lasttriptotulsa

QUOTE (lvjeremylv @ Jan 5, 2015 -> 01:15 PM) I would hope they would be willing to add payroll at the trading deadline if they were in contention and the right player was out there that could help. If they want to stay at $110M or whatever they're at now, I'm fine with that if they want to leave themselves some flexibility later. But I, like you, refuse to accept the notion that they would stay at this current spending because they don't have it. They DO. It's all about a willingness (or lack thereof) to spend more. You have no way of knowing how much money the Sox are sitting on or how much they are able to spend. Teams do not open their books other than the Packers. Again Jerry's money is not the Sox money. He is not the sole owner. A business owner plugging in his personal assets to help float a business is a good way for a business and its owner to both go bankrupt.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 5, 2015 -> 12:35 PM) Finance 101 alert: Net worth is not equal to "money". JR's weath is largely made up of illiquid assets, not cash. If you have a million dollar house, it doesn't mean you have a million dollars to spend. The same applies here. This. He's also failing to realize to that JR only has a 15% or so ownership stake in the White Sox. If he overspends just to fulfill his wish of another World Series he is taking money out of the pockets of the others with ownership stakes and I don't think they would take kindly to having JR spend their money frivolously.

I think Danks showed last year that he can still be an above average pitcher at times. If he can make further improvements in learning how to pitch with his diminished "stuff" he should be able to limit the bad outings a little better than last year. I think he will be more than serviceable as a 4th or 5th starter. Is he going to be worth the $14 million or so he's making this year or go back to his 2008 type form? Probably not, but stranger things have happened.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 3, 2015 -> 08:39 AM) No From 1990-1999 (throwing out his lost '97 season) he averaged 4.9 fWAR, 22 HRs, 92 RBIs, with a .278/.367/.452 slash while winning 6 Gold Gloves. That is HOF type production when you factor in his defensive ability. After 1999, his condition kept worsening to the point that he could barely walk when he retired (and used a cane after retirement) and was relegated to playing 1st his last year. Lots of ifs and buts involved, but had he not gotten hurt he could have ended up with 400 HRs and 1500 RBIs. As a Gold Glove third baseman that would warrant HOF discussion. Even with the injury JAWS has him listed as the 20th greatest third baseman of all time.

QUOTE (Douglas Rome @ Jan 3, 2015 -> 07:12 AM) someone said Ventura was a "better" player than Ozzie, really? I think Ozzie was a good player, not good enough for number retirement. I think Ozzie was a good manager, not good enough for number retirement. I think the Ozzie years were the best out of the last sixty, but still not good enough for number retirement. When I think of number retirement, I think of Ruth, Gehrig, Aaron, Williams, etc., not sure I'd include any White Sox player ever in that company. thanks, douglas Had Ventura not screwed his leg up in '97, he may have wound up with a plaque in Cooperstown. So yes he was a better player than Ozzie. Even if you reserve number retirement for the best of the best in MLB history, not just Sox history, Thomas still gets his retired. He is one of the top 20 or so greatest offensive forces to ever play the game.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) I agree. I think there should be different clothing for coaches and the manager, even if they've done it for this long. You don't see football coaches dressing up in pads or NBA coaches dressing up in a jersey and shorts. I do not believe this will ever change because people do not believe it to be an issue, but it's really weird when you get to thinking about it. I kind of agree with this, but I guess the only counterpoint I can think of is that baseball is really the only sport where the manager and coaches are actually in the field of play at times. What's weirder, to have a manager/coach in a jersey or to have your managers and coaches out on the field in a suit and tie?

Retired numbers should be reserved for the best of the best. At minimum borderline HOF type guys. 13 seasons as a below average player and 8 seasons as an average manager does not warrant number retirement even if he did help bring the Sox a World Series. Now if Ventura can help bring us a World Series, I'd be all for his number being retired at some point as he had one hell of a career with the Sox and a World Series would just be the icing on the cake.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 24, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) The fewer games Conor starts when there is a left handed pitcher on the mound, the better the 2015 Chicago White Sox will be. This should apply equally with LaRoche. That's just the reality. Those 2 guys are solid or even really good hitters against righties and terrible against lefties. Removing a terrible bat and replacing it with a tolerable bat when there is a lefty on the mound is a major upgrade. LaRoche has a .718 OPS vs lefties in his career. That is tolerable. Who are we going to find that is going to do better in such a limited role, let alone find two of them to platoon with both Gillaspie and LaRoche. I just don't see it. In my opinion, LaRoche will be playing everyday.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 01:39 PM) Trea Turner was just traded (as PTBNL), and he was taken 13th overall in last year's draft..... The difference is that he signed on June 13 versus Rodon who signed on July 11. Trea Turner can't officially be traded until one year from his signing date, but one year from his signing falls into the 6 month window that they have after this trade is complete to name the PTBNL. After January 11, Rodon could be traded as a PTBNL also.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 01:11 PM) Abreu + LaRoche should be enough to cover 162 games at 1B. If one of them needs a day off the other can play 1B and then you can have anybody DH. Beyond that, Gillaspie has played a little bit of 1B, and whatever backup infielder the Sox have, whether that be Saladino, Sanchez, LGarcia or somebody else not already in the organization, should be able to handle 1B as well. We need to have some sort of backup though. If one is DHing and the other gets hurt during the game, whoever's DHing will have to go in and we will lose our DH the rest of the game. But like you said, Gillaspie has played there and would be the "emergency" first baseman.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) I am fine with Conor at 3B for the majority of the games. He has progressed since he has been here and I see no reason he can't get even better this season. Defense is something he knows he has to work on and I am sure he will be doing that. I don't think his errors will cost us 8-10 games though. I think they could put Walter Young at third and his defense still wouldn't legitimately cost the Sox 10 games.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 12:06 PM) He said trust me they need to fill the seats, and I told him that Hahn said that increase in ticket sales got Melky Cabrera and then he went on to insult me that I'm an assistant baseball coach while I'm still in college lol. What a bum. Well obviously an assistant baseball coach carries no where near the prestige of a radio intern. Everybody knows that. Who are you trying to fool?

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 12:04 PM) Only thing I'll say is the 2004 white sox were chock full of injuries and were 83-79. This sox team was 73-89. THere's just a lot more to overcome. OTOH, if we get 16 games improvement we are in the playoffs. I really believe that if Maggs and Frank hadn't gone down in 2004, they would have had a real legit shot to win it all. Their pitching wasn't all that great but a front three of Buehrle, Garcia and Garland could have been good enough in the playoffs with the offense the Sox would have had that year.

QUOTE (oneofthemikes @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 11:26 AM) I exchanged a few messages with Dan Lifshatz (the Intern from Boston who started this whole mess) after he announced that the deal was dead. I asked him how far along he had heard things got and he said "they had agreed on a base of the deal". I followed up by asking what killed it and he said that "Chicago wants to fill seats this season, so they will try to compete. They don't have a lot of faith though." So you heard it here first, the only reason that Chris Sale isn't on the Red Sox right now is because RH, KW, & JR decided to try to compete even though they don't think they can. This guy is such a tool. My favorite of his was when he repeatedly stated that the White Sox have no RH power despite the fact the Flowers, Ramirez, Abreu and Garcia should combine for 90-100 homers.

I think Conor has the tools to develop into an average third baseman. If his bat can continue to improve like it did from 2013-14 he could easily be a 2.5 or so WAR player. I have a hard time complaining about that for a guy we picked up for practically nothing and makes near league minimum. I think this year his power will improve slightly as last year I believe he lost some while working on his new approach. If he can learn to elevate a bit I can see him being a 15 homer, close to .300 AVG hitter. Combine that with his acceptable, but not great, walk rate and I think he can be an .800 OPS, 120 wRC+ type player.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 08:42 AM) I'm looking at his season lines. Always want as big a sample as possible. It's really hard to look at a player's season lines when he's never had a full season or even much longer than a month at a time in the Majors. August 2012 - Called up to Det April 2013 - Sent to the minors Mid May 2013 - Called up to Det Early July 2013 - Sent to minors Late July 2013 - Traded to Sox and placed in minors Mid August 2013 - Called up to Sox Early April 2014 - 60 day DL Mid August 2014 - Activated To me it makes very little sense to look at a full season line when a player has had that many promotions/demotions/injuries with sporadic short stretches in the Majors in between. I'll stand by my notion that in the longest continuous single season stretch in the Majors, he put up a 109 wRC+. That shows me that the talent is there and I view that level of play as being the floor for him going forward. If you look at his entire time with the Sox his wRC+ is 104 and in his time before his major injury it was 113. So I think it's just incredibly unfair to him to say that he has never shown to be at least a league average bat.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 05:51 PM) Avisail Garcia has never had any stint in the MLB where he had an above league average bat. Dude has talent for days, but he hasn't shown us he knows how to play. He could learn and become a star, but it's not far-fetched to project him as nothing for next year at this point. I want to believe, I do, but he needs to show me something. He hasn't? After the trade and recall from AAA in 2013 he posted a 109 wRC+ in his 42 games with the Sox. That is also the longest continuous stint he has had in the majors. I would tend to put more value and emphasis into that stint then I would in his short stints with the Tigers at age 21 or in his 38 games with the Sox last year when he was coming off a significant injury and still posted a barely below league average wRC+ of 91. Though obviously a small sample size (8 games) he did have 133 wRC+ last year at the time of his injury.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 11:30 AM) Rodon can't be traded yet, even as a PTBNL Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't he be traded after January 11th as a PTBNL? The way I understood the rule was that a player couldn't be traded for one year after their initial signing date (July 11) and PTBNLs must be named within 6 months. If they traded him on January 12th as a PTBNL he could be name on July 12th which is more than a year after his signing date. A trade in the middle of January is still pretty feasible as it's still a month from Spring Training. Now in no way am I advocating trading Rodon as I don't think they should even explore the idea yet.

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 03:46 AM) Longoria had a bad year 2014. He's owed way too much for the rest of his contract. Pass In what world is having a 3.4 fWAR season called having a bad year? Sure it was the worst year of his career, but at 3.4 fWAR, he was essentially better than 50% more valuable than an average MLB player. He also has one of the most team friendly contracts in the game and has been woefully underpaid and will probably remain underpaid for nearly the duration of the contract.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 01:44 AM) Going to 15 games at least, as usual. What's your excuse, soxtalk? My excuse is that I live 200 miles away. So between gas to get there, parking and a meal or two, I've spent close to $100 before even buying a game ticket.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Dec 11, 2014 -> 03:28 PM) I agree that Danks/Noesi and eventually Rodon make for a good enough 4 and 5 combo, especially if a reclamation veteran is added to the mix. As for LF, if a big fish/significant payroll addition is not in the cards, what about Aoki? He could be a cheaper version of Melky -- good OBP, #2 hitter -- and he'll be a heck of a lot cheaper. I wouldn't mind Aoki if they thought he could return to his rookie year form when he put up a .787 OPS, but if he performs like he did last year, our outfield has a serious lack of power issue. We might be looking at a total of 20-25 home runs from our starting outfielders and that's not good.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 11, 2014 -> 09:45 AM) Oh, I thought Parra was non-tendered. He was tendered a contract but the Brewers have said that he is available.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 11, 2014 -> 08:32 AM) No thanks. 5 years in the AL, only once did he manage an ERA of under 4 and I don't see why that would improve at age 34. He needs to stick to the pitchers parks of San Francisco and San Diego. I think Peavy gets treated a little unfairly by most Sox fans. The dude overcame a serious injury and still put up numbers near identical to the numbers he put up in San Diego. Time with Padres: 3.47 FIP, 1.186 WHIP, 7.8 H/9, 0.9 HR/9, 2.9 BB/9, 9 K/9, 3.10 K/BB in the NL in a pitcher's park Time with Sox: 3.70 FIP, 1.155 WHIP, 8.2 H/9, 1.1 HR/9, 2.2 BB/9, 8 K/9, 3.66 K/BB in the AL in a hitter's park

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 07:06 PM) Really...so pathetic: 16: That’s how many times in the past 20 seasons, including this one, that the Bears have missed the playoffs, a sobering reality that leaves them in rare company in the NFC. Since 1995, the only teams to have fewer than five playoff appearances are the Lions (four), Bills (four), Redskins (four), Cardinals (three), Raiders (three), Texans (two) and Browns (one). The Lions and Bills are still alive to reach the postseason this season. The Browns entered the league as an expansion team in 1998. The Texans did so in 2002. QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 01:20 PM) Pathetic but not surprising Meanwhile, the Packers have missed just 5 times in that same stretch. It's good to be a Packer fan.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 11:22 AM) And that .720 screams outlier to me. He hadn't been below .845 ever. Yup and even though he had the worst season of his career he was still a 3.4 fWAR player.