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Colas has a cannon for an arm also. He threw out a runner at home that was 100.9 MPH which I think was the highest in MLB last year. So this post is going to try to fill you in on as much as I can gather about Colas but it isn't easy since I don't speak Spanish and a lot of things about him are hard to find on the internet as strange as that seems. But there is a lot of strangeness in the whole Colas saga. However lets try to look at everything about him as objectively as we can while keeping in mind there is a lot as fans that we don't know about him that the coaching staff does. This is what I know. The Sox hyped him to the fan base as the opening day RF for 2023. At that time we as fans ( me especially) bought into the hype. We barely heard anything about how bad his defense was. Now the hype train is in reverse. Now we are hearing his fundamentals suck in all aspects of his game, base running, plate discipline, focus ,hitting the cutoff man from Grifol and Getz and according to Grifol he thought it was very important for him to play winter ball. Now it was Hahn mostly doing the hype train full steam ahead. But we also have to remember that Getz was in charge of preparing minor leaguers. Getz was the guy who did Project Birmingham. They did a whole series of videos on Project Birmingham and one of those videos featured Oscar Colas. I went back and watched it . Doug Sisson (Minor League Field coordinator) talked about how much time Colas and missed and also said that from talking to Colas that Colas said he was mostly a 1st base/pitcher who didnt play much in Japan. So we know he missed a lot of development time and wasn't really a RF. We also know that in preparing for the 2023 season Colas went to Miami along with Robert and Romy Gonzalez to work on mostly his hitting ( guessing this) and plate discipline with some of the Sox coaches ,Tosar and I can't remember if any other coach was involved there. So what have we seen? The Sox had all of 2022 to assess Colas fundamentals and focus on making their best hitting prospect better in all his red flag areas that Grifol is so fond of pointing out. You would have to think they were aware of these things, unless you want to chalk it up to how poor the Sox are at development, yet they still stuck him out in RF Opening Day 2023 and thought his hitting could make an impact and that his arm could make up for his lack of fundamentals in the field. Grifol also made it very clear that he thought Colas had to play winter ball which Colas decided not to do. What is not well known is that Colas' wife was in her last trimester of her pregnancy and Colas decided he'd rather be with his wife for the birth of his son. Now despite how bad Colas was in the field it's not easy to ascertain just how bad he was due to how you view defensive metrics. He certainly had his share of errors (6) which I think led all RF's. I was watching a CHGO podcast about Colas and they put up a graphic with all the Sox outfielders showing runs prevented. I have no ideas what actual defensive stat they used to determine this (wasn't DRS) . But they had the Runs Prevented for both Colas and Sheets at 0. Robert was 11 and Benintendi was at -10. DRS had Colas -4, Sheets -5 Benintendi -3 and Robert 6. OAA (Statcast Outs Above Average) and RAA (Statcast Runs Against Average) found on Fangraphs under Advanced Fielding on the players individual page are very similar and those numbers ALMOST what it seems like what CHGO was using . I say almost because most of the numbers from OAA and RAA reflect the numbers CHGO used except Sheets was a -2 in both OAA and RAA while CHGO had him at 0. Benintendi's OAA was -10 but his RAA was -9 so CHGO used his OAA. Robert's OAA was 13 and his RAA 11 so CHGO used his RAA. Colas was 0 in both OAA and RAA so no matter which one CHGO used they got it right. So there are minor discrepancies from the Runs Prevented graph that CHGO used . That's the best I could come up with. As far as his hitting goes why he was so bad is anyones best guess. The Sox DFA'd Remillard and Carlos Perez and those 2 guys actually hit better than Colas. How is that even possible? Obviously Remillard and and Perez were better at plate discipline and contact and both had way more experience facing AAA pitching but are those the only reasons ? Despite missing so much time he hit very well in A+ and better in AA and in the small sample size at AA the numbers were good. His approach against LHP was impressive in AA. He hit .362 with a .569 Slg. % against LHH in his 51 games using all fields. Most of his power came against RHP . You can seriously ask the question did his preparation in Miami prior to ST actually make him worse trying to implement what he learned or did he not apply what they were trying to teach him ? The message to Colas is clear. Work on your plate discipline and fundamentals. His performance in both seems to warrant a strong message but we don't know what else is in play here. Grifol and Colas said there was a certain amount of anxiety with Colas and Grifol wanted him to "dial down the intensity level". What we clearly don't know is how they perceived him in view of the Culture problem in the dugout. Olivia Finestead the mother of one of Mike Clevinger's children and his main accuser of domestic violent against him posted two stories involving Clevinger's teammate Oscar Colas . She captioned the first 'Meanwhile ...' showcasing Colas liking a litany of her photos. She then took a screenshot of Colas's profile, urging Clevinger to usher his colleague away. 'Mike get your teammate off my page,' she captioned the story. Make of that what you will. A lot of beautiful women get a lot of likes from many men on social media. But you do have to question Colas' judgment in doing this knowing he is a professional athlete open to high levels of scrutinization. There was also some level of frustation that Colas expressed about something around mid season. What he was frustrated with is very hard to pin down. If someone wants to take a crack at it and can provide a link, it would be appreciated. Some articles I referenced. https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-white-sox/grifol-and-getz-call-out-oscar-colas-for-lack-of-fundamentals/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/mlb/article-11977643/White-Soxs-Mike-Clevinger-avoids-awkward-question-Kanye-Wests-Gold-Digger-walk-song.html https://www.southsidesox.com/2023/9/15/23874158/chicago-white-sox-oscar-colas-no-mas-alas The last article I didn't read until after I finished writing the above but had to chuckle at the writer saying this "Or maybe he did learn. Maybe — and this is an added scare to an already scary situation — maybe the White Sox player development is so incredibly horrible that it defundamentalizes, making players unlearn what they already know, to get worse." which is a very speculative question I asked above.

Colas is actually somewhat similar to the LH OF prospects they are trying to get. Colas was ranked as high as #78 on Pipeline I think for 1 year in the minors. He obviously never had the pedigree or multiple minor league seasons as Cowser and Kjerstad nor ranked as high and without on base problem Colas had and was coming off a long period of inactivity but he ended up making the most of that 1 year as a hitter. Of course he was worse fundamentally as a fielder than most of us knew but then again what do we know about Cowser and Kjerstad's OF defense also ?

Want to give me a trade scenario that is fairly equal to what Seattle gave up and got back ?

What exactly could they have done to bring in long term contributors ? The 2 best bets to accomplish that are Cease and Robert.

That's clearly not the plan or even possible and would make 0 sense. They won't throw good money after bad on a lost cause.

Sale had 3 years of control was fairly inexpensive and had 5 straight years of finishing high in Cy Young voting. To me it's still surprising they didnt get more than they did. I mean you can make an argument the values were about the same but when you're getting one of the best pitcher in baseball with a lowish salary and 3 years of control I would expect to get more value since despite high rankings Moncada and Kopech hadn't proven anything. No matter how you determine the value of prospects they cannot be expected to perform at a Sale like rate. You hope the value eventually spreads out enough over 4 players the Sox got to fill more holes at a level of competency that requires you to fill less holes in the future but that's a huge risk. Boston's risk is that since they only got 1 player that his arm would hold up because if it does that one player could be worth more in a couple of seasons that the combined worth of prospects who often fail despite rankings and minor league accomplishments. Eaton had 3 years of control and they got the Nats top 3 pitching prospects. Q had 3.5 years of control left. Hard to rank them but I'd say Eaton, Quintana, Sale As far as which one helped the window the most Id have to say the Eaton trade since Dunning was traded for Lynn who eventually reupped with the Sox . All 3 of Giolito, Lynn and Lopez had strong seasons in 2021. Moncada's best year was 2019 before the Sox started making the playoffs. His 2nd best year was 2021. Kopech also had a nice 2021 but mostly as a reliever since 2021 was the year he came back from TJS. Eloy's best season to date was the Covid year of 2020 when he played 55 games which equaled the amount of games he played in 2021 because of injury. Cease had the breakout year in 2021 With all that the Sox probably dont even make the plaoffs in 2021 had it not been for Rodon's 1 year of $3M excellence.

TBD

Exactly. espcially ifyou have an owner who isn't willing to spend to get finishing pieces you need to win the World Series. The O's have a lot more prospects depth than the Sox ever did and theoretically that means their window will be longer. If your goal is to win the World Series that strategy may fail, if you rather just be a contender for multiple years and hope it's good enough to win a WS have at it. Their starting OF from 2023 all need to be replaced soon. They all had 2.5 or more WAR in 2023 . Can that be duplicated when plugging in prospects who often need a year or two while adjusting to MLB pitching ? The O's had the same result as the Sox in their 1st year of their playoffs. In our second year battling a bunch of injuries the only thing that sustained the Sox was the pitching of Cease, Lynn, Giolito. Rodon and Hendriks (with Rodon costing only $3M). It fell apart because Rodon was gassed. They only played .500 ball in the 2nd half and they continued to play .500 throughout all of 2022 without him. Counting on a young SP staff to stay healthy and also perform beyond expectations while also adding prospects to the starting lineup is not a serious WS contender and can be a recipe for a quick decline especially in such a competitive division. Whether or not they trade with the Sox they face the same dilemma.

But offers can be underwhelming on the surface and always have a chance to be better than expected. He gets hurt then it's wait till next year and his value tanks even more where your underwhelming package from now is worth a lot more than what you'd get at trade deadline 2025. In any trade for Cease the likely outcome is 1 guy pans out anyway. You do your best to mitigate that outcome but it's not guaranteed. Among the trades in the 1st rebuild rank them in order of the best return , Sale, Quintana or Eaton ? Keep in mind how much service time each of them had left , not just the return.

Orioles will do something. Hard to believe their plan was to add Kimbrel and count on guys they already have while also not trading Santander. They lost Gibson and Flaherty from the playoff rotation. Plus Bautista who had a great season is out for all of 2024. That is a huge loss. Hope is not a strategy.

Yep afraid he'd accept it.

You keep him and you're paying his full season salary of $11.7M. Trade him at the deadline maybe u pay half that. I figure the draft pick compensation is equal value so equated it to nothing.

Hope and over confidence often lead to the same end.

I'm still waiting to see what the O's do with Santander. If the O's are going to truly operate along the line of the Rays they can't afford to hold a productive player and let him go for nothing. You would think he'll be traded by the deadline and they'll be facing the same problem with Hays and Mullins soon also. How that translates for opportunities for Cowser, 23,( LH), Kjerstad, 24, (LH), Beavers , 22 ,(LH), Bradfield ,22, (LH) and Stowers, 26, (LH) is anyone's guess. If Santander (SH) goes into the season and puts up a 2.0 WAR at the end of July and the O's are in a close race it will be difficult to remove him from the team . If they trade him before the season starts who gets the starts in RF to take his place ? All their top guys are LH and one of Cowser or Kjerstad will need to produce. They would certainly get shots before Stowers does. Will the O's hedge their bets a little bit by looking into someone like Adam Duvall, Michael Taylor, Randal Grichuk all RH hitters or Aaron Hicks ,a switchhitter, who is a better RHH than LHH ?

No idea how you can draw that conclusion since performance at MLB level by all players involved will decide that. But I suppose if Busch starts hitting right away you can claim you were right for a few years until the guys they gave up get a chance to play at the MLB level.

When trading Cease rumors with Dodgers was a hot topic and Busch was mentioned often, I never thought he would be the primary piece because of his fielding while Eloy and Vaughn were still there. Dodgers did well to rid themselves of him before he lost too much value. He had nowhere to go with them but the bat could play for teams not clogged at 1st and DH or willing to give him a legit shot. I guess we'll find out just how savage the bat really is with the Cubs.

I agree with everything you say except the 1st paragraph. I'm not entirely sure he threatened to quit because he was still in the minors in 2022. That was his 1st year in the minors and hadn't played in a while. Maybe you can convince me that was his reasoning by siting something that says what you said. I know there was some controversy with him in 2022 but I always thought it was about how long he stayed in A+. You make it sound like he thought he should be in the majors in his very 1st year in the minors after a long layoff.

Not the doc but interview with Brian Kenney about it.

Not sure why anyone should care about the BP right now and specifically having Crochet and Kopech in it. Also talking about keeping Cease shows that you are completely out of touch with what's happening with the Sox. There's no emphasis on winning at all. The current goal is to bring in impact young talent by trading Cease. Period. Starting pitchers are potentially worth more than relievers which is precisely why Kopech will be starting with the Sox and Crochet will be stretched out in Charlotte. Hiring Bannister and trying find a way to extract value from the Starting rotation and others so they can be traded because getting more talent into the organization is the main goal. This is a rebuild. That's what you do with rebuilds. There is zero chance they expect to compete. If by some miracle the Sox aren't more than 10 games under. 500 by the deadline that would actually be one of the best case scenarios, only because guys like Kopech, Fedde , Soroka, Moncada and Eloy might be doing well enough to be traded and continue turning over the roster and minors. Of those 5 guys I can practically guarantee 3 or 4 of them won't be here 1 year from today. No one cares about the BP right now except to have enough arms to cover the innings.

Surprised you hadn't since hasn't there been a recent documentary about Mike Veeck that spent some time talking about his ownership of the Miami Miracle?

Or sooner. If he puts up a monster 1st half this year, I'd be looking to trade him at the deadline. Can't screw around and wait for more injuries. A high performance healthy 1st half would mean he put up 1.5 years of good numbers and good health. Without going through his injury history my guess is prior to that he usually didn't play 3 months without getting hurt and missing significant time . And if he did it was never near his upside for very long.

He'll definitely look for 2 LHH if he can get them. There was something he said at his press conference that went pretty much unnoticed when asked about improving the offense. Getz said there was a "handedness issue" which I took to mean that they need more lefties among the position players.

They certainly won't start him in the Sox rotation without restrictions. That would zombie like level of stupid. Between Fedde, Soroka, Kopech, Flexen, Toussaint and Scholtens baring injury that's 6 starting pitchers or 5 and 1 long reliever. We haven't talked about how Davis Martin's innings will play out either. I think they have their hands full without throwing Crochet to the dogs at the MLB level and know that him burning any more of his service time is very wasteful. Of course Getz did say they expected him to pitch in 2024 for the Sox as a SP but that's either extremely optimistic given his innings and health issues or as you said pretty dumb .

I'm pretty sure the most innovative thing they are doing is collecting enough arms that already have enough innings on them and giving Bannister's pixie dust a chance to work enough to trade some of them. If you thought we saw bad after they dumped a lot of arms at the trade deadline last year you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Crochet will be in Charlotte. His 1st 10 appearances will probably be 2 innings max with a SP schedule of throwing. He could be skipped a few times especially early in year depending on weather and how his arm feels preparing for his SP role. It's going to be a very slow process. If he sees any time with the Sox as Getz forecasts it will be after the trade deadline when it's possible with a lot of luck that Fedde, Soroka ,Flexen and Kopech are all traded. Likely outcome is that only 1 or 2 of them is traded. Also likely outcome is that Crochet doesn't stay healthy enough to pitch at all in the 2nd half of the season.