WestEddy

Because Maldonado knows how to win.

I think the case has always been that Reinsdorf doesn't have a problem spending when they look competitive. Under Hahn, they've just made stupid spending decisions. Getz seems a bit more measured than Hahn. I don't doubt that once they trade Cease, Robert, Soroka, maybe Kopech, Eloy, Crochet, and they get their top 5-10 prospects plugged on the big club, they'll spend again.

I'm also guessing that MLB is guiding the A's away from a couple targeted expansion cities, too, like Nashville and Portland, OR. Even tho it's a small market, I think anchoring a team in Vegas locks in some gambling dollars.

I don't know who would want to spend a year or two in a rebuilding year that isn't even a rebuilding year. It's the gut year of a gut rehab. It's like living in an apartment while they pull down walls, you piss in the sink, and you hope they figure out tarping for when the outside wall is gone. I think that if a dude's 32, has talent, he might want to make sure he's in a pennant race from the get go. He doesn't want to ride the bench of a dumpster fire, just hoping against hope he gets enough quality time to shine and get traded to a team who is really competing. I think the call from Chris Getz is the pink message slip his agent puts in his hip pocket, and exhausts all other opportunities, first. Therefore, if you're saving money for an impact player, I can't fathom how much of a premium it would take for a guy to tell the Twins, or Mariners, Reds, Cubs - to take a hike, and pull his pud while Pedrol Grifol pulls his pud figuring sh*t out. I hate the dour, but I don't think we have the same player pool available to us that the D-backs do, right now. Or, we pay list, while everyone else gets to negotiate.

I think Grandal had a hit tool, and was a good framer when they signed him. I almost wonder if Hahn had become self-conscious, reading the blogs, or whatnot. Grandal was the framing OG, but he didn't seem to do much of anything else well behind the plate. All of that went away after his first year. Stassi and Perez would have worked.

I seem to remember that Mendick could cover SS better than Sosa could. However, Lopez being on the roster makes him a logical backup to SS. I just think if Sosa started hitting, he becomes your starting 2B.

I'm a bit confused. When you refer to "Oakland" rejecting, you mean the Athletics, right?

I liked us picking up Max Stassi. ZIPs seems to like him, too. I would have rather grabbed up Sanchez than Maldonado. However, I don't think that Sanchez at $7 million would have been available to the White Sox. We'd probably pay a premium to get a player anybody else wants to babysit a bunch of pitching projects. Pretty much anybody who owned a catcher's mitt would be better than Maldonado, that is, unless he came here for the inside track to be the next bench coach, or something like that.

I guess picking up Fletcher and DeLoach negates something like this happening. I was still pining, tho.

The record for worst record of all time belongs to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders at 34-120. The record for the "modern" era (AL/NL) is the 1962 Mets, who went 40-120. I would think this team could be at 45 wins by the end of July.

I hear Arizona has a top-level pitching prospect in AAA. All he needs to do is add a couple of ticks to his fastball, and he's a staff ace. I wonder if he could headline a package for Cease.

Why would that not be serious? That's about what the 3 hit last year. Am I supposed to pretend all Sox players will slash .000/.000/.000 except Luis Robert, who will walk every time up?

Or if you have a bunch of 'back of the rotation' arms, and this is the guy the other team wants, and you feel won't top out his ceiling.

30 HRs from DeJong, Maldonado and Lopez.

I would expect the White Sox to run 4 guys out there this year (Fedde, Soroka, Kopech, Flexen), whose production is somewhere between that of Clevenger/Giolito and Lynn/Kopech. Not improved, but not much worse.

I think that by replacing negative production at 4 lineup spots and a rotation spot, they've probably added at least 5 wins. Any regression to the mean from Yoan, Eloy, AB, and some realization of prospect by Andrew Vaughn and Kopech could add another 5. I think that the people predicting 110+ losses need to explain why they think this team will win any games at all.

So, until the White Sox are annually posting 10-15 guys on the All-Star team, they can't trade a single player, unless he's already retired? Every single player in the minor leagues is a potential future option.

I said it, and my face is as straight as an arrow. You have proven my point.

Oh well. Then he'll suck, and it's a bad trade. I like the trade, and think we have our All-Star RF for the next 6+ years. Every time some dour guy shakes his tiny elf fist in the air and demands I be unhappy about a Sox move, only makes me like it more.

This is stupid. Nevermind.

My guess is these were all guys being dangled for Cease at one time or another, and Getz just pivoted.

Jake Peter was traded in the 3-way that brought Joachim Soria, and commenters screamed over at SouthSide Sox (mostly SoxMachine guys, now). Just like they screamed about trading Hector Santiago for Adam Eaton. You've got to give up somebody to get somebody. If Barfield's wrong, and Fletcher is a dud, then it's a bad trade.

I'm still not sure where the disagreement is. You're complaining that we don't have a "surplus" of pitchers, and that what small collection of problematic starters we have in the system, Mena is in the "2nd tier". I guess you're afraid that if you call Mena an actual good pitching prospect, you'll get laughed at, and then it will all be over. I wish you'd just say what you mean instead of couching it all in "being terrified", and "struggling" to understand what's going on. It's pretty easy to see where Getz is going with this. The pretending to be befuddled and going through some anxiety attack is all a game to rope someone in to a conversation so you can find all their words "laughable", and attack their views. Just call me a dimwit, tell me you baseball better than I do and be done with it. This whole dance is passive-aggressive.

Fletcher has power. His first 3 seasons will be during his peak. Nobody's claiming they can win with no power at the corners. You've staked out a ridiculous strawman to be right about.