Rowand44

Man I hate Jones but he is just f***in awesome.

Burger actually got out twice today.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 29, 2017 -> 12:41 PM) There were reports that he reached out to Houston and they wanted nothing to do with him. Say what you want about Jay but he legit could have made that team a Super Bowl contender. Kind of crazy to me that the Texans didn't try and grab him for a year.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jul 29, 2017 -> 11:17 AM) Yes, I love both of those little guys. I was trying to find a decent defensive third baseman, and another LH bat. You know me. I "loves me" those left handed bats, especially in the middle of the order. Without Melky, they are going to be short a decent bat, from the left side. Moncada would be the only one. Lineup construction isn't going to be a priority next year.

Leury definitely needs to be given a chance to start. I'd love to see Cordell out there as well.

Did something happen to Tito?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 02:57 PM) Yeah, he keeps the team loose. His last 41 2/3 innings, he has given up 42 earned runs and 16 homers. That's like James Shields last season. It's hard to believe any contender would add him to the roster. If he were traded, it would seem to be to be the equal to KW eventually got his man. Someone who was high on him years ago, and now is just high. Ya but he comes out to wrestling music and does does skits and stuff. Valuable to me.

I enjoy Holland's personality...that has some value, right?

Better be getting a Certified G or Bonafide Stud back for Holland.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 11:41 AM) I would think it would be more the die-hard fans that would be deterred. The casual fans would still go just to go out with friends and drink some beers. This is fair. I know if I was still living in Chicago I'd go to a lot more games this year compared to the last few just to show my support for the direction but I'm obviously only one person.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 11:38 AM) I know next year will be tough but I enjoyed how attendance stayed up despite the rebuild. Sox fans did well. It's been nice to see just cause of how so many people thought rebuilding was never realistic because attendance was going to completely tank. I definitely thought we'd see a decrease this year because of the casual fan just not caring at all but I've been pleasantly surprised.

QUOTE (joejoedairy @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 03:22 PM) He'll start next year in AAA and if he dominates I could definitely see him coming up at some point. Ya there's a very good chance we see him at some point in 2018 imo. Whether it's July, August, September I don't know but if he keeps progressing and dominating he'll be up at some point to at least get his feet wet.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 08:01 AM) Who cares? They're rebuilding and the World Champs are 8 miles away. It's going to suck. Are you contributing to the attendance this season? He's making like the exact opposite point of what you're yelling at him for. QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 11:13 AM) The zoo is still free in Chicago. Free here in St. Louis too.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 10:32 AM) I don't think we're light on pitching but I wouldn't specifically not target pitching as if we're done. Of course not. I didn't want to stop targeting pitching when people were going bonkers that we had no offensive talent in the system. Just keep acquiring the best talent possible.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 28, 2017 -> 09:25 AM) I don't disagree with him. System as a whole is very light on shortstops, with some possible future depth in Lenyn Sosa and Curbelo down, way way down. Mendick is now playing 2b so hard to know what he's viewed at. Pitching wise we are good compared to most systems, but I think there is a good case to be made we need some more lefties and variety. We have a lot of power arms which could blow up. We're extremely light on middle infielders, there's no argument there. I guess you could make the argument we need more variety of pitchers down there(I personally don't care) but to say we're light on pitching isn't true.

I mentioned one prospect below aa in that whole post so ya, lower minors indeed. Whatever, this argument isn't going anywhere. You can call me prospect drunk all you want because I think there's more than a 0 percent chance they're good in 2019 and I'll continue to think you've hated this whole thing from the beginning and are just going to keep rolling with that.

Seby with a double too.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 06:02 PM) There is not "plenty" of real talent that will be here early. There isn't even close to enough early talent to replace the talent we have lost over the last year, let alone enough to overcome the 10 extra games that this team was missing the playoffs by. They will also not be spending s***ton of money until the team after the team is actually competitive. I mean out of the four base players you listed for now, 3 of them have fairly significant questions marks associated with them. Abreu is literally the only guy in our line up that can be called anything close to a known quantity. Tim Anderson has regressed significantly. It is the personal problems off of the field, or did the league figure him out? Avi put up 3 incredible months so far, but is that really him? Moncada is another who could well be taking his lumps for a period of years. The rest of the roster early on is going to be guys that if everything goes right are 45's and 50's. Past that? The starting rotation is going to be weighted by Shields and a bunch of unknowns. The bullpen is going to be a horror movie hodgepodge of reclamations, the inexperienced, and rookies. Literally everything has to go right for this team to be able to win 90 to 95 games in 2019. You are absolutely right that I don't see that happening. Looking at the rebuilds around baseball that have happened already, I don't see that as crazy. The rotation at least on paper is going to consist of: Rodon, Kopech, Rey, Gio, Adams/Guerrero/Stephens/whoever all of which will most likely spend sometime in the bigs in 2018. That's 3 of our top 10 prospects just right there. And of course all these guys have giant ?'s that's how this is going to be, nobody is arguing that. That doesn't mean Moncada can't be a superstar by then or Anderson got his s*** together or one of Gillaspie, Cordell or Delmonico have become solid major leaguers. Maybe Leury and Avi are for real. They don't need 9 superstars by then. I'm honestly not even going to speculate on the bullpen yet. There's a lot of our minor league pitchers that might be in there at that point and if anything the Sox have proven they can take some random ass guys and make them good relievers. And I couldn't disagree more about free agency. They're going to be players in the 2019 field, I'm not saying they're going to bring in Manny or Bryce but they're going to start dipping their feet in the pool to bring in some guys who can be part of the long term plan. If they see the arrow starting to go way up on Rey and Gio and Moncada and Kopech by the end of '18 and think Eloy is going to be ready at the beginning of '19 they're going to start filling in some holes to make that team competitive. It's not ridiculous that you don't see this stuff happening, it's ridiculous that you keep running around telling everyone there's absolutely 0 chance they could be a contender in 2019. I'm certainly not betting on it but that rotation has a chance to be phenomenal and who the hell knows what can happen if that is indeed the case.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 04:54 PM) Most of the real talent will be making its major league debuts in 2019 and 2020. Giving them a couple of years is optimistic already. There's plenty of "real talent" that are going to be making their debuts between now and the end of 2018. Our rotation is going to be stacked with "real talent" who debuted before 2019. The offense is going to be slower paced but there's a chance that you at least go into that season with Moncada, Anderson, Abreu and Avi as a starting block and a s*** ton of money to spend. Like I said, I'm not expecting 2019 to be the year but the pitching staff has a chance to be incredible so you just never know. Well you do I guess.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 04:42 PM) What odds would you like on the Sox having a playoff team before 2020, and how much would you like to put down? 5:1? I've said 8 billion times that I don't expect them to make the playoffs in 2019 and I think 2020 is the most realistic timeline. That said, there's going to be a boatload of talent on that 2019 team and some with at least some service time underneath their belts and to say they have absolutely 0 shot to make the playoffs is just wrong. It'd be a year ahead of time for sure but things like that happen too.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 01:07 PM) This is plain old untrue. It's absolutely untrue but good luck getting him to admit that.

Damn, I just saw the video of that kid getting smacked in the face, hope he's ok cause that looked bad.

Beltre is the best person in the history of people.

What a night for the pitching studs.

Never thought I'd be excited to have Leury back. Very interested to see if he can keep on doing what he's been doing so far this season.