Jake

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 12:51 PM) How far are you willing to take that "not a lot to dislike" comment? Would you go 7/$140+? What's your limit? I have a hard time saying I'm comfortable with giving any player a 7 year contract, but I'd be thrilled if we signed Heyward for $20M/year.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Aug 3, 2015 -> 11:21 PM) If the power struggle is true, Hahn must be laughing his ass off to KW, who wanted to buy. If you were on the pro-buy camp, wouldn't you just say that swapping Avi for [good hitter] would win you this game?

Pretty indefensible decision to send him home, but McEwing was on an absolute roll lately. I'm more angry about the constant f***ups of Zach Duke and the fact we keep seeing him out there in key situations

I think Samardzija--at least, forgiving his last outing--has pitching really quite well this year, probably a little bit better than I expected. With that said, his drop in velocity and strikeouts makes me worried about committing a lot of money to him. I'm also not a firm believer in the "he has a young arm!" business

The FG article about Sox hitters was written on July 23rd. The two big numbers were -3.4 WAR (collectively) and 78 wRC+, both good for last place by far. Just 8 days later, our season WAR for position players has leaped to +0.9 and the wRC+ to 85. Still last in WAR, but no longer last in wRC+. We are 2nd in WAR over the last 7 days and respectable 16th over the past 30. Hitters don't have to be great when our pitchers are 6th in WAR for the season, 1st in the AL. 2nd in WAR in MLB over the past month.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 1, 2015 -> 02:53 PM) And he'd have a lot more opportunities and margin of error to work on that pitch in Triple A if given a proper game plan. Personally, I think it's silly to let a pitcher learn a new pitch on the fly in the big leagues, especially if he's only a 2-pitch pitcher so far, it would do damage to his confidence if he struggles, and I think the team will wants to go after the WC spot. He's not learning a new pitch. He had the changeup in college as well, he just didn't need it much just as he arguably doesn't need it much here (though it certainly would be a long term difference maker). His problem is chiefly fastball command and this is the level where he is most likely to improve it. He could get better command in the minors, but this is the level where hitters are most likely to punish you for your mistakes. When a guy has stuff like Carlos does, he needs to pitch against big talent or his mistakes may not get exposed.

He really hurt himself by holding out for a MLB deal. After well over a month of no action, he went to AAA and struggled a lot.

I would skip his next start and give to EJ without sending Rodon down. I would then put Rodon back in the rotation, demoting Danks to the long relief/starting purgatory that we had with Noesi to start the year. Carlos needs to take his lumps up here. If he's going to be an automatic loss every start, then we just won't make a playoff run. We're within striking distance of the wildcard, but we're not in a position to jeopardize the development of one of the most important players in the organization. Rodon is just one of those things that needs to "go right" for us to make a run.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 09:31 PM) Ignoring Greg for a bit, Hillary released current medical records today, which is something I actually do care about for a person running for President at ~her age. Hyperthyroidism, seasonal allergies, couple things on the longer-term record but nothing serious, no heart issues, exercises, no evidence of cancer. Anything about...CONCUSSIONS?!?!

Remember when we went for the rotating, guys who can play defense DH? They were crap then, too. What's Thome up to?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 09:10 PM) Spent a fortune this offseason and is very likely going to have another .500 team with a mediocre farm system. Hahn talks a great game, but he has not done a very good job so far. I think there has been some changing of the guard in the KW to Hahn change but we have done nothing like hiring a new GM (and I'm actually more or less okay with that). With that said, I think people really need to get it out of their minds that there is some meaningful line of demarcation between the KW tenure and the Hahn tenure. And if there is, are we sure we wouldn't want KW back?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 09:03 PM) Maybe the most disappointing thing of the last 6 weeks or so was Hahn seemingly not trying to unload LaRoche on the Cards or Pirates. It's pretty obvious LaRoche is a terrible fit here. In what bizarro world could we have managed a deal of LaRoche and gotten anything of value? He went from modestly underperforming to free-falling after signing a market value deal. I don't know why anyone would have wanted to trade for him. If what someone said in another thread is true, seems like he needs to spend a little time on the DL

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 09:06 PM) Hahn's resume looks mediocre? He's taken an awful team and made them mediocre in 2 years. That's harder than it looks when the main farm additions are Carlos Sanchez and Carlos Rodon. You know who's resume looks awful... the guy... that would be KW. Carlos Sanchez is a KW signing

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 08:56 PM) Rodon needs the experience at this level. I like to think back on John Danks' first season in the big leagues. It was a real struggle and got worse as the season wore on. I was thinking he needed a complete rebuild of his mechanics because his command was just crap. The next year he came out and really kicked some ass.

Expected throes of despair, saw them, leaving

Recall that Scott Kazmir, who one would assume has a similar value to Samardzija, garnered the A's ... not a single top 200 prospect.

QUOTE (RaySox @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 04:23 PM) I'm sure he'll take us to the promise land next year. No other moves needed. The poster said we had no top 100 position player who could contribute next year, but we clearly have one who can.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 04:21 PM) We have no top 100 position player prospect ready to go for 2016. If they want to improve that team then, they'll do what they did last year. Micah Johnson?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 04:18 PM) of course we're not obligated to...we could instead go into next year with a similar roster to the one we currently have, except probably without Samardzija and with a rookie in his place in the rotation. You can also make trades, have young players emerge and improve, sign good players who don't cost >$100M and a draft pick, etc.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 31, 2015 -> 04:15 PM) Exactly. We will both not be top 10 protected, and almost assuredly have to sign a big ticket FA. We are in no way obligated to sign a big ticket FA. There won't be many anyway, especially if you don't plan on looking at starting pitchers. Heyward will cost a pick, Upton apparently will, and Cespedes won't. There aren't as far as I know any major players slated to be available at non-OF positions

I like it. You can't give up on the team by trading Samardzija, but you can't trust this team so much that you'll pay big for a rental. The problem with going for a bigger deal is that it's not 100% clear where are needs are beyond "maybe everywhere." You can benefit from the information you get over the next two months about which players are going to flourish and which are going to need replaced in the offseason.

So what the f*** are the Padres doing?

Yeah I mean that could be true but we hear this s*** all the time

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/627199373252792320 Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale 56s57 seconds ago The #Tigers real close to moving Cespedes. The #whitesox involved but not the favorite

If you were an opposing GM, would you rather call KW or Hahn to get a deal done?