BamaDoc

In a completely different vein, growing up you marketed your stud pitchers. I remember Gibson, Carlton, Seaver, Ryan. The teams of my youth had Wood, Black Jack, Hoyt, Dotsun, Bannister, Burns, our five lefties, Buehrle, Garcia, Contreras. How does a team or MLB market 5 inning pitchers today? How do kids identify with the seven pitcher games of today? Personalities are marketable. With all the pitchers today, I think we will see something like running backs in the NFL where very few are studs or have longevity.

Balta, I agree. Sabathia 2012-16 was 23 million per WAR. From 8-13 he was 9 million per WAR(18 per your double). Most big contracts have not been great for the teams. Zito, Hampton, Sabathia , Cain, Santana, Felix Hernandez, Kevin Brown, Price, Hammels probably not worth it. How will Lester,Arrietta, Sale, etc finish up or look in hind site? Scherzer great, Verlander still a horse, Lester got the Cubs established but next couple years may change it. Many of these were big market clubs who spent and many before salary cap mattered. Cubs,Yanks, Red Sox were all reluctant to add because even they reached cap limits they didn't want to cross. We probably need to model more on a Brewers, Rays, A's idea with the ability to go beyond that. Bauer going year to year may one day make sense for us.

Thought I saw a discussion on another prospect(Micker?) that had a lot of injury issues that we got a extra year. Hoping here with two lost years he might qualify as he might be interesting.

I have been looking at contracts, rosterbaiting, and thinking ahead. In the last 10-15 years there has been a huge decrease in pitchers racking up innings. It is now getting rare to have guys go 200 innings compared to the past. I have seen articles addressing this but I haven't seen a breakdown of rosters and innings by starters vs pen correlated to money spent. Does it make sense to pay starters who average 5 innings and change 20 plus million? A true horse might be worth 30 ala Scherzer but if now 4/9 of games is pitched by bullens, maybe the superpen philosophy might work because a lot of those pens may not be costing 4/9 of the pitching budget.

For a team with a budget, which like it or not our team uses/has one, is spending 30 million a year spending/investing wisely? I am not being a dick, I am torn. If we wouldn't go to 30 a year for a position player like Machado, I am not sure I see them doing it for a pitcher. Google the biggest baseball contracts and many of them would cripple this franchise as the last few years of the contract are terrible or they are terrible a whole lot of the duration. Scherzer has worked but at the time I thought it was nuts. Would you want many of the big pitching contracts? Honest question. If we had a contract and performance like Darvish, I am not confident this management team would just spend past it.

AAA,AA, and A all going against ranked pitching prospects. See who shines........

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=lindgr000jac Left-handed reliever. Drafted 2nd round in 2014 with a wicked slider. Made it to the majors in one year 2015! Then barely pitched in 2016 and not at all in 17 or 18. Two TJs. Had always been a little wild with 4 plus walks per nine. Sox have brought him back semi slowly starting at AZL. Now high A and doing very well. Obviously, chronologically old for league but not really experience wise. In high A, 9 innings with no walks and 13k's. Not sure if they will push him up or what. Questions, anyone seen him and due to his injuries what is his rule 5 status? Due to his injuries, no one was going to take him in a rule 5 when he hadn't pitched but now I wonder with the pedigree and success if he is still a prospect someone might gamble upon? Due to his injuries do we get extra time without requiring putting him on the 40 man? Does he still have his raw stuff or is he no longer projectable. Cheap left-handed relievers with stuff are valuable.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=08/09/2019 https://www.milb.com/scores/whitesox/2019-08-09

DHed for AZL last night.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=08/08/2019 https://www.milb.com/scores/whitesox/2019-08-08 Lets see if Micker plays two in a row.

There are a lot of new names. In a year, most of the top will be gone. We need the new ones to perform and a lot of injury bounce backs or it will be a much weaker system.

Frare also on AZL rehab

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=08/07/2019 https://www.milb.com/scores/whitesox/2019-08-07

Laureano and Mendoza both 18 yo along with Bailey make a very interesting trio.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=08/06/2019

One could argue that the division may be easier to win than a wild card spot. Almost sure one of Yankees- Red Sox will have one wild card.

Three players in the DSL lineup have a higher BA than Bailey's .342! I know small samples, age(actually only one is old for league), one stat, but I sure like having more good looking results than a team of guys hitting .220.

https://www.milb.com/scores/whitesox/2019-08-05 https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=08/05/2019

Can Goins be sent down without going thru waivers? If a contender has an injury, they can trade a prospect for a minor leaguer. Just thinking outside, or inside, the new box. Guess could move Escobar that way as well. Won't be for much maybe a DSL type. Could do with our AAAA relievers like Minaya etc

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/prospects/stats/affiliates?date=08/01/2019 https://www.milb.com/scores/whitesox/2019-08-01

Except Nate Jones

A problem with Colome is that he will probably go to 10 million in arbitration. As some contenders wanted him as a setup man and had cap issues , that is a lot for a set up guy. Next deadline he will be owed less than half and we could pay down if we are not contending and may get something decent yet.

I asked but haven't seen a response: How much international money do we have left? Could/do we still have enough for late signings like I suggested. I discount the 22year old but maybe we actually like the 19 year old and feel that his acquisition is worth the million we weren't spending. I agree with all that we should be players in the international market. Here is a question: If we aren't going to spend/sign someone, is getting the 19 yo better than not having anything to show for that million? If they get budget relief as well wonderful. The budget relief is a tangible asset and remember this club is run on a budget so hopefully those savings go into infrastructure, analytics, players, food something other than ownership pockets.

Anyone know what we have left in the international pool for late signees?

I completely agree with you while also agreeing with Dick Allen. We should have been in on more players and should have known we were going to have a good budget. There was a recent Athletic article on this kids getting scouted and agreeing to deals at 14-15 years old. I don't know how you recommend spending millions based on an evaluation of a 14-16 year old and there are a lot of under the table dealings. I get that it is the market and therefore we should be in it but it seems crazy. With deals being done so early, I wonder if the market inefficiency lies with the "late blooming" 18 year olds that you could scoop up a bunch cheaply thus spending all or nearly all of your pool.