JUSTgottaBELIEVE

And then you have guys like Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo that absolutely rake in AAA and appear to be ready for MLB but are clearly not once they get there. Minor league stats don’t always tell the whole story (I’m looking at you Miguel Vargas). Aaron Judge had a career .842 OPS in the minors lol

Doesn’t Slater hit well against LHP over his career? I think it’s generally much easier to find guys that can hit LHP versus the other way around.

Kopech had all types of red flags on and off the field. The odds were very much stacked against him of ever becoming an actual superstar.

Now I know you’re not serious. Referencing a guy’s prospect ranking after he put up a 3+ WAR season as a rookie lol

Expect to be disappointed then 🤷‍♂️ The likelihood of Schultz turning into a hall of famer or one of the top 5 arms in MLB at age 25 is very low. Just look at those prospect lists of the top 10 pitching prospects over the past decade and there’s a lot of suck in there.

Yes, it’s always the White Sox fault and never the player’s. I get it but Kopech was his own worst enemy too.

Exactly!

The issues were always there, even in the minor leagues. TJS and then deciding to sit out the Covid year certainly didn’t help his development.

I thought we were talking at the time of the trade? Regardless, I don’t consider Noah Schultz a “superstar”, do you?

Who pegged Kopech as a super star? Seriously. Sure, we HOPED he could eventually emerge as a front of rotation starter but there were plenty of red flags and you’re talking about him like he was Paul Skenes lol.

Superstar pitcher based on what? Yes he could throw 100mph but with poor control and no plus secondary pitch who cares. Those guys are relievers and that’s where he ended up. It’s not surprising his career fWAR is lower than just one season of Abreu’s.

Not even in hindsight. I’m taking young mlb guys like Abreu and Jordan Westburg over Sebastian Walcott (mlb #23 overall prospect right now) as the second piece in a deal like this all day. Round out the package with 2 or 3 high upside prospects. I, too, would be disappointed if Abreu was the headliner and there wasn’t an additional top 30 mlb prospect involved but I really don’t think that will be the case.

Let’s put this another way… would Sox fans be disappointed if Jordan Westburg was the second piece in a Crochet trade? Similar age, years of club control, and mlb production as Abreu.

Abreu just put up a 3.1 fWAR season as a rookie. Not many top 10 ranked prospects do that as rookies, let alone a guy ranked #23. So yea, I was serious. I guess you’re arguing that Abreu’s season was a fluke and he won’t continue that level of production?

Abreu as a second piece > second piece from Sale trade (Kopech)

Agreed. Crochet is an absolute monster. And is going to cost, what, a total of $12-15M for the next two seasons?? The only question has always been health, and I think he did a lot to dispel those concerns this past season.

“Can’t have a Fernando Tatis trade here” 😂

Dude…the team put him on innings limit. Had nothing to do with running out of steam.

I’d make a deal centered around Basallo and Beavers. I haven’t liked Mayo’s profile since last winter when he first came up in trade discussions.

And still had two excellent months in the second half of the season so I wouldn’t call one bad month as justification that he hit a wall especially when September was so strong.

Just a couple examples of mock trades proposed by non- White Sox fans. I’d say the general consensus is Crochet has more trade value than Cease had last winter.

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/four-player-trade-proposal-sends-ace-garrett-crochet-al-east-team-1989272 I'm just the messenger

Yes