2015 Offseason

[Balta1701]

Valpo+ND+Cubs=puke

I have never agreed with you more.

[2nd_city_saint787]

I've got an ex from Valpo, hate ND, and obviously hate the Cubs.....But I could really care less where they came from and it's a little silly to hate em for all that....I'm game for Shark as long as the price isn't too ridiculous.

[Jose Abreu]

I wouldn't mind Samardzija if it were at a reasonable price. However, I do think he is the most overrated pitcher in baseball.

[caulfield12]

Samardzija and Farmer = Annoying ND propaganda

[Dunt]

Really thinking our offseason is going to be a trade, a LF in FA (Melky), and a bullpen piece or two

[Boopa1219]

Really thinking our offseason is going to be a trade, a LF in FA (Melky), and a bullpen piece or two

 

Melky BARF

[caulfield12]

http://voices.suntimes.com/sports/hahn-wil...this-offseason/

[spiderman]

http://voices.suntimes.com/sports/hahn-wil...this-offseason/

 

Thus far, for the most part, I like what Hahn has done. He moved payroll and has put the White Sox in position to have flexibility to make moves via free agency now that guys like Rios, Peavy, and Dunn are off the books, and he made moves for major ready talent (Davidson, Eaton), and made a splash for Abreu.

 

I hope that Hahn sticks to a plan similar to his previous off-season. I'm not sure if they will look for another 3B or see if they can fix Davidson and stay with Gillespie for another season or if they can find a younger power hitter elsewhere.

 

If they do a move in free agency, I hope they avoid a Victor Martinez type. I love him, but he'd help a team on the verge of winning, and is probably too much risk for a team looking to get back into the playoff mix. I fear most of his contract will be one we are hoping we didn't have.

 

I think Flowers has done enough to earn next season as the starting catcher, and 2B is going to be an in-house option.

 

That leaves DH, and one OF spot if you ignore 3B for obvious area's of upgrade.

 

Pitching, again, hope to see them avoid giving out bad 2 or 3 year deals to middle relievers, but they do need to add a veteran right hander into the #3 spot in the rotation who can give us 200 IP, and a solid outing.

[LDF]

Thus far, for the most part, I like what Hahn has done. He moved payroll and has put the White Sox in position to have flexibility to make moves via free agency now that guys like Rios, Peavy, and Dunn are off the books, and he made moves for major ready talent (Davidson, Eaton), and made a splash for Abreu.

 

I hope that Hahn sticks to a plan similar to his previous off-season. I'm not sure if they will look for another 3B or see if they can fix Davidson and stay with Gillespie for another season or if they can find a younger power hitter elsewhere.

 

If they do a move in free agency, I hope they avoid a Victor Martinez type. I love him, but he'd help a team on the verge of winning, and is probably too much risk for a team looking to get back into the playoff mix. I fear most of his contract will be one we are hoping we didn't have.

 

I think Flowers has done enough to earn next season as the starting catcher, and 2B is going to be an in-house option.

 

That leaves DH, and one OF spot if you ignore 3B for obvious area's of upgrade.

 

Pitching, again, hope to see them avoid giving out bad 2 or 3 year deals to middle relievers, but they do need to add a veteran right hander into the #3 spot in the rotation who can give us 200 IP, and a solid outing.

 

I think that Hahn did try to find a replacement for Dunn from within the org and his name is

Davidson. the problem was / is that trade last yr was a failed venture. as much as Davidson

suck, I like the brass B@#$s of Hahn to address the power leaving in Dunn.

 

Question, Davidson was only 23, he still might turn this around. but going into the offseason,

if I was Hahn, I would not count of that but address other options.

[Jose Abreu]

Dan Hayes ‏@CSNHayes 27m

Since the All-Star break, the #WhiteSox are 8-2 in Hector Noesi's starts. He has a 3.93 ERA and averaged 6 2/3 innings.

[hi8is]

Dan Hayes ‏@CSNHayes 27m

Since the All-Star break, the #WhiteSox are 8-2 in Hector Noesi's starts. He has a 3.93 ERA and averaged 6 2/3 innings.

He's only going to get better to. The right handed Quintana, scrap heap wise.

[Vance Law]

Sox should look at getting Kemp for LF/DH this offseason. Perhaps sending John Danks.

[Balta1701]

Sox should look at getting Kemp for LF/DH this offseason. Perhaps sending John Danks.

Kemp is owed $107 million for the next 5 years, Danks is owed $28.5 million the next 2 years.

 

Would you take Kemp straight up for $79 million over 5 years? Basically $16 million a year? I don't believe I would. In other words, we'd have to have the Dodgers send in a bunch of money to go along with that, and so far they haven't done so yet.

[Vance Law]

They're going to have to move one of those outfielders this offseason and I assume eating salary to do it. With Pederson up there, at least one of Kemp/Ethier/Crawford has to be going. Ethier is currently 3rd on the depth chart for all 3 OF positions. Maybe Kemp's one they want to keep but it's worth exploring.

[spiderman]

Kemp is owed $107 million for the next 5 years, Danks is owed $28.5 million the next 2 years.

 

Would you take Kemp straight up for $79 million over 5 years? Basically $16 million a year? I don't believe I would. In other words, we'd have to have the Dodgers send in a bunch of money to go along with that, and so far they haven't done so yet.

 

You'd have to be crazy to take a deal like that.

 

[Vance Law]

You'd have to be crazy to take a deal like that.

 

Like I said, the Dodgers would have to eat some salary in order for it to make sense.

 

Curious- for comparison what do people think Melky Cabrera (who is Kemp's age) will get this offseason? What will Nelson Cruz (4 years older) get?

[2nd_city_saint787]

If you had a crystal ball and could tell me that Kemps 2nd half is for realsies I'd do it. He's been reallly good in the 2nd half, .308/.381/.586 ......I'd have to think long and hard if they offered to take Danks and threw us ~20M.

[witesoxfan]

You also don't want to trade for a disgruntled player because he is not playing CF to play him in LF and DH.

 

Hahn has specifically mentioned taking on a LH bat and taking on a bad contract to save some prospects. If he combines those two, you're talking Ethier or Hamilton, and my instinct says it will be Hamilton. When he's been healthy he's still been an above average bat, the Sox and Angels have a fairly good working relationship, the Angels have a glut of outfielders at this point, and the Angels have shown a propensity to eat contracts in the past when they need to move someone.

 

Hamilton's owed $83 million over the next 3 years. For the Angels to move him, I'd imagine they'd have to pick up $40-50 million of his contract, depending upon the prospect/player the Sox would give back.

[Balta1701]

You also don't want to trade for a disgruntled player because he is not playing CF to play him in LF and DH.

 

Hahn has specifically mentioned taking on a LH bat and taking on a bad contract to save some prospects. If he combines those two, you're talking Ethier or Hamilton, and my instinct says it will be Hamilton. When he's been healthy he's still been an above average bat, the Sox and Angels have a fairly good working relationship, the Angels have a glut of outfielders at this point, and the Angels have shown a propensity to eat contracts in the past when they need to move someone.

 

Hamilton's owed $83 million over the next 3 years. For the Angels to move him, I'd imagine they'd have to pick up $40-50 million of his contract, depending upon the prospect/player the Sox would give back.

Just for a history comparison, how much did the Halos pick up when they dumped Vernon Wells?

[witesoxfan]

Just for a history comparison, how much did the Halos pick up when they dumped Vernon Wells?

 

$28.1 mill of his then remaining $42 million, so 2/3rds

[Bigsoxhurt35]

You also don't want to trade for a disgruntled player because he is not playing CF to play him in LF and DH.

 

Hahn has specifically mentioned taking on a LH bat and taking on a bad contract to save some prospects. If he combines those two, you're talking Ethier or Hamilton, and my instinct says it will be Hamilton. When he's been healthy he's still been an above average bat, the Sox and Angels have a fairly good working relationship, the Angels have a glut of outfielders at this point, and the Angels have shown a propensity to eat contracts in the past when they need to move someone.

 

Hamilton's owed $83 million over the next 3 years. For the Angels to move him, I'd imagine they'd have to pick up $40-50 million of his contract, depending upon the prospect/player the Sox would give back.

 

I'm not sure I'm down for that. He's 33 and often injured. So let's say 43 million we pay over 3 seasons. For what prospects?

[Balta1701]

I'm not sure I'm down for that. He's 33 and often injured. So let's say 43 million we pay over 3 seasons. For what prospects?

I'm not giving up much of anything useful for that level.

 

Hamilton has been worth ~$10 million and ~$6 million in the fan graphs world over the last 2 seasons. If the White Sox paid $14 mil a year for the remaining 3 years of his contract we'd still be paying a premium price compared to his recent performance.

[witesoxfan]

I'm not sure I'm down for that. He's 33 and often injured. So let's say 43 million we pay over 3 seasons. For what prospects?

 

I have no idea how badly the Angels want to dump Hamilton. While he's on their payroll, he's a $25 million hit towards their luxury tax threshold (if I recall correctly, because his AAV is $25 million - 5 year, $125 million deal - that is his hit towards the luxury tax, not his annual salary). I'm not entirely sure how it works when a player is traded and cash is sent along with him, but if the acquiring team assumes the $25 million hit but only has to pay him whatever is guaranteed (meaning the Sox would pay him $10-15 mill but take a $25 million hit towards the luxury tax, which they are nowhere near reaching anyways), then it seems they'd be fairly motivated to move him to free up $25 million in salary expenditures they didn't have previously.

 

Who that is and how the organization has judged these players has yet to be seen. Frankly, there are a lot of guys it could be. It likely would be someone's darling prospect - as Sanchez was for a few people when he was dealt to Oakland - but I don't see any way they'd give up someone in the top 10 at this point.

 

 

[caulfield12]

Hamilton's been between a 1.25-1.75 WAR player for two consecutive seasons.

 

He'll turn 34 early next season and he's probably older than that in terms of overall health/body damage-wise from the drug abuse earlier in his career.

 

Kemp is 29, only three seasons removed from an absolutely monster season....and has really rallied statistically the 2nd half of the season, which is evidence of a more reliable turnaround.

 

He's got the 963 OPS in the 2nd half, whereas Josh Hamilton's at 659 and dealing with yet another problem, this time a shoulder.

 

 

Kemp fits that profile of a player at least close/r to his prime (29-33 when we're contending), and younger than Adam Dunn, for sure, when we acquired him. And of course, there's that never-ending dream that an outside free agent just comes in and lights it up at USCF, even though it never really happened with Swisher or Dunn as projected.

 

I'd definitely try to work out a deal for Kemp (either with or without Danks) before I'd give 4/$60 to Melky Cabrera or whatever it would cost us to take on the Josh Hamilton contract disaster.

 

Ideal, no? An MVP talent still....probably.

Edited September 10, 2014 by caulfield12

[witesoxfan]

I'm not giving up much of anything useful for that level.

 

Hamilton has been worth ~$10 million and ~$6 million in the fan graphs world over the last 2 seasons. If the White Sox paid $14 mil a year for the remaining 3 years of his contract we'd still be paying a premium price compared to his recent performance.

 

Right, this is always why I think they'd have to give up something closer to $50-55 mill to trade him. If you can get Hamilton at ~$11 mill per year, you can take the risk moving forward.

 

The Sox will be in the market to compete without having to give up a lot prospect wise simply to build depth within the system. That will involve taking on risks. If Hamilton can revert back to being even a .280 hitter (which would basically be a 120-130 wRC+), the Sox have an absolute steal in him, and there's ultimately a chance that he could be even better than that. He could also be much, much worse, which is why the Sox won't give up anything of significance for him.