Vance Law

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 3, 2014 -> 11:34 PM) Moustakas is still more highly valued in the Royals' organization because of the position he plays...it's much easier to find a 2B than a power-hitting 3B. Beckham career SLG .380 Moustakas .385 and Beckham out-slugged him last year

Trading Kepp as a salary dump sounds great no matter what we get in return. Beckham for Phegley 2 doesn't sound good right now.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 18, 2014 -> 12:51 PM) I've maintained that defense will be much better evaluated when all players' positions are accurately GPS'ed. Featherweight sensors that could be put in the belt area of the pants could easily be done with present technology, I believe. Would players' union have a beef with this? While I would love seeing that type of data, I wonder if teams would prefer to keep that info proprietary. Perhaps some are already using some version of this and not releasing the info?

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 13, 2014 -> 03:34 PM) Seattle may be the match. Or any other all-in, piece-missing team. Don't need to root for injuries, but they'll happen anyway. Would rather get something more unknown than Montero, though. They also signed Logan Morrison and have him penciled in in right. If/when they sign Nelson Cruz, I really don't see them having room for another outfielder unless there's an injury.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 11:57 AM) I don't see the Ross Gload comps for Dan Black, they are very different hitters. Black draws a lot walks, Gload never did. Black has a little more power. Gload was a much better contact hitter and line drive guy, and better defensively at 1B, plus could fill in the OF as a backup. Mitchell probably has the highest ceiling of anyone on that list. I'm already writing up the pitchers, and there are more of them than position players, about 16 of them. Lots of interesting arms. I enjoy a Ross Gload mention of any kind. For whatever reason, Connor Gillaspie reminds of Gload. The fact that Gillaspie plays 3rd base should make him a worthwhile player/platooner for some time especially in the National League. Gload surprisingly played in the bigs 'till he was 35. And the most surprising fact, Gload hit 30 homers in 2000 across AA and AAA.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Feb 9, 2014 -> 04:30 PM) Is the White Sox column WAR with the White Sox or WAR in all of MLB for those players? It appears to be: Year/ White Sox total WAR for players drafted/ MLB average total WAR per team for players drafted

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) DH: Hart 1B: Smoak LF: Morrison RF: Cruz Though I think it would be wise to move Smoak and play Morrison at first and play Cruz in left with a Saunders/Gutierrez platoon in the outfield In that scenario, they have to get rid of Ackley then to make room for Cruz. Then what, get rid of Saunders for De Aza? Not a chance.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Feb 7, 2014 -> 11:58 AM) An interesting team to watch will be the Mariners as they will be signing two more guys, Rodney and Cruz, and have some pretty intriguing names on their 40 man roster when the time comes to make room for their new additions. And they are as likely a destination for ADA as anyplace else. I don't see how they'd have room for De Aza. They're already going to have to get rid of a starting position player to make room for Cruz.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 6, 2014 -> 08:12 PM) Personally, I still think with his arm, Viciedo can make an adequate corner OF if his bat measures up...his defense in 2012, when the team played like they cared, wasn't all that bad. He will never have the best range but the fact that no one in their right mind would take an extra base on him if it was close makes up for a decent fraction of that. If he'd gotten a tiny bit better in 2013 than he was in 2012 he'd have been a perfectly adequate defender, but the whole team forgot how to "grab the white sphere with your glove" in 2013 and he fit in nicely with that. True, Viciedo could stick and play there if he ever actually hits. I'm just thinking long-term as far as maximizing player's value on the field, as Dunn (and Konerko) go away by the end of 2014, does this team look to acquire a new big left-handed slugger at DH? Or can more value be had by putting a great outfield defender in center (pushing Eaton to left) or left. I don't know. It depends on what players are out there. Really makes you wish Trayce Thompson would progress.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 6, 2014 -> 10:47 AM) You're right they won't exercise it. He'll be available and maybe not expensive as a fallback. He has a chance to bounce back, as he's not that old. Not my preference by any means, though. If he ended up being really cheap, I agree, he could be useful probably for an already good club who could use him a good amount at DH. With our current situation, I'd hope we add another quality outfielder that pushes Viciedo to DH within the next year.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 5, 2014 -> 11:35 PM) Keppinger hit .412 last year in Spring Training. He also had a .198 OBP in April. That's my point.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 5, 2014 -> 05:50 PM) I still think you're asking for a lot of trouble if you're not going to give Davidson a legit shot in the spring, because that's exactly the kind of setup where he would hit so well that he'd earn a starting big league role and then get sent down for 2 guys who struggled and were thus untradeable Tyler Flowers hit .476 in spring training in 2011

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 5, 2014 -> 08:42 PM) And Markakis may be available as well, depending on whether Balt. exercises $17.5M option for next year. Baltimore would be nuts to exercise that. He's not remotely the player he once was. He's well below average defensively and has put up WARs of 1.7, 1.5. and -0.1 the last 3 years. He's been notably worse than De Aza each of those years, is a a half year older, and crazy more expensive.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 06:01 PM) And we don't have a roided up Miguel Tejada in his prime. Why does this argument keep going??? I'm not sure precisely what the argument is. My comment on the original post is that there is plenty of good young talent on the team. That list of players alone may not be enough to compete for a World Series, and it doesn't have to. It's dirt cheap and we'll have a ton of money to buy more players where the need exists.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 05:47 PM) that'd be rushing him a lot Offensively or defensively? I think he's a better offensive player right now than Davidson, and at one of the MI positions where offense is more scarce. I think he's probably a better offensive player than Alexei right now, though obviously not defensively.

QUOTE (staxx @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 11:11 AM) Oakland never had a pitcher of Sales' Caliber. And Oakland has never had our payroll.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2014 -> 02:27 PM) This season...that day should happen...Feb. 18th (or whenever people start reporting). So Semien should be starting at shortstop?

I think they will do better than that. They were basically the same team (minus AJ's career year) that won 85 the year before. Everyone playing badly, injuries, bad luck all conspired at the same time. That was a once-in-decades crap pile, but that not-great team was not a 63 win talent team. Here's the OPS number we got from each position last year. I think every one will be better this year (some by a lot) aside from RF and maybe SS C .564 1B .751 2B .658 SS .692 3B .635 LF .732 CF .674 RF .762 DH .674 Even if it's Phegley/Flowers again, I think they'd put up at least a .600 OPS by accident. Also, for the first season I can remember, I don't really care what the win total is. I'm just hoping for success from some/most of our young players, and strong play from the guys we'll be looking to trade (Dunn, Keppinger, maybe De Aza).

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 3, 2014 -> 03:43 PM) Actually, yes there is. Click on a user's name, go to their profile, and click on the options drop down list. Click ignore user, and confirm on the following screen. You will still see their quoted posts, but not the original. aha. Thanks, wite

Is there an ignore button?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 31, 2014 -> 01:16 PM) Why keep him? It is impossible that you have made it through this thread and so many others discussing the same topic without having read the many reasons for keeping him.

QUOTE (Al Lopez's Ghost @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 11:29 PM) The Iguchi play I remember was in 2006. Charged a grounder, layed out parallel to the ground, almost underhanded it to first. That one.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 10:18 PM) Because do you really want DeAza or Gillaspie to be our middle of the order LH protection for A. Garcia/Abreu/Konerko/Viciedo? They would just walk Abreu or pitch very carefully with him. Dunn still strikes more fear into opposing pitchers than anyone else on our current roster. And the same issue exists if you bat DeAza 1st and 8th/9th. That is going to be the case next year anyway. To me "left-handed power bat to strike fear" is nice to have, but not a requirement of the roster.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 11:38 PM) The "maybe they can get something for him" argument is met with a rolling off the eyes. In this case I think the casual fan is right. If they don't understand this, then they don't understand how baseball works. Or sports. Or business. I think it's good they're just a casual fan.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 09:43 PM) Wow that sounds bad Viciedo has been batting against righties for the last 2 years. How does getting his ass out of the outfield sound bad?