BlackSox13

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 09:13 PM) Actually talking about Johan No s***, my bad. I had not heard Johan was coming back. I'd take a chance on him as a reliever.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 02:22 PM) I'd bet money Williams turns out to be the better player down the road. And that's if either of them make it. Higher upside. Guess we will find out down the road. Vazquez looks like he will be a hell raiser on the base paths, maybe a little switch hitting version Jose Altuve. I'd take em both on the Sox farm.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 08:22 PM) Some of these guys should try to become relievers. I wouldn't mind signing Anderson or Santana to be a lefty reliever if either was open to giving it a shot Santana is still young enough and productive enough to get a contract as a starter but the other guys, I agree should think about signing as a reliever given their history.

I understand buying low off of the Tommy John scrap heap but if the Sox are really trying to " contend " then trade for or sign a pitcher that does not have recent health issues. No Floyd, Johnson, Billingsley, etc. Sign or trade for a starter that can give the Sox 180+ IP in 2015. I'm really starting to think the Sox should go after Volquez big time. He fits right in where the Sox have a gaping hole. Edit: just wanted to add that Anderson is probably the worst idea of the injured group. Anderson has not pitched over 100 innings since 2010. Noooo thank you. Edit: also wanted to add. Baron, your avatar reminds me of an old favorite of mine that the lady put in last night, Big Trouble in Little China. Love that movie so much! OK, I'm done, carry on.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 07:51 PM) I like the idea of Santana. Is there a reason no one has mentioned Billingsley? Chad's coming back from Tommy John surgery. He's expected to be ready by ST but not a guy I would count on for alot of inngs pitched in 2014.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 05:51 PM) i see your point. you are saying, by default as is, Noesi is prob the #3 pitcher. that in itself show the position the sox need to address. that should also show that the sox are in trouble, if Noesi is the team starting #3. then it all comes back to Hahn identifying the needs of the sox and to address them. the quickest way to fix it is thru free agency. Exactly. Noesi is not a #3 but with what the Sox currently have to choose from, sadly, its Noesi. I like Noesi a lot but he's probably a #4 or a really good #5 right now. I would prefer the Sox did grab a pitcher off of the FA market but who? I think the best bet might be Edinson Volquez who supposedly is looking for a 2-3 year deal at 9M per year. Not a long commitment or high cost option which could fit very well for the Sox. In this scenario, a rotation of Sale/ Q/ Volquez/ Rodon/ Noesi would be ideal and Danks traded to never never land (one can dream right?). Slotting Rodon between two guys that are good for 6+ innings will help keep the pen fresh for Rodon's outings. Before I deviate further from topic... I prefer what the Mets have to offer in a trade but if I'm the Mets and I'm considering trading Snydergaard or Wheeler for a SS, I would not be looking to add a 33 year old SS. I would be on the horn with the cubs for a 24 year old named Starlin Castro who would upgrade over Flores and is under team control through the 2019 season and has a team option in 2020. I'm just trying to look at it from the Mets perspective. Its not just about who can help them now but who will be there down the road and if I'm giving up top pitching talent, I want a SS that will help now and the long term which Castro does. This is why I feel a trade with the Yanks is more likely than the Mets, if a trade happens at all. I would prefer Wheeler over Greene but I still think there's more upside to Greene than meets the eye. Greene has sick movement on his FB and slider.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 04:25 PM) Someone who is not on the roster. I can guarantee you that no one in the White Sox front office is hoping Noesi can be a #3 starter next year. They will be adding a starter and preferably one that can be a #3 or better. Noesi, Danks, Rodon, & Bassitt will be in the mix for those last two spots, but no way we go into 2015 with three of them in our rotation short of injury. Again, as of right now its Noesi. I'm not counting on the Sox to sign or trade for anyone, that's setting ones self up for a heart break if does not happen. I hold onto hope but by no means am I counting on it. The Sox will not be signing Scherzer, Lester or Shields. McCarthy likely ends up back in NY, Masterson is a train wreck and dare I say I would rather have Danks over Masterson. So that leaves the Sox trading for a potential #3. How many teams can you think of that will actually give up their current #3? What will the cost be prospect wise?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 04:09 PM) Who is hoping Noesi can handle the #3 spot? If he's anything more than our #5 starter next year we're in a lot of trouble. Uh, the White Sox and yes, the sox are already in alot of trouble. Right now Noesi is the best bet to be #3. Danks is not the #3, Bassitt is not the #3, Carroll sure as hell is not the #3 and we don't know when Rodon will be ready for a call up much less become the #3 so who do you suggest is the #3?

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 03:42 PM) hey this is a forum to share opinions. at least you now see what most is saying. always remember, I am always right you everybody is wrong. In a sense, yes. I still believe Alexei is a bit over valued while Greene is under valued. I still take Greene for Alexei straight up. As I said earlier in this thread, I watched plenty of Greene's videos on MLB.com and was impressed. Kid has really good stuff and I think Coop could genuinely help this kid even more. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 03:51 PM) http://itsaboutthemoney.net/archives/2014/...-in-2015-plans/ Do the Yankees need him more than Ramirez? I think the Yanks just might need Greene more than Alexei. The Yanks haven't had very good luck with starting pitching.

QUOTE (MAX @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 02:57 PM) You are pretty much getting all his years. I don't think its as horrible as some do and I bet its a trade-able asset at some point. Its only a tradeable asset if 1- the player agrees to be traded 2- another team is willing to take on the salary. Just look at the Phillies and Jimmy Rollins, the Phillies would like the salary relief and Rollins doesn't want to leave. If Stanton's production ever regresses like Hamilton/ Texeira/ARod and others; Stanton's salary, contract length, poor production and no trade clause all work against the idea of Stanton being tradeable by the Marlins. If Stanton can continue to produce then its great value but if not, the Marlins have dug their own grave. Stanton is an amazing talent, but I'm glad its not the Sox that are involved with this type of contract.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 12:46 PM) Won the silver slugger award, finalist for the gold glove, plays arguably the most important position on the field, and is only owed $20 million dollars over the next 2 years. That player has a good amount of value. You're acting like good SS's grow on trees. You don't trade a top 5 or 6 SS in the MLB for a #5 starter. That's crazy. I think the other NY team would be where an Alexei trade comes from anyway. They reportedly had an agreement to trade for Rollins already but Rollins nixed it with his no trade clause. Not sure what the Mets have to offer to be honest, but they seem intent on being competitive this year so I can see Hahn getting them to overpay. Well, I've said plenty of times that Alexei's defense is not easy to replace, at least not from within the organization. I did some looking around at SS rankings and found this... http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/end-of-se...ues-shortstops/ Just for the record, I never look at fangraphs and know nothing of the site but I did find their rankings to be quite interesting. Perhaps I am under valuing Alexei but I'm coming from the angle of how will he be in the future if I'm a team interested in trading for him. Being 33 he will begin to decline, could be 2015 or a few years from now, we don't know. If one considers these rankings to be pretty close then a case can be made for selling high on Alexei while the Sox can, before regression happens. Unless the Sox plan on sliding him over to 2B/3B in the future or let him walk in FA after the 2016 season. As I said before, this is the year the Sox s*** or get off the pot when it comes to deciding Alexei's future with the team. As for Greene. Yes, he is projected as a #4/#5 starter but the kid has very good downward movement on his fastball and slider hence all the ground balls which is a good thing at the cell. He's also starting to throw a cutter which Coop could help with as well as help with developing a changeup. As of right now, were hoping Noesi can handle the #3 spot in the rotation and in my opinion Greene already has better stuff than Noesi. I'd feel much better with Greene pitching #3 than Noesi and I really like what I saw from Noesi last season and believe he will continue to improve but I still see him as more of pretty damn good #4/#5.

None of this Castro talk is making any sense at all so I'll leave you all to it, I'm crawling out of this rabbit hole.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 12:14 PM) Come on man, the improvement in all those stats you quoted were fueled by an unrealistic BABIP. I'm not buying Flowers putting up a .355 BABIP again next year. Unless those glasses were indeed magical, he's a gigantic candidate for regression. You're making zero sense. You think Flowers will regress based on his progression and Castro will progress based on his regression. Really? Castro is no lock for progression next year and is not a clear upgrade over Flowers. Castro's value is based off of his 2013 season but not the 2014 season in which he played where he regressed? Flowers value is based on his terrible 2013 season and not on the 2014 season where he progressed? So its considered an upgrade when a team trades for a player (Castro) that regressed in 2014 and use that player to replace a player ( Flowers) that not only progressed in 2014 but put up better numbers than the player (Castro) the team traded for? Whaaaaaat?

QUOTE (shipps @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 04:05 PM) LOL dumbest contract ever. I thought MLB teams learned after all these years of these inflated outrageous contracts blowing up in their face. QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 07:02 AM) I wouldn't sign '01-'04 Bonds to that contract. Baseball is so dumb. Agreed with both of you. The Marlins are banking on Stanton playing at a high level well into his thirties, which is certainly possible, but if his performance falls off or he becomes injury prone he will easily have the worst contract in baseball, ever. If Stanton ever becomes riddled with injury or his performance regresses, he can choose not to opt out and stay under the contract while not even allowing the Marlins to trade him due to the NTC. To boot, the Marlins are an NL team so if Stanton does develope injury problems at some point they don't have the DH spot to utilize in an effort to keep him off the field yet his bat in the lineup. The Marlon's are potentially burying their self alive with such a long and expensive contract.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 11:15 AM) Where did Flowers make progress exactly? His K%, BB%, & ISO last year were all near his all-time lows in those stats. How about BA, OBP, SLG, OPS... All of which, BTW, were better than what Castro put up last year. Even Tyler's defense improved and as others have pointed out, he handled the pitching staff well. The Astros are shopping Castro based on his 2013 numbers which explains why the asking price is "high ". Meanwhile, interested teams point to his 2014 numbers and the fact the Astros have 3 catchers and should get rid of one. The Astros are not in a position to charge full price for Castro and Hahn is not a big enough fool to pay full price under these circumstances.

Yeah, I just don't see Castro as enough of an upgrade over Flowers considering there are bigger holes to fill. If indeed the Astros asking price is " high " then the Astros can have him. Castro regressed in 2014 while Flowers made progress, I'm fine with Flowers for now unless the Padres make Grandal available for a decent price.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 08:09 AM) According to MLB, they were the Backs 11th and 13th rated prospects. Velazquez was the player last year to reach base 70 straight games. Velázquez is a hell of a talent. We'll be hearing his name in a few years.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 08:51 PM) Would love to grab Grandal and one of Ross/Cashner but I dare not think what the asking price would be. I would imagine Bassitt would be involved. QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 09:34 PM) Bassit has a good short season and stint in the AFL and all of a sudden he's headlining trades. Yeesh. Where, in the above post, did I say anything about Bassitt " headlining" a possible trade? Is it too difficult for you to comprehend why I threw his name out there? Let me help you. Given Bassitt's September performance and his AFL performance, he would appear to be ready at being given a shot at a major league rotation or bullpen. Now, since I was inquiring about the cost of acquiring one of Cashner/Ross, wouldn't it make sense that maybe, just maybe, SD would want a young cost controlled MLB ready pitcher in return?

Would love to grab Grandal and one of Ross/Cashner but I dare not think what the asking price would be. I would imagine Bassitt would be involved.

Castro has been speculated on for a year now so its no surprise a sports writer has written speculation that the Sox could be interested in Castro. I'm sure the Sox and many other teams are interested in Castro, does not mean the Astros will/ will not trade him. If the Sox were to try and upgrade at catcher I hope its for Grandal.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 13, 2014 -> 09:57 PM) I wonder if that deal would include a no-trade clause. Per mlbtr... 9:36am: Heyman reports that the two sides are very serious about getting a deal done, suggesting that it could end up being for a whopping 13 years. The two sides are said to be on the same page regarding money, Heyman writes, but two non-monetary issues still need to be worked out: a no-trade clause and a potential opt-out clause midway through the deal. One source characterized the negotiations as being on the 10-yard line. 8:40am: ESPN’s Buster Olney hears that one possibility that has been discussed is a 12-year, $325MM contract (ESPN Insider required and recommended). Olney also wonders how the frightening, season-ending injury to Stanton has affected his perspective and influenced his willingness to accept a deal like this. As Olney notes, Stanton acknowledged after the injury that had the fastball which struck his face hit him just millimeters in a different direction, his injury could have been career-threatening. MERCY!!!

QUOTE (spiderman @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 09:51 AM) I have been in agreement with you that it's tough to compete for a division if you're trading your starting SS away, especially with as holes this offense currently has. Saying that, now would be the time to move him, given his age/contractual status, and if there's any truth to some of these rumors about getting a top pitching prospect from the Mets. If they can add a young piece like that, I think you have to trust that the Sox can fill that SS position from within or with a veteran on a 1 year deal until Anderson is ready. I think you read my mind spiderman. I just posted pretty much what you said.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 09:20 AM) There's no way the White Sox aren't going to be trying to field a competitive team by 2016, and IMO no way Tim Anderson should be starting on the big league roster in 2016. If they're going to trade Alexei it has to be a killer offer. Letting him go is a major setback for building a competitive team, so someone needs to really pay up. It's not a perfect comparison, but to give a little context, over the past 2 years, Alexei has put up 6.4 fWAR, Jeff Samardzija put up 6.7. Alexei is paid more, but he's also under team control for longer than Samardzija was when he was traded for. I think Anderson needs to play the 2015 season before any determinations are made for his 2016 season. No matter what happens, I won't be relying on Anderson until he shows he's ready and that time has not come yet. Alexei is 33, Samardzija is 29. The difference being that Alexei likely will begin his natural regression due to age in the near future while its possible Samardzija gets better. They are at two different points in their careers and possibly heading in two different directions. If what I've bread is true, one of the biggest concerns the Mets have with Alexei is his age and how his range is declining. With Alexei coming off of a very good year, now is the time to decide his future role with the team. At some point his range will suffer enough to where the Sox move him second, third if he still has the arm strength or trade him to another team. If the Sox plan on sticking with him, extending his contract and eventually moving him to secord or third then great, I'm happy to have him. But if the Sox plan on one of Semien/Sanchez/Anderson eventually playing SS, one of Semien/Sanchez/Johnson at second and one of Gillaspie/Davidson/Semien/Free Agent at third, then there's not much of a future for Alexei with the Sox and now would be the time to sell high on him and move on. I'm not saying give Alexei away but this is the time of year to do it since teams payroll's have more flexibility than at the deadline. QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 09:21 AM) You're contradicting yourself, but you're right with this post. Alexei actually has a lot of value as others have explained. Mainly due to him being one of the better defensive shortstops in the game AND the fact that he's relatively cheap for the next two years. Personally, I'd like to see the Sox hold onto him. Like you stated above, if the Sox want to contend in 2015, they don't have a better option in house to replace Alexei. Unless some team offers something that Hahn cannot refuse, I don't think he's going anywhere. If the Sox have a bad 1st half (and we all hope that doesn't happen), Alexei could be traded at the deadline...and there will be plenty of teams interested. Its not really a contradiction as its a s*** or get off the pot moment for the Sox. As I explained above, the sox need to figure out what their future plans are with Alexei because at some point he will noticeably regress and his value will take a hit. This off season could be the best/last chance to get good a good return for Alexei. If he gets off to a slow start his value will take a hit and the Sox will be looking at less of a return at the trade deadline then what's currently out there now. IOW, they waited too long and lost value on Alexei. I still think a big right handed ground ball pitcher like Greene, with 6 years of control and could slot into the #3 spot in the Sox young rotation is a good return for Alexei. Greene fits with what Hahn is trying to build.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 07:45 AM) Then he shouldn't be traded. That depends on what the plan is for 2015. If the Sox are really trying to contend then there's no way I would trade Alexei but if 2015 is another step towards building a contender, I trade Alexei while he still holds value and can bring back a good return, provided the Sox get a good offer in the first place.

QUOTE (LDF @ Nov 13, 2014 -> 11:04 PM) ny has to include more to the deal. I think the best the Sox could hope for is JR Murphy or a prospect of equal value. I cannot say it enough, Alexei does not have the value people would like to think he has. Put it this way. If I were looking for a SS, I would not be willing to give up too much for Alexei for reasons I've already listed in this thread. Honestly, I'm not so sure I'd give up Greene for Alexei straight up.