WestEddy

The 2024 White Sox were unlucky to have missed their pythagorean by 7 wins. Their top 3 offensive players injured by game 11, 2 other main offensive players OPSing .400 the 1st month. A better bullpen was probably worth a good half dozen wins. I wouldn't say Combs was worth nothing, but like Fajardo, it's a calculated risk. Trading a guy 3 years away from the bigs for a guy who could be tweaked, be productive and help win some games, then bring back a better prospect at the deadline. These are the types of moves Getz should be making.

Going back over the last 5 drafts, the White Sox are the only team to get positive bWAR out of an 8th rounder. So I can understand the consternation among those who will go to the mat over the White Sox's strong developmental abilities.

How do you come to the conclusion that he's "bad"?

SoxMachine's take: https://soxmachine.com/2025/01/white-sox-continue-amassing-fringe-relievers-with-trade-for-tyler-gilbert/

SoxTalk: There are absolutely ZERO prospects in our system. And what does it matter?!? We couldn't even develop them if we had them. Also SoxTalk: OMFG!! How could we trade a guy I didn't even know existed until this moment?!? He's clearly a Hall-of-Famer!! Thanks for the laugh, everyone.

Philadelphia put Gilbert through waivers. The White Sox claimed him. Instead of pulling him back, the Phillies took a low-A ball bullpen arm in trade. I'm not sure what is silly about picking up a seasoned arm that could be a solid bullpen piece this season rather than developing a college arm for 3 years, taken in what has always been referred to as a weak draft.

I know, right? Crowds were probably booing him for making the children on the other teams look bad.

Combs had a BB/9 over 4 in his college career. Gilbert had a nice line in AAA Lehigh Valley in 24.

It's always good to get those drunken "I'm cutting Shewmake!!!" resolutions out of the way, quickly.

Cherry picked? Are people only talking about the PAs where he got a hit and are ignoring the strikeouts? No. His entire batting lines from LA are being taken into account. What I see is that he seemed overmatched in 2022, but from 2022 to 2023, his k% dropped, his bb% doubled, and his LD% rose, indicating adjustment. These rates stayed the same into 2024 with the Dodgers, and even in a small sample size, started to get on base and slug at acceptable rates. It has been mentioned that his strength dropped off last season. He slumped, and just couldn't pull out of it. It's fun to say "he must work for it", and "nothing should be handed to him", but he would have to continue his abysmal batting line through all of spring training, and at least 3 of 6 players (ramos, sosa, deloach, colas, meidroth, baldwin) would have to put up steady hitting lines in ST in order for Vargas to be squeezed out. Like it or not, he was the main piece of the Fedde trade. It's not Getz' ego to give Vargas a long chance to show what his prospect belied. We paid a high price for him. That would be like buying a new car, then leaving it on the side of the road once the gas ran low. If Sosa hits, he's your 2B. I think Ramos may still need a good half season in Charlotte to get in a groove he could jump off of when promoted.

It is baseless. You called Getz "Captain of the Early Call Up", and a few of us came up with 5 players who could have taken longer to get to the majors. Ellis? Who cares? He can't even hit in AA. He's not a prospect. Thorpe? He was making AA look ridiculous. He was ready, and did well until his elbow gave out. Ramos was an emergency, and got a look in the bigs. I wouldn't call that "rushed". When opposing teams adjusted to him, he was sent down. Baldwin was hitting in AA and AAA. I suppose they could have played games with his service time for two more years, then brought him sporadically in 2027, 2028 and '29 so ensure they had 6 full seasons after that. What would the point be? Iriarte was on the 40-man, and got a September call-up to see how his stuff played. You make these weird statements about Reinsdorf "loving his rebuilds" or Getz rushing players, but the facts don't really bear that out.

Oh, wait. Duke Ellis was another emergency call-up. Benintendi, Fletcher and Tommy Pham were all injured in the same 2-day period, so they called up DeLoach, Colas, and put Ellis on the 40-man to have enough OFs. That guy was chagrined that Getz made yet another roster move. Just as Getz should have known that all of Yoan, Eloy and Luis Robert would have been out, injured, by the 11th game of the season, he should have also known that Pham, Fletcher and Benny would get injured around June 3rd.

I really can't think of anyone beyond Ramos, who was kind of an emergency situation, the only infielder on the 40-man, at the time. I'm really amazed that the guy who twists every single move so he can complain about it is pretending that Getz rushes players so he can complain about it. But really, Thorpe, Iriarte? Both were jumped from AA to the bigs. Thorpe did well, Iriarte - 2 of his 6 outings were a little rough. He's on the 40-man. September call-up.

I would think the Sox continue to ramp up Schultz as they've been doing. He had one game where he threw more than 65 pitches this last season. He can't just throw 4 innings on Saturdays in the bigs. Same goes for the ramping up of Hagen Smith. I would think each has a good 5 months in the minors before we start talking about them.

I would think he just doesn't want his decision to be distracted by Ohtani and Yamamoto.

EF Hutton... We're an Easy Target!

Now there is zero reason to resign Clevenger...

He's more of a RF. He's only played 8 games in CF in the minors.

You also have Ron Marinaccio, who should probably challenge for closer.

This probably proves your point even more, but Bryce Wilson has about 50 starts, and Jared Shuster 11.

Elias broke the Haiku engine.

Maybe now that his defense has settled in, he can concentrate on getting his hit tool back.

The '22 team came into the season with Cease, Giolito, Kopech, Lynn and Keuchell as their rotation. They had Jimmy Lambert and Davis Martin starting at AAA. They picked up Vince Velazquez and Johnny Cueto after spring training started. Pretty light considering what a club needs for the season, but not exactly what you describe. I don't remember anybody making any proclamations that Soroka was the #2 starter. If you do, please link to a story about that. I always understood the acquisitions of Fedde, Soroka and Flexen to have been a package gamble that one or more of them could be "fixed".

I don't know. You complain about every single expenditure, so maybe you can speak to that. I like the thought process behind bringing in a great arm to rehab for $3 million for the chance that he pops, and then you have a valuable piece. Montgomery is a junk-baller who may bounce back, but then you're probably eating some of the $7.5 million due him for the remainder of 2025 to trade him. I'm all for Reinsdorf spending more money. I don't need him to pay a beer vendor $1 billion to prove he wants to win, or something.