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Twins going to strike out

Who we have at his position? He will be needed. It’s crazy to trade him. We should be able to get a couple bullpen a couple pieces from our minor league system soon. We have other players to use if we want to augment this team. Trading Vaughn would just create another hole in the future.

There are plenty of good players. And even if not, you should be taking flyers on talent. The Sox had $5.5 million to spend. There is literally zero excuse to not spend all $5.5 million. The White Sox, Rick Hahn specifically said that those trades were made because the money was going to go unspent. That's the problem though. The fact that they didn't have agreements with players already is a huge problem.

We were resigned to him for a couple years already.

The one time SoxTalk is glad to hear about Tatis.

You are terrible at self promotion . Give a link when you say things like that. I'm not real good at keeping up with podcasts on a regular basis .

So glad you took a stand. Someby has to.

Then... just move on with your damn life instead of commenting and replying to everyone. How about that? If a thread about Cordell is a waste of time, why are you wasting your time in here? GMAFB

So what his solipsistic posts about the 1975 team are a thing of the past? He can't grace us with his words for free here? Bummer!

Exactly. If you don't spend it you know how it will result. Micker Adolfo may ultimately be a waste of money, but it's far better to take a shot at someone of his ilk than to save the owner some money he will never neef.

That's not the point of this though. In recent years, they've signed lots of players like Jose Rodriguez, Benyamin Bailey etc. There are players to sign. Instead, they traded the ability to spend that money in order to get contract buyouts paid for. It's disgusting. I'm not going to list all the players they "could have" signed. That's ridiculous.

For our sake, I'm hoping they had deals worked out with Cuban defectors who weren't allowed to come over once Trump vetoed that process. That's the only positive thing that could have happened in this regard. The way they handled the 2019 international class really makes no sense

They are definitely risk averse in the 16-year-old marketplace. They prefer quantity over quality. This methodology paid off with a guy like Fernando Tatis. Micker Adolfo's $1.6 million bonus is still the biggest for a 16-year-old. Half the league guarantees guys $2 million plus every period. The 2019 signing period where the Sox landed Yolbert was their first time playing under the new system. And they failed to spend about $1.5 million of the $5.5 million they were allotted. It's an absolutely absurd usage of resources that makes no sense. There's either a reluctance to pay a "premium" in this marketplace or Marco Paddy can't scout and close the deal. I don't believe the latter is true.

I think if he doubles his 3% K rate to 6% in the big leagues, keeps using the whole field to hit and plays great D he's going to be a great piece for the Sox for a long time.

He would need (at least) 50 attempts to get to 30 steals. Don't think they want him making that many outs on the bases.

Ive written too many screeds on our international operation. I think the important part that gets left off as we discuss money is not only have they been reluctant to give $3 million to one 16 year old, they’ve been reluctant to give $3 million across ten 16 year olds. Their classes have not only lacked top 16 year olds, they’ve been small. I don’t think it’s a moral issue, I think it’s a over simplified risk argument from JR, especially as signing 16 year olds actually means signing 14 year olds now.

To me, Cease and Kopech have the widest range of outcomes. If both guys perform perform better than they are projected the Sox are going to be good.

Naw, his history suggests otherwise. Worry more about literally everyone after him.

"The Chicago White Sox, who have been in on most Cuban prospects over the past decade and are building around fellow Cubans Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert and Jose Abreu, figure to be a favorite landing spot."

Funny ESPN would be so positive about a team they didn’t even know won a Workd Series in 2005

You are some funny m&$!h f:!&kers! Go Sox!

And here you are quoting my posts again for no good reason.

You might be right, but I’m willing to give RR the benefit of the doubt until he pulls that crap when we are in a contending year. Same with refusing to move Abreu out of the 3 hole. Those type of things were annoying, but they didn’t really matter much in a rebuilding year. I’d like to think he will choose winning over loyalty at this point.

Lip now writes for South Side Hit Pen.

I'm really getting the feeling they are working out a trade for a BP arm.

I gotcha. You might be onto something in regards to their entire program being behind other teams. Ben Badler basically confirmed some of that on our podcast last month.

Hinch and Lunow 1 year suspensions. Fines for Cora and Beltran. 3 years of lost 1st round picks. 3 years of shrunken international pool. $10 million fine for their owner.

They will announce it and Yolmer will emerge from behind a curtain and dump some Gatorade on himself. Half the crowd will love it, and it will remind the other half of the on field horror of the past several seasons where one of the bigger highlights was someone dousing themself. Yolmer is actually perfectly fine for a bench player.

That’s an interesting angle and one I hadn’t thought of.

Mendick is likely the guy to replace Goins. Goins and Skole are 30+ year old career minor leaguers. Goins just had a lucky few at bats and the Sox realized this.

This place is an amazing fount of knowledge. Not just about the Sox but about MLB in general. Great back and forth thanks for all that info on how clubs operate in LA.

Same here. I want no part of Puig. Didn't want him before Mazara, and is definitely a poor fit now. On top of Puig's red flags.

I agree with the defemse. He's gonna be good. I don't care about the K rate. He can double or triple that if it means he can make more consistent hard contact. His exit velocity is at the bottom of major league hitters. It's Billy Hamilton level bad without the elite speed. If he doesn't hit the ball harder I don't think he can hit it where they ain't enough against major league pitchers.

I think the Reds are going to compete and would want to keep Iglesias Kind of like when they signed Gordon Beckham at SoxFest after just recently dumping him in the season prior. If the Sox sign Puig it is because nobody in MLB finds value in Puig.

Sanchez needs time to realize 6 million isn't in his future. Patience grasshopper.😀

I think it’s a terrible fit as I’ve stated many times, but if his market has cratered I won’t complain. If they can get him on like 3/$45M deal it would be fun for 2020, but I just hope they plan to trade him next offseason if it’s more than a 1 year deal. But I cannot imagine a 1 year deal being possibility worth discussing. That said, I don’t think the Sox acquired Mazara to not play and I don’t think they’ll give Castellanos the 4 years and close to $70M it will require to be a platoon player. And I don’t think they signed EE to do anything less than DH as much as he’s able. It’s the ultimate example of forcing a fit.

It’s going to be hard to trust Lopez’s control in the late innings, but we walked that tightrope with Jenks. That said, he’s going to have to get more swings and misses on the fastball, which should be possible in just 1-2 inning bursts at maximum velocity.

Tampa Bay has had a $3M miss before yet that didn't stop them from giving $3.8M to Wander Franco. If Tampa Bay can see the importance of international scouting and player development despite one the lowest payrolls in baseball , it's hard for me to imagine a smart guy like JR would even have an over simplified risk argument . If an over simplified risk argument includes being too cheap to actually scout and develop relationships with 14 yr olds and invest in these players then the Sox will always be behind the 8 ball.

This guy will be under the current CBA restrictions. Will be restricted by team budgets.

After Ozzie left, our connection to Venezuelan players was gone. We never had the year-round presence down there like 10-12 teams before the political situation fell apart and everyone pulled up stakes. We pushed into Brazil and Colombia with Wilder, but we all know how that ended. The situation in the Dominican hasn't dramatically improved, but now at least we have Jimenez and EE. Very little presence in Puerto Rico as well. Nothing out of Japan and Korea since Iguchi and Takatsu. Then you add in being one of the very worst teams at developing talent this decade...it all starts to add up into a bigger picture that falls in line with the team’s overall record from 2013-2019. Seven years in the wilderness. This was from April of 2010, another nothing burger in a long series of them. CHICAGO -- The Chicago White Sox have hired former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause to be a baseball consultant. Krause's main duties will be to help observe and revamp the scouting system in the Dominican Republic. The system in the Dominican has been under close scrutiny since former director of Latin American affairs David Wilder was accused of reportedly demanding kickbacks from Dominican prospects after inflating their values. Krause has extensive baseball scouting experience, including having worked for the White Sox in the 1970s and '80s, before taking over as Bulls GM. https://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/post/_/id/394/white-sox-hire-ex-bulls-gm-krause-as-consultant

The key there is 122 ABs. A lot of Sox fans this offseason seem to be projecting players based on one season LHP platoon splits (with another common example being Adam Engel's 89 ABs). I just am not convinced that we should put that much stock into such a small sample. I like McCann but not enough to take playing time away from Grandal and EE

I honestly don't get your anti-defense bench position. I'd actually be fine with Engel as the 4th outfielder. He could be fine vs lefties with a little positive variance (see last year) and he's a fantastic defender and baserunner. Engel the starter makes me irrationally upset, but Engel as a 4th OF'er is such a perfect fit. This isnt the NL; I've never been a buyer of the power bench bat in the AL. If your regular lineup is talented enough (the Sox is) you don't need some PH masher or hit first player. You need versatile and athletic players who excel defensively and on the bases imo. That's an ideal bench in the modern game.

If he waits until July to sign, I'd think the White Sox have a realistic shot here. They've been risk averse in the 16-year-old marketplace but signing 18-22 year old Cubans is kind of what they do. They don't have any reported commitments/agreements with top guys in the 2020 class yet either. Colas played on his youth teams with Yolbert Sanchez and Luis Robert in Cuba. It makes lots of sense.

Moncada is on the verge of breaking out and being a superstar. I wouldn't move him off of 3rd for anybody.

Just transferring stuff from the Major League catch all thread on him to here.

@bmags rejoice

The guy is still in charge

I think it's hard for most fans to look at the big picture. They focus on a few bad things and don't relate it to the good things . Sometimes they go hand in hand. Hes get fooled plenty of times or guesses wrong like a lot of hitters but sacrifices the all or nothing approach that many hitters take into every AB for just making enough contact to drive in runs. It's sometimes why I don't understand those who say RBI's are meaningless because they are a product of how often you bat with men on base. Plenty of good hitters in baseball come up with men on base but Abreu has consistently driven them in throughout his career. That is very valuable and shows the kids how to take an unselfish approach at the plate.

And they say print media is dead.