Eminor3rd

10% walk rate is SUPER promising. We are watching this guy learn and it's exciting.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 07:22 PM) No offense to our fans here but when it comes to the Cubs I just don't care what they do. It's the Sox all the way for me

QUOTE (VAfan @ Aug 28, 2014 -> 12:15 AM) Jose Quintana seems like a quality starter, but he ends up with far too many no decisions and losses to know for sure. He doesn't seem like a #2 guy, more like a decent #3 guy or very good #4 guy. Is this part a joke? You're supposed to use green!

The stars have aligned for Zaleski to get his fresh-brewed cup of Dunkin coffee.

QUOTE (robinventura23 @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 10:02 AM) Adam Dunn first game Leury Garcia second game

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) The one thing that prevents me from completely calling this a successful season is the rash of injuries. It's prevented development for some guys and shown for others that it could be a long-term risk big enough to keep this core from ever being competitive. Definitely

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 08:26 AM) One of the writers I follow on twitter tweeted that last night's game was just the 9th all season that Abreu, Garcia, and Eaton started together. Eaton seems like a player whose going to miss time off and on, but its hard to truly gauge "success" when that happens to your newly acquired core. Bullpen aside, things are moving in the right direction, so by that (meager) standard, its still a relative success. Yeah, lol, but what you're really saying is "we haven't got much of a look at Avisail Garcia."

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 03:25 PM) I'm not sure if he's a good enough catcher or a powerful enough DH. Not sure if he can catch either, but I'll take a 136 wRC+ all day out of DH or any other position on the field.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 01:53 PM) What are your thoughts on the FA market moving forward, given the very popular strategy of recognizing and locking up core players without letting them hit the Free Agency (which obviously has thinned out the FA market)? How does this change "the time to spend" or does that time really ever come anymore? Theoretically, the market is "correcting itself" with early-career extensions right now -- essentially redistributing money from aging FA's to pre-arbitration stars. This trend will reach equilibrium at some point: where prices for young stars continue to rise until it is no longer worth it for teams to take the level of risk they are currently taking on "unproven" players, leaving the biggest names in a position where they will go year-to-year, many ultimately testing free agency. Even those who don't are typically signing extensions that take them up to "normal" free agency age, so the majority these guys will hit the market around age 30 regardless. Basically, I think the phenomenon is temporary and cyclical. But I think you may be on to something if you are suggesting the next few FA classes might be pretty weak until some of the early extensions start expiring. At that point, though, there'll be guys hitting the market every year just like now -- the only difference is that it'll be after 8-9 years of service intead of 6.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs...g-carlos-rodon/

Great post

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 01:32 PM) Balta, I'm convinced you want a $60M payroll next year. Even if we aren't major players in free agency, there is nothing preventing Hahn from acquiring an overpaid, but productive player that costs minimal minor/major league talent. In fact, I'm pretty sure Rick recently hinted at doing just that. I've said this many times, but financial flexibility is worthless if you're afraid to leverage it. I understand you'd like to use your resources on guys like Abreu that offer some potential surplus value, but those guys come few and far between. Sometimes you simply need to add production and pay accordingly. I'll take 3 WAR from James Shields for $20M rather than 1 WAR of Hector Noesi for $2.5M. You may be losing out from a surplus value standpoint, but you've added a decent amount of production to your rotation. And I get you're effectively paying $17.5M for two incremental WAR, but you only have 25 rosters spots to work with. Limiting yourself to a 1 WAR player in one those of spots simply because he's underpaid is quite foolish IMO. If Hahn thinks we're close to being competitive, then he'll use his financial resources to upgrade the roster regardless of potential surplus value. You do this to put a good team over the top. This team may not reach 75 wins. Yes, I want the team to get better and I don't care if they spend money to do it, but I'm NOT okay with spending $20m on James Shields' likely Zito-esque age 36 and 37 season in 2018, and/or Matt Kemp's best impression of Cecil Fielder's post-30 career implosion, all just to get this team up to around .500. And if those types of deals are all that's available, then we SHOULD go into the season with a $60m payroll. The time to spend will come, but it's as much a function of the opportunity that exists as it is a function of the incumbent team. Spending just for the sake of spending is exactly what ruined all the teams that are rebuilding right now except for one -- the White Sox. And the reward for this has been (what looks like) a vastly accelerated path to relevance. We may already be 50-70% there, let's please NOT push all the chips in for a hail mary and waste what we've earned. IMO, this is what Balta means and it mirrors what all of us who are advocating caution are trying to say: there will be a time when we will expect the muscle to be flexed, but we will know it when we see it. Surplus value does not win championships, but it DOES build cores that leave room for the expensive final pieces to fit when the time comes. You're right, we don't want to be the Rockies and watch our core crumble while the FO runs in circles, but we also don't want to be the Blue Jays, who have gotten to the red zone only to find themselves maxed out trying to find the final pieces.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 25, 2014 -> 09:25 PM) With all due respect, Beckham is a great argument against advanced stats. You can't tell me he was valuable to the White Sox in any way during his tenure. You can't tell me we couldn't have had a different second baseman every one of those years with the same impact on the team. Some minimum salary free agent each year. I mean, cmon. If Beckham is considered valuable in any way, that advanced stat is just WRONG. Seriously. There has to be some value to the eye test and the common stat. Beckham was a lousy No. 8 draft pick. If he's better than most, than teams have drafted poorly at No. 8 that is FOR SURE. Enough is enough. How can anybody say Beckham was valuable in any way? He was a decent to good fielder who couldn't hit a lick. Why do we need WAR to tell us some fib?? Greg, wtf are you talking about? Please read the following carefully: Gordon Beckham is a below average major league player by any statistic, both advanced and traditional. The only reason people are saying he is better than most #8 picks is because most #8 picks don't ever even make it to the Majors. The whole point being made is that even holding down a job as a mediocre player is something of an accomplishment. This has NOTHING to do with advanced metrics. I've never come across anyone who can hold a personal grudge against something as consistently as you. I mean seriously, if your car won't start, do you blame WAR? Do you blame Adam Dunn?

I've been hoping for 75 wins since Opening Day. I want to be convinced the team improved. I'm not going to root for picks 4 vs. pick 7 -- I hope it's protected in the top ten (11?) but that we did well enough that we are poised for another offseason of improvement at the major league level.

He had five years to figure out how to be good. NOBODY gets that long a look with a single organization. There can be no excuses.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 05:58 PM) Eminor nominates Chipper Jones to be our manager! Him and his BROWN teeth, haha. I never noticed how gross his teeth are until his retirement tour.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 03:46 PM) I can keep going Well done, lol.

Nava isn't blocking ANYONE in Boston. He had a surprisingly solid year last year out of nowhere, but I think many people don't realize how mediocre he's been this year. And he doesn't have much of a track record to suggest he'll "bounce back."

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 09:34 AM) That's pretty subjective. What I mean is, sure, the odds of Andy Wilkins replacing Dunn's production are about 3-5% at best. It's more the idea of moving on, getting past the Konerko/Dunn era (last player from 2005 remaining) and using those financial resources more wisely/effectively in the future. If the question is can Wilkins and a platoon partner outproduce Dunn and Konerko?, probably not. If the question is whether Rick Hahn can either trade for a better replacement or spend that $16 million or whatever more effectively than what Adam Dunn has produced in 2014, sure, and I would add there's not much hope for the future of the White Sox if you're skeptical on that front. It's not subjective, though. That's the thing. He's been an above average hitter for the last three seasons, and most of this board (and I'd wager most of the casual fans as well) has wanted his head the whole time. He unquestionably hasn't reach the heights we expected when he signed, but if we're being objective, he's been a key contributor to our offense and there haven't been any better options to replace him. Subjective would be how the initial hype of his signing has caused fans to consider him among the absolute biggest negatives on the team during his tenure, to be excised at all costs, despite the fact that he's been an above average hitter and is, by all accounts, a positive clubhouse presence. Look, I'm disappointed with him too -- I LOVED the signing, fresh off the Mark Kotsay debacle. But I'm glad our front office hasn't let that emotion cloud their decision-making. Disappointment or not, the offense has been better the past three seasons because he's been here.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 09:21 AM) You can't really compare Danks and Dunn because: 1) Danks came to our team when he was very young and is considered part of the White Sox "family" 2) His brother is also on the team 3) 2008 Blackout Game memories still linger for some 4) The fact that Danks' lack of effectiveness can be blamed on his career-altering injury, vs. laziness or "not caring" or whatever people say about Dunn 5) The fact that expectations were so high that Dunn was the final piece when he was added in 2011, having gone through a season where Jim Thome being on the Twins made a huge difference not making them playoffs despite the 26-5 run in mid-2010. 6) The fact that Dunn's never made the playoffs 7) Dunn's 2011 was chronicle in the NY Times for its historic abysmal nature, whereas Danks criticism is about fastball velocity, location, homers surrendered, leaving balls out over the plate, peripherals....you just can't equate them when you talk about total flops and then take into consideration what we were being sold at the time by KW Right, all of that has nothing to do with how well they play. It's fine, but everyone should be aware that they are hating on Dunn because they don't like him, not because of his performance. This is why witesoxfan has come off like a DUNN LOVER all the time when he isn't really -- it's just so confusing when everyone has wanted to "improve" the team by making the offense worse. You can have personal problems with a guy and want him gone, but let's acknowledge that is entirely separate from what our team should do in order to win.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 12:56 AM) What do u mean? People on this board despise Danks (as a pitcher, not a human being), at least the majority do. QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 01:32 AM) There is definitely a solid number of people that want to keep Danks. Personally, I prefer Noesi over Danks at this point as a back end of the rotation guy when you factor in cost. Not only are there many who advocate holding him as chisoxfan310 notes (I actually am one, kind of, not because I think he's good but because I don't think we can move him even for free and think he might as well be in the mix to eat innings if we have to pay him anyway), but even those who want to dump him are trying their hardest to convince themselves he may be worth something to a contender. With Dunn it's just pure vitriol -- most hate him and want him gone at all costs even though he's been a productive player for us three of the four years of his contract. Overpaid, certainly, but useful, and not even the most overpaid on the team.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 07:24 AM) I am probably Dunn's biggest supporter on this site, but what is the point of keeping Dunn in September? The team is out of it, there are a lot of intriguing players at AAA who need a chance to show what they have at the MLB level, they absolutely are not going to offer him a qualifying offer, and you want to try and get a guy who has the reputation of an all around good guy a chance at winning a World Series ring. I'm not as sure as I was about Rodon signing, but I'm quite confident Dunn will be moved. 98.333333333%?

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 04:04 PM) Oh yes we do. Everyone knew what he meant by $18M. He meant a whole bunch of money and his point stands- it's sad. It's funny how everyone is so angry at Dunn's $15m, but perfectly okay with Danks and his $14m as a back-end rotation option going into next year. They're both overpaid role players, except Dunn has actually been somewhat effective at his.

Oh White Sox Facebook... lol