Chisoxfn

In fairness - if you are in contention, yes, when you aren’t contending I think you can do more of this to see what flexibility exists and how to stretch people or try to get them there over time cause in grand scheme those mistakes while they can cost you games - are acceptable given fact we are not contending for anything - as long as it fits within a clear plan and they are doing those things to teach amd develop.

Agree. I’m giving Vargas as much time at 3rd as possible.

Best case he gets hot and you maybe get a reliever type of prospect for him. In meantime at least he is here to kind of protect the rest of the arms. Vaughn was gone no matter what at end of the year anyway.

*KNOCK ON WOOD*

This is fantastic - timing is great too. I want to see stadium deal announce at 79 or alternate site in Chicago by end of year with 29 opening date. Means we should see them spend in 28 offseason and maybe even in 27 offseason heading into 28 - so they are dialed in and excited for new stadium etc. Timing lines up well with rebuild cause him coming in now and spending massive money while exciting probably would be too soon to blow the wad - in another year / 2 - hopefully system continues to depend and major league roster has added some attractive pieces from system including some guys making it up this year.

The Crochet trade on paper is looking pretty good early - for both teams - but Sox needed positional talent and while Montgomery is slumping, he is high upside and high character and Meidroth isn’t sexy but a damn solid ball player and OBP machine and Teel looks like a potential long time stud catcher. Hopefully we are even more excited a year from now about those three and I’m still thinking Wiki can be a solid reliever in time.

Id take him back - but I am a thibs fanboy!

Isn’t this as simple as they want to make sure him and quero are both getting lots of reps and at bats? Teel the better catcher but having him get time at 1B isn’t a bad thing either to keep him fresh too.

This - it really feels like to work with JR you kind of have to understand what makes him ticks and than really push he right way to get him on board with your strategy and build the right paths forward. I think to Getz credit - he has basically reserved money for investing in new coaching, enhanced developmental methods, changes across development programs...but very little in the way of major league money, if anything he's almost said - Jerry - I feel strongly about this and so much so that I'll actually underspend at big league level to show you the value. When over time it works, he builds the trust and moves on. But also - he has to know where JR has specific lines in the sand (ie long term deals to pitchers, 500M long term contracts) and basically build a sustainable org that fits those parameters - not one that is naive and pretends that somehow they can convince other way or live on 50 cents vs. the dollar. JR will spend money -but not in the way all of us want - and therefor Getz has to understand that and build a sustainable view that works within JR's framework (which I think with right leader and approach can happen - but in fairness - it isn't the easiest way).

I was totally wrong on Robert.

In fairness - I presume and hope the club has him working on something different. I would expect a step back with different while he gets himself to that point - now the real question is in time will different trend up. If it did and if Colson and Vargas continue in their trend, my optimism of this org would significantly improve. I'm not ready to say that until I see Colson continue on this upward streak for another handful of months and to see Vargas finish the year hammering the ball...but both of those would be very good examples of actual development the team has done which is two more than I could point to on the positional slide in the past 5+ years (if not the last decade).

Nothing would be better than Vaughn making the necessary adjustments down there and coming back a new player. Same with Elko- apply what you need to from your brief cup of coffee to be better prepared for when you come back up. This worked for Torkelson…let it work for AV.

He would be welcome back here - let him get innings and see if he can regain his stuff: if he can - you deal him.

Tony - I really like the idea. I think the one inherent bias to the deal is larger market teams clearly would have an advantage because you can probably help them negotiate / obtain bigger advertising / non team related pay which would put an inherent advantage to Chicago, LA, New York, etc. I would think you'd have to find a way to normalize for that.

If anything - don't make the $ equal - so you are giving more money to the worse teams - teams can trade "draft" money for the value and optimize accordingly. It would certainly be interesting to say the least. My guess is it would end up in a bigger disparity of have and have nots in terms of players - more of the higher end prospects will get a larger swath of the pool and than a bunch of guys on minimum deals. But essentially with a pool tied to where you would "pick" you essentially create a free market view of the draft.