harfman77

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2017 -> 02:18 PM) The guys who follow the international stuff the most (Balder and Law amongst the leaders) don't think there should be any caps or limits. I don't see how there couldn't be, he is still under 23 and has less than six years of professional experience. There are not any other stipulations that would exclude him from those rules as far as anyone has reported.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 1, 2017 -> 04:26 AM) I like signing Addison Reed more than this. Reed has had some success and isn't going to come in cheap, and there isn't a lot of sense getting in a bidding war for a closer for a team that will be .500 at best. If you Fulmer back there and let him get back to his former delivery now that he will have a smaller workload and receives the corresponding uptick in velocity you may have a real piece there that has value. Best case scenario you get your closer for the future or are able to flip him in a Giles type deal to reinforce the rebuild. Worst case he flames out and you get a revolving door back there with Petricka, Goldberg, Jones, and some FA. At least you will know with some degree of likelihood if Fulmer has any role in the future of this franchise. Bring in Jordan Walden and Drew Storen to compete in the closer wheel of death and hope a couple of the guys build enough value to net some prospects next summer.

Carson Fulmer

His HR rate has gone from 2.5% with the Rays to 5.4% in his time with the Sox. His BA is down a bit, but OBP and SLG show signs that he is coming around over the last 10, hes slashing .242/.297/.515. Its a small sample, but their are indicators he is coming to life.

I thought Clarkin would be there given the amount of time he has missed over his career. Other than that, I think the approach is to get an extended look at some guys that are on the 40 man bubble for next year.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Aug 24, 2017 -> 08:10 PM) Lots of aggressive promotions to close the year. This is a real surprise to me. I wouldn't say anything outside of the Collins promotion could be considered aggressive. The rest of the guys have been excelling at their current level and are ready to be challenged a bit more. I like the idea of giving these guys a taste of the higher level to end the season to give them an idea of things they need to address over the winter to come back and have more success at that level.

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Aug 26, 2017 -> 12:36 PM) Any reason why Yurchak isn't being promoted? Dude is raking. Where do you all think he'll start next season? Theres no place to promote him to. Burger just got to Kanny and will finish the season there, filling 3B, Remillard moved over to 2B to make room for Burger, Sheets has 1B, and the Sox have four OF's - Rutherford, Call, Adolfo, and Gonzalez that need regular at bats. There just isnt a spot for him there now, and no one from that group is really ready to take the next step up. Burger probably goes to WS to start the year next season and Yurchak starts in Kanny.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Aug 24, 2017 -> 01:37 PM) Hawkins is whatever to me. Bullpen, OF, release. Don't really care. Don't see the harm in giving him a shot on the mound first. To me the options are give him a shot at pitching or release him, too many OF's pushing for playing time to keep giving him opportunities, and if he isn't playing everyday he's probably not going to progress.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 24, 2017 -> 11:49 AM) Moving him to the pen doesn't actually fix the underlying problems in Carson Fulmer. In fact it makes them harder to get fixed as he gets less repetition and structure in his work. Fulmer isn't a typical starter who worked 300-400 minor league innings as a consistent starter in a set role. He is a guy who already had some mechanical questions, was rushed through the minors, and has just now worked his first full season as a starting pitcher. The guy needs regular and consistent work, and as much of it as we can get. Besides with the next season or two being bleak anyway, the franchise loses absolutely nothing by his sitting in Charlotte even if he does it for both his age 24 and 25 seasons. I think that the underlying problem is the change in his delivery and the delivery was changed so that he could handle a starter workload, so I believe it would fix the underlying problem. This is his second season as a pro starter, I get that last season was temporarily interrupted by a short relief stint in the majors. His numbers are moving in the wrong direction and I don't think repeating the level next year is really going to fix anything on its own either.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 02:51 PM) Carson Fulmer is just about to finish his first full season as a starter in professional baseball after 2.5 years in pro ball. There is no good reason to rush him out of the starting role. Just leave him alone and let him get his reps. The guy is going to be 24 on OD next season. His AAA numbers this season are just not good, 5.61 ERA with a WHIP of 1.56. I think he could end up as a high leverage guy if you let him go back to his old mechanics and get the velocity uptick from throwing shorter outings. If things go right you get a guy like Roberto Osuna out of it and that is probably just as valuable if not more valuable than the back end starter that Fulmer appears to be on track to become. He had 21 starts a year ago and his stat line was pretty predictive of his success this season. I do not know of many players that become much better after repeating a year at the same level. Usually if a player stalls out at a certain level of the minors its an omen to move on. I am sure there are exceptions to this, as there almost always are, but given his development curve I find it hard to have faith that he will be any more successful as a starter than he has been. If you move him to the pen and give him a year to setup and close, he is a really valuable player next winter either to be a part of the rebuild or as a trade piece to reinforce what the Sox have coming up now. I think optimally he would start the season as the 7th inning guy and work later in the game as he gained confidence and when Nate Jones inevitably hits the DL again. Mechanic changes are really tough for players to adapt to. If they change something and don't have success they are going to struggle to have confidence that the change is really for the better. On the flip side you get a guy like Hansen where his mechanical changes produce immediate results it is a lot easier to have faith in the process. In addition to that, you are going to have guys pushing their way up into that AAA rotation alongside Kopech in Adams, Guerrero, and Stephens with Dunning and Hansen probably not too far behind.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 24, 2017 -> 09:30 AM) So with Fulmer, if you aren't as concerned about keeping him in games longer, do you let him go back to his older more violent mechanics? Or was that also to help him get more control (which seems to have failed) I would. He hasn't had much success implementing the new stuff, kind of like the Sox had to break Giolito out of the new mechanics that the Nats gave him that seemingly derailed him last season.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 24, 2017 -> 10:32 AM) Again, unless I'm looking at the wrong Jace Fry, I think he's already a reliever... You're correct, that was my bad. I thought he was still starting. Must have been a pretty good idea.

I think its time for the Sox to move some guys around. Fulmer needs to go to the bullpen fulltime. With Burdi out for probably most of next year Fulmer could be a solid option for the Sox in the bullpen. Letting him go out in shorter stints would allow for him to play his stuff up a bit more and if he is successful, you have a valuable piece. His results the last two years are not trending in a positive direction, and its probably time to make a change. I think the Hawkins experiment is done. The results just aren't getting any better, its time to move him to the mound to see if the team can salvage any value from the pick. His high school scouting report said some teams like him as a pitcher and he threw 92-95. Make a move and let him try to be the next Sergio Santos, Sean Doolittle, or best case Kenley Jansen. Odds are he wont make it as a pitcher either, but its worth a try. Jake Peter to LF. With his history of arm trouble, 2B is the best position for him, however he will be blocked from the position for the foreseeable future unless the Sox trade him. He played 2B, 3B, RF, and LF in AA but has played exclusively 2B in AAA. He needs more time at other positions if he is going to be a useful piece. The team has an opportunity in LF next season and Peter could be a fit. Jace Fry to the bullpen. By all accounts Fry has a good arm, however the starter workload seems to be more than his arm can handle.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 12:58 PM) That's the thing for me. I accept Collins is likely not going to ever be good at blocking pitches. But if he can throw player out plus hit, we are talking about receiving where he needs to be good. What about the last 4-5 years has taught us that framing cannot be improved or taught? Is athleticism key to that? It's possible it's just not something I've heard tied to it. There is also an argument that a catcher has little to do with the pitch framing and it has much more to do with the types of pitchers that they handle - guys like Sale make their catchers worse with the movement of their pitches - and the size of the catchers. I have read that taller catchers are naturally worse pitch framers because they obstruct the view of the umpire sooner than smaller catchers.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 01:47 PM) Yeah that's fine too. Hopefully Cordell is healthy for OF at bats next year as well. I think I've seen enough of Engel (small sample size but minor league numbers are meh). Tilson should be in the mix as well. I think Cordell ends up the super utility guy as he has played pretty much every position outside of the battery.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 16, 2017 -> 09:50 AM) Clearly, if JR says he is going nowhere and wants to be around for when the team is good again, it means the team will be sold in 18 months. Sorry, your dream of JR selling isn't happening, as he has stated on many occassions. Yes, because professional sports owners never say one thing and do another. Its not my dream, there was a lot of speculation thrown around last winter that JR was open to selling the team. I am just piecing together data points and drawing a conclusion, it may be totally incorrect, but its what I am able to discern from the extremely limited data points that have been given.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Aug 16, 2017 -> 09:18 AM) The article is nothing but a bunch of bulls***. It must be nice for JR to finally give a interview to somebody in the media. And if you notice he gave the interview to somebody who is not a local writer. Anyways, what is that writer smoking when he said he expects JR to be inducted into the MLB Hall Of Fame? Also JR said the fans are the real owner of the team, the owner is just the custodian of the team. He thought so much of White Sox fans he came very close to moving the team to Florida. Last but not least he said Ventura can come back to the White Sox for a job anytime he wants to. I certainly hope he doesn't want to bring him back as manager. Its not a tall hill to climb for the longest tenured owner in baseball to get into the HOF, especially since he actually won a championship.

Interesting. This is what several MLB franchises have done with their top executives before selling the team, the Marlins are the latest example. Its a way of giving them a golden parachute in case the new owner wants to clean house, and puts the new owner on the hook for any buyouts. But at the same time JR is saying in the article that he plans to be around for quite a while longer. Given the smoke in the media about a possible sale last winter, I still think things are pointing in the direction that the team is sold within the next 18 months, right before the next TV contract negotiations are commenced.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Aug 14, 2017 -> 02:45 PM) Huh? I would be absolutely thrilled if Rutherford ended up having a career anywhere close to David Justice^ Justice was a career .279/.378/.500 hitter with 40.5 career WAR and 305 home runs. While not a superstar, that is rock solid production. Thats why I said, that nots a bad player to have. People seem to think that everyone one of these guys should be superstars, but you need guys like this to really put your team over the top. Another guy that could be a comp would be Yelich in Miami.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 11, 2017 -> 05:47 PM) As Matt mentions here, we never got any information on how much pool space was officially traded. They've traded some to Texas and Arizona. They have $4.75 million to spend. They signed 2 prospects for a total of $600K. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more similar deals. Yrizarri and Burr aren't "elite" level prospects but I'm glad the Sox are using the resources they have to acquire potential talent. Pretty good moves so far, these guys have the potential to be something useful down the line, though in all likelihood won't ever make it but are a lot closer than most of the guys they could have signed on J2 will ever make it.

The comp that gets thrown on Rutherford a lot is David Justice. Thats not a bad player, will probably get you 25-30 HR's at his peak, get on base at a high clip, be an asset in the field and steal 20-30 bases.

QUOTE (GermanSock @ Aug 11, 2017 -> 06:33 AM) He could of course develope power and many hs players take longer to get to their power and he is only in his second year. Trout also only hit 10 hr his second year. Trout was also in the majors by the time he was Rutherfords age.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 14, 2017 -> 11:07 AM) This all reminds me, did we ever get that PTBNL for Bourjos? We probably just got cash considerations in return.

QUOTE (GenericUserName @ Aug 14, 2017 -> 10:57 AM) Could it be that the PTBNL is someone on their 40 or that is rule 5 eligible that we want them to hold onto so they don't take up a spot on our 40 for the rule 5 draft? I think we are going to be right up against the limit with some of these recent acquisitions and Houston might have the space and not care as long as the spot is open for them for free agency. I haven't looked at their 40 man and any roster crunch, but its just an idea. I believe that the players must be sent as a PTBNL before the beginning of the next season, which is like the week after the World Series. Its most likely the White Sox have a list of 7-10 prospects they can pick from and they are evaluating which they would like to have.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Aug 6, 2017 -> 10:03 PM) The Trout-less Angels and woeful Twins are hovering just below .500. The Brewers, a truly miserable roster that had no intentions of competing to start the year, are only 0.5 back of the juggernaut Cubs. All it would take is Rodon/Lopez/Giolito all playing up to their potentials and it will be extremely difficult for the Sox to be so bad again. Thats not all it would take. It would take Avi and Leury putting up back to back career seasons. It would take James Shields pitching as he was capable of 8 years ago. It would take Davidson being able to continue to hit, finding someone to replace Melkys offensive production and for the Sox to find some sort of bullpen over the winter. The combination of all these things working in the Sox favor is pretty low. This team is going to hover near the bottom of the division next season, and probably be in a dog fight with KC for last. This team is not competing next year there are just too many issues to overcome. I think you will see the Sox active in free agency looking for next seasons Holland and Gonzalez as guys to throw into the rotation to try and move in the deadline. You will also probably see them dumpster dive for some relievers, like they did with Swarzak. Other than that, there is not going to be any big money going to FA's, its just not the right time and you are going to have to overpay to bring someone in to this situation to play on bad teams. The one exception you may see is if someone, like Ian Desmond last season, starts to fall in the value range that makes sense for the Sox to sign and try to flip.