WestEddy

This feels like the first time in a decade the Sox came out of the All-Star break ready to play some ball.

It's Mathias LaCombe day!!

Looking around the league, there's a few playoff caliber teams running some substandard dudes out to 2B every day. Houston, Philadelphia, the Mets, the Reds - they could all see Sosa as a way to plug in some league average offense into a hole. I think the rumor of the Mets wanting Sosa along with Robert is how he would be traded - a sweetener that would make trading a prospect for Robert more palatable to a fanbase.

Sun-Times article touching upon Houser's off-season changes: White Sox right-hander Adrian Houser's 'commitment' to himself paying dividends - Chicago Sun-Times

Not a rumor!!!

They would probably give him the chance to catch on somewhere before 9/1 so he qualifies for a playoff roster.

Yeah, Frazier has a track record of production, but he's not that guy, anymore. He's one of a group of guys a team will feel more comfortable having at the end of the bench in a playoff game than Cam Devanney. Or Vinny Capra. I don't think Rojas gets traded. They probably DFA him late in August. But I believe this is what his value is. AAA depth.

1989: C- Fisk 1B - Walker 2B - Lyons 3B - Hulett SS - Guillen LF - Pasqua CF - Gallagher RF - Calderon DH - Baines SP - Melido Perez SP - Eric King SP - Steve Rosenberg SP - Greg Hibbard SP - Jerry Reuss I would think that even you could process a sentence like "this team is the 1989 White Sox minus the stars" (Fisk, Walker, Calderon). The point is that most of the "starters" on our current team won't be a major part of the next competitive team. Meidroth, Vargas, Cannon - they're all nice stories, but I don't feel they're the enduring core moving forward. A couple players might still be here for the next playoff team, but Gonzalez, Perez, Antonacci, Bonemer, Mogollon, Carlson, Lodise or Shelton may eventually nudge Meidroth and Vargas out.

Oh, and there's probably a lot of value for Teel or Quero to sit on the bench and talk to McKinven and Venable during the game. Days off aren't a total loss.

1) Is it a problem? And there's really no rush. 2) We don't know they're both "premium catchers". Yes, it is unreasonable. Both have holes in their defensive games. Time will tell if they can fix them. 3) Right now, I wouldn't call it "premium" catching coverage. And we don't need to have a "roster hole". 4) I'll say yes to stop making you wrong. But you don't know which is "better", and having two top prospects doesn't create a "hole". 5) Yeah, we don't know which is which, so why not rotate for the rest of the year, maybe next, and find out?

I'm really not understanding this. You have 2 catchers. You don't have anyone hitting out of his head at any level to close off first base. You can rotate them at 1B/C to give them both playing time, develop their bats in the pros, and give them decent exposure behind the plate. Tim Elko week was fun, and all, but there's really nobody, not even Miguel Vargas, who should lock off first base for anybody. Like, really, this team is the 1989 White Sox minus the stars. One or two of these guys might develop to play a roll on the next playoff run. A couple others might hold positions until some monster graduates. Teel and Quero can rotate around C/1B/DH/LF, and Blake Sobol could pull his pud on the bench for all Vinny Capra gave us. Neither of them is showing themselves to be a superstar right now. They're both nice rookies who go through hitting spurts, but it's hardly flipping a coin between Adley Rutchman and Buster Posey. Conversely, it's not like Albert Pujols is crying at AAA because nobody loves him.

And he probably gets non-tendered again this off-season, so he's available for the same $1-3M.

Part of the issue is that Brooks Baldwin is the emergency catcher on the team. He played it in HS.

"Massive power bat" is nice. James Taussig College & Amateur Leagues Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com

Between Clevenger, Syndegaard, S. Smith, Vasil and Burke, they have innings covered for the rest of the year. For some reason, Sosa just seems like a guy who could get interest, and they'd be happy to move on, given the lack of a position that he commands.

Robert, for sure. Houser, too. Wilson. If Lee's getting feelers, probably him, too. Altavilla seems probable. Tauchman. Civale's got 2 starts before the deadline. Did he look good in his first five innings against Cleveland? If he does that again, someone could take a flier. Maybe one of Eisert, Gilbert or Alexander. I would think that if anybody kicks the tires on Slater, he's gone.

That would be cool if the league saw Houser like that. He kind of feels like Fedde to me, where the league just doesn't trust him, and sure don't want to reward the Sox for their good luck.

You're the guy who proclaimed over and over that Gavin Sheets had zero value and would be "DFAed by a real organization", so I hope you understand me taking your opinion of any player with the appropriate grain of salt.

They're completely appropriate. Money can be made even pretty easily. And I'm sure other teams don't scout him by looking up his stats on B-R.com. Yes, only a team desperate for a cheap place holder or depth would be interested in Rojas. Rojas is a type, along with Frazier and Nicky Lopez. Backup utility IF, good clubhouse guy, relatively cheap.

This could be a general discussion on whatever trade rumors are floating around, or in this case, a trade that I think sets expectations for somebody like Josh Rojas.

I think Mason Moore and Nick Pinto are injured, too. Phil Fox is looking like a bullpen arm.