WestEddy

They were going to get him on a throwing program by the end of ST, right? So maybe he's up May 1. I just think they figured to get any value for Matt Thompson before he tops out in AAA.

Before the trade, the left-handed pitchers slated for bullpen duty seem to be: Tim Hill (ml) Tanner Banks (ml/AAA) Sammy Peralta (AAA) Andrew Perez (AAA) You're right! 4 left handers is the exactly perfect amount of left-handed bullpen guys in the bigs and AAA to go into the season with. 5 Is just one too many.

That's what I'm guessing. Bannister cut bait on a low ceiling, onerous fix in Thompson. You still need relievers when you're losing 90 games.

I agree with you both on Mena and Fletcher. Mena is untapped potential, and I'm sad to see him go. And I think that by year 6, Fletcher, if still in Chicago, should be a 4th OF. Of course, I'm joking around, now. But it's the course of internet arguments that everybody has to dig in, and an interesting arm becomes the prospect of myth. I would have liked to have 2 Sox-developed starters knocking at the door in Nastrini and Mena. Like many others, I'm going to wait before I rail on and on to see how Getz's plan works out. They could run through all their pitching depth by Memorial Day. Or they could seriously have about 5-7 arms that teams are calling up about, then plug in 5-7 more on Aug 1. Getz has to do something.

The guy who took Christian Mena, and turned him into Pedro Martinez, that's who.

Maybe Chris Getz should trade Fletcher this week. He'd immediately turn into a perennial All-Star, here. Fletcher has hit at every level, including a 100 PA cup of coffee. I'm not sure how hitting in a short stint means he will never hit at the major league level. It's like you want a 3 year track record of production in the bigs, with 6 years of control, still.

And the whole front office just watched him up close on Friday, right? It wouldn't surprise me if they saw something fixable.

Rick Hahn made a lot of bad trades, and some good trades. I don't think that Fletcher/Mena was a great trade, I think it was an even trade. Not like what we did to the Mariners. I would have rather not given up on Mena, but oh well. We now have an average production RF for the next 4-6 seasons. Where we had no OF prospect depth, we now do. The only free agent signing I did not like was Maldonado. I think Stassi/ Lee, Perez or Hack would have been fine. Moustakas is a bit of a head-scratcher, but he might push Sheets off the team, which is a net good. Getz has put together good, veteran bullpen depth without the dumb 4-year contracts. We also have a good 6-7 reasonable rotation options at AAA, where in years past, we really had, like, a half of one. Grabbing guys off the waiver wire and starting them the next day.

Oh, Lord. Now Matt Thompson will become the greatest prospect evah!

You see, the guy we sent can fog a mirror, and without worrying where the ball ended up, threw one 96. The guy we got won't be making the Hall-of-Fame. So the trade sucked for the White Sox.

If you consider trading Gio Gonzalez a worse move than Tatis, have at it.

Okay, this is getting quoted, so I'm going to say that No it doesn't. If you think Christian Mena will have the impact that Fernando Tatis or Marcus Semien, you keep on pretending, dude.

Yeah, when local Sox beat writers put out something like this, they're brown-nosing to keep access. Any other market, tho, it's the God's honest truth. LOL.

Weird that you don't think that reigning ROY Corbin Carroll or top 20 prospect Alek Thomas are even in the D-backs' outfield picture. Jake McCarthy has hit at every level. That's nothing like saying he's blocked by Eloy, Colas and Sheets.

If Adam Engel is his ceiling, that would be unimaginably great, and the trade would go down as one of Getz's best. As for picking him us as a waiver claim, or throw-in, Getz has amassed a veteran bullpen that way, and everybody is screaming that he could have spent money on slightly better players. I'm of the opinion that the Sox could have traded a pile of doo-doo for Babe Ruth, and everyone would pick it apart. The reason Fletcher hasn't accumulated service time is because he's been blocked in a system with a surplus of outfield talent.

Well, Nicky Lopez was a 4 WAR player with the Royals in 2021, so we have that covered. Which arms are bad, and who didn't want them? They traded for Soroka, and beat out the Mets for Fedde. Both were top prospects, and still have talent. Flexen, Kuhl, they had some success in the past. No, they're not Big Unit in his prime. I'd bet they're all ahead of Jesse Scholtens in the 'first up' category. I wish Hahn did robust dumpster diving like this. Nobody mistook this team as 2-3 moves away from a World Series competitor. And who even says the top guys this off-season even sign with the Sox at market? If the Sox were doing this every season, they'd have a couple of Kenyan Middletons every year to step in when Aaron Bummer went down, or to flip for a lotto ticket.

...who probably had little to no input on the trades that were made when he was the development guy.

The Sox actually have a pretty good shot at a good, veteran bullpen. They have rotation depth and bullpen depth they haven't had for a good decade. Tell us the "dumpster diving" options for the bullpen that would have played for the Sox at the money offered. Amed Rosario is not a good fielder. And something tells me he would have had to be offered more to play with the Sox, and somehow, his bat would have fallen off. Pillar's a 4th OF. If he keeps hitting like his first 2 games, he's going to be really cheap. Like zero dollars. Seriously, as long as we all love to list out all the FA and trade failures over the past 15 years, why do you think Amed Rosario would come to Chicago and rake? Why do you think he would not put on a Sox uniform and OPS a whopping .450 in his first 3 months? If we're going to play the "everything this team has done sucked" game, we can't pretend the one guy they didn't sign would be the answer.

I would have liked to not have traded anybody, too. Honestly. But I do think Fletcher is a good get for a type of arm they have a surplus of. Fletcher can hit, he's a good fielder. If he clicks, then maybe between him, DeLoach and Colas, they have a couple of (at least) league average outfielders.

Wow, that's a long list of bad decisions. Good thing that GM doesn't work for the White Sox anymore.

The next couple of years were spent on sphincter rehab.

Fletcher is going to be the strong half of a platoon in the short run, and possibly our starting CF for a couple of years. All for a middling pitcher who still has major flaws to fix. If we didn't trade Mena, everybody would pounce on any person touting him as a future building block. When he's here, he sucks. When he's traded, he's a Hall-of-Famer.

That's kind of the point of spring training this early. Watch the individual performances, especially when they're putting AA guys up against the pros.

Crochet vs. Ohtani. I wonder if they switch this game to prime time.

If acquiring Fletcher serves to light a fire under Colas, and he becomes what he was touted as, then it's a great trade.