Leaderboard

I refuse too look forward to free agency only to be let down again

An athletic rim protector who could switch to cover smaller players and with range out to the 3 point line does not fit in today's NBA? Wow this guy is drunk. In fact, look at Ray Ray drunk.

Time has passed, and I am still pissed at the White Sox. How on earth did they supposedly have a framework in place for signing both? It would have had to be "get manny for 250" then throw enough at Harper to get him to sign. But they straight up gave up on Harper like a bunch of little b****es. If they thought they'd get both of these players for 500 million, they are delusional and have been fooling themselves for the 2 years leading up to this offseason. At the end of the day one sentiment still rings true for me. Fuck this franchise, mainly the ownership and front office.

"Tomorrows dollars deferred at yesterdays prices with incentives we control" The white sox contract negotiation method

Josh Donaldson will be average this year and the Sox will sign him next off-season.

This conversation will be pointless by the end of this year following Tim's 4 WAR season.

This post is full of fallacies, false information, and a bunch of opinionated statements. Sorry pal, you may say you analyze basketball for a living, but no one is buying what you're selling.

WCJ has been better than Sexton when you look at basically any advanced metric. "Flashes of offensive brilliance." Lol. I can point to some game stats and post some YouTube videos to show you some WCJ "flashes of defensive brilliance" and "flashes of above average offense". I really find it hard to believe you made all this money you claim to have made on basketball. Maybe it was a lucky parlay bet you made while drunk.

Chris Sale.

I completely agree. This is what makes Moncada maddening to me. When he is swinging it really well he hits to all fields, when he starts to get pull happy he does not stay with the ball well. Maybe having someone like Eloy will help Yoan stay on the ball more.

In a perfect world: Cole Within the Sox budget: Nobody Bottom line: B-/C+ FA are overpaid for the production they bring. If they're not going to pony up for the elite talent, then don't spend at all. Save the money and invest in the areas I keep harping about. There is no reason to continue wasting millions of dollars on the Melky Cabreras and Jeff Samardzijas of each FA class. That money is better spent on player development, analytics, etc.

I just look at it differently. Hahn has had a really bad record of using free agency to get productive mlb players at any price point, compared to other GMs. This was another offseason where he could show their scouting or decisionmaking has improved, even in looking for short term pieces or even using it to find undervalued assets. It also lets the same team (front office) off the hook of the bigger picture. We had 2 years of major league playing time available to find a power hitting first baseman. 2 years to find an innings eater that isn't great but can give you 180 ip and a 4.5 era. 2 years to find versatile, decent outfielders. These are roles you should be able to find through good scouting and playing time. 2 years with roster space where you can hunt for players through waivers, free agency, rule 5 drafts, trades and of course internal player development. In that time they provided it to: Dylan covey, Miguel Gonzalez, Hector Santiago, Manny Banuelos, Carson Fulmer, Wily Garcia, Daniel Palka, Nicky Delmonico, Avisail Garcia, Alec Hansen, Matt Skole, Casey Gillaspie, Ryan Cordell, Charlie Tilson, and Leury Garcia. Of that group, the sox did not find any they were confident enough to give average production to, and needing to rely on free agency and trades to provide short-term, average production on the team because they could not do it through their own scouting and development. In similar places, other teams have found at least decent albeit replaceable players. And while the sox have had a decent record of dumpster diving for relievers, they instead felt the need to pay market rate for 2 middle relievers after spending considerable capital to acquire lots of minor league and college relievers saying this was the new moneyball. So basically, I think this offseason was indicative of a longstanding Hahn-era problem of not being able to squeeze greater value from marginal parts, and always feeling like he has to pay market rates for average production from multiple positions, to the point you end up with a higher team salary than you'd expect from the players on it.

If Tim Anderson develops into the second coming of Alexei Ramirez, we got a hell of a plaxer. ?‍♂️

Well gee I hope he can afford it

I bet he will finish in AAA.

Hanger hit into RCF for Eloy. That is some vintage Frank Thomas right there.

I hate the idea of a DH type being one of our best hitters. If you ever reach the World Series in hurts you greatly in the road games and is especially bad if you don't have home field advantage.

That’d be great. Field an entire everyday lineup of 2-3 WAR players, and if they can pull together a decent starting staff, they should be an annual division contender or favorite in the Central. Should be able to fill about 6 spots internally and then fill the other 3 via FA or trade.

You haven't been here long enough to judge on how people on this board perceive the Bulls and their management. Believe me, I have been very critical of how the team was run under GarPax regime in the past and even now. But your assessment of "WCJ" and how he fits in the modern NBA game is beyond ludicrous even the critical Bulls fans would disagree. I wouldn't go into debate on which advanced stat is a better measurement of player's impact, but whatever ESPN gives you do not do a good job of factoring the non-qualified players. To say WCJ is one of the worst centers in the NBA is a fallacy in itself. If you want to look at production across positions in the NBA, center is far from being the weakest position currently. Anyhow, if you want to look at a stat that looks at all statistical population, take a look at VORP ranking over here: https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2019_advanced.html Guess who checked in at 148 of all NBA players, and who is at the very bottom, 511 out 511 NBA players who suited up this season?

The rebuild hasn't failed. It is just currently stuck in the mud. It's pretty clear that Hahn and company aren't going to be able to turn things around as quickly as Theo or Jeff Luhnow did, however. This looking more and more like a 6-7 year rebuild.

After this off-season, I'm raising my hopes for no one.

The real answer about the biggest contract they will sign next offseason is Jose Abreu.

Yep. With the low salary overhead the next few years, Sox could have matched the Phillies dollars and years and front-loaded the contract. $25M this year $40M the next two would leave them an average of $20M the next ten years. When "the core" is ready to re-up, Haprer's contract wouldn't have hindered the team from making financial commitments in the future. I can't get over how dumb they are.

Jim Thome hitting home runs and hustling harder to 1b than anyone else on the team did not make the starting pitching and defense collapse in 2006.

Well, I mean, we should stop letting the current FO draft people, among other things.

Jimmy Rollins

On second thought, keep targeting college guys

Jon Jay and maybe some of his relatives/pets/friends if that will make it more likely that he returns to the Southside.

He was in the bottom 3rd of 2nd baseman at absolute best. If thats a lock for future this is not going to work. He can get better but I am not holding my breath.

And still managed to be an okay contributor. A huge chunk of his strikeouts can be wiped out by very slight adjustments and less bad strike zone luck.

He led the league in strikeouts and hit .236. Paint that however you want.

Your number for Cole is delusional. He's getting 6/150 minimum. Don't forget who his agent is. hint: it's some guy named Scott

Every time I think about Hahn talking about unprecedented financial flexibility, I feel like Albert Brooks character in the movie Lost In America when he gets mad at his wife about losing their nest egg. "Rick, you can no longer use the words unprecedented or flexibility because you clearly do not know what they mean!!!"

Who even cares what Harper said? He said what everyone is thinking with Trout coming home, and plus, he said "in 2020" not "I'm going to start in March 2019"

Moncada is a .236 hitter with no improvement in 2 seasons. Anderson does not even have .300 obp. If those are locks this is not going to work.

I think 500 is way more than they thought they would get them for - notice how when Manny's deal requirements started rising past the White sox's initial offer, you got comments from Hahn at Soxfest about how they didn't think they could do both and still maintain "Flexibility" or whatever it was he said. I think they thought they could get both for just over $400 mil.

There's no way players already don't talk about playing together off the record, but yeah it's kind of dumb to make those comments in front of a camera.

I've already come to terms with that thought, and I believe it to be true. I think it has more to do with bad luck though than anything. They shot for the moon with their trades, and targeted highly volatile, but also extremely talented players with some of their high picks, and all of their trades, and so far it looks like they're going to hit on only 0-1 of them. The one guy they might hit on is Kopech. Giolito, Kopech, Moncada, Robert, and Cease were all high variance players in terms of outcome. Kopech and Robert have health issues, Moncada is settling into the middle of his range. While still a solid MLB player, he's probably going to be nothing more than a 2-4 win 3B. Fulmer completely busted, Giolito looks headed there. Rodon is probably the left handed version of Javy Vazquez. Collins is a weird player that I don't know what to make of. Madrigal reeks of making the "safe" pick. Cease is somewhere between Lopez and Kopech, and based on how they're handling him, the best case scenario might be a prime Rich Harden.(a great starter while pitching, but can only go 4-5 innings per game) While there is still time for some of this to work, that window is closing. I also don't know what to make of Lopez. Eloy is probably the safest player but he hasn't been in the majors yet and with the way the rest of this rebuild isn't working, I can't count my chickens. This begs the question: Is this a talent evaluation problem, the baseball gods smiting the Sox rebuild, or is it a combination of both? I really can't answer it. And at what point do Hahn and KW get whacked?

Just as a general point...out of 8 key guys the White Sox traded for, 5 of them were starting pitchers. Throw in the 2014 and 2015 top 10 picks, all the other draft picks the white sox made since then, trades for minor leaguers like Medeiros who are somewhere on a top 20 list...and then compare to Cleveland, who has 4 top of the league, 200K starters developed from their own system, and I think there's a simple statement we can make. If the White Sox can't develop enough pitching that they have to go and spend $25 million a year on a starter, it's unlikely this rebuilding round is going to work.

Early bird gets the worm. Unless you're a piss poor franchise like the Sox. Then you get Jack Shit

Burdi pitched in the AFL this fall and was hitting 97. Not near his 101-102 from college, but he was eventually shut down from the AFL as a precaution due to arm fatigue. He's good to go now. I expect he would start in AAA Charlotte and make the major league club sometime in the late spring or early summer if he responds well. He was pretty close to being called up in 2017 before he got hit with TJS.

MLB.com now has a story quoting Harper as saying he's going to start "recruiting" Trout for the Phillies in 2020.

Yes, but Cooper has already shot down the idea. Because while other organization are trying to gain any advantage possible through advanced statistics, this organization still wants to focus on the fundamentals, like bunting, for example

Honesty, I think it’s because the front office overrates our OF prospects (plus the $250M and/or 8 year cap)

I don't know how you can say Rodon looks like a back end guy. No way they are tanking in 2-3 years. If so, the rebuild is a complete failure. Tank has to end this year.

Plus.... the pitch face. How can anybody give up on that pitch face?

I like Lopez profile more than most. If he can locate his slider, his FB starts becoming an out pitch. His slider isn't great, but he still needs to throw it a lot more. If he can change eye levels with the slider, the high FB becomes really hard to hit. He's been dominant in spots. I think his ceiling is still a solid #2. His change can also be devastating at times. I think he can be a poor man's peak Bartolo Colon. Giolito is just too high maintenance to stick. The stuff is there sometimes, but he has so much shit going on with his delivery and his mental approach that I don't see him ever being consistent enough. He's a lot like Gavin Floyd. The talent is there. Everything else is lacking.

As writers for FutureSox, we sometimes get deep in the weeds. But that's only getting to meaningful analysis of the reader is familiar with how the system works in general. So, following up on a reader request, we wrote a sort of Farm System 101 article. It's a primer for how the minors work in general, with some White Sox-specific information. This starter kit (I hope) gives you the systemic context you need to understand the minor leagues, so that you can put what you read into context. If you know of any related topics we should have covered, comment here and we can always add more!