lasttriptotulsa

I'm not going to lie. I had no idea that he was still in the Sox organization last year and actually put up some really nice numbers. 51 IP, 3.00 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 1.078 WHIP, 5.5 H/9, 1.1 HR/9, 4.2 BB/9, 10.8 K/9, 2.54 K/BB Obviously the walk rate is still high but you can live with it from a reliever if he has a K/9 rate of 10.8.

I love the hat but would prefer to get one without the spring training logo on the side.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 28, 2016 -> 10:42 AM) If you're going to value war at $7-8 million, then Desmond and Jackson are no brainers, too. The problem is the White Sox won't get that same deal from Boras on Rodon, and everyone in baseball thinks it would be dangerous to offer it to Fulmer. And despite those bargains with Sale and Quintana, they still haven't created enough payroll flexibility to have a truly competitive team because of Danks and LaRoche. I think it's pretty clear that Danks and LaRoche's contracts are not holding anything back. Just look at all the people they attempted to sign in the past couple years Tanaka - who cost $100 million plus Samardzija - they were willing to give an extension until the relationship soured Gordon - he had no intention of leaving unless somebody blew the Royals offer away Upton - he had no interest in the Sox Cespedes - Wanted to remain a Met, is getting $27.5 million for a one year deal basically, is not worth that money in any way, shape or form Fowler - Reported interest, level remains to be seen Desmond - Reported interest, level remains to be seen It's quite clear that the money is there to spend for the right player. Are they going to spend the kind of money it would take to sign a Scherzer, Heyward or Greinke? No and I'm glad because those huge $30 million deals almost always bite the team in the ass. You think the Angels would sign Hamilton or Pujols again given the chance? Hell no. The Tigers will be regretting the Cabrera deal in another couple years. If the White Sox biggest problem is owing LaRoche $13 million or Danks $15 million, I think they are making pretty smart business deals.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 28, 2016 -> 08:42 AM) The point is to avoid situations like the Danks contract that hamstring payroll flexibility. But I'm sure you will still argue we got our money's worth, nevertheless. Danks signed a very reasonable contract for the type of pitcher that he was at the time. If you're not willing to give out a relatively close to market deal to extend your number 1 starter you're never going to be able to compete. It's not the fault of the Sox or Danks that he his career got derailed by injury. He also had so much excess value before he signed that contract that overall he has earned every penny that the Sox have paid him.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 28, 2016 -> 08:35 AM) Buying 2 years of free agency on Sale isn't much of an extension in my opinion. It's actually three years of free agency. But on top of that they also gave him guaranteed money for his last pre-arbitration year and all three of his arbitration years. It definitely should be considered a long term extension as you are guaranteeing him his salary for 5 years where most pre-arbitration guys don't have that luxury.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 10:11 AM) I would prefer Lincecum as well except that we have 4 lefties in the rotation already and I'm looking at insurance for Johnson. If we were more balanced, than yeah...I'd rather take a flier on Tim. What? Are you thinking Lincecum is left handed? He's not.

QUOTE (Doc Edwards Shot @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 02:18 PM) I don't see how Avi will ever have an OBP that high when he swings at everything and has no plate discipline. The .325 shouldn't be a problem. To get to .340 or .350 will take some work. Assuming his walk rate , 6% last year, and HBP numbers stay the same he would need to hit about .272 to have a .325 OBP, .288 for a .340 OBP and .299 for a .350 OBP.

Avi surprisingly had the third highest walk rate among all Sox starters last year. Through May last year he had a .323/.360/.445 slash and was .278/.331/.435 in August. If he can hit like that all year he is fine. It's just the .548, .581, .588 OPS's he put up the other three months that made his year look really bad. The kid is a hard worker. I wouldn't be surprised to see him make great strides this year. I realistically could see him putting up a .280/.330/.460 slash line this year.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 25, 2016 -> 10:57 AM) Is it still NL first in the offseason or is it draft order? Always teams league first and then by record.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 03:57 PM) Cost of ther extra innings package is down maybe? Ability to just follow one team instead of paying for all games maybe? I am lost on this issue as I didn't even know there was a lawsuit going on They are offering a cheaper package if you want just one team, but it's barely cheaper.. As far as it affects you, you still will not be able to watch Sox games unless they're playing Colorado.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 01:57 PM) I'm sure I'll get roasted for this, but what about signing Desmond and then trading Anderson for a cost-controlled outfielder? I like Anderson, but he's far from a lock to be a quality MLB player. I wouldn't be totally against that if they could acquire somebody damn good for him. I think Anderson will end up being a good player but he still has a way to go to fully convince me.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 01:43 PM) If there is no interest in him now, what will suddenly make teams interested when they need to give up multiple assets for him? If you signed him on a reasonable multi year contract and he reverts back to pre 2015 form he would become very valuable.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 12:54 PM) Sox are interested. Do you know what level of interest? Are they wanting him just on a cheap one year deal as a stop gap to Anderson in which he rebuilds value so they can get their comp pick back next year? Or are they still interested if he is looking multi-year?

I would be for a Ian Desmond signing. If he reverted back to his pre 2015 form this team would be a serious, serious contender even if they did stick with Avi in right field. They could end up having a 15-16 fWAR starting infield. That is pretty stout.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 01:06 PM) Yes, but playing those positions vs. him playing SS , decreases his value. And what if he is Hanley Ramirez in the OF? What do you mean? Isn't real life just like the Xbox where you can take a player with a grand total of 15 innings in the outfield in a 12 year professional career and just throw him there and expect to work out swimmingly?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 12:51 PM) You're looking at 100 homers from the infield possibly I'd say 100 on the conservative end. They hit 100 last year with Desmond having a down year. I really think Lawrie can hit 20-23 in our park and Abreu should hit closer to 40 than the 30 he hit last year. I would guess somewhere around 110 total. Desmond - 18-23 Lawrie - 18-23 Frazier - 30-35 Abreu - 30-40

In summary, all this deal does is allow you to watch the visiting teams broadcast when they are playing a team in your home territory. Big f***ing deal. That solves exactly zero of the complaints people have regarding blackouts.

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 11:52 AM) Avi was historically terrible last year and the historical evidence shows very long odds that he turns into a productive player. http://www.thecatbirdseatblog.com/blog/201...fe8ddp13er5rjrq Historically terrible is a bit of a stretch. I put no stock into the article you linked. Every player is different. Just because most have failed that had a similar number of ABs as Avi means nothing. It took an arbitrary number of ABs and an arbitrary age and tried to show a correlation. What it did not do is show guys who were so poor in the minors that they didn't become MLB regulars until later on. Many of these type of guys have had success. Namely one of the biggest stars in the game right now in Jose Bautista. He did not even become a 1 fWAR player until his age 28 season. Or a guy like Scott Podsednik who didn't become a regular until his age 27 season and then went on to have a handful of productive years and became a sort of cult hero around here. Avi also was looking like he was on the right track until his injury in 2014. In his Sox career until the injury he had a .298/.332/.450 slash with rate stats of 21 HRs, 12 2Bs, 6 3Bs and 69 RBI per 162 games with an acceptable 22% K rate. I think all of us would take that out of Avi in a heartbeat this year. His 4% BB rate left something to be desired but other than that he was on the right track as a 22 year old. Did the injury hamper his development? Maybe. Does he still have time to turn it around? Absolutely. I am not ready to give up on him yet as he has the tools.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 11:45 AM) I think if we replace Danks somehow we could be really good Replace him with whom and at what cost after presumably eating much of Danks' contract? Danks as a 4th or 5th starter is perfectly fine. He was 60th among all starters in fWAR. There is a lot of value as a starter in just taking the ball 30 times a year and throwing 180 innings.

Call me crazy but I'm not ready to give up on Avi yet. Cespedes is very inconsistent on offense and may become complacent with a big contract. I would not be surprised at all to see Avi put up numbers similar or better than Cespedes did in 2013 or 2014. Obviously there are still big differences between their defense and base running abilities but if Avi can improve even marginally in both I think he has a shot to be a useful player this year.

The drop in Gallardo's K rate is alarming. I would want no part of him unless he comes super cheap, which he won't.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 09:40 AM) That offer would have to be to defer $50M (1/2 the contract value) through 2028, interest free, if it's like the Sherzer deal. I really don't think they offered him 5 years at $10M AAV and deferred the rest. It obviously wouldn't be near the amount deferred each year as the Scherzer contract as the total contract is less than half of Scherzer's. Even if they were to defer $20-$25 million and pay it out over ten years at the end of the contract that significantly lowers the present day value when factoring in inflation.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 18, 2016 -> 11:36 AM) So when employers cut my salary by 6.2 percent to make up for what they have to pay the government for healthcare, I'm not really saving $5,000 per year under this plan. In my place of employment our contract stipulates that the employee and the employer pay equal parts in our health insurance premium. I spent a little time running some numbers based on what I know regarding our average salary and what our health insurance premiums are. Using what I calculated our average wage ($37,440) to be (we are a union manufacturing shop with contract stipulated wages) here are my results. Costs: Here are the current costs my company pays on average for each employee Employees on a single plan - The company and employee each pay roughly 6.3% of this employee's wage in health insurance premiums. Employees on a single plus one plan - The company and employee each pay roughly 12.0% of this employee's wage in health insurance premiums. Employees on a family plan - The company and employee each pay roughly 15.5% of this employee's wage in health insurance premiums. Savings: Here would be the rough yearly savings under Sanders' plan Employees on a single plan - The company would save $65.72 per employee and the employee would save $1563.32 Employees on a single plus one plan - The company would save $2163.40 per employee and the employee would save $3661 Employees on a family plan - The company would save $3479.76 per employee and the employee would save $4977.36 Obviously not everyone elects the medical plan due to spouses receiving it through their job or obtaining it privately or whatever the reason may be, but at least in my company's case they will more than likely save money and lowering wages because of this tax would be a pretty s***ty thing to do and due to our collective bargaining rights, something I do not think the union would allow.

Holy f***. 11 consecutive posts. That has to be some kind of record. You do know you can quote more than one post at a time and just respond once right?

QUOTE (BigFinn @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 09:14 PM) How much time in AAA does May need before he comes up to help the big league ball club? As long as it takes for him to figure out how to hit cause he can barely do it at AA now. If we're counting on Jacob May to help the team this year we are not going far.