Adam Eaton

[Jerksticks]

If the Sox are first in something and this bad ... you won't see the front office dealing its only strength IMO. I think we coulda dumped Shark when we had a chance and picked up something in return. Now it's too late for that.

It's not all bad though. Kind of offers the Sox protection in the draft. If they finish in the bottom ten, then the second rounder given up for Heyward is replaced by a better pick for losing Shark. Basically a free free agent if i understand correctly.

 

Arguably the talent acquired in the trade would have been better than the pick but like you said, it is what it is.

[kitekrazy]

If the Sox are first in something and this bad ... you won't see the front office dealing its only strength IMO. I think we coulda dumped Shark when we had a chance and picked up something in return. Now it's too late for that.

 

Maybe GMs are smarter than we think. I see nothing in Shark's stats that even point to ace. The Cubs and A's didn't think so and Sox fans bought into the hype. Sure they probably could have gotten a career AAA player that makes Beckham look like a super star.

 

[greg775]

Maybe GMs are smarter than we think. I see nothing in Shark's stats that even point to ace. The Cubs and A's didn't think so and Sox fans bought into the hype. Sure they probably could have gotten a career AAA player that makes Beckham look like a super star.

We'll see. I still predict 18 to 20 mill a year for four years for Shark. Some team will pay it foolishly. And it'll be seen as a good acquisition in the winter when all deals are considered blockbuster and great (LaRoche signing was praised??? Ugh). In reality, he's worth a Guthrie-like deal; 2 years 9 mill a year type deal.

[nitetrain8601]

Even if he's peaked he'll be easily worth his contract. But his power numbers and baserunning value are significantly better than last year.

 

The argument I'm making isn't is he worth his contract. He is, and I'm happy with him as an individual player. At the same time, the overall hitting on this team sucks. He's been playing CF and pretty good at it. I think he's peaked, you maybe don't. I'd trade him unless the Sox plan on bringing in a lot more legitimate players with him which it doesn't sound like they plan on doing.

 

You're just wrong on so many levels. If you want to package him, package him for what? Trading him would make Abreu the only one on offense that is worth a damn right now.

 

Sox have a rotation you can win with right now, just a matter of finding the right offensive players to go along with that. Eaton is definitely in that discussion.

 

With 9 games left in the season, Eaton has tied his doubles from last year, 1 less triple, 12 more HRs, more RBIs, SBs the same, more walks, more strikeouts (negative), lower average (.283), lower OBP (356), higher ops. If you want Trayce in the lineup and move Eaton to LF then I could do that, but flat out trading him on a team friendly contract is just wrong. You want Adam Eaton in your lineup, you can win with him.

 

Only thing I agree with you is that his defense has regressed this year, but was great last year. Give him a 3rd year to see how it goes.

 

You trade him for a position of need. That's what you do in all trades. Seriously, you trade something to get something. I would love to trade Danks and turn him into Trout, but that ain't happening. Instead, you can trade Eaton for someone in the infield (hell, you need all positions but one). That's just one idea.

 

He's still young. Why has he peaked?

 

His defense has gone down. His average and OBP have gone down. He k's more. You have more or less seen the best of him. Not saying his peak won't last longer than a year or 3. I'm just saying I don't think he's going to improve dramatically anywhere.

[ron883]

Trading Eaton is such a stupid idea. Do some people think we are loaded with outfield depth? The sox would just be creating another big hole.

[Dick Allen]

The argument I'm making isn't is he worth his contract. He is, and I'm happy with him as an individual player. At the same time, the overall hitting on this team sucks. He's been playing CF and pretty good at it. I think he's peaked, you maybe don't. I'd trade him unless the Sox plan on bringing in a lot more legitimate players with him which it doesn't sound like they plan on doing.

 

 

 

You trade him for a position of need. That's what you do in all trades. Seriously, you trade something to get something. I would love to trade Danks and turn him into Trout, but that ain't happening. Instead, you can trade Eaton for someone in the infield (hell, you need all positions but one). That's just one idea.

 

 

 

His defense has gone down. His average and OBP have gone down. He k's more. You have more or less seen the best of him. Not saying his peak won't last longer than a year or 3. I'm just saying I don't think he's going to improve dramatically anywhere.

 

I don't think people understand his OBP is down a whopping .006 from last season. Another sign he needs to go.

[Balta1701]

The argument I'm making isn't is he worth his contract. He is, and I'm happy with him as an individual player. At the same time, the overall hitting on this team sucks. He's been playing CF and pretty good at it. I think he's peaked, you maybe don't. I'd trade him unless the Sox plan on bringing in a lot more legitimate players with him which it doesn't sound like they plan on doing.

 

 

 

You trade him for a position of need. That's what you do in all trades. Seriously, you trade something to get something. I would love to trade Danks and turn him into Trout, but that ain't happening. Instead, you can trade Eaton for someone in the infield (hell, you need all positions but one). That's just one idea.

 

 

 

His defense has gone down. His average and OBP have gone down. He k's more. You have more or less seen the best of him. Not saying his peak won't last longer than a year or 3. I'm just saying I don't think he's going to improve dramatically anywhere.

I don't think that the stats strongly support "Adam Eaton is declining", the case is much more complicated than that.

 

Yes, Adam Eaton's batting average is down this year and he is striking out more. However, he's also hitting the ball with much more power - hence the boost from 1 to 13 HR. If he's swinging more to drive the ball, it's not unexpected that he'll hit more fly balls than ground balls that can turn into outs, and it's not unexpected that he'll also strike out more. The end result is that he's basically been almost exactly as effective of a hitter in 2015 as he was in 2014, maybe a tiny slice better in '14 but barely.

 

That could be a long term trend downwards - he could hit 7 HR next year and still keep the same number of Ks, or he could perhaps find an even better balance next year and actually improve as a hitter. I don't know. But that is a way he could significantly improve.

 

His OBP is down, but his walk rate is actually up on the year. That means he's got a few less hits because of the extra strikeouts and that's about it.

 

His defense is definitely down, but defense is one of those stats that can fluctuate a lot from year to year, so I hesitate to call that a long term trend based on one year.

 

Also worth noting - last year at this time we were saying "if Eaton could stay healthy" because that was one of his major issues in 2014. He's actually done that, so that's a positive for him in 2015 as well.

 

Your proposal to trade Adam Eaton for someone to fill an IF hole could be interesting except it only fills 1 hole while it opens up another. Our outfield is also the worst in baseball or maybe 2nd worst, too early in morning to look exactly where we are compared with the Phillies. If we open up another hole in the OF, we don't have anyone to fill that spot either. If you're going to get someone to make a mistake and fill several positions in the white sox lineup for him, ok you listen to that, but just looking to "fill an infield hole" is digging one hole to fill another.

[Y2Jimmy0]

It's not all bad though. Kind of offers the Sox protection in the draft. If they finish in the bottom ten, then the second rounder given up for Heyward is replaced by a better pick for losing Shark. Basically a free free agent if i understand correctly.

 

Arguably the talent acquired in the trade would have been better than the pick but like you said, it is what it is.

 

 

The White Sox are not signing Jason Heyward. Why do people keep talking about this? He's going to get $160+ million. Is that really something that anyone thinks the Sox will or should do?

[southsider2k5]

I don't think that the stats strongly support "Adam Eaton is declining", the case is much more complicated than that.

 

Yes, Adam Eaton's batting average is down this year and he is striking out more. However, he's also hitting the ball with much more power - hence the boost from 1 to 13 HR. If he's swinging more to drive the ball, it's not unexpected that he'll hit more fly balls than ground balls that can turn into outs, and it's not unexpected that he'll also strike out more. The end result is that he's basically been almost exactly as effective of a hitter in 2015 as he was in 2014, maybe a tiny slice better in '14 but barely.

 

That could be a long term trend downwards - he could hit 7 HR next year and still keep the same number of Ks, or he could perhaps find an even better balance next year and actually improve as a hitter. I don't know. But that is a way he could significantly improve.

 

His OBP is down, but his walk rate is actually up on the year. That means he's got a few less hits because of the extra strikeouts and that's about it.

 

His defense is definitely down, but defense is one of those stats that can fluctuate a lot from year to year, so I hesitate to call that a long term trend based on one year.

 

Also worth noting - last year at this time we were saying "if Eaton could stay healthy" because that was one of his major issues in 2014. He's actually done that, so that's a positive for him in 2015 as well.

 

Your proposal to trade Adam Eaton for someone to fill an IF hole could be interesting except it only fills 1 hole while it opens up another. Our outfield is also the worst in baseball or maybe 2nd worst, too early in morning to look exactly where we are compared with the Phillies. If we open up another hole in the OF, we don't have anyone to fill that spot either. If you're going to get someone to make a mistake and fill several positions in the white sox lineup for him, ok you listen to that, but just looking to "fill an infield hole" is digging one hole to fill another.

 

There is probably a decent chance these two things are related.

[BamaDoc]

Moving Eaton???? Who leads off? Look at the numbers, TT has come back to earth. Eaton has also been playing hurt but producing. Maybe injury is source of defense issues. I have no problem, if the team is structured better, he can slide over to left but I don't see that currently.

[Eminor3rd]

The argument I'm making isn't is he worth his contract. He is, and I'm happy with him as an individual player. At the same time, the overall hitting on this team sucks. He's been playing CF and pretty good at it. I think he's peaked, you maybe don't. I'd trade him unless the Sox plan on bringing in a lot more legitimate players with him which it doesn't sound like they plan on doing.

 

You trade him for a position of need. That's what you do in all trades. Seriously, you trade something to get something. I would love to trade Danks and turn him into Trout, but that ain't happening. Instead, you can trade Eaton for someone in the infield (hell, you need all positions but one). That's just one idea.

 

His defense has gone down. His average and OBP have gone down. He k's more. You have more or less seen the best of him. Not saying his peak won't last longer than a year or 3. I'm just saying I don't think he's going to improve dramatically anywhere.

 

The notion that Adam Eaton isn't worth his contract is patently false. The past two seasons, Adam Eaton has produced roughly 3 fWAR each. On the free agent market, teams have been paying roughly $7m per fWAR per season. That would make Adam Eaton free agent value about $21m per season, while he is guaranteed an average of $4.7m per season over the next five years. That, obviously, leaves a TON of roomto decline and still produce a ton of surplus value.

 

You can make the argument that his skillset is one that is not rewarded on the open market in proportion with its overall value, but there's just no way that a "speed/defense/OBP skillset discount" even approaches enough to make Eaton not worth his current contract.

 

It seems to be a somewhat widely held myth that Eaton's offense has declined this year. His average and OBP have dropped slightly, but his SLG has increased just as much, and the result is essentially the same output: 115 wRC+ this year vs. 117 wRC+ last year -- both numbers comfortably above league average, and putting him in the same neigborhood as Ian Kinsler, Joc Pederson, Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado, Jason Heyward, and Todd Frazier among others. Eaton is 56th in the entire MLB among qualified hitters, in fact.

 

Moving Eaton would create a huge hole, and one that you would NOT be able to fill without absorbing a MUCH larger contract.

 

 

[Dunt]

Eaton is now leading all position players with 3.4 fWAR

[southsider2k5]

Adam Eaton is second on the team in homers. Who picked that one at the beginning of April?

[BlackSox13]

The White Sox are not signing Jason Heyward. Why do people keep talking about this? He's going to get $160+ million. Is that really something that anyone thinks the Sox will or should do?

Agreed and I have absolutely no interest in Heyward for the money he will get, even if the Sox had it to spend. Looking at the offense side, Eaton and Heyward are so close its not even funny and yet Eaton is much cheaper. Eaton will make a total of 21M from 2016-19 and Heyward will make at least that per year with his new contract. Imo, Heyward's defense is not worth the excessive money he will cost. Besides, spending money on Heyward does not help 3B, SS or C. Heyward is just a bad idea.