WestEddy

I feel FutureSox is a better snapshot than Pipeline, in that the FutureSox guys are watching every affiliate game, and Pipeline guys aren't. As far as rankings are concerned, it's much more accurate to grade in groups than to rank one team over another based on the number of guesses on player scores. What's the difference between 5 - 50 FVs and 6? These snapshots all miss the guy who's about to break out, and the guy who's about to get clobbered after the next promotion.

One little known benefit of having baseball players on a team is that they can actually play in baseball games. Perhaps Getz didn't feel the offers were worth losing a bullpen arm. That's not exactly "worthless".

Why would they release Steven Wilson? Dude's got a 2.81 ERA.

I don't know if you follow the box scores, but Schultz was dominating in short outings last year. Apparently, you don't understand how averting greater injury by working on mechanics in the minor leagues constitutes a great success. I suppose AAA championship banners hang forever, prospect careers be damned.

Julks outrighted again. Sometimes, you can put the bullet back in the gun.

They're employees, not chattel.

I gave you two examples where the team found an issue early, and avoided worse damage, and your response seems to be, "why can't they avoid every single injury?", is that right? I have non-hodgkins lymphoma. However, I first had double vision out of nowhere for a few days. So I went to the hospital, and the doctors looked at my eye to see what the problem was. They thought I might have a tumor behind my eye, so they ordered a CT Scan with contrast. To do that, they do a blood test to check kidney function. My creatinine level was raised, so they sent me to a nephrologist, who was stumped, so he ordered an ultrasound of my kidney, where, lo and behold, they found a tumor. It was only after a biopsy that they could diagnose me. It then took a bone marrow biopsy to figure out how far it spread. They never figured out what caused the double vision, and surmised that the tumor was throwing clots, and I had a stroke of my #2 cranial nerve, which caused the double vision. That's 3 different specialists I had to see before they even had an idea what was up. So again, are you asking why, if Drew Thorpe had a bone spur, they didn't open up his entire arm and check everything? Or just look at him and know everything that was wrong with him? Your original question pre-supposes that Thorpe had symptoms beyond those that would point to bone spurs. I'll give you a few more. Colson Montgomery felt discomfort during batting practice, and the team shut him down. He missed a few weeks of spring training, not half a season from back surgery. Miguel Vargas and Brooks Baldwin experienced discomfort in the batting cage, they were shut down, received treatment, and returned to action quickly. Martin Perez felt discomfort on the mound, he was shut down, and they avoided TJS. As far as Ky Bush, Prelander Berroa, Mason Adams, Juan Carela and Blake Larson, those were all diagnosed in spring training. Do you have any information about their communications with the team back in October and in the off-season?

You mean why don't the White Sox have people living with their prospects during the winter? Are you actually asking that?!?

I didn't say it made "no sense". I see a reason for how they handled Schultz. It doesn't apply to me.

And just to provide some context to the Schultz pick (1,26 - 2022), in the 61 year history of the amateur draft, 4 players picked at #26 have eclipsed 10 bWAR in their careers. That's four (4) out of sixty-one (61). The White Sox took a HS pitcher without a lengthy track record, and have turned him into a top 20 prospect who has ascended to AAA in his 3rd season. They've challenged his innings counts, and limited his pitch selection, and he struggled at the level right below the majors. I'm not sure how that's a stain, or a red flag. Or even a "huge failure".

What's the difference between a stain and a red flag? And a huge failure? Are those three different things? And if it doesn't make sense to you, shouldn't you reserve judgement until you can understand what's going on? Are you actually implying that they made him hurt his plant knee? It looks to me like they challenged Schultz to lean on only part of his arsenal to clean up his mechanics, and pulled Hagen Smith aside to clean up his. They caught two injuries before they developed into something worse, and they'll both be back on the mound this fall. I'm not sure I see the "stain". Or the "red flag". Or even the "huge failure". Yes, it would be nice for these two pitchers to have pitched their way into the major league rotation, and be in the ROY conversation. They're not. They've had about 5 pitchers perform their way into the greater rotation picture (Murphy, Oppor, LaCombe, McDougal, Lucas Gordon), while others just progressed. Seriously, I'm sure that if I was to explain fully how I see any positivity in this system, you would argue with all of it, so pretend I said something, and have at it.

And they probably did. They did, after all draft 4 bats with their top 6 picks in 2024. I have read that Getz probably wanted to go "safe" with a pitcher. That was probably either written as an aside in a SoxMachine article, or I heard on a FutureSox podcast. Sorry I can't provide any further context.

And 4 of the top 6 picks last year were bats. I don't think Getz is telegraphing any fear of developing offensive players.

This year's draft seemed very focused on position players, so there's probably no lack of confidence.

SD must be elated to have used up their cache of prospects to acquire the bunch of guys they wanted to make their playoff run. The Sox just graduated (7) Teel, Quero, Meidroth, Monty, Burke, Shane Smith and Grant Taylor. They just had (8) sidelined for a year - Drew Thorpe, Mason Adams, Juan Carela, Ky Bush, Nick McLain, Blake Larson, Aldrin Batista and Casey Saucke. (7) all had serious rework seasons - Schultz, Hagen Smith, Tyler Schweitzer, Bryan Ramos, Colson Montgomery, Wolkow and Sam Zavala. That's 21 real hits to their minor league system, and they're still hovering at the back of the middle third. I'll take that.

I'm not really concerned about the White Sox nailing rankings on listicles. The handling of Colson shows the White Sox aren't, really, either. Should we care about Hagen Smith's "prospect luster"? I'd rather he develop as a strong pitching prospect. The rankings will take care of themselves.

I think I've read that Getz felt he had to nail his first 1st rounder, so made a choice they felt they could develop properly. Bannister was already in place, and Fuller wasn't. As "bad" as Smith looks like, the Sox avoided an injury. He's pitching with reworked mechanics, and is striking out 12.8 per 9IP at a level he's 3.5 years young for. He's walking guys, but I'd imagine that'll work itself out as he grows into his delivery.

Yeah, that's kind of how the word "if" works.

Did you just make an insane leap in logic that had nothing to do with the discussion to dunk on a point nobody made?

I'm not sure what this means, but they're around a .420 w-l % since about May 1, last I checked.

Your comment was vague. I took it to mean that if he was any good, other orgs would be sniffing around. My bad. If Getz builds a winner with a slashed budget, and basically rebuilding the entire scouting, development and procurement apparati from the ground up - on the fly, half of the league would be throwing PBO offers at him after his first high profile finish. Dombrowski and Friedman both had success in weird, cheap organizations, and when they hit the open market, they were spoiled for choice.

If you wanted to do one or two wins better than last year, they could have just kept Jesse Scholtens and Jared Shuster to eat innings.

Getz started with a team basically assembled from parking lot tryouts, and 2 years later, has a team playing somewhere between a 68-80 win pace over 162.

Placating the owner and carving out the space one needs to do one's job is an important skill. So perhaps you're saying that Getz was uniquely qualified to take a job that would have had few applicants.

Civale asked for the trade, Milwaukee didn't "punish" him by trading him. I think all of the White Sox, Brewers, Civale and Vaughn all won. Everybody got what they wanted.