Vance Law

Here is a repost of the poll conducted before the season http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91389 It might be tough to gauge exactly how much we got back, as their was a not-worthless prospect sent our way. I'd vote the winners were around $3 million. Over half of voters thought we'd get back less than $1 million, and that was presumably without a prospect.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 01:16 AM) You do not need to draw walks to be a patient hitter, you can work counts to raise the pitchers's pitch total. During his rookie year last year he did just that and he did it again before he was injured. Do you have any evidence to back up the claim that he worked counts? Did he do so as well as the average major leaguer? Did he do so as well as Marcus Semien? Are there any numbers you are using to back this up? QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 01:16 AM) Again did you read the article, you want a guy who can drive in runs batting second, Garcia dose that better than Semien and Sanchez. Do you have any evidence that Garcia "drives in runs" better than others? If you were exclusively looking at RBI totals from the minors, those would be affected by where the player batted in the order. Semien hit leadoff quite a bit. Even still he had 66 RBI in 2013 (74 if you include MLB total). Garcia topped out at 67 if you combine minors and majors for 2013. Is hitting extra base hits the best determiner of ability to drive in runs? Garcia never had more than 39 extra base hits in the minors with 14 home runs. Semien had 63 extra base hits in 2013 between the minors and MLB with 21 home runs. Garcia has averaged 3.57 pitches per plate appearance in MLB. Semien has averaged 4.15

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 01:57 AM) Garcia, while he dose not walk at a high rate and he has been very aggressive at the plate since coming back from injury, he has shown the ability to go deep into counts and work the pitcher. When? Where? QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 01:57 AM) Another reason why he should bat second, is that he does some some speed and he can steal 15 bags a year. Sounds like you decided you hope he bats second, and tried to shoehorn in the 'Garcia is patient' part. If it is patience and ability to steal some bases, Sanchez and Semien fit the bill better than Garcia.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 01:40 AM) Sorry for the typos, I'm on a phone and my computer broke. I meant the content too. Garcia isn't a patient hitter.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 5, 2014 -> 01:09 AM) Garcia would bat am second because he is a patient hitter what?

QUOTE (daggins @ Sep 4, 2014 -> 07:30 PM) Semien has struggled quite a bit this season. Huh?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Sep 4, 2014 -> 02:29 PM) The problem is that he SUCKS against LHP. It's an obvious platoon situation and Robin doesn't see it. Why on Earth would you think Robin "doesn't see it"? Dayan Viciedo has sucked against right handed pitching for all 3 of his seasons. He's sucked against all pitching most of the time. He has continued to be a starter virtually that entire time. Do you think Robin doesn't see it? Wouldn't you think that these personnel decisions are made not purely at the managerial level? That decisions regarding these players for the longer-term future to determine if they can figure out how to hit same-handed pitching particularly in a season that doesn't matter? If and when the team is actually competing, obviously Gillapsie would be platooning if he hasn't figured lefties out.

QUOTE (TRU @ Sep 4, 2014 -> 10:39 AM) Why are you so convinced hes not? Just look at his body of work over his time in the majors. Im not going to look at a month of hitting .394 and say the guys awesome. He hit .245 last year and has hit .242 since the all star break. He had two months where he hit .394 and .333, those are outliers. Gillaspie has hit .320 (6th best in all of MLB) with an .848 OPS (#26 in all of MLB) against righties this year. He has hit .289 with a .795 OPS against righties in 743 career plate appearances against them. White Sox hitters have faced right-handed pitchers 73.8% of the time this year (that's a lot!). Vs. left handers 26.2% of the time. This can't be that difficult to understand.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 4, 2014 -> 01:59 AM) What is his OPS over that time frame, compared to the field of all major leaguers? Dunn .783 MLB .703(2014) .714(2013) .724(2012) for an average of approx. .714 QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 4, 2014 -> 01:59 AM) You could probably take Dayan Viciedo's 58 homers over almost 3 years and that, alone, would look good...unless you start taking into consideration his defense and low walk rate, then it doesn't look quite so good. 58 is a lot worse than 97. I agree Viciedo's walk rate looks bad. Dunn's doesn't, Hence his above average OBP. So I suppose we agree, Viciedo is a much worse home run hitter who is worse at getting on base. Dunn hits well enough to DH. Viciedo doesn't seem to. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 4, 2014 -> 01:59 AM) What about salary dollars PER home run? That changes the equation dramatically as well. Not for 2015 it doesn't. I was responding to a post that supposed a GM who signed Dunn next year was a "sucker." His numbers are better still when he just takes the 450 plus PAs he gets against righties in a year (.815 OPS I'd estimate over the last 3 years)

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Sep 3, 2014 -> 09:01 PM) People don't earn $56 million to play a game. It's a business. Word is today he's re-thinking retirement. And he'll probably find another sucker GM. The top 5 home run hitters since 2012 Chris Davis 110 Miguel Cabrera 107 Edwin Encarnacion 106 Adam Dunn 97 Giancarlo Stanton 96 If you can be one of Earth's best home run hitters and have an above average on-base percentage, you are a valuable baseball hitter. To think otherwise is weird.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 31, 2014 -> 02:15 PM) The White Sox would have been better off paying the difference a month ago and getting those at bats for Wilkins. Leave basically no difference in what the A's pay. We're all happy with the job you are doing as GM. What was the offer a month ago?

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 28, 2014 -> 10:01 PM) Someone please explain to me without using WAR why Trout supposedly has a huge lead over Abreu. Yes, he is a good baserunner and he fields well, but hitting is the biggest factor in MVP voting, and Abreu has more HR, RBI, and a much better AVG. You haven't said anything here that is logically valid.

Remember when you were complaining that you couldn't believe Beckham was still on the team. And you couldn't believe how bad Beckham was. And of course he had passed through waivers without anyone picking him up. And then you found out that he hadn't been put on waivers until 3 weeks into August. And that Beckham had been claimed on waivers. And then you at no point thought about adjusting your knee-jerk complaint trigger mechanism.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 09:17 AM) Go to MLB.com and listen to the video from beckham. I kinda feel he knocks the sox a bit. Well Gordon were excited your gone.... He comes across kind of like a young George W. Bush in that vid. This is the opposite of a compliment.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 04:24 PM) I don't know what Choo is getting paid but he's another bust. Teams will never learn. yep

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 10:55 AM) I'm still not going to believe any statistical measure that simply equates his OPS numbers with being a fair value and level of performance for that contract. Look at every free agent signing ever. They are overpaid virtually 100% of the time. Free agent market is the convenience store. You overpay because you need it now. His 4 year deal is not remotely the albatross that Soriano, A-Rod, Crawford, Howard, Pujols, Hamilton, and on and on edit: Bonilla

How's about a left-handed platoon mate?

QUOTE (TRU @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 09:37 PM) Yes, totally joking. I forgot that at communist soxtalk people don't discuss when they don't agree with you they just make wise ass one liners and try to be cute. If there is one thing that communists are known for, it is cute wise-ass one liners.

QUOTE (TRU @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 08:35 PM) Nope. This was a 99 loss team, there was no reason for a guy like Gillaspie to be starting at 3B for this team. Davidson was ready and played well in his call up with Arizona the season before. Just because it "worked out" doesn't make it the right move. Gillaspie is worthless to this team, and he will never be on a Sox playoff team. Davidson should have been up here from the get go. Instead, they shipped him to AAA when he shouldnt have been and that to me seems like the biggest reason for his struggles as most of his stats line up with what he did in the minors before. You can't be serious. This is jokes, right?

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 08:52 PM) Next dominoes Danks and Dunn...wishful thinking Dunn will go. Danks won't.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:15 PM) Not surprised one bit its Sanchez getting the call. Johnson is shutdown, Semien has struggled at Charlotte Semien has a better OBP and better OPS than Sanchez this (and every) year.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 06:00 PM) Man, I'm disappointed that the Sox seem to have Sanchez and Micah ahead of Marcus on their future board. I still think Semien will be the best of the bunch. Whoever plays best will get the job.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:09 PM) Beckham's defense has been poor the last couple years. Borchard never did what Beckham did right after being called up. So the problem was that Gordon was initially very successful.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 10:56 PM) You seriously believe that this offense is the 9th best in baseball? Do you believe that they have scored the 9th most runs?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 05:30 PM) kind of hard to to pitch 100% focused with this team of mostly stiffs behind you Mostly stiffs are the 9th best offense in MLB.