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The problem is it’s all the same argument over and over again. Every single transaction (outside of possibly Crochet) we have the same handful of posters debating the same topics. And I have partaken in some of these threads, so I am not free of blame either. But at some point you have accepted defeat in being able to convince your counterpart to take your position. IMO, it’s very fair to say the following: Getz has been generally been bad at trades so far The Cease trade doesn’t look promising right now The Vargas trade was questionable from the get go Pro Scouting still remains a major area of concern It’s too early to draw conclusions on Getz as a trader To me, there is nothing controversial in the above, but I guarantee we couldn’t get the board to align on those five points. Certain sides have locked in on their view of either Getz being a total failure at trades or him being completely free from blame, where the reality is somewhere it the middle right now.

Holy hell baseball season needs to start. A thread about Brandon Eisert has nine pages.

No, I just don't think people like Shane Drohan should be included in any discussion about legit pitching prospects. If you just mean he's "a" prospect then sure, but that was not the nature of our conversation and you know it. Its questionable if this team even has 1 strong player on its 40 man roster, but you just declared that they have 5 strong starting pitchers headed into 2025. We definitely are not speaking the same language.

I certainly wouldn’t count on that

I'm not upset about Drury, but a lot has to go right to even get anything for him as a flip, and really, at this point, shouldn't the younger guys be getting the opportunity? I have the feeling, he's a longshot to make the team.

I can't help but note that for a system that has such faith in its player development and specifically pitching development, they sure are trading off a lot of young pitchers to get middle aged and very limited ceiling middle aged pitchers to replace them. If this is supposed to be the lodestar of Sox player development, why are we sending future out for guys we should be able to easily replicate in our system? I mean even if we were getting hitters for them, it might be something, but old middle relievers? Make it make sense for me.

This game should reinforce the Bears using their top 3 picks on the trenches and not a running back.

I know your definition of legit prospect is “maybe one day this guy can make some starts at the big league level” which is pretty much a statement that could be made about every single pitcher in the system. When your #1 starter is either Davis/Burke/Cannon you’re in trouble. Burke was 7-22 with an ERA over 5.00 in his minor league career but his 3 starts in garbage time last season already has you locking him in as a solid, reliable rotation fixture next season. It’s crazy talk. I get you want to be the optimist guy but can you at least be realistic about it. Cannon is the only arm in the rotation at this point in time who has shown any glimpse of reliable and that’s a 4.5 ERA guy with no overpowering stuff.

At least he has a history of doing SOMETHING at the major league level. I don't want him blocking anyone, but he could also fill some ABs as I am sure there will be plenty of failures and roster grinding going on.

Hoping he develops into the role is a fair take all things considered. Whether he can or will is an unknown right now. He certainly hasn't earned it, but it's JR's playground where job accountability means little so we as fans have little alternative. I also think it is fair to hope for his improvement while also not ignoring the level to which his first year on the job set the org back. And his management of the 40 man roster has in fact set the org back. JR refusing to hold him accountable doesn't mean he is above criticism, or that fans should simply ignore his catastrophic failings in year one.

The damage is done. No difference between 100 or 120 losses in this coming year, the fan base has moved on.

Not a huge fan of that one. Catastrophic? How so? I kind of like the roster churn. It's something that KW and Hahn never did during the last rebuild. They absolutely cannot "afford" to sign guys like that this year. They are spending what they're allowed to spend.

HS and college hitting is good. College pitching is (maybe) avg. HS pitching is below avg. All round should be an avg draft. Yes. There are a number of HS hitters who should be in the mix at 1-10 and most are up the middle players. I like SS Brady Ebel and SS Eli Willits. SS Billy Carlson, SS Kayson Cunningham and SS/CF Sean Gamble will hopefully all be in the mix along with 3B/RF Xavier Neyens.

You try to spin ridiculous things, and think your being clever. It isn't working. When the best you can do is the 10th pick in the draft, breaking the all time record for losses shouldn't be the plan. I'm glad youre not bothered by where the team is at, but the vast majority of fans are. Now they are practically giving tickets away, even for Opening Day. I believe the fanbase is being killed.

Alienating a generation of fans tends to have a long lasting impact on a fanbase. I’m highly skeptical your last sentence is valid but, at this rate, we might not test this theory for another decade.

It was a top 100 prospect short. The two low-minors guys were essentially the return for Kopech. I've said it before, but it seems to me that Getz makes these trades on the other teams' terms and he trusts these GMs for some reason. If your own pro scouting department is competent and properly deployed, you should never be in the position to have to trust these GMs. It's particularly annoying in the Fedde trade given that there was really no urgent need to trade him in first place. And yet, Getz basically did what Mozeliak and Gomes/Friedman wanted him to do. Even the Crochet trade was on the Red Sox terms, as they held back their top 3 guys; that should work out for the Sox in this one case because their next prospects were players about which the Sox had independent knowledge. But overall, he's trying to build this org from absolute ground zero. He just can't afford big gaffes like this, especially as they haven't been much better than C-level performers in the other modes of talent acquisition: the Draft and International signings.

The Bummer trade had a fundamentally rotten philosophy, trying to bring in expensive, underperforming veterans, the Braves GM literally told Getz not to do it. The Cease deal was weak at the time and looks like garbage now. Thorpe was exposed at the big league level, Iriarte has control issues, Zavala seriously regressed, and we are in the thread on Wilson being put on waivers. The Fedde deal was weak at the time and Vargas looked worse by the day. No one even seems to have a position for him. I will count the Booser and Gilbert trades as controversial, I wouldn’t do them because I would rather have the 18 year olds. But I also know that if those guys fail, you’ll tell us next offseason how they were smart moves with the white Sox’s pitching gurus, because nothing can ever disprove that, including one of the worse bullpens we ever saw last year.

My God when you actually see this on paper it could actually be worse than the garbage on the team collectively from last year. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-2025-opening-day-roster I have flashbacks to the original movie "Major League." 🤯

Dr. Fletcher one of the author's of the "Chili Dog MVP" book and a close friend of the family who was at the announcement told me tonight the cap issue is a "long story." He didn't elaborate. I hope he can provide more details at some point.

Alex Bregman isn’t this important to wait so long. Sign a contract already.

Yes that's exactly what I meant.

Sweet, maybe they can steal away Getz first. Nah, he’s too easy for the Dodgers to rob come the trade deadline.

I'm with you on Willits. I didn't like the video of Neyens I posted. He has a deep load and it looks like he bars himself. His balance didn't look good either. We'll see what he looks like in game but that video was not very good.

Why would we be happy that we didn’t start his big league clock if he sucks? The only reason to regret starting his clock is if he’s really good. Oscar Colas’ lock is started and absolutely no one cares.

Better than Maddux? Sure, why not?

The Hall of Fame announced today that Dick Allen will be wearing a Phillies cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. Which is unfortunate since in one of his last interviews before he died Dick told Paul Sullivan of the Tribune he wanted to go in wearing a White Sox cap.

BREAKING: The Dodgers sign McCovey Cove and the Robert Clemente Bridge, both of which will be inserted into the already excellent Dodger Stadium backdrop before Opening Day.

Feel like this is a tad misleading since he started getting bombed and it seemed to be his injury. He had a nice little run going before that.

Hahn, in his 2nd rebuild, routinely "lost" those smallish trades, such as peddling relievers at the deadline. He also didn't hit on a thing on the waiver wire (except for a couple of relievers that he would end up dumping for peanuts in July). That contributed to the lack of depth and staying power of the rebuild. And by "lost" I mean the trades didn't help the team; a "win" helps the team. I don't really care about the effect on the other team unless it's disproportionately to the other team's advantage. Getz is starting from a much lower-point than Hahn and has a much tougher rebuilding task. He really needs some hits in these areas. The Sox have a lot of pitchers right on that ML/AAAA precipice and we'll find out some answers this season (which is one reason I wouldn't bother much with these veteran relievers). if a bunch develop, there should be good opportunities for young player for young player trades. Let's get a Carlos Quentin in here.

Man I think you're falling into the same trap you did last season when you touted the bullpen etc. This team doesn't even have 1 strong starter, the rotation is hot garbage man. I don't understand where this line of thinking comes from.

This is quite literally the point. I am glad you FINALLY got it. When you are 4-5 years from contention, you want guys who fit that window, not guys who will probably be retired at that point.

What an excellent post. I hope he does succeed because I have no other choice but to hope for that. Doesn't change the fact that he shouldn't have this job and has practically done nothing to warrant any form of support from the fanbase.

Great, now the Dodgers are going to start signing everybody's GMs.

Even if he snaps back a bit, you aren't getting anything for him. Look what he brought before he was godawful and a lot younger at the deadline. A guy who hit .180 in A ball. Oh wait, we are supposed to think those guys have a chance to really be good one day.

This not being a part of the "plan" is quite literally the point. We are grinding up the roster for losing over 100 games again, and giving away future pieces again to do it, making it a realistic proposition that we are giving up pieces which could be actually giving up a piece or two that could be helping a team in the future, like we actually need.

Swanson, Bregman were SEC shortstops. Witt, Seager, Henderson, Abrams, Volpe were all commits. And since we're reaching all the way back to Beckham, you can throw Ian Kinsler in there. This is such a brain dead take, it's like people deriding Drake Maye because of Mitch Trubisky.

I think that's the right approach; "All-in" efforts still don't hit that often and there will always be a team that an go "all in" better than they can.

Honestly it’s kind of entertaining, like a Russian Roulette of Getz debates. Which transaction will trigger the next @WestEddy thread? Where will THIS thread go, with the same basic plot? It’s almost more entertaining than tracking the actual moves, jut to see the finger pointing.

Their random American sports coverage might be AI-driven now (like Sports Illustrated tried to do under the radar), but it has existed for years as a clickbait farm.

Saw a funny thing on X. Mahomes is 0-1 when Tom Brady is playing. Mahomes is 0-1 when Tom Brady is announcing. Mahomes is 3-0 when Tom Brady is not involved at all.

College baseball begins Friday. Let's go!

I can't believe Kendrick Lamar actually rapped to "Not Like Us" with the Drake lawsuit. Unreal and I loved every minute of it.

Just so it was done, title corrected.

It all comes down to developing players. The Brewers have perks that the White Sox will never get though. They get extra international space, they get an extra draft pick to use every year as well. They also receive a first round pick if they lose a star FA. It’s just much different. Theres no reason why the Sox can’t operate like the Braves or Houston though.

The trenches are the most important positions on the field after QB. Having said that QBs are better when they have time as are RB and others skilled positions Both offensive and defensive lines should've been prioritize last year but Poles prioritized RB , WR, and punter even after seeing how much the defense improve once they started having a pass rush. He hung Sweat out to dry and got him no help. He hung Williams out to dry by trying to patchwork the O line. He's lucky Williams wasn't mangled. Hopefully our new head coach sees that and knows you build from the ground up and not from the top down.

I don’t think development is linear. And also, my goodness this thread sucks.

You'll never see me complain about minor league deals, but FFS, play the fringe young controllable talent at the big league level.

Wilson probably clears I'd imagine. I'm generally good with the roster churn but it's a lot of lefties in the bullpen.

God that Cease trade was pathetic

This thread is the baseball embodiment of the Madden quote: "If you've got two quarterbacks, you've got none," except for an entire infield. Alternatively, Getz misses the days of him vs. Beckham and Nix