Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 10:24 PM) Everyone was waiting for him to fall flat on his face a month or so ago and it didn't happen. He might fade down the stretch, but he STILL looks 100% legit. That's all fine and dandy, but you just said there would be a "spirited" debate on who you would start a franchise with Trout or Puig. If by "spirited" you meant you vs. the entire board than sure. Otherwise, everyone here would take Trout, because he's on another level.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 09:26 PM) 26 multi-hit games in his first 57. 1.023 OPS at the moment, still hanging in the 370's at .374. Trout's catching up on him, though, having had a very strong July/early August. Would be quite a spirited debate about what player you would build your franchise around of Trout, Puig and Harper. Trout has the major advantage of being able to play a very good CF...whereas Puig is better suited for the corners, especially if he keeps growing and putting on weight with that large frame.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 07:00 PM) Dumping Rios gives the Sox more cash to bid for the next Puig. The White Sox historically haven't bid on these types because historically they haven't had the flexibility to do so. Aren't Cubans going to treated like any other Latin American free agents going forward?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 06:00 PM) As I wrote in the other thread, if the Sox get their payroll down to ~$40M for '14 & '15 and will spend $75M-$80M each year they can offer ~$60M in discounts to any team that acquires a player. Say the Braves want to dump Upton's contract and there's a team willing to take him for $20M, the Sox would be able to take on the rest of his contract for the right prospects. Reinsdorf will never go for that and if you think otherwise you clearly haven't been following his ownership style. And how many prospects can we buy for $60 million?

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:54 PM) You don't think the organization saving money to be able to be aggressive in the FA market the following year is a good thing? Do you mean in two offseasons? If so, have you checked the list of free agents? I was skimming through the potential and it seemed pretty ugly on first glance. Also, I'm not against money in free agency this coming offseason. I'm just trying to understand what Marty thinks Hahn will do will all this money.

QUOTE (Al Lopez's Ghost @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:53 PM) Hahn recently said it could be used in the international market, we'll need it for next year's draft top five pick, it could be used to facilitate trades, all of which are better uses than veteran free agents on the downsides of their careers. First off, there are caps on international amatuer free agents and draft picks. Sure, that will eat up some of the money, but only a fraction of what we already have coming off the books next year plus we have $25M in revenue coming from the new TV deal. And Reinsdorf is going to let Hahn eat significant money to broker trades. He wouldn't even let him eat money on a Peavy deal, when it could have gotten us a better return.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:49 PM) There isn't an available free agent that can be a key piece in a rebuild for the super-inflated prices they are likely to get this winter. Say no to free agency (over 2 years.) Lol...then what's the point of your "cash is king" comment.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 05:42 PM) In the Sox situation where they have few prospects to build with and few veteran players other teams covet it would be to their advantage to have as much payroll flexibility as possible heading into the offseason. As was stated earlier in this thread, cash is king. What exactly are we going to do with all this cash?

No Sox game tonight...there's a very good chance we never see Rios in a Sox uniform again. Make it happen Hahn.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:39 PM) There are some disagreeing reports about how long the teams actually have. I've found articles from 2009 saying that the time to make a deal is 72 hours and the time on waivers is 48 hours, that could give the Sox maybe all weekend if the weekend isn't counted as business time. But, that could have changed in the last CBA. Either way, if he went on waivers Monday, then a deal has to be done by Saturday right?

That's fantastic that the Rangers won the claim. Definitely the best case scenario, hopefully Hahn can take advantage of the Ranger's need for a bat.

QUOTE (elwood5892 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 01:14 PM) @Ken_Rosenthal: #Rangers logical guess as claiming team for #WhiteSox’s Rios. Had interest in him in July. Cruz now suspended. Cruz, Murphy FAs end of year. This would be nice if his guess was right. Actually can get something for Rios If it's Texas then we might be in a great spot. Hahn's refusal to trade Rios for peanuts at the deadline could actually pay off now.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 01:07 PM) Really hope Rios has played his last game in a Sox uniform, and get Garcia in the lineup on Friday. I would expect this to take longer than 24 hours to figure out. Even if Hahn is willing to let Rios go for nothing, he's at least going to attempt to get something of value for him. Like iamshack said, expect a 72 hour game of chicken.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) They can try and work something out, but if they can't, we can just let them have him. By claiming him, they are now responsible for his salary if we are willing to let him go. Which can also create some leverage for us. Basically Hahn can say, "Either give us some prospects and we'll eat some money, otherwise, he and his $14M salary are all yours".

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 12:56 PM) Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal Sources: #WhiteSox’s Alex Rios claimed on waivers. Claiming team not known. Owed $13M next season with $13.5M club option in ’15. MORE 12:52pm · 8 Aug 13 Would be awesome if Texas claimed him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 12:40 PM) You can certainly buy players at some level...but I think what MLB is really trying to avoid is "The Yankees sent the Marlins $100 million for Jose Fernandez", almost entirely on competitive balance grounds. You know darn well both teams would do that if it were legal. The problem isn't competitive balance, it's that organizations like the Marlins exist who care more about the bottom line than winning.

The K rate improvement is nice, but the complete lack of BBs is not good.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 11:52 AM) Look at it this way. The Sox are offering any team in MLB a (for the sake of argument) $60M discount over the next 2 years on any player they acquire if they get the right prospects in return. You'd have to get a team's top 4 to 5 prospects for this to even make an ounce of sense. Otherwise, any potential surplus value from the prospects would be more than offset by the $60M you paid to acquire them. Since that's never going to happen, this whole conversation is beyond pointless.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 7, 2013 -> 11:14 PM) That lineup would be significantly better then the current lineup. I don't think I'd have McCann and his near .900 OPS hitting down in the 7 spot though. If we had the rotation this year with that sort of lineup and they played decent defense, then sure that team could legitimately compete, imo. The Sox aren't going to spend the amount of money it will take to sign those two though. And if they did, it would be because they cleared a hell of a lot of other salary. McCann could be a legitimate possibility and even that I doubt. What's funny is that the Sox should have enough money to sign both of those guys if they really wanted to. Again, I'm not suggesting they should go do that, Cano in particular will get a crazy amount of years, but at some point we are going to have to spend some money to improve our offense.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 7, 2013 -> 04:53 PM) Three team deal. Phillies trade Lee to Sox, Sox take on the contract and trade him Orioles. If the Sox wouldn't eat any of Peavy's salary at the deadline, what makes you think would they trade for Lee and then assume his contract while he plays for another team?

Not that this will ever happen, but for discussion purposes, how good would our offense be if we signed Cano & McCann? Could we legitimately compete next year with the following lineup? Again, not suggesting we do anything like this. 1) De Aza, LF 2) Beckham, 3B 3) Cano, 2B 4) Rios, RF 5) Dunn, DH 6) Garcia, CF 7) McCann, C 8) Viciedo, 1B 9) Ramirez, SS Bench: veteran IF, Phegley, Gillaspie, & Danks

Why is it stupid? Arod is a turd sandwich and deserves to get hit a couple times. Not like people want to see him dead or something.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 6, 2013 -> 04:45 PM) Hah...I don't think anyone is qualified to say whether Chris will certainly break down in the near future, other than maybe Chris. That being the case, again, I absolutely agree it would be a risk-filled transaction. I just don't see a need to take that risk when we already have a rotation of Sale, Quintana, Santiago, Danks, Rienzo, & Johnson and should be able to afford a $125M payroll on a regular basis. Fixing the offense in one offseason will be difficult, but I think it can be done in 2 years if we spend intelligently and Garcia & Semien develop into solid contributors next year.

Trading Sale will never happen anytime soon, as no team will give up the theoretical value it would take to get him. And I personally think trading him is the dumbest idea ever UNLESS you are certain he will break down in the near future. Otherwise, you would simply be gambling on unproven prospects using one of the most valuable players in baseball. The potential payoff if you hit on all the prospects is just not worth the risk you miss on them all, which is incredibly more likely.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 6, 2013 -> 09:07 AM) He was mid-90's as a starter when I saw him a year ago and hit something in the range of 97-98 with a fastball for his last strikeout of the game so he kept velocity for the full time. That'd be a huge dropoff just from "tired arm". Well if it's more than a dead arm, then they should probably have him see a specialist. That a crazy drop in velocity, especially since he recently moved to the bullpen.