[Opening Day Roster Prediction]

RF Eaton, SS Rollins, 1B Abreu, 3B Frazier, LF Cabrera, DH Ishikawa, 2B Lawrie, C Avila, CF Jackson

 

Bench: OF Garcia, INF Saladino, C Navarro, OF Shuck

 

Rotation: Sale, Quintana, Rodon, Latos Danks

 

Bullpen: Robertson, Jones, Duke, Putnam, Jennings, Petricka, Albers

 

I'd say this but with Murphy or Loney in Ishikawa's place.

[Opening Day Roster Prediction]

I would be shocked if Avi isn't the starter opening day. I dislike how much this organize seemingly overrates Shuck and now Ishikawa.

 

Right. The organization overrates Shuck. They gave him an entire 165 plate appearances last year. His .340 OBP was better than everyone other than Eaton and Abreu.

[Adam LaRoche retires]

Wonder how Drake is going to feel 30 years from now when he's a few million lighter in his inheritance because his pops decided to forgo his last 13 million.

 

He shouldn't have to worry about that. He'll always have his education to fall back on.

[Adam LaRoche retires]

Morneau career .894 OPS against righties. Sign him for cheap.

[White Sox Sign Austin Jackson]

AJax's career long high BABIP is interesting. Implies that, despite offensive faults, he uses his speed to his advantage and 'makes his own luck'

 

That and he's got a line drive percentage around 25% the last 4 years. And very few infield fly balls.

[White Sox Sign Austin Jackson]

That's why I said "a guy like him". I've wanted him or Brock Holt for 2 years. He really hasn't established himself yet offensively but the signs are there that he's getting better. I wanted him when he was really sucking offensively. You can't really say he's better offensively than all our guys because he has never had a full season's worth of AB's yet . Maybe you're thinking of Mookie Betts ?

 

Look at what he's done his whole career in the minors and what he put up in Boston last year. Bottom line, the Sox aren't getting him. And I don't know where Holt would play. Yes, his versatility is nice but I don't see the Sox getting him to take away at bats from Frazier, Lawrie, Melky, etc.

[White Sox Sign Austin Jackson]

Going to be interesting to see who ends up at the corners, and/or whether Jackson stays in CF for the entire season...obviously he's got to hit much better than over the last 1 1/2 seasons to justify full-time opportunities.

Not really, considering both his CF defense and the production of the other outfielders on the roster. Avi managing to hit/defend well enough to justify taking playing time away from Jackson is way harder to imagine.

[White Sox Sign Austin Jackson]

Still might see the Sox grab another defensive OF late in ST as rosters are pared or trade fir one with the excess relievers . A guy like Jackie Bradley Jr. who's LH and very good defensively with offensive upside would be perfect but not many like him around.

 

Jackie Bradley Jr. is better than all of our outfielders offensively and defensively and would require us sending the whole farm to Boston. And Boston has no interest in moving him. Not a likely thing.

[White Sox Sign Austin Jackson]

He's 24. He should be getting regular at bats, and as much time in the outfield as possible.

 

The problem is that's not going to happen in the majors. If the White Sox want to see him develop to his full potential he needs to be in AAA.

 

The Sox are trying to win. In his 1000 career PAs he's shown he can't do anything worthwhile. If he can prove that he can hit or field, I'm sure he'll get more playing time. Until then, platoon DH/pinch runner is all he should get.

[White Sox considering OFs Bruce, CarGo]

CarGo stuff is bull. Sox interest in Bruce isn't that high. They are working on something though.

Ethier?

[White Sox considering OFs Bruce, CarGo]

I'm not a Levine follower but he called Lawrie to the Sox before anybody and he said we weren't even looking at Desmond which as it turns out was probably true. Thank god he was right because who wants 25 errors and 180 strikeouts from your shortstop. And what is all this Austin Jackson love. I wouldn't Touch him for any price. Go big with Cargo or Reddick or go home IMO.

Cargo or Reddick would cost the farm. Cargo can't hit lefties and can't stay on the field. Jackson would greatly improve the outfield defense and only costs money.

[White Sox considering OFs Bruce, CarGo]

Rockies aren't going to give up CarGo without taking Anderson or Fulmer. Not worth it. Ethier can do what CarGo can and will cost less.

 

Bruce doesn't seem worth it even as a pure salary dump. Better to sign AJax for cheaper and greatly improve the outfield defense.

 

Hopefully they're using Levine to help leverage Ethier or AJax.

[White Sox sign Jimmy Rollins]

I take that as a big f*** you to Saladino. I guess he never had a chance.

 

Nope. Both will be on the team. Both will play plenty during the season. Whoever plays better will play more.

 

Bizarre fixation, not just in this specific case, but in general with "who's gonna win the job?" and "who's gonna be named the starter?" Whoever plays the best will get the playing time during the season. Opening day is irrelevant. Micah Johnson was the opening day 2nd baseman. He lasted a month. We're talking about a $2 million 37 year old and a guy playing for the league minimum. There's no incentive to play anyone other than whoever is playing best.

 

Rollns should have the job on opening day assuming he shows he isn't cooked. He's done it for a ton of years. He hits left handed. He'll benefit from time off with Saladino playing particularly against lefties. If and when Saladino proves he's the bigger asset on the field on a daily basis, he'll play more.

[OF Options]

Trayce most definitely has options left. No way he's the one the Dodgers unload.

He does have 1 more option.

[OF Options]

Like everyone else, I'd love Scott Van Slyke or Josh Redick. Should be interesting but these are the names that I'll be monitoring as the spring goes on.

 

Van Slyke?? He's the weak side of a platoon. Career .707 OPS against right handed pitching.

[OF Options]

The Dodgers are the one team with simply too many guys for their roster. Someone has to move. Though I'm not sure of the options situation on Trayce, Enrique Hernandez, Alex Guerrero. And Hernandez plays infield as well. I feel like they'd pay 90% Crawford's salary and move him for a minor league reliever just to free up the roster spot.

[Ian Desmond Signs 1 Year 8M Deal with Rangers]

Desmond or the 27th pick, Latos, and Rollins...

 

Pretty even but I think I'd side with the route we ended up taking and still have faith that we'll be adding another OF bat vi trade.

 

..and I believe the Desmond signing moves us up one to the 26th pick. And the Sox will still add another outfielder.

[Ian Desmond Signs 1 Year 8M Deal with Rangers]

What is baffling is actually thinking that the White Sox will pick anybody of any value with that draft pick.

 

This is more baffling.

[The battle for shortstop - applying some odds]

I have no idea why the writer put 80% chance of Sanchez being the utility player. That should only occur if Rollins is released which he didn't assume with his starting SS projection. I think Sanchez goes back to minors for one more year w hope of his offense improving or worse case building some trade value.

 

He'll go to AAA if he's not traded because there's no room for him. But him coming up as in injury replacement isn't that unlikely considering 37 year old Rollins and somewhat injury prone Lawrie. He'd also come up if Frazier or Saladino got hurt.

 

[Ian Desmond Signs 1 Year 8M Deal with Rangers]

Another one bites the dust. Cheap organization, man. Absolutely ridiculous. Go Avi...

These sort of comments are baffling. It's clearly the draft pick, not the $8 million.

[Fowler Signs with Cubs]

Ah, so you admit that throwing money at second tier free agents such as the contracts given Cabrera and LaRoche were mistakes by Hahn. It appears you are right about that.

 

Second or third tier free agents:

Jermaine Dye

AJ Pierzynski

Tadahito Iguchi

Orlando Hernandez

 

trash heap:

Bobby Jenks

[The battle for shortstop - applying some odds]

Something similar to a platoon would make sense. Giving Rollins a good amount of days off to hopefully increase his productivity and hide Saladino against righties a bit. That is unless Saladino is required in another sort of platoon situation, perhaps playing 2B and pushing Lawrie to DH against lefties. Depends on the final makeup of the roster.

[Ian Desmond Signs 1 Year 8M Deal with Rangers]

Could be true. Could be not true. Sox could have actual interest in Desmond in LF and SS. Sox could be putting this out there as a negotiating tactic with Jackson. Desmond's people could be putting this out there. We might never know.

 

I still think Sox will add an OF to play more than Avi.

[Fowler Signs with Cubs]

Yet the Sox magically had the resources then to go ahead and offer that then-largest contract in baseball history. And the last I looked, that contract never came close to crippling the organization financially.

 

They lucked out that he opted out. Baltimore was still paying him one of (if not) the highest salaries in the game for 3 seasons after he retired.

 

Giving Fowler an opt out and giving up a draft pick is stupid because Fowler is almost certainly not worth the QO the next year.

 

While Cespedes is almost certainly worth a QO after this year, the Mets giving him $27.5 is pretty crazy. And whatever it wouldve take the Sox to pry him away- it would presumably have to be at least $30 million- would be stupid.

 

 

 

 

 

[Fowler Signs with Cubs]

If we assume the QO dollar amount goes up by another $0.5 million next year before it's reformed in the next CBA, a qualifying offer to Fowler next year could be accepted and give him a $16.3 million salary for 1 year. That's not the worst setup in the world either.

 

As I said before though, I think his agent just misunderestimated how saturated the OF market was this year.

 

From his perspective, that would be great. If I were the Cubs I wouldn't want to pay him that, and I would assume he would accept it.