GreenSox

"He equated name recognition with talent and paid the price. " yep, I think Preller set the world record for hero-worship. And a tale of the perils of hero worship. A lot of posters hereon were pining for Upton and Kemp.

Let's hope so. Dump Hawk and Farmer.

Well I guess one Adam Dunn deserves one Nolan Sanburn. I expect Albers to be called up soon. If they didn't care about him, they just would have let him have his week off with Charlotte. Sent him to Birmingham presumably to get some work in.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 08:42 PM) Ahh my bad. That explains it then. I expect Montas and Saladino to head back after Friday's DH Certainly hope not. No reason Saladino shouldn't be starting at 3B most nights. Who are they putting there - Beckham?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 08:14 PM) Yeah, I don't think that is it at all. Thinking big picture, they have called up Beck, Carroll, Junior Guerra, and now Montas... but not Johnson. Call me crazy, but that means something. I wouldn't be surprised to see Johnson involved in one of these deadline deals. Just a hunch. Yea, something is up with that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 07:45 PM) Holy F***. yes, it's OPS. Put another way, if I liked Lucroy and wanted to replace the catcher, yes that would be a beneficial deal for the Sox to replace a 1/2 year rent of Shark with 2.5 of Lucroy. That more than accommodates a necessary discount for his terrible year. But the Brewers wouldn't sell him for that discounted price. They would want current year totally ignored.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 06:48 PM) So you wouldn't swap Samardzija for Lucroy? That's not realistic. Brewers don't need Samardzija. Lucroy has an OPS of .631 this year, coming off of an injury. They won't let him go for anywhere near a .631 value, and I, not a hero worshiper, don't like paying for past production. I like the way Flowers is working with these pitchers- framing and such. I was mistaken - it's 2.5 more years.

QUOTE (BigFinn @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 06:17 PM) Do you think that the Sox could get some younger prospects for Samardzija and flip them to Milwaukee for Jonathan Lucroy? Hope not. Off injury, terrible year, free agent in 2017.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 03:13 PM) That 2/3 of an inning is a sufficient sample size to say he's a bust, clearly. Not a bust; just may not be ready.

15 scouts at his last outing, and he throws a complete game shut out. What more could they want if the goal is to trade him? I doubt they trade him.

The draft is like hitting a baseball. You will get a lot more outs than hits, but if you are skilled and have a good approach, you will be successful. A lot of high draft choices bust. Conor Gillaspie, e.g., was a first round draft choice, but the team that drafted him has won 3 WS since. I read that Tampa hasn't had a player drafted in rounds 1-10 succeed in the majors since the 2007 draft.

When has buying old veterans ever worked? Youkilis is the only one I can remember and we gave up next to nothing for him, as Valentine channeled Ozzie in his ferocity in wanting the player off his team. (The subsequent Williams moves for veterans that year didn't help at all.) Aramiz Ramirez is 37 and has an OPS of .692. Difference maker or silly hero worship?

.325 is not a good OBP for a power hitter. His walks are up this year, but his homers are down, his doubles are down from 2013 (I'll ignore 2014). Gone down this road too many times without learning a lesson.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 12:33 PM) Scott Merkin ‏@scottmerkin 2h2 hours ago Just wondering if Frank Montas will be the 26th man added by the White Sox for Friday's doubleheader with the Royals. Purely a guess on my part but White Sox, while still feeling in playoff contention, also starting to infuse their prospects to Majors Before David Robertson was added, there was some talk that Montas could figure into White Sox closer equation this season. Montas just got exposed in the Futures Game. Throws 100 MPH with no movement and unreliable secondary pitch. He needs more work. Johnson is the candidate, after Bonifacio is DFAd As for depth, Hahn just dealt 3 roster guys to rent one player for 1 year. Frankly, I want to see Saladino and Micah up the rest of the year. Neither is really the 3B of the future, but they could be 2B. See if Sanchez can play SS as well as he can 2B. Saladino had some good swings over the weekend. Even Sanchez is waking up, albeit slowly. If someone wants Laroche's salary and give a B prospect, send him on his way.

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 10:48 PM) Every quote I read from Yost just screams that he wants to put Sale at a disadvantage this weekend. Everything from the world wants to see him pitch to talking Ventura into letting him pitch. Both bulls*** and Robin is an idiot especially considering he let him go another inning the other day when he had just come off a CG. Whatever Yost's motivations, it's reasonable for him to want Sale to pitch an inning. And there was no reason for Ventura to send him back out there...he's overpitched Sox starters all year long, especially Sale. And the front office is abetting his nonsense.

Give up on a young player 2 years left on deal expensive; average defensively Low OBP High K another stopgap We've seen this act before and it's an approach that has consistently FAILED.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 02:42 PM) Avi has proven a pretty useless major league piece at this point. He is weak hitting, atrocious fielding corner outfielder who doesnt walk and strikes out a bunch. He has been below replacement level for his career thus far. I would rather have the "proven veteran" with the 100 pt higher ISO manning a position that requires you to be a power hitter. Avi needs to improve - and he certainly may. He needs to pull the ball some. Sox would rarely develop a young player given the patience for them in these parts. But I've seen so many of these veterans on their even or downward plane, immediately trend downward fast. The contract is heavy and he'd cost more than Avi. Patching with veterans has failed miserably.

Excellent. One of my favorites. Don't know how good he is, but just like the way he pitches and mound presence based on the youtube videos.

Trade for young players? Develop young players. Like Avi, before jettisoning him for that "proven veteran" Bruce is a good hitter, but a)will it continue and b)his D is average. Better than Avi, but average. The Sox farm system hasn't been overly productive, but it's been a lot more productive than Kenny Williams' trades for those "proven veterans".

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 02:15 PM) The Reds want to trade Bruce to shed salary and you're going to to offer them two underperforming guys that would significantly increase their payroll? i.e. he believes (wisely) that we should not trade for Bruce.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 01:33 PM) I know a lot of people are a hard pass on Bruce, but this might be a good time to strike on him. His stock seems to be down and the Reds are not interested in paying any of his remaining salary. When I look at him versus our current RF situation, Bruce has a better ISO, BB%, better wOBA, and much better defensive defensive metrics than Avi. I realize he is a strikeout machine, but this team is in desparate need of power/offense and improving their holes on defense. If a package might be able to be centered around Avi and a prospect, I think this is something that the Sox should look at. No If it fails the first time, keep doing it again and again so we can keep on failing.

QUOTE (BamaDoc @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 08:50 AM) Kinda surprised unless done as a favor to him. Had been pitching well of late except one outing. With teams looking for pen help hoped we could have gotten low level prospect or international pool money. Doubtful - he's been terrible since 2012. Rangers released Feliz and the Royals Frasor for nothing and they've been more productive.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 06:12 AM) with all due respect, i know you said hope, i disagree with your idea. Q has still put up good numbers, yeah he has been snake bitten by some horrible luck. Shark, is going the fa rt, no matter what is said and done. unless the sox comes up with a 25 + mil offer, he is not resigning. I agree - Q fits this team - he's a ground ball pitcher. Shark doesn't. I don't think he gets $25 million, though Move Shark soon - it's a seller's market NOW....but it may not be in 2 weeks. Get Erik Johnson up here and see what he can do.

QUOTE (BigFinn @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 09:36 PM) Adam LaRoche's batting splits for 2014 from Baseball Reference: 1st Half:.279/.383/.457 (BA/OBP/SLG) 2nd Half: .236/.336/.453 Fangraphs suggests that Jose Abreu as a better fielder at first base than Adam LaRoche. LaRoche is here to paper over the fact that the Sox organization does't have any LH power in the pipeline. Here is a summary of our offensive woes using OPS+ (thru Saturday's game): OPS+ Player Starters 136 Jose Abreu 103 Adam LaRoche 101 Avisail Garcia 99 Adam Eaton 90 Tyler Flowers 86 Melky Cabrera 82 Conor Gillaspie 64 Gordon Beckham 56 Alexei Ramirez 31 Carlos Sanchez Bench 97 Geovanny Soto 94 JB Son Beckham 83 Micah Johnson 55 Tyler Saladino 1 Emilio Bonifacio Looking at the raw data, I could see the Sox playing Soto more frequently than Flowers over the next 2-3 weeks. Although Alexei Ramirez is showing some signs of life over the last 2 weeks (.306/.342/.361) and I like what I've seen from Tyler Saladino during the Cubs series, the White Sox need to find some help for catcher and the left side of the infield. Based on that data, they need help at LF more than catcher. And I agree with the data - Sox could use a quality OF. I wouldn't give up Flowers' pitch framing for those few OPS points.

That Friday meltdown looks like it devastated the Tigers. They had beaten Minny on Thursday, had the game well in hand on Friday, and then WHAM. they lose the series. Tough game. Tigers might decide to sell.