mac9001

Kid had a 18.6% swinging strike rate. That's some elite swing and miss stuff.

Which is why my expectations are low. But given that on a long term depth chart you have to pencil in guys like Fletcher and Horn I'm not exactly feeling optimistic on long term success. There's a pretty good chance our entire starting 5 is not on this roster next year. That's not a recipe for sustained success or even a foundation where you can expect reasonable internal growth. 2026 might be the first year we look at the roster and say this guy may have a long term future. I'm relatively optimistic when it comes to prospect development but given the state of our roster and even in the most ideal conditions we probably need a few years of MLB development for the arms we have that show legitimate potential, it going to be a bleak and depressing time to be a Sox fan.

There is no point to having Pillar on the team. There's at most 1 or 2 other teams that would even consider wasting a roster spot on him. Short of about 10 games in May last year when he went on a tear Pillar likely couldn't make the cut on most teams AAA rosters.

I didn't say effective platoon ABs. Finding a lefty that can at least hit right handed fastballs and put up league average production is not a significant cost. If that's what you need to fill out your roster it's not going to strain your long term financial flexibility to go spend some money. If you can develop that internally that's great, but given all available data you can't realistically expect that from Fletcher. At this point a realistic expectation is probably a wRC+ of 75-85. In a platoon role maybe you get him up to league average, but at this point he's probably the only viable option we have for RF, so he's going to see his far share of lefties.

Because on a competition team with ambitions of playoff baseball guys like this don't have a roster spot. If they're on the team because they vastly outperformed expectations great. The more likely scenario is Horn bounces between AAA and the bigs filling in as an ineffective lefty and Fletcher never hits his weight and at best fills in as a 4th OFer/limited platoon ABs in a corner spot. Both extremely replaceable roles that can easily be filled by brining in a bunch of NRIs in the spring. The issue I have with the moves for these guys is you're just wasting prospect capital for seat filler. If you're gonna move young SP prospects at least consolidate and aim for quality. The whole off-season strategy seems to be around (poor) quantity with limited upside. It doesn't appear Getz had a lot of money to spend, but getting guys like this has minimal impact on long term success, they're easily replaceable for a minimal cost.

I don't think I've walked into a Wendy's and had more than one person ahead of me. Pretty sure if you start charging me an extra buck for my baconnator at 5pm I'll finally have the motivation I need to get my s%*# together and go home and make a salad. Wendy's, you played yourself.

This is setting a bad precedent. Twice now Getz flipped relatively young SP prospects for AAAA fillers you could easily pick up for a few bucks. If you're gonna trade young SP prospects at least package both of them and consolidate into something with upside. If Fletcher or Horn are on the 2026 White Sox the rebuild is an abject failure.

If the Sox abandon GRF the Bears might as well explore that as a future build site.

His expected batting average was .225. In his limited big league at bats the only thing he's demonstrated is incredible luck. It's not just a single loft stat, it's the single best indicator of sustainable success. If you take a walk or hit a home run the outcome is not on doubt. Make weak contact (which he did a lot of) and in a small sample size the range of probabilities in incredibly wide. His xwOBA trended down with each increment AB. It's likely with another 100 PAs his average would have reverted to his expected numbers. Moving past his good fortunes at the plate he (on very limited opportunities) only measured out to to 30 percentile on sprint speed. Which is likely an indicator of below average range. By comparison Robert was in the 84 percentile. He may have below average sprint speed for an OF, he would be near the bottom as a CFer. Thus significantly reducing his expected FV if he's not a viable option at CF.

There was exactly zero qualified dudes late year with a BABIP of .377. Not happening over a larger sample size.

Dude had a BABIP of .377 and and .407 against RHP. Unless he can walk on water that not happening again. He might hit just enough to be viable but anytime you depend on a player's value to be primarily derived from their defense you're going to be disappointed.

I don't have any issues with trading any of our SP prospects, but it doesn't feel like the return was adequate. The stuff wasn't there with Mena, but at his age there was a lot of time left to build a variable path to a MLB career. Honestly he was probably closer to a MLB start than Eder. My issue with the Sox is they just love to waste value on replacement level players. There's always a lack or vision or strategy. If you're gonna spend prospect capital go spend it on an above average talent, then spend money to fill out the roster with replacement level talent.

You gotta figure he's going to get more than Lopez. I think people are vastly underestimating what he's going to get.

Bush looked really solid. His fastball doesn't really pop on the gun but until that last inning it didn't seem like anyone was squaring it up. He's a big dude so I image the perceived velocity on his fastball probably plays up a bit.

He keeps hitting and he'll find himself on the top 100 list on the next update.

The problem with the Sox is a lack of a concise strategy. If they were gonna spend $80-100M in free agency next year I could kind of understand why they held onto so many assets. But seems like they're just setting themselves up for another sell year next year and at likely a lower return. The return for Burger wasn't half bad, but I feel if there was anyone offering more for Vaughn you do that in a heartbeat. It just feels like TA, Cease, Vaughn, Bummer and Eloy are all likely to get traded by the deadline next year, so why not just do the fill tear down now.

The system could see a significant ranking jump next year. There's legitimately 4-5 arms that can sky rocket up prospect charts. Additionally if Sosa opens the year raking in Charlotte he's a legitimate top 100 prospect.

I will say if you're going to drop a guy like Jonathan Stiever off the list due to injuries but keep guys like Pallette and McDougal it seems a bit hypocritical. Is the assumption Stiever won't recover from his injury or that his struggles prior to surgery were not related? I'm just not sure how you can justify any ranking on someone who hasn't thrown a pitch in pro ball and is coming off TJS.

Anyone else struggling to come up with a defensible argument why Wes should be on the list?

JR is also 86. There's a fairly high probability he's not at the decision table when the Sox lease is up.

If you build it they will come. Build a world class facility and surround it with dinning, drinking, entertainment, shopping, and lodging and the Sox could outdraw the Cubs. The northwest burbs are densely populated and fairly affluent. That's a good basis for a season ticket fan base. You could do it somewhere else, but the Bears have enough land for 4 stadiums, so jump on the bandwagon out of town and make a deal.

Really solid draft. Love the arms and there's at least intrigue with the Seniors. Comine this year's stock with some of the other young arms and the laws of baseball say we should at least hit on a few. At least we're laying the ground work for a home grown future rotation. The Sox don't have a single home grown (drafted) product in the rotation and Davis Martin probably finds himself in a bullpen role.

The moment the Sox have a competent management team with a vision they'll pursue a new stadium strategy. The South side is not attractive as a development site. AH was a nice sweet spot for the Bears. They managed to aquire a crap ton of land that will be worth multiples of it's current value with proper development and it can be reasonably accommodated with a public transport link to the CTA and an existing Metra stop. The Sox may not find that in Chicago, but I'm sure there's an opportunity somewhere in this country that's infinity more attractive than 35th and Shields. If the city wants to keep the Sox the solution won't be a south side stadium. Not sure how feasibility you can turn Solider Field into a baseball stadium but they better start getting creative.

The time to leverage that is now. If I was the Sox and the play was to bend the city over now would be the time to engage the Bears and make a potential exit as real as possible.

The Sox now for all purposes have the 2nd oldest stadium (A's will build a new one soon, so only Rogers is older with no major renovations). The Bears left because they're not going to let the Chicago Park District have a significant stake in the success of the franchise. The Sox will eventually come to the same revelation when they can own and develop real estate to suit their ends without any restrictions. South side of Chicago is a shitty place for property development, so is Solider Field and the Museum Campus (can't own lakefront property in Chicago). The moment the Sox have a competent management team they're gone.