WestEddy

It's great when they draft or sign a great pitcher who goes on to dominate in the majors. We're not spitting 10 of those guys out a year, though. I'm not even sure what you're mocking, here, unless you think pitching labs, biometrics and other modern advancements are all useless fluff. Being able to maximize their draft and international classes by wringing more production out of the middling guys is helpful, too.

I agree with pretty much all of this. Sometimes, upgrading the infrastructure of a successful department and keeping it successful is the low hanging fruit.

This truly puzzles me that you're asking this. Coaches are a limited resource. 13-15 pitchers on a team, it's helpful to hit the ground running rather than starting from zero. You really don't have to pretend that any advancement in the organization is negative and unnecessary. Yes, the Sox' development procedures have been abysmal, from how they're described. They're trying to get the infrastructure up to where everyone else is. That's not bad. If you're tired of hearing it, don't listen to the interviews.

Yes it is. The example given in a previous interview was that a player would get promoted, and it would take days for his data to catch up to him, so the coaching staff would have literal days of starting from zero with this new guy until they had access to his data. Now the access is instant. One is clearly better than the other. I wouldn't think that in a "fluff" interview for general consumption the team will be revealing their proprietary models, or competitive philosophies.

Jeez. Davey Martinez did an interview a week ago where he said that results come down to the players executing, and his possible firing was thrown around the media for days. Players are temperamental. Managers and GMs have to carefully parse their words to not give the impression they're throwing the player under the bus, even when the player has cratered his value and can't pull out of it. I don't know why some people expect Getz to drag players in the press like some of the worst cranks here. Yes, Robert is probably part of the audience for the cheerful comment. I'm not sure why that's a charitable view.

My candidate for "surprise trade" is Lenyn Sosa.

I guess his relationship with Mindy McCready wasn't out, then, but it was happening. Not that anybody seems to care about it.

1) Colson's not a utility infielder. They lose some flexibility on the roster, and force Meidroth to be the UI late in the game. 2) Monty's bat isn't major league quality, right now. At least not at the point of playing every day, striking out 4 times a game, and pretending to learn anything valuable from that. We just did this with Elko. 3) Meidroth would have to move off his position for Monty to get playing time. 4) Monty most probably wouldn't replace Capra. He'd replace Noda on the roster, and he'd probably take away PAs from Sosa, as they don't seem to want to play Sosa or Meidroth at 3B, so Monty would be the SS, Meidroth to 2B, Vargas at 1B, and Rojas at 3B. Sosa would have to rotate between 2B and DH.

1) That's what happens when rookies are promoted and have to get used to big league pitching. The power will come as they develop into major leaguers. 2) There is a definite line for Vargas' production, and that is a key mechanical change he made to his stance. I suppose you can ignore what the rest of the league is talking about if that's what you need to make some vapid argument. 3) You don't know this. 4) The Padres are in the WC race. There are ebbs and flows to a season. That's a bit different from a player making a major change, seeing immediate results that are lasting for 2 solid months.

What is the sound of one hand clapping? LOL. I would imagine the difference in playing time between Rojas' time in Seattle and Chicago magnifies a few miscues on the White Sox and seriously dings his ratings. As far as the first question, you seem hung up on the acquisition of a couple of cheap OFs who have offered way more value than what they're being paid. They're one year plug-ins. The OFs they're targeting in trade and upper draft choices seem more well-rounded as hitters and defenders.

Yes, settling on players who can hold down a position, one at a time, is something that happens during a rebuild. You get stuck on these rankings. You don't need to have the best shortstop evah. You need somebody who is at least average, hopefully, better than average. That's what Meidroth is. Vargas started off there and might be better suited for 1B. If he can rake at his current .850+ since 4/23, that works. Are you actually arguing that the White Sox should cut both Teel and Quero? That would be silly.

Getz has been targeting guys with at least stable defensive reputations, and the defense is arguably better than in 2023. I get it, you're grasping at straws in an effort to be right about anything. Maybe you're arguing that "team speed" is the single most important aspect of team building, and trying to acquire players who can play defense well is folly?

Thanks for that unrelated tangent. You didn't really counter anything I said. The Sox are building on the premise of guys who make good swing decisions and get on base. Cleveland's great 90's teams didn't build around speed. They built around guys who made good swing decisions and got on base. The White Sox have a clear plan in building a team going forward, which was the point of this thread, right?

You get my All-Star vote for silliest strawman.

The Cleveland teams of the 90's were built around OBP and power. They generally had 1-3 guys who could steal bases. Everybody else just hit.

Boy, that's a non-sequitur. Do stolen bases somehow carry over from year to year, now? LOL.

If you take away all the bases they've stolen, they'd have zero bases stolen. That's concerning.

Great points. The running narrative is that every single signing has been trash, so I'm not sure if you're supposed to write a 300 page book detailing every single mistake the Chris Getz has made in his life just to be inclusive. The 2023-24 off-season turned out to be bad, mostly because the plethora of injuries and horrible starts by the trusted veterans exposed every acquisition except Fedde and DeJong, out the gate. The 2024-2025 off-season was pretty much the inverse opposite, with only Rojas not getting any traction, and Booser looking like he should get a breather at AAA.

Trevor Rogers was ass for the Marlins last year and brought back Norby and Stowers. Norby was top 100. Not saying that level of panic trade is in the cards for us, but just Stowers for Houser (Stowers was NOT top 100) would be an amazing steal. I do realize that Rogers came with multiple years of control, but he still was pretty humdrum for the Marlins. Baltimore traded for the memory of the '21 season.

Why only in a fantasy world? Walker's out of options after this year. He's in the same position as Vargas or Sosa next spring - roster him or cut him. If the Cards see themselves as being in a small window, maybe Robert extends that a year. Luis Robert is a replacement level player for us right now. I'm delusional enough to believe this team could be "competitive" in 2027. Keeping Houser doesn't do anything for us. And Robert truly seems like he's a change of scenery candidate. robert and houser for Walker, and a couple of their lower level pitchers.

While Fedde was matching Crochet in WAR, I think other teams were looking at him as "just a guy". Somebody the Sox struck gold with, and they weren't paying a premium for the Sox' luck. Houser seems to be the same kind of guy, pitches to contact, gets you 6. Kopech was just broken, and fixable. I'd imagine that in a lineup where he doesn't have to be "the man", Robert could relax and just be the crazy 7th hitter. Robert/Houser could bring back Jordan Walker, Oswald Peraza, Brett Baty? Plus, a couple off the radar guys?

Maybe if Getz trusts his pro scouting, they can assess whether a guy like Jordan Walker is fixable and target that type of hitter. Like they did with Vargas. Former top prospect, didn't cut it in a couple pro shots, maybe needs some TLC.

Austin Slater came into this game with a 117 OPS+. Capra shouldn't even be put in a position to hit.

Get him an extra look at the top of the lineup? If they can get him hitting at all, he's a power threat.

When they play like this, it sure doesn't feel like a 99th percentile result.