Is This a Playoff Team in 2015?

[Dunt]

I think the Central is going to be pretty up for grabs starting next season, Shields & Butler will likely be gone from the Royals, Scherzer will more than likely be leaving the Tigers, and I dont think Cleveland or Minnesota are anywhere close to playoff ready. That brings me to the Sox, who with a couple of tweeks, are very close to a playoff team. Would something along the lines of this lineup be a playoff team:

 

CF Eaton

2B Semien/Johnson

3B Gillaspie

1B Abreu

LF Garcia/Tomas

RF Markakis/Tomas/Garcia

SS Alexei

DH Viciedo?

C Flowers

 

P Sale

P Quintana

P RHP

P Rodon

P Danks

 

RP Petricka

RP Gregerson

RP Adams

RP Janssen

RP Webb

RP LHP?

 

[T R U]

I think the Central is going to be pretty up for grabs starting next season, Shields & Butler will likely be gone from the Royals, Scherzer will more than likely be leaving the Tigers, and I dont think Cleveland or Minnesota are anywhere close to playoff ready. That brings me to the Sox, who with a couple of tweeks, are very close to a playoff team. Would something along the lines of this lineup be a playoff team:

 

CF Eaton

2B Semien/Johnson

3B Gillaspie

1B Abreu

LF Garcia/Tomas

RF Markakis/Tomas/Garcia

SS Alexei

DH Viciedo?

C Flowers

 

P Sale

P Quintana

P RHP

P Rodon

P Danks

 

RP Petricka

RP Gregerson

RP Adams

RP Janssen

RP Webb

RP LHP?

 

Considering how the AL Central will most likely look, I would say that team would have a pretty decent shot at making the playoffs. The pitching is nice, lineup is a concern.

[Balta1701]

Based on that setup, it appears you have the Sox signing 3 right-handed bullpen pitchers (let's assume $12 million between the 3?), a right handed #3 starter ($12-15 million?), and Markakis (just going to guess #12-mil again). That would cost the team what, at least 2 draft picks and probably more than $40 million next year and that is still at best a borderline wild card contender.

 

Says a lot about how attempting to fix this team through free agency will go.

[shysocks]

A lot is up in the air, esp. with the pitching staff. If they sign a starter and Rodon looks poised for a good season, they might be a trendy sleeper pick. Still holes everywhere though.

[southsider2k5]

A lot is up in the air, esp. with the pitching staff. If they sign a starter and Rodon looks poised for a good season, they might be a trendy sleeper pick. Still holes everywhere though.

 

I said it in another thread, and I will say it again. Forget about the Sox spending free agent dollars on a starting pitcher. With the path they have Rodon on, he will be a SP for the White Sox next year. They may well bring in another reclamation project or two, but they will not spend 8 or 9 figures on an SP.

 

Sale

Quintana

Danks

Noesi

Rodon.

 

That is your very probable rotation for 2015.

[soxsoxsoxsox]

if Hahn improves the ballclub again as much as he did last offseason

Edited August 20, 2014 by buhbuhburrrrlz

[Dunt]

Based on that setup, it appears you have the Sox signing 3 right-handed bullpen pitchers (let's assume $12 million between the 3?), a right handed #3 starter ($12-15 million?), and Markakis (just going to guess #12-mil again). That would cost the team what, at least 2 draft picks and probably more than $40 million next year and that is still at best a borderline wild card contender.

 

Says a lot about how attempting to fix this team through free agency will go.

 

I don't necessarily see the Sox spending in FA for a starting RHP. My hope is that one of Noesi, Beck, or Johnson can rise to the occasion and be a serviceable option. Who do you see costing us draft picks?

[GGajewski18]

This next off season is going to be huge for Hahn. It'll be interesting to see what he can manage to pull off trade wise. In terms of free agency, its pretty bare other than the bullpen arms. I think Hahn has something up his sleeve and will make a huge move this off season.

 

Trade Viciedo, Beck, Hawkins and Sanchez for Jay Bruce and Sean Marshall.

Sign relievers Andrew Miller and Luke Gregorson.

Trade Danks to anyone that will take on most of his contract.

Sign Justin Masterson to a one year prove it again contract.

Sign Michael Cuddyer to a 2 year contract. DH him and let him play OF for when someone needs a rest.

Sign Emilio Bonifacio to play a utility role.

 

CF Eaton

SS Ramirez

1B Abreu

RF Bruce

DH Cuddyer

LF Garcia

3B Gillaspie/Davidson

2B Johnson/Semien

C Flowers

 

Bench

Nieto

Bonifacio

Danks/Sierra

Davidson (splits time with Gillaspie)

 

Rotation

Sale

Quintana

Masterson

Rodon

Noesi

 

Bullpen

Petricka

Guerra

Webb

Marshall

Gregorson

Miller

Carroll/Johnson/Rienzo (long relief)

 

Remember, Sox have money to spend and if they want to contend next year, I can see at least some of these moves or lateral moves to my ideas happen.

 

[Balta1701]

if Hahn improves the ballclub again as much as he did last offseason

I think that a variety of trades for guys we haven't even guessed about yet, as happened last offseason, is much more likely than the White Sox spending $50 million and giving up several draft picks and much of their signing bonus pool.

[southsider2k5]

if Hahn improves the ballclub again as much as he did last offseason

 

How many Jose Abreu's are out there?

[fathom]

There's a severe lack of power in the lineup you proposed. Also, as much as I love Rodon, I don't think he's ready for an entire year in the rotation yet. I think there's going to be more significant changes to the lineup this offseason.

 

I do think the 1-2-3-4 in the lineup will be:

 

Eaton

Avi

Gillaspie

Abreu

Edited August 20, 2014 by fathom

[fathom]

I said it in another thread, and I will say it again. Forget about the Sox spending free agent dollars on a starting pitcher. With the path they have Rodon on, he will be a SP for the White Sox next year. They may well bring in another reclamation project or two, but they will not spend 8 or 9 figures on an SP.

 

Sale

Quintana

Danks

Noesi

Rodon.

 

That is your very probable rotation for 2015.

 

I agree, but the important thing is they bring in a swing man that can end up starting for them when someone gets hurt and/or needs a few starts skipped (ie: Rodon).

[caulfield12]

Spending $12-18 million alone on fixing the bullpen for 2015 makes little sense, since we'll only end up losing (as FA's) or trading those pitchers and starting all over again when we really need them in 2016-18.

 

As we've seen with Downs and Keppinger, even if you sign players coming off good seasons, there's no guarantee they'll repeat.

 

It makes little sense to think a rotation of Rodon as a rookie going through his learning curve, Danks continuing to struggle and Noesi doing his VORP 5th starter thing will end up anywhere besides 8-12 games under .500 again.

 

For every positive, there's going to be just as many if not more question marks.

 

Right now, we have ONE position player we can 100% count on for next year in Abreu, and he's seemingly going through an adjustment period as the league is figuring out how to TRY to limit his homer binges.

 

 

 

[caulfield12]

There's a severe lack of power in the lineup you proposed. Also, as much as I love Rodon, I don't think he's ready for an entire year in the rotation yet. I think there's going to be more significant changes to the lineup this offseason.

 

I do think the 1-2-3-4 in the lineup will be:

 

Eaton

Avi

Gillaspie

Abreu

 

 

Does Garcia have enough contact skills to hit in that position? We know he can hit the ball to the opposite field, but for the time being, I think they see him more as a middle of the order run-producing player with someone like an Alexei Ramirez (if he's back), Semien or Micah Johnson hitting 2nd.

 

 

 

[Eminor3rd]

I think it's a 'tweener, like the Indians this year.

[Buehrle>Wood]

We better be. We can't waste Abreu MVP and Sale's Cy Young years any longer.

[Balta1701]

Right now, we have ONE position player we can 100% count on for next year in Abreu, and he's seemingly going through an adjustment period as the league is figuring out how to TRY to limit his homer binges.

I just think he's also really tired.

[caulfield12]

They better hope Rodon is more Cory Kluber/Garrett Richards than the typical rookie pitcher.

 

That's a lot of pressure. He's going to be constantly compared to Chris Sale, and this idea of bringing him up in 2014 seems ill-conceived.

 

The White Sox are basically saying we believe in Rodon so much we're not going to add any free agents, it's on you to perform right out of the gate.

[caulfield12]

I just think he's also really tired.

 

 

There are also rumors about his foot/ankle bothering him again, and that he's concentrating more on just making contact and driving in runs, but that's just a theory out there in the media to explain that 18 game homerless stretch.

 

If he is in pain, it's certainly now showing up in his defensive play at 1B, which is much improved.

 

 

 

By the way, there are only five teams worse now in the major leagues in run differential...this team's not going to compete for anything until 2016, minus historical off-season spending, which would be completely unprecedented in the 30+ years of the JR regime.

Edited August 20, 2014 by caulfield12

[Balta1701]

They better hope Rodon is more Cory Kluber/Garrett Richards than the typical rookie pitcher.

 

That's a lot of pressure. He's going to be constantly compared to Chris Sale, and this idea of bringing him up in 2014 seems ill-conceived.

 

The White Sox are basically saying we believe in Rodon so much we're not going to add any free agents, it's on you to perform right out of the gate.

Or they could be saying we believe in Rodon enough that we're going to make sure he gets the time he needs to develop into a big league pitcher and we're not going to waste money spending on FA targets until he's ready to hold onto that rotation slot.

[Chicago White Sox]

We better be. We can't waste Abreu MVP and Sale's Cy Young years any longer.

This is by far the most important factor people are ignoring. We need to build around these guys RIGHT NOW, as Sale or Quintana could down at any point in time. Wasting the surplus value these players are currently providing is the dumbest thing we could do.

 

It blows my mind people are so concerned about draft picks and the lack of surplus value free agents will provide. We have $46M in payroll commitments for next year and yet some posters are against spending anything of significance in free agency. Having financial flexibility is great, but it's damn near worthless if you're afraid to spend it.

[Big Hurtin]

I said it in another thread, and I will say it again. Forget about the Sox spending free agent dollars on a starting pitcher. With the path they have Rodon on, he will be a SP for the White Sox next year. They may well bring in another reclamation project or two, but they will not spend 8 or 9 figures on an SP.

 

Sale

Quintana

Danks

Noesi

Rodon.

 

That is your very probable rotation for 2015.

Not a playoff team

 

We can be happy about Jerry's wallet though, if that's your thing.

[witesoxfan]

This is by far the most important factor people are ignoring. We need to build around these guys RIGHT NOW, as Sale or Quintana could down at any point in time. Wasting the surplus value these players are currently providing is the dumbest thing we could do.

 

It blows my mind people are so concerned about draft picks and the lack of surplus value free agents will provide. We have $46M in payroll commitments for next year and yet some posters are against spending anything of significance in free agency. Having financial flexibility is great, but it's damn near worthless if you're afraid to spend it.

 

It is nice to pick up guys like Spencer Adams, but I am in some agreement here. It obviously has to be worthwhile, but I don't have problems giving up draft picks. The key part of this is the worthwhile thing.

[caulfield12]

If they keep Danks in the rotation, then they're just a different version of the Cubs sitting on the Edwin Jackson contract and not bringing Kris Bryant up to the big leagues until June because of his Super-2 status.

 

It's encouraging they would rather Rodon develops at the big league level, but if there's not an accompanying influx of talent (a 25-30 year old mixed with a couple of veterans, probably one a hitter and one for the bullpen), then it's another wait until next year.

 

After Rodon, we have Hawkins, Anderson, Montas and Tyler Danish. Not four Top 20 caliber players. Not Buxton and Sano coming into this year. So it's not like they can say, hey, be patient, wait until 2017 for those guys to arrive, since the Sox fanbase has already lost quite a bit of confidence in the team's ability to produce a (drafted and incubated) solid/decent hitting prospect that's not an international free agent like Alexei or Abreu.

Edited August 20, 2014 by caulfield12

[Eminor3rd]

This is by far the most important factor people are ignoring. We need to build around these guys RIGHT NOW, as Sale or Quintana could down at any point in time. Wasting the surplus value these players are currently providing is the dumbest thing we could do.

 

It blows my mind people are so concerned about draft picks and the lack of surplus value free agents will provide. We have $46M in payroll commitments for next year and yet some posters are against spending anything of significance in free agency. Having financial flexibility is great, but it's damn near worthless if you're afraid to spend it.

 

No one is against spending money in FA in general, but many are against spending it simply for the sake of spending it, because that's how you end up painted in a corner. Hahn's plan is much larger than Chris Sale and Jose Abreu and how both fit into a "contention window" -- it's about building a healthy organization that can enjoy sustained success. Panicking and buying marginal upgrades at market rate simply because they were the best available is precisely how we ended up in this "mess" to begin with.

 

I think that, fortunately, KW's willingness to pay out the nose for upgrades without long-term commitments has afforded us the ability to crawl out of the "rock bottom" phase of the rebuild sooner, but that doesn't mean we should forget the big picture in year two and start acting like Jim Hendry all of a sudden.