caulfield12

“He became the White Sox minor league pitching coordinator from 1993 through 2002, aside from serving as pitching coach for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds in 1995 and 1996.” Just because he wasn’t his personal and official big league pitching coach doesn’t mean they didn’t spend a lot of time working together. The fact of the matter is that many in the organization were pushing for Todd Ritchie over Kip Wells and Josh Fogg, and we know how well that worked out in terms of career fWAR.

Anderson is a graduate of the University of Arizona and Canyon del Oro High School in Oro Valley, Arizona, a suburb of Tucson. All-Star second baseman Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers was his best friend and teammate in high school,[1]where they played with Scott Hairston and the brothers Chris and Shelley Duncan. Fine, high school teammates...they were scouted together from the time they were 16, and Anderson was originally the one they drooled over, but he wasn’t half the player that Kinsler turned out to be.

Well, here’s something positive. Nearly every former Sox player comes back (like Brian Anderson) when their career is beyond saving...Beckham will undoubtedly be next. Not only that, Wells isn't exactly Pettitte, a borderline Hall of Famer. Wells has a career 67-99 record, 4.71 ERA and 1.51 WHIP. But Wells, 35 later this month, was throwing 93-94 mph in tryouts for teams (he had one for the Mets, as well), so it may not be quite the long shot folks might assume. White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said he was throwing "good'' and the team needed veteran depth at the Triple-A level. It's a low-risk deal for the White Sox since he'll be in the minors at the start, and he's going to need several weeks to get into pitching shape, but he is serious about it. Wells had stints with the Pirates, Rockies, Cardinals, Rangers, Reds and Royals and Nationals in his first 11-year big-league career. Another team or two showed interest, but Wells wanted to do it for the White Sox because he has fond memories of pitching for them a decade ago (he was a White Sox from 1999-2001), and like a lot of players who played on Chicago's South Side, he has especially fond memories of working for White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Where did I say that, in those exact words? Kip Wells was a good pick, lots of talent, but Cooper couldn’t get it out of him under the bright lights of Chicago...heck, Joe Borchard might have even become something if he wasn’t immediately placed under extreme pressure to produce, maybe even Brian Anderson (50% character issues, which other teams noticed, zeroing in on his college teammate Ian Kinsler instead.) We draft physical talent...but not well-rounded baseball players. Madrigal was the first I can remember that won’t need a ton of coaching.

Dan Hudson...no patience, 3 big league starts, Cooper didn’t like him. Pretty much the same with Brandon McCarthy. Same with Marcus Semien, even Eduardo Escobar to a lesser extent...trade players before they realize their potential when short term production isn’t immediately gratifying. We all remember Beckham moved all over the field, Viciedo, Mark Teahen, Josh Fields, the list goes on and on...it’s pretty incredible to me we’ve never even had defensive specialist (maybe it will have to be Omar Vizquel.) Meanwhile, the Royals can turn Alex Gordon, through sheer hard work and persistence, into a perennial Gold Glover (yes, I realize he’s fallen off a sheer cliff offensively in his early 30’s.)

So they can basically live off Sale, Eaton and Q for another decade or so...right? All the other busted draft picks, trades and FA acquisitions, just bad luck, not bad judgment. “They all looked good or defensible at the time!” And we were also deprived of another player going into the Hall of Fame with a White Sox cap on...thanks to our own ineptitude. Not exactly the type of spellbinding story you want to tell your kids at night, about Sale cutting up jerseys or Drake LaRoche Gate.

Then doubled up by spending another $15+ million on declining veteran placeholders...

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26041755/manny-machado-jerseys-briefly-sale-padres-team-store

New SoxTalk banner idea? Guess we have to wait for Harper to officially sign with the Phillies first.

The probably wouldn’t have gotten Jimenez and Cease though...the timing on that couldn’t have been any more perfect, even though most of us were worried it was too late to extract maximum value on Q.

Isn’t that the GM’s job to articulate for such changes? Preller was pushed to rebuild on the fly, it flopped...they went huge into Latin American signings and the GM was able to successfully convince a much poorer ownership group to extend themselves. If it wasn’t just now...when is a similar situation where the stars are perfectly in alignment ever going to arise again? Plausible Answer: When the next George RR Martin Game of Thrones Book comes out.

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/mlb/news/tim-anderson-manny-machado-might-have-missed-the-boat-by-signing-with-padres-over-white-sox/u9xrqw96v9fa1aad4aqiwh6oi Tim Anderson showing the expected leadership and cockiness we’ve come to expect... Anderson was asked if four-time All-Star Machado "missed the boat" by signing with San Diego over Chicago. Th 25-year-old told reporters: "He might have. But we're going to keep rolling. "You know, you can ride with us or don't. ... We couldn't care less who's on the boat with us. We know who all is on the boat with us and we know which way we're going to sail."

They went 8 years without a playoff appearance (2006-13) before Preller even came on board...whereas Hahn’s been around with KW in the same organization for even longer together.

What premiere FA in 2019-20 will be anything close to “fairly valued,” and I say that meaning anyone heading for a $75+ million contract...?

Way too soon...

Should go on all season long...can serve double duty as the Machado/Tatis (Tatichado) Tracker.

Because I have the opposite 12 hours when people are asleep to stew over this in China...all this venting is helping, at least a little bit, Probably will turn my ire on Benetti during the regular season.

#FelipePaulinoRoadtoRedemptionVivaLaSox

I think you should hang onto that member name even after he signs with the Phillies...as a constant reminder of what could have been.

Black Jack McDowell... Maybe Chris Sale, unless we blame that 100% on KW, but it’s still indirectly Reinsdorf’s responsibility for keeping KW around. He had his moments with Frank Thomas as well.

We claim to win the offseason every year...yet that somehow hasn’t even gotten us past 75 wins.

He’s no Quin Snyder. Similar educations, but Snyder went through the most difficult series of ups and downs you can imagine and came out on the other side. Snyder has actually experienced real success on both the court and in coaching. What actual adversity has Hahn had to actually undergo in his life? He hasn’t yet been forced to deal with his failures, or even acknowledge them. He probably thinks he did JR a favor by putting them organization in a position where they had no logical choice left but to completely rebuild.

Would we ever get to the playoffs in the same division as the Dodgers, realistically?

Tatis, Jr., the undisputed best farm system in the business, the most knowledge of Latin America dating back to his time with the Rangers and now the Machado signing would all argue otherwise. In what area is Rick Hahn demonstrably better? Talking to the media for thirty full minutes without actually saying anything?

The difference is that Preller convinced a much poorer ownership group to fork over that guaranteed commitment of $300 million...either Hahn doesn’t have that gene of persuasion in him like KW (what happened to the Hahn of the Robertson, Cabrera and LaRoche series of signings?) or he’s just completely neutered and basically the equivalent of Jed Hoyer in terms of real power in the Sox organization.