caulfield12

Puig 4/5 and just tied up with the WC race (89-63) with TB for the Indians...walk off in the bottom of the 10th. Could still miss playoffs with 94-96 wins depending on the Rays.

Valentin and Durham was a pretty dynamic ACTUAL 2B/SS combination.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-ortega-43ba9a5b/ Here's the scout who signed him, 34 years working for the White Sox, of course...

Ala Jon Rauch...although Rauch was once considered the top prospect in baseball, or at least the top RH pitching prospect.

Anderson is obviously part of the core but doesn't have anything to do with rebuilding/tanking.

Like Mazeroski, Ozzie Smith or Omar Vizquel, I think defensive abilities are getting lost in the shuffle when evaluating elite infielders of the past lacking all the modern metrics to assess their unique impacts on the game. Aparicio was a great player in his own right.

That would have required a team contending for first place almost blowing a lead in a pivotal game, then getting run over daily from that point on every time they played the Twins for the remainder of 2003.

Ruiz <<<<< Sergio Santos In the battle of former position players converting to relievers in recent Sox history.

Harrelson left at the right time, for both his own and his grandkids' sake, no way he could have survived loss after loss like this.

Yet he's out OPSing Leury...which isn't saying THAT much. If he could just manage around a 725, he would be useful. But he's always been in the 500's and 600's.

Grandal really struggled in July and August but has put on a contract drive in September, with a 1.112 OPS so far this month.

He had a minor league slash line (cumulatively) of 1.184. 100 points below that so far at the big league level. Not sure how sustainable 32.4 versus a defensive value of -7.6 is going to work out as a 1B/DH. (This is the area where Jack Parkman has consistently criticized the selection of Vaughn.) Tatis, Jr., ended up at 3.6 fWAR with 7 more games played. Expect a ton of improvement in his age 21 season from a net -1.8 defensive rating, because most of those were on throws that shouldn't have been made or trying to force DP's instead of taking easy outs, and that's the easier thing to clean up when compared to bad habits or simply issues with fielding the ball/soft hands. PS: Poor Dodgers, it might be one of many reasons they don't win the World Series (yet again.) https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/How-Yordan-Alvarez-became-an-Astro-14073735.php

If they want Cease to go 175+ next year...not sure how it would kill him to pitch in the 130-140 range. Seems to be a natural progression. Obviously, more high stress innings this year at the major league level, I don't have the number of 20+ pitch innings right in front of me. If that's elevated, then they might go ahead and shut him down...want him to have that positive feeling going into the offseason.

Obviously, Guerrero and Jimenez benefited from past accolades and residual preseason hype. Tatis should have been #1 in terms of overall impact, except for the question mark about his ability to stay on the field. Alvarez suffered (it seems) due to playing on such a dominant team that he tends to get overshadowed, even with video game numbers (not unlike Abreu in his rookie season). It is somewhat interesting that 3 of the top 4 were hitters who get the majority of their value from offense, vs. defense/speed/baserunning in an environment where WAR numbers tend to be over-amplified.

Castellanos just hit his 55th double...he has definitely increased his value by $10-15 million (overall) on a 3 year deal, might even get four from someone.

among rookies. Yordan Alvarez snuck all the way up to 3rd. https://www.mlb.com/news/ranking-2019-rookies-by-potential-and-future-value?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

The big question mark is what happens to their pitching staff next year...Gibson, Odorizzi, Pineda, etc. Rosario was another huge scouting win for them, they were quite patient with all those guys.

Why would Skole possibly be playing over Collins? Are they crazy? The idea of investing time/energy/at-bats into either Skole or Palka when you have Palka sitting on the bench is CRA CRA. Heading for 5-12 against MN with two left to play. Outscored by, overall...about the average margin of a couple Dolphins game these days.

Would they be better off with Torres, Soler, Jimenez, Cease, Candelario, LeMahieu, etc.? “In hindsight, (the Soler/W.Davis deal) was yet another questionable move by Theo Epstein especially in light of his early plan to prioritize hitting over pitching when embarking on the Cubs rebuild after replacing Jim Hendry. The consequence was dealing 2B/SS Gleyber Torres and OF Jorge Soler for two “rental” closers. The 3 months they acquired in Aroldis Chapman for Torres at the summer trade deadline in 2016 helped net the Cubs a World Series title. The one year of Wade Davis for Soler the following offseason aided the Cubs to the postseason in 2017 but didn’t result in a repeat title. Add in the 3-1/2 years of team control the Cubs acquired in SP Jose Quintana (assuming they pick up his 2020 team option) for OF Eloy Jimenez and SP Dylan Cease in the 2017 mid-July trade and the Cubs now appear to have acquired 5 years of pitching for a couple of decades of quality players the team could have used now and going forward. The jury is still out on 2019 and 2020 in regards to postseason outcome but if the Cubs fail to land another World Series title in that time frame these deals might be be construed as a hefty price to pay, especially if these former Cub prospects develop into perennial All-Stars and help contribute to future titles of their own.”

Is that going to satisfy most of the fanbase, especially as you’re also skipping over Bumgarner...the third biggest name, and putting Keuchel back into the AL theoretically. They need much better than Rondon or Brach from the RH side. If it was Ozuna and Wheeler, then you’re talking arguably the two largest contracts in White Sox history...that at least gets the attention of fans, although the range of outcomes with Wheeler paired w/ Cooper fall all over the map.

If they don’t look at Grandal in favor of Collins, if they don’t look at any starting pitcher who’s going to make in the Danks range or above...there’s not much out there to actually spend on (in terms of real difference makers) once you get past Ozuna and maybe now Castellanos in the outfield. If the only thing they’re doing differently is adding Tier B/C talent around a much bigger and younger potential core of players, the odds of success are at best so-so. I guess the proof will be in the pudding when we see how much they’re willing to spend on pitching and on RF/DH. I still have a feeling the argument will be that NEXT offseason will be the preferred target for spending on yet another pedestrian group. This idea we’re going back to Top 3 (happened once) payrolls is equally ludicrous. Most fans would be elated with #8-12 payrolls. The last time they really opened the wallets was after the World Series through 2009 and then the Dunn singular signing going into 2011...and the trio of signings going into 2014.

Rick Hahn is definitely the Vanilla Gorilla, then.

The evidence the White Sox can just turn on a dime and suddenly every move they’ll make will be for a “win now” player with at least a three year time horizon (other than Abreu and relievers from the waiver wire) in mind is equally non existent. How much did Robertson, Cabrera and LaRoche cost...along with Samardzija? Let’s call it $125 million-ISH. In 2019 dollars, adjusted for inflation, at least $150 million. If you want, that includes potential extensions for Abreu, McCann, Robert, Giolito and Moncada (if they decide to pursue the last four.) UNTIL they ACTUALLY spend at least HALF of the money they were (supposedly) willing to give Machado or Harper in one off season...then they’re not really serious, considering they’re trying to go from a low 70s win team to a 90+ one in one offseason with two divisional contenders both ending up in the low to high 90’s for their win totals this year.

I’m going to guess the list of available catchers with a 3.4 fWAR or above not named Grandal numbers less than three...

This is the other "negative" factor about Sox fans not deserting the ship in droves the last two seasons, and actually increasing their numbers (slightly) for 2019. We heard for years and years how the White Sox fans were not supporting ownership enough to justify their putting Top 8-12 payrolls on the field. Well, the fans have been ESPECIALLY resilient the last 2-3 seasons and they were rewarded with an 8% season ticket increase (when you factor in the Field of Dreams Game coming off the schedule of 81 home games). It's not so difficult to imagine them ONLY spending an additional $20-30 million this offseason, because they're incredibly profitable as currently constructed, payroll-wise. The only way we'll know they're actually serious is when they 1) announce an extension with Robert, Moncada or Giolito or 2) sign at least 2 FA's for more than $75 million per year, or Cole/Rendon for $150+ million per year. (I guess you could lump in adding JD Martinez or Grandal there, whatever the final contract turns out to be.)