Leaderboard

Really everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with everyone involved. Cease ended up looking great the 1st half. Thorpe gets hurt (and suffers a setback). Wilson becomes unflippable at the deadline. Zavala struggles mightily. Iriarte lost his 'stuff'. There still plenty of opportunity that some of the returns works out, but I don't think any of them are going to end up the impact-level of players we may have been expecting.

If only we took Kelenic

They've been able to take pitchers in rounds 2+ and turn them into major league starters. Once they're able to do that with hitters, they will have a bona fide minor league development system.

Wonder if a grandson or even a great grandson of Masanori Murikami, he was with Giants in mid 60s. Had him on a rookie baseball card back then. But in the 1960s, Masanori Murakami of the Giants opened new doors with his appearance against the New York Mets. A crowd of 40,524 gave Murakami a standing ovation as he walked to the Shea Stadium pitcher's mound on Sept. 1, 1964, becoming the first Japanese player to appear in a big league game.

I said it above, but to make this clear - if the market is weak at the time, if the #2 pitcher on the market can't get the type of deal he's looking for and has to take a 1 year deal, that's a bad market for starting pitching. A normal market is better than that. This year, all of the top 5 pitchers have their deals, and several teams have done trades for pitching. This is a normal market, maybe even a good market, for starting pitching. Literally everything last year said that it was a bad market. You had one guy who got a good deal quickly, Nola, and that was because the Phillies said they were keeping him. Everything else was teams looking for value.

Yeah, the location is why they suck. Just an FYI, it’s easier to get to the Rate than any other professional sports facility in Chicago.

The Cease return boils down to how you felt about Thorpe at the time. He was a top 50ish prospect but as a righty change up specialist. I am usually not real high on command over stuff guys, so I was down on it. Before Thorpe was hurt, he dominated MiLB, and showed flashes in MLB. Both Iriarte and Zavala took steps back. The return was 1 player light the day it was made. Feels lighter than that now. I still have hope for both iriarte and Zavala. Thorpe? Who knows at this point?

One of the most telling things that happened was when a massive story (like 10k words) came out tracing how the nuggets methodically built a champion featured and named so many people from their front office…and AK wasn’t mentioned once. It takes a truly incompetent person like Michael reinsdorf to go to one of the best front offices in the game and identify the one lazy, inconsequential person to lead the team.

I don’t disagree.

Fans overvalue the expected returns all the time. It's pretty safe to say that because of Cease's down year that GMs were not offering a lot. So the question becomes do you hold him and risk him having a season that will diminish his value further. There will also be fans who since they believe the player is worth more who advocate holding a player who has been healthy and hoping for a rebound to enhance value. In retrospect it came down to should they have held him. Arguing about the return is pretty irrelevant if Getz took the best deal offered. We don't know if he was offered a high ranked position player . As fans we are always operating with vast levels of ignorance until we find snippets of information that hint at incompetence like with the Fedde and Fletcher trades. You get partial stories with 2nd hand knowledge. We also have no empathy for GMs. There is only your track record. As such Getz has only done a minor reshuffling of bodies after the fallout and trying to hire good people to help the survivors while the King claims funds are extremely limited . Outside sources lower offers for your remaining assets knowing that your options are limited. You're lucky I'm here to save your sorry ass. Without me you'd get nothing. And you surely cannot afford to get nothing .Your situation is dire. Your resources are dwindling. The vultures are circling. This is the situation I see and why I am more empathetic towards this rebuilding effort. The current King is old. Perhaps the foundation can be laid that will result in a stronger structure when all is said and done. Going to need a really good new King.

For once not just a white Sox criticism - I wonder how much 2020 contributed to the poor results of that 2018 first round (2019 looks great, so it’s not just a simple answer, but with thinking about).

I was listening to some vintage Aerosmith. If they are correct, "you have to lose to know how to win" we can Dream On for this season. And I'm not even drinking yet

More like “yet another awful player that Getz once acquired.”

He should have been one of those guys the pundits crowed about a team grabbing with the 25th pick. "OMG!! This guy was mocked in the top 5!!! What a steal for the Astros!!" I think Hahn and Hostetler spent too much time on the internet. addendum: It always disappointed me how dudes would become so impressed when they realized Beer and Burger were both food words, and it would be "the funniest thing in human history if Beer and Burger both played on the same team !!! woah!! High five me, dude!!" When, Sousa, Madrigal, Bilous and Troutwine were all taken by the Sox in the same draft, and one could have a roster announcing a Sousa Madrigal, Bil(i)ous on Troutwine. Oh, and Fry was an option, too. I hope nobody ever literally "died" laughing.

Madrigal has to go down as one of the worst draft picks in history. He has to be one of the lowest ceiling players ever takin in the top 5 at least in recent draft history. He had zero percent chance of playing SS, zero percent chance of being a high impact base stealer and less than zero percent chance of ever developing power. Just an absolute abomination of a top 5 pick.

"They've only put themselves in a better position to compete with the White Sox..." KW

He might get hurt signing the contract.

Nah. Brad Keller and Justin Morneau will never get the "old friend" tag.

Here are some Soxtalk legends: Fathom: (I envision him as a nice guy in real life; knows his stuff, used to get mad when we lost to Cubs, I think he played baseball longer than most on here). Caulfield: Same as Fathom. Seems like he'd be a nice guy in real life. Used to make interesting posts about China. He and Fathom seem like kind souls. Harry Chappas: Not only has ties to Brother Rice but has reasonable posts and also never gets mad on here. Seems like a nice guy as well and a proud southsider me thinks. WhiteSox2023 also has Br. Rice ties and seems to have his head on straight. He hasn't been around as long. Milkman Delivers: On the list of most likely to punch greg in the face if we met. I just don't think he likes me much. I could be wrong. Ron883: I think he is ok with greg. He's posted a long time, seems reasonable. I think we've disagreed on some players' value in the past. Texsox: Seems like a nice guy. I think we would agree on political stuff in real life. Mabe not. Those few come to mind right now. Peace on earth to all over the holiday season.