caulfield12

Mike Cameron/Devon White/Eric Davis...those are three pretty good comps for what we hope is the floor of his potential.

The problem then is that trading Hosmer, Gordon, Cain, Moustakas, Perez...would have completely alienated their fanbase. Hindsight is always 20/20, it’s the same reason we held onto the likes of Contreras and the 2005 remnants all the way through 2012. Letting go is hard, for fans and owners alike. KC clearly attempted to hold on one year too long (2017), but it was not meant to be due to untimely injuries, their bullpen hegemony finally dissolving, and perhaps the most critical, the untimely death of Yordano Ventura. Signing Gordon to that contract (which he hasn’t lived up to at all until this year) hasn’t helped, either.

A three year window isn’t what we were promised...that means more rebuilding than sustained winning. Because that’s how long before Moncada and Giolito are gone. Nova, Herrera, Colome and Castillo are the biggest current contracts after Abreu, pretty pathetic....so they obviously have to invest that money into extensions and free agency.

31-41 puts them at 73-89... that’s far from unexpected, especially if Giolito continues to slide

He’s not home free yet for the HoF...

Greg is not at the same level of vitriol mixed with dripping sarcasm...not even close.

Abreu is having his best season? What the he$&?

It’s not a sure thing how much Rodon will pitch next year...granted, he’ll be fighting for his career and a new contract, but no way we can trust or rely upon him in a playoff race down the stretch. He’ll enter 2020 having missed almost exactly half (49) of roughly 96 possible starts from 2017-2019.

Well, no more so than if Zion Williamson blew out his Achilles playing 20-30 pounds overweight in the summer league. Blame...maybe not, but it’s also not like there wasn’t a huge red flag the day he was drafted.

Madson was a veteran and had plenty of postseason experience, and Doolittle would have been viewed as a notch above Colome. If we could get back a pitcher who did as well for the A’s as Treinen before this year, that would be good...but then you really need to get back something significant to make the trade worth doing.

Like Santana? If they legitimately want to compete next year...they’re already looking at Kopech on an innings limit, so they’ll need a #2 and a SOLID #4 if they are serious at all.

Okay, the main moderators, lol. The fact of the matter is that Tatis Jr. and Paddack were jumped with similar amounts of minor league experience to the majors and did just fine. In fact, Tatis was coming off a wrist injury and really proved himself in DR Winter Ball, where they won the championship for first time in decades. No reason Robert can’t do the exact same thing without losing a year. Robert simply needs to hit better than Brian Anderson 2006...but it’s still going to come down to pitching like it always does.

Half of SoxTalk is worth at least 50% of Jimenez’s $2.6 million. Less than 1% will end up with $20+ million. A world of difference, especially when you account for inflation and future buying/investing power.

Unless they sign Ozuna/Castellanos/Puig, two VERY GOOD free agent starters not named Cole...and at least one if not two veteran relievers. Then you have to think about McCann’s long-term future and add that into the equation. (OTOH, parting with Abreu cuts off another big salary bite.)

They’re not going to release him. They will simply wait until the offseason and quietly non-tender him. The only other option the Sox have is to play Leury at second when Anderson returns.

They already had Merrifield and Mondesi...and he was getting more expensive with limited offensive upside (in their eyes) and positional flexibility. At any rate, we can’t trust any numbers from Charlotte, and that’s not going to be a positive when we actually start to field competitive teams. It means are scouting is going to have to be that much better. Palka was the main success of 2018, and he’s worth approximately one autographed Joe Borchard 2000 Topps rookie card as of today.

If they don’t believe in Collins as a hitter, why would they believe in someone like Mendick, Mercedes or Zavala...? The respectful thing to do would be to trade Yolmer to the first team who will take him for the equivalent of Alex Call. We have been giving lots of at-bats to players of that ill for the last 2 1/2 seasons and still don’t have a player that fits on the next White Sox playoff team other than James McCann, who already had a somewhat established big league pedigree. Escobar or Goins there aren’t the answer...but this team is usually loyal with homegrown players, so that means Abreu and probably Yolmer stick around, like it or not, doesn’t matter.

Except this hasn’t exactly worked out well for the 76ers now, has it? In order to be remembered for eternity, you need sustained success...And to have that sustained success, you’re going to need payrolls in the $160-180 million range, if not higher. We will all believe it when we see it.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cespeyo01.shtml please refer to his stats with the Mets after he left Detroit and compare them...you can’t combine them together and magically make him the overall NL MVP after the trade, that’s now how it works

Collins has a right to be pissed, he was badly misused and then a player from another organization was bumped ahead of him in line. Or they completely misread his preparedness to hit/adjust at the next level. Not much of a reward, at any rate.

It’s like the Prior vs. Mauer argument at the time. They valued Appel as a pitcher more than Bryant as a hitter. Obviously, psychological makeup was overlooked.

Gee, well...he was on the A’s and Mets in 2015, you can’t win it in both leagues for your cumulative year. The point remains, he was the only true MVP candidate. Abreu was on a bad White Sox team, he was never going to be Top 3.

Then just dump him. We already did that with Santana and Alonso...it is what it is. No point in Hahn’s pride getting in the way. If anything, Renteria clings to his “proven” veterans almost as much as Ozzie and Ventura.

Actually, we got the best pure college hitter two consecutive drafts, although Adley Rutschman might disagree for either season. (Of course, Hostetler made the same claim about Collins...and Burger, to a slightly lesser extent.)

In the end, prime Cespedes was still the only one to put up MVP type numbers among the Cubans. Otherwise, you have Abreu’s rookie season and Puig’s first two years. But there’s no great comp for Robert out there if you limit it to just Cubans. Floor, it’s hopefully Mike Cameron/Devon White. Ceiling, just below Trout.