Vance Law

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 05:45 AM) You're out of your mind. We might as well bring back Buehrle (greg's dream) and Paulie for one more year, too. No thanks. Although I do think we need a veteran "mentor" of the Jose Molina ilk who can really teach Tyler about the finer nuances of the game defensively. I'm not rooting for it to happen. Just noting that he isn't likely to get a starting job anywhere. We could use a left-handed backup.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 11:36 PM) Just watched the highlights. Man, Bassitt looked good. Had a bad ass curve ball, a good tight slider and the fastball looked like it had some decent sink. Anyone think he has a chance at making the rotation in 2015? Just asking is all because I really don't know. I assume he'll start in AAA, where he still has not pitched yet. I can't imagine they'd have him jump Rodon on the depth chart, so I don't think they'll have a slot for him or even that he'd be competing for one. I'll assume we sign (or trade for) one legitimate pitcher who's not a scrapheaper. Danks and Noesi with the final two slots unless they decide to start the season with Rodon. If there was an injury in there and they want to keep Rodon's clock from starting, I could see him getting the shot to fill in. He's prob right there with Carroll for that distinction as of now, but spring training would prob determine that.

AJP for backup catcher next year. Go ahead, tell me I'm crazy.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 06:24 PM) He could play 10-25 games at 1B, being the primary back-up for Abreu. You don't want him catching. Emergency 3B, but you don't want to see that happen, either. He has started 33 games at first this year.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 06:00 PM) All depends on the price tag. Most importantly...the years. Right. Thing is, where could he actually wind up? There are 14 AL teams other than the Sox. Not Houston (Carter). Not Boston (Ortiz). Not Toronto (Lind). Not Yankees (Beltran). Not Anaheim (Hamilton/Pujols). I can't see Minn, KC, Tampa, or Oakland spending the money Detroit Texas Seattle Baltimore Cleveland Obviously things can go a lot of different ways with free agents re-signing or not, but looking at teams' payroll and competitiveness situations I'd put the most likely landing spots as Detroit and Seattle. I don't think anyone offers 4 years. For the Sox the upside is that you're potentially making the Tigers worse while making your own team better (think Ozzie Guillen pushing Thome to Minnesota). The downside, obviously is, Vmart's age and the price tag.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Sep 20, 2014 -> 03:59 PM) Gillaspie is an offensive black hole against LHP though. I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that Davidson has an .820 OPS against LHP at some point either. Agreed. And who cares! Great! We've got someone for basically the league minimum who offensively is top 5 at his position against 74% of the baseball pitchers.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 20, 2014 -> 10:15 AM) I still think Avi should be used as a trade chip if there is a team out there that projects him as a future star. I've watched all of his at bats closely this year, and it's amazing how much he struggles to square up any pitch over 90 mph. I'm not sure if it's due to the labrum injury, but he's going down the same path as other previous Sox youngsters like Josh Fields. I've been impressed by his ability to work the count, as he's not chasing a lot of pitches out of the zone. To my eye, his approach and his ability to (intentionally) hit the ball the other way with authority distinguishes him from many typical White Sox busts. My concerns with him are whether or not he can round himself into an average right fielder and keep up the patience/higher walk rate he's displayed in Sept.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 20, 2014 -> 12:33 PM) people are putting Gillaspie in with Abreu, Eaton and Alexei as part of the core of the offense moving forward. In my opinion that's completely off-base. Obviously the Gillaspie-Soptic trade was a huge win but Gillaspie is still a third division starter if a starter at all. 3rd division out of how many divisions? 10 divisions? He's 10th in MLB in OPS for third basemen. He's 5th in MLB against righties. He can get around 500 PA's a year against righties and he costs no money. Would your idea be to spend considerable resources to try to acquire one of the 4 hitters better than him? Do you think Davidson will ever be able to put up an .821 OPS against righties (74% of pitchers faced)?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 19, 2014 -> 11:27 PM) So what should be done to prevent making that mistake again? Best way to avoid making that mistake is to be in a line of business other than baseball. Is your point that you have lined up every decision Hahn has made in his short tenure and graded them. And done the same for every single other GM in baseball. And you've come to the conclusion that Hahn is not the #1 best? That he's not in the top half? Or you just like to complain about the Addison Reed trade?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 19, 2014 -> 07:50 PM) um, no. That's a prediction. I won't be mad if I'm proven wrong, but that's my guess. This team will continue to be undisciplined, uncaring, they'll spend money at some point and the first fact won't change. They'll buffoon themselves into an 82 win season after Hahn blows $40 million a year in the offseason and someone will have to take the blame. Bizarre take.

Career .300 hitter in the minors with 50 plus steal ability who plays CF are good things. I bet an NL team will pick him up.

How about Walker Buehler at #4 dropping to us to form the beanpole brigade with Sale.

You know who would've been nice to pick up for nothing in March? JD Martinez

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Sep 12, 2014 -> 07:15 PM) I've been thinking, if the rumored player that we were suppose to get in Pedro Alvarez was/is true, I have a feeling we could get him for very cheap. He has not played at all lately with the Pirates during the most important time of the year, how would you guys feel about getting him for relatively cheap? What would you give up? He is basically a worse Adam Dunn. I don't know why we'd be interested.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 11, 2014 -> 07:07 PM) Pedro also did it with 217 innings. I love Chris Sale, don't get me wrong. But at 180-185 innings (if he gets there), it becomes a little asterisk-worthy. It's 162 innings to qualify for the ERA title.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:42 PM) Sometimes a .500 pitcher on a bad team is still a .500 pitcher on a good team. I know people don't think a pitching record matters but guys have won 15 or more on teams with a losing record. Some players bring confidence to a team with their presence. I thought Jack McDowell was that kind of guy. So is Chris Sale. Chris Sale was 11 - 14 last year.

I think Caufield and Wite are both right. Kemp is the better bet to get back to being star-caliber. That's why a) Dodgers are more likely to want to keep him b) other teams are more likely to want to acquire him, making his price tag higher. Eithier is more likely one the Dodgers would like to move. He has had his worst season, but he has a career .889 OPS against righties over 3500 PAs. Assuming he can get back to something closer to that, it's a big upgrade over De Aza's production in a platoon. But yes, if acquiring Ethier is the biggest thing the Sox do, it doesn't make much sense. Which is why that won't happen. Because Rick Hahn isn't an idiot. If they are making a concerted effort to compete next year, bringing in some players who you can't count on to be especially good for more than a few years while our prospects work their way up the ranks, Ethier can make sense as piece of that puzzle. Especially if what you're giving up to get Ethier is mainly money (like on the FA market) and not a youngster of value comparable to a 2nd round draft pick.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Sep 9, 2014 -> 08:40 PM) You'd have to be crazy to take a deal like that. Like I said, the Dodgers would have to eat some salary in order for it to make sense. Curious- for comparison what do people think Melky Cabrera (who is Kemp's age) will get this offseason? What will Nelson Cruz (4 years older) get?

They're going to have to move one of those outfielders this offseason and I assume eating salary to do it. With Pederson up there, at least one of Kemp/Ethier/Crawford has to be going. Ethier is currently 3rd on the depth chart for all 3 OF positions. Maybe Kemp's one they want to keep but it's worth exploring.

Sox should look at getting Kemp for LF/DH this offseason. Perhaps sending John Danks.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 2, 2014 -> 05:17 AM) If I were Rick Hahn, I would seriously consider trading Jose Quintana for a package of young prospects. While I do think Quintana has been a bright spot for the team and one of the best pickups the Sox have done in years, however I think he reached the ceiling of his prime and will never pitch better than he is pitching right now. You are suggesting actively making the starting rotation a lot worse next year. This would succeed in pushing back even further into the future the point at which this team is competitive. You are suggesting we actively choose to make more years of Chris Sale's ace-level performance to be worthless.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Sep 8, 2014 -> 03:16 PM) The ERA is the same... the peripherals couldn't be more different. McCarthy has one of the lowest BB rates and highest GB rates in baseball in those two years. When he's on the mound, he's a better pitcher than Noesi. Yes, lower walk rate, but he leads MLB in giving up hits this year. So his WHIP is right up there. McCarthy may be a better pitcher (or maybe Noesi takes another step forward) but by how much? And even if he is a little better, it's not enough to guarantee better results (see 2013 - 2014). Noesi costs nothing, what is McCarthy going to get on the FA market? If Danks is unmovable, and the Sox expect Rodon up at some point next year and you're ultimately replacing Noesi with someone like Mccarthy, it doesn't seem the cost is worth the (possible) minimal upgrade. Now if they are willing to cut ties with Danks or put him in the bullpen at some point, that's another story. But I'd say if they're going after a FA pitcher next year, I'd hope they go for someone higher up the food chain.

Look at McCarthy's last 2 seasons. He is basically Hector Noesi (2014 White Sox version)

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 10:30 PM) Ventura made the affirmative decision to both give away an out AND take the bat out of Abreu's hands. That's an indefensible move. Stay out of the double play. Garcia has a 62.5% ground ball rate

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 10:22 PM) Michael Taylor is horrible on defense. The ball jumps off of his bat, but he doesn't make a lot of contact due to mediocre pitch recognition. So he's Viciedo. Is he a better Viciedo than Viciedo?