OmarComing25

'99 and '00 Pedro were both more dominant than '98 Pedro. But I think I'd go '01 Randy Johnson and '01 Bonds. I like that Johnson would give us 250 innings, and it'd be really fun having him and Sale as your 1-2 punch. Bonds is obvious, even if he doesn't play RF.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 8, 2016 -> 03:01 PM) When you're hoping for 7 pretty important players to rebound...you aren't a very good team. http://m.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article/163...-in-2016-season "Bounce back" or "rebound" implies that the player in question was good in the past but then had a bad year. That doesn't really fit for Garcia or Johnson, and Webb and Turner are stretches as well. You can't bounce back if there was nothing to bounce back to. Ventura also seems out of place on the list.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 8, 2016 -> 12:57 PM) Finally put him on my Ignore List, it's just too much. The same post over and over and over again.

I feel like Odorizzi would be a horrible pickup. He's a flyball pitcher and would cost a ton to get. Don't see a great fit for him here at all.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 03:06 PM) I bet people would be shocked that Coghlan had a higher fWAR than Fowler last year. Like Fowler, his UZR numbers were a lot better in 2015 than they were the rest of his career, he also had a big surge in power last year. Not sure what to make of it.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 02:20 PM) If the cubs stick to giving Schwarber some starts behind the plate, Soler will get more than a couple of starts per week and would still face some RH pitching. Let's not forget that Maddon is good at getting the most out of his players and their roles, plus were talking about a team that made it to the NLCS and judging by their off season moves, they clearly want to and think they can win now. If the cubs were concerned with the development of players like Soler and Baez, they wouldn't have signed Heyward and Zobrist. That still means only 200ish AB for Soler, seems unlikely.

From Jeff Sullivan's chat today: There haven't been reports linking the Sox to Desmond but I have to imagine we're talking to him too.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 12:16 PM) I think they would. Schwarber cannot hit left handed pitching to save his life so somebody will have to get those at bats against lefties. Soler can't play RF to save his life so putting them both in LF as a platoon makes sense. Soler will still get some at bats against RHP when Schwarber is at the catcher position. The cubs have said they will continue to work with Schwarber at catcher so until they abandon the idea, the possibility still exists. So you think the Cubs would relegate Soler to a role where he gets just a couple of starts a week so quickly?

QUOTE (bear_brian @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 09:08 AM) My belief is that Fowler is waiting for the Cubs to settle Arrieta's arbitration case. After that is done, the Cubs will either have the available cash for Fowler or not, and things will then proceed accordingly. The middle of the two sides with Arrieta and the Cubs is ~$10 million, which is the most likely scenario. At worst it's an extra $3 million than expected, which I don't think is enough to hold up a possible deal. The bigger problem with the Cubs is opening up a spot for Fowler, not paying him. My guess is they wanted to trade Soler, but don't like the offers out there and don't want to sell low on him.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 11:40 PM) I'm always somewhat surprised when people compare pitchers such as defining an ace or the other fangraphs article from last season looking for young starting trios as good as the Mets , how pitching in different leagues isn't brought up more. Put Sale , Q and Rodon in the NL and move DeGron Syndergaard and Harvey to the AL and everything is very different. Yes a lot of people forget to properly apply the NL discount when it comes to comparing stats like ERA or strikeouts (though some AL fans do exaggerate the effect). The Mets' rotation is the best and deserves a lot of praise, but I wonder if they'd get near the same amount of hype if they played for the Rangers.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 09:19 AM) Yes, but we should hold our tongues before its official. Everyone we thought so far would sign for a discount did, but not near the level we anticipated. The discounts have come in years, not really AAV, except for Gordon and Kendrick. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-top-50...nt-predictions/ Cespedes, Gordon, and Kendrick signed for well below the predictions. There's no question that the QO hurt Kendrick considerably. At this point, I'd be very surprised to see Fowler and Desmond to get anywhere close to 4/56 and 5/85, at least in the years. AAV would probably only fall $1-2 million if it does.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 12:17 PM) Eddy Alvarez is the man. He's the most positive, humbled player. He was friendly, gracious and funny. When he was asked anything about his accomplishments he immediately brought up his mom and dad or Carlos Castillo (old Sox relief pitcher). When he was in the Q&A and Anderson/Fulmer struggled with a question he would jump in and bail them out by complimenting them. He is one of the best pro athletes I've ever been around and I feel like I'm going to struggle evaluating him because I like him so much. I hope he keeps up the great play. Great to hear because he was already my favorite prospect. Really hope he can contribute at the ML level in some way.

It's a shame they don't have UZR and DRS splits for home/away. I'd be really curious to see Eaton's splits.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 01:25 PM) The problem is - the numbers in CF are completely unclear. Last year, Fowler was a better defender than Eaton in CF, Eaton was a poor defender and Fowler was close to average. However, in 2014, Eaton was close to average and Fowler was abjectly terrible, worse than Eaton was in 2015. So somehow Fowler went from godawful to ok and Eaton went from ok to poor. Adding in previous years for Fowler does not help - he bounced between poor and average in years before that also. If you can predict which one of them will be better next year go ahead. I have no idea. They could both be terrible, they could both be ok, one could be ok and the other terrible, and I find no way in the available stats to offer a prediction. If you go by DRS, Fowler was considered a poor defender in 2015 as well. Big discrepancy between DRS and UZR for him in 2015, though Eaton had an even larger discrepancy in 2014.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14643947...ter-rule-coming This was 5 days after that article.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 05:08 PM) Hilarious. Despite the Sox stellar record the past few years, they have decided they cannot wait to see if they can develop these players while other teams can. Do you know what happens when a Marcus Semien is a starting caliber 2nd baseman? That's one player you don't need to trade for, OR you can use those prospects you traded for Lawrie to add a different player you want to cover the other positions of need. I liked Semien and wish we still had him, and I understand your point, but I think overall the Sox have been too patient rather than not patient enough. Beckham and Viciedo were given too long of a rope (perhaps Flowers as well), and if they don't upgrade in RF it looks like they'll have done the same with Avi. There's something to be said for knowing when to cut ties with a player. Also not sure what Erwin and Wendelken would have brought to upgrade another position of need, Lawrie was acquired for almost nothing. Two guys not even in the Top 15 prospects of a bottom third farm system don't exactly have much value.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 10:31 AM) Like bmags said, this has bad idea written all over it. IMO what is sad is that the Sox should have done a complete overhaul this off season and started from scratch and I think it would have been a better PR move than what they have done so far. This team and its direction leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I like Hahn, I think he is a really smart baseball guy but I feel like he has been mentored by KW for so many years so he will have the same tendencies as KW had. Plus I think Hahn is moved by a lot of his decisions with a sprinkle of a KW influence. I hope things turn around, but damn. I do not like that this team is going to be a day late and a dollar short in every aspect of the team. The starting staff is great for the top three and but the last two slots are question marks. The bullpen I think is going to be a great strength however bullpens are the one thing that is fickle from year to year. Its hard to judge. The offense has some really nice pieces but its not solid from top to bottom, it just isnt. Teams with championship expectations have far less question marks than what the Sox are looking at and no one gives you the feeling in the FO that they have a true vision of exactly their what they want to do. They are doing a lot on the fly here, so it seems. If we get a Fowler/Ethier, we have no fewer question marks than every other team in our division.

There's no question Soler has more value than Avi, but the Cubs probably are overrating him a bit. He's a very poor defender, was bad offensively in spite of an unsustainably high BABIP that's due for regression, and looks like he'll have ongoing injury concerns. I'd rather have Jackson or Jennings. At least they can defend well.

QUOTE (daggins @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 12:20 PM) I think the O's sign Fowler. FWIW, I'm split 50/50 on whether the Sox should sign Fowler or trade for Ethier and sign AJax/trade for Jennings. I think that over the next two years, both combos should produce similar value. I think it makes more sense for the O's to go after Gallardo than Fowler (assuming they don't have the money for both), their rotation is really bad.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 11:58 AM) Anyone know if Saladino played fall/winter ball somewhere to work at SS??? He mostly played SS in the minors, it shouldn't be a problem.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 11:36 AM) I just can't see Fowler going back to the Cubs unless they move Soler. I really don't see any other fit for him besides the Sox. Angels still make sense.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jan 31, 2016 -> 05:04 PM) At .500 they should punt. Too far out to kick a FG The Blue Jays were .500 at the trade deadline last year. As SS2K5 wrote, we would need more context. Are the Sox at .500 because of one hot streak despite spending most of the season below .500 (like last year), or are there encouraging signs (decent run differential, key player coming back from a DL visit soon, soft upcoming schedule, etc.)? It also depends on what the playoff picture looks like. Too many possible scenarios to consider without that extra context.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 30, 2016 -> 02:38 PM) Well, if we must resign ourselves to the probability that LaRoche will be the DH, I suppose it's realistic to expect him to be better than last year. It's hard to imagine him being that bad, again. He was always a pretty good hitter against RHP. You know, if he could just hit .250 with an OBP around .350, with 20 homers, all obviously vs. righties, that would be fine. We just have to hope that Robin will make sure that he sits vs. LHP. There is no reason to expect him to be anything other than a black hole, vs. lefties. But then, what gives us any reason to be confident that Robin will not start him every day? Has Ventura said anything about platooning him? Robin platooned him the last two months of last season. I don't see why he wouldn't do it again, especially if we pick up Fowler/Jackson and kick Avi out of RF.

Unless he comes into Spring Training looking completely broken down, I'd be hesitant to use Spring Training results to determine that much. It's 50 AB and guys are just trying to get back into the swing of things. Go look at the spring training stats of Anthony Rizzo or Adrian Gonzalez last year. Granted those guys weren't worried about "earning" their spot but I'd like to give LaRoche at least 4-6 weeks against solely RHP to see if he has any bounceback in him. Might as well, especially considering the other current options for DH aren't exactly promising anyway.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Jan 30, 2016 -> 09:19 AM) nobody really cares what they SAY, it's what they DO. And they have given out plenty of contracts longer than 3 years.