Since the Rockies are lacking in frontline pitching, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post predicts that right-hander Chad Bettis will emerge as the team’s “quasi-ace” in 2016. Youngster Jon Gray is still adapting to the bigs and Jorge De La Rosa‘s age and injury history make him a question mark, and if De La Rosa does pitch well, he may end up leaving in a deadline trade. That leaves the 26-year-old Bettis perhaps in the best position to become Colorado’s top starter. The righty posted a 4.23 ERA, 7.7 K/9, 2.33 K/BB rate and 49.3% grounder rate over 115 innings last season, his first extended taste of Major League action. There’s a lot to like about Bettis’ potential, though time will tell if he can consistently produce in the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field. Here’s more from around baseball…
- Major League Baseball will likely announce any discipline for Aroldis Chapman, Yasiel Puig and Jose Reyes before Spring Training camps open and no later than March 1, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter links). The three players all face possible suspensions for recent domestic violence incidents, as per the Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy instituted by MLB and the MLBPA last August. The league’s rulings will be closely watched as possible precedent-setters under this new policy. As Rosenthal notes, the policy doesn’t set any minimum or maximum penalties, and it also doesn’t state whether a suspended player would still be eligible to play during Spring Training.
- Sixteen-year-old Cuban outfielder Lazaro Armenteros held a showcase for scouts on January 8th and “early returns…have been mixed at best,” ESPN.com’s Eric Longenhagen tweets. Several sources described Armenteros as “unable to play center field” and “too muscular & stiff,” though he did receive a very good grade of between 6-7 (based on the scouting grading scale of 2-8) on his running. Between 150-200 scouts were expected to attend his showcase, and one veteran scout even cited such names as Willie Mays and Bo Jackson to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale last month in terms of comparable power and speed, though the caveat that Armenteros was still quite “young and raw” in his ability. There has been quite a bit of speculation about the phenom known as “Lazarito,” as this was the first time MLB scouts had been able to see him in any sort of baseball activity since the summer of 2014. It isn’t yet known if Lazarito will be cleared to sign with a Major League team during this international signing period or the next (which begins on July 2).
- “Nobody wants to do a small trade. They only want to talk about big trades,” an executive tells ESPN’s Buster Olney (Twitter link). This observation about the current trade market is followed up by Olney in his latest subscription-only column, as he notes that teams are looking to acquire big-name players now since the next two free agent markets are pretty thin on elite talent. As such, Olney lists several big names that executives feel could be major trade targets this summer.
- The White Sox made the single biggest position upgrade of any team this offseason when they dealt for Todd Frazier, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes. Using the Steamer projection system, third base for the White Sox projects to improve by 3.5 WAR from its sub-replacement total in 2015. While Frazier is a fine player, this may be more an indictment of Chicago’s long-time struggles at the hot corner. as Cassavell notes that White Sox third basemen have a cumulative -0.5 WAR over the last five seasons.
No disrespect to Bettis, but when he’s your ace you know your in a tough way
We just need to sign Cespedes and trade cabrera
So Lazarito projects anywhere between a corner fourth OF and Willie Mays.
Yes, somewhere between so-so and say hey! (lol)
Well done!
That was good 🙂
Lazarito is “young and raw”. Which is shocking for a 16-year old in January, who hasn’t played a proper game in over a year.
Get him eligible, so the Cubs, Dodgers, and Giants have their chances to sign him.
Amazing if all the teams just want the big trades. Often the real difference makers ARE the small trade during winter or at the trade deadline.
Such as the Josh Donaldson trade last winter.
To be honest, the Sox have struggled at the hot corner since Crede had to retire.
The only reason the Sox made the single biggest upgrade in the offseason is because what they had at 3rd was worse than most minor league systems.
Wasn’t he the Korean guy who bet on baseball in Vegas?
Didn’t know he was able to play baseball period.
It was at Macau, actually. And nope, both he and Lim did not bet on Baseball… It’s just some casino gambling.
Nah that’s just some old wives’ tale.
Don’t let Chapman or Reyes hear that…. might beat that tale down.
Gut Feeling Frazier and Abreu become a two headed monster in Chicago (Hope it becomes a three headed monster with Cespedes) and fingers crossed my hometown sox get Lazarito! Icing on the cake for the off-season for me
Getting Cespedes is really the only thing that makes the Fraizer move make sense. Yeah, he improved the White Sox a lot, but they were also very very very bad on offense and defense. Alone the White Sox top out around .500. Cespedes would be another huge upgrade, probably enough to put the White Sox into conversation.
Do you expect the White Sox to outbid the Dodgers and Cubs (if before mid-June) or the Braves, if after? I’d enjoy it if the White Sox started to move into the 21st Century regarding adding younger talent at the going rates. Then, maybe Reinsdorf would be more open to allowing teams to spend more on the draft and internationals without such low spending maximums.
8 mil per team in the draft, 6 mil per international kids, and 8 mil per for older IFAs would be reasonable.
The draft pool is determined by how many picks and the number of the pick. I feel that the current draft pool is fine because it adds an extra level of intrigue to the draft in that does a team with a limited pool spend it all on one guy or do they go for quantity and let a team with a bigger pool do so.
And while I agree the low spending maximum does deter some cheaper teams from going out and signing internationals, I don’t think raising it would necessarily change much. At best, teams might sign more guys but they’re not going to be top end (as in the most highly touted) internationals.
A reason I think the current spending pools are fine however is the ability to trade part of the spending pool. Its an interesting dynamic that no other sport has and while it might not result in any major trades it is still interesting imo.
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf will be 80 next month and likely selling the team within the next 5 years or so. I think the chances for a full rebuild are slim to none, especially following the “retool” they already began at the 2013 summer trade deadline. Imo, they will be “all-in” (per usual) for the remaining time of Reinsdorf’s tenure (with some measure of financial sense), as they showed last offseason and are continue to demonstrate this winter.
The White Sox will likely continue the notion of constructing their team into a perennial contender around the long term “team-friendly” contracts already in place with Chris Sale, Jose Abreu, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton. The adding of veteran pieces to this foundation will coincide with Reinsdorf’s personal timetable of selling the team while also potentially increasing the value of the franchise when the time comes to do so.
Which year in the last three were they built to contend? Because I’m counting zero. Counting next year its still zero. This team is still not good enough to make the playoffs, short of several upgrades or a big bat upgrade ala Cespedes.
They should sell the team to Mark Cuban or even Michael Jordan they wouldnt mind spending i bet if either of them were owners we would have Cespedes signed already.
Reinsdorf is in a 3 year nap. He doesnt know how horrible this team is and it’s getting worse. They have a clueless manager, two general managers that can’t make any good decisions, and a scouting staff that can’t pick any decent players after the first ten picks. Stay sleeping Jerry. Your team is Chicagos version of the Browns
The White Sox do have a World Series title in the last ten years, and Reinsdorf was around for that.
I have my issues with the organization and its archaic views on contracts, but if any team in Chicago is the Browns its the perennial no chance club up north. What is it now, 115 years and counting?
Icy on the cake for a guy that can take up to 3 years in the minors we need Cespedes or Upton to be icying in the cake.