caulfield12

Parque was absolute toast after the injuries (Mike Cameron game was a highlight), Wright after injuries, James Baldwin really fell off too....Rauch lasted just a handful of starts and really just never got along with KW and was quickly sent packing. Glover really wasn’t THAT bad, actually. But 2003 versions of Wright, Josh Stewart, Porzio and Cotts would have fit in 100% this year. They key difference is the latter three only had TWELVE starts combined, and Cotts at least had the talent to be a key relief contributor in 2005. Can we say the same for any of this year’s starters?...maybe Covey is the only one who could potentially be on a White Sox playoff team in the future.

Therein lies the problem. For every Hunter Renfroe, Baustista or Nelson Cruz, there are our four minor league outfielders...who...if you somehow assembled them together, MIGHT actually be the equivalent of a 2.5-3.0 fWAR player on the corner (this doesn’t even count Call and Fisher disappointing.) With Eloy anchoring the other side...you have almost no choice but to get someone with some athletic tools, especially the ability to throw and cover ground...because Robert’s eventually going to get hurt again trying to do too much if he has to cover both gaps. Ozuna keep this up, his total contract dollars will be closer to $100 than $50 million. Or we put Choo in the way back machine via the assistance of Sherman & Peabody.

It seems every single veteran hitter who could switch hit or hit left-handed who they have brought on board has been a huge disappointment. In the 2000’s, Joe Borchard was going to solve the problem. Then the Dunn signing in 2011, the closest to a superstar in terms of name recognition for ages. A Nick Swisher here, a LaRoche or Cabrera there from the second tier...simply feels like that inviting RH porch has been waiting for someone to put up a 40+ homer season for ages and it has just never come to fruition. In fact, just having a hot spring training stretch and a sweet looking swing (a universal aspect of the allure...) could make you envision Ryan Sweeney as a poor man’s Mark Grace or John Olerud, the desperation was so thick. It’s almost one of those areas now such as 3B for a generation, catcher and CF that the White Sox completely have whiffed on, at least in terms of internal development.

https://sports.yahoo.com/adam-eaton-makes-bewildering-comments-about-minorleague-exploitation-212424581.html Might even have a political future giving motivational speeches to factory workers/coal miners.

If we had our 2003 fifth starters or Kenny Rogers we'd be leading the wild card race...at the very least occupying the second spot.

Yeah, Santana was only effective with the Twins at 92-94....if he was still serviceable, they would have made an attempt to hold onto him.

Guess they need to recycle some puff pieces on McCann, Colome, Robert and Madrigal.

Looks like he got the very back tip of the plate...under Collins’ glove. Guess not. Looked like it from the left side but the overhead angle wasn’t definitive.

Nice tag by Collins...Tilson with an accurate throw to the cutoff man.

Cooper’s going to shed 7-8 pounds of water weight from trips back and forth from the dugout to the mound. Even Papa Roach might be capable of more than this...

That was fast....looking like Rockies/Padres last weekend at Coors.

Collins will go the way of Beckham and Viciedo if he can’t shorten up that swing...

They’ll need all these runs and more by the end of the evening.

Anderson should easily have been on third but was posing again...oh, well. At least he took the right offensive approach and wasn't swinging out of his shoes with two strikes.

Lynn and Matt Albers apparently have the same conditioning coaches...

Moncada heading back up to 900 ops...last year he was mired in low 700’s after the first six weeks and fought all season long to get it back to the 730’s range.

Puig OPS by month April .615 May .737 June .937 .734 overall, but only 0.2 fWAR

I think Jerry Kutzler has that beat...or Jose Paniagua in 2003.

The rap on him has always been somewhat limited power...but how much do they value his relative cheapness compared to extending Joc Pederson, for example? He’s the type of player who might never get regular playing time on such a deep team but definitely would with the Sox. But who the heck would they actually want back in trade?

Or just hope the Twins are mostly one year wonders, too. The Twins will lose Cruz, Schoop, Odorrizi, Perez and Parker...and need to eventually start thinking about locking up extensions for their core of 5-6 young guys. Berrios, in particular, seems like he will be an extremely tough get.

For three of his five years, he has been a pretty consistent 2-2.5 contributor. Is that enough, though, compared to the relative certainty of an Ozuna or even his teammate Marte? 0.6 two years ago and -0.1 this year. (Of course, just out of curiosity...looked it up and Eloy’s still only at 0.3 despite his recent offensive surge and might never be more than a 2-3 fwar contributor due to his defensive shortcomings in the outfield. So it’s quite easy to get bogged down in fwar and bwar, yet they’re not going to accurately capture Jimenez or Madrigal in terms of their overall value to the lineup.) At least Polanco has some physical tools and a strong arm. But then is he really a better bet than Avi?

Sticking with Avi and negotiating with him throughout this season would have been the better move in hindsight, unless we’re going to throw bundles eventually at Betts and/or lesser money at Ozuna. A year ago, Castellanos was one of the most popular choices. Now that would seem like treading water... We also don’t have another two years to wait on Steele Walker, unfortunately. They should be positioning for at least staying in the thick of the wild card race next year...we can argue that they’re at least sort of in the conversation currently, but that’s still unrealistic without Lopez returning to his 2019 form.

Erik Johnson? Although he never possessed Hansen’s pure stuff...

Renfroe, Hunter...2.2 fwar...overpay based on current numbers, limited defensive upside...acquisition cost? Ozuna, Marcell...1.7 fwar...transition to AL...inconsistent...will have draft pick attached, possibly...younger/athletic/still has upside Shin Soo-Choo...1.5 fwar...experienced in division and AL but how much left in the tank? Avi Garcia...1.4 fwar...thousands of posts in the last half decade already exhausted in terms of commentary Mitch Haniger...1.2 fwar...finally experiencing what by his recent standards is a down season, buy low but still costly compared to Do.Santana Jorge Soler...1.0 fwar Franmil Reyes...0.9 fwar...younger version of Renfroe, also limited defensively which would be hard to swallow with Jimenez on other corner Or put all the eggs in Mookie Betts basket, meaning affording more than one quality/veteran pitcher would be a stretch. Others to consider are Markakis, Castellanos, Puig, Domingo Santana... Also not sure who other teams would actually desire in trade beyond the five obvious names...who would even be next on the list with decent trade value we would actually be willing to part with? Even Collins seems like he might have to be part of the future in some way, shape or form (platoon, backup catcher, DH, 1B, PH.) And Lambert’s not worth much, along with our other four minor league outfielders. Who do we have left?

Well yeah that's more like what was expected out of Jimenez...at least the panic has dissipated about Madrigal.