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I think you mean what an OF trio he, Eloy, and Bryce will be

Adam Engel had a. 1.165 OPS in the AFL. A star was born.

Kevin Kiermaier is someone I've thought about as interesting. He's the only thing on the books for the Rays and had an awful year. I'd be curious what the Rays would want for him.

The best post i have seen since the time I started looking on this site, well done but be careful this Austin guy might ask you to delete your account because you are speaking the TRUTH.

As we all dream on the distant hopes of this organization landing either Machado or Harper, I think its perfectly cogent to reflect upon how the rebuild is going. For my part, I think the rebuild has stalled tremendously. I believe the key players in the front office have made some big blunders, particularly in the "development-of-prospects" area. Looking at the top youngsters, I doubt many of us are happy with the way Moncada/Giolito have performed hereto fore. Nor can we be happy about the cavalcade of injuries to key prospects. [Yeah, Moncada had a miraculous Sept/Oct to get to a respectable fWAR for the year. But this was fueled by an unsustainable .452 BaBIP. I doubt that he can continue forward at this clip; YMMV.] Fegan reporting that Hahn wants to start Robert in Double-A next year [after a mediocre and injury-riddled 2018 campaign] suggests to me that this front office is simply unwilling or unable to learn from their previous mistakes with Moncada. Do they promote prospects based on "talent alone," or do they OBJECTIVELY promote based on performance? If not, WHY not? Watching Abreu have to seek outside help to fix his swing, and watching Collins have to revert to his old swing makes me wonder about Steverson. I also have this haunting thought that none of the other coaches/Manager in Chicago are MLB caliber, save for Cooper. At the same time, I look at Cooper, and wonder if it hasn't been well overdue for a change at his spot, given that I can't remember the last time he "fixed" a pitcher. All told, if these are the "best coaches" in the organization, how much more incompetent are the coaches at lower-level assignments? And even if this org has much more talent than in recent seasons, how will these youngsters be properly tutored in their craft and nurtured into big leaguers? The recent draft picks [Burger/Sheets in particular] make me wonder how many of these high draft picks will actually pan out. I also wonder if Hostetler is actually good at his job, or if he simply looks better than Laumann and his craptacular track record. On balance, while we can credit KW/RH for the "accumulation phase" of the rebuild, and while I think its without a doubt that this rebuild NEEDS a top FA signing or two, we're also into the hard part of the rebuild, which is the "development phase." I just don't know that this org has the right people making the right decisions at the moment. I hope I'm wrong, and that miracles happen, but I have my doubts after years of failure at the executive levels of this org. We'll see.

Luis Robert has a .960 OPS in the AFL and is showing all of the tools that make him a potential top 20 prospect in the sport. There's no reason to complain about this. We all know he needs to stay healthy. This is him though. If he's healthy, he'll move to AA and spend majority of summer there where I expect the results to look similar.

My glasses must have an extra tinge of rose, because what I see with this Silver Slugger over his five years now with the Sox is a 162 game average featuring a .295 batting average, 32 homers, 107 RBIs, 39 doubles, and an .869 OPS. Only one year, this one, failing to reach 25+ homeruns and 100+ RBIs, and that due to injury. If you can’t appreciate Jose Abreu as a very good baseball player, well then, I really don’t know what to tell you, other than the numbers speak for themselves.

You legit need to stop projecting whatever other disappointments you have onto this board. Your "be disappointed in preparation to be more disappointed" attitude has taken a huge toll on the quality of your posts and your high post count has given you an outsized influence on the morale of this board.

Luis Robert is fucking legit

Engel is not a prospect. His influence on the success of the rebuild is negligible. True to form. Don't ever change. #moregarbagedickallensays

Because Robert is a legit prospect and shouldn’t be rushed?

Yeah, their situations are the same.

No it doesn't, it all favors the player. If he is happy then he can leverage the opt out for even more money if he has been productive. If he sucks, he stays and collects his big money, there is no club option to get rid of him.....see for example jason Heyward, Cubs would love for the option to be mutual.

It has been suggested that one of the obstacles which might impede Harper coming to the South Side, is his desire to play for a winning team. How could the Sox structure the contract in a way that would afford him an opportunity to opt out, if they have not become competitive, within some stated number of years? For example, here is a hypothetical contract proposal: The first 5 years at $45 million per year, with some significantly lower annual salary for the duration of the contract, which could be 10 to 12 years, in total. If the team had not produced a winning record, or perhaps even won a stated number of games in his third season, the opt out could be moved up to that year, instead of the 6TH year. Under those circumstances, he could leave. if the team had failed to achieve the objective of becoming competitive. He would still be in his prime and could weigh any and all relevant factors, in his decision to either stay, or move on to "greener pastures". From the Sox' perspective, they might not be terribly upset to lose him, and that huge salary, if their rebuild had gone so badly that their targeted window of competitiveness, with the players, whom they had assembled, did not materialize. After all, by then, most of the best of the prospects should have arrived and be contributing. So, while the Sox would be disappointed in the poor results, losing a $45 million annual commitment to one player, might not be so hard to swallow. Such a contract would also assure Harper that the front office would be committed to acquiring the additional pieces needed to produce a winning team. That would be especially important, if the plan is to acquire him first, before committing to additional free agents.

Pretty much all his free agent signings and trades for established players didn't quite work out as hoped. Robertson did pretty well but posters wanted to salary dump him after about 2 months. He is good with contract extensions. That is what he should stick with. They need a different look. One with KW also out of the way. It amazes me how fast this board went from bring back James Shields to sign all the free agents. This was a team that wouldn't pay Mark Buehrle $14 million a year, and it may have cost them a playoff berth in 2012. Tickets are cheaper, attendance is lower, but still now some actually think Harper and Machado is possibility. Hot stove makes reality go away.

Your username highlights the bottom of our White Sox lifetimes. You're a real piece of work. And don't try to play off pessimism as jest. It's not funny here. We have enough of that crap on this board.

You keep saying this, but no one is actually suggesting a “1%” outcome for every player is required for us to be competitive next year. Let’s try to be objective here. The Sox need to add about 20 WAR to be a contender in 2019. That’s a huge number, but add Harper and the gap is suddenly 15. Adding Donaldson shrinks it to 12. Adding Cruz & Happs shrinks it to 8.5. And those aren’t 1% outcomes, but simply using what Steamer is projecting for veteran players and netting against our prior year production. Then you got a future stud in Eloy Jimenez. I find projection systems to regularly under project young players and yet Steamer has him at 2.6 WAR next year. Let’s just call it 3 WAR since we know Eloy will be up ASAP based on Hahn’s recent comments. That cuts the gap to 5.5 WAR. On top of these additions, we also have quite a few talented players that should be better next year, the question with them is simply how much. Moncada, Anderson, Rodon, Lopez, & Giolito are all 25 year old and former top 40 prospects. These guys are still developing and could take massive leaps. Last year they combined for 6.5 WAR. Could these guys account for 12 WAR next year? I don’t think a crazy expectation and nowhere near a 1% outcome. Moncada at 4, Rodon & Lopez at 3, and Anderson at 2 gets us there. That would require no improvement from Giolito, who is without question the biggest wild card in the group. Does that really seem that crazy to you? Mix and match as you please, that’s beauty of having a young developing core. At the end of the day, if we can land a whale and a bunch of secondary pieces, we should be able put together a competitive team without “everything going right for every single guy”. That doesn’t mean it’s foolproof, but it’s not nearly as daunting as you keep suggesting.

What bad contracts has Hahn handed out? How does that compare to all the great contracts he's gotten players to agree to sign?

I don't think any of us can roll our eyes enough for this post.

YES! MORE BULLETS! "MERICA!

T agree, as is your constant critique of others posts. Why don’t you actually discuss the topics at hand?

Posting on this site apparently makes you happy, Yet you are miserable in every one of your posts. Hysterical.

Not even that extreme. I can't stand the constant pessimism from some on the board. It's one thing to say "I think it's probably not likely we get Bryce Harper". It's another thing to crap on everyone else here and be like "Everyone should be prepared to be disappointed because our FO is going to get only scraps". Attitude matters, and @Dick Allen's is terrible. We get enough negativity from watching the team lose without DA being like "oh, by the way it's all for nothing!" If sports don't make you happy, don't watch. That's it.

He followed up with his comment wasn’t based on any inside info. He just assumes they have what the other wants.

team control 2019 and 2020, arb years I believe

Nah, he's OK. He likes optimism at all times, and that's OK. Our White Sox are still undefeated in the offseason. I'm just waiting for the first poster to conflate an opinion on a rebuild that has "stalled tremendously" by strawmanning something about my post as being about a "failed rebuild." I don't think we're in a "full failure range" of outcomes-yet. But I think that a lot of decisions and decision-makers are doing their part to push it that direction. We'll know more around ~June/July or so, but it seems like we STILL have more questions than answers than we should at this point, IMO.

Luis Robert is being compared to Adam Engel. SoxTalk is amazing.

If you're crazy, I'm insane, because I think a healthy Luis Robert has as high of a ceiling as any prospect in baseball not named Vlad

Next time I post it, show me where I am wrong, I am sure we can all learn from you. Another poster was a troll because his post didn’t meet your approval. It is too bad your expertise is being wasted rating message board posts.

There is no question LuisRobert has a ton of ability. But until he shows he can stay on the field and perform consistently , he is a huge question mark. I am pretty sure I am not unique expecting more at this point. He is stilll highly regarded, but he has missed a lot of plying. First with his journey to the US. Then constant injuries. Sometimes guys never make that up. Hopefully he can.

So anyone with an opinion different than yours is wrong or a troll or whatever else you have called others. Got it.

If they could sign Harper and trade for a controllable 3rd baseman like Suarez or Senzel, I would cry tears of joy.

Do you ever come to Soxtalk to actually discuss baseball or is it to project your personal issues on others?

You really can’t discuss baseball because you have no clue, so you act like the internet police and grade posts. Grade your own. You shouldn’t be impressed. you want to say this rebuild is going swimmingly because Luis Robert had a good week in November. Go ahead,

I truly believe Bryce is the one guy that rule wouldn’t apply to. He’d be our modern day Frank Thomas and actually drive fan interest.

And to be fair, I’d put Harper on a different level than any of those 3. Certainly more so with Lester and Heyward.

^^^ I agree with this. Although 400 million or whatever amount they would sign him for is a ridiculous sum of money, he would be well worth the investment. Jersey sales, ticket packages, concessions, etc would all increase dramatically if they signed him. Not to mention the marketing opportunities.

I'm terrified. Hahn hasn't proven he knows what he's doing and it appears he's being handed a blank check.

I’ll take, “English as a second language” for $200... Alex.

Did not realize he had 3 years of control still. My mistake there.

Doesn't hurt to ask.. but that team needs to extend Kris too. Don't think they'd net THAT big of a prospect for him. Maybe more in the Robert/Madrigal range. For the record, I think he goes nowhere as Theo refuses to call anyone untouchable anyways.

Seems like you don't realize a whole lot of things.

I think the time has come to encourage open/concealed carry in every state.

This is all reminding me of the 2011 offseason. ( I believe that was the one with Robertson, Melky, LaRoche, etc. etc. ) Same feeling with better free agents. Think the Sox are really looking to do something historic in the next couple months.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/minor-league-free-agents-2018/

What is “it?”

Yeah, it seems strange that the more toolsy the player is, the longer it takes for him to achieve his full potential. It's not like with a slugger, who needs to work on cutting down k's and hitting more HRs, the 5-tool players need to work on everything and develop more parts of their game. It's like Moncada's talent has him stuck in a rut...trying to become the best contact hitter, power hitter, base stealer AND line drive hitter on the team EACH NIGHT. My advice to him would be to not try to showcase and be the 5-tool player he is each and every night, but to learn how to recognize and use each of his 5 tools in the most relevant situations to beat the opponent. Some nights he might beat you with his speed, others he might drive in 6, others a clutch hit...just not try to be everything at once--that result is usually an 0-4 with 2 k's. I think if he can do that, you can see him start to round into form.

?

And both of their defensive play took big leaps forward this year. Anderson was really good almost all year long, and Yoan improved as his bat improved.

These are the two things I think the board is greatly split on. 1) Anderson was a 2.5 WAR player, basically in the top 150 of all players. He had an OPS 10 points higher than 2017 despite a BABIP 39 points lower. Given his BABIP, what did you exactly expect him to do, offensively? 2) Moncada showed improvement on strikeouts after August 16th. He only struck out 45 of his last 161 plate appearances (27.9%) as opposed to the 172 times in his previous 489 plate appearances (35.1%). His OPS in September was .767. I still think he's a year behind many people on development, if not more, due to the time he was compelled to sit out to get over here. He essentially didn't play pro ball for the better part of 18 months at a crucial time. Over the next 1000 PAs I expect a significant improvement from him. I still think he'll be a .790 OPS player with 25 homers, 30 2B, 70 BB, and 150 Ks. If Moncada and Anderson continue to improve, and if Kopech comes back healthy and Eloy performs as expected - and if Madrigal and Robert have significant ML value - the rebuild can only be termed a success. 2019 is the crucial year that will determine it.