TheFutureIsNear

So who are actually legit contenders to sign an OF left now?

Never wanted him. Would love either Blackmon or Dickerson though. Not sure we actually have anything worth trading besides the guys I would consider off limits...Anderson, Fullmer, and Adams. They have no use for Avi either, not that he has much value. Danish, Hawkins, May, Guerrero, Peter, Engel...short of dealing every 1 of them I don't think any kind of package including those guy gets it done for Blackmon or Dickerson. The only deal I could see happening would be if the Rockies liked EJ a good amount and took a package involving him and 2 of the guys I listed. But then we are facing the problem of having to sign a starter and they are becoming limited, we'd probably be dumpster diving in the Latos/Fister area.

Guarantee Cespedes 3 years $60M and then give him 2 option years at $22M each. Total contract is 5 years $104M (+incentives) with Cespedes having the ability to opt out after 3 years. I think something like that makes a lot of both sides...hell, I'd let him walk after 2 years if he really wants that option. Cespedes makes us a competitor for sure, but he's not exactly a guy I feel great about 4 or 5 years down the road.

5 years 110 would sound a lot better, hopefully a 6th year would be a mutual or team option. Not that I believe that source on twitter...Cespedes just makes too much sense. Sign Cespedes and draft college hitters at 10 and 27. The overall hitting talent in the organization would finally start to tilt towards respectable.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 27, 2015 -> 12:02 AM) Didn't Eaton really stink until we fell out of the race? Not ripping him, I sort of like the guy and his hustle, but I recall really despising him the first couple months at least. Hope he gets off to a sizzling start this year. Is his ceiling a poor man's Pete Rose?? Hustler who is going to learn how to get the key hit/walk at all times? Then on the other side of the spectrum his possible low would be Rowand after Rowand forgot how to hit (or got old, I forget why he suddenly started sucking)? 1st month- sucked (.497 ops but .234 babip, small sample size) 2nd- not good but not horrible (.727 ops) 3rd- good month (.814 ops) 4th- great month (.957 ops) There were a lot of people to despise within the white sox organization last year...Eaton should have been very far down that list.

I'm fine with Gordon on a 4 year deal, but 5 scares me. Highly unlikely he's worth $20M or more in years 4 and 5 in my opinion. A slight natural decline in his hitting combined with his fielding going down to a slightly above average level and he suddenly becomes pretty mediocre or a little better.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Dec 21, 2015 -> 07:46 PM) This is the guy I would like to grab from Houston. Profiles well for RF, LHB that hits for some power and would fit well in the middle of the order. Would absolutely love to see Tucker playing RF for the Sox and would be my preference. I also like Marisnick and his defense but he doesn't hit much, at least not yet anyway. I'd still take a chance on him even though he is a RH hitter. Supposedly Houston is looking for another SP, RP and a bat. Just not sure the Sox and Astros match up in a trade. Yeah, I'm sitting here trying to think of a trade scenario for Tucker and I pretty much have nothing. I feel like Houston's GM would just keep bringing the conversation to Sale/Q/ Rodon. Free agency is looking like the most likely option

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Dec 21, 2015 -> 03:24 PM) what's going on with Houston's outfield? They have four guys: Marsinick, Rasmus, Gomez, and Springer. One would think Gomez and Rasmus could be had for reasonable. You forgot 1 more guy, Preston tucker. 25 year old who was a star at Florida as a senior. Went in the 7th round in 2012 and had an .867 ops in the minors up until being called up last year. Struggled a little in the majors but still managed a .734 OPS with 13 hrs in his 1st 300 big league AB's. Definitely a guy I would take a chance on. No idea what the Astros would want from us though

No thanks to giving up a pick and $50+M for Dexter Fowler Parra makes some sense but he can't be in the lineup against lefties along with already having LaRoche. So we would have to carry 2 platoon guys on the bench. Seems tough to do. Not much we can afford to trade in the minors of much worthat this point either. Fullmer, Adams, and Anderson should be untouchable. In other words 1 of Cespedes or Upton has to be signed pretty much no matter what.

Being optimistic.....240/.300/.340 with 10 hrs and 15 steals. If he can do that and play near gold glove level D he will be a huge success in my book. And Sanchez only started 180 out of about 500 minor league games at SS. I don't think he's going to be our everyday SS. His arm doesn't pass the eye test right from the start for me.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Dec 17, 2015 -> 11:10 AM) Once the big three outfielders have signed, the contracts of CarGo and Ethier will be at or even below market value and net their teams a nice return in a trade. I agree about Crawford and Ramirez though. I hope the Sox don't trade any of their top talent for the likes of CarGo/Ethier. If that's the case then go for broke and see what Atlanta would expect in a return for Inciarte who they are listening to offers on. Otherwise, I think Parra is the logical choice at this point. Not my first choice by any means. Only problem with Parra is that he also needs a platoon partner. He has a career OPS of under .600 against lefties. Just can't play him or LaRoche vs lefties so it could turn into a problem.

RF is obvious...,but I think people are forgetting about platoon partner for LaRoche. 1 that can preferably play corner OF defense well so Melky can gett off the field as often as possible. Provided LaRoche is still on the team of course SP? Not at all. Let EJ pitch, he's fine. And unfortunately Danks isn't going anywhere. We should have 1 of, it not the best, top 3 SP's in baseball.

I agree to an extent. You have to limit/avoid guys who are truly bad in the field and will hurt you though. But my overall feeling is that there is a small % of great fielders at the top of each position and a small % of truly bad fielders at the bottom. Everyone else can be separated by their bats because their defense on a 162 game scale isn't going to be the reason a team wins or loses. Just my opinion, I'm sure most will disagree with this too.

With the pop we now have at 2b and 3b I'm not really worried about upgrading SS. Put Saladino there and hope he plays GG defense and his bat doesn't kill us. What we do still need is a middle of the order hitting RF and a lefty mashing platoon player that can play OF defense well so LaRoche(if he's still on the team) never see's an AB against a lefty. The RF options are obvious in free agency, but not sure I see the good fielder who hits lefties available in free agency. Would have to be a trade target, but not sure who. Eaton CF Melky LF/DH Upton/Cespedes RF Abreu 1B Frazier 3B Laroche/TBA(OF who plays LF vs lefties and Melky DH's) Lawrie 2B Avila/Navarro C Saladino SS That looks like a division winning lineup if I've ever seen 1.

QUOTE (JRL @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 04:31 PM) A few more things: 1. For an "A level reliever"? I think even if Avi did have any trade value, that's a bit much given what "A level relievers" like O'Day went for in free agency, and what Kimbrel just commanded in a trade, its obvious that an Avi and Laroche package is nowhere close to what it'd take to get "A level reliever". 2. The notion that Avi was once a "top prospect" is kind of figment of us Sox fans' imagination. He was ranked the #74 prospect by Baseball America prior to 2013. That was the only prospect rating service that ever had him in Top 100. He was ranked 1 time, by only 1 scouting service, and he was ranked toward the bottom, where the guys are still statistically much more likely to fail than succeed. And this was before he the proceeded to put up substandard numbers as a major leaguer, and when he was 2-3 yr younger than he currently is. So, its not like he was some Miguel Sano type or even a Tim Anderson level guy back then, and now whatever value he did have at that, you would have to think its almost completely disappeared, no? A level as in some 20 year old kid not in a teams top 30 prospects. And I think you're being a bit overdramatic about Avi personally. There have been older players given chance after chance based on their tools. Avi has a hit tool and raw power that will be given a chance. If you banish every 24 year for not succeeding like you seem to want to do you'd miss out on a lot of good players.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Dec 16, 2015 -> 02:43 PM) They tried to get rid of LaRoche and couldn't. I don't think they tried packaging LaRoche + for nothing. And I'm not even expecting the full salary to be taken on. LaRoche, $5M, and Avi for an A level reliever isn't feasible? I know Avi wasn't good last year but he's 24 and was a top prospect not that long ago.

Would it make sense to package LaRoche with expendable young guys like Avi, Beck, Webb/Putnam? I know those guys don't have a ton of value or anything, but taking on 1 year of LaRoche would be a lot more palatable if you're getting a cheap bullpen arm for 6 years or if a team wants to gamble on Avi's potential. Make sense to anyone else? I can see the Brewers being 1 team that would be interested.

Good move by us. I saw Trayce as a 4th OF/Platoon/Oft used defensive replacement, and while that is valuable, I don't see it as a huge loss. I thought Micah could be a good player but a change of scenery was necessar. And Montas was going to get traded 1 way or another. No spots in the rotation open with Fulmer and Adams making a fast path to the majors, and sticking him in the pen would have been a disservice to him imo. We have more than enough pop at 3B and 2B that Saladino should stay at SS to have a vastly inproved infield offensively and defensively. Add in Upton/Cespedes at RF as huge improvements on both sides and we can start to talk about seriously contending

Prince had 1 bad year. Yes his contract is really bad, but the Rangers aren't dumping him for nothing. They are trying to win now and Prince will help them do that. Trading the farm for Hamels and then dumping Prince for our trash would be questionable at best. Nor should we be looking to absorb that contract either. Edit: The Tigers are still on the hook for $30M of Fielder's contract. So that means Texas has him at 5/$90M going forward. Which sounds about market value...he might even get more than that if he was a FA right now. So yeah, he's not getting traded for LaRoche.

Sign Cespedes and Matsuda Trade Montas, Avi, and Leyer for Blackmon Find away to get rid of Laroche while saving at least 3-5 million Eaton CF Blackmon LF Cespedes RF Abreu 1B Melky DH Lawrie 2B Matsuda 3B Avila/Navarro C Saladino SS Trayce and Sanchez used as super utility guys and defensive replacements. Sale Q Rodon EJ Danks Turner/Kahnle Jennings Putnam Petricka Duke Jones Robertson

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 05:50 PM) Blackmon had a hell of a season last year. Not sure he will come as cheaply as some of you might think... A SP who is a top 50 prospect in all of baseball that has done nothing but pitch great + An OF with all the tools in world who just tore up the AFL + a 22 year old with a 95+ mph fastball At least that's how I'd spin it to Colorado...Not saying it would definitely get it done but I'd say it would be pretty damn close. Montas is nothing to scoff at as trade chip for a lot of players in this league imo. Did you just see what Ken Giles was traded for? Montas has a lot more value then people want to admit. Maybe it would take a slightly better 3rd prospect than Leyer, but no one substantial. At least all in my opinion. We're all just guessing here right?

QUOTE (Moe @ Dec 14, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) I would think Blackmon and Dickerson wouldn't cost the likes of Anderson/Fulmer This is my top answer right now. They might want a little more for Dickerson since he's younger, but Blackmon should definitely be a target for us. Left handed, should be above average in LF defensively, good speed, has shown good OBP skills, and is still arbitration eligible until '18. If the Rockies would take something like Montas, Engel, + a C level pitching prospect (Leyer?) I would definitely do it. I know they are coveting young power arms and would like to unload an OF so it all much a lot of sense to me.

We still need 3 above average MLB hitters who can field their positions reasonably well. Not impossible, but I'm doubting the FO sees it that way. And we need to do that while losing as few prospects as possible. Sign Upton or Cespedes Sign 1 of Kendrick, Freese, Murphy, Matsuda, Desmond Trade Montas, Engel, and Leyer for Charlie Blackmon Get rid of Laroche and some of his salary somehow Not impossible, just highly unlikely

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Dec 12, 2015 -> 06:57 PM) And why do people believe a package centered around Avi Garica, Micah Johnson and Frankie Montas is going to acquire one of the premier OF's in the game? Who Cargo? Is it still 2013?

A lot of Sox players get overrated on this board, but for whatever reason Montas gets underrated. Seems like everybody is just waiting for him to fail...but he keeps delivering. He's a top 50 prospect in all of baseball heading into this season as a starter with a 98 mph fastball. As a 22 year old with a huge fastball that just has to harness his location a bit (doesn't have a walk problem by any means) and improve his changeup he's doing pretty damn well in my opinion. With all that said I still see him as good trade chip right now. If we can get a good OF/3B under 30 with control for at least 3 years I'd do it for Montas + filler prospects outside the top 12. I like EJ more than most so I think we have 4 rotation spots full already for the forseeable future with Fulmer and Adams knocking on the door as soon as the season after next. We need more hitting talent, it's going to have to come from our pitching depth 1 way or another eventually. Montas seems like the best option in my eyes if we aren't going to trade Q.