LDF

as much as I want to have the sox prospects to succeed. I hate to say this, I do not believe that Thompson will develop to his projected potential. at this stage and comparing age, Danks is the better player.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 12, 2014 -> 12:34 AM) IMO, some team will try to get this done before the full free agent period starts in early December so that they don't have to worry about the qualifying offer decisions, but not too much before then. They also won't want the press releases stomped by the World Series. Mid November for these international guys, that's when Abreu signed last year. thanks a very good point.

re: Tomas, when will be the final decision be made. is there a timeline? about any other int'l players?

no matter what posters have to say, whether it is bad or good. the 2005 world championship ring wipes the history clean. KW, is still young, he may want another challenge like most people would. Why not?

right now, I am for saving the top 3 pitchers and then wait to see what the sox brass will do later. if the sox make it to the playoff, a 3 man rotation in the playoff can go a long way. let put the sox top 3 against any other team top 3. sox will have a slight edge. however, if the sox were in for trading a pitcher, the rtn haul will be HUGE!

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 10:55 PM) There you go. So Law says that with Montas quickly emerging into a front-line starter prospect, the Sox will have 4 in the top 100 (Montas plus presumably Anderson, Rodon and ?). So that brings up a good question - do we move Quintana or [gasp] Sale to bring in some top flight positional talent? I hate to splits hairs with you, but did you fully read the whole article? while Law is high on Montas, he did mention that he is still struggling with the 3rd pitch. at the end, he mention something about worst case is Montas is a RP, but he like the sox system of helping their prospects. then again I may have misread the article.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 09:43 PM) Four top 100 prospects, wonder who is #4 with Rodon, Anderson, & Montas. Basically has to be Hawkins, Micah Johnson, or Danish. another name to put with those 3 is I believe Adams.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 10:54 PM) Yeah, what has that bum done for us lately. We never even heard anything about that 1b he scouted last offseason, that must have wound up as a disaster. some poster may take this as being a real response.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 05:05 AM) This is just not true. While many scouts and people around baseball questioned Abreu's bat speed and athleticism, there are also some who compared him to Pujols and Cabrera. Looking in the predictions thread on this forum, even some folks came close in their Abreu projections. Let's be honest here, KW does not have psychic ability, even he didn't see this coming from Jose. If he did, our bid would be much higher. The contract we are paying him is that of an above average first basemen. QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 07:32 AM) What? He was essentially the best hitter in Cuban history. Some scouts had doubts about his transition, but the potential for a star hitter was always known. Secondly, a TON of us were very hopeful of signing him from day one because the situation was ripe for it -- we had low payroll commitments, had a franchise icon 1B announcing his retirement, were looking to spend on high-end talent without draft pick compensation attached thanks to being in year one of a rebuild, and all the teams that could outspend us had long-term, expensive solutions at 1B already. Every team in the ML had eyes on him, but the Sox were in the best position to spend and the best position to be the team that ultimately took the gamble. It was an obvious fit from day one. all that that was posted here is correct. I am talking about outside this forum. the rest of the baseball world in the professional ranks, they did not see this coming. if they did, they would have outbid the sox. the word potential has a double edge sword with different meaning.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 04:57 AM) He's also the head of the research and development division of the British Secret Service. wow I am slow, it took me a day to figure this out. wow, I must be really tired. great post.

I really had a problem with the bleacher rpt and I couldn't put my finger on it, until now. what pisses me off is why did they not submit their list of the 10 prospect. not only several names. so who else is on that list or better yet, who was left off and why? how can we as fans find a line that be gaged.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 01:15 AM) For us, he stops being a prospect when we have someone with better prospects who needs the 40 man roster spot or he runs out of options. here is example to shoot me in the foot, was / is carroll a prospect at 29?

I am not a stat guy so I might be really out of my element here. let me start by saying that I am not a fan of DV since the 2 or 3 yr playing. fast forward, today, I keep hearing how bad he is. well you are all correct, however lets look at the 1 thing that is positive about him ..... it is his power and 21 hrs this season. a lot of players can not crack 15 let alone 20. he is what 25 yrs old. is he going to get better, I don't think so. but lets look at a different way. is he the only one who has 500 at bats, hit 15+ hrs and batting 230. NO, there are many. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/stats/players...ategory-batting

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 12:52 AM) There were plenty of teams on Abreu. If the big boys in Boston and NY and Anaheim ,Magic Johnson land and the northside of Chicago needed a 1B, his price would have gone a lot higher, and he probably is playing somewhere else. Balta acts like KW discovered Abreu on some back field. The signing was JR. Hahn is supposedly the GM. If he is, let him do his job without interference. let be honest, the signing of Jose A was a huge surprise and a very pleasant one. no one and I mean no one would have imagine Jose A would be a huge success. now If I remember correctly, KW saw him, liked him and then called JR. now here is the wildcard. why did JR take it upon himself to go and outbid everyone to sign him. also didn't he outbid by 10 mil. the sox got very lucky, plain and simple.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 11, 2014 -> 12:26 AM) No. You taught me yesterday that Abreu playing better than his salary is because of the manager. BTW, if JR listened KW's dollar figure for Abreu, he is playing somewhere else. here is a question, can you trust Hahn in being able to recognize talent. kw went out and view Jose A and other prospects as well. all we know is Hahn can evaluate the talent. we do not know if Hahn can go out and view the talent.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 03:07 PM) 3-4??? Really? On average, who hits on 3-4 draft picks? You have unrealistic expectations. I think that is me and I will also add greedy. this is another point I believe, if the sox saved more money with other drafted players, that money saved would go toward the signing of Rodon, esp with his agent demanding more.

here is question, at what point does a prospects stop being a prospects. at what age. Thompson, is 23 and will be 24 next season. is he still really a 4 tool player?

when sosa was traded from the sox, he was not the build he had when he started to hit all those hrs. so he knew the right ..... ummm .... vitamins, proper workout and proper dietary menu to help him become what he became.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 11:22 PM) Makes sense. He'd have more money to work with. No biggie either way. I never liked KW. however I will admit he helped bring the sox that championship ring. so by this default, I could go either way on being happy he is going or happy he is being recognize as a good viable GM.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 08:08 PM) The next time the White Sox have too many starters will be the first. I agree with the second point. If they don't think he can crack the rotation but could help relieving, I think he gets moved to the bullpen. His being so gung ho about it will probably eventually seal his fate, unless he just shows he is more than just a back end guy. I like the idea of Bassitt being able to start. if the worst case happens, an injury to a starter, Bassitt can spot start until the pitcher gets better. also sometime a pitcher is needed for a spot start. Bassitt can be that kind of pitcher.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 01:44 AM) I'll just add this (minor league development) is a much better working model for middle and third tier payrolls. With the Red Sox, they had the money to spend their way out of the problem by bringing in Napoli, Victorino, Uehara, Drew, etc. They also had the financial flexibility being one of the top 2-3 payrolls to buy their way out of the Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford deals...whereas the White Sox couldn't even escape from either Danks OR Dunn, at least until this point. that was a point many yrs ago, that kw said of JR, that if JR wanted to, sox could pay / sign fa's like the other owners. the point is, JR did not want to b/c he wanted to work within a budget.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 02:21 PM) This is why I hate these rankings. Yes, it's nice to know who is the best, who is the worst, and where do they rank otherwise, but as a White Sox fan, our only concern should be "is the White Sox collective pool of talent increasing and are there going to be significant contributors to the MLB team?" The answer to both is yes. i really hate piggybacking on other opinions but here i need to. a long time ago, when jon rauch (sp) was ranked #1 in all of the 100 prospect list, many posters were talking him up. i was involve in a huge argument on the sox system. i am a firm believer that the system while it is great to have a very highly rated system is to feed the major league team. many yrs laters, i still believe in that. whether it is thru advancement or to use them, smartly thru trades to get the necessary pieces.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 12:28 PM) This was written at a time when he was in the Red Sox system and before the Peavy trade last summer. Quite a few prospect gurus and pundits NOW have him projected as one of the most electric young starters in the minors right now...and a strong showing in the AFL will bump him onto many Top 100 lists in the 75-90 vicinity, with the possibility of advancing to 30-50 with dominance at the much tougher AA level at some point in 2015. and while I agree with you, look at the last rpt on him. he is still working on the 3rd pitch, and the other stats needs more help. don't get me wrong. I am a fan of his.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 11:54 AM) http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2202809...-season/page/10 Obviously, 50% of this is due to Rodon's presence alone, but the article nicely sums up the progress this year of Anderson, Hawkins, Montas, Danish and Adams, as well as Micah Johnson. (Whether you agree or disagree, Danish is already being placed here on the "future bullpen piece" list instead of being viewed as a starter, at least for the moment.) So, despite the "disappointments" with Semien, Daniel Webb, Erik Johnson, Davidson...and that earlier "core" group of outfielders in Walker/Thompson/Mitchell, things are looking up for the moment. considering the graduation of Semien and no mention of Micah Johnson and Sanchez I think the system is higher than I thought it would be.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 10, 2014 -> 12:18 PM) We don't have to worry about that...we have him for another 4 seasons. As far as a potential replacement, you're looking at either Micah Johnson or Tim Anderson, if he can refine his OBP skills. Carlos Sanchez is another possibility, although I'm 99% sure it would be one of those first two guys, at least from the players currently in our system. Semien would be the 4th choice. good point.