White Sox Sign Adam LaRoche

[Seth Stohs]

According to Bob Nightengale, the Chicago White Sox have signed 1B Adam LaRoche to a 2 year, $25 million contract. Does he DH, or does Jose Abreu DH??

[biggentleben]

I would wager Abreu does the most DH'ing as LaRoche is a tremendous defender at first, specifically in receiving.

[USAFChief]

According to Bob Nightengale, the Chicago White Sox have signed 1B Adam LaRoche to a 2 year, $25 million contract. Does he DH, or does Jose Abreu DH??

Yes.

[jokin]

Certain posters keep dismissing the White Sox, but they keep moving forward at greater velocity and urgency than the Twins- loading up on more and more talent-  through smart trades, smart drafting, bold international moves and smart FA signings.  The flip of LaRoche to replace Dunn/Konerko is a big upgrade on both offense and defense-  and watch his HR numbers start to tick up dramatically once the winds start blowing out to RF in May at the US Cellular launching pad- he could easily reach the 40 mark.  They've already signed one of the top FA RPs in Duke.  They very well could have a third pitcher with Phil Hughes-like 2014 potential numbers if Carlos Rodon moves into the rotation with Sale and Quintana.   Chris Bassitt showed promise at becoming a very solid #4-level SP.  And they have two guys I like who might have some impact as mid-season call-ups, Tyler Danish and Francellus Montas. 

 

The Sox leap-frogged the Twins in 2014, at 73-89, winning 10 more games in 2014 than the previous year.  With these moves, and possibly more forthcoming, it's now easier to forsee them as a possible fringe contender in 2015.

 

So to put it in perspective,  the Sox sign two guys this week near the pinnacle at their position n the game in LaRoche and Duke, and on the same day that LaRoche is announced, the Twins big accomplishment this week, and this fall!, in terms of player additions was to sign Argenis Diaz and Heiker Meneses?

 

Who?

[Bark's Lounge]

Agreed Jokin. The Abreu signing could not have gone better and the Eaton trade in my opinion will only get better. Sale is one of the best starting pitchers in baseball, Quintana is no slouch either, and Rodon looks like he is just about ready to spread his disease to MLB.

 

I like Nick Gordon and I can only hope he will become a very good player for the Twins, but in the back of my mind I wish we sucked a little more in 2013 to have had the chance to draft Rodon.

 

I do believe Abreu is a candidate for regression, but that is guess. It's not like he will fall off the face of the earth with his production if that is the case - worst case scenario - 26HR, .820OPS.

 

The White Sox are a better team right now for certain.

 

The Twins have a better stash of high end prospects in the minor leagues and the Sux do not have that. I expect the White Sox will be better than us for a season or two, but if the Twins can develop or acquire a #1 type of starter, we should surpass them, but then again Rodon has the upside to be a #1 starter. Staring down the barrel of Sale and a talent realized Rodon could be a daunting task, and Jerry Reinsdorf is a little more liberal with his money than the Pohlads.

 

F@#k, I just bummed myself out.

 

Oh yeah, I think LaRoche will be a 30HR guy in that ballpark with 40 not being out of the realm of posibility.

[The Wise One]

The White sox now have the 1b, dh, ss and primary catcher lined up fairly well. That is unless father time catches up to a couple of the approaching codger status players. Yup, a pretty good pitching staff for starters. Sale and Quintana are good.  Now they have one good reliever, although it was the first year in a long time that he pitched a full seson. He is also approaching codger status. Still need another set up  man and a closer to make some semblace of a bullpen. They will need it to go along with dominant starters because Laroche alone is not that great of an upgrade over Dunn/Konerko to lift the anemic offense from being the second worse in the AL to respectable

[jokin]

 They will need it to go along with dominant starters because Laroche alone is not that great of an upgrade over Dunn/Konerko to lift the anemic offense from being the second worse in the AL to respectable

 

Actually, he is a very nice upgrade-- over a 3.0 rWAR net upgrade based on 2014-  2.2 rWAR for LaRoche  vs.  -0.9 rWAR for Dunn/Konerko, combined.  And LaRoche is in a lot better shape than either of the latter two.

[jokin]

The White sox now have the 1b, dh, ss and primary catcher lined up fairly well. That is unless father time catches up to a couple of the approaching codger status players. Yup, a pretty good pitching staff for starters. Sale and Quintana are good.  Now they have one good reliever, although it was the first year in a long time that he pitched a full seson. He is also approaching codger status. Still need another set up  man and a closer to make some semblace of a bullpen. They will need it to go along with dominant starters because Laroche alone is not that great of an upgrade over Dunn/Konerko to lift the anemic offense from being the second worse in the AL to respectable

 

You left out Eaton in CF, he changed the dynamic of this team at the top of the order.  If he doesn't get injured and miss 40 games, the Sox might have done even better.  And Semien, Garcia and Sanchez are very, very young and aren't anywhere close to their potential ceiling yet.  You keep talking about father time, but this is a very young team overall, with the exception of Ramirez and LaRoche, and Ramirez isn't showing any sign of slowing down at this point.

 

In the pen, the 2 Minnesota boys did very well, and supposedly Hahn is going after another big name FA arm.  And if they end up with Hughes-like performances from their 3 top SPs, the overall pen won't matter as much.

 

Bark has it about right, I like the Twins better in the long-run, but for the next couple years at least, this team looks better, and looks like they're much more in a hurry to return to relevancy.

[TheLeviathan]

Eaton and his injury problems are part of why he was available. I agree that too many Twins fans are quick to point at farm systems in our division rather than seeing the other ways our rivals are resourceful.

[Seth Stohs]

So to put it in perspective,  the Sox sign two guys this week near the pinnacle at their position n the game in LaRoche and Duke, and on the same day that LaRoche is announced, the Twins big accomplishment this week, and this fall!, in terms of player additions was to sign Argenis Diaz and Heiker Meneses?

 

Who?

 

Come on, jokin... It's not even Thanksgiving... If Heiker Meneses is the best free agent signing of the offseason, fine, but even last year the Twins didn't announce agreements with Nolasco and Hughes until Thanksgiving weekend... and that's really early. 

[biggentleben]

I do think the White Sox made a sneaky good move for Zach Duke.  They paid top of the market for him, but his performance last year was that good.

[jokin]

Come on, jokin... It's not even Thanksgiving... If Heiker Meneses is the best free agent signing of the offseason, fine, but even last year the Twins didn't announce agreements with Nolasco and Hughes until Thanksgiving weekend... and that's really early. 

 

Sorry Seth, the name was too good to pass up to make an ironic point in juxtaposition.

 

(I know Terry will get somebody we can rally around, but you gotta admit, Hahn has clearly set his priorities for the offseason and has made two major impact moves well ahead of the pack in the AL Central.)

[jokin]

Eaton and his injury problems are part of why he was available. I agree that too many Twins fans are quick to point at farm systems in our division rather than seeing the other ways our rivals are resourceful.

 

By which one would have to praise the bold and aggresive move on Rick Hahn's part, and possibly the Sox medical staff in their evaluation.  I can't emphasize enough that the Twins are going up more and more against guys with Harvard and Kellogg School of Management pedigrees (such as Hahn).  The days of the scouts and washed-up players working their way up through the ranks and successfully matching wits with these business-model-brainiacs are numbered.

[Seth Stohs]

As we were praising the bold and aggressive work of Terry Ryan last year when he signed two starting pitches for like $83 million. I don't expect them to do anything near that this year, and I don't think they need to, but making huge offseason statements on November 22 isn't really fair either. 

 

And yes, Heiker Meneses is a great name!

[jokin]

Sure, but this point I feel like you're a post away from declaring the real difference between the pennant winning Giants and the Twins was an association with a professional wrestler, followed by a declaration of the Worst Offseason Ever because Terry Ryan isn't asking people if they can "smell what he's cooking".

 

Perhaps several dozen steps back from the edge of the cliff would be

 

 

 

What in the world are you babbling about here? You're "feel" for this conversation is what's off-the-wall here, and has nothing to do with the fact that Hahn is part of the new breed of very sharp minds at the GM role, has been acknowledged as such with multiple awards and had multiple chances for GM jobs that he has turned down.  No one is saying anything like what you are intimating.  We've been dealing with facts here on this thread (that you apparently somehow associate with WWE and cooking?).

 

Let's see.... one team is focused on their defined needs, and is quickly executing its plan by acquiring two of the best in the game at their respective positions, the other team was lapped in 2014 by the first team, and is still struggling to hire its full field staff, nearly two months after removing the previous staff, apparently under some duress from ownership, while making headlines by continuing their standard MO, including actively recruiting through their new manager in bringing back an aging alumni who will turn 40 in 2015.  No one is cliff-jumping here, just pointing out where we are on November 22, 2014.  Hopefully things change quickly by the end of Winter Meetings, that's less than three short weeks, and they will have adequately addressed the glaring needs.  Hopefully they won't promise spots to aging vets whose last good year in the majors was 2006, at the expense of picking up better players that come available between now and the end of Sprint Training. 

 

May I suggest you add to the conversation instead of throwing cheap shots around?

[Squirrel]

What in the world are you babbling about here? You're "feel" for this conversation is what's off-the-wall here, and has nothing to do with the fact that Hahn is part of the new breed of very sharp minds at the GM role, has been acknowledged as such with multiple awards and had multiple chances for GM jobs that he has turned down.  No one is saying anything like what you are intimating.  We've been dealing with facts here on this thread (that you apparently somehow associate with WWE and cooking?).

 

Let's see.... one team is focused on their defined needs, and is quickly executing its plan by acquiring two of the best in the game at their respective positions, the other team was lapped in 2014 by the first team, and is still struggling to hire its full field staff, nearly two months after removing the previous staff, apparently under some duress from ownership, while making headlines by continuing their standard MO, including actively recruiting through their new manager in bringing back an aging alumni who will turn 40 in 2015.  No one is cliff-jumping here, just pointing out where we are on November 22, 2014.  Hopefully things change quickly by the end of Winter Meetings, that's less than three short weeks, and they will have adequately addressed the glaring needs.  Hopefully they won't promise spots to aging vets whose last good year in the majors was 2006, at the expense of picking up better players that come available between now and the end of Sprint Training. 

 

May I suggest you add to the conversation instead of throwing cheap shots around?

Moderator's note: There has been overly much sniping and bickering in this thread.  Please make sure your posts are about the topic and not more about the other person.