lasttriptotulsa

I think you make some valid points and gave a good template to work with so I will state my opinions of what you have already shared. 1. Something needs to be done about the QO situation but I'm not sure if making it positional based is the way to go. I do think that the value of a QO should be based on say the top 75 or top 100 contracts instead of the top 125. When guys like Dextor Fowler and Colby Rasmus are receiving qualifying offers, it not only hurts their pocket books because teams aren't willing to pay as much due to the draft pick compensation but it also hurts the lower budget teams that rely on building their team through the draft more so than the free agent market. The mid level guys are the ones they can afford but when signing them is going to take a draft pick away they are far less likely to make any free agent signings. 2. Agree 100%. I think this is something that will actually be done. Teams can currently trade competitive balance picks and international bonus pool money so I think the ability to trade regular draft picks is the next step. 3. I agree on the draft though I don't know how feasible it is to have MLB pay the posting fees. 4. I disagree on this point. I think the free agent service time should stay at 6 years but I think something needs to be done about teams manipulating service time by keeping players in the minors longer than they need to be (I.E. the Kris Bryant situation). I think if a player spends more than half the season at the Major League level it should count as a full year towards service time and if a player spends between a quarter and half a season at the Major League level they should be Super 2 eligible. Teams would be less likely to try to manipulate service time if they weren't able to call them up until July without affecting their free agency. 5. I think competitive balance selections are okay but the rules need to be changed. It makes zero sense to give the Cardinals a competitive balance pick just because they are in a small market. I think it should be changed to something completely based on performance. Maybe take a rolling 5 year average of a teams overall standing and base competitive balance picks off of that. 6. I disagree on moving the draft to July. Teams are already under the wire to get players signed in time to get a little MiLB experience during their draft year and that would make it even more difficult. 7. Agree 100%. With the advent of the 12 man pitching staff, benches are short as it is and when a guy has a minor day to day injury there shouldn't be any reason a team can't use somebody in his spot until he returns. 8. Agree somewhat. I don't think every team should have equal income from local tv contracts but the current disparity is too large and makes it hard for small market teams or teams with poor ratings to compete. 9. I think 5% growth would be too large. At that growth rate the luxury tax threshold would more than double to $415 million in just 15 years. 10. This is not a bad idea. The luxury tax money currently goes into industry development, but where exactly is it spent? I don't know.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 12:59 PM) Agreed. But that is also a sign they have not made any "impact " FA signings or trades in the last couple of years. Hopefully Frazier has an impact season but time will tell. They have been certainly cautious this off-season which is commendable but they also could be a .500 team because of it. Completely disagree. In the past couple years they have won a trade in which they acquired their leadoff hitter/center fielder, signed their current first basemen/number 3 hitter to the largest international free agent contract off all time (at the time) and traded for a starting third basemen who is a back to back all star that hit 35 home runs last year. They also outbid teams for the best closer on the market and signed him to a 4 year deal. If you go back a couple more years they also signed their number 2 starter off the free agent scrap pile. Those players make up a pretty big part of the cornerstone of the franchise right now so I'm not sure how you can say they have not made any impact signings or trades.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 12:53 PM) You make a lot of great points. The only thing I'd say to you is that Chris Sale is probably not all that interested in the team being competitive towards the end of his current contract. He actually made the comment the other day that he has yet to play in a "meaningful game" in his entire career. That's a pretty strong statement to make, and is obviously indicative of where his mind is at in terms of the team competing sooner rather than later. He actually went on further to say that it's all about making the playoffs, with anything less unacceptable. So at this point, for guys like Sale and Abreu, they might not be too interested in looking at this as a long term project, waiting for the likes of the Adams, Danish' and Michalczewskis to come along before the team is competitive once again. They are under contract for 4 more years. What do you think their not going to play up to their ability or demand a trade or what? If the team is not competitive they will be playing for their next FA contract after the 2019 season or if they demand a trade the Sox will receive a haul back that would have to be a nice blend of near/Major League bats and prospects.

QUOTE (captain54 @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 11:50 AM) Before you know it, the window will close on the opportunity of having the two studs, Abreu and Sale, being able to at least sniff the playoffs…. So much of it is based upon whether or not the Sox have young position players who can make an impact…Based upon the track record over the last 16 yrs, do we have any real evidence of that? Our window of opportunity is not closing nearly as fast as you think it is. We have our core of Sale, Quintana, Rodon, Abreu and Eaton all locked up for the next four years (with Eaton, Quintana and Rodon locked up longer). We also have Anderson and Fulmer waiting in the wings who should make their presence know in 2017 or late 2016 along with other solid prospects such as Tyler Danish, Spencer Adams and Trey Michalczewski all just a couple years away. We also have two draft picks within the first 27 this year and three total in the first two rounds so our minors should be getting stockpiled pretty quickly. The organization as a whole is in a pretty good spot right now and are setting themselves up well to compete for the next half decade or so. The biggest thing the Sox going for them is that they have zero bad franchise crippling contracts on the books. Sure LaRoche, Danks and Cabrera are overpaid for what they are now but they are all short term contracts.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Feb 24, 2016 -> 11:03 AM) One thing I want to point out--Sox are already committed for 3+ years to Melky and Eaton. If you lock up another OF right now, you are out of the market for any OF available by trade or FA after the 2016 season. Maybe, once they didn't get Gordon/Cespedes, they decided they like what may be available in a year better than Fowler or Jackson. You can't sign Fowler for 3/$35 and then go and sign somebody else in a year. While I agree that they were only going to break the bank for Gordon or Cespedes, I don't think commitments to Eaton and Melky really hindered going after somebody else. Remember our DH spot is opening up after this year and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Melky move there for the 2017 season.

What a garbage article. He actually gets paid to write that drivel?

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 18, 2016 -> 11:09 PM) only if they sweeten the deal with some of the dodgers prospect |s|, comp pick |s| and cash. What? You can't trade compensation picks. You can only trade competitive balance picks, which LAD does not get.

I don't think Hernandez will be anything too special at the MLB level. He really doesn't have the power to be a corner outfielder. He was rated as just the 16th best Cuban prospect and you can expect reasonably a .150 to .200 point drop in his OPS in translating to MLB. If he drops into the low .700s level, like I think he will, he better play dang good defense to have much value at all. Baseball Prospectus compared his skill set to Daniel Nava.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Feb 18, 2016 -> 10:24 AM) Just sign Jackson already. He's the best of both worlds at this point IMO. He's good defensively and wouldn't cost the Sox a draft pick. I want no part of Jackson. I would rather take Avi's offensive potential over Jackson's defense for what will be 1/3 or 1/4 the cost.

I think some of you are getting a little too upset over not signing Fowler. Other than his OBP he is not that good. His defense is okay but it's not as substantially better than Avi's as you are pretending it is. He was decent last year but for the majority of his career he has been pretty bad. In 2014 he had a far worse year defensively than Avi did last year. He had a whopping -20 DRS in just 959 innings and a UZR/150 of -36.2. By comparison Avi had -11 DRS in 1124 innings and a UZR/150 of -6.9. I think Avi still has a chance to put it all together and I would rather roll the dice with and save the $10 million or so per year and the draft pick. Dexter Fowler is not going to be the difference between this team making and missing the postseason.

I saw this article on Yahoo yesterday and thought it would be worth a post. I still think the home run in the video is the farthest I have ever seen, home run derby or not. Some of the younger posters here may have never seen it. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-202609845.html

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 17, 2016 -> 11:45 AM) They better find someone else on offense, as they currently have no platoon partner for LaRoche. Shuck and Sanchez both hit lefties better than righties. When a lefty is pitching those will be the games to get Sanchez and/or Shuck in the lineup and you can DH one of Lawrie, Avi or Frazier to give them a day off from playing the field.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2016 -> 12:41 PM) Da f***? "One of these pitchers got $90 million guaranteed. One of these pitchers got $3 million guaranteed. Why on Earth would a national publication writing the supposed conventional wisdom think that swap is a downgrade???" GMAB. Yes, Latos could darn well be an upgrade over Samardzija, but the league just made an $87 million bet that he won't be. These predictions are based on that kind of conventional wisdom. I stated that the 2016 Latos would probably be better than the 2015 Samardzija. What's wrong with that. It isn't a stretch at all. Latos had a half run better FIP than Samardzija last year. He may not be able to hit 200 innings but if there is one team in baseball that will give him the chance to stay healthy all year it's the Sox.

That Bleacher Report prediction is pretty obnoxious. The Sox went 76-86 last year. Their Pythagorean W/L was 72-90. They are replacing a pretty poor Samardzija with Latos (probably a plus move) Replaced Gillaspie/Saladino/Olt with Todd Frazier (a huge plus) Replaced Sanchez with Lawrie (a fairly substantial plus) Replaced Flowers/Soto with Navarro/Avila (a plus) Replaced Ramirez with Saladino (jury's out but should be a plus) Should see advancements made by Rodon and hopefully Avi All that and they see they as regressing by 3 wins or progressing by just 1 win using the Pythagorean record? Give me a break.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 16, 2016 -> 09:38 AM) ISO power % is better than Garcia And thats really about the only thing he has on Avi. OBP is way worse and he's more of a butcher in the field than Avi.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Feb 16, 2016 -> 08:22 AM) No f***ing thank you to Alex Guerrero. I wouldn't want Alex Guerrero if the Dodgers just gave him to the Sox for nothing. At this point he is just an older more expensive version of Avisail Garcia.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 14, 2016 -> 01:46 PM) you have a point. this is not exactly in the uninsurable, but i busted my tooth around xmas in order to get a root canal and tooth, my bill was 9,000 dollars. insurance really screwed me on that. that was my out of pocket, and i have blue cross and blue shield. What? Where do you go to the dentist? A root canal is usually about $900 and a crown $1500 or so. Even if you had it pulled and put in an implant it should have only cost $2500 to $3000. I think you got taken.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 15, 2016 -> 11:54 AM) enuf for 15th in the league. the northside team #6 and 3.2 mil. per espn. http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2007 Why are you so concerned with what the Cubs attendance is? Who cares?

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 15, 2016 -> 10:26 AM) with all due respect, i like your counter but i need to reply or add something. the fan base is weak and will always be weak in chi. esp with the success of the northside. team. look at the WS yr and the yr after, the fan base, the fans in the seat of the team, the sox still came in second. the success of the northside, notwithstanding, the sox needs to invest to get that white, pink, what ever color elephant out of the picture. then can not let that team gain anymore media attention while producing negative attention of being frugal, being inept, or being out class. the sox has a mountain to climb, to fix this team and the infrastructure..... Are you honestly trying to say that even after the Sox won the WS the fans didn't come to the park? That is just flat out wrong. The Sox had the third highest attendance in the AL in '06 and were outdrawn by the Cubs by just 1900 fans a game.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Feb 15, 2016 -> 07:19 AM) I can see your point, but you have to look deeper and see what the $120 million is being spent on. There's $29 million of that money being spent on a guy that hit .207 last season and a pitcher who is not the guy he used to be. And one could also argue that there's another $14 million being spent on a left fielder that is under-performing. There are teams out there who have a lower payroll than the Sox, but they're better because they have the money spent on the right players. Increasing the payroll to show the fans that they're serious isn't the answer. Spending the money on the right guys is the answer. And I bet that is part of why we're seeing the Sox take their time. Look at the Latos deal. Back when Fister was signed, speculation was that Latos would get at least what Fister got. But the Sox were patient and got him for the kind of money that at worst is a win/whatever situation. The fans are not buying tickets because the payroll is "only" $120 million. They're not buying tickets because the product on the field has been lackluster. They are also just spending a combined $18 million on the front four of their rotation who all have either #1 or #2 starter potential and just $2.75 million on their starting center fielder and lead off hitter whose been a 3.3 average fWAR player over his Sox career. They may have a couple bad contracts on the books but they have way more plus value contracts than they do bad ones. The Sox have made a lot of really good deals over the past few years so I'll let a couple bad contracts slide. If they hadn't have been proactive and signed Sale to an extension early on like they did this would be his last year in a Sox uniform and he would be making double the money he's making this year.

QUOTE (SoxSteve @ Feb 12, 2016 -> 01:35 PM) And for those WAR followers how does a guy who has averaged 24 errors and 171 strikeouts over the last 3 years with a 311 OBP have a good war? Maybe a good fit for some teams but for us not good at all IMO. Thanx P Without context, citing the number of errors a player had means nothing. A player with great range who commits 24 errors could very well be a better fielder than a player with poor range who commits very few errors. Strikeouts are in no way figured into a WAR calculation. What difference is there between a strikeout and a pop up to the catcher? None. Desmond still has a good WAR for 3 reasons. 1. He is an average to above average fielder at a premium defensive position (despite your assertion that he is not due to the number of errors) 2. He has been an above average base runner every year of his career except for one in which he was barely below average 3. Despite a mediocre OBP he has substantial power and had put up wRC+ numbers of 128, 116 and 108 before last year at a position where big offense is not expected or common.

QUOTE (Saufley @ Feb 12, 2016 -> 11:54 AM) Your point in rebuttal to mine is???? At this point, Desmond and his agent should be selling himself on his willingness to play all positions. Where did I even offer a rebuttal? You asked a question I gave you the answer. I never said I wanted him to play the outfield or that the Sox would look at him as an outfielder.

QUOTE (Saufley @ Feb 12, 2016 -> 11:34 AM) Why do I see some posts casually mentioning Desmond playing the outfield? Since 2009 he has played 920 games. In 2009 he played 1 game in RF and in 2010 he played 1 game in RF. If the Sox are going to sign him I would think they are looking at him playing SS. Desmond and his agent have been selling himself on his willingness to play the outfield. Whether he would actually be good at it is a different question.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Feb 12, 2016 -> 09:44 AM) Yes, but despite his improvements defensively, he's still not good defensively. If he continues improving, then who knows, but I see him as more of a terrific hitter/baserunner with poor defense in the Majors. How much have you seen him actually play? Keith Law, whose basically entire job is evaluating prospects, projected him as an above average defensive shortstop.

QUOTE (SoxSteve @ Feb 12, 2016 -> 12:56 AM) Agree 100%. I don't get he fascination with him. It seems the masses just want to sign anyone. 180 strikeouts a year with below average defense. So your infield and outfield defense is worse than last year on a team that already plays bad D. No thanks. He was the one guy out of all the possible free agents that i didn't want. That and the Austin Jackson talk. Stay away from both. . Fowler, trade for Markaikas or go big and get Puig. I'd take Fowler or Markaikas and sacrifice Power for OBP. Just sayin. Since 2012, Ian Desmond has the highest fWAR of all shortstops in baseball. And that is with his off year last year. Out of the three guys that you mention and Desmond here is how they rank according to fWAR in the last 4 years. Ian Desmond - 15.1 Yasiel Puig - 14.5 (Puig has only played 3 years so I took his career average for the 4th year) Dexter Fowler - 9.1 Nick Markakis - 5.4 Desmond has been significantly better than Fowler and Markakis. Puig would probably be more valuable this year but he also would cost the most by far to acquire and has severe character issues. I think a lot of people here seemed to be blinded by the one bad half of baseball that Desmond played last year. But truth be told he is one hell of a baseball player and has been one of the best shortstops in the game the past 4 years.