mac9001

I'm not particularly pleased with starting 4 guys in Charlotte's rotation that will struggle to get anyone out.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Feb 13, 2018 -> 12:59 PM) Consider? This was the case all of last season. I actually meant to say 9 bullpen arms. With the flexibility Leury, Saladino & Sanchez provide I would consider putting a hard cap of 6 innings per start on the young arms and just trot out a new bullpen arm every inning.

I would imagine Ryan Cordell would need to really impress to the break camp with the team. Since he missed a big chunk of last year I figure he'll need to show at least 100 quality PAs to justify getting the a roster spot. With the roster flexibility Leury, Saladino, Sanchez, Delmonico & Davidson provide I wonder if the Sox would consider carrying 8 bullpen arms. In that case I would assume Cordell is the most likely to start in Charlotte. Anyone have any hope Engel will hit enough to justify a big league job?

A lot of the OF crunch will probably take care of itself. I just hope the Sox look to rid themselves of some dead weight (Hawkins, May). If they get in the way of ABs, just send them to the bench and keep them there.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 30, 2018 -> 08:43 PM) Right now I think the OFs shake out like this: A. A+ AA LF: Gonzalez. Rutherford. Fisher CF: Robert. Basabe. Polo RF: Dedelow. Adolfo. Jimenez 4th: Destino. Call. Hawkins I fully expect Polo, Basabe, & Robert to move up a level after about six weeks and remain the primary CF at their respective levels. I think Call & Gonzalez also move up around that time, with someone from extended spring training getting promoted to Kannapolis. It's time for Hawkins to give pitching a shot. If we need to find him ABs we might as well just cut him. Polo, Fisher & Call should be pushed up a level if necessary to alleviate any AB crunch. But I think you pretty much nailed the opening day lineups.

QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Jan 30, 2018 -> 04:20 PM) This I personally expect him to put up a season similar to his 2015 and 2016 seasons, which would be worth a non-tender in 2019. Most were shocked he was tendered in 2017. Most people forget that. Exactly. My guess is he regresses offensively. I expect his number to be closer to 15/16 than 17, which when combined with his defense will make him a below average RFer. Given his expected salary in arbitration, I expect we'll have a serious debate if he's worth the money.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jan 29, 2018 -> 03:16 PM) I see basically no scenario that Avi is here for the "long haul". If there was a bookie taking bets I'd feel more comfortable putting my money on Avi being non-tendered next off-season then getting a big extension.

Big fan of the list, awesome all around work. I personally just have this gut feeling Hansen is going to be an absolute beast. I watched a ton of his games last year in WS (MILB.TV) and the dude just looked unhitable for the first 3-4 innings than fatigue would set in and he'd get hit around a bit or his command would suffer. But when he was on he just appeared to be in total control. When I watched Kopech I never quite had that same feeling. The dude's stuff is unreal, but he just seemed to throw so many pitches that weren't anywhere near the zone it never seemed like really knew where the ball was going once it left his hand. One guy I've been looking forward to seeing again is Luis Martinez. I caught one of his games last year and the dude was just whipping guys out with his breaking ball. Dudes would swing and miss the ball by a foot. I'd love to see 3 or 4 more starts to get a better gage of his stuff but that once game left a lasting impression.

I will say this: I wouldn't even think of trading Kopech for Whitley, or say Hansen for Keller. I also feel pretty good about a lot of the guys in our system that could potentially become top 100 prospects, even guys like Adolfo or Basabe could quickly find themselves on a list if they start to produce given their tools. In addition guys like Spencer Adams or Jordan Stephens will never see a top 100 list, but I feel pretty good about both of those guys being MLB starters. Having several internal cost controlled back-end starting pitcher options is probably worth more than a top 100 prospect. Over the rebuild if we don't have to spend a single penny on the rotation I'll feel pretty good about our chances to compete.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 20, 2018 -> 11:40 AM) Wait am I reading this right or did you describe the Democrats as "little interest in running a functional government"? Republicans.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 20, 2018 -> 12:20 AM) They need to get 60 votes to keep the government open. They had 2 bills that could pass, guaranteed, with 50 votes, per Senate rules. They could have structured them any way they want if they were budget-neutral after 10 years. Those were the 2018 and 2017 budget resolutions. The GOP used the 2017 Budget resolution bill, stripped the details out, and put their Affordable Care Act repeal bill in that hulk. It only got 49 votes. The GOP used the 2018 Budget Resolution bill, stripped the details out, and put their tax cut package in that bill. That left them with no 50 vote budget resolution bill that could be used to pass a budget. So, they now need 10 Democratic votes + 1 for every one they lose of their own. What I was trying to say is they should held off on budget reconciliation until they got everything they wanted (including obamacare repeal) and made a deal with Democrats to fund the government. Instead the they blew their load and now have to figure out how to govern with a party that's that has little interest in running a functional government. Throwing the Dens DACA would have been a low price to pay. The one person in all of this I would have expected to do his best keep the government open was Trump, but he seems content sitting on the sidelines to watch this dumpster fire.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 20, 2018 -> 12:09 AM) Bigger policy deals are going to be tough to pull off with all the infrastructure money given away to tax cuts for corporations and the Top 1%. There's no shortage of buyers for US treasury debt. You can give away 10 trillion more and it won't stop a trillion dollar infrastructure plan if policy and politics align. The GOP doesn't have to worry about our fiscal state 10 years from now, they just need to get 50 votes in the senate, add trillion more to the debt and maybe you can at least hold onto the senate come the fall.

The longer this goes the more blame will fall on Trump, Ryan and McConnell. It's astonishing a party holding the presidency and both chambers of congress would allow their window of governance to be limited because of a funding bill. Every day this goes on significantly reduces their chances of passing any legislation of substance. You don't get opportunities like this often and wasting months just to keep the government funded instead of using your majority position to advance conservative policy is just an epic failure. They should have taken the political hit, made some deals and moved on to bigger policy goals.

Send Fisher to AA to start the year. Basabe in center, Adolfo in right, Call in left. Booker can fill in and rotate with those guys at DH. Kanny starts with: Rutherford, Robert, Gonzalez and Dedelow There's probably 3-4 more OFers that could use some ABs in Kanny, but they probably stay in Arizona until space opens up. Guys like Fisher, Call, Dedelow, Polo and Gonzalez should be pushed at the first sign of sustained success.

It would make for good TV if they just randomly throw a new guy out there every 5th day. Covey, Danish, Cooper, Guerrero, Stephens, Adams, next man up. I'm going to be optimistic and say Rodon is ready by May. Just throw Covey or Danish out there and let them take a beating for a few turns.

QUOTE (cjgalloway @ Jan 5, 2018 -> 06:25 PM) Does Stephens remind anyone else of Buehrle? Not great stuff. Not tons of K's, not high on our prospect list but just always gets the job done.. No I'm not advocating he is Buiehrle, I'd be happy with a 5th starter role or BP from him. I just see some similarities Buehrle in his short stint in AA averaged 5.2 K/9. Stephens so far has put up 9.0, 9.9, 8.2 K/9 on his three stops. In the last 6 games of the season he put up 10.5 K/9. He's not just some soft tossing innings eater. This dude has actually show a fairly impressive ability to punch guys out. My money is on Zavala having a massive season.

Seby Zavala emerges as our best catching prospect. Jordan Guerrero sticks as a MLB starter. Zack Burdi makes an early comeback and dominates. Ryan Cordell is our starting RFer by July.

His numbers really aren't that bad. He made 59 appearances last year (56 IP), in 46 of those appearances he did not allow a run (44.2 IP). 8 times he only allowed 1 run (7.1 IP). He had 5 bad outings, over those 5 bad outings he pitched a total of 3 IP and gave up 16 ER (including 4 ER three times). So he gave up 1 ER or less 91.5% of the time. He did blow 7 saves, but in four of those he only gave up 1 ER and three of them came in the month of July. Would I want him as my setup guy if I'm shooting for a pennant? Probably not. But he's a solid set-up option and he was just added to the worst bullpen in baseball. Given the 3 year commitments pen arms are getting I can't find anything to complain about given the cost to acquire these guys.

I'm fine giving all our AAA/AA arms a chance to see if anyone sticks. You get 5 starts, if you look like Covey you get a ticket back to Charlotte and next man up. The ideal scenario is we find enough internal talent to fill out the rotation and throw all our money next year into short-term deals to fix the bullpen.

Really surprising they didn't draft an arm. Makes you think they're going to sign some proven big league arms to fill out the bullpen.

Unless they spend $60 million on the bullpen and find a semi competent starter I'm betting on more losses in 2018 than 2017. As of right now Fulmer and Covey (maybe) are our 4th and 5th starters and James Shields is the staff ace. Short of Nate Jones nobody else in the bullpen deserves a major league job. Unless there's some serious cash thrown around this could be pretty ugly. I could easily see us running 10-15 different starting pitchers out there this year.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 27, 2017 -> 10:00 AM) Man, I thought I was high on Zavala at 15/16-ish. I'm probably more bullish on him than Collins. If he stops hitting I may change my mind but he hasn't yet. I watched him absolutely crush a few balls in WS this year. There's not many people on the planet that can launch the way he did on a few of those balls.

1 Eloy Jimenez 2 Michael Kopech 3 Alec Hansen 4 Luis Robert 5 Dylan Cease 6 Zack Collins 7 Jake Burger 8 Dane Dunning 9 Blake Rutherford 10 Spencer Adams 11 Seby Zavala 12 Gavin Sheets 13 Jordan Guerrero - Absolutely asinine he's not protected 14 Zack Burdi 15 Jordan Stephens 16 Casey Gillaspie 17 Ryan Cordell 18 Carson Fulmer 19 Micker Adolfo 20 Luis Gonzalez 20 Luis Alex Basabe 21 Jake Peter 22 Thyago Vieira 23 AJ Puckett 24 Bernardo Flores 25 Aaron Bummer 26 Lincoln Henzman 27 Alex Call 28 Jameson Fisher 29 Ian Clarkin 30 Tito Polo

There's a new independent minor league ballpark coming to Rosemont. If there was ever an opportunity to buy a team and keep it close to home that might a a decent start.

Giolito looked solid, first start i've seen him this year where his command looked really sharp. He pitches like that and he'll be alright in the bigs.