Vance Law

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 30, 2014 -> 09:08 PM) Doesn't everybody else sense that the casual fan as a mass loathes Dunn? The only way to really sell THIS year as a new direction is to get rid of Dunn at all costs. It's possible that the new talent excites the fans enough to tolerate one more year of s***. But if he's batting 3 or 4 and terrible people are gonna get mean fast. They're already gonna be mean from day 1, ST too. Ultimately for the better of the team we could use the roster spot, especially since we may have a pretty fluid pipeline with AAA this year. I'm glad that the person who is the GM does not think this way.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 07:46 PM) You keep saying this for some reason, probably because De Aza was able to hit 3 more HRs than Viciedo in 43% more plate appearances. Fact is Viciedo's ISO was .161 and De Aza's was .142. Viciedo was the better power hitter...end of story. You are right, Viciedo had a slightly higher ISO, though De Aza hit more home runs. I also thought Viciedo had more PAs than he did. My point still stands, that it shouldn't even be close when it is the only thing Viciedo can (theoretically) do better than an average player. It's why De Aza has accrued 4.9 WAR over the past 2 seasons compared to Viciedo's 0.2 WAR.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 29, 2014 -> 09:08 AM) Then why is he still here? For one, Viciedo has not yet managed to be a better player than him. Last year he was not even a better power hitter (his only plus tool?).

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 10:17 PM) Even if you ignore the $15 Million and focus solely on what he offers as a hitter, I still can't imagine another GM thinking Dunn is the missing piece to a championship run. He has hit 75 home runs over the last 2 years. You are right, he's no Geoff Blum.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 08:53 PM) If they weren't willing to give people away then they shouldn't have traded for replacements. -Rick Hahn: “This is going to take some time, and there will be various junctures where the big-league roster might not necessarily look right, like today,” Hahn said. “You could say, ‘You have an extra DH or you’ve got an extra outfielder or there’s a little bit of a logjam in the infield, what are you going to do?’ The important thing for us is to have the right players under control, who have the opportunity to play and develop, so that they’re going to be part of that next run once we get there, not necessarily to have the roster be seamless on any given day. “We see the redundancies that are there, and that may, at some point, lead to trades. But we’re not going to force it, and we’re going to wait for the right opportunity to pull the trigger.”

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 07:17 PM) He didn't have any trade value or he would have been gone already. The rest of MLB saw his play last year too. His play was inferior to his talent last year. Inferior to what he did in 2012 and 2011. So he has more value to us than what we'd currently get. Even still Tank Viciedo didn't manage to hit as many home runs as this lead off hitter.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 05:28 PM) Well, I think the thought is just that it's not ideal for De Aza to ride the bench because he loses value on the trade market there, which he does. 1) he doesn't need to ride the bench. you can mix and match with 4 outfielders and 3 spots and he also pinch hits, pinch runs, and defensive replaces. 2) we're talking about a finite period of time, until Dunn is inevitably traded (near the deadline or sooner when/if a team suddenly has a need) or one or more of Abreu, Dunn, Viciedo, Eaton, Garcia (or De Aza) hits the DL QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 05:28 PM) Like I said, I have no problem with keeping him because there'll be room for him next year too. I think he'll end up getting dealt shortly anyways, so I'm not too concerned. You're right, he may well be traded soon. Gillaspie might, Keppinger might, Dunn might. My point is simply that none of these players turn into a pumpkin if they're not traded by opening day as some posters here seem to feel.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 04:58 PM) I'm just gonna keep using that one on my wife. "If that's the biggest problem we face this year, we have a great marriage going on." And hopefully I can keep ignoring the problem then. Players will get injured. Players on other teams. White Sox players. It has happened literally every year that baseball has been played. Every year that any sport anywhere has been played. If the Sox have slightly more "starting" players than there are positions for the first weeks or month or even two of the season, whooo caaaaares! And whyyyyy! Adam Dunn will be playing for another team by somewhere in the middle of the season.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 28, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) It would have been much easier to trade Keppinger before re-signing Konerko and acquiring Davidson. Now every team knows Hahn is desperate to move him. If it was easy to move Keppinger then, he would have done it.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 24, 2014 -> 12:05 PM) http://www.bleachernation.com/2014/01/24/c...r-yenier-bello/ This is a Cubs article but does anyone think that the Sox may have interest in this guy? He's already 28 though. We'd have to be looking at him. If the price doesn't go too high we could have him competing for a job and we could stick him in the minors if he doesn't beat out everyone else. More and more I'm liking the Nieto acquisition. Assuming he isn't just completely overmatched at spring training, I think it sends the message to Phegley, Flowers that there's a good chance only one of you is making the club so go out and win the job ("our hands are tied. this guy has to be on the roster. he'd have no chance if you guys weren't so bad last year"). Assuming all 3 put up similarly blah but passable spring trainings it might be Flowers one last chance to lose the job while Phegley is made to hit his way back to Chicago from AAA.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 26, 2014 -> 03:32 PM) I think the treatment of Dunn by the fans is frustration that he's still on the team and this is the way to get that message to management. Sox management must have thought there wasn't a problem otherwise he wouldn't be at the event. It isn't 'the fans' it's a small collection of dumb meatheads who 1) don't understand baseball 2) failed to behave with the bare minimum of basic decency, forget about words like 'classy' or 'classless'. These are simply a small collection of sucky people, not 'the fans'.

QUOTE (Paulstar @ Jan 25, 2014 -> 05:50 PM) I actually agree with Marty in a sense that I'm surprised Dunn hasn't been dumped yet just to appease the casual fan. Based on your description, another term for 'casual fan' would be 'brain dead moron'. A smart GM obviously pays no attention to what, in your words, a 'casual fan' thinks.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 22, 2014 -> 04:03 PM) 1. Even if it should be that way, I don't see the Sox deciding that 2014 is a lost year. Every indication says otherwise. But lucky for Nieto, the bar has been set incredibly low. Is he likely to do worse than a .522 OPS? That's what Phegley did and he remained the starter for half the season.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 22, 2014 -> 08:35 PM) I don't want him to put up "Phegley numbers" anywhere, because Phegley numbers involve a .522 OPS and the lowest wRC+/OPS+ in baseball among everyone who batted as many times as he did and a career full of sub-.700 OPS, powerless seasons in the minors. Ha ha, yes. I'm confident you knew I was referring to Phegley at AAA last year.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jan 22, 2014 -> 05:46 PM) If they stand pat with this rotation big trouble ahead. How is it worse than last year? Axelrod started 20 games last year and now he's like 8th on the depth chart.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 22, 2014 -> 04:47 PM) He did very well in AAA last year and really held his own in MLB. The only good reason for putting Davidson in AAA is the presence of Keppinger and Gillaspie. IMO, those two don't make a compelling reason to keep our best MLB ready prospect in the minors Gillaspie/Keppinger platoon will put up better numbers than Davidson would in 2014 and we're already paying them. Let's see if Davidson can become a better fielder and at least put up some Phegley numbers in AAA. Some Josh Fields numbers. (*these are terrible hitters who nonetheless displayed more success in AAA than Davison has)

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Jan 22, 2014 -> 11:02 AM) I would still love to see Rick move Dunn but we all know that is unlikely. Does anyone see the Sox releasing Dunn in June if the Sox are playing bad and he starts off bad for the first 2 months No. He will be traded by the deadline unless (miraculously) the Sox are somehow in contention. Power is an increasingly rare commodity. That's why people like Mark Reynolds keep getting chances. Adam Dunn has the 4th most home runs in baseball over the last 2 seasons. Multiple teams will be in need of that and we'll get, at very least, some of his salary taken off our hands.

QUOTE (saabturbografx @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 07:35 PM) He was the main catalyst of the 2005 team and will never be forgotten The career-year pitching from all of our starters was the catalyst. Pods did have a very strong first half for our mediocre offense before injuries slowed his second half. 15 steals, 14 caught stealings after the all-star break.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 06:59 PM) Semien doesn't really have any outstanding tools. He is above average on just about everything. These types don't generally make the list. By this do you mean that his stats, his performance, in 2013 (and 2012 for that matter) outshine or speak more loudly than his tools? Not arguing with you on this, but I'd be interested to know how many middle infielders playing at age-appropriate levels put up OPS numbers of .833 and then .880 the past two years. Would the people making these lists argue "yeah, but his tools don't say that he can keep doing that"?

And here they are... http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2014-zips-p...cago-white-sox/

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 11:31 PM) I personally find this one funny: 2006 Frank Thomas dh .231 .348 .456 104 342 47 79 20 0 19 61 56 82 0 1 2006 Casey Daigle 1b .251 .312 .437 130 458 65 115 26 1 19 66 34 97 4 3 ZiPS is mental masturbation without a finish. They are some of the worst and most meaningless abuses of statistics. Apparently there's nothing that weighs proven talent above minor league fodder. While I'm not defending the accuracy of this or any other projection system, with the case of Thomas, the projection has to take into account he would be 38 that year and had only played 74 and then 34 games the previous 2 years. Even then it predicted an .804 OPS for him. Thomas was so good that once healthy he would outperform that level in 06 and 07 before falling off in his age 40 season.

Dan Szymborski ‏@DSzymborski 13m @SportsJunkie854 Tweeted him awhile back - Eaton's not a great fit for the Cell. Did anyone locate this tweet about Eaton's projection? (anyone who can actually take a walk is a good fit for this team)

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 01:33 AM) Oh s***, ya beat me to it Vance. great minds

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Jan 13, 2014 -> 12:35 PM) With Brian Roberts signed to play second, they should count on Kelly Johnson getting a lot of playing time at second base. Keppinger has the ability to play second and third so he may make sense for them in a platoon at third. Exactly. And they're kicking the tires on some right-handed Padres utility man http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/01/yank...-infielder.html Send 'em Kepp! They wouldn't need to give us much of anything, just take salary.

Can't help but notice the Yankees have a sudden need for a third baseman, and we have a lot.