Chisoxfn

i'm not giving up the 7th pick to get Parson and the 4th pick. Parsons makes us irrelevant in next years free agency class. I'm okay with that, but we are getting the 4th pick and keeping our 7th pick and all of our primary assets. They can have a Bobby Portis or Denzel and nothing more. I don't see Memphis making that deal. Now I'd probably do the 22 for Parsons and the 4th. Parsons deal is awful and basically means we have a few more years of building through the draft.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is a rebuild and you can't live and breathe by the box scores. You need to take a step back and just let "time" play its course. Don't get overly worked up at the up's and down's because you have to be patient in the process. It might be that everything turns into garbage but it also might be that everything turns out. But if you aren't patience and willing to allow players to develop, you'll see a lot less guys "pan out" in our organization because the reality is most players need time to develop. Gio has issues but he also has flashed potential. It has been a rough year for him but he's working with one of the best pitching coaches in the business and the org needs to be patient with him and I see no reason to rush to immediate judgement one way or the other. If you are talking about "fringy" guys who are blocking other high-talented players, okay, I can buy that to some extent, but in the case of Gio, there is no reason why we shouldn't be patient. I will say the same thing about Moncada and Tim Anderson as well.

I'm with you, I will not root for our rival. I suppose there is a concept of our region performing well and therefor indicating the strength of the region, but basically put, I want them to have another loss right out of the group stage (get out of group and than loose like they do every 4 years). On Swiss, I thought the refs were pretty quick on the whistle with Neymar. Obviously soccer has flopping but a lot of "soft" calls, imo.

Does Cleveland have cap space? I hope Durant opts out and goes somewhere else. Would make NBA much more interesting.

Three episodes in and I gave up on that show. Awful.

I don't even know if it was a foul. It was a horrid call.

It was a borderline play but I can't see how you overturn that call. Either way, George Hill hits that free throw and we might not be talking about any of it. Poor Lebron...man that dude is special.

Exactly...that is legitimately what terrifies me the most of that prospect...especially given the fact that the car stopped one time at X difference and than couldn't repeat that functionality. The whole thing seemed extremely odd. I will say I don't follow consumer reports regularly but when I am in the market for a car, I typically read all of the various publications to see what people are saying about all the models in the class I'm interested in buying and I've never read an article that had the tone in it that the consumer reports one had around stopping distance (as well as some other issues). I've seen lots on more long-term follow-ups where there are issues...but again, some of the things that CR was commenting on (and Edmunds as well) were just fundamentally bad.

I got to say...kudos to them. It still makes me wonder how a car went from one braking distance to bad and back to good all from a minor OTA update. I think that is a scary factoid.

Until now, that type of remote improvement to a car’s basic functionality had been unheard of. “I’ve been at CR for 19 years and tested more than 1,000 cars,” says Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, “and I’ve never seen a car that could improve its track performance with an over-the-air update.”

Gotcha - That said, I would still go back and say that if you asked those Trump voters who purely voted on party lines...whether they support trump or not...you might get one answer (no0, but if you asked them whether they would vote for Hillary or Trump...I think a lot of them still say Trump (purely going back to the whole party line thing). Not because they like him or anything else...rather they just view having a republican in office (no matter how much they dislike him) makes it more likely that broadly speaking they get more policies they like (and please don't jump at this comment with the...well that makes you x or y). I know that is the obvious answer but making closet statements about a broad group of people is just not appropriate (imo).

I definitely recognize that...but I think it is a pretty scary thing that they are putting out a car that up-front does not meet critical safety issues and has major failures. It is the scary thing about innovating with vehicles. It's one thing if my computer got the blue screen of death (think Windows 95 or whatever operating systems)...its another if my car gets the blue screen of death or shudder that thought literally can't stop properly. I also very much question how an OTA update solves a breaking issue...and if OTA can solve the issue...the next question is what can hackers do? I think of brakes as being pretty mechanical components...yes some electronics involved...but cars stopping has a lot to do with the ultimate equipment. I think it is a real issue Tesla has and why ultimately I view Tesla being a component / technology company vs. a car company. It is absolutley incredible what they have done and how they have innovated, but I don't believe they have world class QC and safety standards in process because it probably holds back "innovation" and to me that is a scary thing. Long term, they will get there...but I think when done right they will be providing world class components across the auto industry with those companies manufacturing the cars running it through their world class QC systems. I will caveat that I am not implying that other car companies are perfect either and I'm not knocking Elon Musk. The things that make him and Tesla great are also the things that will inherently lead to these type of weakness. Very hard to accomplish both, imo.

Agree with everything you said. I'm 100% okay leaving him up in the majors but also am not opposed to a move to the minors (I certainly don't think that spells the end of his career). The reality is for many prospects / young players, the jump to the majors is filled with adversity and it takes time to overcome those struggles. Some will overcome and others will not, but this team has the luxury to be patient and should be patient. To be frank, I think a key factor in the Sox lack of player development (albeit far from the only factor) is the fact that they didn't have the "luxury" or "willingness" to be patient with its young players and allow them to develop. Far too often it seemed like the young players the Sox brought up (back when we were trying to contend on the fly) were brought up with the full intention of putting the team over the top and if we didn't get instant rewards, the players would get bounced around, etc. It was a flawed philosophy which did not instill confidence and really enable a player to "go through the motions" to ultimately grow, thrive and excel at the big league level.

He is very intelligent, but unfortunately right now his mechanics are an absolute mess and it is likely that his confidence is as well. I know there is the option discussion, but at this point, I don't think sending him down to the minors would be the worse plan. Give him a distinct plan and allow him to work on his improvements at the minor league level while hopefully building up his confidence. Part of the rebuild will be the fact that some of our better prospects won't pan out and that is natural..at the same time we have to hope we identify a few stars, develop a good number of guys as well as hit on some diamonds in the rough. All I know is I personally like Giolito from just the overall individual perspective and will be pulling for him. Gavin Floyd had his struggles before becoming a quality arm (not great arm). The reality is Giolito was not the prospect he once was when he was acquired and he was always going to be more of a project than fans thought (as we all latched on to his previous hype), but the talent exists and he has flashed stuff at times (including even last year) but he's out of whack right now and he needs to get his confidence and mechanics back. Who knows if the fastball will reappear but he's worth being patient with (imo). Plus it isn't like we have a bunch of guys who he is holding back. I still feel better about Gio than I do Fulmer (who is just a cruel reminder that top picks in baseball are anything but guarantees).

Chili I'm sure you've already seen this...but interesting report on Consumer Reports not giving the new Tesla a recommendation. Most of it stemming back to very poor brake / stopping performance. Other issues as well (basically it sounds like a very buggy 1st generation product)..albeit they do highlight that the car is fun to drive. Additionally, from what I've read online...Consumer Report isn't the only one to have major issues when reviewing the actual vehicle (Edmunds hasn't had many good things to say about it as well). https://jalopnik.com/consumer-reports-says-it-found-big-flaws-with-the-tesla-1826198783

I know the Bulls have implied otherwise, but I think they quietly will test the waters with Lebron / Kwahi. I don't see how you can't at least check. The team is probably still away and the reality is we are headed for another very high pick (presuming all we do is draft someone @ 7 and 22).

See my follow-up post just below this one. The White Sox will not succeed, imo, if they don't make these their strengths. They don't have the ability to "buy" talent and thus they need to effectively identify and develop talent. That will be where the road hits the rubber on Hahn and the entire White Sox organization.

Yes - Top picks don't drive teams to the top of the league...strong player development and scouting does. Period. End of story. All the #1 picks in the world don't matter if you can't draft and develop talent. This isn't the NBA where a franchises fate can change with one right draft pick...it just isn't. If the Sox are going to have sustained success, they need to do it with a long-term winning program of identifying the right talent and developing such talent. If you do that, you are going to be solid...from there, you obviously need to leverage FA and trades effectively. While Hahn has accumulated a lot of talent via trades, we haven't had a proven track-record of drafting and developing talent. I want to see us generate a top 5-10 farm system on a regular basis based upon us drafting and developing players as well as effectively leveraging international free agency. To do that effectively, you need to spend money on the best scouts, best coaches, best programs, etc. Look at the Dodgers...yes they have more money but they also have drafted and developed extremely well and they have invested heavily in their front office, scouts and analytics programs. Ditto for Boston and the Yankees. Maybe 5-10 years ago those big spending teams had a major competitive advantage with deep pockets in international space, but that is gone too. The competitive balance / positioning for young talent is economic neutral (in the sense that big money teams don't have a major advantage over smaller payroll teams) and with that it all comes down to the teams with the best ability to identify and develop talent and if you are really good at that, you are going to consistently have good rosters. Than you need to have the right front office to be able to aggressively and effectively bolster your major league roster via trades / free agency (within your budget). The real mark on Rick Hahn is going to be 3-5 years ago do we have a farm system which is effectively producing quality major league talent (without being supplemented from trading a couple highly effective and talented players with below market contracts (i.e., Sale / Quintana / Eaton).

That to me sounds like Atlanta is possibly open to move down. Didn't see anything that that says Bulls looking to move up to 3.

I agree - Many situations where the Bulls pick next year could get pretty high. I presume Hawks would like Lavine but he's an RFA so you could go after him that way as well.

What do the Bulls have that the Hawks would want? In terms of a rebuilding franchise. You'd have to be giving up something pretty good to go all the way up to 3 (I would think).

So I just want to throw out a statistic for everyone who thinks that you have to blow things up to rebuild (by the way I think in the case of the Sox, they made the absolute correct decision) but the LA Dodgers are 10 games under .500 for the first time since 1929. Yes, they have had deeper pockets the last 15 years but still a testament of the strength quality front offices, ownership, coaches, player develoment, etc can have. I also had saw a stat that if the cardinals finish the season below .500 again this year, it would only be like the 2nd time since 1930 that they had back-to-back losing seasons.

You missed a broad category of those who don't like Hillary or democrats and just view themselves as republican period and thus vote party line (no matter what). Maybe you are bucketing them in category 1 and 3 but if you are, you are making the same mistake the democratic party did when they lost the mainstream election (essentially talking down and berating an entire sub-set of people). I'd also argue that the inverse largely applies as well. For people to not think that party line voting exists and is, than they are delusional, imo. This is coming from someone who did not vote party line by the way in the last presidential election and who is no longer a registered republican. All that said, I'm far from a registered democrat too.

Bulls trade pick and others for Kwahi....sign Cousins (taking a chance) and build around those two plus Dunn, Lauri, etc.

Technically didn't Davidson have a pretty good walk rate in the minors, so it was more that last year's walk rate was an abberation from his historical levels. Davidson clearly has made strides and part of this rebuild is being able to give guys who have some potential time to see how they adjust. Kudos to Davidson because I never saw him even having the career he's already had at the major league level. Good to see him making progress from year 1 in the bigs to year 2 and hopefully we see more of that and have found a nice LT piece in the lineup.