soxforlife05

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 08:23 PM) You don't bunt that early in the game at home, especially with a guy who can handle the bat like Eaton. Yeah I agree that bunting is the wrong call there. Gibson is prone to big innings and it's early at home.

If Morneau doesn't come out of the gate with a hot bat he's going to be worthless. It's a 1 year deal and has he even played in a game in the last year? Might be better to have him on the bench as an insurance policy or to play matchups vs RHP after trades are made. We can't afford to send him out there every day at this point in the season if he's going to struggle for a month or two before he gets his swing back. Too many teams in the wild card race.

If we kept Latos we could've put Gonzalez in the pen. But I guess that ship has sailed. That was the smartest move that would allow the team to focus on trading for an impact bat (like Cargo) rather than just another guy and a reliever. If they are honestly "going for it" they might as well just trade Fulmer and anyone else still in the minors to plug holes. Because the whole thing is going to have to get blown up if this 3 year plan doesn't work. If they could do something like get Beltran and Cargo that would make me fairly confident we would be in the wild card mix until the last day. I'm sure Avi could be involved in one of those trades. Maybe even Saladino if they were willing to risk leaving the bench very thin. lf - m cabrera cf - eaton rf - c gonzalez dh - beltran 1b - abreu 2b - lawrie ss - anderson 3b - frazier c - avila (with collins in the wings) That would be a pretty sweet lineup. Literally zero on the bench though. I guess we could bring up Leury as a speed guy off the bench. You also have Burdi as a potential setup man for end of this season and the playoffs. Rodon would really have to make some strides in the 2nd half of the season but that could be a surprisingly good playoff team.

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Jun 26, 2016 -> 11:01 PM) Just hope he doesn't pull a Beckham.. remember how good everyone thought he was going to be... yikes He's not even on pace for as good of a season as Beckham had. And Beckham was taking walks too.... I'm not sold he can do it long term unless his walk rate starts going up gradually every month. He's gonna start getting junkballed soon

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 26, 2016 -> 06:29 PM) They were just talking about it on the Astros' broadcast, about how Tyler White was Rookie of the Month in April and then the rest of the league adjusted and he couldn't adjust back. The book on Anderson is quickly becoming he can hit a fastball...but surely he will start seeing a steady diet of breaking pitches, even when ahead in the count. We're also seeing that readjustment period with Trayce...the pattern (twice now) has been a white hot month, followed by a 500ish OPS. Extremely streaky. That was a big part of the reason why I was ok with trading Trayce for Frazier in the offseason. Late season callup who likely wasn't paid attention to much by scouts until the very end of the season. He's been a little better than advertised this season, but I think it would be a stretch to expect him to outperform his AAA numbers unless he miraculously figures things out.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 26, 2016 -> 06:10 PM) Yeah, Anderson still doesn't have a walk but has a pretty decent OPS considering all of it is coming from BA and XBH. I'm kind of skeptical of hitters before there's a major league scouting report floating around on them. Eventually they'll just let him start trying to hit pitches out of the zone like they did to Abreu earlier this season. With all the hype he still probably won't put up a better first season than Gordon Beckham did.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 26, 2016 -> 08:32 AM) Thompson's numbers probably will fall into his minor league form - mid .700 OPS and play excellent defense. Now will Frazier exceed that? Probably, but for 2 years. Decent move if you are a contender. Re development, this idea that the Sox can develop pitching...well, it sure would be nice to see it. Sure they have Rodon, but he was also the #3 pick. The biggest weakness is on the major league team is starting pitching - only 3 ML starters on the staff. On the other hand, the Sox have produced Trayce, Semien, Saladino, in the last 3 years; all will have some role on a major league team. Anderson looks like a player (and if he would take some pitches/walks he could be a star player). The Sox can't even fill a bullpen spot comfortably from the minors (I have some hope for Beck). Those are all bottom of the order hitters on a winning team. Saladino at this point is more of a utility player. Anderson looks good but will get exposed eventually if he doesn't improve his plate discipline.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 26, 2016 -> 03:13 AM) There just aren't many good hitters out there anymore in the post steroid era. It's crazy. Remember when Eaton was at .320? Isn't he about .250 now and he's a pretty good player. I guess it's why defense and bullpen win games now. The hitting is so bad it doesn't matter IF you can catch everything and you've got 3 standout starters couple with a great closer and at least two EFFECTIVE setup men. That's all you need. Hardly anybody can hit. There are plenty of good hitters out there. We just can't develop them and/or won't pay top dollar to sign them. The best teams in the AL - BAL, BOS, TEX all have good offenses. Mostly because they have committed to developing hitting talent and have had great success at it. CLE is the only exception. They have some overperforming vets mixed in with some nice young players and a good starting staff. Pretty much what the Sox formula should have been - but the problem is Cleveland can develop some hitting talent to fill some holes while the Sox have made some aggressive trades that haven't worked out and have sparingly turned out lineup regulars. KC has an overperforming starting pitching and lineup. Their bullpen is good though. Don't see any way they are in the mix at the end of this season. I'm very confident that BAL, BOS, TEX, and CLE are the playoff teams. Sox will again be middle of the pack where most people expected them to be before the season. Not bad enough to blow it up but not good enough to really contend.

I think Q is a better guy to move at the deadline if we sell. I would wait until after the season with Sale unless someone is willing to overpay. If he turns in a Cy Young season you can trade him at the peak of his value in the offseason.

QUOTE (captain54 @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 06:51 PM) The purpose of Shuck is because there's no one after Eaton to play center with Jackson out. So Saladino, clearly the better hitter over Shuck, is limited to brief PR stint in a 10 inning game. Overall, 5-9, plus the bench, is weak to below average at best I think the Braintrust of Kenny Hahn, Coop, and JR are trying, I just think collectively they are in over their heads Could Saladino handle RF? His bat alone would probably be worth the switch.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 05:06 PM) The one thing the White Sox are CONSISTENTLY good at is playing just well enough when things are seemingly going south to keep everyone employed and the hamster/gerbil spinning on that wheel another year. Not really in it, but not completely out of it. Stuck in the middle. Same arguments everyone is having about the Bulls' situation going forward. I'm starting to think it's a business decision from the top and they want it that way. Do just enough to give the impression to the fans the team will contend but not really go all out financially to make this team a consistent winner.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 04:25 PM) Who else should he put in there? Guys are inconsistent and hurt. Your best highest leverage relievers. Jennings to relieve Shields and Jones in for Beck with the bases loaded. You don't let bums like Albers and Beck lose you the game.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 04:21 PM) Not a whole lot a pony manager can do with a dumpster fire bullpen Albers should never be in a game with the lead with runners on base. And leaving Beck in there with bases loaded? Seriously? That was extremely lucky also.

Robin will never learn. Always puts in garbage relievers with a lead until they blow the lead, then puts in the good relievers after it's too late.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 04:02 PM) Albers deserves most of the blame there. Even if Shields' two walks cross the plate, the Sox would've still been up 4-3 if Albers had been able to do his job. It's amazing how far Albers has fallen over the past month and a half. He left 2 runners on with no outs, I don't think you can say that.

Maybe he'll eat 3 innings this time.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 08:44 AM) Giving him facts is a complete waste of time. It is like talking to a Trump voter. I think the water in Michigan City is doing some strange things to you. The chemicals are rotting your brain.

Why Whynoa?

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 09:06 PM) Lol that's not gona get it done. The Reds didn't like our prospects in a Frazier deal. We won't get Bruce. Good I hope we don't get him. We don't need another Reds hitter who's gonna come here and hit below .220

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 09:03 PM) How do we get them? Saladino and Adams.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 09:01 PM) Jay Bruce/Ryan Braun/Wil Myers, come on down... Poor John Farrell. They'll never learn

We'll trade Saladino for Jay Bruce or something and Saladino will go on to be a solid starter for years.

QUOTE (Insp @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 08:26 PM) Now that the team is doing poorly, there is a lot more posting here. No actually there was a lot more posting at the start of the season, but once the team showed its true colors no one's going to get fooled by a teaser winning streak to give the team another reason to trade what's left of our young talent.

Such a two outcome hitter. At least he's been clutch.

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Jun 21, 2016 -> 09:46 PM) My problem with trading a guy like Sale is more theoretical. You are highly certain (outside an injury) that Sale is worth X per year (WAR or whatever) for Y years. Even if you acquire a handful of high prospects the probability and therefore expected value of the prospects WAR ends up being a big risk. So to get equal value on an expected value basis, you actually have to get back a return such that the average return would warrant it, but if they all hit you'd be way ahead. This is necessary since the probability of any prospect "hitting" is far below probability of Sale maintaining his value. Moreover, you'd never do a deal where you'd need ALL the prospects to hit in order for it to justify the return. So maybe this is a dumb mathematical way of looking at it, but it's essentially scenario analysis. You'd trade a known quantity to get a range of potential outcomes. And given how good Chris is, they'd have to trade a ridiculous package (prob more than we even think) to warrant it from an expected value perspective. This ownership group is not going to re-sign him though. So you are risking an injury to Sale over those non-contending years and at the same time he will be gone from the team by the time the next window for contention opens up. The cumulative WAR acquired through trade will be more valuable down the road rather than used up by having control over Sale in non-contending seasons. Instead you can acquire top prospects to speed up the rebuild assuming you have the correct talent evaluators in place and draft well. Then we may be in a position to retain all our future stars by the time the next contention window opens up and our new ownership is in place.