Balta1701

They were 5.5 games back on the day of the trade deadline. In 2015 the White Sox held onto Samardzija and said "If we keep playing like this we'll be right there at the end" when they were 11.5 games back on July 31.

If it's partially injury related, would the union ever let the Cubs, their insurer, and Darvish come to an agreement where Darvish gets a slice of it then retires and everyone saves some money including the insurer who would be on the hook if he missed a full year+ for TJS?

This is actually rather remarkable. Here's Bernie's "Issues" page. I see 1 item that might count as foreign policy, the Iran deal, done by someone else, but at least he supported it. Maybe Climate Change counts too? Nothing to say about Russia, not even a comment on trade deal negotiations which should be an easy one. It's not just that it's not a strong topic for him, it's stuff like this that actually makes it clear he just doesn't care enough to outline policies. He includes an entire stand on the Hudson River...and he's not a Senator from New York, and the Hudson only flows through that state.

So what's the corresponding roster move?

He's having a fantastic camp because he's on a substance of abuse? like what, amphetamines? That's not a PED suspension if it's only 1 game.

I'm not a huge fan of the way you used "Career BABIP" there as though it's a number that is well enough constrained to be useful. When he was a rookie he put up .375, last year was .328, this year so far is .294. It's over 1000 PAs so there's some value in it, but just leveling across those 3 years and saying "he'll be the average of them" seems like it's going to be missing part of the story. That said, everything else you said is a positive sign, and it's not like we're going to replace him next year...so I'll get to "We still need to see improvement from him next year."

7 exceptional starts and yes, he should not have made those in the majors. You should not get called up based on reputation alone (Moncada), you should actually have to have a period of success at that level before it happens.

Continue to disagree on this. A month ago, right after the all star break, was when things really clicked with him and he started this roll. For example - From June 1 up to the All Star break, he pitched 31 innings. In those 31 innings he had 31 walks, gave up 21 earned runs, had an ERA over 6 in that stretch. His last start before the all star break, he walked 4 in 3 innings, gave up 4 runs. Since the All Star break, he has averaged 6.1 innings per start, pitched 44 innings, and walked 4. Read that again. His ERA in this stretch is 1.84. You could tell me he should have been called up a week ago, but not mid-July, this stretch is where he actually earned it.

GMAB. Which is the correct way to rebuild - to go for service time or to bring people up when they're ready even if it costs a year? I don't think there's an obvious answer that must be the case, where "if you pick this answer clearly you weren't ready for a rebuild"?

One big difference could be innings. Kopech pitched 136 last year, so you'd actually want him to keep going at the end of August this year to keep building his arm up past that number. Cease has thrown 119 this year, and only threw 93 last year, so he might get shut down a little earlier both this year and next.

Maybe this is just them panicking after a nun outpitched their staff...

It would be nice if he did not have the worst qualified ERA in the league in 2019.

He was absolutely not pitching well enough to deserve a callup at the trade deadline. He is now.

Genuinely surprised and ok with this. Hope they get him a good number of starts down the stretch.

That would be a logical guess....but we won't know for certain until October. Frankly, the Red Sox shouldn't tell other teams until October even it if was them being extremely cautious...which is the issue for fans. If there was a serious problem, they shouldn't tell us. If there wasn't, they shouldn't tell us.

This is genuinely correct. We may not want to move Rodon this offseason, it makes no sense that other teams would give up 2 top 25-ish players for him, but if a team put that on the table the White Sox should do that move, because there's a good chance he will not be worth that next year and there's a good chance the White Sox will be looking at longer term talent than Rodon represents. If he is still on a roll next season and healthy...and if the White Sox are staring at their entire first wave of prospects still struggling and looking like they don't belong in the big leagues...where we are right now...then the chances of teams offering a fair price for him should be higher, and the White Sox's motivation to move him should be higher as well. So, I think the right answer is to jump if anyone offers an appropriate deal this offseason, but expect that we have to wait for Rodon to prove more, and that by next trade deadline we might have out best chance. I don't believe I would offer a fair price for his performance if I was an opposing GM, but hey, I've seen the deals Rick Hahn made, so GMs do offer terrible trades sometimes. The thing that would interrupt this decision making is the White Sox's current talent showing stronger success, but right now, I think we're deservedly skeptical about that. If the current struggles are not interrupted by next July and Rodon is still looking legit...it will be time.

Which of those guys is a "large piece"?

Then put a 7 year deal on the table for them and stop wasting time.

Out of the stretches I cited the only skipped starts were "The All Star Break". They did that stretch of 2 months where he averaged 110+ pitches thrown while he was on a roll...every year until 2016, even when he started the year on the DL. Totally amazing how he tired down the stretch year after year. They might have learned a lesson in 2016.

If Moncada, Giolito, and Lopez, are middling/average players, back of the rotation starters/relievers and so forth, then 2021 at the earliest, maybe 2022 because we'll be waiting on that Winston-Salem team to go to AA in 2019, AAA in 2020, break into the big leagues in April of 2021, and then finally be ready to do some damage in 2022, and that's assuming fewer injuries. In 2021 you could get them where the Braves currently are if some of them could come up and have success immediately...but skepticism on that. Without those 3 being really good players, Kopech and Jiminez, Cease and the catchers as rookies, and a few free agent signings aren't enough. If those 3 break out at some point, then we can talk about this team being really good immediately with Kopech and Jiminez up and a major FA addition somewhere, because we'll have a good heart of the order, depth including average players like Anderson, and a dominant rotation. That could happen next year...if those 3 all suddenly lived up to their billing as prospects. They're the difference between this team struggling through the next 2 seasons and this team breaking through. There's enough talent there to be the difference between 28 WAR teams and 40+ WAR teams - the former is an upper 70s win team, the latter competes for playoff spots. If those guys aren't strong big league players, then we should trade Rodon. If we can develop them into something useful, then this team could surprise immediately.

I feel like Robin Ventura is going to come to your home, knock on your door, and spit in your face. I'm not even sure which one to cite here, the 9 game stretch in 2013 where he averaged 117 pitches thrown per start with a 124 pitch outing, the 125 pitch outing in 2015 in the middle of the stretch in 2015 from May 1 to the All Star Break where he averaged 114 pitches thrown per start and then the White Sox publicly stated that they didn't want him pitching in the all star game right afterwards almost as if someone had overworked him, or the 3 months in 2014 where he came off the disabled list and then after 2 starts where he had pitch count limits he was never once under 100 pitches from June 1 to August 31 (averaging 110 pitches a start).

If they were making the best football moves they could, IMO they'd bring in Kaepernick and have Peterman and Kaepernick be their starters at least for the first few games, then you Trubisky the team later in the year and come back ready for next year.

He was on a pitch count that start with a limit of 80. He got through 5 IP and 68 pitches and they pulled him. I don't think they pulled him for feeling bad.

He's never going to win a Cy Young award is he?

You told me that I had said something wrong when I typed the statement "if they were doing what is best for their development, Eloy would have been called up last month, and Kopech after 2 more starts." You told me "You might want to reread what you wrote" and quoted that statement. I'm still waiting for you to tell me why you quoted that statement and told me to reread what I wrote, because you just wrote 3 paragraphs service time, not about what is best for their development, and without telling me anything about what was wrong with that statement you told me to reread. This one is epically weird, even I can't follow how you can tell me there's something wrong with that statement and then follow it up with "no one has said they don't deserve a callup".