caulfield12

WHITE SOX: See you in the ALCS For the first time in franchise history, the White Sox will reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons. But getting to the playoffs is not enough for this group. They have the offensive excellence throughout their lineup to offset the key loss of Eloy Jiménez, who could return near the end of the 2021 campaign. If they need to make an outside addition, general manager Rick Hahn said there’s financial room to maneuver, and those maneuvers might come well before the Trade Deadline. The bullpen figures to be one of the best in baseball and the starting staff looks strong one through six, with the return of Carlos Rodón and Michael Kopech. All of these facts translate into a chance for the White Sox to emerge as one of the final two AL teams. -- Scott Merkin

They’re not moving Rodriguez that quickly...

No pain in the arm here in China, even. (Of course, GPS satellites are tracking me right now through the nano chips.) That said, a couple of my co-workers experienced a sore arm for 24-36 hours and a couple were sick/lethargic the first couple of days (this was the first dosage).

He had an excellent reputation with the Brewers when he came over, and was considered a future GM in waiting. I think he just got in over his head financing that gay nightclub in Phoenix that really caused the problem...as the amount of embezzling was only $440,000, spread out over 23 different players. Perhaps, with the way it has always been business as usual in Latin America with buscones taking their cuts and double contracts for taxation purposes/income reporting, it became too tempting a graft? Some have theorized Wilder felt KW would bail him out, that they were close (KW would look the other way, in theory) and intimated that minority front office execs had to watch each others' backs, but it turned out to be quite the opposite situation in the end. https://www.redreporter.com/2006/2/3/18152/61361

There's been some obvious misses (at least so far) with Adolfo, Victor Diaz/Basabe and underestimating Jimenez's defensive shortcomings, but we've been pretty darned accurate ever since Alexei Ramirez. The only one that really didn't work out (until now) was Viciedo. Of course, progress in the DR, Puerto Rico, Central America and Venezuela has been pretty darned abysmal. And we lost the inside track in Brazil that started with Wilder/Rienzo/Paulo Orlando/Anderson Gomes (of course, the Indians ended up with the right Gomes, YAN) back in the day. But the point remains on those "moonshot" signings worth their weight in gold over time with the right evaluator. Imagine our DR connection with Eloy, Vladdy, Jr., Tatis, Jr., and Soto working collectively as recruiters!!! For every 500 Yogurt/Yolbert Sanchez's, there's going to be a Tatis/Guerrero/Soto. But the odds have dramatically increased though in our favor due to the presence of Paddy.

An oft forgotten addendum to the tale is the July 2 trade of prospects Chase De Jong and Tim Locastro to the Los Angeles Dodgers for international bonus pool slots totalling $1,071,300, a swap completed nearly simultaneously with Guerrero’s $3.9 million agreement. While landing Guerrero wasn’t dependent on that deal, acquiring the extra spending slots under the old system reduced the penalty levied against the Blue Jays for blowing past their 2015 bonus pool allotment of $2,324,100. As a result, the Blue Jays were able to sign right-hander Eric Pardinho, ranked as the club’s No. 4 prospect by Baseball America, plus shortstops Miguel Hiraldo (No. 10) and Leonardo Jimenez (No. 21), among others, during the 2017 signing period, one that they would have had to otherwise sit out. Here’s how it went down... Blame it on the Dodgers!!! Of course, we'll get the "but where would he play?" argument with Moncada and Abreu/Vaughn. Of course, we wouldn't have needed to draft Vaughn if we'd signed and developed Vladdy, Jr. Also, the article mentions the Royals and Padres as being the two other teams "sniffing around." https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/side-deal-helped-blue-jays-sign-guerrero-jr/

I thought the other team in on Abreu was the Rockies...?

Let's just hope if we keep repeating that fear that the so-called brain trust of the organization comes to the same conclusion and doesn't force Vaughn to fit and compound the problem with another key injury. Then you're really behind the 8 ball having to make a desperation trade, or, gasp, add on salary.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/eloy-jimenez-injury-should-the-white-sox-get-aggressive-in-the-trade-of-free-agent-market-or-stand-pat/ Reddick, Aquino (Reds, out of options), Puig, Cespedes Tauchman, Trey Mancini (certainly won't happen until mid-season) mentioned. Braun and Markakis look to stay retired.

Cue the why do we keep trading veteran wasted salaries for international pool money thread as well...we felt guilty for Leury’s success so wanted to do the Rangers a favor in return?

After some early misses (Nestor Molina comes to mind), Paddy and KW have been right more often that not on their LA evals. Just a matter of convincing JR to error on the financial rather than talent side of trades. The problem now with the Cuban Connection is it might be relied upon too much...compared to doing all the legwork in the DR, Venezuela, Central America, Colombia, Brazil. And we probably have had the fewest (or at least bottom 5) Asian players of any MLB team...or US veterans signed out of those leagues. Colas will be one of the first in a long time.

Do we really think Marlins’ fans are all that satisfied now because of 1997 and 2003?

Well-conceived play there at end by ORU, just ran out of gas a bit and Arkansas got too many second chance points with their athleticism and length on the boards.

Well, except Machado.

That Thompson kid can really play. And Alatishe can jump out of the gym. Villanova had Baylor down 7 at half, ran away in the end as Villanova’s depth/injury issues finally came to the fore. ORU surprisingly up 7 on ARK at half. This day really is going to suck if Syracuse makes yet another Elite and we have to hear more about the Boeheims.

More likely High A...he’s missed so much time they’re going to want him to rebuild his confidence with actual game results first. Then again, if Collins were to fail at DH, Sheets and then Burger are the hitters with the most advanced skills remaining in the organization, since none of the outfielders have proven themselves.

The only thing that would be uglier would be UVA or Wisconsin also playing in this one. Moser is going to earn his next contract if he pulls out this one.

This argument will go back and forth all year. Nobody said they are awful as a team. Maybe awful at managing some of their talent to maximize their value at times. We have been rebuilding since the second half of 2016. You must have a lot of patience. Being content with second or third isn’t much fun, either. It’s hard to watch the Padres doing everything to beat the Dodgers for the division when our best case scenario is likely fixing things at the trade deadline. And they’re barely running a league average payroll in the competitive window which was to be marked by “unprecedented financial flexibility” to quote none other than Rick Hahn.

With Eloy’s arm, RF would be a minor miracle.

Well, he has played LF a total of 9 games during his collegiate and professional (Charlotte) career, so well ahead of Vaughn. And fangraphs’ more reliable 0.5 shows you how high the variance is going to be based on a grand total of 150 at bats.

Robert has to be the threat he was the last week and into the playoffs again...

0.5 https://www.fangraphs.com/players/danny-mendick/18889/stats?position=2B That’s probably why nobody has suggested him for LF, at least not yet. Of course, going by fWAR, Jimenez profiles as a 2.5-3 player due to his defensive shortcomings, but certainly not irreplaceable. Do younreally believe Mendick would even give you 2, though, completely out of position?

Machado’s bat and glove replacing Jimenez in the lineup right now at least keeps them out of the Wild Card game. You did notice he was a Top NL MVP candidate, right? If they opened up the checkbook, they’d now have someone like Jackie Bradley, Jr. in LF, and one more quality starting pitcher for starting rotation insurance. They would have a better alternative at catcher than Lucroy, for example. They would have drafted Kelenic instead of Madrigal, saving the money they spent on Eaton.

How is that unique for the White Sox, though? If anything, coaching and player development was even more critical in that particular environment. Why do other organizations maintain or sustain their high/er rankings?

https://www.mlb.com/news/ranking-2021-mlb-team-tiers 7 tiers of MLB teams in 2021...