GreenSox

As a proud member of the 2024 Optimist Club, and my optimism is all despite Pedro. Really, I haven't read a single post that suggests Pedro will help things. The only move that I consider a negative, more in what it portends than what it is, is the signing of Moustakas.

Harping on the lack of a $100M contract is a bit on the form-over-substance side. JR has still spent in the upper quartile multiple times. The Pirates' (and others') owners have not. They did offer Wheeler over 100M. And as clownish has Hahn's pursuit of Machado was, they did offer him over 100M (that dog and pony show said a lot more about Hahn than it did JR). The problem has been the FO's poor use of resources provided. While Getz is in the same lineage as KW and his sidekick Hahn, at least he doesn't have them looking over his shoulder. Now if those resources have been permanently ratcheted down, that's another story.

I like this McCullough. Doesn't walk half the world.

I've enjoyed his interesting tweets, but I thought he was just a fan. Is he a media person or something? Never mind; I confused him with Jay Cuda.

I'm intrigued by the possibilities of our starting pitching. Kopech has a TOR arm, was pretty good 2 years ago, and is on the same timeline as Cease. Soroka was a TOR guy, supposedly healthy. 1 year left on deal. Crochet has a rocket arm; hope he gets a real opportunity. Fredde is not at that level, but it will be interesting to see if his improvement sticks. If all goes well, we will have a strong staff. If only some goes well, we'll at least have strong trade capital in July.

For every NRI they add, there's a Scholtens or Tim Hill they can let go. They shouldn't have to touch any in that you mentioned (maybe Romy).

What value does a backup third baseman bring to a roster. Using a roster spot for Pedro's chemistry.

I never read Harry Potter. Perhaps that's a primer to full appreciation of talking gargoyles and angels dancing on the heads of pins.

One quibble with Mr Law. His favorite book "Jonathan Strange...." was unreadable. I threw in the towel at 100 pages. I have enjoyed other of his book recommendations.

I would think that if the Orioles asked again about Cease, it's with a substantially stronger offer than before.

Yes, I think that the #10 ranking is incongruent with his analysis. But, the best I can glean is that he thinks that there's more depth in the system. He does have positive things to say about the prospects ranked in the teens and 20s.

What does that even mean? There are probably 100 other guys who have "earned the right" to manage via sitting on a major league bench for 10 years.

I said that I surmised that JR dismissed both because the FO wasn't working together, as per one traded Burger without the other's knowledge, consent or agreement. It had nothing to do with the merits of the trade (as I surmise it). I don't disagree with your points re Burger. But in the context of so many expiring deals to dump, and a manager yelping about "culture" seemingly incessantly, I just thought it was strange and still do.

1. Montgomery 2. Quero 3. Ramos 4. Nastrini 5. Schultz 6. Eder 7. Gonzalez 8. McDougal 9. Cannon 10. Taylor 11. Leasure 12. Wolkow 13. Berroa 14. Keener 15. Rodriguez 16. Hernandez 17. Pallette 18. Oppor 19. Veras 20. Fletcher Others: Deloach, Tatum, Bush, Ellard, Shewmake, Turner, Burke, Lacombe He says that the system is the best it’s been in 15 years. And we know it’s ranked #10. But to me that’s still seems a little odd with his comments on our #7 Gonzalez (soft regular upside; 8 current top 100 players were available at that time in the draft); and Fletcher #20 (certainly Mena would have been top 10, so he can’t have liked that trade).

Law's write-up of Sox prospects is out. I could post his top 20, but I don't know if that's appropriate.

Hopefully, sooner rather than later. If all goes well, and the Sox get several bounce-backs (from the group of Moncada, Eloy, Benintendi, Cease, Kopech, Crochet, Soroka) and competence from Fletcher and improvement from Vaughn, and some approximation of a decent pen, the team could win 75-80. If they don't get any, 60 or less.

I just got the feeling that the Burger trade (KW doing it sort of behind Hahn's back) just was "the last straw" for Reinsdorf and cemented in his mind that the front office dysfunction was irredeemable. Burger was such a strange player to trade (good attitude, lots of control). I doubt the trade ever really haunts us (in the Semien/Tatis sense) but if it does, at least the culprit is gone. And we got a young pitcher in return, so good things could still happen. Edit: I just read Law's report on the Sox' top 20, and he said that the Eder (#6) trade was a "buy low" opportunity.

Yeah, but they all play good D. He could’ve gotten guys for those prices that hit a little better, but who aren’t defensively solid. this wasn’t the year to invest real $ in free agents, even if they could. And if nothing else, and there probably isn’t much else, the Sox will have a first rate defensive team out there.

Just a few thoughts on Maggs/ intriguing post. No Getz didn't use serious to push the misery down the road, but he did do a patch job: the entire Bummer trade return are patches (aren't they?); then DeJong, the catchers, Nicky Lopez. I have no complaints: complete scorched-earth isn't the answer either. These bounce-backers are more interesting than the Hahn versions. Hopefully that means more successful as well. Now Hahn's absolute worst moves were trading for veterans at their peak value. Getz hasn't made any of those moves; and doing so now would be wasting resources. As for prospect lists, the only trades that Hahn got heralded prospects in return were the trades of Eaton, Quentin, Sale, Peavy, Robertson/Frazier/Kahnle and perhaps a couple last summer. Getz, to date, hasn't traded anyone at the level of those players; nor has he received any heralded prospects. And, really, can we really fault Hahn for the returns in those trades? They weren't all A+s, and only real failure (R/F/K). And none of the heralded prosects that we got were complete wipeouts. Getz' recent trades are more along the lines of Reed for Davidson and Santiago for Eaton. Hahn went 1/2 in those deals, but the winner was a big winner. I like Law; long my favorite prospect ranker. Getz was his White Sox source when Hahn was GM, fwiw. Anyway, last summer's trades were consummated by Hahn. The drafts were Hahn. But Law's comments on improved player development is nice to hear going forward. Bottom line is that Hahn was clueless as to how to build a team. Hopefully, Getz can build a team.

Ten our so years ago, he had us ranked 12thish out of nowhere. He had some decliners still ranked, such as that pitcher we got in the Edwin Jackson trade. That ranking lasted about 1 season. Hopefully, this one has more staying power, and I think it will.

And this dude was picked right after the Sox picked Gonzalez. And he sits #5 in Baltimore's rankings (#6 per others who have Balt as the #1 system in baseball). Anyway 5 in the top 100, 2 of whom were acquired for essentially riffraff (or at least players who no longer had any value to the Sox). Have to say that Hahn did some of his best work as he was sliding out the door.

Deuce.

Kopech getting back on track is key to this season and to the future (when we inevitably trade him).

It won't make much difference if the Sox don't improve their picking. It gives them an extra pick. Like any pick, they can overslot/underslot. But in the end, if they overslot in this (or any) spot, they underslot somewhere else.

Yea being stuck with Benintendi kind of fogs up some interesting scenarios that the acquisition of Fletcher brings to stretch the roster. And he's here for 4 more years, and probably undumpable for at least another 2 years.