Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 08:52 AM) He also needs to never, or at least almost never, play 1b. How have his numbers been as a DH? I thought someone mentioned he's hit much better for us while playing 1B.

Who is going to be the starter in Cleveland?

QUOTE (ChiSoxFan05 @ Sep 16, 2013 -> 10:10 PM) Sox fans are used to AJ being injured once per 5 years... it would be a tough adjustment seeing McCann on the 15-day DL twice a year. McCann had played in 120+ games for 7 straight years prior to this season. That's pretty damn good for a catcher.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 16, 2013 -> 06:59 PM) You aren't going to win with the 2016 version of McCann if the team doesn't find young position players over the next two years. By the time 2016 rolls around what kind of numbers is McCann going to put up anyway? McCann is 29 years old right now. He'll be 32 at the start of the 2016 season. I didn't realize guys suddenly fell off at 32 years of age. I've got to be honest, if the Sox can get McCann for 4/$60M they should do it without hesitation. Even if he only gives you two years at catcher, I think that would be a good deal for us. We're talking about his age 30 to 33 seasons. I don't see his bat falling apart during that time-frame.

I'm going to ask this question again, but what's going to allow us to compete by 2016? The prospect Marty wants us to buy for $60M? We don't have much offensively in the minors to get excited about or that we can honestly rely on to be ready at that time. The new CBA will definitely help us, but it could take 4 or 5 years before the system is fully replenished if all goes well. The good news is we aren't the Oakland A's and don't need to do a small-market rebuild. We can afford to go out into free agency and attempt to fill some of our offensive needs. Fixing this offense is likely a multi-year project unless some of the younger guys like Garcia, Viciedo, & Semien take that next step. If that happens, we can compete as soon as next year with the right offseason moves. If not, we at least have shored up a couple holes and make it easier to compete in 2015, while our minor league system continues to replenish. If you wait until 2016 to make any major moves, you risk having nothing to spend your money on in free agency and will be relying on a bunch of prospects that may or may not exist to fill the majority of the lineup. And even if those prospects are ready, they may not be productive right away, which means 2016 suddenly becomes 2017 or 2018. I just don't see the logic of throwing away 3 or 4 years of a young, talented, cost-controlled rotation when we have the ability to spend a decent amount of money in free agency. If that's the case, just blow the whole damn thing up. Teams with strong starting pitching should not be treading water, because that pitching likely won't last forever.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 16, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) I hope you are right. A goal should be no deadwight contracts by 2016. What's happening in 2016?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 16, 2013 -> 12:50 PM) If so, you can start him there right now. If not, you have more difficult choices to make. Do we? I wanted to believe in Beckham earlier this year, but he's shown he is what he is. It sucks and maybe he finally figures it out one day (doubtful), but we've done our due diligence with him and I think it's clear he should not be part of the long-term core. Sure, he can be a useful fill-in at 2B for a team with a big hole at the position, but I don't think it would be a hard decision to let him go, not if he's going to make $5M next year. And Ramirez is a solid player, but his lack of OBP and power are part of two major team-wide problems. At some point, we have to move some of these guys if we're going to improve the lineup. Don't get me wrong, Alexei would make a nice #9 hitter on most teams, just not ours. If we could move him and get anything of value (i.e. more than a pure salary dump), I would do that deal in a heartbeat because we already have a replacement in-house and we'd have even more money to upgrade other areas of the team. As for 3B, I think we need to look for a long-term solution there. If we have to trade a young starter, that's the position I'm targeting. I just think Semien is too good of a prospect to use as a fill-in at 3B. I think we pretty much have to open up a middle infield position to improve the offense and get younger.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2013 -> 09:38 AM) I woulnd't move him to 3rd, but you're right on the use of the "Stop-gap" phrase. He wouldn't be the first guy to figure out hitting at age 27, but he ought to be viewed as a stop-gap right now. He'll be first year arb this offseason, this stretch at the end of the year is a good reason not to extend him. He's been slightly better this year, so offer him arb-1 this year, he gets $2.5 million or so for next year, he goes to ST as the incumbent 2nd baseman, and we play until someone steals the position from him by destroying Charlotte. Gordon was a 1st year arbitration player this year and is making roughly $3M. Next year he's looking at $4.5 to $5M, so you only bring him back if he's your legit starting 2B. That's way too much money for a potential utility infielder if you think someone could realistically overtake him at some point in 2014. I think Hahn will definitely deal one of Ramirez & Bekcham to open up a spot for Semien. Probably the easiest way to improve the team's OBP.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 15, 2013 -> 12:25 PM) What better way to spend $60M over the next two years. They are not going to win anything in 2014 or 2015. Are the mods seriously going to tolerate this nonsense? If he wasn't clearly trolling before, he's obviously all-in now. I get that everyone has a right to an opinion, but this is becoming utterly ridiculous. If someone in baseball actually proposed this idea, they'd be blackballed from the game for life. It's blatant trolling and everyone here knows it.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 05:34 PM) If there was a White Sox catch-all thread, I would have put this there, but....I digress... He just made a really interesting point to a caller who said our drafts every year are a bust.... According to Rick, he said from the 2008-2011 drafts, we lead all of baseball in accumulated WAR of those drafted player while we are DEAD LAST in dollars spent on those drafted player from 2008-1011. Interesting. How much of that accumulated WAR is from Chris Sale and to a lesser extent Daniel Hudson? Two great picks plus Beckham & Reed and I'm guessing that's the bulk of our drafted WAR from those 4 drafts to date. While our drafts have been better in recent years, I bet Sale accounts for +50% of that number, which makes Hahn's fact somewhat misleading. Sure we hit big on one of our picks and experienced quick returns, but let's not over-reward ourselves for that. Our overall drafting and lack of spending (historically) has left plenty to be desired. The new CBA rules really help us going forward though and we should see some significant returns from the 2011 draft next year with Erik Johnson & Marcus Semien.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 02:44 PM) Who here has used WAR? I know Balta is a big advocate but no one in this thread (or at least the last couple pages) have used WAR? While it hasn't been specifically stated, it's definitely been implied by several posters. If we were to add Abreu & McCann to the heart of the order, I think we immedietely become an 80+ win team, while there have been several posts that suggest we'd only be a 70 win team, which seems to be a fair estimate of the incremental WAR those players would provide on top of our expected 63 wins this season. Again, it's not just this thread, but I strongly dislike when people simply add a potential acquisition's WAR to a team's existing record to predict the team's new record. I like WAR and think it's a valuable stat, but baseball isn't that simple and can't be explained by one number. Like I said before, adding McCann & Abreu changes the entire complexion of the offense. IMO, they are worth more to us than the sum of the individual parts.

Can we please stop using WAR as the be-all-end-all? If we add McCann & Abreu, we don't simply add their respective WARs to our 2013 W/L record, we'd be changing the entire complexion of the offense and that would be worth a lot more than the sum of the individual parts.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 10:33 AM) When the alternative is adding to this team from the available free agents, yes. So B.J. Upton at $15M/per over the next 4 years plus a B prospect makes us better than Abreu at $12M/per over the next 5 years?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 10:22 AM) You're missing the point. It's to rebuild the team correctly. Throwing away our financial flexibility on some B prospects is the correct way to the rebuild the team?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 10:03 AM) I hope there are opportunities to use their money over the next couple of years to take on bad contracts for prospects instead of signing any free-agents. Seems like a fool-proof strategy to rebuild this team quickly.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Sep 14, 2013 -> 05:42 AM) Maybe as a LF but I'd like to keep his bat around. Even then, I think there a lot worse problems on the team than him and his play in LF, which has not been good. Yeah, I'm in no rush to get rid of a 24 year old with 4 years of team control left that has hit well when healthy this year and has more power potential than anyone on the team not named Adam Dunn. And while his play in LF hasn't been great, at least he is new to the position unlike the rest of these bums. Unless you can get something signicant for him, I think he should be our starting LF in 2014. And no to 1B next year. I think he has to make or break it as an outfielder or at least demonstrate plus offensive numbers before you consider a move to 1B.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 13, 2013 -> 01:28 PM) I think last year was scheduled to be played at night and they either changed it, or made sure it was a day game this season so the Jewish fans could participate.Last year, it was an important game. This year....not so much, at least for the home team. I thought that was because Youk was on the team?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 13, 2013 -> 12:31 PM) However, we do have an owner with a last name "Reinsdorf"... I know he comes from a Jewish family, but I thought Jerry was an atheist.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Sep 12, 2013 -> 06:51 PM) Chapelle certainly isnt nearly as relevant as he was in the past but his "Killin em Softly" special is imo the best stand up comedy ever. I agree he shouldnt be on the current list, just wanted to chime in on how great I thought that special was. That special is the best standup I've ever seen. Absolutely hilarious.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 9, 2013 -> 03:23 PM) Exactly. 2014 is a "transitional year." You go into it with the primary goal of seeing what you have. The kids get a chance to break out or fade away. Now you know what your core is, and you set to gradually improve each year going forward. It isn't splash time. The problem is that free agency isn't what it used to be. Therefore, if there are guys out there this offseason that solve critical needs and may not break the bank, like possibly Abreu & McCann, you pretty much have to pursue them. Obviously you don't do anything stupid, but you don't pass on them because 2014 might be a transitional year. Otherwise, you may be waiting a long time before there's anything worth using your financial flexibility on. In all honesty, if we're afraid to spend some money in free agency this offseason to fix the offense, then we might as well blow the whole thing up. No reason to waste our young pitching staff while we wait 2 or 3 years for our better offensive prospects to even be ready for callups. Either sign some free agents and try to compete while buying some time for your top prospects to develop or go the full rebuild route. Throwing away the surplus value our young starters will likely provide us is by far the worst decision the organization can make right now.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 4, 2013 -> 08:33 AM) I think, generally speaking, these teams are leveled to whatever the teams want them to be, but about Bristol or Great Falls for sure. You see both Caucasian and Latino names spread throughout the leaderboards, but young players abound for sure. I think, just generally speaking, it's a transitional league. What's funny is that the Sox had an AZL team before - from 1998-2002. It's funny because that's when their system was bonkers good. I think this allows us some more insight into Hahn's philosophy. Yup, we had an AZL team back in the day and then switched to Great Falls in 2003. Not sure why, maybe the Pioneer League is considered more advanced. I guess I didn't even realize that teams can have more than 6 U.S. affiliates, but it looks like some teams do. Don't see how it could be a bad thing.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 3, 2013 -> 02:41 PM) I bet he doesn't drink as much now that he's unemployed. Obviously I have no proof. I wonder if I'm the biggest Ozzie fan on the planet. That's food for thought. I could be No. 1 Ozzie backer, though I'm sure there are others running around the South Side. Are you Oney Guillen? If not, you can't be his #1 fan or backer.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 3, 2013 -> 12:47 PM) For a backup job? Of course there is. Veteran presence and another perspective for Phegley. And if we do try to compete a lefty simy makes way more sense. Yeah, even if McCann is out of the equation, Saltamachia seems like a possible platoon partner for Phegley. I was all for Flowers being given the starting job this year, but I don't think he should be considered option A for the other catcher's spot. If an upgrade can't be acquired, then I'm ok with Flowers starting the year as the backup. But I really think is a spot Hahn will try to improve.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 3, 2013 -> 11:40 AM) Birmingham Barons ‏@BhamBarons 53m Congrats to Marcus Semien on winning the 2013 Southern League MVP Award! Hit .290 with 15 homers, 90 runs and 49 RBI. pic.twitter.com/2G0A9BoP8I I know it's twitter, but I would have found a way to squeeze in his .420 OBP. That's what makes his season so spectacular.

QUOTE (TRU @ Aug 31, 2013 -> 09:25 AM) You know whats worse? In 2011 I was in both of my leagues championship games. My opponent? My wife. And I lost both of them. Lol...that's definitely worse. I know I couldn't endure my wife talking s*** about beating in fantasy football for a full year.