Chicago White Sox

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.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 5, 2013 -> 09:50 PM) I wonder who will be with the organization longer, N. Molina or S. Castro? Seems like Castro is going through a dead arm period or something. As long as his velocity comes back, it's got to be him.

I don't see how there is any chance in hell that Dunn gets claimed. Rios & Ramirez maybe, but not Dunn IMO. That's not to say he won't be moved, but I don't think teams will risk being stuck with him for next year at $14M.

Garcia is now 2-2 with a triple.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 12:43 PM) I'm talking about overall value. Not only does Alexei lead us in WAR, he ranks 13th in WAR among all MLB SS. No other position on our team ranks in the top half. 18th in wRC+, which is pretty good on our team. You keep citing Alexei's WAR but don't acknowledge it's entirely based on his defense, since he's been a negative value hitter. Defensive metrics are still way too sketchy IMO and his overall value is likely inflated as a result. That's not to say he's a bad player, but let's not use WAR as gospel, especially when we're talking about a defensive-oriented player.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 12:27 PM) I think getting better production from the outfield is a key in how quickly this turnaround can happen. Say they got rid of even just $20M more in salary. That would bring their payroll down to ~$45M. A guy like Andre Eithier would be an interesting possibility at that point. I know he's over 30 (which I don't like), but he gets on base and is a left-handed hitter. If the Dodgers were willing to eat $10M-$15M (big if) next year's payroll would be under $60M and the OF would be De Aza in left, Garcia in center, and Eithier in right. Viciedo to first or available in a deal. Anyway, just thinking off the top of my head . . . What? Have you seen our infield this year? We have 14 HRs between Gillapsie, Ramirez, Beckham, & Keppinger. We've also had a corpse at 1B when Dunn isn't playing. They're without question the problem. If we can get a superstar OF in free agency, then sure go for the upgrade. Otherwise, we can field a solid to good OF between De Aza, Viciedo, Garcia, & Rios next year.

Man, our offense sucks balls this year.

This is a big start for Rienzo. With Erik Johnson back at AAA, there should be some competition for the 5th spot in the rotation. Rienzo has an opportunity to take hold of the spot if he pitches well the rest of the way. Any extended struggles and I think we see Johnson get a look, at least by September. Look forward to his start and hope he does well.

If Garcia is better than De Aza, then play him in CF next year. At some point in the near future, we'll acquire or develop a stronger defensive CF and Garcia will slide over to RF. Until then, find a way to get your best three OFs in the lineup. As long as Garcia isn't a butcher in CF, that's probably where he belongs for now.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 06:49 AM) Lake looks legit to me, but come on. An .803 OPS isn't very good for the Pacific Coast league. I wouldn't overreact to a limited major league sample.

I wonder when the Sox will try to pass Rios and some of these other guys through waivers. If I were Hahn, I'd do so sooner rather than later. I just think the earlier you put a guy on waivers, the more likely he is to clear.

I will say this about Sanchez, his BB & K rates aren't drastically different than they were last year, but his BABIP is way down, even below his low A & high A figures. He's probably hit better than his current average suggests. Again, I really like Sanchez, but I think we all got a little carried away with him last year, myself included.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 11:13 PM) The big prospect is Carlos Rodon, a left-handed starter. And you take him no matter how many left-handed starters we currently have.

I could easily see the deal having been Santiago or Quintana for a young, major league 3B from another non-contender.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 04:07 PM) My point wasn't that Sanchez wrongly got attention, but that it was disproportionate. Semien and Sanchez both started in A+. Semien ultimately had a better offensive season. Sanchez got promoted to AA and hit an unsustainably high number of singles for a month. For that Sanchez was ranked our #2 prospect and Semien around #15. That seemed out of whack. It seems even more out of whack now. I would say the same about any prospect who doesn't walk a ton and has only hit 3 homers in almost 1600 PA's- he needs to pretty much win the batting title to be very worthwhile offensively. The only thing I disagree about is Sanchez's walk rate. I think a 7.5% BB rate is pretty damn good for a 20 year from Latin America.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 02:23 PM) At this point Semien is on par with Sanchez prospect-wise and maybe a little better, but your dismissive idea about Sanchez' "attention" last year is nonsense. What?? Semien is a way better prospect than Sanchez. Even if he's a lesser defensive player, his offensive game is much more complete and his ceiling is much higher than Sanchez's because he actually has some power. I don't know how this is even debatable. Also, I'm a big fan of Sanchez, picked him as my sleeper prospect prior to last year, but his 2012 season was inflated by an unsustainable BABIP.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:10 PM) He'll be 32 next year, currently has a 77 OPS+ for a team on pace to lose 95+ games this year, and is owed ~$20M. He needs to be one of the first out the door. Alexei has value because of his defense and the scarcity of the position, but his bat is a major part of our offensive problems. I disagree with your logic of getting rid of him at all costs, but I tend to agree we need to go in another direction at SS. It's too bad we couldn't work out a deal with the Cardinals as he would have been a perfect fit for them. If we do move him, it will most likely have to be in the offseason, because I think there will be a couple teams that claim him this month.