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Similar to where Brent Rooker went I'd guess.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 01:42 PM) What will be interesting to me is that this is mainly pitching driven, and not position player driven in terms of the talent they have acquired. Hopefully the volatility of pitching is overcome by the Sox ability to scout and develop pitching. We are still fairly thin in quality positional talent in the system for a team that wants to be a world champ in short time. Not that media scouts are always right, but they mention the braves so much more than the white sox when discussing the dangers of the pitching heavy rebuild, even with Acuna/Albies.

For example, Phillies traded Ken Giles who was cost controlled and good.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 01:32 PM) The White Sox had big, cheap assets to sell. The rebuild would take forever if they were just depending on the draft, and June 2 signings. Fulmer, Collins, Burger, those were the guys losing got you. If not for Sale, Eaton and Q, the Sox rebuild might take 10 years. It's really a rebuild like no other, maybe the Marlins currently, but they got nowhere near the return for Stanton because he wasn't cheap. I guess. But to me that just changes the returns, whereas the way it's written and I'm reading it, the strategy of selling top talent while near competing set them apart from other rebuilding teams (cubs/astros) and I don't really buy that since there are more teams than cubs and astros.

https://theathletic.com//297378/2018/04/02/...s/?redirected=1 Fegan on the trade "Given that the reward was signing Robert, an elite talent that he had been tracking for five years, Hahn says Paddy was more than willing to accept these conditions. “He was driving that train,” Hahn said. “He said some things about how many years he was willing to sacrifice to get Luis, and I made sure he kept that to himself, in case Jerry [Reinsdorf] wanted to take him up on that. That said, he also did a really nice job with some of the $300,000 guys they’ve lined up going forward. In some ways, when you’re in the penalty box internationally, you get back to purer, true scouting, where it’s not about money but finding the best hidden gems you can really afford, and Marco and his guys have embraced that. That said, when we call him up and say we’re about to lose another international slot for a prospect at the minor-league level, he gets excited about that as well, even though it does limit what he’s able to do.”" I wish Paddy did more media.

After sitting with the article for a bit, I am half-on, half-off with premise. I have always grouped the sox rebuilding along with the Phillies and Brewers, and I would consider the tigers similarly. I think you could make argument the Marlins are, but theirs was so much more financially driven. The phillies and tigers however, were much more terrible when their sell-offs began. But, they came at the end of a long era of trying to compete every year (basically 10 years). The Reds and Twins to me were similar to Cubs/Astros. Less extreme, but basically a longterm rebuild after an extended suckage. I'm not sure I see how the White Sox specifically stand out among the Phillies/Brewers/Tigers except they had better assets and were slightly closer to winning a playoff berth. Actually, yeah I talked myself out of it. Great article, but I don't see sox as having done anything specifically path-changing.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 12:36 PM) That was more of a "Tyler Clippard sucks, if someone wants him, take him" move At the time we moved him, Clippard was by far the most reliable player in the bullpen.

All of the above is true but one caveat, despite sparse crowds the servicepeople are still getting used to their positions, and fewer food/drink spots are open. I've found it still ends up taking forever to get food/drinks even when it's 12k there.

That was fun. I wish he'd mention that the sox also struck at a time when the contending teams also happened to have the best farms in baseball still. Now look at the top 15, not that many win now teams. It's fun when Rany writes about something other than the Royals. I actually read it.

I mean, the bullpen recovered, but when they sold off Clippard for cash I thought they would lose every game in the 8th/9th innings. That was definitely a tanking-esque "we don't care anymore moment".

QUOTE (Tony @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 10:57 AM) Never really understood the need to go to a cold weather baseball game. I guess it's the same reason I don't go to football games, I just don't see the appeal of sitting out in the cold for 3+ hours, especially when I know I'll have plenty of opportunities to go to games in June-July-August. Basically what happens is in late march I get the itch of wanting to go to a game, which in my head will be 80 degrees, chilling out and having a beer. Then I buy tickets. Then it's april 11th or so and I go to work in a parka and long johns because it's a 6:05 game that will be 35 degrees and rain. At the game I'll say "I'm never doing this again" In June I"ll go to a game it's great and I'll go 5-6 more times. Next march I'll get the itch and think about those summer games and figure that I will get a rare 80 degree day in april. Rinse repeat. I did not do a package this year because I was so sick of it being a roundabout way to force the worst games on me.

Yeah I have a rule where until I would actually go to a game I don't criticize people for not going. After last years opening day debacle, I have officially followed through with my rule of not going to a game in april.

Thad Lowry and (moreso) Robinson Leyer were two guys that you'd read the scouting reports on, tall with good velocity and just assume they would make it in the bullpen. But never figured it out. I saw Zack Thompson's stuff on a day he was "on" and it was great. Hope, of our tall guys, that he can figure out his stuff in shorter bullpen stints in the majors. Though not a big deal.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 09:55 AM) Abreu and Garcia are the last chances the Sox have at an elite trade return, and that would be with a good first half. Other than that, we're likely looking at either Ryan Cordell and Casey Gillaspie types, or rookie ball lotto tickets who will be part of wave two if luck is on the team's side. Elite will mean different things, but I don't see either Abreu or Avi bringing back elite returns. Doesn't mean anything of worth can't come back, but would abreu or Avi bring back something like the Kahnle/Robertson/Frazier trade? I personally doubt it. There isn't a big group of teams they are fits for and that will suppress returns.

I don't know, I think you are taking things pretty literally. All Thomas has to do is have his agent indicate he is a tough sign, which is true and because he has college he has leverage, as the sox would probably have discussed an overslot deal with him. That signal will scare most teams away as the later they are picking in the first the smaller their budget. Or, a team still interested will have the opportunity to try and beat white sox offer. Thomas has leverage because of college to do that.

I mean honestly the trib was never the best source of sox news. I used to enjoy Teddy Greenstein features on the sox (his trip to las vegas article trying to find frank thomas), but what it's become is brutal. Basically all i get is game summaries

My white sox fan instincts kick in to believe a pitcher like Jaime Garcia will run right through us but I'm trying to remember this is a pretty new team with different tendencies.

For a year and a half or so, I really wanted to gut the roster because we had so many guys that I knew we'd get a good return on. But what we have left to me is probably looking at Swarzak-level type returns. Which is to say I don't particularly get excited or care about that much. If I knew that Avi or Abreu would get back a great return, I'd be open to it, but it's hard to have any feel for their market. Well, by their existence on the team you could say it's a sign that their market isn't that good. Happy to trade out some of the older, marginal pieces for depth and lottery tickets. Soria, Jones, etc. There's no urgency anymore and quite a bit less fun considering the returns we're looking at.

Trib sports section has been so gutted. Paul Sullivan has never been my favorite writer there (basically every column has a part where he puts in how he laughed at a players suggestion and they had a back and forth disagreement), but that guy is doing like quadruple duty. Puts together most of the cubs and sox profiles, most of the cubs footage and now a weekly column. The news staff of the trib is invaluable to me and i get sports from so many other places, but it's just a shame to see the gut job. Idea: get rid of Haugh and use his salary to hire 5 reporters.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 2, 2018 -> 09:06 AM) This was one of the things i wondered about Gruden going into this season. He always had veteran heavy rosters, and that is really a thing of the past now. I've been a bit surprised by how old school he's been. I thought his time in the booth meant he had insight into every team. He meets with all the coaches and gets to view practices. He was very heavily connected. But the way he's running it I'd worry that you need a very specific roster to work for him. You better hope the raiders have that.

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Mar 31, 2018 -> 11:18 PM) LOL did you see what the Phillies did? They made a pitching change even though they had no one in the bullpen warming up. LMAO....it was a clusterF and the Braves manager got tossed. I love when baseball gets stupid. Nice going Phillies Terry Bevington is probably thrilled someone one-upped him.

Wow great shot there. Looked like a gapper off bat, the sliced way right.

Sorry if mentioned before: Boooooo to the WGN graphics team! The scoreboards are confusing as hell

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Mar 31, 2018 -> 05:06 PM) According to Yahoo Avi is out of the lineup tonight? Just took him out of my fantasy lineup because it says he's scratched. Leury and Delmonico in. I saw the twitter post with Avi in the lineup...is yahoo just wrong? I think yahoo is wrong. Daryl van schouwen has tweeted pics of him out on field.