SoxBlanco

They always “have” the money. But they are not willing to spend it this year.

I don’t disagree with you, but there seems to be some smoke recently. Harold mentioned the Sox hope he takes control of the job in spring training and breaks camp as the starting SS (or something along those lines). Then just the other day, Merkin wrote that he will have a chance to break camp with the team. He also gave a bold prediction that he will win AL Rookie of the Year. While that’s obviously a long shot, my first thought was that Merkin put that out there (or was asked to put that out there) so that the upset fans would be reminded that there’s a potential reward for not playing the service time game.

Even taking SS completely out of the equation, it’s still possible to get everyone a lot of at bats. Meidroth can play 2B or 3B. Sosa can play 2B or 3B. Vargas can play 1B, DH, 3B. Vaughn can play 1B or DH. Rojas can play anywhere, including outfield. You could give those five guys one day off per week and be able to make it work.

Fair. I didn’t realize he has that much experience in AAA already. I still think there are plenty of at bats available at 3B, 2B, 1B, and DH for five guys (Vargas, Sosa, Meidroth, Vaughn, Rojas), especially if Rojas plays OF every once in a while. It’s not like guys won’t be getting days off.

I’d start Ramos and Meidroth in AAA. Sosa starts at 2B, Rojas at 3B, and Vargas/Vaughn at 1B/DH. You can mix Vargas in at 3B if you want to see how he can handle it. If Ramos or Meidroth deserve a call up, chances are somebody will be injured or performing poorly by that point. And if not, then that’s a pretty damn good problem to have.

I never realized that either. I guess baseball loves to use unconventional decimals. As we all know, when a guy pitches six and a third innings, it’s 6.1 innings instead of 6.333.

Why can’t Rojas just be a guy who plays everywhere to give guys a day or two off per week? Then nobody’s “starting spot” is really being blocked, and Rojas will get plenty of playing time.

For those who had to look up the names like me: Tyler Gilbert is the guy who threw a no hitter in his first major league start a few years ago. He’s 31 years old. Bullpen piece. Aaron Combs was our 8th round pick in the most recent draft. Also a bullpen guy.

Now we get to look forward to Austin Slater out there. I didn’t realize he was so bad defensively.

I’m firmly in the “over” camp. Just seems really hard to win less than 50 games two years in a row. You would need to be very very bad and a bit unlucky. We know they are very very bad, so I’m banking on a few more things going their way this year.

Best of luck to you. It would be pretty funny if they got to 49 wins with one game left.

Alright, I pulled the trigger.

Coward.

You have to pick one! Or split the difference, assuming he will play half the season with the Sox.

That’s what makes it so fun. It’s tough to predict. Man up and make a prediction! Don’t worry about being wrong. I’ve been wrong with predictions more times than I can count.

Just for fun, I think everyone should predict Robert’s fWAR for the upcoming season. No ban bets. No monetary bets. Just a fun prediction so that we can see who is closest. Obviously everyone is welcome to predict, but I’m curious to hear from @JUSTgottaBELIEVE, @Chicago White Sox, @Balta1701, @southsider2k5, and @Look at Ray Ray Run. It’s definitely a tough thing to predict, given his injury history, inconsistency, and the unknown of which team or teams he will play for, but that’s what will make it fun. Who wants to go first?

They only won 10 of the 33 games that pitcher started. By comparison, they won 9 games that Cannon started, and he only started 23 games. My point is that as good as Crochet was last year, he didn’t have much impact on wins and losses.

We were all told by a possibly senile man that every team would win 60 and lose 60 during a season. It’s what you do with the other 42 that count. Well, we could lose all of those 42, as well as 10 of the guaranteed 60 wins and still hit the over. I think I might put a little something on the over.

But we just acquired a top 8 bat in all of baseball with Meidroth. @Chicago White Sox

I can see both sides of this argument. It’s impossible to know who is right because we don’t know how these players would have faired if drafted by teams who develop players properly. Do you think guys like Collins, Fulmer, and Madrigal would have succeeded if they were drafted somewhere else?

I’m not saying they exist either. I simply pointed out that @Bob Sacamano misread the original post he quoted.

That’s literally not what @Bob Sacamano said. He said nobody is disappointed with the return, which is true. I haven’t seen anybody who is really disappointed with the return. The original post in question said there might be people who are disappointed that this trade is actually good. Those people don’t think the trade is bad. They are disappointed that the trade is good.

I think you misread his post. He’s saying some people are disappointed that the return is good, because some people just love being negative and now they don’t have something to complain about.

Assuming guys like Colson and Quero don’t crack the opening day roster, what will our AAA lineup look like to start the year? EDIT: And what level does B. Montgomery start at?

6 errors in 20 games is pretty brutal for first base. I’d be curious to see the nature of those errors. Not many throws being made unless you are trying to turn a DP or trying to flip to a pitcher. Is he just booting that many grounders?