GreenSox

There is a legitimate question as to whether spending 100-120 million on Samardzija is the best use of Sox assets. Just have to see how things develop this season (2b, 3b, c) and with the highly rated pitching prospects.

Oakland always makes sure that they have enough young pitching. It's certainly worked for them. and if you can develop young pitching, just solid non-elite, you can trade it for good players.

QUOTE (daggins @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 09:13 PM) Looks like Phegley is going to be the weak half of a platoon. Watch him be better than Flowers this season. Wouldn't surprise me if he hits. He always has, except for the Sox in 2013.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 07:57 PM) He's played 29 games above A ball. Probably won't be invited to major league camp. Just a minor league transaction. And he's 26. They had to send him back down to A ball mid year last year. But he raked A ball.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 01:45 PM) I think Nieto was going to the minors regardless with the addition of Brantly in my opinion. yea, I predict Nieto in Birmingham and Smith in Charlotte.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 03:04 PM) I'm guessing all catchers. I just looked up the 30 catchers who got the most PA as catchers in 2014, and Flowers was 21st in OPS at .693. The median for those 30 players was .718. What do you use for stats. When I run all catchers to see individual numbers on ESPN or fangraphs, they exclude about 1/2 of the catchers, including Flowers. Yes the number I put above is based on at bats from all catchers.

Minor league deal only, I hope.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 02:42 PM) The problem is that we already have offensive holes at C an 3B. You can't expect to be contenders with huge gaps at a third of your positions. League average OPS for Catchers: .688 OPS for Flowers: .693 Here were last year's black holes: Beckham - OPS of .598 A sub .700 OPS in LF and RF Bench - L Garcia had about a 1/4 season worth of at bats at a .399 OPS. Those 3 holes were really, really deep.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 12:09 PM) Longoria is under team control at a virtually bargain basement prices for the next 9 seasons. He'd fetch an absolute king's ransom. If I dealt him to the Cubs, for instance, I'd ask for probably 2 of Bryant, Russell, and Soler and 2 others. If I were getting Bryant, I may be able to work out where I got 3 others, but they'd all be very good prospects. His age is beginning to work against him but it's not crazy to think he'd fetch a ton at this point given his contract. For the next NINE seasons, which means it's not bargain basement price. He's owed about $120 million; if you can expect him to be productive for 5 years, then you're paying almost $25 million per. Knock it down to $20 mill per and then $5 mill for less productive years and there you have it. I've heard his contract compared to Sale's. That's ridiculous as Sale's pays him a below market amount and only for what project to be his reasonably peak years. Josh Donaldson has been more productive than Longoria over the past 3 seasons; just without the hype or the contract.

Chris Johnson is not a good defensive player and now his offense is matching his defense. He would be a marginal upgrade at a high cost, which even if the Sox could afford now will hamper future moves. We're actually in good shape at 2nd as well. They can handle the defense and Johnson might turn out to be really good. I don't understand the the fear of young players nor the love of bad veterans. Just need a bench bat to take occasional bats from Gillaspie and even Laroche.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 10:49 PM) Really. Wow, I think you are getting way ahead of yourself. Hsve you seen his walk rate? That could be a real problem for success in the mlb. Not at all. I think he COULD be. I'd say it's 20% chance he is an ace 40% chance he is a 2/3 30% chance he is a 4/5 10% chance he's a dud Those are strong odds for a prospect. Thus more valuable, in my mind than a 3-4 WAR veteran who's already reached his peak and is likely to decline and would likely put us back to 2009-2012 territory of mediocrity and bad contracts. The reward is too high not to take the shot - we'll either have the best starting staff in MLB OR it will allow us to trade one of them at their youthful peak and shore up 3-4 other positions.

It was a 750k gamble to keep Viciedo. Certainly worth the risk

Looks like the Nats made out like bandits in that deal. Souza was an extra player for them. Big minor league numbers, but he was 25.

Hiring guys like Ventura is a trend. I think it's for 2 reasons. 1, they can handle the player and personalities, which obviously is important. Second, the inexperience and presumed open-mindness of the manager allows them to do some managing from the front office (which I'm not sure is a good idea, but Beane started it and a lot of teams are doing it). I think Ventura has improved on his biggest weakness - overuse of pitchers; probably as a result of front-office prodding. He'll be better with experienced and improved personnel, esp. the improved pen and bench if it ends up being improved.

The fact that the Sox have a good chance to have Chris Sale #2 be damned.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 06:30 PM) It doesn't matter if Reed sucks now. He had perceived value at the time, if we used that for a player who didn't pan out, it was a miss. And we just don't have the farm system to prop up misses yet. We had HUGE wins on dealing Peavy and Santiago. Massive. They more than made up for the Reed miss. If you trade for high ceiling prospects, you will have misses. The thing is, we didn't give up much to take a shot.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 06:24 PM) How many puppies did you kill when we traded Reed, Olivo and Morse for Garcia in 04? I sure didn't like it then and I wouldn't like it now. It was a bad value trade. Nevertheless, I will continue to object to bad value trades even though that one, coupled with about 8 other moves, netted a world championship.

I see that the Padres just sent Trae Turner packing in the Will Myers trade. Good news: that means we can trade Rodon for the proven veteran of your choice.

I have absolute confidence that they can handle the position defensively. I have absolute confidence that any of them are as good as Cabrera or Beckham. Johnson has good upside. He could easily be at least a Dee Gordon type. and we'd have had to trade a heck of a lot more than him to get a Dee Gordon.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 05:29 PM) Since joining the White Sox he has hit .273/.316/.429 .745 OPS, 12 HR in 358 PAs. It is not crazy to think he can better that by getting consistent playing time next year. It would be weird if he did his best work in a September callup, 8 games in April, and 40 games after screwing and rehabbing his shoulder. He has already hit pretty much league average for a corner outfielder. The hope is that he can improve on his Viciedoian defense, and with his speed and athleticism there's reason to think he can. Exactly. He's had 3 basically 6 week stints with the Sox. And through it all, he's league average. It's hard to believe that that's his ceiling. Yes, it may take a while. That's why this "all in" idea for this season never made any sense. YOu need young players, they take time and you can't plug what was a 63 win roster (which was even worse considering that that 63 win roster had an ace starter). I also don't understand the woe over the trades. yes, Davidson looks bad, but we have traded a replaceable relief pitcher for him. We traded another young pitcher for a starting YOUNG CF. WE cashed in Peavy for A Garcia (who is at worst average) plus top 100 Montas, plus slick fielding Rondon (who we'll need in 2 years or may be able to trade for a different young player). Far prefer these trades for YOUNG players than the trades for the "proven veterans" like Swisher, Vasquez, Edwin Jackson and Teahan. On a side note - I see the Dodgers are peddling Brandon League. Well, they waived Javy Guerra last year to retain that proven pitcher League. How did that work out? Great for us, as Guerra is the better pitcher now as he was then.

Where we need to bring in a bench player is for the outfield. We have nothing in AAA to help. We have 3 guys ready to go for the infield. Let them fight it out. Why bring in someone we know is terrible like Beckham or Cabrera?

No We have 3 guys fighting it out for 2nd. At least one will be able to handle the position defensively, and all 3 have more upside than Cabrera. Below average veterans are no cinch not to further decline either.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Dec 15, 2014 -> 08:42 PM) Wouldn't be surprised to see Ben Brewster continue to quickly move through the minors so there'a another name to throw out there. What makes you think so?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 17, 2014 -> 05:37 AM) I know you have been on a "keep and develop the kids" crusade all offseason, but if Evan Longoria is possible (not saying he is, just supposing) than you do this every time and don't look back. That being said, I don't think this will happen That's because the only way you have a chance to win by not using young players is to have a Yankees type budget. The best chance is to be like the Cardinals. Yankees-lite has little chance. You don't encumber yourself to $120 million until they are 37 after you've basically spent your budget. The Blue Jays traded their best young players 2 years ago and it got them nowhere. their only savior is that their farm continued to churn out more talent. And they still haven't done much. I will also ask is it mere coincidence that he's on the block the year after he sported a .724 OPS?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 16, 2014 -> 10:55 PM) Exactly. Since Rodon can't be traded, Thank goodness for that. We still wouldn't be the favorites even with him. Keep the young talent.