Eminor3rd

I'd like more "Resources," such as the Kalapse Payroll chart. I'd also like to see transactions and roster moves in a dedicated thread that can only be edited by mods/admins.

Really excellent analysis of the factors in his change of approach that suggest he has significantly improved. Follow the link for the graphs. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/p...er-not-a-fluke/

I agree with the setiment that we need to see what we have this year, and that means giving guys a consistent chance to get going at the potential expense of wins. Were we in a pennant race, I would favor swapping Viciedo and Dunn and starting Lillibridge. But we're not in a pennant race and not expected to be in one, so we need to give the high upside guys a chance to live up and become building blocks or trade bait.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) Nope. The thrashing is well-deserved. Churning out relievers, while important, is not nearly as impressive as producing starting pitching and position players. +1. Every reliever is a failed starter. Mostly because they fail learning command or a third pitch.

Wow, fourth game of the year and Cleveland attendance already down to about 220.

Beckham -- .360+ wOBA

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 28, 2012 -> 10:51 PM) Best move Kenny Williams has ever made. Agreed

I was on board with a fire sale this offseason, but I can understand where KW wanted to wait and see how we start this year. We had so many unexplainably abysmal performances, that no matter how you look at it, there is a decent chance that Dunn, Rios, Peavy, and, to a lesser extent, Beckham could "bounce back" and we'd be a playoff contender. If that was the plan, though, the Santos trade doesn't make much sense, but I also believe that KW would have sold more if we could have gotten what he wanted. Oakland selling all of their SPs on awesome contracts really shook the market up.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 16, 2012 -> 08:27 AM) I get that people are annoyed that Viciedo moved from 3B to RF to LF, but the alternative was to keep him at a position he's bad at, and in the minor leagues. Switched him to RF so he could get a callup and because Pierre can't play RF with his arm. I'm not 100% sure why he's in LF now, but switching corner outfield spots really should not be anything more than shrug-worthy. It's not like switching to CF or between IF spots. I understand that there are some differences in the way the ball comes off the bats of righties vs. lefties, but we have never balked at players switching corner spots before. I agree that corner OF spots are more interchangeable than people acknowledge, from a player's adjustment perspective as opposed to an ideal skills perspective. The ball is always going to hook toward the line when pushed, etc. The only time I think it's a bigger deal is when the park has significant differences from one side to the other, like Fenway, but we aren't dealing with that at the Cell.

Definitely Frank Thomas. Was totally obsessed. Also Lance Johnson. And my current favorite is Matt Thornton.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 02:46 PM) Sounds like it was written by a 20-30 year old TRYING to become a scout or just a very addicted SALLY League fan, but definitely not the report of someone involved with MLB. That's exactly what it is. Mike Newman is an IT guy full-time that spends most of his free time going to games and scouting guys. He only reports on people he has the chance to see, which I think is cool. He's not an MLB scout, but his insight is still useful and interesting.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/w...g-report-video/

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Feb 26, 2012 -> 05:43 PM) I heard about this. Towards the beginning of June when it was dawning on management that this was going to be one of those days (seasons), Walker began crafting a last resort plan- not to save the season, but to save JOBS (his, Kenny's, Adam's, and so on). After many nights with a bottle of Jack and inexplicable bouts of laughter that came from no where, the best he could do was the "trick the opposition into thinking that Adam Dunn is Chris Sale". Realistically, 2012 season was the earliest we would see this plan in effect. Walker, unfortunately, did not make it. Another problem is that MLB pitchers were treated to a full year of watching Adam Dunn get straight up beaten by every pitch thrown at him, so the opposition would probably be more careful/throw closer to 100% if they thought it was Chris instead of Adam. We all remember those times that the catcher was already in the act of throwing the ball back to the pitcher before Adam swung. No one really talked about it because it was unpleasant to think about/hearken back to. Sometimes umpires pretended that he was just taking a practice cut before the next pitch. Everyone in the park knew better, no one (not even opposing battery) said anything about it. Walker's pllan straight up backfired. lol

Alexei has to be the two batter to start out. I wish his OBP was higher, but the two hole is more important than everything except the fourth hole when it comes to overall offensive production. I don't know why everyone wants to punt the two hole. I agree that peak Beckham belongs in the two-hole though.

We need to accept the fact that the "experts" aren't even close to the best source of info for our favorite teams anymore. I mean, the best analysis going on anywhere is on blogs now. The "experts" are just faces on TV. I mean, when was the last time anyone said anything interesting or half true on Baseball Tonight? These guys evaluate everything only on the most superficial level, whereas we can access content from people who actually understand our team's minor league system, salary obligations, coaching staff, community, etc. anytime we want online.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 17, 2012 -> 10:53 AM) I wouldn't waste that much time. I would just say $30 mil >>> $27.5 mil. Think about it. Exactly. It would only take a few minutes to ask his agent if he'd be willing to consider an offer of more money.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 17, 2012 -> 10:24 AM) I was thinking if the story is out there that a deal is "done", other teams wouldn't bother because it won't matter. But since the deal can't possibly be "done" since he's not eligible to sign yet, it would mean that he could only have agreed to terms, and so if you were willing to offer more than $27.5m you'd pick up the phone right away.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 10:46 PM) Sox fans, at least on this board, are very understanding when it comes to saving money. I could give a s*** about Jerry saving money. Spent some f***ing money and give me a winner!! (I don't count $$ to Rios/Dunn/Peavy; that's their own fault they are wasting those greenbacks). lol. This post removed any doubt in my mind that greg775 is a troll.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 05:10 PM) I just went through and totaled up the WAR, as of this year, for Brandon McCarthy, Chris Young, Daniel Hudson, Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Sweeney, and Clayton Richard...6 players that the Sox have traded away. I came up with over 47 fWAR within those 6 players, and there's probably another kid or two the Sox have traded away since 2002 I'm forgetting. If one were to add that to the 12 that the Sox have, that would put the Sox in the upper 1/2 of the league. But that's not how the Sox have operated. The Sox have instead traded away those guys to go after this quality of player: The Sox got 15 fWAR out of Gavin Floyd, 16 fWAR out of John Danks, and 15 fWAR out of Javier Vazquez. That of course doesn't even count the big fWAR steal that was Alexei Ramirez. And then there's 8 fWAR from Carlos Quentin, who was also obtained by trading away prospects. Yes, there is a downside, but there is a downside to trying to hold onto prospects whenever possible as well. Some guys take time to develop (Gordon Beckham). Some guys develop and then break down, when instead you could have traded them for a guy who wouldn't break down (Brandon McCarthy for John Danks, for example). Yes, the Sox have been weaker in the draft than they should have been. But the statement that the Sox are not prioritizing player development simply isn't supported here...the Sox just identify their value in a different way. Great points. I have no reply. I'm posting your comment on FG to see if the author will reply. EDIT: The fWAR for the Sox players you mentioned is 57 (I'm not counting Alexei because he was an international FA), so +10 on those away. Of course there are other examples of players, but the rest probably add up to a wash.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 04:16 PM) But for certain teams, say ones who consistently take the policy of trading away their best talent rather than spending the couple years it takes to develop them, it will put them at the bottom of lists like this one. No one's going to excuse the awful 2005-2006 first round picks, but once again, this buries KW based on a quirk of the statistic. You're absolutely right, that there's more going on than this shows. I think the idea though, is that the most efficient way to get a good team is to develop and utilize cost-controlled talent, because veteran trades and free agents are so much more expensive. We're experiencing the downside of this now, which is that when things go south with our talent (as they will go with every team from time to time) our bloated payroll leave sus with little flexibility to right the ship, so we have no choice but to soldier on, potentially mired in our mess for a long time, micuh like the Astros and Cubs of the last five years or so. If we'd prioritized player development, however, we'd be able to rely on arb and pre-arb guys more heavily, allowing us the flexibility to either sign guys to fill holes and right the ship or dump the expensive underperformers for cheap guys that will be upgrades, which equates to a much much quicker turnaround.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 03:34 PM) For anyone who has been on the "Sox have had a better system than the media gives them credit for, we just graduate our guys quickly" wagon: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/b...t-of-the-worst/ For those of you who don't want to click the link, the link shows a graph of total WAR from homegrown players drafted since 2002. The White Sox rank 29th of 30, with a grand total of 11.9 WAR. Before anyone brings up the "we haven't had enough high draft picks" argument, take note that the Red Sox rank first, with a total of 100.3 WAR. Also, in case anyone is interested, here's the blurb that accompanies the Sox entry:

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 03:41 PM) Let me guess, because they were traded away, the fact that the Sox drafted Daniel Hudson, Gio Gonzalez, Clayton Richard, Chris Young, etc., doesn't count. Correct. This isn't controlling for development though, so we're talking about judging both drafting prowess and player development in total. With the exception of Hudson, I can't think of any significant instance where we essentially polished a player and then sent him off to be successful elsewhere. I would assume that the effects of half-polishing a player and receiving half-polished players would cancel each other out on a league-wide level.

For anyone who has been on the "Sox have had a better system than the media gives them credit for, we just graduate our guys quickly" wagon: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/b...t-of-the-worst/ For those of you who don't want to click the link, the link shows a graph of total WAR from homegrown players drafted since 2002. The White Sox rank 29th of 30, with a grand total of 11.9 WAR. Before anyone brings up the "we haven't had enough high draft picks" argument, take note that the Red Sox rank first, with a total of 100.3 WAR.

Additionally, for those saying he'll be a good defensive replacement, his UZR totals over the last three years are, from oldest to most recent: 0.2, -5.6, and -11.5

This possibly slightly improves our team. Assuming he would be better than Lillibridge. Which, defensively, I think he's not. I mean, I don't know, it's only $1m (including obvious buy-out). I'd be pissed if I was Lillibridge. Although, the more I think about it, it does make sense to have something other than Lillibridge to fall back on in case Viciedo or De Aza sucks. Also, I just want to be the first to say it in the extremely unlikely event that it happens: DOES THIS MEAN HE FOUND A TAKER FOR RIOS?!