Jake

Just don't do it in Virginia

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 12:27 AM) Tigers signing Damon was so long because at one point, we all thought the Sox were the team that was going to sign him. The good thing is...Soxtalk clearly still has traffic...recent moves have been the top traffic getters. Just wait till this team gets back to the playoffs and wins another series!!! Maybe I'm not recalling correctly, but I feel like that was an instance of a ST insider sharing some info that didn't materialize. Wasn't there something Damon having a big dick too? Or is that public info?

I don't think it is hard, at this point, to say that he is a prospect of the ilk of McCarthy/Hudson/Gio

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:47 PM) I would like to see the White Sox and Rick Hahn revamp the scouting department with the exception of Marco Paddy. We have revamped it, by giving it funds on par with other teams to sign the players it scouts

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:34 PM) Who said that? Yeah, I've not anything to suggest this. Despite some misrepresented articles that suggest the contrary, it seems that HTC views the One as a success and anticipates taking more market share in the future.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:36 PM) I tend to concur with the you; if not that specific plan (please post a warning when you write scary things - like Morel at 3rd). We should also clear out the bullpen soon of the Troncoso's et al and give some prospects or even another set of AAAA players a chance. It's ridiculous to play useless veterans. I think the main theory at play as far as Troncoso goes is that he is here only because there are young relievers that we like more, but we don't feel are ready to be exposed to MLB pitching just yet. You don't want prospects you actually like to be a punching bag for MLB guys before htey are ready

Yet another example of white culture's lawlessness

I loved Marcus Stroman, I was really hoping we'd take him. Then he got in trouble for taking Jack3d, lol. Also, Courtney has TWTW

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 09:34 PM) Gillaspie's defense has really soured me towards him lately, I could see him being a 3b/1B backup but his lack of power and defense really makes him a bad option starting anywhere He's a very good defender at 3B. He's just made a few bad plays recently.

"Slab City" - a rap song about ribs starring Anthony Adams and Lance Briggs

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 09:26 PM) Now a throwing error by Hawkins allows go ahead run to score. Jeebus. Hope he has a good head on his shoulders because this must be hard to take

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:40 PM) I want to see Beckham at short the rest of the year, Gillaspie at second (groom to be a super-sub of sorts), and Morel at third. The Sox lose valuable evaluation time with every game Ramirez plays. I'd much rather see Semien playing SS in this scenario with Gillaspie at 3B and Gordon at home at 2B. Just say no to Morel, it's a bad drug

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:10 PM) He'll be 32 next year, currently has a 77 OPS+ for a team on pace to lose 95+ games this year, and is owed ~$20M. He needs to be one of the first out the door. He has the 13th highest WAR of any shortstop in baseball. No player ranks better among his cohorts on this team. I don't like his bat either, but holistically he is highly valuable for us.

Yeah, a little underwhelming

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 06:19 PM) If Alexei is still around next season, I'd rather have Semien starting at 3b than Gillaspie. Indeed. That is the one position where I'm really happy to give someone else a shot -- and if you could get a veteran (a good one) at that spot, I'd jump at the chance. Conor is fine as a placeholder, but it's a spot on the team where you don't have a truly promising young player who you'd like to see get a chance to develop and it has been our hands down least productive position in the past two years. I'd be happy to try Marcus there. If Marcus hits and looks like a staple offensively, this is when I shop Alexei. I think I established well through my other posts that Alexei is probably the least replaceable player on the team. SS is the only position that has been ranking in the top half of the league production-wise for us, so we really do not want to take a step back there as we're really trying to build. If Marcus can hit at about league average wRC+ though, he can certainly make up for the fact that there's no way that he's a fielder of Alexei's caliber. At that point, you'd seek a 3B...I say that because I don't see a 3B in our system that will be ready in the next 1 or 2 years. Next year, you have to see what you've got. You let the young guys play and you assume that some of them are going to play really well and show you that they are going to be a permanent part of your team. The ones that convince you that they aren't capable of being part of the long term future can be replaced following the 2014 season by veterans or whomever.

That doesnt even include the returns for those missing veterans.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 04:26 PM) I hope we make three short term deals for next season. If we suck we can trade them. Go into the year with extra hitters. C: Phegley, AJ 1B: Hart, Dunn 2B: Beckham, Keppinger 3B: Gillaspie, Keppinger SS: Alexei RF: Garcia, Hart CF: Crisp, De Aza LF: De Aza, Viciedo DH: Dunn, AJ, Viciedo. We can get Crisp, Hart and AJ for short term deals and we definitely have the money to. Worst case move them in July. Seems like this just costs all of our best young players ABs - Phegley, Viciedo, Garcia, De Aza

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 04:10 PM) Angel Sanchez released to make room for Avisail Garcia. And Marcus Semien

Ventura is under contract for next year. Lay off the crack

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 03:44 PM) I'd guess that Chris Curley will go to AA to take that roster spot. Outside chance they go with Micah, but I kinda doubt it. Yeah, that makes more sense to me

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 02:39 PM) Brandon Allen sucked too. Not that Soxtalk didn't enter full freakout mode after we traded him

As I continue to think about this, our roster was clearly constructed based on the idea that the way above average value positions would be 1B and DH and that was largely the case last year (and we saw everything fall apart as Dunn and Konerko slumped down the stretch). This year, you see how bad the team is without its best players being its best players. Dunn has rallied back but playing 1B takes a nearly insurmountable chunk out of his value. The biggest problem with this team is that Paulie did not hit as well as planned AND nobody else hit a ton better as expected to make up for it. This team is probably a contender if PK is mashing and playing 1B. Sadly, it is hard to get a great 1B. Let's hope we figure something out. Someone in FutureSox said they see Andy Wilkins potentially being a 2-2.5 WAR player. Do you know how much better we would be if we had a 2-2.5 WAR player at first right now??

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) To me, I see a guy like Viciedo as "no plan at the plate," where he has no idea what he's going to do except something very basic. That's improving, but still. I view a guy like Tyler Flowers as "cannot recognize pitches fast enough" because he knows what he wants and where he wants it, but he doesn't have the hand-eye coordination to make the sweet spot make contact often enough. Based on numbers alone, Garcia is going to fit into the former rather than the latter. I more or less agree with that. I think Dayan is a guy who is constantly being coached and given a plan and his success seems to be dictated by how good that plan is and how well he sticks to it. Flowers is constantly being coached and given plans but rarely seems to produce based on this type of instruction because he seems simply incapable of either recognizing pitches or just hitting pitches he recognizes on a consistent basis.

Position by position WAR rankings for White Sox (this encompasses the best metrics for batting, baserunning, and fielding): First number is 2013, second number is 2-year average for positions where we have had players returning from last year C - 27th 1B - 28th / 17th 2B - 29th / 28th SS - 13th / 14th 3B - 29th RF - 18th / 15th CF - 22nd / 22nd LF - 20th / 23rd DH - 18th (out of 18 teams with qualifying amount of PA) / 7th out of 21 Here we see that our outfield and shortstop is definitely our strength, 3B/2B have been consistent problems. The biggest changes for this year compared to the 2-year average are the 1B/DH combo and of course the dropoff in catching is clear to us after AJ's career year. We still see the need for change in 1B/DH spots here, with PK in particular really hurting the team. Dunn should be able to shine in a DH role for as long as he's around. Keppinger has really dragged down our production at 2B and 3B this year while Gordon/Conor have not been good enough to balance that out. Catching has been bad. Want to start winning? Get producers at 1B, 2B, 3B, C. Now...how to do that? Because it seems hard at first glance. Well, it seems to me that Phegley turning into a good player would be a great first step. After that, you need Gordon to stay hot and keep Keppinger off of his position. Then, you either need Conor to play over his head and be a league average hitter (and, again, keep Kepp away or have Kep start hitting again) or get a new face over at 3B. We need a new face at 1B as well. It would also help if Dayan, who's been carrying our LF'ers to that mediocre ranking, could start to rake and improve our standing in that spot. De Aza could stand to simply repeat his defensive effort from last year to raise his own value. Rios is probably not a big concern...he won't carry us to having the best RF production, but we won't have bad production either. Ideally, you turn Rios into a producer at one of these weaker positions via trade. Then you hope Avisail can give us similar production in RF. The indispensable character, it seems to me, is Alexei. I didn't expect to think that.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 02:33 PM) No biggie. I'll get used to the posts rooting for the No. 1 pick. I just see it as kind of dumb considering the fact picks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to me are about the same. 1 is the only one that has been historically very significantly different. 1 and 2 are different, but 2-3-4-5-6 are hardly any different from one another.