Jeff Samardzija will be a free agent after 2015 (final year arbitration eligible in 2015). This article talks about how he would like to potentially come back to Chicago to be close to home.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...-eye-on-chicago

 

Can anyone think of a much better more realistic option to add as a front line RH SP to our lefty trio of Sale-Quintana-Rodon after 1 more warm up season?

 

Wishful yet realistic thinking. Sounds good to me.

I think in this case we are looking at a probable 9 figure contract, and judging by the Sox history with pitching, I can't call that realistic by any stretch of the imagination.

By the time Samardzija becomes a FA, signs his long term deal and heads to ST 2016, he will be 31 years old. That's not a dream, its a nightmare. I would hope Hahn could get more creative than that.

He wants to go back to the Cubs if he comes back to Chicago.

He's a Cubs fan and they would want him more than the Sox would because of fan interest.

Is he really worth 18-20 mil a year, though?

It is going to sound counter intuitive, but I think the biggest gains to be made are on the offensive side. With the game having moved back to pitching, it is getting harder and harder to find offense, and not pitching. I think the moneyball line of thinking should be moving away from pitching and to hitting.

Jeff has been a league-average pitcher since joining Oakland, which is closer to his career stats than his time with the Cubs. I think at this point you can assume the first half of this year was an outlier. He's not gonna be worth a huge contract.

Jeff has been a league-average pitcher since joining Oakland, which is closer to his career stats than his time with the Cubs. I think at this point you can assume the first half of this year was an outlier. He's not gonna be worth a huge contract.

League average pitcher = >$75 million contract.

It is going to sound counter intuitive, but I think the biggest gains to be made are on the offensive side. With the game having moved back to pitching, it is getting harder and harder to find offense, and not pitching. I think the moneyball line of thinking should be moving away from pitching and to hitting.

 

So, for example, trading Cespedes for Lester would be a very anti-moneyball move.

 

 

He wants to go back to the Cubs if he comes back to Chicago.

He's a Cubs fan and they would want him more than the Sox would because of fan interest.

Is he really worth 18-20 mil a year, though?

 

He grew up a Sox fan, for what it's worth.

He grew up a Sox fan, for what it's worth.

Okay. When he got drafted, it was intimated through the media that he wanted to go to the Cubs.

I think Samardjzia is traded this winter, so the Sox have a chance to grab him then. The A's went all in on this season and are going to need to do a tear down to rebuild. The A's are losing Dunn, Lester, Hammel, Gomes, Callaspo, Lowrie, Gregorson, and Soto to FA. They may re-sign of Lowrie or Callaspo but the other will leave a hole. Maybe a trade around Johnson or Semien for Samardjzia will help both teams fill holes.

Okay. When he got drafted, it was intimated through the media that he wanted to go to the Cubs.

 

Because he had a pre-draft deal worked out with them.

Jeff Samardzija will be a free agent after 2015 (final year arbitration eligible in 2015). This article talks about how he would like to potentially come back to Chicago to be close to home.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...-eye-on-chicago

 

Can anyone think of a much better more realistic option to add as a front line RH SP to our lefty trio of Sale-Quintana-Rodon after 1 more warm up season?

 

Wishful yet realistic thinking. Sounds good to me.

no.

 

no.

 

No indeed.

 

And this is an area to wait on anyway. We'll know by next Memorial Day how fast Frankie M. and Tyler D. are moving toward the South Side. No reason to believe that the org won't be aggressive with both, if they perform, as FM was assigned briefly to Barons at the end, and TD has earned a start in B'Ham next April. If Frankie doesn't have any more injury setbacks, I'm confident you'll see both in Charlotte by the end of May. Noesi is giving me a bit more confidence lately that he can be a decent 5 on a good team, and there's room for growth. As far as depth, possibilities include the Hound, Beck, MEJ (the Mysterious Erik Johnson) and likely another low cost reclamation project or two in our future as well. Danks has gotta be moved somehow - may not be possible in the offseason, but hopefully early in the next.

 

Still, they're going to need another arm, at least, if they plan to contend in 2015. And this assumes Carlos is ready to go a full season of MLB - that may be a stretch.

 

If he's not set on retiring or going back to Japan, the guy who requires the smallest, lowest risk, commitment, in time and $, yet yields consistently excellent results each season is 40 year old Hiroki Kuroda. Don't know a single reason why he'd want to come to Chicago, but I'd be a wooing if I were RH. Perhaps we should give him a reason to be comfortable here. There's Maeda, or maybe there's some old lefty pitcher wanting to come to the States to be in our bullpen. Wouldn't mind seeing the roster become as Asian-friendly as it is Latino-friendly to boot - why not? HK's attachment to the Yanks is probably lessened by the reality that it's no longer any guarantee of postseason glory, and next year's prospects aren't so great either. He's talked about retiring/retiring in Japan, but I say we should throw a few MORE million at him than anyone else, to get him on a one year deal. Don't know how realistic, just throwing it out there.

 

Anyway, point of the post is we may not need a potentially disastrous megadeal with a FA pitcher, but as far as relatively big commitments go, if the Sox were to make one, I would much prefer the Maeda idea to Shark.

Edited September 11, 201411 yr by Stan Bahnsen

Looks like this might end up happening! Semien, Anderson, ? ?

Looks like this might end up happening! Semien, Anderson, ? ?

 

If that's where the trade would start, then I would hope Hahn would hang up the phone laughing. Maybe send them Alexei, but Semien AND Anderson AND more? No thank you.

If that's where the trade would start, then I would hope Hahn would hang up the phone laughing. Maybe send them Alexei, but Semien AND Anderson AND more? No thank you.

 

more of a solid question, only Hahn will be able to answer. when is it too much

to sacrifice for this trade to happen.

I love how you throw out Alexei as some worthless piece of trash. Two years of a 10 million dollar top 10 shortstop is more than just a throwaway. Semien will likely never be as good as Ramirez's age 33 and 34 seasons.

He can see all of these teams lining up to trade for him for 1 year; I'm sure he realizes that there will be quite a market for him as a free agent.

I love how you throw out Alexei as some worthless piece of trash. Two years of a 10 million dollar top 10 shortstop is more than just a throwaway. Semien will likely never be as good as Ramirez's age 33 and 34 seasons.

 

You really need to refine your reading comprehension. I said Semien, Anderson, and more was a laughable proposal, and something that started with Alexei and didn't give much more would be more reasonable. If you don't think Semien will ever be better than Alexei's next two seasons, you can have that opinion, but it doesn't make much sense given that Semien put up about league average OPS at his position as a rookie and Alexei is likely to decline over the next two seasons. I'd certainly want to see a lot more from Semien before I came to any type of conclusion like that.