Balta1701

And Hell, we needed to at least have some veteran in that bullpen with as many different rookies as we're moving through that pen.

He was standing up because they were throwing the high fastball as a strikeout pitch, he didn't move to the side at all.

He's gradually becoming less and less able to catch up with a good fastball as he gets older, and now he's overcommitting on the pitch and leaving himself vulnerable to just about everything as a consequence.

I would. But this time with someone up.

Astros announcers asking why Giolito wasn't instructed to throw outside of the strike zone.

Moncada could be moved, but he's raw enough that the more times you move him the worse he's likely to get at everything. In a year or two, if we wanted to move him over there, that could probably be manageable.

Because the antiquated statistics are all we're going to take from this season.

Bah, play for 1 run it's ok. Get the game tied so that Gio doesn't take the loss.

The Grant deal gives the bulls back a non-guaranteed contract that they will waive, saving money.

If they were mixed on him they should have let him walk. If they wanted to let the market develop to see what he'd actually get offered, this was a totally fair move. Who else has the cap space to make a $15 million offer at this point? Sportrac says the Hawks, Kings, and Bulls.

It's a palette cleanser. At some point Marvel just needs to put out something that is fun and doesn't advance much.

I cannot fathom a 31 year old who has been a DL player 3x in the previous 3 years getting a 4 year deal.

I have my share of moves that I liked that were rotten, I was ok with the LaRoche signing because they needed a DH and 1b backup and that was garbage, although I never would have guessed that the manager couldn't control that guy. But there was no one who liked the Samardzija and Frazier moves here less than I, and in particular the path of trying to compete using scraps. It was a terrible plan and it worked out exactly that way, repeatedly. Prior to the 2016 season I had to take a break here because no one wanted to hear how this team wasn't nearly as good as they thought they would be. They should have spent the seasons 2014-2016 rebuilding, and then they might have had enough talent that, when the 2017 and 2018 Free Agent markets had guys that were available, they might have had enough talent developed to take advantage of it, while still having Sale and Quintana around. But anyway, you realize you just supported a person who said that signing Moustakas would have been a terrible move for the 2018 White Sox, right? Which is, as usual, the opposite of what you've been saying. But even then there's a lesson getting lost in this thread - after the last decade, the White Sox should have learned that you can't win, or even break even, on the free agent market. You can only fill in the last pieces. You cannot put a 5th place team into 1st place on the free agent market, you can only put a 5th place team into 4th place. For every guy you bought that was a bargain and outproduced (Moustakas has done that this year), there's a Logan Morrison who has completely fallen apart. For the people who said that the White Sox should have been "All in" on the free agent market in 2015 and 2016, congratulations you just lucked into Alex Gordon or Jayson Heyward!

AJ Pollock. Really solid numbers, regularly injured so he won't be getting more than a couple year offer, will require us to have some depth behind him.

2013.

Basically, right now the Bulls are all-in on the idea that their scouting and drafting and development will continue to be better than other teams in the East. If they're right, then this will work. They showed promise in Lauri, they got a player outplaying his draft spot by a lot last year. They showed some promise in Dunn also. They need to have the same thing happen with these guys this year, including Lavine and the 2 draftees, and if that happens, then they're in good shape. If that doesn't happen, then they're set back for another several years and they have Lavine in a wasted contract. I'd call that a bet the GM should be fired for if he's wrong.

If we had those guys how would they look as trade bait? We'd get scraps for Moustakas because teams aren't going to pay much for 1 WAR for August and September for 3b. Martinez - well the Red Sox could use him, but that's also why they bid for him. JD Martinez brought scraps literally last year when he was cheaper and nearing free agency. He'd be a salary dump at best, and no team out there is going to take on a $100 million contract at the deadline. So congrats on drafting 5th instead of 3rd next year, because that's what the $25 million you spent on those guys this year alone accomplished.

The problem with the White Sox was much more fundamental and deeper. I picked up a Buck Showalter quote a few years ago when he was still on TV that the most important thing a general manager could do is understand his roster. Our General Manager knew nothing about his roster, for years. He insisted that they were 1 player away and was constantly willing to sacrifice depth in trades to get that one player (Samardzija, Frazier). He insisted that when he picked up guys at the peak of their career arcs, they wouldn't fall off. He insisted that guys who had never broken out in the big leagues - Garcia, Rodon - were ready for Stardom, and planned around it. Rick Hahn completely failed in his evaluation of the quality of the White Sox roster in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Each one of those years, he made decisions that made the teams worse in 2017, 2018, and 2019 as a result. The end result of those decisions to be worse in 2017, 2018, and 2019, is the White Sox being worse in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

This, FWIW, is also exactly what the Braves and Phillies would have written last year, which is the point. We now have the talent in our organization. We need to give it time to struggle, which we are doing literally right now, but we also have to plan that some of them will overcome those struggles, and we should be ready when they do. If they don't, then we're not going anywhere regardless of whether or not we sign anyone, and that will be time #5 to fire Rick Hahn - this time based on failures of scouting and development in the players he acquired.

I don't know who saw this, but the only reason the White Sox got a hit in this game was due to the crowd doing the wave. McCullers gave up 0 hits until the crowd started doing that. The second that the crowd got a full one going, the whole stadium was distracted, there were things moving in the corner of the Pitcher's eye, and suddenly he gave up 3 straight hits. The crowd stopped doing it during a meeting on the mound, then he immediately got a first pitch GIDP from Abreu once it was over.

Moustakas and JD Martinez would have both been terrible wastes of money for the 2018 White Sox. This team is not going anywhere, we'd have spent large amounts of money on them for a team that wasn't going anywhere, and now we'd be sitting here paying a DH $20 million a year on a team that isn't going anywhere. And again, Yolmer has been worth 1 WAR and Moustakas 1.6 WAR. That was a plainly wrong move for the White Sox to think about last offseason and it would be a plainly wrong move this offseason when the guy is a year older. This offseason, I'm totally ok with going out and targeting a CF, ours just aren't cutting it. We've got Sanchez into at the worst a strong backup IF at this point, ditto Leury. LF and RF are full, 2b and SS are full. 3b is plenty open if we want to go for the big money guy, but that only makes sense if we get a guy who will be good in 3-4 years. We could use some catching help right now but that's because of a steroid suspension. The other place worth upgrading is the bullpen, and frankly I'd still put that first. We really don't need DH help right now, we really don't need corner OFs, so JD Martinez would have been a terrible waste of $20 million for this roster.

I don't know if anyone else caught this last night, but the only reason we weren't no-hit was that the Astros crowd started doing the wave. McCullers gave up 0 hits until the crowd started the wave. McCullers gave up 3 straight hits while the crowd was doing it. As soon as the crowd stopped, McCullers got Abreu to GIDP. He gave up 0 hits when the crowd wasn't doing the wave, and 3 hits when they were.

Ok folks, we need to stop talking about the Astros and Abreu. Gurriel and Gattis are both substantially outproducing Abreu at 1b and DH. This "slump" has now gone on long enough that they would view acquiring him as a downgrade. That team does not need him unless one of those guys get hurt in the next 2 weeks.

While losing right now may be understood, I would also add that the fans have every right to be pissed about it. The losing in 2018 is a direct result of choices the White Sox were making in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and the people who made those choices have suffered no consequences. By the end of 2016, Rick Hahn didn't just deserve to be fired, he deserved to be tarred and feathered. After the Shields trade people should have been burning Rick Hahn in effigy. The only reason they weren't is that after so much ineptitude, nobody really cared any more.

Adolfo is a CF?