WestEddy

I think Madrigal's top 5 in MLB WAR for that 1st round. He's certainly logged more bWAR than the 3 guys chosen before him.

Maybe they're waiting for Elias to finish sitting shiva for Joey Ortiz. He's probably locked himself in a room, playing Roy Orbison songs and drawing hearts around the head of a DL Hall 8 x 10.

I would have loved for the Sox to have launched him at Getz's press conference. They didn't. I don't think it's because Getz believes that Grifol is the way, the truth and the light. I think Jim Margalus said it sure is possible the White Sox burn through all of these scrap heap pitchers by Memorial day. Then Getz takes his mulligan, and fires Grifol. Maybe Katz. No, I don't believe that "clubhouse culture" is the single most important aspect of all team building. There was a lot of chaos around last year's team, and I think a lot of it has been cleared out. But it's something these guys have to say. I don't see these additions as great because they're all fine, upstanding gentlemen. But the fact they're not raping tweens, starting an on field fight once a month, or have ladies giving interviews about how abusive they are - is a positive. It's certainly not a negative.

I really like both trades. Santos had a short track record, and Mena, while exciting to look forward, hopefully, I saw him as a project. Nastrini was always going to be first up. I'm still hoping for a waiver claim of Canaan Smith-Njigba, and now they have some OF prospect depth.

Fletcher put up 0.7 bWAR in 102 PAs. He is not replacement level.

Any. They had 4 positions to fill. C, 2B, SS and RF. Say they signed Gary Sanchez, Kolten Wong, Amed Rosario and Adam Duvall. That's $40+ million. If they signed Frankie Montas and Luis Silverio on "show-me" contracts, that's $30 million for the two. Would you be going nuts over that team? Are you ordering a season-ticket plan to watch that team that most probably won't perform much better than the Stassi, Lopez, DeJong, Pillar, Flexen, Soroka 2024 White Sox? I think we're all expecting at least Nastrini, Sosa and Colas to move in on DeJong's, Flexen's, Lopez's and Pillar's playing time by August. Maybe even Montgomery, Ramos and Popeye, too.

I think there's a lot going on that is outside of "Chris Getz building a roster". 1) Reinsdorf isn't paying 2 managers. 2) Stadium deal has any team spending on hold. 3) Possible Baltimore-type sale has any new long-term commitments on hold. I believe it's come from on high that Grifol is the manager coming into the year. Maybe he's made any kind of impression on JR that he needs a full shot. So Getz is giving Grifol what he wanted: "leaders who can catch the ball". When they're 40-68 at the tdl, Getz fires him, installs the bench coach, and starts promoting Sosa, Colas, Ramos, Monty, etc. into full time rolls.

Yes, but they have to start somewhere. I think a big generator of chaos was the KW/Hahn dynamic. It seems you're implying that the guys who weren't idiots were the problem. Guys catching the ball has pretty much been identified as the main problem. And Getz has filled holes with glove guys. The fact that they're not beating up their spouses, roiding, sex trafficking, a physical threat to their own teammates, or otherwise causing distractions is a positive, not a negative.

Okay, veteran leaders? The team was a clown car in 2023. Rookies not listening to coaches, vets staring down rookies on the field after yet another bone-headed decision. Physical altercations in the clubhouse. Suspensions for on-field BS. I don't even think the animal house clubhouse problems get fixed in one season, but prospects are now graduating to a more stable situation than 2023. Everybody here is in agreement that there was no way this team was getting fixed in one season. Nobody's arguing with the notion of filling the lineup with guys who can catch the ball. They're just not going to pay the $50 million it would take to plug in guys like Duvall at C, 2B, SS and RF. Especially if they think they have guys at AAA who are going to be taking PAs away by August. Cease, Robert, Kopech, Fedde, Santos, Brebbia maybe Soroka if he can fog a mirror by July - that's all that will be flipped. DeJong or Lopez might get slightly more than the proverbial bag of balls.

Has something happened to him that makes him non-viable?

I never said this is a stellar group of players. I said that they could pick up 5-10 wins just by adding replacement + players to C, 2B, SS and RF, along with Yoan, Eloy, Benintendi and AV realizing any part of their upsides. They got 9.8 bWAR from their starting rotation in 2023. That's not a high bar to clear, especially if Cease stays to the deadline.

Frankie Montas has had exactly one more "above average" bWAR season than Chris Flexen. Luis Severino hasn't been dominant in 6 years. We would all be high fiving each other if the Sox threw $15 million at one or both of these guys, and Chris Flexen and Erick Fedde have a better chance of out-performing either. Getz told us what the plan was, and it looks like he's following it. I'm not sure why everybody is surprised. Maybe you're surprised he's actually doing what he said. He's picking up character guys who can catch the ball. When Montgomery, Ramos, Quero and Popeye (maybe Sosa and Colas) are ready, they'll slot in. I agree that this roster looks like ass. I'm interested in what they can do with Soroka, Fedde, Flexen and Kopech.

SoxBlanco, in his hypothetical:

At this point, I just want the White Sox to do anything. I keep refreshing Twitter just to see what happens to Canaan Smith-Njigba.

If the Sox are at .500 and are 3 games up, yes.

If they're 3 games up in July, it's not so delusional.

Were they right? I thought SG agreed with whoever was having that long convo that the return should be Cowser/Kjerstad and Ortiz, and not a bit higher until the bidding went up.

The Orioles could still trade for Dylan Cease.

Orioles close on Corbin Burnes. https://theathletic.com/5245875/2024/02/01/brewers-orioles-trade-corbin-burnes/

He'll get his 100 pro PAs with us after thoroughly failing with Houston.

Captive audience. People who go to spring training, go to spring training. Nobody's going to not schedule a February Arizona Sox/golf trip because tix are $10 more. And once they're there, the game is the whole purpose of the trip.

I'm sure it would be very healthy.

Well there is an absolute value to running Cease out there for 33 starts, half of which will be quality starts, and 75% of which will be 50+ GameScore starts. We don't have to trade Cease. I think the hold-up has more to do with the Boras clients than Getz's "high ask". The Yankees and Orioles (or others) haven't pivoted to other equal or better options for returns that expose Getz as mean and greedy.

Maybe, just maybe, the Sox were waiting for this shoe to drop, now they'll swoop in and sign up all the $1.5 million dollar "16 year olds" as $30k 19 year olds mentioned in the string.

This is a nice and informative Twitter string on the current age scandal unravelling in the Dominican.