Balta1701

I think it's fair to say Davidson and Sanchez have both had the opportunity to compete for 3b this year and neither one of them has proved worthy of being a starter. Both have pretty well confirmed they're backups, and at least Sanchez is a plus defender at a couple middle infield spots so he's more useful.

If he's going to be an average shortstop then it would be darn helpful if he was better with the bats. I know that recently the White Sox have traded away all their average players for guys like Samarzija and Frazier and so just having guys who are average would be an upgrade, but it would be really, really nice to have an above average player at a few positions.

If people want to provide examples of guys who, after they reach the age of 25, gradually become better defenders at shortstop, I'm open to hearing them. Out of the top 10 defensive shortstops in the league, there's only 1 guy on there who started off as a poor defender and eventually got better. Almost all of them: Simmons, Iglesias, Lindor, Gregorius, Turner, Boagerts, Swanson - they all came into the league as strong defenders. Literally only 1 of the top 10 defenders this year started off as a weak defender, and that was because he never was coached on being a shortstop in the minor leagues, and that was Marcus Semien. Almost all of the shortstops in the league who are good defenders start off as good defenders and get gradually worse as their athleticism fades. I'd say if Anderson's going to improve, it needs to be with the bats.

Basically yeah. He was a positive defender in 2002 when he had a full season with the rockies, he was an elite defender in 2004 when the White Sox used him as a utility man, and he was an elite defender in 2005 when the White Sox made him a full time SS. He was an elite defender by age 24.

And the Mets went to the 2015 World Series....so by comparison...

It really wasn't that hard to actually look.

He was also the 4th best defensive shortstop in MLB that year according to UZR. Tim Anderson is 13th out of 22 qualified.

He's now at 1.5 after 114 games, putting him on pace for 2.1 - and you'll note that's going the wrong way.

And instead we get the inefficient, corrupt insurance industry, and a whole lot fewer people covered, and a whole lot higher prices than anyone else pays anywhere. This is "Sure I got shot in the head, but at least I didn't scratch my knee while falling".

Which means that we need to come up with 8 players better than him.

So what happens to the people who have back pain and can't afford the co-pay, or a stroke and are uninsured?

See, it's things like this when they're throw away remarks are exactly why I said that Rick Hahn is the worst GM any of us will ever see. You're right, if they can't develop position players this rebuild won't work, but if they can't develop position players then trying to compete won't work either. Literally, what you just said is a statement that the White Sox will never even make it to .500, even mediocre franchises hanging around .500 like the Nationals can turn out Soto and Turner. When someone says about a baseball team "oh the White Sox just can't develop position players but we're going to be competitive anyway", people should be throwing their hands up and screaming "are you out of your mind?!" Saying "We're going to have lots of strikeouts this year and yada yada yada see how things work in the end" is a great path to a 4th place team every year. "We're a great baseball franchise except for the parts where our guys have to hit the ball, catch the ball, and throw the ball. Oh but we signed the couple of 34 year olds, that should cover it." No one sees how that's something of a fundamental problem? How that's a huge indictment of the people whose job it is to field a baseball team? "I'm a driver at the Indy 500. I'm the best driver you'll ever see, I just have a problem with left turns". "We're a historic NFL franchise, we're one of the best you'll see, well except we have a little problem with our quarterbacks being terrible. Bear down!"

2015 Chicago Cubs, literally the team he used, rookie starters 3b: Kris Bryant SS: Addison Russel RF: Jorge Soler/Kyle Schwarber (600 PAs between them)

On Tuesday, @jack on Twitter said that Infowars wasn't taken down there because they hadn't broken any of Twitter's rules. On Wednesday, one of Twitter's VPs sent around an email saying that the videos that caused them to be pulled down from the other networks weren't posted on Twitter. Today, CNN ran article showing that yes, those videos were all cross posted on Twitter, and also outlining dozens of tweets that violated specific twitter rules and which rule they violated. Those accounts are still there but after CNN Posted their article, those specific tweets were removed.

I don't see any reason why his ceiling needs to be adjusted down. He may always strike out a ton but there's absolutely a ton of power in that bat, we've all seen it and drooled over it at times. Kris Bryant hit .292 despite 150 strikeouts because he also hit 39 home runs that year. Moncada should be able to pick up a few hits beyond that due to athleticism. The ceiling is still the same. The question is the likelihood he's going to reach it.

In the trades, the White Sox acquired 5 guys who were in the top 25-ish of prospect lists. Every one of those guys should be up by April 15 of 2019. If that's not the bulk of the rebuild then we did something systematically wrong with the guys we acquired. By April 15 of 2020 you're going to add Cease and possibly the catchers to that. The only top 25-ish talents in our org who won't be up by then are Robert and Madrigral - our 2018 draft pick. If that amount of talent isn't making a dent in 2020, then we ought to at least be extremely concerned.

If all of these outfield prospects continue to develop as they move up and their are no setbacks, the guys we have will be the highest ranked and worth most in a trade in 2 years or so, when they have reached AAA and established multiple years of health and success. If at that time we still have no 3b and some of them are blocked, then they are the ammunition to make a move for one. The only reasons why I'd move any of these guys are: 1. I think they're going to flop, 2. We have more outfielders than spots available in the minors, or 3. We have identified a 3b who is seriously undervalued and that's who we're trading for. No one has alleged either of those yet.

No, so let's keep both in the system like I said above.

You have 100% confidence he will be up in 2021 and will be a dominant center fielder rapidly? His injury issues are a thing of the past and no more of a worry?

I do not object to prospect for prospect deals, but they should be much more change of scenery type deals - Carson Fulmer comes to mind as an ideal candidate. As of right now if any of the OFs you just named are starting OFs for the White Sox in 2020 that means they developed hugely. You really want to tell me that you're going to trade away Rutherford because Engel, Tilson, and Cordell give you confidence that CF is covered?

yes he runs a hedge fund.

So what's the deal with the Braves and Phillies right now?

I hate the concept of moving minor leaguers for minor leaguers because you have too many at one position. You've got multiple levels, you've got people hurt, you've got the DH and the ability to try people at other positions to build flexibility for them. I might actively right now avoid trading for an A-ball or AA outfielder, I'll grant that, but trading minor leaguers for minor leaguers just because of positions leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

JR did open his wallet, they had opening day payrolls north of $120 million on paper both those years (an incident in spring training affected the 2016 payroll) and spent more than $60 million in the offseason between 2014-2015. They had higher payrolls those years than the Astros had coming into the season last year. That's not the problem. The problem is that opening your wallet will not win you a title with a 70 win team. It's a lesson we should have learned years ago, but 2015 should have taught it to everyone. If you actually look at who was available on the free agent market, the White Sox weren't going to make themselves substantially better on the free agent market any of those years, a huge chunk of the money spent on free agents those years went to guys like Chase Headley and Alex Gordon and Jayson Heyward who were either bad at the start or bad within 1-2 years. It happened both years, you go on the free agent market, you've got a 50% chance of a terrible contract. Especially given that they had nothing of value to trade those years beyond the scraps that they did trade, the problem was not money, it was that they were a 70 win team based on the talent they had after 2014 with virtually nothing of use coming up internally, and you can't make a 70 win team into a 90 win team using free agents alone. Even the Yankees don't have the money to do that, the bust rate is too high and there simply aren't enough good free agents.

Because it's 8:45 pm and I'm still sitting in the office trying to make progress on a paper about Mars.