White Sox projected payroll

[Eminor3rd]

I don't know how you guys think we can move Dunn. He's good, but there's no surplus value in the contract. Who doesn't have a better option than to take that contract?

 

Also, if you go FA, you're going for either Hamilton or Swisher, and both are going to be a lot more expensive than you think they should be.

[southsider2k5]

I don't know how you guys think we can move Dunn. He's good, but there's no surplus value in the contract. Who doesn't have a better option than to take that contract?

 

Also, if you go FA, you're going for either Hamilton or Swisher, and both are going to be a lot more expensive than you think they should be.

 

Swisher has already hinted at looking for Jason Werth's contract.

[JoeCredeYes]

I believe Kalapse stopped updating that spreadsheet because it can all be found here now.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CH...12-roster.shtml

Edited November 1, 2012 by JoeCredeYes

[TaylorStSox]

If getting "one big out" is your number one criteria in a reliever, you'd better find a way to have a 10-man bullpen. You need guys who can pitch entire innings and get both lefties and righties out. Veal and Thornton aren't even comparable as pitchers.

I'd rather have a lefty who can be relied on to get the big out, especially if we need a K or gb. We already have 2 set up men in Crain and Jones. If Veal does his job, we don't really need Thornton.

[The Ultimate Champion]

I don't know how you guys think we can move Dunn. He's good, but there's no surplus value in the contract. Who doesn't have a better option than to take that contract?

 

Also, if you go FA, you're going for either Hamilton or Swisher, and both are going to be a lot more expensive than you think they should be.

If you want a big lefty bat on the free agent market you're generally going to have to give up a draft pick plus guarantee that player 3+ years.

 

Dunn has 2 years, $30M left which makes him a bit less risky. Also he should not cost nearly as much in terms of talent as a draft pick would be worth.

 

Plus, salary is negotiable as the Sox could eat some. Additionally, through free agency, you have to convince a player to play for you and then potentially you have to deal with NTCs and such.

 

In this case, a team could (for example) send out $2-4M in marginal pieces - say 1-2 of a reliever/utility player/backup C - while giving up a prospect that's decent but more like 5th round value, and acquire Dunn for 2 years without any trade clauses for about $25-27M over a 2 year span. Teams have payroll room to spend even if they are non-contenders, and since teams can no longer spend massive amounts on prospects without any system of checks and balances in place, a player like Dunn on a deal like this makes a lot of sense. Basically he gives you some power + OBP for nothing but his contract costs, and he's immediately a trade chip around the deadline if he's doing well. It's still a risk to assume the contract of a player who can be so hit-or-miss, but for a team like Seattle or something, the risk is what? They're going to suck anyway.

 

IMO Dunn to a non-contender mainly for salary relief and part(s).

 

Alex to whoever for salary relief and a couple parts/prospects who are actually worth something.

 

Alexei to whoever will take his deal for whatever we can get.

 

All together that is $83.5M in payroll obligations, and if we can clear that while only eating a little cash (or in a perfect world, eating nothing) and at the same time pick up a couple pretty good prospects plus a couple useful parts, then I think we'll be in an excellent position for the future.

[witesoxfan]

If getting "one big out" is your number one criteria in a reliever, you'd better find a way to have a 10-man bullpen. You need guys who can pitch entire innings and get both lefties and righties out. Veal and Thornton aren't even comparable as pitchers.

 

Thornton in high leverage situations last year - .306/.387/.469/.857, 112 PAs. 2011 - .299/.380/.391/.771, 103 PAs. His K/9 is in a downward trend - 12 to 9.5 to 7.3. His fastball velocity has been moving downwards - 96.1, 95.8, 95. He began throwing more "junk" - 78.1% "fastballs," of which 63% were of the 4 seem variety, which is down from a pretty standard norm of 85-88% in the 4 previous seasons, plus 21% of pitches were sliders, by far the highest of his career.

 

I trade Thornton if I can get good value, but quite frankly, there are signs pointing both to him falling off and him completely adjusting his game to cope with a dawning realization that he simply can't reach back and throw it past everybody anymore. He's not overly expensive, but he's a generally easy piece to move nonetheless.

 

He's more of a risk than in recent years.