caulfield12

Why not just use Leury...? They’re not going to give Souza the opportunity he will receive to start on other teams in the bottom 8-10 in MLB. And they’re not going to pay him like a projected starter. We should have just stuck Villar, Dickerson or Gennett out there if this was their best reactionary plan.

Why do we continually draft these “refined college hitters” in the first 3-5 rounds if their upside is always limited? Since we’re dismissing Walker, it practically is guaranteeing he’ll one day be a big league regular with the help of coaching in another organization. And there were at least five players who could have doubled or tripled that fWAR at no trade cost...not counting Ozuna and Castellanos, since those guys are obvious. Finally, there’s yet one more avenue closed off on trading for a starting pitcher.

They have to add at least one scrap heap pitcher, but the odds on anyone but Keuchel are slim and none at this point. We’ve gone from Wheeler and Castellanos/Ozuna (maybe even two hitters) to maybe Keuchel (at best, a poor man’s Buehrle) and Mazara, of course people are going to be pissed off...especially if they refuse to spend money on decent starting pitching and trade Vaughn, Madrigal or Lopez instead.

At least Polanco has shown the ability to at least put up three 2+ fWAR seasons and a 7.8 over his career.

Luis Robert is the only example of doing anything differently.

If only he could continue to face Sox pitchers at GRF, he’d totally be an All-Star. Alas...not the case going forward. You walked right into that one.

This seems exactly like the kind of desperate all-in move we’d see from the White Sox one year from now if they don’t finish with over 80 wins. Right now, the front office and local media can still probably sell the fanbase on this as one last “transition” year to competitiveness.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/rangers/2019/12/11/sources-rangers-clear-up-their-logjam-of-lefty-hitters-trade-nomar-mazara-to-chicago-white-sox/ Basically, he was the most expendable left-handed hitter on their roster, after Calhoun passed him in the second half this year. We got the one player in their outfield that wasn’t going to receive much playing time in 2020. Essentially, we’re relying on him, McCann, Collins and Leury to be meaningful contributors...yay!!! Texas actually knows how to find pitchers on the cheap (Lynn and Minor combined for 10.7 fWAR), they have added Walker for a player who was probably on the verge of being non-tendered (a Texas kid would never rake for the Rangers, right?) and Hahn generously helped them sign another kid by gifting Daniels international signing pool money in the same calendar year. So we’re going to pay Mazara $15-17.5 million to produce 1 fWAR (which we could have done for just FA $$$ with Dickerson, Calhoun, Puig or Gardner, who all would have been around 1.5-2.0 fWAR)...while giving up our best outfield prospect and helping the Rangers sign Lora, too. Now we are down one more trade chip (#6 prospect) in the remaining inventory to trade for a more desperately needed #2 starter. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/rangers-trade-for-international-pool-money-to-sign-bayron-lora/ The Rangers traded for $1 million of international bonus pool money today to be able to finalize their signing of Bayron Lora, a 16-year-old outfielder with huge power from the Dominican Republic. Lora has been playing for the Rangers' team in the Tricky League, an informal league in the Dominican Republic for recent July 2 signings, with clubs supplementing their rosters with unsigned amateur players as well. He homered yesterday, his third home run of the Tricky League, which opened two weeks ago. Lora will add to an international signing class that also includes shortstops Maximo Acosta from Venezuela and Zion Bannister from the Bahamas.

Well, sure.... if you completely ignore their three previous seasons and the concept of fWAR, the two players are completely identical. Benintendi averages around 2.8 fWAR the last three years, whereas Mazara has accumulated 1.7 in his entire four year career. Benintendi, worst case, is at 2. Mazara has never even topped 1.

Sure, he has ONE Avi season like 2017....creates false confidence for 2021, then falls flat on his face again. We're talking a player with four years under his belt and a 1.7 combined fWAR for all that time. Tatis, Jr., put up that number in less than one month. Meanwhile, they don't bid on Betts, Springer or Brantley.

This also gives us a pretty good idea about the industry-wide valuations on Adolfo, Rutherford, Gonzalez and Basabe... At least Walker gets to go back closer to home, having played college ball at OU with Kyler Murray.

Going from Ozuna (warts and all) to Mazara seems to be....well, par for the course of being a White Sox fan and actually expecting good things to happen. It's not unlike Charlie Brown kicking the football. We never are going to sign a Machado or even Wheeler until we have new ownership.

Except he's only overlapping for ONE year of our contention window without two more starting pitchers, a veteran RH reliever and a LOT more production out of DH/RF. Not to mention he's in his final arbitration year in 2021, so that's going to limit the amount of talent we can bring in, operating on these imagined payroll ceilings in the $140's and $150's, since we have ZERO reason to believe they'll actually spend up to those levels after losing out on Wheeler (and knowing them won't pay up for Betts and/or Springer, who coincidentally are now "blocked" by Mazara, lol.)

Let's just hope Hahn limits it to Daniels (Cornell) and not all the other Ivy League GM's he's buddy-buddy with from his Harvard days...

Pirates fans would be so aggravated they'd probably steal the Clemente Statue and hide it in their garages if they traded Marte for Collins+. They've already watched Cole go on to great success elsewhere...and they pushed out former MVP McCutcheon as well. Polanco's a much more realistic ask for what the White Sox are willing to part with (meaning no Madrigal or Vaughn in trade talks.)

If the Pirates believe that Collins has the potential to be at least a slightly below average catcher, sure. Remember, this is the organization that really started the whole pitch framing trend with both Russell Martin and then Francisco Cervelli. They're not going to openly embrace a defensively-limited catcher with such a young/unproven pitching staff outside of Chris Archer. There's just no way they trade two years of Starling Marte for a trade package centered around Collins. At best, that gets you Chris Archer for the back end of the rotation, and continues the trend of salary relief for the small market Pirates.

When is the last time a player in his early 20's went from 0.6, -0.3, 0.9, 0.5 all the way up to 2 fWAR or even 3??? His entire career value is 1.7 for four years. Why not just acquire Villar for cash alone and stick him out there for one year? Or Dickerson/Calhoun/Puig/Gardner, etc. Even as a platoon outfielder, he's going to be weighed down by his defensive shortcomings. Well, one of the few answers to that question is Avi Garcia, of course. At least with Avisail Garcia, he has proven the ability to have at least ONE breakout season. This move is 100% predicated on his left-handedness? Avi was EXACTLY 0.0 fWAR (a replacement player by definition from 2012-2016). Then 4.2, 0.1 and 1.8. So you average that out for three seasons, you still at least have around a 2 fWAR player at age 28 that you're already familiar with...and who you feel certain would be comfortable playing in Chicago.

It's not even saving that much money because he's in his last two arbitration years. They wouldn't lose a draft pick, but let's say he has a great 2020 but the White Sox miss the playoffs...his arbitration number is well over $10 million and they're carrying a player on the roster who will bolt for FA. Getting a draft pick back in 2022 won't do much of anything for the contention window. Best case scenario, he takes off like Carlos Quentin in 2008 and they deal him for a huge return...but that's, once again, not really helping the contention window, and nobody's going to give up a a lot of talent until he proves he can sustain it for more than one season (see Avi Garcia.)

I'm just laughing about the storyline that Hahn's doing his good buddy Daniels a solid by driving up the return the Marlins are going to have to surrender to acquire Mazara.

If he was a premium defender, it would make a lot of sense...of course, the Rangers SHOULDN'T so easily be willing to give up on a prospect they developed as they are/were heading into a brand-new facility. It would be like the White Sox dealing Avi before 2017 for pennies on the dollar. Of course, in that situation, he actually did have ONE breakout season in him. Everyone would have said Hahn was a complete idiot for giving him up for nothing when he was about to realize his full potential. But after 2018, everyone was back to giving up on him again.

White Sox offer Madison Bumgarner 4 years and $90 million to drive up the price for the Twins, believing that they'll be willing to top it up to $100 million and hamstring themselves financially for the next 2-3 years. Congrats, White Sox, you just overpaid for a #4 starter and made it easier for the Twins over the next 3-4 years of overlapping contention windows.

They had no choice, Rhys Hoskins and Nola were basically their only homegrown players...and Arrieta has turned out to be a disappointment and will now be entering his final contract year.

Still not seeing the point of giving up talent when you could have Avi, Gardner, Puig or Calhoun and only only commit to spending money for one year (or two, if they outperform.) If he does do well, then what are the odds that we can keep him from going into FA with Boras as his agent? Then you're in the very heart of your contention window and you're having to dip back into free agency or trusting the position to a Walker, Adolfo or Rutherford (compare those guys to someone like Kyle Tucker, who the Astros broke in selectively.) Plus, the odds are at least 50/50 that at least one of Betts OR Springer won't even be available on the market at this time next year...

We almost spent on Torii Hunter, almost acquired A-Rod, almost acquired Miguel Cabrera, ALMOST acquired Tanaka....the list goes on and on and on. I guess if they have enough Sox fans brainwashed that they're trying REALLY REALLY hard, they must believe they'll get a break from them for giving it the 'ol college try. Knowing the White Sox luck, they'll take pitch framing away from Grandal sooner rather than later.

They're not going to ALSO bring in Castellanos, Ozuna or JDM. This is the White Sox we're talking about here. We'll get someone like Calhoun or Puig whose market collapses on a one-year deal, or one plus a realistically achievable option.