GreenSox

Sounds good to me. Soto's interesting...kind of forgot about him.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 02:51 PM) I feel like if Saladino were a cardinal he'd have a decent 8 year career. I do not have hope for him on our team. I know what you mean. He steps in fundamentally sound with a nice stroke. And then he hangs around this team and these coaches and they wring that right out of him.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 03:58 PM) I don't get the appeal of Leury. Posted a .399 OPS last year in the majors as a 23-year old, with disappointing defense. For all the flak he gets, Sanchez has an OPS about 80 points higher and on the rise lately, and has shown very good defense - again as a 23 year old. Sanchez' numbers in AAA at 22 and 23 dwarf anything Garcia did at same age and level. Why choose Garcia over Sanchez? Because he can play CF in a pinch? The team has a 4th OF and others as needed. I just don't get it. I wasn't choosing Garcia over Sanchez.... if the Sox can clear the vets out of the middle infield someone has top play short, so I picked Sanchez (he has played short, hasn't he?). No one else can play 3rd but Saladino, although the Sox really need a better bat there long term. As for Garcia, he's the only one left for utility and I don't see him as any worse than what's there now. Maybe they can keep Beckham and leave Leury in the minors. Regardless, if Micah straightened out his D some, bring him up.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 03:40 PM) How can someone with that bad of numbers be considered a option to return for a year? A better stop gap can be found. Like *shudder* our own players in the organization.

Cooper waited too long to get a pitcher warmed up...when Sale supposedly needed all this rest. Having 2 managers isn't helping

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 02:17 PM) I think we have enough at bats to go around at 3B / SS / 2B if the Sox thought they saw enough in these guys and were ready to acquire someone else at one of those positions depending on how they evaluate everyone based upon their collective minor league careers to date, tools, and of course what they show at the major league level. This of course is dependent on moving Ramirez. To say the least there are plent of at bats. If the Sox trade/sign another middle infielder I think I'll choke I'd like to see them move out all the riff raff now. L Garcia can play the utility infielder. It's great to hear that Micah is doing better defensively. Hopefully it's good enough to satisfy Cooper soon.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 02:57 PM) Saladino will be around next year, too. I don't see any harm in giving Alexei a chance to bounce back/rebuild some value. As it is, a trade at this point would probably be a salary dump anyway. If he's this bad next year, he can be DFA'd or dumped for Saladino. Like I said in the article, it's certainly possible there's something the numbers are totally missing, but from what I c an tell, betting on a bounceback here makes a ton of sense. Might not happen, but it looks more likely than most of the other lottery tickets we see. It's $10 million ($9 million really) to bring him back. That's too much for a hope that he ups his value. You could refuse the option and then sign him for less I suppose; but you could do that after trading most likely too.

Why not Saladino?

It's not that the sox are encumbered with bad contracts per se ...none of them are huge anchors, like, say the Rangers have. But there is an opportunity cost...and this is the alleged "3 year window", they brought in 2 aging FAs to play offense and both are terrible. They traded 4 young players fora 1 year rent. They still need a corner OF and a 3B....but they have 2 corner OF. They going to get a 3rd corner OF? So what's the next move? Chase it by trading good prospects?

Yall really want the Sox to pay $9 million for Alexei Ramirez next year? Get a 3B and let Saladino play short.

My conclusion is the same as it was when they DFAd him: he'll be traded for a dead veteran.

As Rick Williams continues to live in la la land.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 10:02 AM) The problem is what young players in Charlotte/Birmingham merited playing time at the big league level...? You would have had Trayce Thompson in LF or Shuck, maybe Erik Johnson or Beck in the rotation, Saladino/Leury instead of Beckham and Bonifacio...Kevan Smith instead of Soto, etc. It's not that so much. Look at Rodon. Why is he in the major leagues when he doesn't have his command? Because he is better without command than Hector Noesi. (and I think here was a little Williams/Hahn machismo involved). So instead of preserving service time until he gets his command and learns the 3rd pitch, they are using service time years for a non-ace performance. Better than Noesi is playing for today. Now, from this point when the season is lost, some guys from Charlotte absolutely need to come up. Erik Johnson has got to be #1 on the list.

Alvarez can't hit lefties. Basically what we got from Conor Gillaspie last year, offensively and defensively.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 08:53 AM) Rick Hahn worked for the White Sox for a long time before taking the GM role. If he couldn't figure out how involved Kenny would be on a day to day basis before that point, the man is an idiot. That may be, but the Kenny load up with veterans approach doesn't work. They need to change and it looked like they were until December when they completely veered and went into "go for it" mode, brought back the vets and to heck with developing young players.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 08:41 AM) this is the problem in general. if one just looks at the stats and use that as the end of all discussion as a final piece of a discussion, then that is a mistake. You're right, but for most of us, stats are all we've got to go on.

Houston has a bunch of sorry batting averages at the infield corner positions, but they've gotten a ton of homers out of those batting averages. they need a pitcher.

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 07:59 AM) He will have to play second. We are said to have bad defense anyway. I would think if he's close to average anything beats a mlb player batting .150. I'm not sure he doesn't beat it if he isn't average. Pitchers/Cooper don't like it, but do they like 2 runs scored a game? They need to find a spot for him

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 11:21 PM) If the Sox were in contention, would you be excited for them to pick up $4 million in salary for a guy with a .555 OPS and give up a worthwhile prospect as well? No but I wasn't excited to trade our top 2 pitching prospects for a 5.16 ERA and 1.49 WHIP and pick up high salary either when marginally in the race....yet Ken Williams did just that. So we'll see.

Can he play 3rd? What are the chances he actually gets his D to acceptable 2B levels? The guy's raking in AAA

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 09:36 PM) Not saying this is good or bad but Hahn appears to be more sabermetrics orientated then Kenny. And he seems to be much more patient and willing to trust the "process" or "plan" then Kenny. Just my opinion. Mark Yes, he was reputed to be, but I certainly haven't seen much of that. I guess it was unreasonable to expect a radical change, but I did expect to see some changes. He deals with same teams Williams did. Hitting coach from Oakland. Invest in utility infielders and past their prime veterans. Extend the insider manager (who doesn't know a thing about sabremetrics) off of a 99 loss season, instead of bringing in his own manager. There has been virtually no change. Maybe we'll see some this trading season....some selling high, for example, but I doubt it.

Alexei would bring something. His D has stabilized, he's hitting better and teams would take a flyer figuring he's better than this and when the team is so bad, players underperform. Nothing great, but something. I realize that Williams/Hahn love 30+ year old veterans and give them far more deference than young players, but it's time to move these stiffs out of here.

I don't know who's responsible for what. But I haven't seen the philosophical change in team building in this org. that I hoped would happen. I guess it's that I hoped that Hahn would have a different philosophy than that which has failed miserably for the last 6 years. And because the philosophy is the same, I assume Williams is still running the show, when that may or may not be true.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 05:26 PM) Hell, if he hits good over the next two months, you might as well give him the SS position for next year while buying out Alexei's option. Hopefully they move Alexei and that option becomes someone else's problem.

I don't know who's really running this org. Is Hahn deciding who to acquire or is Williams, with Hahn executing the acquisitions?