WestEddy

You should probably follow the discussion. "You disagreeing with me means you love Chris Getz and are his burner account" strawmen are silly.

All prospects in the game are hyped. Most don't pan out. The White Sox don't have to prove it to you. They just need to prove it to teams they might trade with. And at this point, I'd guess that any team would jump at a trade package put together from the White Sox' top ten. Wait and see all you want. But Dony Lucy, Brent Knackert and Mike Colbern don't have any real salience in the discussion. Look at teams like the Yankees. They're about as bad at the 2nd round as the White Sox are. And guys like Nick Solak and Austin Romine had the sh*t hyped out of them. I suppose you can go tell Yankee fans that their 2nd round picks are all garbage because "historically", the Yanks are bad at that.

Why don't you look at the comment you responded to where he puts the exact sentence in quotes? And again, I have no idea what "criticizing" the White Sox has to do with poking fun at a new poster. Nobody claimed the White Sox are beyond criticism. I sure hope you find that guy who said that and give him whatfor.

No, it isn't valid. Historically? Like, when Shirley announces his first round pick, he prefaces it with, "Because we've always picked bad players, the Chicago White Sox must select......My Daughter!!!!" That's silly and irrelevant. The only history that applies is 2020 and forward. I get it. You hate Chris Getz. And your whole shtick is that there is nothing the White Sox can do that works, or has any modicum of success. The people who would barge into the war room and make the first round selection are gone, now. So unless you're implying that Kenny Williams still walks in and takes over their 1st round picks, your "historically" argument doesn't apply. Your contribution to this thread began with dredging up a 2nd round pick from 7 years ago. Made by a different scouting team, under a different GM and VP. Then you declared that we don't get to consider Grant Taylor as a possible success until he's had success in the majors. Please tell us what bearing the picks of Jake Petricka and Erik Johnson have on Grant Taylor coming back from injury, and dominating like his pedigree and small sample in A-ball suggest.

How is it that mocking a commenter turns into "criticizing the team"? SS2k5 clearly made fun of the title dude for no real reason. Criticize the team all you want. Picking on some dude who just made his first post isn't "criticizing the team".

For the same reason that every first time home buyer is soiling themselves at closing, but in 3 years, those mortgage payments don't hurt so bad anymore. They make more money, and inflation has pushed the cost of a new home higher than when they purchased.

That's not valid. Most teams don't have stellar records drafting and developing 2nd rounders because every team uses the 2nd round differently. One might hit the jackpot on Josh Bell, but still "suck" at the process. One goal is to be recognized as being able to identify and develop prospects. That becomes its own currency. San Diego has traded entire lineups of prospects that never seem to have sustained success in the majors. But they create value in amassing young players who seem to dominate their levels. The fact the White Sox have been able to turn late first rounders into top 20 in the game prospects is a success in itself. We don't need Colson Montgomery to become a Hall-of-Famer and for the curmudgeons to admit the Sox knew what they were doing - to be developing prospects. While he may have lost a bit of his shine, Monty would still head up a pretty strong package in a trade. In another year, Blake Larson and a healthy Grant Taylor would be highly sought after pitching prospects. Hostetler didn't have many good drafts. Maybe one. Too much meddling from above? Too much trying to be clever by half? Shirley seems to have a better plan, and a better grasp of what the Sox can do with the guys they pick. Correcting major flaws in guys like Alec Hansen, Zach Collins and Tyler Danish wasn't their forte. But bringing ace pitchers back from TJS at the nadir of their value looks like an easy win.

Sancho Panza is never too far behind.

Finding outliers doesn't mean we can apply their unique abilities to every single baseball player. Whoever winds up servicing the last 5 years of Soto's mega deal would be delirious to get 2 slightly better than average seasons in that span out of their full time DH.

Juan Soto will not be "effective" in 2040. Two of the greatest hitters of our time, Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols - the last half dozen years of their multi-year deals were under water, with their teams stowing them at DH for negative value. Harper and Machado are settling in to their 2-5 WAR careers, now, giving back value on defense, or moving to less challenging positions. 2-3 of Soto's initial great years will be spent toiling on losing teams. Then you'll have a LF for 3-6 seasons, giving you anywhere between 2-5 WAR. That's a great player to have, but if we can't develop that for somewhere less than $700 million, then I need to pick another sport to waste my time on.

Great, now everybody gets to delay to the opening of Spring Training on the hope that Sasaki wants their $7 million over everyone else's.

And that window to cut an extension with the player is more about the player waiving a no-trade clause.

We all talked about this in the summer. Why would Crochet sign a reasonably priced extension? I could see getting one extra year to guarantee the arb years, and 3/$45 would probably be cheap. All he has to do is wait his 2 seasons, stay healthy, and he's in the money. His concern about the extension was mostly about last year, throwing starter innings for the first time, then being relied upon to pitch well into the playoffs.

Is this book available to the general public?

No, it actually puts the A's under the microscope. Yes they have to spend. They just kicked themselves out of Oakland. Right before Tampa is telling the Rays to stick it. Big city owners are getting tired of the owners who take the profit sharing and laugh. So, yeah, the A's have to sign a few free agents to keep enough of their fellow owners voting for their decisions that fall under league approval.

Wilbur Wood, Dick Allen and Bill Melton were my childhood idols. Very sad day. RIP.

Weird. I missed all the comments crying that the White Sox weren't coaching Tim Hill up to the great pitcher we all knew he could be. I only remember the ones calling for him to be DFAed, or never even signed in the first place because he had no business in the game of baseball, he sucked so bad.

Crochet isn't walking into 2025 having thrown 180 innings in the last 4 years like Gerrit Cole or Chris Sale at their trade peak. Crochet has tons of potential, and looks like he's going to be a horse. I just don't think teams will be lining up to throw all of their top offensive prospects at us for that. If you get 2 "top 100" dudes, maybe it's a #40 and a #85, or something. (I guess that's 2 top 100s.) Getting "2 top 100" players is also problematic. I'd rather the Sox know the system they're dealing with, and maybe max out their value taking lower level talent. When you're trading for someone's MLB top ten guy, you're buying high.

I'd say only one team would part with 2 T100 offensive prospects, and that's the team that'll get Crochet.

Our own James Fox also did a write up over at FutureSox. https://www.futuresox.net/2024/12/01/2024-chicago-white-sox-rule-5-draft-p/

Then when you do one, we could be the goofball Beatles.

I think the only real catcher "WAR" worth anything is Baseball Prospectus, which one can access for free. There might be somebody else, but Baseball-Pro breaks out framing, the run game and blocking, I think. Yeah, Edman seemed locked in during the 22 season, on all sides of the ball.