SouthSideGeorgia

over 500 at bats in AA is not rushing him to AAA.

“I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways And no message could've been any clearer If they wanna make the world a better place Take a look at yourself and then make a change.”

Agree on Thorpe. He’s 24, fully grown and the right size for his height. He’s already worked out his pitch repertoire and he’s not apt to gain more velocity at this stage. Once the MLB team finally rids of Flexen and Soroka as starters, I say promote Thorpe directly to the bigs with no stop in Charlotte. Going with a rotation of Crochet, Nastrini, Cannon, Thorpe and Fedde would give us something to watch most night. Clevinger obviously impacts that, but they could go to a six day rotation, or Clevinger or Thorpe could spell Crochet from alot of innings. (i would not say the same on Iriarte, would needs to gain weight at this stage. But at least he is performing well)

I realize Edgar Quero is only 21-yr old. But he has 495 plate appearances in AA combined and this season alone is raking. 0.300 BA, 4 HR, 14 RBI, 1.125 OPS Seems like a promotion is earned to AAA and hoping he can be on the Opening roster next year with Korey Lee.

If he is traded, Getz needs to lean on getting position players. We seem VERY light on future players there.

Need a decent/good result from Cannon’s start today. Not necessarily a Sox win mind you, just something positive for him to build on. Cannon, Nastrini, and Crochet are kind of the main positives we need going forward. Not to forget Leasure…

How long would the Sox have to put Nastrini at AAA in order to get his control increased a year? As much as he earned it in Spring camp, I would hate to waste a year on a lost season.

BAL could make a case obviously to retain Jackson Holliday for ss, Cowser for CF, Kjerstad for RF, and Norby for LF. Could even keep Mayo for 1b. But SS Ortiz stands out as a strong piece for a Cease trade. He has nowhere to really go besides utility for BAL, and is better suited to be traded to improve their Starters. Ortiz is a strong defender too, so that would help Getz with defense first, and could move Colson to 3b in AAA this year, and maybe Ramos to 2b. Grab SS Ortiz, and OF like Beavers or Horvath in their system and possibly another top 30 player and it’s got alot of value for us.

Yeah, that sounds doable. I just prefer short deals with Giolito and Flaherty compared to say, Montas and/or Severino.

Just to keep Nastrini, Eder and some of the other farm arms in the farm… I do like the thought of Giolito and Flaherty on short deals with the Sox. Give me both on 1-year deals, 1+1 option yr deal or even a 2+1 yr deal (for Gio). I won’t kid myself thinking this makes us playoff contenders necessarily, but they also could be trade fodder if they perform and the Sox are bad. Assuming Cease is traded, you would roll with something like Giolito, Flaherty, Soroka, Shuster and Kopech… with Touki as a 6th. And that’s not even considering anything you add from Cease or Eloy if traded. Or you roll with Cease, Giolito, Flaherty, Soroka and Kopech with Shuster in AAA if you keep Dylan.

Is Giolito’s ex still in Chicago…?! 😂

You’re absolutely right on that one. 😂 But the Sox probably seeking reclamation projects like Severino at some price. Hopefully nowhere near that price.

This was more just an exercise for me to see what I could assemble based on what’s out there in free agency. The assumptions I had was based upon not really competing hard in 2024, which feels far remote despite what Jerry will say. I stayed away from the top free agents at the positions since I highly doubt they would want to come to the southside and also I doubt the Sox are looking to lock up players now. So as a result, trying to find guys with maybe some upside that would be agreeable to 1 or 2 year contracts, maybe with options. Overall, without really analyzing the bullpen free agents or the bench… this roster would come out a little over $160 million. Room to maybe pick up another fringe starting arm or two since the AAA farm is dry these days. Definitely could add some cheap vet bullpen arms on cheap 1 yr contracts. The bench should be cheap organizational prospects with upside (Sosa, Korey Lee, etc). This lineup is nowhere near Central ready to compete, but offers some potential players that may be able to be moved if they break out. The best part is they can be traded, kept on their short contracts or even DFA’d if needed at some point. As other stated, I do try to move Cease and Eloy in trades if possible at some point. I am definitely free of Moncada, Eloy and Bummer at the end of 2024 (unless Eloy rebounds somehow). c Victor Caratini, FA 1+1 option yr $8 million OR Tom Murphy (same deal) 1b Vaughn $1.2 million arb. 2b Adam Frazier FA 2 yrs $16 million or Whit Merrifield, 1yr $6 million SS Amed Rosario FA 2 yrs $14 million or maybe that 2nd is an option 3b Yoan Moncada $24.8 million LF Benintendi $17.1 million CF Robert $12.5 million RF Colas $780k DH Jimenez $13,833,333 SP Cease $8 mill arb SP J. Flaherty, FA 3yr $34 million SP Kopech $5 mill arb SP L. Severino, FA 1 yr $9 million SP Montas, FA 1 yr $8 million Now I want to go throw up…

So… who made the decisions on these transactions…. 😂

1 Montgomery, 20 to 16 in mlb top 100 2 Schultz, 100 to 66 in mlb top 100 3 Quero, was in 80s somewhere, now 87 in mlb top 100 4 Jacob Gonzalez, unranked before 5 Jake Eder, was 4 before 6 Nick Nastrini, was 5 before 7 Bryan Ramos, was 6 before 8 Jose Rodriguez, upgrade from 9 9 Ky Bush, downgrade from 7 10 Christan Mena, same at 10 11 Jonathan Cannon, upgrade from 13 12 Peyton Pallette, same at 12 13 Grant Taylor, unranked before 14 Seth Keener, unranked before 15 Sean Burke, downgraded from 8 16 Lenyn Sosa, downgraded from 11 17 George Wolkow, unranked before 18 Korey Lee, was 14 before 19 Ryan Burrowes, was 15 before 20 Jordan Leasure, upgraded from 27 before 21 Terrell Tatum, upgraded from 26 before 22 Jacob Burke, upgraded from 29 before 23 Wilfred Veras, unranked before 24 Matthew Thompson, downgraded from 18 before 25 Tanner McDougal, was 22 before 26 Loidel Chapelli, upgrade from 28 before 27 Tyler Schweitzer, was 25 before 28 Eric Adler, unranked before 29 Adam Hackenberg, was 30 before 30 Ronny Hernandez, unranked before - - - Players Ranked before in Sox Top 30 that are now unranked: Norge Vera, was 16 Yoelqui Cespedes, was 17 Jared Kelley, was 19 Wes Kath, was 21 Luis Meises, was 23 Jordan Sprinkle, was 24

Cleared up that Clase was beefing with Kopech. I hadn’t seen that footage before. And Eloy… 🤦🏻‍♂️

A career 0.216 batting average in 853 mlb at bats. 🫠

If sox have $50-$70 million off from 2021 and 2022 payroll, do we actually expect Jerry and Hahn to put up that money on free agents in offseason? I could make a case to possibly stand pat at all position players and roll the dice with Lee/Zavala, Moncada, Anderson, Sosa/Romy, Vaughn, Benintendi, Robert, Colas, Sheets and Eloy. I don’t like it, but I can see them rolling that out next year. Where it gets interesting is starting pitching. It’s the single biggest gap we have on 2024 team, and AAA. If the team goes cheap, we roll out with: Cease, Kopech, Clevinger, Touki and Scholtens as our rotation. And Clevinger’s mutual option is a risk, but I think has a better chance that both sides may agree to it. You’ll need another starting arm immediately if Clevinger is gone. If the Sox sign any starting pitcher arms on free agency, you can move Scholtens, Touki and even Kopech back to bullpen with the number you sign there. So with a $50-$70 million slush fund from Jerry (😂), what pitchers are out there in free agency? Free agent starting arms under the age of 32-years old… Aaron Nola Blake Snell Julio Urias Lucas Giolito Jordan Montgomery Jack Flaherty Luis Severino Tyler Mahle Frankie Montas Alex Wood The Sox seem more like spenders on reclamation projects to me and not multi-year contracts that would command $20+ million per season. So it looks like a Severino and/or Montas type of offseason. 😐

I always wondered if the Sox would ever do 10-year contract to a player, and well in typical Sox fashion… it didn’t turn out the way I figured. 🤪

In my opinion, the Sox need to DFA 35-yr old Shaw, Grandal, and Andrus at a minimum. None of those guys are back next year and provide anything to a losing team trying to figure out the future state. Sosa and C. Perez (if Lee is not ready) should be up. It’s amazing how bad the AAA pitching is. I don’t like calling up Lambert because he’s been very bad this year, both in MLB and AAA. But there’s not much in Charlotte to test out. Maybe drop Shaw and Lambert for two spots of either Nate Fisher, Garrett Davila, or Haylen Green. If you go deep all the way to AA, maybe try Caleb Freeman as a reliever (1.96 era in 20 appearances).

Payroll salary increases that are non-arbitration related amount to hair under $30 million for the retained White Sox players. Cease, Kopech, Vaughn and Touki will receive arbitration increases year over year, which will be minimal compared to the $30 million. Majority of that increase is Benintendi and Moncada. In our “competitive window” phase, the Sox payroll went from $180 to $200 million at times. However, given the current state of the window and roster, I doubt Hahn is allowed to go that high in 2024.

Rough estimates with the following assumptions: Cease, Kopech, Clevinger, Touki and Scholtens rotation as it stands now. Anderson’s option being picked up. Bullpen is Bummer’s, Hendriks salaries and 6 league minimum salaries. Bench is league minimum. Estimated arbitration for Cease, Kopech, Touki, and Vaughn. Also includes 2024 Leury and Diekman payments. So with that said, I have the Sox right around $129 million for 2024.

Only thing I heard was the Sox started with #1 overall player Jackson Holliday as the ask. Also heard Hahn wanted no less than at least two Top 5 players included. Not sure if Hahn ever came off Holliday… since to me there was definite acceptable trades with the O’s without Holliday.

Hard to feel good about it when Baltimore ranked #8 and Dodgers ranked #6. At least to me…

The new arms are mostly in AA and none of them stand out as accelerated in performance to make it as Opening Day starter in 2024. Just one of them doing that is remote… and would be very aggressive by the White Sox. I agree with the above. Cease and Kopech for sure are 1& 2. No doubt, Kopech’s starting performance deserves further criticism, but he will get every opportunity to start on the Southside. Mostly due to the dearth of talent at starter (see early Reynaldo Lopez). We have Touki and Scholtens under contract, so they will get opportunities or could be long relievers in bullpen, and starters in reserve. Behind them also is Tanner Banks in a similar role. Sox will (or should) pick up another 2 starters on reclamation 1-yr deals, back from injury, or down years in an attempt to strike lightning in a bottle (like Cueto in 22). Less likely to compete in the Central as Hahn will suggest and more as 24 trade deadline fodder for more farm tickets.