WestEddy

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.

The 2024 White Sox were unlucky to have missed their pythagorean by 7 wins. Their top 3 offensive players injured by game 11, 2 other main offensive players OPSing .400 the 1st month. A better bullpen was probably worth a good half dozen wins. I wouldn't say Combs was worth nothing, but like Fajardo, it's a calculated risk. Trading a guy 3 years away from the bigs for a guy who could be tweaked, be productive and help win some games, then bring back a better prospect at the deadline. These are the types of moves Getz should be making.

Going back over the last 5 drafts, the White Sox are the only team to get positive bWAR out of an 8th rounder. So I can understand the consternation among those who will go to the mat over the White Sox's strong developmental abilities.

How do you come to the conclusion that he's "bad"?

SoxMachine's take: https://soxmachine.com/2025/01/white-sox-continue-amassing-fringe-relievers-with-trade-for-tyler-gilbert/

SoxTalk: There are absolutely ZERO prospects in our system. And what does it matter?!? We couldn't even develop them if we had them. Also SoxTalk: OMFG!! How could we trade a guy I didn't even know existed until this moment?!? He's clearly a Hall-of-Famer!! Thanks for the laugh, everyone.

Philadelphia put Gilbert through waivers. The White Sox claimed him. Instead of pulling him back, the Phillies took a low-A ball bullpen arm in trade. I'm not sure what is silly about picking up a seasoned arm that could be a solid bullpen piece this season rather than developing a college arm for 3 years, taken in what has always been referred to as a weak draft.

I know, right? Crowds were probably booing him for making the children on the other teams look bad.

Combs had a BB/9 over 4 in his college career. Gilbert had a nice line in AAA Lehigh Valley in 24.

It's always good to get those drunken "I'm cutting Shewmake!!!" resolutions out of the way, quickly.

Cherry picked? Are people only talking about the PAs where he got a hit and are ignoring the strikeouts? No. His entire batting lines from LA are being taken into account. What I see is that he seemed overmatched in 2022, but from 2022 to 2023, his k% dropped, his bb% doubled, and his LD% rose, indicating adjustment. These rates stayed the same into 2024 with the Dodgers, and even in a small sample size, started to get on base and slug at acceptable rates. It has been mentioned that his strength dropped off last season. He slumped, and just couldn't pull out of it. It's fun to say "he must work for it", and "nothing should be handed to him", but he would have to continue his abysmal batting line through all of spring training, and at least 3 of 6 players (ramos, sosa, deloach, colas, meidroth, baldwin) would have to put up steady hitting lines in ST in order for Vargas to be squeezed out. Like it or not, he was the main piece of the Fedde trade. It's not Getz' ego to give Vargas a long chance to show what his prospect belied. We paid a high price for him. That would be like buying a new car, then leaving it on the side of the road once the gas ran low. If Sosa hits, he's your 2B. I think Ramos may still need a good half season in Charlotte to get in a groove he could jump off of when promoted.

It is baseless. You called Getz "Captain of the Early Call Up", and a few of us came up with 5 players who could have taken longer to get to the majors. Ellis? Who cares? He can't even hit in AA. He's not a prospect. Thorpe? He was making AA look ridiculous. He was ready, and did well until his elbow gave out. Ramos was an emergency, and got a look in the bigs. I wouldn't call that "rushed". When opposing teams adjusted to him, he was sent down. Baldwin was hitting in AA and AAA. I suppose they could have played games with his service time for two more years, then brought him sporadically in 2027, 2028 and '29 so ensure they had 6 full seasons after that. What would the point be? Iriarte was on the 40-man, and got a September call-up to see how his stuff played. You make these weird statements about Reinsdorf "loving his rebuilds" or Getz rushing players, but the facts don't really bear that out.

Oh, wait. Duke Ellis was another emergency call-up. Benintendi, Fletcher and Tommy Pham were all injured in the same 2-day period, so they called up DeLoach, Colas, and put Ellis on the 40-man to have enough OFs. That guy was chagrined that Getz made yet another roster move. Just as Getz should have known that all of Yoan, Eloy and Luis Robert would have been out, injured, by the 11th game of the season, he should have also known that Pham, Fletcher and Benny would get injured around June 3rd.

I really can't think of anyone beyond Ramos, who was kind of an emergency situation, the only infielder on the 40-man, at the time. I'm really amazed that the guy who twists every single move so he can complain about it is pretending that Getz rushes players so he can complain about it. But really, Thorpe, Iriarte? Both were jumped from AA to the bigs. Thorpe did well, Iriarte - 2 of his 6 outings were a little rough. He's on the 40-man. September call-up.

I would think the Sox continue to ramp up Schultz as they've been doing. He had one game where he threw more than 65 pitches this last season. He can't just throw 4 innings on Saturdays in the bigs. Same goes for the ramping up of Hagen Smith. I would think each has a good 5 months in the minors before we start talking about them.