caulfield12

For all those still clamoring, Joey Gallo is 2 for his last 36. Sounds like he would be a perfect fit. (but he homered yesterday in a shellacking of the Pirates, for optimists.) And, no, the Yankees aren’t going to trade him for AJ Pollock. On the other hand, it would be hard for Menechino to make him any worse. For the entire month of June, he was a sizzling 9/65. Josh Bell should be their #1 choice because the Royals will ask for too much for Benintendi. Jazz Chisholm would require sending the Sox top 5 prospects out. Never gonna happen.

The biggest concern is Hahn senses his job is in potential jeopardy and empties out the remainder of the farm to make a desperation run for it in 2022-23 (see 2016)…not looking at the long term consequences of his moves. It’s going to be one of the most dire situations in JR franchise history if they were to somehow miss BOTH of these next two postseasons with expanded playoff fields. Right now, their best hope for 2023 is that Carlos Correa goes elsewhere. And that’s not saying much, because Jeremy Pena, his replacement, has been even better for the Astros without even factoring in salary. For this season, both NY teams, Houston and the Dodgers seem like locks to be in the World Series. Things will open up again if/when Judge goes somewhere like Seattle.

Probably Narvaez, McCann, Rodon 2021 (obviously not the offseason plan), Graveman and Cueto. That’s the extent of good/solid moves. We need to be producing a lot more players ages 22-26 like the Twins. Seems Arraez has been around forever, but he’s younger than you imagine. See Larnach, Kirilloff, Gordon, Royce Lewis, Celestino, Jeffers, Miranda, etc. We just have Vaughn and Sheets from the last couple of seasons added to the current youth mix. And Zavala contributing now, although he’s been on the 40 man for ages.

Yesterday was the opportunity on four occasions to throw in the towel. So not dead quite yet. 7 1/2 back would have been tough to overcome. Plus the Guardians are really fading. Only one game ahead of the Sox after being one game ahead of the Twins roughly ten days ago.

Josh Bell would be a huge get…but of course the argument will be don’t block Sheets for the far superior player. Drury has made and makes sense for a number of teams. Starting pitching shouldn’t be prioritized over hitting right now…and Castillo will be more expensive in prospect cost than he’s worth. Knowing Hahn, he will probably try to fix Kelenic’s swing instead. Or move him to second base.

Brieske/Cease Skubal/Giolito Hill (second career start)/Cueto Hutchison/Kopech

He should be worth millions more than Seager...especially as there are fewer big names at the top this year and more teams chasing that diminishing supply. With the caveat that he has to avoid a lengthy IL the remainder of this season.

Nm

Odds of White Sox having a seat at the table in the Judge or Trea Turner FA negotiations?

Hitting third and DHing against AZ. Started 4/9, 0 for his last 4 with a walk. .308 BA.

Alvarez Ohtani JD Martinez might disagree... https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=dh&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=6&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/tigers-gm-77-million-pitcher-eduardo-rodriguez-3-weeks-205815885.html Tigers GM says team hasn't heard from $77 million pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez in 3 weeks...marital issues/on restricted list

Asked for team’s best pitching prospects for Adam Eaton The interesting aspect is both those Sox players went on to be important contributors on World Series-winning teams.

One thing they most assuredly won’t do is throw a boatload of money at Theo Epstein. Need to find the baseball equivalent of Brad Stevens…who understands the game from both a coaching as well as management/front office perspective.

https://soxmachine.com/analysis/failing-to-understand-then-understanding-the-failure-of-the-8-5-triple-play-in-6-frames/

It’s working well for that 27 year Burger King employee who got the insulting thank you appreciation package of movie tickets and a Starbucks cup, etc., after never missing a day of work or being late over all that time. Hahn has to be at close to 20 years if not longer, right? Btw, that particular GFM was at $300,000+ last time I checked…probably mid $300k’s by now.

Anyone that followed the team through this entire debacle of offseason (let’s pat ourselves on the back fir not signing an injured Conforto)…even going back further to the TLR move…and blaming fans for not supporting the team needs to have their head examined. The only rational thing to do for most middle or upper middle class families is to look at the current opportunity cost of attendance and weigh/balance that with hundreds of other competing entertainment options. Don’t forget Northwestern/Kellogg, btw. Hahn is the anti-Quin Snyder…except he maintains that squeaky clean image to continue his memberships in the good ‘ol boys C-suite club box.

The funny thing is that Kenny Williams always believed in developing relievers internally, or finding them on the cheap. If you look at all the closers or high leverage guys, like Howry, Foulke, Gordon, Takatsu, Hermanson, Jenks, Marte, Thornton, Crain, Santos…the only anomalies are Billy Koch (needed a classic fireballer) and the overreaction to 2007 led to Dotel and Linebrink after a slew of trades for big fireballing LHR’s and guys like Aardsma blew up. But even then, you still at least got 2008 and 2010 out of it. KW invested more money into starting pitching (see 2005-2010) than relievers…it was never such a pronounced imbalance or overallocation of budget like it has been under Rick Hahn. And that really started with David Robertson and hasn’t let up since, not to mention drafting guys like Burdi and Crochet so high in the draft…and then basically having a cycle of drafts focusing heavily on collegiate “big arms” that looked ticketed primarily for pen roles.

The White Sox one niche advantage remaining after Herm Schneider left (overall player health) was/is the Cuban Connection. And that has proven to be a vulnerability without the right manager to lead the simultaneously underachieving Moncada and Robert. Those were going to be the two superstar anchors for the heart of the window…the Sox equivalent of Buxton and Correa. They quite obviously now need a different voice to get through to them and push the right buttons motivationally or psychologically. TLR is definitely not getting it done. Then there’s Vera and Colas as well that were going to sustain the window past 2025. Nobody seems to be guiding them…or at least getting through on a consistent basis. The “smoke” around Colas is worrisome to say the least. And Chris Getz seems to be more of an organizational guy in over his head than the leader that position demands. We can blame the aging curve for Grandal as a catcher at that age, but the sad picture of a forlorn Abreu in the dugout after their fifth consecutive season loss to the Twins says it all. With Hahn, you need look further than the failed pursuits of Machado, Harper, Wheeler, etc. This a results-driven game, but there’s always an excuse or rationalization. The saddest thing is small market teams like the Twins and Guardians are even finding creative ways to keep and bring superstars into the fold while at three games under .500 in MLB’s weakest division we are now back to “mired in mediocrity” for the foreseeable future due to tapped out payroll and a floundering farm system with only two potential studs in Montgomery and Vera.

Are they even Chicago or Milwaukee’s team? There’s not even one state in the US that has more Sox fans…like the Cubs and Braves used to have due to the wide-reaching nature of WGN and TBS/TNT.

Better paid by Nebraska…

The Twins have done just fine without Nelson Cruz. And there's not quite the same fan connection with Abreu as Konerko due to 2005. Almost. I'm not sure a contract extension for anyone on the current team other than maybe Tim Anderson would move the meter much at all. That said, with Pito the bigger question is how important is the continued presence of Abreu to Moncada/Robert/Grandal and Colas/Vera to a lesser extent?

hit, hit for power, defend and/or bat left-handed to be more specific.

Are you still allowed to use a pitcher with a 9.48 ERA and more than 10 innings thrown?