BlackSox13

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 12:44 PM) I don't. They still need pitching The Rockies could still trade one or two of their outfielders for pitching so Davis could make some sense and his power at Coors has the potential to be monstrous. Especially batting in front of or behind Arenado. I think the only hindrance to the Rockies being serious suitors for Davis is Reyes' abscene salary, otherwise the Rockies and Davis would be a hell of a fit.

I AM STUNNED!

Is the vaccum a Dyson?

I'm waiting for the Sox to announce the trade for CarGo and I'm betting Greg's house on it and so should all Sox fans. All about hero worshipping cause CarGo is so dreamy!

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:18 PM) No doubt about it. My guess may have been high at 4/44-48M but 3/24M is very cheap and unlikely, even in this market. Ha ha! Man, was I way the f*** off. Good thing I'm not a GM. For 3/27.5M, I kinda wish the Sox signed him.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 12:19 PM) Why would the Mets want Avi? They already have at least 4 outfielders on their roster. I don't know to be honest. More wishful thinking on my part. How about the Mets send Flores and Granderson our way for Avi + ?.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 12:12 PM) If the Sox are seriously interested in him, that makes me think that they don't see Anderson as the SS of the future. But perhaps he could switch to be an OF or something else. That's what I'm thinking as well. Anderson has the speed, athleticism and arm for the OF. Anderson is only 22 so its not like he wouldn't be able to adjust and if there's ever a good time for him to make the change it would be while he's still in the minors.

I can see the Sox having interest in Flores due to his age, having some pop and a low K-rate. Maybe an Avi for Flores swap? Not going to read too much into it for the time being but its an interesting thought.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 08:17 AM) This article predicts that Fowler will come to the Sox. Any thoughts? http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...d-fowler-end-up Take it with a grain of salt. That article has Austin Jackson going to the Nat's who have a much cheaper option in Michael Taylor as their 4th outfielder. For some reason I just cannot see Fowler being the big upgrade the Sox need for the outfield. QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 08:25 AM) Eaton doesnt have the arm for RF, it would make more sense to move him to LF and Melky to RF then. Eaton has a strong arm, he just needs to catch and throw instead of trying to bait the base runners into challenging his arm. Still yet, I think Eaton would be a better LF than RF. Problem is that Melky should not be in RF either. Damn does this team have some OF issues!

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 08:36 AM) Omar just mentioned the DBacks not being a part of the Upton and Cespedes sweepstakes. That brings up a good point. The DBacks are obviously all in with the Greinke signing and Miller trade. Why aren't they considering bringing back one of the more popular players in team history to help that offense? They have some solid OFs, obviously, but still. I lived in AZ the entire time he played there. They had a spot in the OF seats called "Up Town". He was for a few of those seasons of one the few bright spots on that team. You have to ask yourself, especially with them only having to give up a 2nd or 3rd rd pick and $ they have because of that gigantic TV contract, why don't they bring back Upton? In parts of 6 seasons with the team, he played 731 games and had over 3,000 plate appearances (3,030). He was drafted as a young kid and became a MVP candidate in his prime with that organization. Why haven't we ever heard about them considering him? #RedFlag EDIT - I realize this is a Cespedes thread, but the Upton thread is too far down now, so this is a vote for Cespedes! #CespedesOrNada I think you're right in bringing up the redflag. Looking around the net it seems Upton was called out a few different times by the Braves manager for a lack of hustle in '14. Last season Upton threw his helmet down in the dugout and the helmet hit his teammate Yonder Alonso in the head which really pissed off Alonso. This article here provides a bit of insight on how AZ felt about Upton not long before he was traded. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2...spects/1860397/ Redflag's all around Upton. I believe stuff like this is what's hurting his market. Not exactly a good reputation.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 08:28 AM) Could today be the day? Probably not but would be nice to get this s*** over with Man was I wrong. Right before Gordon signed I was thinking it would take just one of the big three to sign and the rest would sign in rapid succession. Almost a week later and we still see names like Cespedes, Upton, Parra and Fowler still in FA limbo. Weird fricken market this year.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 12, 2016 -> 12:07 AM) Yet still the 6th highest WAR (just a point or two off from Tulo and playing at one of the worst stadiums for offense in the AL). What about DRS or UZR? We had this debate about errors seemingly 15 years ago back and forth between Jose Valentin and Royce Clayton when Jose put up a 30+ error season. In the end, Valentin had a huge differential in total chances because of his range advantage, and he also recorded numerous outs with his arm strength that would have gone as "hits" with Clayton competently fielding those balls and not being able to get enough on the throws. We can't argue, for example, that Lawrie or Frazier (especially) are above-average defenders and then completely disregard their error totals, focusing only on their other advanced metrics. The same should apply in reverse to Semien. You also have to look at the error rate by month...did he improve or basically stay the same in terms of defensive performance over six full months? Was there improvement or regression? Let's just say if Semien and Bassitt were STILL in our system (and eligible), they'd clearly be some combination of #4-6 or 3-5 (depending on the belief in Adams' potential)....you could take those two, along with Adams, and be able to trade for almost any outfield bat left on the trade market (in the same way we were able to acquire Frazier). Instead, we're forced into a situation where we have to trade Anderson/Fulmer/Adams OR overpay a free agent...unless the contract demands come down to a point where they're no longer overpays. Even with Gordon and Span, nobody's arguing those are huge bargains or that they would be particularly happy if the White Sox had signed those two particular players to either deal. Semien is very difficult to read. His dWAR is rated 1.4 according to BR but when looking at Fangraphs his UZR is -10 and his DRS is 4. To me it sounds like his range is good, arm strength a tick below average and his throwing is well below average. I'd say his range range is what saves his defensive stats. You make a good point in that if we had not traded those guys, they could be used now to trade for a solid bat and not have to pay big money on a FA upgrade. At this point I would rather have that depth to use as trade bait but its neither here nor there now I suppose. So anyway, any good gossip on the twitter front on the Sox and FA outfielders?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 11:11 PM) If we can get him without giving up Q or Anderson or Fulmer, by all means, let's go for it. Yep, I feel the same way. For a reasonable price, I'd love to see CarGo's LH power bat in the middle of the Sox lineup.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 09:58 PM) What did we honestly give up in that package? lol. Semein- Can't field to save his life. Bassett- Had Montas, Danish, Johnson, Adams, & now Fullmer all in front of him. Phegley- Nothing more than a questionable backup catcher with 1 impressive minor league stint. Ravelo- Maybe the most promising prospect & not even in their top 10. I see nothing worth b****ing about. Agree with 3/4. Bassitt was MLB ready with 5 starts under his belt in '14 and if the Sox had not traded for Samardzija, Bassitt would have been in the Sox rotation in '15 ahead of all the players you named. In fact Bassitt had 13 starts for Oakland in '15 with a 3.56 ERA and 3.76 FIP in 86 IP. Going into the '15 season: Montas and Danish were in AA, Johnson at AAA coming off a horrible '14 season, Fulmer wasn't even drafted yet, Adams was in Kanny. Going into 16: Montas will be at AAA, Danish repeating AA, Johnson in the majors for his second cup while we cross our fingers, Fulmer at AA, Adams at high A. Considering we all know the Sox could use some starting pitching depth, I wouldn't mind having a cheap, long term team controlled option such as Bassitt. Would be a better option than Latos, Fister and the post TJ surgery pitchers we see mentioned. I agree that Sox aren't missing out on Phegley, Semien or Ravelo. How many of us would have smashed our TV's last season watching Semien commit 35 errors?

Because I am a pathetically bored Sox fan, I'll play devil's advocate. We did trade for Lawrie, despite his pre '15 health issues. I will say this for CarGo, he played 153 games with over 600 PA in '15 so he has that going for him.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 03:37 PM) I've been wondering if maybe it's Baltimore trying to make a trade for Cargo Damn, I hadn't thought of that but it would shake things up. Good call.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 03:33 PM) So what is the more likely concession that Cespedes makes, the number of years, or the average annual salary? IMHO, years without a doubt. I think teams are much more willing to pay a higher annual salary than commit to the years he seeks.

The longer this nonsense drags out with FA's the more I find myself hoping for a trade of some sort. At this point Cespedes/Upton are being unreasonable and I'm not overly impressed with the likes of Parra/Jackson/Fowler. Really straddling the fence on those three. Uhg.

IMHO, the Sox not signing one of the 2nd tier free agents tells me the possibility of signing Cespedes still exists. I'm not counting on it but not ruling it out either. At some point Cespedes will have to realize he's not getting the 6/150M he seeks and lower his demands and the same goes for Upton. Lots of posturing going on with teams, FA players and their agents.

Really really sad to hear about David Bowie. Such a huge influence in the music industry.

I like the idea of signing a back of the rotation SP to go with one of Fowler/Jackson/Parra or OF trade.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:20 PM) Not necessarily. He's on the roster as of now so why wouldn't he be going? QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:28 PM) Micah Johnson was scheduled to go to SoxFest I believe. We know how that turned out. Was just being a wise-ass, I should have used green.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:27 PM) Maybe somebody should ask him how he tried to break his wife's cell phone when she tried to call 911 on him. D'OH! Good one!

Well, we've seen posturing by the Sox and their "3 year" stance and I feel it's likely that Cespedes and his agent are posturing on their 6/150M stance. Wherever Cespedes signs he's going to have to meet the team half way somehow. I'd like to see the linger for a bit longer in the Cespedes/Upton talks but at some point they should call it a day and move on to other options while those options are still available. If Upton or Cespedes won't take a contract in the 3 or 4 year range with a possible vesting option, then f*** em, move on.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 11, 2016 -> 01:13 PM) Yeah, I don't see how he signs for anything less than 10 million per year. No doubt about it. My guess may have been high at 4/44-48M but 3/24M is very cheap and unlikely, even in this market.