White Sox acquire Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan and $3 Million

[Dick Allen]

I think people should quit giving Greg much crap about Soria. If he were so great, KC wouldn't have had to give up

Alexander to get rid of the contract.

 

Alexander might be a flash in the pan, Kelly Wunsch style, but he had some value.

 

There's a pretty good chance the guy sucks, but from a White Sox point of view it makes sense to eat the money and gain at least another reliever as the paychecks for bullpen arms are rising very quickly.

[Balta1701]

I think people should quit giving Greg much crap about Soria. If he were so great, KC wouldn't have had to give up

Alexander to get rid of the contract.

 

Alexander might be a flash in the pan, Kelly Wunsch style, but he had some value.

 

There's a pretty good chance the guy sucks, but from a White Sox point of view it makes sense to eat the money and gain at least another reliever as the paychecks for bullpen arms are rising very quickly.

Isn't your 3rd paragraph doing exactly what you say people should quit doing in the first?

[bmags]

All of this Soria pessimism and he was actually positive WAR.

 

Curse of the 8th inning guy. When Jones is pitching we constant hear bickering of him being not that good.

 

White Sox rocked Soria last year, and frankly I do view him as sort of a Tyler Clippard project, but one I think we can win.

 

I guess I'd want more than cash though.

[bmags]

While I was a fan of Peter, he didn't really have a spot on this team. Could see him becoming a solid ballplayer though (especially if he can play every position).

 

When the white sox started him out in AA last year and then did not put him up in the first september call ups I figured he was just a guy that was not in the plans.

 

I'm glad we got some bullpen help. Seasons like last year were fun because they mostly resembled a major league team that just couldn't string wins together. But there's nothing fun about teams like the 07 white sox or last years reds that just lose every lead in the bullpen. I think it also is something that demoralizes young pitchers though that's kinda intangible stuff.

 

[Dick Allen]

Isn't your 3rd paragraph doing exactly what you say people should quit doing in the first?

No.

 

I am not trying to actually spin Soria is good, because strikeouts, and might be able to get something decent at the deadline.

[Y2Jimmy0]

He's so bad a city is rejoicing he's gone. I'll stop now but you guys have to calm down about Soria. He's really bad. Ask Caulfield. He has the numbers. If Coop can save him then yes you could 'maybe' flip him. But if Coop can't, I'm surprised you guys who don't seem to want to spend Jerry's money are OK with 9 million going to this guy per season.

 

Here's how bad he is:

"Over the last two seasons, Soria had 14 blown saves and a 3.89 ERA. He became a lightning rod for the frustrations of Royals fans, who had become accustomed to unprecedented success from a bullpen combination of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland."

 

 

Greg, stop. I don't need to ask Caulfield or any dumbass Kansas City goobers s***. You are acting like a clown. I know, I should be used to it by now but I'm trying to catch up on an informative thread and you've hijacked it with nonsense.

[Y2Jimmy0]

I think people should quit giving Greg much crap about Soria. If he were so great, KC wouldn't have had to give up

Alexander to get rid of the contract.

 

Alexander might be a flash in the pan, Kelly Wunsch style, but he had some value.

 

There's a pretty good chance the guy sucks, but from a White Sox point of view it makes sense to eat the money and gain at least another reliever as the paychecks for bullpen arms are rising very quickly.

 

 

The deal makes no sense for Kansas City. Thye gave up multiple years of a really good LH reliever to dump Soria's contract so that they can overpay Eric Hosmer drastically. Woof.

[Y2Jimmy0]

This trade is so good that I'm not really sure how the White Sox were able to pull it off. They get two veteran relievers for basically just money. Avilan is death on lefties and had a 2.96 FIP last year. Soria, while blowing saves, struck out 10 batters per 9 and posted a 2.23 FIP. He likely won't be closing here and it doesn't matter anyway. The Sox got money, gave up nothing, and can likely trade both of these guys in July and get a hell of a lot more than Jake Peter. Excellent work.

[Bob Sacamano]

This trade is so good that I'm not really sure how the White Sox were able to pull it off. They get two veteran relievers for basically just money. Avilan is death on lefties and had a 2.96 FIP last year. Soria, while blowing saves, struck out 10 batters per 9 and posted a 2.23 FIP. He likely won't be closing here and it doesn't matter anyway. The Sox got money, gave up nothing, and can likely trade both of these guys in July and get a hell of a lot more than Jake Peter. Excellent work.

 

Idk if it's "likely" but certainly possible.

[Dunt]

Joakim Soria's 2017 #'s: 3.70 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 3.08 xFIP, 10.29 K/9, 3.21 BB/9, 0.16 HR/9, 54.8 GB%, 1.7 fWAR

 

Please for the love of god tell me how he had a bad season last year? 10th overall RP in FIP, 15th in xFIP, 1st in HR/9, 23rd in WAR. They got him for NOTHING.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Greg, stop. I don't need to ask Caulfield or any dumbass Kansas City goobers s***. You are acting like a clown. I know, I should be used to it by now but I'm trying to catch up on an informative thread and you've hijacked it with nonsense.

Actually Greg didn't hijack the thread. If you don't like his posts then don't read respond to them. People can't help responding to Greg. They think they can educate him or somehow make him see the light. Greg is a response magnet and you always take the bait as do the others who keep trying to reason with him or insult him.

[BamaDoc]

Soria is a total flip candidate. Last year 46 of 59 appearances unscored upon. Don't see how often he was brought in to start an inning vs in a jam. Pitch count lot higher in scored upon situations. So while you might be able to identify when he may struggle(poor command) you tend to let your closer ride. Hopefully, he will be tweak able. As many noted, peripherals are there, not like you are spending a similar amount of money in a multi year situation on a guy who dropped 2MPH on his fastball. We had little depth and less for LHP in the bullpen. Now we have options. Peters may make a valuable utility type guy but he wasn't taking second from Moncada.

[thxfrthmmrs]

Just look at his game logs for the 2nd half of 2017.

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/i...88/joakim-soria

 

From July 29th to August 15th, in 4 out of 7 important outings...he was terrible. Each of those were games KC had to win to stay in the division race (where Herrera was on the shelf/struggling as well).

 

No, he wasn't terrible for MOST of the season, his overall stats look pretty decent.

 

This is more of a Jake Peavy thing...where, when they really needed him to step up, he just couldn't get it done.

 

So what you're saying is Greg is trashing Soria for having a really bad 2 weeks.

[Dick Allen]

So what you're saying is Greg is trashing Soria for having a really bad 2 weeks.

Or you could throw out his first 10 innings and his K-Rate goes down to about 8.5 and his ERA goes up to 4.50.

 

The price shows you what the league thinks. Maybe somehow he turns back the hands of time, but chances are he will not be very popular on Soxtalk in 2018 once games actually come around.

 

So KC fans very well could be doing cartwheels they no longer have to see him in a Royals uniform. The trade does make sense for the White Sox, not because of Soria, but because of the other guy.

Edited January 5, 2018 by Dick Allen

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Joakim Soria's 2017 #'s: 3.70 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 3.08 xFIP, 10.29 K/9, 3.21 BB/9, 0.16 HR/9, 54.8 GB%, 1.7 fWAR

 

Please for the love of god tell me how he had a bad season last year? 10th overall RP in FIP, 15th in xFIP, 1st in HR/9, 23rd in WAR. They got him for NOTHING.

Arguing over if he had a good or bad season is pretty irrelevant . Sox got 2 RP's they either flip (both of them) or keep (Avilan) for a song and got cash. There's nothing to dislike about this deal. 2 major league bullpen arms who not only solidify our bullpen needs and since relievers are a hot commodity at the deadline Sox put themselves in a position to add more prospects. And what did they give up ? A guy who was just exposed to the Rule 5 draft and didn't get picked by any team. 2 major leaguers who could be on the hot list at the deadline and replace parts traded at the deadline last year for a guy the Sox basically had no use for.

 

This might be the best trade Hahn ever made that on the surface appears to be a nothing trade.

[southsider2k5]

So what you're saying is Greg is trashing Soria for having a really bad 2 weeks.

 

Sounds very similar to David Robertson at this time last year.

[Balta1701]

Sounds very similar to David Robertson at this time last year.

Every year for him. 2 bad weeks every year.

[bmags]

I'll take the people looking at his krate to show how he could have a good year for the minimum price we paid over the people arguing how a reliever was bad in individual performances last year.

 

Relievers are volatile. We took a chance on a guy who could be good, to take a guy who is more likely to be good in an area of need, by taking on a small amount of salary.

 

And despite everyone being in broad agreement about paragraph two, we are arguing about how kc fans are dumb enough to believe that their team got better by getting rid of soria through also giving up one of their best relievers.

[Bob Sacamano]

Every year for him. 2 bad weeks every year.

I will always remember that one game against Greg's Royals when if he had not pitched, his ERA would have been about over a run lower.

Edited January 5, 2018 by soxfan2014

[Chicago White Sox]

Curse of the 8th inning guy. When Jones is pitching we constant hear bickering of him being not that good.

 

White Sox rocked Soria last year, and frankly I do view him as sort of a Tyler Clippard project, but one I think we can win.

 

I guess I'd want more than cash though.

We get Soria on a one year, $7M deal plus two years of a pretty good, cheap LOOGY for a guy any team could have selected in the Rule 5. Hard for me to have any complaints here. Soria has much more upside than Clippard had and might be able to land a nice prospect at the deadline if things go right.

[thxfrthmmrs]

Sounds very similar to David Robertson at this time last year.

 

Yep, I was thinking the same thing. When he's on, it looks like he's still a very effective reliever. We just need to not make the mistake of holding on to him for too long, sell when the value is high.

[Balta1701]

I will always remember that one game against Greg's Royals when if he had not pitched, his ERA would have been about over a run lower.

The 2 things I will remember for him are how every year right before he imploded for 2 weeks there was a "David Robertson Appreciation Thread" or something like that posted here, and how in 2015 his implosion was entirely "Josh Donaldson".

[Bob Sacamano]

The 2 things I will remember for him are how every year right before he imploded for 2 weeks there was a "David Robertson Appreciation Thread" or something like that posted here, and how in 2015 his implosion was entirely "Josh Donaldson".

 

Oh yeah. That dude owned him back-to-back games.

[southsider2k5]

We get Soria on a one year, $7M deal plus two years of a pretty good, cheap LOOGY for a guy any team could have selected in the Rule 5. Hard for me to have any complaints here. Soria has much more upside than Clippard had and might be able to land a nice prospect at the deadline if things go right.

 

Even if you were to separate the deal into signing Soria to 1/7 plus an option year and a second deal trading Peter for Avilan, it is still a good deal.

[bmags]

His walkoff in Toronto I turned off the tv before the camera even showed where the ball landed. He just murdered that ball.