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mac9001

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Posts posted by mac9001

  1. While the return doesn't blow me away I think people are vastly underrating Thorpe. The kid has some elite numbers that tend to transfer over to the big leagues. Zavala as a 19 year old put up a .420 OBP in low A ball and played CF. 

     

    Thorpe probably slides in as our #2 and Zavala might be our #4 best prospect and probably no lower than #5.

     

    Note: I do believe Schultz will probably be out best pitching prospect by end of year, but right now you have to put Thorpe slightly ahead of him on production alone.

    • Like 3
  2. 6 minutes ago, Timmy U said:

    Matter of taste. I simply do not care for rhp that throw 90-92, who's best pitch is a change. Track record in the last 30 years is terrible for the profile. I hope I'm wrong, but he seems like a better version of Jonathan Cannon. I mean we all celebrated dumping Mena over the fastball and he throws harder than Thorpe.  I almost put Zavala ahead of him for upside.

    Kid had a 18.6% swinging strike rate. That's some elite swing and miss stuff. 

  3. 1 minute ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

    The Sox are starting the same type of player at SS, 2B, and catcher as well.  You shouldn’t be surprised.

    Which is why my expectations are low. But given that on a long term depth chart you have to pencil in guys like Fletcher and Horn I'm not exactly feeling optimistic on long term success.

    There's a pretty good chance our entire starting 5 is not on this roster next year. That's not a recipe for sustained success or even a foundation where you can expect reasonable internal growth. 2026 might be the first year we look at the roster and say this guy may have a long term future.

    I'm relatively optimistic when it comes to prospect development but given the state of our roster and even in the most ideal conditions we probably need a few years of MLB development for the arms we have that show legitimate potential, it going to be a bleak and depressing time to be a Sox fan.

  4. 14 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:

    Wrong. That’s the whole point of Pillar being on the roster.

    For how bad the team will be, they should play Fletcher against lefties though. Development year.

    There is no point to having Pillar on the team. There's at most 1 or 2 other teams that would even consider wasting a roster spot on him. Short of about 10 games in May last year when he went on a tear Pillar likely couldn't make the cut on most teams AAA rosters.

  5. Just now, Bob Sacamano said:

    “Limited platoon at bats” as a lefty is basically a starting player with RHP being dominant. Dodgers have about 3 platoons projected on their roster at SS and 2 in the OF.

    I didn't say effective platoon ABs. Finding a lefty that can at least hit right handed fastballs and put up league average production is not a significant cost. If that's what you need to fill out your roster it's not going to strain your long term financial flexibility to go spend some money. If you can develop that internally that's great, but given all available data you can't realistically expect that from Fletcher. At this point a realistic expectation is probably a wRC+ of 75-85. In a platoon role maybe you get him up to league average, but at this point he's probably the only viable option we have for RF, so he's going to see his far share of lefties.

  6. 10 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

    I don't understand this quote from you at all.

    If Fletcher and Horn are both on the 2026 Sox wouldn't that mean they both had somewhat successful 24 and 25 seasons ? Wouldn't it also mean that the Sox could have good players they successfully traded for for another 4 years after 2025 ?

    How would that translate into any type of failure ?

    Because on a competition team with ambitions of playoff baseball guys like this don't have a roster spot. If they're on the team because they vastly outperformed expectations great. The more likely scenario is Horn bounces between AAA and the bigs filling in as an ineffective lefty and Fletcher never hits his weight and at best fills in as a 4th OFer/limited platoon ABs in a corner spot. Both extremely replaceable roles that can easily be filled by brining in a bunch of NRIs in the spring. The issue I have with the moves for these guys is you're just wasting prospect capital for seat filler. If you're gonna move young SP prospects at least consolidate and aim for quality.

    The whole off-season strategy seems to be around (poor) quantity with limited upside. It doesn't appear Getz had a lot of money to spend, but getting guys like this has minimal impact on long term success, they're easily replaceable for a minimal cost.

  7. 11 hours ago, WestEddy said:

    The original comment of mine you responded to was that Fletcher isn't a "replacement player". He's got a good glove, and has hit at every level of the minors. By picking a single lofty stat, and saying he'll never repeat it, you're not making my comment wrong. 

    His expected batting average was .225. In his limited big league at bats the only thing he's demonstrated is incredible luck. It's not just a single loft stat, it's the single best indicator of sustainable success. If you take a walk or hit a home run the outcome is not on doubt. Make weak contact (which he did a lot of) and in a small sample size the range of probabilities in incredibly wide. His xwOBA trended down with each increment AB. It's likely with another 100 PAs his average would have reverted to his expected numbers.

    Moving past his good fortunes at the plate he (on very limited opportunities) only measured out to to 30 percentile on sprint speed. Which is likely an indicator of below average range. By comparison Robert was in the 84 percentile. He may have below average sprint speed for an OF, he would be near the bottom as a CFer. Thus significantly reducing his expected FV if he's not a viable option at CF.

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  8. 2 hours ago, WestEddy said:

    Yeah, that .377 BABIP is consistent with his minor league career. Some guys just hit. I don't have to pretend that every single player will slash .000/.000/.000 to protect myself from getting disappointed. 

    There was exactly zero qualified dudes late year with a BABIP of .377. Not happening over a larger sample size. 

    • Like 1
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  9. 7 hours ago, WestEddy said:

    Fletcher put up 0.7 bWAR in 102 PAs. He is not replacement level. 

    Dude had a BABIP of .377 and and .407 against RHP. Unless he can walk on water that not happening again. He might hit just enough to be viable but anytime you depend on a player's value to be primarily derived from their defense you're going to be disappointed.

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  10. I don't have any issues with trading any of our SP prospects, but it doesn't feel like the return was adequate. The stuff wasn't there with Mena, but at his age there was a lot of time left to build a variable path to a MLB career. Honestly he was probably closer to a MLB start than Eder. 

    My issue with the Sox is they just love to waste value on replacement level players. There's always a lack or vision or strategy. If you're gonna spend prospect capital go spend it on an above average talent, then spend money to fill out the roster with replacement level talent.

    • Like 2
  11. Bush looked really solid. His fastball doesn't really pop on the gun but until that last inning it didn't seem like anyone was squaring it up. He's a big dude so I image the perceived velocity on his fastball probably plays up a bit.

  12. The problem with the Sox is a lack of a concise strategy. If they were gonna spend $80-100M in free agency next year I could kind of understand why they held onto so many assets. But seems like they're just setting themselves up for another sell year next year and at likely a lower return. The return for Burger wasn't half bad, but I feel if there was anyone offering more for Vaughn you do that in a heartbeat. It just feels like TA, Cease, Vaughn, Bummer and Eloy are all likely to get traded by the deadline next year, so why not just do the fill tear down now.

  13. I will say if you're going to drop a guy like Jonathan Stiever off the list due to injuries but keep guys like Pallette and McDougal it seems a bit hypocritical. Is the assumption Stiever won't recover from his injury or that his struggles prior to surgery were not related? I'm just not sure how you can justify any ranking on someone who hasn't thrown a pitch in pro ball and is coming off TJS.

  14. If you build it they will come. Build a world class facility and surround it with dinning, drinking, entertainment, shopping, and lodging and the Sox could outdraw the Cubs. The northwest burbs are densely populated and fairly affluent. That's a good basis for a season ticket fan base. You could do it somewhere else, but the Bears have enough land for 4 stadiums, so jump on the bandwagon out of town and make a deal.

     

     

  15. Really solid draft. Love the arms and there's at least intrigue with the Seniors. Comine this year's stock with some of the other young arms and the laws of baseball say we should at least hit on a few. At least we're laying the ground work for a home grown future rotation. The Sox don't have a single home grown (drafted) product in the rotation and Davis Martin probably finds himself in a bullpen role. 

  16. 1 hour ago, Tnetennba said:

    JR could invest around Sox Park.  He always could.  He doesn’t want to.   Same with the United Center.  He’s content raking in parking dollars in his sweetheart stadium lease deal.  The threat of the Sox leaving any time soon is non-existent.  The Bears bailing on the city because the city won’t cater to them with tax dollars/breaks has absolutely nothing to do with the White Sox.  There is zero connection there.  The Bears moving to the burbs was of their own volition.  

    The moment the Sox have a competent management team with a vision they'll pursue a new stadium strategy. The South side is not attractive as a development site. AH was a nice sweet spot for the Bears. They managed to aquire a crap ton of land that will be worth multiples of it's current value with proper development and it can be reasonably accommodated with a public transport link to the CTA and an existing Metra stop. The Sox may not find that in Chicago, but I'm sure there's an opportunity somewhere in this country that's infinity more attractive than 35th and Shields.

    If the city wants to keep the Sox the solution won't be a south side stadium. Not sure how feasibility you can turn Solider Field into a baseball stadium but they better start getting creative.

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  17. 5 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

     

    The Bears leaving Chicago is going to make the Sox a whole shitload of money on their next stadium deal.  They will bend the city of Chicago over a barrel to stop them from being the second team in a decade to leave.  Last I knew the Sox are locked in through 2033, but they will get what they want.  Tis the Chicago way.

    The time to leverage that is now. If I was the Sox and the play was to bend the city over now would be the time to engage the Bears and make a potential exit as real as possible.

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