nrockway

why'd I even turn the tv on

can't help but laugh

Vargas played some left for the Dodgers. I would've liked to see him get reps there this season. I think you're right though, sluggers in the corners would be ideal. Honestly, cutting Benintendi would be addition by subtraction.

ugh

the second I turn this game on, we lose the lead. I'll see myself out.

thought Fangraphs had us at 2 in the 2024 update, but guess not! I don't think the specific rating matters too much, it's fairly arbitrary. It was a well-regarded farm system that was built pretty quickly.

I don't know how you can predict who is going to be a worthwhile free agent/trade target two years from now. I can't read the future. Why would I make an absolutist statement and say: we need to get this guy two years from now? I said it's a test for Getz and his staff, not for me. I'm not the GM, I'm some guy on the internet. I wrote a post recently about who the Sox could've traded Steven Wilson for and offered non-vague options because we can look at how those players are performing today, or otherwise how prospects might project. Who the hell knows who is going to be very good in two years and also a free agent. It also depends on how the current players are looking. What if Fauske, Wolkow, B Montgomery are all superstars? What if Quero and Teel both bust? Suddenly, it's not an outfielder problem, it's a catcher problem. It depends, dude.

The test will be who they acquire in free agency/trades. Not prospects, but real players. Detroit surprised a lot of people last year, I think that’s the ‘27 team. Now I think Detroit is the favorite to come out of the (weak) AL. Could be the Sox in 2028. I mean, we’ll see.

Analysts ranked this iteration of the Sox farm system 2nd through 6th before a lot of the graduations, as I recall. Tigers aren't really spending money, the only vet they've given a multi-year contract to in recent memory is Javy Baez which was ahead of their 66 win season (down from 77 wins). Reminiscent of signing Benintendi after an 81 win season before losing 101 the next. DET is 15th in payroll as a team looking to compete for a World Series. Our Sox were 6th in payroll in that 81-81 season, 8th in payroll in 2011 coming off an 88 win season. The problem doesn't tend to be payroll, it's been bad management. Obviously JR is the source of bad management, but I'm not sure it's a money issue. Whether or not JR will spend money seems like speculation. Who knows what lessons he learned, I haven't asked him. It seems like a logical assumption, but it would also hold true for every other non-LAD/BOS/NYY team. History of the Sox/Bulls suggests that the pocketbook opens up (to some extent. Bulls mighta won a title if they paid the luxury tax in 2010-11) when the team is in a position to compete. It opened up for Albert Belle right after the strike, seemingly contradictory to his 'philosophy'. The team was garbage in 2022 and they still overpaid Benintendi instead of taking a flyer on Teoscar Hernandez or Cody Bellinger. If I was going to speculate on JR's psyche, I might think: the team is sold, Reinsdorf is 90-years-old...this is his last chance, if he was ever going to spend money, it would be now. Not sure who they'd spend it on though. I'd go after Kyle Tucker, but why would he come here, and I'd also wait a year and see what parts of the roster actually need to be supplemented. Besides, my post was only to say that this is the third year of the rebuild and the team's fortunes seem to be turning around in a similar way as those other two teams that really don't spend any money. Orioles blew it by not spending, the Tigers might blow it in the same way. I think the Sox farm has some things in common with those Orioles guys too. Colson is Gunnar. Teel/Quero are Rutschman. Hagen and Schultz are Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall. Tim Elko is Coby Mayo. Jackson Holliday is Popeye Rodriguez. 2027 is a more logical assumption than 2030. 2030 doesn't make any sense as a timeline, all of our current prospects will be approaching 30 and nearing free agency at that point, it'll likely be a totally different team. It genuinely makes no sense because we'd be speculating on players who are still in high school. Or maybe it's an optimistic take and Alejandro Cruz, Eduardo Herrera, Yobal Rodriguez are the future of the franchise. I That doesn't mean it'll work out, all these guys could bomb, but I would probably change my perspective on the front office if we're not halfway competitive in 2027.

2021 Orioles won 52 games, '22 won 83, '23 won 101. 2022 Tigers won 66, '23 won 78, '24 won 86, '25 on pace for 95. It's not like it's a crazy assertion. 'doom and gloom' just because seems like a more hopeless perspective. I mean, by definition, it's a lack of hope, innit.

2 things: I think you're underrating the importance of 2B defense. It's shortstop without the throw and a lot more players bat left-handed than ever before. More balls get pulled to the right side than ever. Range is important there. More important defensive position than 3B for sure just in terms of how many balls are being hit that way, though SS is still the king of the infield. But I might remove a couple of those '>' signs lol. The other thing is that Sosa is pretty much league average defensively at 2B. Statcast ranks him 60th percentile in outs above average. In terms of qualified 2B, he ranks 26/42, basically tied with Jose Altuve or Luisangel Acuna...beats out gold glover Brice Turang surprisingly. He's also just getting better across the board. He was 10th percentile in 2024. His bat has obviously improved. He might just keep getting better, right? Now that he's getting extended play. His bat has gotten better every month (and every season), he has 9 homers in July and August compared to 6 the rest of the season in ~100 fewer plate appearances. He improved from a really bad defender to simply an average/slightly below one. I think you take that if he can hit a bunch of home runs and OPS around .800 like he has since June. The problem is that Meidroth is way better defensively in that regard, 89th percentile. I think Meidroth is the best shortstop on the team though and would be playing there if he was a 'prospect' the way Colson is. Meidroth could probably win some GGs at 2B, but thus far he hasn't really proven anything with the bat. Agreed that you don't really want him at 1B if you can help it (or anyone on the team currently...), but he's passable defensively at 2B with serious pop and hits for average with a sustainable babip. Maybe that's what you want out of a 2B on a team with a terrible offense. Or any team. It's his job to lose IMO and no one has really pressured him. Especially Brooks, ostensibly the guy he was competing against for the job to start the year. One might expect Meidroth to become the better hitter in the long run, love his profile, but so far he isn't. He's getting babip'd, but his eye in particular has regressed. One might also just prefer a middle infielder who can hit 20-25 HRs a season over a guy who hits 2 to 4. Personally, I think Vargas is the odd man out of the infield, that Colson should play 3B and Meidroth should play SS for the foreseeable future and we don't actually have a 1B or DH on the roster. If Jacob Gonzalez continues to hit at AAA, it makes things more complicated. Sosa might actually just be a good trade piece but there isn't any point in trading him any time soon. BTW, Lenyn Sosa's .743 OPS puts him in line with Christian Walker, Spencer Torkelson, Jake Burger, Arraez, Goldschmidt tier of first basemen...not in the Romy Gonzalez tier though...wtf?

in fairness, I think it was like a 70mph curveball that barely touched him 😅

90,000 people showed up to watch a Tupac hologram play pre-recorded songs 30 years after his death. nothing is surprising.

How was it? Is there gonna be a replay? How was Mark's stuff? Did he twerk?

what. I mean I know Rojas is bad but...there's gotta be a better option

Bummer is still pretty good. 109 ERA+ with Atlanta. His FIP is better than his ERA. He throws a bunch of different pitches. He'll get another contract. All those guys were, ya know, baseball players. It wasn't a good trade. I like Naperville Nicky, seems like a nice dude, I like local players and any player named Nick or Nicky or Nico. His dad in the booth was fun. That trade and the Mena trade seem like they were based on old information. Or Barfield's opinion. Doesn't really reflect on my opinion of Getz, didn't really make a difference, but it wasn't a good trade, ATL got the better end of it for sure considering Bummer is playing and producing. Negative WAR, I guess, but his ERA is above average. Seemed like they just wanted guys to fill out the roster but could've done it via other avenues. Ultimately, who cares.

yeah, could've taken Nasim Nunez in R5 that year and he would've given you 3 times as much production (0.6 bWAR vs 0.2 lol) as Nicky Lopez for 1/5 the cost. Not like it matters, neither guy is a difference maker and it isn't my money. I liked Deyvison de los Santos in R5 but he's also proven to be not very good. Basically Tim Elko. Might still be worth having in the system vs...Shane Drohan...who is not in the system and has actually produced for AAA Worcester this season. Figured Shewmake and Shuster might've been better. Bummer of a trade. Gowens is a Libertyville and U of I guy though so hopefully he can do something in Chicago. I'm not holding my breath.

I remember when...never mind.

nice a .420 winning percentage across 162 games, if you round up, is 69 wins. just saying.

now there's a SAT word if I've ever seen one. didn't see enough of 'em.

It was the first sentence: he's low-paid and under contract through 2027. I'm optimistic we might be good by 2027. Wouldn't it be nice to already have a proper setup guy instead of a guy who "might" be a proper setup guy in 2030? Build a team for the 2027 has been my view since the 81-81 disaster season (which to me was more disheartening than the worst team of all team. bad and rebuilding is preferable to permanent treadmill. see: the Bulls). Maybe if a deal could've been done with Tampa to go along with Houser that returned us Taj Bradley, that would've been a good trade to make. Who's to say that was an option though. Otherwise, let's look at what the relievers who were traded at the deadline returned: We wouldn't have wanted the Yankees catchers for Bednar. Bednar is better than Wilson anyway with more of a track record. Helsley is more similar to Wilson and he returned pretty good value, namely a third baseman, but we're pretty stacked on mid-tier infield prospects and the two pitchers are flyers. I wouldn't have been mad about that trade, but also, who cares? Duran is incomparable. Tyler Rogers is better than Wilson and returned MLB-ready guys. I kinda like Drew Gilbert, that might've been an OK trade, but he's not exactly highly-touted, I'm not sure he's the solution in the corner outfield any more than Dom Fletcher or Corey Julks is. I think the last guy is Brock Stewart who returned James Outman. Maybe that would've been an OK trade...two years ago if he didn't fall off a cliff. This is to say, are any of those players more valuable to the White Sox in 2026 and 2027 and beyond? Maybe, maybe not. It's certainly not something to complain about. Maybe Wilson keeps up his play and actually becomes a valuable trade piece. Maybe we're upset that he's seemingly the best player in the Cease deal, but maybe Cease wasn't all that valuable to begin with as the Padres found out. My perspective is similar with Robert at this point. Are you actually going to find a better player to replace him when it comes time to compete? The time to trade him was after the 2023 season.Since that didn't happen, might as well keep him. My perspective is not similar with Crochet (though I really loved watching him pitch and was a big cheerleader when he was injured/in the pen). Too much money, too much injury risk, far too valuable to other teams ready to compete now. The idea shouldn't be to trade guys just because you can. Tauchman is probably the only guy we didn't trade who maybe should have been, but there were some mitigating circumstances and he's still arguably the best corner outfielder we've had in years, is under contract for another year, and maybe we just extend him.

I'd like it if the Sox signed more prospects out of Asia, but it's hard to compete with any California team on that front. I also wish it was 70 degrees every day in Chicago. Geography isn't fair. Is Jang better than either of the two guys we got in return? He seems a lot better than Maximo Martinez (80 grade name though) but Aldrin Batista had a really nice 2024. 1.04 ERA at Winston-Salem in 5 starts at age 21. 2.93 ERA in total across 110.2 innings. Good peripheral stats. Injured now unfortunately. Not TJ, might be nearing a return, but he's someone who looks like he'll climb up the prospect charts. big fan of the Kim bros, wish they were both on the team. I'd want the Sox to consider Ha-Seong despite the crowded infield and injury concerns. Probably he picks up his player option at this point though.

He's under contract through 2027. Low arb estimate. More valuable to the Sox than to other teams I'd imagine. His value is probably similar to Keynan Middleton who returned Juan Carela. That was a pretty good trade in the sense that he improved after coming over (and Middleton is playing independent ball now. sheesh); but who's to say a similar deal existed for Wilson. Why trade a guy for a lotto ticket just to do it unless he's expiring? Jang has a 5 ERA at A ball and isn't particularly young. are we actually mad about this? Fajardo might be pretty good and is advanced for his age. I'm basically chalking it up to "welp, who cares" unless he really turns into something. I think we pretty much liked the trade at the time. Those kinds of pitchers are sort of a dime a dozen, aren't they, especially at such a young age. The guy to be upset about is Cristian Mena IMO. he ought to be pretty good and that struck me as a pretty bad trade at the time

FutureSox is great. It's just like...the Dodgers are always at the top of these lists and then their guys never actually make it to MLB or otherwise contribute. Rushing and Cartaya were supposed to be these elite catchers. Miller, Stone, Pepiot, Frasso, Nastrini were going to be an elite rotation. Stone and Pepiot are both playing well I guess. Graterol was a prospect and he's a good reliever, but they mighta hoped he remained a starter. Pages and Busch are probably the only two in recent memory who actually look to be all-star caliber players. Not sure Busch was ever ranked on any lists though. Thinking about how Washington, incompetent after winning a World Series (sounds familiar), gave up Scherzer AND Trae Turner for Ruiz and Gray. The first guy is OPSing at about .500 right now and the other guy unfortunately hasn't pitched since June 2024. The third guy in that trade is playing in Mexico while the fourth is 27 and in AA. The Dodgers are very good at ripping teams off, I'll give them that.

Hope you're doing well now, Eddy. The Ron Gant bit is interesting. ATL cut him and paid him 0 dollars of the $4.5mil remaining on his deal. He missed a season then went on to produce ~15 WAR the rest of his career, 6.5 the following two years after the injury. Not like Atlanta needed him, they won the WS, but he doubled up the production of the guy who replaced him (Klesko). Probably could've used the production in 1996 over rookie Jermaine Dye who OPS'd under .300 in the World Series and was traded anyway. Reminds me of the Bulls second overall pick in 2002, Jay Williams, who got hurt almost exactly the same way after a lackluster rookie season (really lousy draft in hindsight). The Bulls cut him for violating his contract and because they needed the roster spot, but still paid him ~$3mil, roughly half of his remaining salary, and he never played in the NBA again. The buyout was finalized in January 2004; did the good karma result in a White Sox World Series win in 2005? The bad karma clearly didn't hurt the Braves. The contract stipulations make sense when you're being paid millions of dollars to play with a ball, but the human element seems important; it's more than a game n all that and sometimes 22-year-olds make stupid decisions. The Braves as an organization probably would've benefited on the field if they had just kept Gant too. Probably one of my favorite things things the Bulls/Sox have done. Not really related to this discussion at all. 5th rounder Antonacci looks really good. Adams is obviously legit. Hagen is still probably the most 'legit', but underwhelming. Most of the guys slumming it there are selections from the previous regime or otherwise players you don't expect anything out of. I thought Veras, Tatum or Gladney would see MLB time before Elko, but they all fell off a cliff and were never very good or touted to begin with. At A+, Zavala has looked better, Jeral Perez seems pretty good. Oppor and Ziehl should earn a promotion. A and Rookie league seem to have some actual blue chip talent. Bonemer has made himself into a top tier prospect, Blake Larson is an intriguing prospect. Don't sleep on Shane Murphy. All of these guys and more pass the vibe check and, as we all know, the sport is 90% vibes. This team is clearly less doomed than it was in 2022 in terms of a potential future The real test will be if the org can get the most out Carlson's potential 5-tool kit or if he's the Christian Pache of shortstops. It bears repeating that many on this board figured Crochet couldn't be a starter (he never threw more than 50 innings!!!), but somehow the non-starter returned two top 50 prospects (one will be a superstar), another guy who clearly belongs in MLB, and a fourth player who will probably be an MLB player. Being so incredibly wrong about Crochet and Colson causes me to doubt the talent evaluation of some around these parts. Being a pessimist and also being wrong is an interesting combination. Couldn't be me. I would also just totally ignore MLB.com's system rankings. Nobody actually believes the Dodgers have the best farm system, right? It's marketing BS.