Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 02:58 PM) The mandate is by far the largest loss of personal freedoms since imminent domain was expanded to include pretty much anything commercial at the expense of pretty much anyone. The mandate was not in the least a loss of personal freedom since the government had the right to tax certain products and offer rebates or tax credits for the purchase of products beforehand and afterwards and this is exactly what the Supreme Court said.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:03 PM) I may be in the minority here, but I'll happily take a pitcher like Glasnow if I'm also getting two high caliber offensive prospects like Bell & Newman. I don't buy this "you can never have too much pitching" mindset, but I think there's room for one more prospect with TOR potential. The key is you have to get some bats back, even if you don't get an untouchable like Meadows included in the deal. I said I'd take one pitcher back - either Glasnow or Keller, but I won't take both back as the top 2 guys even if the 3rd guy is Newman. That's what was written this morning - Glasnow + Keller as the top 2 pieces, so 2 more pitchers as your main return for Q. I can have 1 starter in the top 2, my org just doesn't have the big league playing time for more than that.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:01 PM) Depends on the situation. How many teams use 5 starters an entire season? If the White Sox have too much pitching, they can always trade it. To think they will have 6 prospects all studs, and all deserving being in a major league rotation, and they won't be able to accommodate is zany. Right after a guy has been in the big leagues for 3 months is, I'd say, a pretty poor time to trade him. You'd be taking what might be the worst performances of his career and having people trade for them based on that. Like trading Fulmer now or Rodon mid-2015 - if you're moving them then teams aren't paying "top 10 in MLB prospect" talent for them. If you're bringing guys up, you need to give them a year or two, sometimes more, to establish themselves. You remain correct they won't all stay there, but if Glasnow and Giolito walk a lot of people and have ERAs in the 4s this year and early next year, are you ready to trade them for a weak return just to clear space for Kopech? Or are you trading Rodon then and starting over? Or are you giving up on one of them and putting them in the bullpen. Basically, if everything works well, you've created a sticky situation for yourself. If any one guy struggles, you're debating whether to give up on a 24 year old to replace him with a 21 year old. That's not how you deal with developing pitchers, that's thinking like these guys are big league regulars.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:56 PM) If all those guys were to work out to where they deserve to be in a major league rotation, it can't be classified a problem. Are you willing to put Kopech in the bullpen to give them a couple years to develop at the big league level?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:56 PM) I get it, but there are much worse problems to have. If we actually do reach some point where we have 5 studs in the MLB, and 5 studs in Charlotte, and 5 studs in Birmingham, we can worry. That time is nowhere close to today. So you'd be overturning your rotation once a year then? Come on man, if Kopech is destroying AAA next year and throwing 100 you're going to be happy with him being put in the bullpen? Hell I could write my post complaining about it already.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:52 PM) Invite them to live with you. Show us by your example. Happy to have them in my city.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:35 PM) There is something tantalizing at looking at a rotation featuring Rodon, Giolito, Glasnow, Kopech, and Lopez/Fulmer. Right there's the problem - just from guys in the organization already you've listed 5 starters, all of whom we can legitimately expect to be demanding big league innings by the 2nd half of 2018 barring injury. Add in Glasnow...and which guy doesn't get a big league shot? Or which guy goes to the bullpen? If you give me a guy like Keller, fine he gets stuck at A ball this year and he's not arriving until 2019 at the earliest and by then we'll at least have given those top 5 a chance to see if any of them are going to flop, he's down there with Hansen so there's continuing depth building up, but the slash you've already put in there shows the problem. You're not running out a 6 person rotation in 2018, and you're not going to cut one of those guys loose if they struggle in 2017 in their first callup.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 01:33 PM) I would obviously prefer packages with Meadows/bell, but have to reiterate that Newman is not just some guy. I really don't think this matters to me - if he's the 3rd piece, he could be a good player but this still doesn't work out. There can't be more than 1 starting pitcher out of the top 2 guys and I'm skeptical we have room for that.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 9, 2017 -> 11:48 AM) Lack of pitching has been just as instrumental to the Sox failures as lack of hitting. The bullpen situation has been an absolute travesty and that has everything to do with not having enough minor league pitching. I agree that the headliner ideally would be a top, top position player prospect but one thing I will never say after enduring the likes of Ronald Belasario and Hector Noesi in major roles is that the Sox have too much pitching on the farm. I agree that lack of pitching has been a major problem in this organization, but I can't help but feel we've loaded up on pitching already, to the point that if we're not getting position players back as the key ingredients there's no reason to make this deal. Glasnow + Keller + 2 other guys might be fair return on total talent, but we simply can't start this many pitchers.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 8, 2017 -> 03:31 PM) I wasn't saying Ocare was bad OR good, merely that with any of his failed policies, Obama prefers to blame his messaging rather than the actual message. Never a 'gee, the general public really doesn't like my idea to bring in 10k Syrian refugees, most of them being males of military age'. Well unfortunately, as expertly demonstrated by the example you gave, he's guilty of asking Americans to be good human beings, and it's very sad that we have failed at that.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 11:26 PM) https://www.yahoo.com/news/report-election-...--election.html Now we're just supposed to take Trump's astute foreign policy advice that having a positive relationship with Russia and completely ignoring the corruption of the Yeltsin/Putin oligarchy is somehow going to work out well for the world? What, a minority of US voters agreed with that, but they were of a certain group that for some reason is more important than everyone else. You have a problem with that?

Here's what appeared to me to be an excellent read on Willy Garcia, what the Pirates tried to do with him at various steps, what he was able to do, what his weaknesses were, and why he didn't wind up on their roster in 2016.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 07:07 PM) Yes. If the goal is sustained excellence, a guy with a mediocre ceiling is no big loss, if he is a loss. Given that i don't think he is actually a loss, this adds another warm body. More people = more chance to find an average major leaguer somewhere. If this is a loss of a player, well then I haven't seen a convincing argument that the lost player has a better chance of being an average major leaguer than the guy picked up.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 07:45 PM) They won 84 games last year and they are essentially adding McCann, Beltran, Reddick, Bregman, and Gurriell to their lineup. The last 2 were on the team for the stretch run last year, but adding those 5 to your lineup for a full year is no joke. If Kuechle and McCullers are healthy I dint think 90 wins is crazy at all. They also got a couple of WAR out of Valbuena, a career year out of of Altuve and you never know if a guy will repeat a career year, McCann was worth 1.3 WAR while Jason Castro was worth 1.1, Colby Rasmus was a positive player for them, Evan Gattis put up 2 WAR for them mostly while playing C (weaker when he was DH). Yes, that lineup is no joke. Correa will probably take another step forward. They added some big names, but those big names are replaciing a number of guys who were decent performers already. And on top of that, their whole division other than the Rangers are better on paper than they were last year, and the Rangers aren't bad either. That division has 4 teams that could be above .500 depending on injuries. If I were a fan of theirs I'd be screaming for starting pitching. It might hold up, but like I keep saying, good luck. It fails, I won't be shedding any tears.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 07:17 PM) I honestly think its plausible they open with their current rotation and add in June/July if they need to. Ok, my comment can be called preempting yours.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 05:59 PM) Houston will improve their rotation. It really doesn't hurt you in the standings ifyou get the pitcher at the Winter Meetings or a day before the season starts. Not quite the same thing exactly, but worth noting that those Astros went 7-17 out of the gate in April of 2016 and a winning record that month could have put them in the playoffs. So, day before the season starts ok, but trade deadline...well you can see how it worked last year.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 06:52 PM) I never said it was bad, but that rotation will not beat the Red Sox or Indians. And it might not beat the Rangers, Mariners, and Angels - the bottom two of whom look like they've improved compared to last year on paper.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 04:56 PM) 1. Courtney Hawkins, of 2. Trayce Thompson, of 3. Carlos Sanchez, ss/2b 4. Erik Johnson, rhp 5. Keenyn Walker, of 6. Scott Snodgress, lhp 7. Andre Rienzo, rhp 8. Keon Barnum, 1b 9. Jared Mitchell, of 10. Chris Beck, rhp http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2013...llUAzpU67oEH.99 NOT GOOD I did that without looking.

Apparently in part because of the failure of the nominees to be forthcoming with documents and in part because the Congress wants to hold hearings for all of them at the same time, this year will be the first time since the office was created 40 years ago that the Senate will be holding confirmation hearings on cabinet members before the Office of Government Ethics has completed reviews of said cabinet members. It is possible the full Congress could be voting on cabinet members without completed reviews.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 05:38 PM) That's pretty definitive. I remember three years ago when everyone here loved him and had him #1 on their prospect lists, and I objected and was, of course, roundly criticized. Glad to see someone agreeing with me, although I never used the "bust" word. If I had, I might have been banned for heresy. To be fair...this was the White Sox's system. There were probably 4 busts out of the top 5.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 03:00 PM) His approach seems to be very conservative. I'm not as high on kopeck as most are. He has shown immaturity, but the plus arm strength is tantalizing if he can improve his secondary offerings and command. He will need at least two full minor league seasons of development, likely three. Nobody knows if Collins can stick at catcher, but there is not much doubt the bat can play at the MLB level. Hawkins is a bust. When a guy hits triple digits, there's benefits to being conservative with them and keeping them down as long as they need to build up their arms, but AA and AAA hitters are often not going to be enough of a challenge to force a guy to really work on his secondary stuff. I would not be surprised at all if his numbers were good enough to earn a mid-2018 callup, and that is what I care about with him - earn the callup. Once he's better than AAA hitters and his arm is where it needs to be, big league hitters are gong to be the guys who will challenge his secondary stuff and command.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 05:03 PM) I don't see how that's even a question honestly. At some point you have to realize that you're just spiting yourself to hold out for "value." Unfortunately Q's value isn't what the White Sox say it is, it's what other teams are willing to pay. So if his market isn't up to your par now after the season Q just had and the 4 years of control, why on earth would it be better down the line? There's honestly no logical argument to keeping Q on this team past the 2017 deadline. And even waiting until the deadline is a mistake in my opinion, but I can at least somewhat see Hahn holding out for as long as he can if the offers truly aren't up to snuff. I think something will definitely break at some point in the next month though, Q is too good for every team to pass on trading for. Someone will step up for him. Because the one thing that does change is the desperation level of other teams. You want an example of that? Addison Russel for Jeff Samardzija. If we have reached a point where there are no other teams willing to move top flight talent for a strong, #2 or better pitcher, that situation will almost certainly change in the future. Worth thinking about - one of the reasons why there may not be teams willing to make that kind of move right could very well be the fact that we've already devastated 2 other systems. So yes, any team trading for him later will have him for less time, but baseball history shows that teams do reach a point where they will make larger sacrifices. I would be stunned if the Stros or Pirates did not do this. Frankly, I will call them stupid. I think I did that a page ago in different words. But if they're going to be dumb, then wait for teams who aren't.

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 02:53 PM) or hillary? My knees hurt when I jump down from a height of a couple feet. Ergo, I'm going to go jump off the Grand Canyon.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 7, 2017 -> 12:12 PM) I'm glad at least one team is operating like that because it's interesting to watch. And he is paying attention to some oft overlooked details like defense. But I think it has a high chance of crashing. Everything they're doing right now could work well and if Cano gets old or Cruz loses his magic vitamins, there's a simple failure method.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 6, 2017 -> 09:24 PM) I disagree with Bregman. I think they believe he is very important to the roster. Having a good glove at 3B, especially with their staff, who has good offensive potential is important. As for Meadows, the Pirates have been shopping McCutchen because they can't afford him for the next contract. It appears that Meadows is the replacement. The Pirates need to have at least a shot at the playoffs each year to maintain the fan base. From all reports Meadows is the player who can replace him and they are reluctant to lose a player that close to the MLB, they need to replace an MLB player. all of this is JMHO but it doesn't take a genius to see where these negotiations are going. Maybe RH/KW will wear them down but it sure doesn't look like it. Then I will tell the Pirates and the Astros..."good luck with that". The Pirates want to move McCutchen, but given that he just had a down year they're going to have to give him away at a discount if they're moving him - that much is already clear. So, they get a choice - give McCutchen away at a discount and play for 2018, or actually make a run at things this year. If McCutchen does have some recovery for the year, they'd still be giving him away at a discount next offseason because he'd be under team control for 1 year, and they'll be paying his salary this year. If they hold McCutchen and he does have a comeback year, they're competitive for best outfield in the league, they have a solid infield, but here's their rotation: Cole Taillon Nova Glasnow Kuhl There's some talent in that rotation, but you've got 2 prospects, one of whom has control issues and hit the DL last year, another who is now 2 years removed from TJS, Cole who is a legit top of the rotation starter but who only threw 116 innings last year, Nova who is a "Searage hopefully fixed him" guy, no one in their rotation who threw more than 165 innings total last year, Kuhl who is a sinkerballer and a kid with some talent, and 5 righties/no lefties. That rotation has talent, but for them to challenge the Cubs or Cardinals literally everything needs to go right - if Cole repeated his injury-riddled 2016 then they're not going anywhere. So, they want to go against the Cubs and the Cardinals with that rotation, I say good luck. The Astros want to hold Bregmann and all their other guys? Fine. Keuchel McHugh McCullers Morton Fiers Musgrove There's talent there again, but out of 6 guys, one of them had an ERA below 4 last year, 1 of them threw more than 168 innings, several of them were hurt down the stretch. Really, you're taking that up against Sale/Porcello/Price/Pomeranz/Wright/Rodriguez and Kluber/Carrasco/Salazar/Tomlin/Bauer? Hell, Hamels/Darvish/Perez/Cashner might outpitch them, and there's a real good chance Seattle's rotation does too. So yeah, Astros and Pirates, you guys are confident in those rotations? I say good luck. You're going to need it.