WestEddy

The Brewers doing something that all teams do

Then why should Montgomery "get a shot"? If the White Sox can't develop players, then they should go out and sign 12 more Josh Rojases.

Rojas is depth. Injuries happen. Amaya isn't anything beyond a utility player. I agree that Ramos should get a shot, and C. Monty probably will have every opportunity to open the season at SS. But as we've just seen, Sosa/Baldwin/Ramos/Amaya/Vargas are all certainly capable of sh*tting the bed for a month. They're going to go through a bunch of players, again. Rojas is just one more.

The White Sox are now getting feelers on the availability of Davis Martin, a 14th rounder (2018) that the Sox developed into a legitimate option in their rotation this season. Mason Adams is probably the next name who will crash the rotation, after Bush, Nastrini, Eder and Iriarte. He's a 13th rounder (2022) the Sox developed. I'm pretty sure the Sox are comfortable in their ability to develop nobodies as viable major leaguers.

I've seen Ben Zobrist mentioned as Baldwin's ceiling. I think that may be fanciful, but the guy just "picked up" shortstop, and became a shortstop. He hit his way out of Birmingham. If his bat matures, I think he can be a big league regular.

22 games into the 2024 season, Danny Mendick became the starting 3B, after Moncada was injured, and Sosa/Shewmake exposed themselves as "not the answer". They ended up using 9 different players at 3B. They grabbed Jacob Amaya off the waiver wire, and he quickly became their starting shortstop. We're talking about the same group of players this year. I don't think anybody will be taking playing time away from anybody else.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=8b2f2040

Last year, they just ran out of bodies. They picked Amaya up off the waiver wire, and he pretty much was their starting SS the rest of the way.

I could certainly see Ramos and maybe Baldwin starting the season in AAA. And it's a distinct possibility that Vargas has 3 months to hit. It also looks like Sosa has played more SS in Caracas this winter than 3B.

Agenda Uber Alles!

I have no idea what you're talking about. You claimed somebody hinted at an offer way better than Gowens, Shuster and Soroka. Link it. Maybe, if you ever told the guy who engages in hyperbole about the Bummer trade to cut the BS, we would all stop believing it wasn't one of your sock puppets. A "different" haul isn't a "better" haul, unless somebody can prove it. Prove it, otherwise, we can stop "ruining" every string with this Bummer trade BS.

I mean, seriously - if I was offering you $1million for that Stutz Bearcat in your garage, and you announced you were going to sell it to a stranger in South Bend for 5 popsicle sticks, I would probably leak my offer to the press. Maybe Chris Getz doesn't control the White Sox. He controls all of baseball.

Yes you do. If the Bummer return was so bad, and if some other GM was offering the sun, the moon and the stars, how does that GM allow Getz to trade Bummer for 5 guys who should never have held a baseball instead of his package of future HOFers? - And then not leak it?!? We're pretending that Bummer was one of the top lefty relievers in the game. How do the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Brewers, Padres, Mariners, Astros, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Giants, D-backs, Rangers, Phillies all let him go for "literally nothing" - 5 homeless guys - instead of adding that last DSL reliever (to an already awesome package), to swing that trade?

And really, if there's a GM out there who really wanted Bummer...let's call him GM X. And GM X wanted Bummer so bad, he was offering 2 legit dudes who were head and shoulders above Gowens, Shuster and Soroka, and GM X let Bummer go to Atlanta? GM X should be spending his idle New Year's Day evening posting on a White Sox chat board, not working for his former club.

Perhaps? That is funny. Sure. Perhaps the Orioles were offering two of Kjerstad, Mayo and Basallo. So what? You rail on about that trade when nobody who analyzed it really panned it. With the Cease trade, most people called it "a little light". And the Fedde trade? "One guy short". The Bummer trade was like, "Okay, they got some guys back. If this breaks well, and the other, fine." You act like it was the Tatis Jr. trade, or something. It really wasn't. Even with a year under their belts, it still isn't. Not even close.

Over 3 seasons, as a rookie breaking into the league. I'm curious what top positional prospects you think he's blocking.

No, but they could still suck as bad as Bummer did, here. Bummer was ass, and it's a testament to how he tanked his own market value that nobody else would beat the offer you said was dumpster diving. Imagine the players other teams held onto, just so they could cut a week later, because they thought that was too much for Bummer. LOL.

And Bummer gave up 5 BB/9 from 2020-2023. Oh, and Bummer's 31. He's old. I'll take Shuster and Gilbert.

Soroka's the same sitch as Gilbert. You don't know that 6 teams put claims on him. Or one. Getz and Bannister saw Soroka as part of their 3-headed project to rehab a starter. Oh yeah, gimme two of them, too, as long as you're throwing them away.

You may think that the Braves guaranteeing some of Bummer's option money means that they made a great decision, and Bummer is the envy of the league. They also engineered that series of four trades to wind up with Jerod Kelenic, and David Fletcher. Not everything the Braves do is a signal to our feeble minds that they're playing 4-dimensional chess. Bummer is okay. They have a reliever for two years that may bounce back. We have a prospect arm, a long man, and had half a season of a good bullpen arm. If you want to crow about that one, have at it.

Wilson and Flexen weren't pre-arb, and have zero options. If there was somebody better in free agency, they would have signed him.

Because Lopez and Shewmake are a wash. Getz gobbled up a couple of guys who were going to be cut for the control. Adam Frazier got paid the same as Lopez and put up the same numbers. You win some, you lose some. I don't think Lopez and Shewmake detract, somehow, from getting Gowens, Shuster, and the right to take a shot on Soroka.

But he took a haircut on team friendly, cheap option years. Let's not pretend he's last year's "It girl". Dude still gives up a lot of baserunners to be reliable. Riley Gowens, Shuster and Soroka were a good return for Bummer.

We don't know he's just a "reliever to flip". He's got experience starting, and Lehigh Valley had him closing this last season. Then he's got 2 pre-arb seasons, and an option. I'm guessing there's not too many of them on the market.

They didn't "extend" him. They picked up his 2 option years for a discount. He's making $3.5m in 2025 instead of $7.5m. LOL. Boy, did he take them to the cleaners.