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Just a couple things from what I've heard about their preferences. Some scouts from the Detroit Tigers are expecting the Sox to take Abrams One of the longest tenured beat guys in town told me last week that the Sox won't pass on Witt Jr. if available With that being said, I won't be surprised if it's Vaughn but Abrams makes the most sense at this point.

I wanna see McCann catch Reynaldo.

Must he incorrect reporting. I'm guessing it was Lucas high school English teacher who came up with the idea and deserves full credit.

Things I'd like to see include Rondon sent down (DFA) for Mendick and Alonso going to the mystery IL with Jon Jay Syndrome

One of the hidden things I’m glad we clarified this season: Rondon is not a major leaguer

It is really annoying to see players, who just seem incapable of making adjustments and playing situational baseball. When Rondon had two strikes on him, I was screaming; "choke up and just try to elevate a pitch. to hit a sacrifice fly". With Anderson at third, it wouldn't have had to be hit very deep to score him. But no, there he was, with his hands all the way down on the knob of the bat. So stupid. I've seen enough of Rondon and his swinging for the fences, and I'm ready to see what Mendick can do. He seems like a pretty smart ball player.

YOLMER'S GATORADE BATH YESTERDAY WAS PROPHETIC

Time to see what we have in Mendick

Take it from one drunk to another: Chuck looks like a massive fucking drinker. He looks awful.

Sosa HR ?

Rondon is horseshit

I can't wait for your post saying "release this stiff!".

KW for much of the 00s was drafting based on what he could afford. Telling me drafting Lance Broadway and Kyle Mcculloch was BPA on their board is such an own goal.

Machado signed a ten year contract; Harper, a thirteen year one. We could have signed either/both, and they would have been around for the entire length of whatever the next window of competitiveness is. Meanwhile, the operative word in your second paragraph is, of course, "if". "If" they spend $300Mish. "If" they spend big on the types of players you mentioned, then yes, we can forget the travesty that was this past offseason. But you have to admit, with this organization, that's a big "if" at this point. With history as our guide, the fear is the "spend" will be on a tier of players below the guys you mentioned.

I don't necessarily believe they will, but there is a world of difference between spending 300 million on one guy and 300 million spread out on 3 guys.

Because they're actually a year closer to competing. No one thought this team was going to complete in 2019 - with or without Machado or Harper. Not sure the same thing can be said in 2020 when everyone has another year of experience under their belt, and Kopech, Cease and Robert joining the mix. If the Sox go out and spend $300Mish this offseason on guys like Cole, Ozuna, Grandal, and maybe a supporting piece or two, this fan will forgive them for passing on Machado.

'He doesn't possess much swing and miss in his game and projects as a "plus hitter". ' People really need to stop lumping this kid as a 'toolsy athlete'.

I find it difficult embracing this rebuild/tank. Year after year of losing teams while JR and his investors are laughing all the way to the bank. This White Sox franchise is more profitable today than at anytime in its history. The two previous White Sox owners (John Allyn and Bill Veeck) didn't have the money to compete and both were forced to sell the team. At least both of them wanted winning teams. I don't see that here with JR.

The last 3 teams to win the world series have been loaded with stars. I believe each of them had an MVP winner that season and there's a couple Cy Young contenders in their each time.

Avi had 5 years, Seby has had 5 ABs.

Renteria is awful, but Ventura is in a class all his own. Ventura wasn't just tactically incompetent as a game-manager, he was probably the single most uninspired and un-charismatic manager in modern baseball. Renteria is just tactically incompetent, but I can at least see him being a quality clubhouse voice. He's similar to what Fox was for the Bears. Awful for competing, but good for laying the groundwork of a consistent winner and eliminating the toxicity of the previous regime. Now is the time for the Sox to start looking for their Matt Nagy.

Nice.

Sweet, I'd expect either 6/1 then or at the latest when the mass draft assignments start.

You don't draft #4 overall and expect a utility infielder. I don't GAF about his strikeout rate in high A as a 22 year old repeater given his other batted ball data is downright bad. His quality of contact is garbage as evidenced by his pull rate and BABIP and ISO. And he'd have to be an elite defensive 2B (top 5 in MLB) to carry 2 WAR with a 280/330/350 line. It's sad that's already what his median case scenario looks like. I liked the pick but right now it looks bad. As I said the other day it's going "to get late early" for Madrigal next year if he's a 23 year old struggling in AA. We really have to hope he makes a big jump sometime in the next year to get back on a prospect track. He's got work to do.

I've heard nothing on that. I'm hoping it's two prep bats and then lots of pitching personally.

The way this thing went down was embarrassing on every level, but if he would have signed with the yankees in like December, nobody would care nearly as much as they do. I wanted him, and I wanted him bad, but we have to acknowledge the fact signing either guy had just as good a chance at scuttling the whole rebuild as it did getting it off the ground.

It's not the player, it's the rationale described in the BR post and even yours. I don't want them filling positions with the draft, if they think Bleday's power and hitting ability sets him apart from even Vaughn then that's who you take. I can't see their scouting reports, but saying we needed a new LF because Eloy isn't looking good defensively that's poor process* *reads 10 pages of astro ball and is now sam hinkie

I don't think that many people realize that the clock is already ticking and has been for about a year.

I was all for giving Jose Rondon a chance this season, but I think its time to move on. His slash line of .194/.237/.319 is putrid, he isn't great defensively, and has had several bone headed plays, including overrunning 2B after the rain delay last night. He is out of options, so he would have to be DFA'd but I kind of doubt anyone is putting him on their 25 man, so odds are likely better than a coinflip that he stays in the organization. Meanwhile Danny Mendick is slashing .271/.367/.441 down in AAA. I think I would make that move right now.

Zach Wheeler feels like a Yu Darvish situation waiting to happen.

I think you're in the minority in leaving Eloy Jimenez off a list of "potential stars" of the White Sox (regardless of his tools) but whatever -- my point is that I agree with your sentiment that the Sox org has more star potential than many on this board admit.

I would add Jimenez and Robert to that list, with Giolito starting to look like a maybe. Some might call that a potential core of a good baseball team. But there seems to be a belief among some on this board that we need our farm system to produce 5 all-stars a year for the next five years to have a shot at contending.

I believe the Sox have potential stars in Anderson, Moncada, Cease & Kopech and we got them how you need to get them...we trade for and draft stars. Free agency is a very expensive place to shop for this type of player. However, many items are for sale in the medium price range aisle. It's a very nice place to shop for your need someone to upgrade this weakness or 3rd or 4th starters. In business you might say...maximize use of minimal resource.

I like how the Sox have approached this rebuild. When I look at 2005 there were no mega stars. They had some moderate power, good defense, great pitching, lockdown bullpen and some speed. Pods and Iguchi brought a spark but most importantly they had 25 complimentary pieces. These mega deal guys don't seem to work out all that often. I think that's because those deals go to power hitters and strike out pitchers. Guys like Iguchi, Pods, Dye and Rowland were nice complimentary pieces not high priced stars. We had AJ and Dye and Crede as moderate priced guys who were productive and not expensive. Kind of McCann like guys. We will be winning when we get 25 players who do their jobs well. One or two so called stars are not the answer. Pitching, timely hitting, speed & and defense is needed on a well balanced wining team. I will say that half of those 25 men are pitchers. If those 12 or 13 guys aren't good... your wining nothing.

Good guess might be lead off hitter with high average & walks for high obp... A forty + base stealer and a player with a high baseball IQ...a really good glove and the quarterback of the infield. I'll take a dozen years of that.

Well, your source compares a sabermetrically "optimal" lineup to a "typical" lineup. As I read that, an "optimal" lineup, in the '99th percentile' of lineups vs a '50th percentile lineup.' How far afield are rickys lineups from a theoretical "typical lineup," one that would fall smack-dab in the middle of optimization? I'd argue that Rickys lineup choices are inferior to a typical one; therefore he likely costs the team much more than the proposed 5-15 runs. Delmonico batting 2nd? Alonzo batting 4th? Hell, before Anderson was scratched, I think he planned to bat Tilson ahead of him the other day. (Likely due to his slavish adherence to l-r-l-r sequencing.) In Rickys case, his lineups matter much more than the average manager's lineups do, IMO.

Actually, the reason his production both was and is sustainable has nothing to do with people being hypocritical about SSS. It's because his BABIP and xwOBA/wOBA ratio normalized pretty early on. In fact, Moncada has been unlucky per his xwOBA/wOBA ratio (.370/.353). It isn't "regression to the mean" when someone is regressing further from the mean. While he has been striking out more in May, these metrics suggest that his batted ball luck has also decreased, below their expected levels.

And? That makes you the ultimate judge of baseball talent...for a guy projected to be a backup catcher?

You are measuring the start of Houston's rebuild from the point they started losing. Same with the Cubs. Yet, you measure the Sox rebuild from I assume the end of the 2016 season (although it should be measured from July 2016). I'm just asking for some consistency. Houston hired Lunow in December 2011; they rebuilt in 2012, 2013, 2014 and made the playoffs in 2015 The Cubs hired Theo sometime before the 2012 season. That's when they acquired Rizzo It was during 2012 when they started trading away their guys like Dempster and Garza. They lost in 2012, 2013 and 2014. They made the playoffs in 2015. Both of those were 3 year rebuilds. They were not 5-6 year rebuilds. If held to those standards, the Sox would make the playoffs in 2020. And if they were held to the standards of the Brewers, As or Rays rebuilds.....

Hahahahhhahaha. Maybe you should fire your head for not knowing itself from your ass. My god, you’re a fucking tool.

Carlos has a great attitude. He's a fighter, not a quitter. I'm not worried about him, but I am VERY worried about his arm.

Excellent D, baserunning, contact skills and plate discipline. The ONLY thing he isn’t doing right now is hitting for power. And that isn’t much of a surprise

But you love Steverson and his guys have 1 run the last 29 innings, and that was by another guy you hate, Abreu.

And Ricky can't even do #1 right. He's awful at it actually

So, I'm not sure someone can seriously ask the question OP asked and legitimately be a White Sox fan. Robin was worse, which is heartbreaking because he was one of my favorite players when I was a kid. I'm sure some of our more senior guys can list a bunch more, too.

Someone needs to get on base if you want to see 3 run bombs.

I don't think even the most optimistic ever thought of him as a run producer. His upside is just a good all around baseball player who can help a team by getting on base , extending rallies, driving in some runs and fielding his position and running the bases well. More like Whit Merrifield without Merrifield's power and frankly Id be very pleased with that.

Madrigal was the best college hitter in the draft. Teams had 70 grades on his hit tool and defense. Madrigal is really safe. I preferred Kelenic but completely understood going Nick Madrigal and it's waaaaay to early to make determinations on the pick at this point.

For a guy who’s a been applauded for his ability to develop young players, I’m shocked at how bad the Sox are on defense. They ranked 28 in Ricky’s first year, 27th last year and they’re ranked 29th so far this season in terms of fielding percentage and errors. Would you say that the Sox are a better fundamental team since he took over? Do you see any improvement? What’s the last fundamentally sound White Sox team? 2012? I’m also not a fan of his lineup construction and he’s not a good in game strategist. Alonso and Castillo have no business batting cleanup. Tim Anderson needs to be batting higher up in the order, I’ve been a proponent of batting him lead off, he could bat fifth or sixth too. Yeah, Ill give Ricky some credit for Anderson’s success and Moncada’s emergence (fingers crossed) but I think the Sox should bring in a new manager and conduct a search for someone outside of the organization. Even if they do hire someone from the inside, they should interview as many people as possible to get a feel on how other organization’s do thing and apply what they learn to the org.

Speaking of "dumb" I've seen White Sox ownership do a lot of dumb things over the decades so I put nothing past them. And thanks for the "courteous" reply.