I was Lillibridge. Although, the more I think about it, it does make sense to have something other than Lillibridge to fall back on in case Viciedo or De Aza sucks. Also, I just want to be the first to say it in the extremely unlikely event that it happens: DOES THIS MEAN HE FOUND A TAKER FOR RIOS?!

QUOTE (3E8 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 05:25 PM) A replacement level player and league average MLB player are two different things. This ^

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 02:21 PM) $9 million a year is league average? No, 2 WAR/yr is league average, and market rate per WAR is roughly $4-5m.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 12:59 PM) Are you willing to get into the $30 million range? That might be what it takes if the stories about the Cubs interest level are true. I think I go to $30 if it's six years. That's just Mark Teahen-anchor money on a per year basis.

Tough to argue with 4/36. He only needs to be league average to be worth it.

Yeah. I mean it's a NRI list. There aren't going to be good established players on it.

QUOTE (flippedoutpunk @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 04:26 PM) Im hoping to catch a lot of $10 games sitting in lower reserved with stubhub. Premium Upper Box is where it's at if you are willing to pay like $20. If you get one of the front rows in those sections, you're WAY closer ot the batter than in some random lower reserved seat.

That's a departure from the KW of the last 6 months or so. For some reason it makes me feel like we're going to end up with one of those guys.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 02:36 PM) But he also posted his 2nd lowest OPS of his career (.727), the lowest batting average of his career, most strikeouts of his career, tied for the fewest HR of his career, and most double plays of his career. If you switch to bWAR, his 2010 season was a higher bWAR than 2011, despite him taking a ton more walks, because everything else he did with the bats got worse. His wOBA dropped from .322 to .319. The drops in his BA and SLG were nearly totally made up with his increase in OBP. His wRC+ actually went up from 95 to 96. His offense was worse, but not by much at all when you look beyond the counting stats, and his defense and baserunning improved enough to make up the difference and then some. I guess my point is that Alexei was not the problem at all. I'll take 4.9 fWAR out of him any year. He is not the cornerstone of a successful team. He's a terrific MLB SS, but only the couple elite SS's can touch the production that it takes to carry a team these days. I don't think we should blame Alexei for only puting up 4.9 fWAR.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 07:38 AM) Alexei may have "Earned his money", but he's still on the list of guys that could and should have been better. Dude was a ground ball to the shortstop machine last year. Alexei posted the highest WAR of his career (4.9) and the highest on our team by a lot (Konerko 2nd with 3.1). It was actually his career year so far.

Maybe they want insurance in case Dunn retires, lol.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 05:45 PM) I would not be down with AJ getting a statue, if he got one than we might as well give them to everyone. Yeah, no AJ statue for me.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 10:41 AM) What automatic milestone does Johnny Damon have? You mean if he gets to 3,000? Yes, 3000 hits. He seems to have roughly the same chance for 3000 as PK has for 500.

That's cool. I don't like the thought of having to dread Zombie Konerko coming to the plate. Probably good news for VIciedo too, who will proably end up taking over 1B. Doesn't sound like he's going to try to part-time it to stretch it to 500 homeruns or anything. Which is probably good -- I mean, I'd love to see him in the HOF, but he seems like the kind of guy that would be one of the posterchildren for the impending new wave of guys that have some 'automatic' milestones but aren't getting in, like Johnny Damon. But that's alright. I'm sure he'll be content with a statue and ceremony at USCF.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 29, 2012 -> 11:27 PM) I read it as "The team" not "teams" and was excited. Now sad. Oh. So did I.

That's the best tweet I've seen in a long time.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 29, 2012 -> 10:44 AM) If Kenny were one of the have-not GM's I'd understand it, but the list of GM's who have spent more money and gotten worse results than him over the last six years is a short one. What are you trying to say? Everyone on this board knows how much you hate KW because Dunn/Rios/Peavy sucked last year and make a lot of money. Is there anything else to add? At what point do you stop bringing it up every time you post?

http://kingsofkauffman.com/2012/01/24/check-your-sources/ Very interesting article, relevant for us because of all the rumor BS we've been eating up.

Typical short-sighted casual fan garbage.

QUOTE (bulokis @ Jan 26, 2012 -> 09:13 PM) Soler and Concecpion should be the way to go. We dont need to overpay for Cespedes especially in a partially rebuilding season or whatever it is KW is doing. +1

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/01/gera...to-signing.html

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 25, 2012 -> 06:47 AM) Who are some of the folks on Twitter worth following for trade rumors and such? Heyman, Morosi is all you really NEED. If anyone else breaks anything, one of those guys will retweet it within 10 minutes. I have Olney, Gammons, Knopfler (sp?) and some FanGraphs guys too, just for color.