Hahn has one hell of a job in front of him this off season. Besides getting at least two starting pitchers and four bullpen arms he HAS to improve the defense. It's fucking ridiculous how awful this team is at catching the baseball. They give away outs and extra bases more than any team I've ever seen. They currently have defensive liabilities at catcher, second base, third base, and left field. They can not go into another season of putting unneeded pressure on the pitching staff because they can't pick up the god damn ball and throw it to first base. Upgrading the defense has to be a priority.

Relax. JORR says defense doesn't matter.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Flowers is going to be the primary catcher next year. That position is terrible across almost all of baseball, so ride with TFlow and Neito, but improve other areas of the ballclub. The bullpen has to be priority #1.

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When did he ever say that? Listen, I know JORR is a fountain of stupid baseball thoughts, but.... nevermind, carry-on. The Bears victory is making me soft.

wow

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

One helps the other though. If the pitching gets better the defense will probably look better

Just wait for him to respond to this thread. It will be like the Bellagio in this bit ch.

JORR has some uncommon beliefs but he knows as much about baseball as anyone on this board other than 312player

There are plenty of good catch and throw guys out there and Flowers doesn't come close offensively to make up for his atrocious defense. He's fat, lazy and can't seem to anticipate that a sinker/splitter pitcher is going to throw a pitch in the god damn dirt. If he comes back as the primary catcher next season it's a sign they have absolutely zero desire to compete for the division.

JORR is a huge fan of the MLB tv show.

The Sox need to acquire one starting pitcher, not two. Carlos Rodon is almost certain to join the rotation and like it or not Hector Noesi is going to be the token right-hander. Montas and Danish will both be capable of emergency call ups in the case of injury, though it would not be an optimal situation. Beck and Bassitt can fill in, poorly, for Sale when he misses a start here and there.

Assuming Carlos Rodon is as good as his performance and stuff suggests he is, which I think translates into a 3.50-3.75 ERA in a full season as a rookie, the Sox have among the best 1-2-3's in baseball. Hector Noesi is intriguing enough to give him a shot as a 4 or 5, which of those two is contigent on what happens with...

John Danks.

This is a problem, John Danks is really bad. John Danks costs $14.5m. John Danks can't get major leaguers out. John Danks will be Dan Wright circa 2015. He needs to be disposed off for nothing and replaced. With whom? Brandon McCarthy has priced himself into being a bad investment, Max Scherzer and Jon Lester are the two worst signings any team could possibly make the offseason, Justin Masterson will be cheap but he could easily he John Danks bad. James Shields is slightly intriguing, but ultimately age and price are too risky.

Hahn needs to find a trade. That's what I'm saying.

Rodon is going to be one of the two starting pitchers added, and Danks can't be any better than the #5 in rotation going forward. They do need to add a solid, innings eater in the #3 rotation slot with Sale and Quintana heading the rotation.

Is Tyler Flowers considered a defensive liability? I had thought that was his a strength.

They do seem likely to spend money in free agency this off-season, although I'd rather see them stick with their plan of finding as much younger/MLB ready talent as possible.

This team needs a lot of help.

The fielding positions that are set for next year: 1B, SS, CF and RF

Garcia needs to make a jump this upcoming season to deserve to play every day.

Who is going to be the DH? LF? 3B? Are you going to handle another year of Conor Gillaspie getting single digits home runs from that position?

The pitching is a bit of a mess. Most of the bullpen guys showed flashes of brilliance. The only one in my mind who had guaranteed a setup spot is Putnam. Petricka, Webb and Guerra need to prove themselves.

Starters are set with Sale, Quintana, Danks (crap), Rodon and Noesi but you can always upgrade one or two of those.

There are always some pitchers on the free agent market that are at least decent. Better-than-Noesi types.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Why do you assume SS is set?

Alexei always seems to be rumored to be on the move.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

They need bullpen help. Definitely a legit closer. The by committee approach cost them a ton of games. (18 Blown saves).

Good point. My assumption is based on the current roster and doesn't include any of those guys being moved.

Probably Tank. Or resign Dunn!

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I would imagine the Sox wouldn't mind moving Abreu to DH. Not exactly an Ace defender over there.

The Sox don't need a full time DH. Paying all that money for one is stupid, can Sox fans at least try to learn from Adam Dunn?

I forget who it was that we debated this with... but was it JORR who argued that Shawon Dunston was one of the greatest SS's ever because he played 1800 games?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Rodon will be in the rotation sometime during the season but he will not start 33 games and throw 200+ innings. I would think they cap him around 150 innings (assuming he's good enough to pitch that many) so they need a viable starter to make up those starts/innings. They also need another starter to back that guy up in case he is ineffective or in case one of the other starters get injured. Hahn made the mistake of not having starting pitching depth this year and he can not make that mistake again.

Noesi (25), Carroll (18), Rienzo (11), Paulino (4), Bassitt (3), Leesman (1) have all started games this year. That's 41% of your games started by a guy who doesn't deserve to make a major league start.

Flowers grades out well for pitch framing. That's his only discernible defensive skill.

Acquiring information isn't difficult. Understanding it is.

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Wow, now that's bad.

Let's not forget that he also didn't play much SS late in his career, and he basically became a 4th outfielder/platoon guy during his last 5 seasons.

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I remember that. I don't think he quite called him one of the greatest ever, but he certainly overrated the guy bigtime based on all of those games played.

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So who is on the wish list for Sox fans?

I would think, other than a completely new bullpen, they would want to look at Denard Span, Melky Cabrera, Nick Markakis, Emilio Bonerface, Micheal Cuddyer, and Russell Martin.

I think any (all) of those guys would be an upgrade over what the Sox have.

Jason Heyward, and he can be had.

Need a lefty power bat? That's Jason Heyward.
Need a plus-plus defender in the OF to give Sale and Q (who are a little fly ball heavy) a little bit of breathing room? That's Jason Heyward.

It shores up two massive weaknesses on the White Sox right now. He wont be cheap, but he also wont be too expensive either.

Gillaspie, Viciedo, T Anderson and Montas/Danish more than does it. You could probably remove Anderson or Viciedo and the Braves will say yes.

If they were to get Heyward (which they probably won't), who will they get to play the rest of the positions.

Also, I wouldn't call his bat a "power" bat.

1. Adam Eaton CF L
2. Marcus Semien 3B R
3. Jose Abreu 1B R
4. Jason Heyward RF L
5. Avi Garcia LF R
6. <DH>
7. Alexei Ramirez SS R
8. Carlos Sanchez 2B S
9. Tyler Flowers C R

Not great, but not bad either. Eaton, Heyward, Ramirez and Sanchez are all either good (Sanchez, Eaton), very good (Alexei) or elite (Heyward) defenders. Of the remnants of that lineup Flowers, Abreu and Semien are all solid in the field. Avi needs a lot of work, but he's got the tools to be good in LF. I doubt he ever makes good on those tools, but even then he can be below-average in LF and the Sox still have a fantastic defense behind Sale/Q/Rodon.

The Sox will do something about DH. I'd like for that something to be a cheap. Just go find a Trevor Plouffe or something and its a-OK.

Then focus on pitching. Just get me some goddamn pitching.

You are going to need pitching with that lineup.