Sox sign Adam Eaton 1 year, $7m plus option

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Adam Eaton 2019 World Series Stats:  7 Games, 32 Plate Appearances, 25 AB , 5 runs, 8 hits, 0 doubles/ triples, 2 HR , 6 RBI. 1 Stolen base, 4 Walks , 2 K's , 1HBP, 2 sacrifice hits. That's pretty well rounded for a small sample size. A little bit of everything.

.320/ .433/ .560/ .993

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

11 hours ago, wrathofhahn said:

Great move.

Also lets not read too much into 40 games. He'll likely bounce back this year and is a massive upgrade at RF. Now we just have to find ourselves a DH and the lineup is pretty much set

A massive upgrade in RF....

He gonna bounce back from his 1.5 bWAR in 2019 too lol?

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

A massive upgrade in RF....

He gonna bounce back from his 1.5 bWAR in 2019 too lol?

I think the Sox and the fan base would be thrilled if he put up the same season as 2019. If he can have that .365 OBP he'll be batting 2nd. Around 15 HR's , 15 SB, 151 games and a great World Series. Yes please give me all of that.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

31 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

I think the Sox and the fan base would be thrilled if he put up the same season as 2019. If he can have that .365 OBP he'll be batting 2nd. Around 15 HR's , 15 SB, 151 games and a great World Series. Yes please give me all of that.

Thrilled with a 1.5 war? Nah, I'll pass.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Just now, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Thrilled with a 1.5 war? Nah, I'll pass.

Wait so you just said you will pass on that kind of year Eaton had , World Series Champ and hitting star of the same World Series ? Passing on 1.5bWar wasn't my point.

[Pal]

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

A massive upgrade in RF....

He gonna bounce back from his 1.5 bWAR in 2019 too lol?

Yes

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

37 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Wait so you just said you will pass on that kind of year Eaton had , World Series Champ and hitting star of the same World Series ? Passing on 1.5bWar wasn't my point.

Again, I don't excuse decisions that force a team to overcome a position of weakness to achieve greatness (a World Series) simply by saying "well, he had a good few games at one point in the season."

It is much more likely that a very good right fielder would have a very good World Series than it is that a below average right fielder would have a very good World Series.

The problem with being small outcome driven is you ignore the reality that he had to perform outside his expectations to achieve that while a good player merely needs to perform to their expectations.

[wrathofhahn]

2 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

A massive upgrade in RF....

He gonna bounce back from his 1.5 bWAR in 2019 too lol?

You mean the 2.3 fWAR? And yes the nationals ballpark is one of the hardest to play defense and he can't cover the same ground as he used to. If he can put up a similar level of offense with even mediocre defense he'll be a bargain

Edited December 13, 2020 by wrathofhahn

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

9 minutes ago, wrathofhahn said:

You mean the 2.3 fWAR? And yes the nationals ballpark is one of the hardest to play defense and he can't cover the same ground as he used to. If he can put up a similar level of offense with even mediocre defense he'll be a bargain

What? The National Park is one of the hardest to play defense in, says what?

In terms of right field ground to cover, Nationals Park ranks 17th in baseball; almost smack dab in the middle of the league. In terms of total outfield area, the Nationals rank 11th from the smallest in all of baseball. There's nothing about Nationals Park that makes it one of the hardest to play defense in. It's actually pretty comparable to our own.

And no, I use bWAR because DRS is a much more advanced defensive tool than UZR which is what Fangraphs uses to evaluate defensive value. It's why I use bWAR for position players typically and fWAR for pitchers. DRS is more predictive than UZR.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

2 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Again, I don't excuse decisions that force a team to overcome a position of weakness to achieve greatness (a World Series) simply by saying "well, he had a good few games at one point in the season."

It is much more likely that a very good right fielder would have a very good World Series than it is that a below average right fielder would have a very good World Series.

The problem with being small outcome driven is you ignore the reality that he had to perform outside his expectations to achieve that while a good player merely needs to perform to their expectations.

You're a pretty good dancer. The Sox would love that type of year from Eaton because that 1.5 bWar is exactly what they want. Stay on the field , be grindy with a bit of pop, get on base at a good clip, run the bases well and turn the lineup over. We aren't talking about small outcome driven samples or performing outside expectations. The question was would you take a 2019 type year from Eaton and you've been dancing around it throwing all kinds of statistical jargon to avoid the question. I'm talking baseball and you're talking about , well ,nothing that pertained to the original question.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

4 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

You're a pretty good dancer. The Sox would love that type of year from Eaton because that 1.5 bWar is exactly what they want. Stay on the field , be grindy with a bit of pop, get on base at a good clip, run the bases well and turn the lineup over. We aren't talking about small outcome driven samples or performing outside expectations. The question was would you take a 2019 type year from Eaton and you've been dancing around it throwing all kinds of statistical jargon to avoid the question. I'm talking baseball and you're talking about , well ,nothing that pertained to the original question.

The White Sox wanted to get a below average Major Leaguer when they signed Eaton? LOL ok.

I'm not dancing around anything, and I'm not throwing around statistical jargon. I'm not sure why it's difficult for you to understand that better players are likely to perform better in the playoffs and World Series than a below average player. That's not advanced statistics, that's common sense to even people without statistical backgrounds.

You can try and catch lightning in a bottle, but I'll go ahead and use the Sears Tower lightening rods instead.

Would you say the Sox were successful if they signed me, I was the worst player in baseball, but then hit a game winning home run in game 7 of the World Series? Because that's basically what all these "What if" scenarios are.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Just now, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

The White Sox wanted to get a below average Major Leaguer when they signed Eaton? LOL ok.

I'm not dancing around anything, and I'm not throwing around statistical jargon. I'm not sure why it's difficult for you to understand that better players are likely to perform better in the playoffs and World Series than a below average player. That's not advanced statistics, that's common sense to even people without statistical backgrounds.

You can try and catch lightning in a bottle, but I'll go ahead and use the Sears Tower lightening rods instead.

And you continue to dance. I'm not so sure why it's difficult for you to understand that I asked you a simple question that requires a yes or no answer. I don't have to understand all the avoidance thrown at me to try to cloud the issue. Adam Eaton signed and if the Sox got 2019 out of him we'd all be thrilled including you. LOL ok.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

49 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

And you continue to dance. I'm not so sure why it's difficult for you to understand that I asked you a simple question that requires a yes or no answer. I don't have to understand all the avoidance thrown at me to try to cloud the issue. Adam Eaton signed and if the Sox got 2019 out of him we'd all be thrilled including you. LOL ok.

No, I wouldn't be because amazingly enough Adam Eaton didn't win the World Series - the Washington nationals did. Your hypothetical is basically asking me if I'd be happy if we won the world series lol uh yeah, I would which is why I'm unhappy they signed a below average player to start in right field because that hurts there chances.

[turnin' two]

I agree with Ray Ray.  First of all, only use WAR to evaluate players.  Using anything else just clutters the picture, why would you want more data points?  Secondly, only use the WAR evaluation that Ray Ray thinks is superior.  He is right.  Duh.

And finally, if you can't have a 4 WAR (of Ray Ray's choosing) player at every position, what is the point?  Why would anyone ever want a just that is a lousy 1.5 WAR player (remember, fWAR doesn't count for position players!).

And seriously, cherry picking stats where a guy performed in the absolute highest pressure, most important situation is ridiculous.  It is exactly the same as a few good games in the middle of June.  

Cmon people.  Use your brains. 

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

35 minutes ago, turnin' two said:

I agree with Ray Ray.  First of all, only use WAR to evaluate players.  Using anything else just clutters the picture, why would you want more data points?  Secondly, only use the WAR evaluation that Ray Ray thinks is superior.  He is right.  Duh.

And finally, if you can't have a 4 WAR (of Ray Ray's choosing) player at every position, what is the point?  Why would anyone ever want a just that is a lousy 1.5 WAR player (remember, fWAR doesn't count for position players!).

And seriously, cherry picking stats where a guy performed in the absolute highest pressure, most important situation is ridiculous.  It is exactly the same as a few good games in the middle of June.  

Cmon people.  Use your brains. 

Who said to only use WAR? It's certainly a good baseline; do you have a better publicly available tool we could use? Oh, maybe counting stats like Stolen Bases; oh boy, that sure seems like an impactful number.

Or maybe we could celebrate those 15 home runs, which in 2019 ranked him 26th of 28 qualified right fielders; it was better than Leury Garcia at least, yay!

Oh, but maybe he's just a doubles machine... so let's check out his ISO, which ranked - you guessed it - 26th of 28 qualified right fielders.

But his OBP was high so surely he was near the top in wRC+ because walks are important... oh wait, he was 20th among 28 RF'ers behind Avisail Garcia and Cole Calhoun.

If you're taking on such a below average hitter, I bet he's a great defender; oh man, he was actually 20th and 24th out of 28 RF'ers in perspective defensive valuations. He must be young with a bright future... oh wait, he's 32 and was declining in 2019? You don't say.

By all means, please recommend me some numbers we can use that compares Eaton to his peers that discredit the fact that he's a below average right fielder. Maybe your eyes? What else you got for me? I was told I would be thrilled to have that bottom tier right field production in 2021; that seems weird. I usually set my expectations above being bad.

Or I guess we can just say he's a big upgrade without actually showing that. I won't even look at last year because it was even worse than that 2019 season that Sox fans would be "thrilled" to have. Sorry that I won't concede to some fantasy that Adam Eaton is a big upgrade because he played a few good games in a World Series. Please though, discredit everything I said with your evaluation skills.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[turnin' two]

12 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Who said to only use WAR? It's certainly a good baseline; do you have a better publicly available tool we could use? Oh, maybe counting stats like Stolen Bases; oh boy, that sure seems like an impactful number.

Or maybe we could celebrate those 15 home runs, which in 2019 ranked him 26th of 28 qualified right fielders; it was better than Leury Garcia at least, yay!

Oh, but maybe he's just a doubles machine... so let's check out his ISO, which ranked - you guessed it - 26th of 28 qualified right fielders.

But his OBP was high so surely he was near the top in wRC+ because walks are important... oh wait, he was 20th among 28 RF'ers behind Avisail Garcia and Cole Calhoun.

If you're taking on such a below average hitter, I bet he's a great defender; oh man, he was actually 20th and 24th out of 28 RF'ers in perspective defensive valuations. He must be young with a bright future... oh wait, he's 32 and was declining in 2019? You don't say.

By all means, please recommend me some numbers we can use that compares Eaton to his peers that discredit the fact that he's a below average right fielder. Maybe your eyes? What else you got for me? I was told I would be thrilled to have that bottom tier right field production in 2021; that seems weird. I usually set my expectations above being bad.

Or I guess we can just say he's a big upgrade without actually showing that. I won't even look at last year because it was even worse than that 2019 season that Sox fans would be "thrilled" to have. Sorry that I won't concede to some fantasy that Adam Eaton is a big upgrade because he played a few good games in a World Series. Please though, discredit everything I said with your evaluation skills.

That's all fine and probably true, in a vacuum.  But if you put Eaton in context, in a lineup that already includes Abreu, Eloy, Moncada, Grandal, Robert, Anderson etc, it matter less.  He doesn't need to create runs.  The Sox have plenty of guys that do that.  Most teams have a power bat in RF.  Most teams also don't get great production out of CF and SS.  The Sox should get great production out of SS and CF.  And 1B, and 3B, and LF, and C.  That allows them to build their team differently.  Maybe they don't have a big bat in RF.  Well, they don't need one.  They need a competent player.  It'd be nice to have stars at every position, but it isn't that likely.  If Eaton plays like he did in 2019, and is hitting 8th, or even 2nd, well, that would make the Sox lineup deep and dangerous.  

If Eaton replicates his 1.5 bWAR (is that the one that matters???) it is still .2 better than Nomar Mazara's career number.  Is Eaton an All Star?  No probably not.  Is he a great player?  No probably not.  But he is a good player, that does some things well.  He can help a team to win.  And he is a major upgrade over what the team had.  It would have been nice to put a star like Springer out there, but that didn't happen.  So the team still got incrementally better.  And every marginal improvement helps. 

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

8 minutes ago, turnin' two said:

That's all fine and probably true, in a vacuum.  But if you put Eaton in context, in a lineup that already includes Abreu, Eloy, Moncada, Grandal, Robert, Anderson etc, it matter less.  He doesn't need to create runs.  The Sox have plenty of guys that do that.  Most teams have a power bat in RF.  Most teams also don't get great production out of CF and SS.  The Sox should get great production out of SS and CF.  And 1B, and 3B, and LF, and C.  That allows them to build their team differently.  Maybe they don't have a big bat in RF.  Well, they don't need one.  They need a competent player.  It'd be nice to have stars at every position, but it isn't that likely.  If Eaton plays like he did in 2019, and is hitting 8th, or even 2nd, well, that would make the Sox lineup deep and dangerous.  

If Eaton replicates his 1.5 bWAR (is that the one that matters???) it is still .2 better than Nomar Mazara's career number.  Is Eaton an All Star?  No probably not.  Is he a great player?  No probably not.  But he is a good player, that does some things well.  He can help a team to win.  And he is a major upgrade over what the team had.  It would have been nice to put a star like Springer out there, but that didn't happen.  So the team still got incrementally better.  And every marginal improvement helps. 

"Most teams" have spent over 100 million dollars on a player>
"Most teams" who are all-in during their competitive window don't sign below average players to be everyday starters in the field
"Most teams" who have rebuilt and started to win have broke the bank in free agency to supplement their young talented core.

And no, it's not a guaranteed upgrade over Adam Engel; who was already in the fold.

And enough of this Springer stuff; how about Joc Pederson? He's much better than Adam Eaton too and he wouldn't break the bank either.

People wonder why Jerry is cheap; because Sox fans would buy a Yugo and a couple weeks later they'd be telling their friends it was no different than a BMW.

Oh, and PS: Cali has Eaton batting 2nd.... that seems like a pretty important player.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[turnin' two]

45 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

"Most teams" have spent over 100 million dollars on a player>
"Most teams" who are all-in during their competitive window don't sign below average players to be everyday starters in the field
"Most teams" who have rebuilt and started to win have broke the bank in free agency to supplement their young talented core.

And no, it's not a guaranteed upgrade over Adam Engel; who was already in the fold.

And enough of this Springer stuff; how about Joc Pederson? He's much better than Adam Eaton too and he wouldn't break the bank either.

People wonder why Jerry is cheap; because Sox fans would buy a Yugo and a couple weeks later they'd be telling their friends it was no different than a BMW.

Oh, and PS: Cali has Eaton batting 2nd.... that seems like a pretty important player.

So, did you know, that for Joc Pederson's career, he averages 1.7 bWAR per season (ignoring his first season, which was 38 PA).  Maybe that's better. (Eaton averages 1.86, so, there's that, but I think we can all agree that his best days are behind him.)  Seems pretty similar to the 1.5 WAR that you are so disgusted with though.  

And what rationale are you using to define Eaton as below average?  Again, he has averaged being nearly a 2 WAR player over 10 seasons.  Last season he was horrible, though so were a lot of pretty good players.  And contending teams sign guys like Eaton all the time.  They trade for them.  They are upgrades over what they had.  Pretending they don't is ignorant.  The Yankees keep bringing Brett Gardner back right?  If I had a unicycle, a yugo is a pretty sweet upgrade.  But Eaton isn't a Yugo.  Eaton is more like a Chevy or something like that. Not a Camaro or  a Vette, but like a Malibu-ish.  

 

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

21 minutes ago, turnin' two said:

So, did you know, that for Joc Pederson's career, he averages 1.7 bWAR per season (ignoring his first season, which was 38 PA).  Maybe that's better. (Eaton averages 1.86, so, there's that, but I think we can all agree that his best days are behind him.)  Seems pretty similar to the 1.5 WAR that you are so disgusted with though.  

And what rationale are you using to define Eaton as below average?  Again, he has averaged being nearly a 2 WAR player over 10 seasons.  Last season he was horrible, though so were a lot of pretty good players.  And contending teams sign guys like Eaton all the time.  They trade for them.  They are upgrades over what they had.  Pretending they don't is ignorant.  The Yankees keep bringing Brett Gardner back right?  If I had a unicycle, a yugo is a pretty sweet upgrade.  But Eaton isn't a Yugo.  Eaton is more like a Chevy or something like that. Not a Camaro or  a Vette, but like a Malibu-ish.  

 

Over Eaton's last 192 games - 2019/2020 - (for an aging player, that is certainly more relevant than his numbers in 2016) he's slashing 267/348/418 with a wRC+ of 101. He did this while playing below average defense.

Over Pederson's last 192 games (for a player entering his prime years) Joc is slashing 236/327/508 with a wRC+ of 119 (18% better than Eaton). He did this while playing above average defense.

I'm not a huge Pederson fan, and I don't love his profile, but those two players aren't all that close. It's not a very good comparison.

Bizarrely enough they've played the same amount of games.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

@RagahRagah

I'm going to respond to your angry post in hopes of helping you understand. This will be the last time, as I prefer to go back and forth about the actual reason I post (the sox), not to calm you down.

1. Im not arguing with people, im having conversations about a game i love with fans who share a common cause. Im not trying to change opinions, im expressing mine. I post when I have a differing view more than when I agree which is natural.

2. Serious things in my life are my family, career, school, economics, and a fight for equality. Serious is not someone thinking Adam Eaton is Willie Mays. 

Im not doing it for shits and giggles, I post for fun and to take my mind off the real world - when the sox do something stupid I post to let off fan emotions (which are never all that serious but are a great way to get distracted from the real world for a minute.)

Have i had bad days in my life that have trickled online? Im Sure, im human. Is this ever serious though? No, and if you think it is then I either envy your position in life, or you're just taking this way to personal. Lastly, do I care if im wrong or if someone calls me a name? No... because none of this is important. Its a game and a hobby. Take a step back.

Now make a post so I can throw another laughing emoji on it.

Oh and Adam eaton still sucks, I won't be happy with the signing ever, and that's because I'm not outcome driven, im process driven. Besides what grown man calls himself spanky?

Edited December 14, 2020 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[bmags]

15 hours ago, turnin' two said:

So, did you know, that for Joc Pederson's career, he averages 1.7 bWAR per season (ignoring his first season, which was 38 PA).  Maybe that's better. (Eaton averages 1.86, so, there's that, but I think we can all agree that his best days are behind him.)  Seems pretty similar to the 1.5 WAR that you are so disgusted with though.  

And what rationale are you using to define Eaton as below average?  Again, he has averaged being nearly a 2 WAR player over 10 seasons.  Last season he was horrible, though so were a lot of pretty good players.  And contending teams sign guys like Eaton all the time.  They trade for them.  They are upgrades over what they had.  Pretending they don't is ignorant.  The Yankees keep bringing Brett Gardner back right?  If I had a unicycle, a yugo is a pretty sweet upgrade.  But Eaton isn't a Yugo.  Eaton is more like a Chevy or something like that. Not a Camaro or  a Vette, but like a Malibu-ish.  

 

Big asset Brett Gardner had/has was availability and reliability. 

[Harry Chappas]

Joc isn't signed so there is no clue what his value is.  He also cannot hit LHP.

The White Sox wheatear right or wrong are not waiting entirely on the market.   They are being more proactive.  Hopefully they sign another bat but if Eaton and Engel are the RF platoon  with one moving LF for the 30 game Jimenez is hurt that works.

I'm hopeful that another bat is signed but the market is not cooperating.

[MiddleCoastBias]

Adam Eaton is going to be interviewed on Hot Stove on MLBN in a minute after this commercial break.

[Bob Sacamano]

15 minutes ago, MiddleCoastBias said:

Adam Eaton is going to be interviewed on Hot Stove on MLBN in a minute after this commercial break.

Can someone share this link later if they come across it?

[MiddleCoastBias]

He said Rick called him right away when his option wasn't picked up by Washington. Knew the org, comfortable with our approach, knows team is built to be "win now". Praised Tim for what he's done to become a household name. 

Asked impact of having a new manager, said he likes an old school hard-nosed skipper, very excited to learn from TLR. "Have to let that happen organically." Said Tony has called him multiple times and that Tony likes to send letters (????) to his players to get to know them.

Talked about impact of learning from vets in Washington on how to carry himself now as an older player that has been around.

Lot of platitudes, nothing really ground breaking (except TLR mailing letters through the pony express), but interesting nonetheless.