Vance Law

Unless I am reading the rules wrong, there is also the chance that they trade Bonifacio and/or Beckham within 10 days, opening up a spot for Gillaspie to be brought back to Chicago.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 11:08 PM) you could have stopped there...beckham is no platoon mate for Conor. You can make an argument for him as the 25th man but beyond that full stop. If you've got Bonifacio, he's bumped up to 24. If Beckham can hit his career average against lefties, he's fine as a platoon mate with his plus defense. Beckham, like Alexei, LaRoche, and Melky, has not approximated career averages. But it's beyond silly to care what deficiencies the back end of the bench have, when you consider the hitting of literally every player on the team.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 10:56 PM) I would have to think some team picks him up. Just really begs the question why beckham is still (and ever was) on this roster. That said, hard to get too excited about the end of the roster when it's the front that has really under performed. Conor seems rather frail and weak for a pro player, he needs to find some PEDs. Beckham was picked up to be a platoon-mate and defensive sub at third base. He's a better infielder than Bonifacio who ultimately became an insurance policy at various positions due to his inability to do any one thing well other than pinch run. Beckham got the defense part down.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 10:36 PM) If it is true that Saladino is a better defensive SS, I would absolutely prefer Tyler. In fact, I even like Saladino better if he is only as good as Garcia. It was my understanding that Leury was clearly the better defensive SS. If anyone can make a comparison of the two players' respective defensive skills, that would be helpful. Take it for what it's worth, but Hahn said last year that outside of Alexei and Rondon, Saladino was the best defensive SS in the organization. Which implies he's better than Semien (A's starting shortstop), Carlos Sanchez, Leury, and Beckham.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 07:55 PM) Johnson is now 2-2 against Scott Diamond (LHP) Micah now his 6 straight multi-hit games. Average up to .333. Bring him up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 10:07 PM) FWIW, that's one of those injuries that it seems like "A DL Stint" really doesn't do much for. Instead seems to typically take months. Right, exactly. They could have stashed him on the DL until September if they wanted but they chose not to. Which seems like a confluence of "if a team is willing to give him a big league job, let's do that for him" and maybe "with his value at a low point, DFA him now and there's a chance nobody takes him.

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 07:30 PM) Gillaspie hit .326 during the first half of last season. That's great. Then he hit .228 the rest of that season. That's bad. This season he's hit a total of .237 despite playing almost exclusively against RHPs, something which should have maximized his production given his righty/lefty splits last season. So basically, Conor hasn't hit for almost a year now. Add that to his unplayably bad defense and saying he 'sucks' isn't entirely inaccurate. Not disagreeing with you that he may well suck, but I don't know why they didn't DL him with the plantar fasciitis issue to see if he can get back hitting more respectably when healthy. Answering my own question, I suppose it's that he's not going to be given any playing time in the short term, they know he's not their answer long-term, and it's not like his trade value is going to increase by not playing him and hoping he gets healthy. His trade value is what it is for now, which is not much. So they give him the opportunity to get another major league roster spot if anyone is offering. Or they can send him to AAA if no one takes him. I think we will see him hit better than he has this year once his feet are healthy.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 10:24 PM) 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. 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?

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 09:11 PM) I saw that injury. I was thinking Beckham; either one. I imagine Pirates would want the superior fielder (Ramirez) and the Sox would like to get rid of the larger paycheck (Ramirez).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 09:25 PM) The more repetitions the better for Anderson. Reason to think he could be acceptable a year and a half from now.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 06:32 PM) Hopefully they move Alexei and that option becomes someone else's problem. Pirates may have just lost their shortstop. I don't imagine Alexei'd bring back a whole lot more than salary relief.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 11:41 AM) I agree with Saladino not being long term answer anywhere in the infield, but he will make for a very good utility player. Brings a good glove, can hit, and has good speed. I can think of a better utility infielder candidate. He's currently starting at second base and has an OPS around .480

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 03:37 PM) Conor's defense reminded me of a bad college player. You never know when he simply was going to kick one or wave at a grounder or throw it away. He was OK last season as a hitter but not a big leaguer. I doubt anybody will pick him up except for AAA ball. In terms of offense, he was 12th or 13th in MLB among 3rd basemen (there are 30 baseball teams). So not only a starting big league 3Bman, but better than average at hitting. His subpar defense dragged him down to a worse than average overall third basemen (half of all players are worse than average, that is what average means). Would have been better than average if they had started platooning him much earlier. I assume an NL team will pick him up.

Stone and Wimpy. I think Hawk at all times simultaneously has both of these thoughts bouncing around his skull "In television baseball broadcasting there are always 2 guys working in the booth together and I'm one of those guys." "What the f***? Who is that guy over there? He's trying to steal my job!!"

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 04:47 PM) Yep, that could be one. There may be others, who knows. I think it's basically that he's worse than Beckham as an infielder and he's worse the Shuck as an outfielder. He's third on the depth chart at any position he plays. He hasn't hit. Shuck is the top pinch hitter and he'll pinch hit for the catcher in a close game. Bonifacio hasn't been good enough to warrant him pinch hitting for Sanchez or anyone else. He's basically a pinch runner and injury insurance who makes most sense in the National League which is where I imagine he will finish the season.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 03:16 PM) He's started to see how he does in case they trade some of the others as well as to give other starters rest. RV obviously doesn't care for Bonifacio's play for some reason. Reasons might include he's been brutal.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 10:42 AM) Not a "pure" measure of speed but he does have 25 SB's in 27 attempts in Charlotte. I thought that was incredible. Yeah, in 52 games. 25 steals in 52 games. 'Saladino has below average speed' is one of the more absurd comments I've seen here.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 07:21 PM) Avi by fWAR: 2013: -0.5 2014: -0.4 2015: -0.6 He is a historically bad defender, a bad baserunner and limited with the bat because of his awful pitch recognition skills. Prior to this season, his statistics at the same age looked much like Dayan Viciedo's. Now? They're actually worse, because the power isn't showing up. If you're still convinced there's a chance it does, stick him at DH. But everything to me suggests he is just not a valuable baseball player and I wouldn't be looking to have him on the roster in 2016. All of those 'seasons' add up to him having played a total of one season so far. And he's still young. He's actually a few months younger than Trayce Thompson.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jul 9, 2015 -> 12:55 PM) Maybe so, but $13M remains a fairly reasonable rate to pay a guy to hit .250ish with 20+ bombs and 80 or RBI. The bigger issue for the Cards is that Matt Adams will be back next year and then there is no where to play LaRoche. The Cards could simply trade him in the offseason. The Cards could, for example, trade him back to the Sox in the offseason.

They really f***ed up with those rules. It should be that once you go x dollars over your bonus pool, you can't sign any players. Not, once you go over your bonus pool, you have every incentive to keep throwing as much money as possible at players because the penalty won't kick in until next year.

Gotta love Ventura calling for the home run right there

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 10:26 PM) It is because of it's addictive properties. Can't tell if you are joking or not.

Wow. Marijuana is considered a drug of abuse. That is insane.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 08:04 PM) Not if you blame the historically bad team WAR for position players on the manager. So you blame Ventura for Alexei Ramirez? Ventura was good at making Ramirez be good last year and Ventura is bad at making Ramirez be good this year? Ventura's excellent at making Sanchez be a very good second baseman but he's bad at making Sanchez be a hitter? Ventura stunk at managering Melky for a month and a half but Ventura's been on fire at managering Melky for the past month?

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 08:54 PM) But if he's in our dugout in 2016, it will be the greatest example of our FO's hubris and lack of accountability. Just own that you eff'ed up and move on already. I would say this and substitute 'he's' with 'players'.