southsider2k5

For guys who are hoping to go pro, that is just scary, let alone for the real life implications here.

We are supposed to envy one of the worst offenses in baseball? What?

This is impressive for its mental gymnastics. The Sox pick up McCann off of the scrap heap, turn him into an All-Star catcher, but they still have the problem.

He's been unlucky in that he has gotten a TON of bad strikes called against him. That doesn't show up in BABiP

He is actually getting exposed to a lot more high level talent this way, and a lot less duds that he would have faced especially in A+ ball. Granted you can't simulate actual play, but he is seeing much better stuff this way.

This is where the White Sox trade philosophy for the Eaton/Sale/Q trades comes into play. They very clearly concentrated on quality over quantity in these deals. They wanted as many top guys as they could get, versus taking a return like Cleveland did for Clevinger where they got less stars, but more mid level type guys so they got more volume than we got. We also seem to really have tried to time the arrival of the first wave to get here as clumped together as possible, which means the system would be cleaned out more all at once than if we had staggered the guys a bit more. This is where the next international class comes into play. We have some high level guys that we have brought in with the last two drafts, and we have more potential guys coming in the next couple of international classes if we can hit a home run here. It is also where all of the HS and former intentional picks need to start picking up the slack. If we start getting some breakouts out of these overslot HS picks, we can start filling in the gaps of the system. Otherwise things will drop off majorly instead of just a bit.

That's really awkwardly written. I think he is actually trying to say that he DOESN'T believe that because of his first sentence, otherwise the second sentence doesn't make any sense with the first one.

You don't remember it all. The Sox tried to extend him, repeatedly. Then he disappeared and had an unauthorized and experimental surgery outside of the US without telling the team. Even after that they tried to extend him, and he accused them of trying to take advantage of him due to his injury.

You might be too young to remember, but Magglio burned that bridge to the ground.

I mean the bat was always expected to play, his question was could he play a serviceable enough 3B to keep him out of the 1B log jam, right?

Hmm...

If this were a normal season, we'd be around the first of May.

They had a high priority placed on a top end pitcher, even offering 9 figures to get one done. I have zero doubt they will chase another #1 starter this winter.

FG 98.2%, 6th overall in AL BR 98.2%, 7th overall in AL

Again, i know this will turn into the resign McCann thread, but there is no way the dude is signing on to be a back up for the next three years. The sooner people give up that idea, the less miserable they will be this winter when he moves on.

1-15

Lopez is done as soon as he can be replaced. He would have already been replaced it wasn't for injuries.

I mean this should have been clear all along after the injuries started setting in. I said it on the trade deadline, and will say it again. This team isn't currently "one player" away. There was no one they would get at the deadline to get them over the top. Their best window is still a year or two away. Management tried to move it up with their off season signings, but the main part of the window is still in the future as the pitching gets here and matures.

Its funny, there is no need to look up scores or follow a game. All you need to do is look at thread titles on Soxtalk to know if the team won or lost last night.

Yet who signed them both?

Tom Seaver

Jimenez

Adding a power hitting left handed OBP-centric catcher in a season where McCann had his first good season of his career, and even then tailed off pretty impressively at the end of the season, was not a bad allocation. There was a much better chance of McCann returning this historic norms, versus keeping up at an all-star pace. There is also the chance that his impact this season has been partially because of playing favorable match ups in this platoon with Grandal.