BlackSox13

Go Pirates!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 09:11 AM) Good luck to Adam. I know his time here was quantifiablely awful, but he was always a stand up guy. He was an easy guy to pull for, because he was a good person and a great teammate. He never tried to blame anyone or anything else. He was a positive influence on a lot of the kids in the clubhouse. Hopefully the next stage of his life is good to him. Well said sir! I wish Adam well and may he enjoy his new golf cart. Maybe even take a page out of Bill Murray's book.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 01:04 PM) Samardzjia is a #2? When did this happen and why wasn't there a tps report sent out about it?

If Butler hit left handed, I could see taking a flyer but he doesn't. If the Sox end up with a right handed bat backing up Abreu, it should be a guy like Kemp and not Butler. Not that I'm assuming the Dodgers will be interested in trading Kemp, its probable they would prefer to move Crawford or Ethier. I have confidence in Hahn's creativity to do better than Butler.

AL 1-Baltimore 2- KC 3- Oakland 4- LAA 5- does not exist NL 1- Washington 2- Pitt 3- LA 4- SF 5- STL

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 1, 2014 -> 12:02 AM) They better get going soon. The Twins are coming. The Royals will have Ventura, Duffy, Finnegan, Vargas and Guthrie as a very solid and youthful rotation, and could get even better with some momentum going their way with a chance to knock off the Angels and even add some free agents (not retaining Shields or Butler's salaries). The Indians have Bauer, Salazar, Kluber and Carrasco. You're right about that. The Sox need to get something figured out, soon. I really would like to see them be a competitive team next year but with so many holes its hard to be optimistic.

Holy cow! I just looked Ohtani up and he just turned 20 on July 5th! The kid is just getting ready to finish his 2nd season. He's not going anywhere for probably another 5 years. Nippon did not post Darvish and Tanaka til they had played for 7 seasons first.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 11:38 PM) I'd rather give Bassitt a look and wait for Montas and Danish than spend $100+ on James Shields through his age 38 season. Agreed. I'm hoping the Sox go with Sale, Q, Noesi, Danks, Bassitt to start the season. Hopefully Danks pitches well enough to be traded sometime around June and then move Rodon up from Charlotte into Danks place. Hopefully one of Montas and Danish continue their paces and one of them be ready to challenge Noesi in ST 2016.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 11:18 PM) I've read in Baseball America that he wants to come stateside Won't happen without his Nippon approving first and with the new posting system not being nearly as lucrative for the posting team as it used to be so its highly doubtful Nippon would agree. Nippon would only get 20M compared to the 51M they got for Darvish thanks to the new posting system. Don't get me wrong, I would be all for it but Nippon would probably lose more money than they would gain from posting the kid.

Ohtani isn't eligible to post!

Shields will be 33 by the time the season starts with likely a new 3-5 year contract. Thanks but no thanks. Put Bassitt in the rotation in place of Carroll. Hopefully trade Danks early in 2015 and call Rodon up from Charlotte. Spend the money on the bullpen and hitters.

Not looking good for Royals fans...

Good grief Moss, have yourself a game! wow!

I question Maeda's long term durability based on he's 26 with 1300 IP, 6' and 154 lbs. Plus he's not used to starting 33 games per year. I'm hoping the Sox look elsewhere for help in the starting rotation.

Looks like Oakland made the right call going with Moss at DH!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 03:47 PM) Sox fans are watching games at a rate that is almost last in all of baseball. Two of the teams worse than them are on that list because their team feed doesn't get to a ton of households for contractual reasons. So Sox fans aren't going to games AND they aren't watching games. You think maybe it has to do with the low expectations going into the 2014 season? Everyone knew the Sox were going to suck so what was there to get fans hopes up for? The FO said they were " reshaping" which was a load s*** in itself because it is a rebuild. Fans are not stupid. You can call it fair weather since its such a neat little catch phrase and all. But the bottom line is some people choose to find better things to do and better ways to spend their money and I don't blame them. Nowhere is it written that to be a fan you must be at the games or in front of the TV watching every game. If I'm not doing anything or I have no plans, I'll check out a game but if there's something for the lady and I to get out and do, we do it. I've been a fan for over 40 years but I will not revolve my summer around the Chicago White Sox schedule either. Life and Chicago summers are too short for that nonsense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 03:31 PM) This is the very definition of bandwagon fans! No, its the definition of idiocy and a cub like mentality. Just because a fan does not go to games does not make them any less of a fan. You can still be a fan by watching at home, following along on the internet, buying merchandize and most importantly knowing about the teams players and management. Why should fans spend their hard earned money to watch a sub .500 team? The FO gets in return what they put into it.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 03:15 PM) You actually have to wonder about accountability over there at 35th and Shields. TV ratings and attendance are in the toilet (28th in MLB in both categories) and no playoff appearance in 6 years now. As far as key performance indicators go, those statistics tell a whole lot about how lousy this organization has been at running its business in recent years. And yet instead of hearing about people losing their jobs and/or shake-ups in management due to these absysmal results, we only hear stories about how loyal the Chairman is to his employees. Again, the root cause of the team's problems, to me, are management/ownership related, not about a bandwagon fan base. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/201...est-since-1999# Well said. I used to rip cub fans by saying the cubs could put 9 chimps on the field and the fans would still sell the place out. Now, even cub fans are sick of losing and staying home. Sox fans have shown that if the FO puts a contender on the field, they will come out and spend some money. This is nothing new. I don't buy into the bandwagon thing, not with Sox fans.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 12:41 AM) I'm not over valuing him, I'm sending you a proven, all star shortstop in return for one of the better prospects in their system and two kids who statisitics say that there is a good chance they'll not even sniff the majors and won't get past the DSL. I'm overvaluing how? I went over that in my post. To add to that post let's keep in mind the Yanks just might be reluctant to give up their 2nd best prospect considering their system is so weak, outside of a few guys of course. Another thing is if you don't think those two low level prospects will sniff the majors, what's the point?

Agreed with everything all of you have said so far. I really hope the off season will allow everyone to move past this. I really don't want to see any grudges from either team carried over into next year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 28, 2014 -> 11:55 PM) Here are my grades for this season. I'll give the team a C-minus though I wouldn't argue with D. Abreu: A-plus. He had 36 HRS, 107 RBI. Everybody likey. Beckham: D. He stunk and his tenure was blah. (Sanchez in 27 games hit .247; Semien hit .233 in 63 games; both get Incompletes). The eye test tells me Semien will be a good player. Alexei: A. He hit .273 with 74 RBI. Gillaspie: B. I wouldn't argue B-plus. He hit .282 with 57 RBI in 130 games. Viciedo: D. He hit 21 homers and only drove in 58, barely hitting .230. He's an underachiever to date. Eaton: A. We all know he was great. A. Garcia: B to B-minus. Hit .250 in 45 games. Showed a lot of guts to come back so quickly. Flowers: C. Hit .240 with 15 homers. 50 RBIs. Paulie: I'd like to give him an incomplete as a favor to my idol. If I have to give a grade I'd give him a D. Dunn: 20 home runs in 360 at bats. That's not so horrendous. I'll give him a C this year. For his Sox career a big fat D. Moises Sierra, Danks and guys like that didn't play a lot. Not a big fan of that duo. Quintana: B. 3.32 ERA is fine. Sale: A-plus. He's good. Danks: C. He was 11-11? Not bad for an 89-loss team. I realize we don't care about wins and losses of pitchers anymore. Noesi: C. 8-11 record. Carroll: C-. Was 5-10 I love everything about him except his stuff. I'll give all the relievers a D except Petricka and Putnam who get Cs. And Bella of course gets an F. I can't bring myself to mention each guy. Robin: He gets a C. The team was a couple games over .500 at a fairly late date then sucked. I wouldn't argue C-. Hahn: C. He improved the team some but the team is still lousy and not a contender. Jerry Reinsdorf: D. No sense of urgency from the big guy. That's it for now. I think we have some good players. At this time, I'm really down on our bullpen and down on Viciedo. Soxtalk posters: C. I wouldn't argue B-. Still a reluctance to start new threads with people thinking a new thread is evil for some reason. People love the catchall threads more than new threads. Not a lot of activity on the baseball board. Lot of lurkers need to start posting more. The new posters were awesome this season. Of my own posting I'd give myself a B-. I put passion into my posts even if many of you despise me. Cheers to the White Sox. I'll play along. I don't mind being graded for my grades. Abreu- agreed on the A+. The numbers, the way he carries himself and how he took over the team speaks for itself. Beckham- agreed on the D. He tried but s***ty numbers and injuries are what they are. Alexei- agreed on the A. Year after year he quietly has a hell of a season. Like Abreu, he carries himself very well! Gillaspie- B+. Would be an easy A if only he matched his 2013 HR totals. Still, the increase in BA and doubles helps tremendously. Viciedo- C . IMO, his only saving grace was his 21 HR's. Other than that I'm looking forward to trading him, god willing! Eaton- A minus. The minus from how he needs to learn to be more disciplined as a defender to avoid injuries. Avi- I won't grade since he missed so much although I was very impressed with him coming back so early. Flowers- B. Improved defensively and so did his bat. I think his improvements will allow the Sox to look at spending money to fill other holes in more need. Paulie- no grade for a guy that I held no expectations on. This was his fair well season after all. Dunn- sigh, his numbers are nothing impressive but I respect him for how he handled himself during his struggles. I give him a C minus based on tat. Q- A plus. Improved yet again at the tender age of 25 and has solidified the #2 spot in the rotation, IMHO. Sale- A plus. I know he spent time on the DL but he bounced back injury free after that and put up great numbers. Danks- D. Sorry, but his over numbers suck in relation to his pay despite having some good streaks. This doesn't mean he cannot or will not improve in 2015 tho. Noesi- B minus. He came a long way very fast and filled a void that the Sox desperately needed filled. I really am impressed. Carroll- C+. Not the best numbers as a starter but I like him as a reliever. Overall I think he did well for a guy that was thrown into the fire. Definitely a future long man reliever. Sanchez and Semien- I liked what I saw and want to see more. No grades. Robin- agreed with the C. Didn't always make the best decisions by any means but he also deserves a break on what he had to work with as well. Hahn- B minus. Some moves worked out and some didn't. I do love the direction Hahn has this team going and I think Hahn and his scouts had a very good draft. JR- no grade since we all knew this was a rebuilding year. That's all for grading from me. I will leave it at that. Go Sox!

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 29, 2014 -> 09:37 PM) If I'm Rick Hahn and dealing with the Yankees, I would want back Gary Sanchez and two of the international prospects that they just signed, preferably Juan de Leon and Antiono Arias. That's asking for a bit much don't you think? Were talking about a 33 year old SS and signed through 2015 with an option for 2016. He won't be viewed as a long term solution in the eyes of the Yanks so how much can the Sox realistically expect back? Just a few days ago you were telling me not to over value the Sox talent. If you really believe the Sox could get that haul you will be disappointed if or when Alexei is traded. Put it this way, if the Sox were trying to acquire Ramirez, I would not want to give up that kind of talent for him. Its just not realistic.

I would take Ozzie back on the condition of him keeping his comments strictly about baseball, keeping his and KW's love spats out of the media and leave the Guillen kids out of the mix as well. I liked how Ozzie managed, I just didn't like the roadside circus attraction.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 29, 2014 -> 03:02 PM) He's only saying that he wants Rodon in the bullpen because he hasn't found a trade partner for Danks yet. This opinion will change after Danks is gone. I agree Rodon will be the guy to replace Danks but pitching Rodon every 5th game at Charlotte is a better idea. Keeps the arm stretched out and ready to step in when needed.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 29, 2014 -> 03:29 PM) YES! Then we will trade for Urias and have the ultimate rotation of Sale, Rodon, Q, Clarkin, Urias! The world will no longer be dominated by righties! In all seriousness. I would love to snag Clarkin in a trade with the Yanks but they seem pretty high him so I'm not sure he would be realistic as part of a return for Alexei. I just love Clarkin's curve ball!