caulfield12

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 01:03 PM) Look around the AL central, aside from Cleveland who's better? .500 baseball is not insurmountable. You don't think that roster can match what the Twins have done so far this year? The Twins are not the gold standard, especially if Buxton never becomes the expected star-level player (due to their payroll constraints as well). It all comes down to the Indians' pitching staff not falling apart. Fwiw, Zimmer looks REALLY really good so far. Santana, as far as I know, is likely their only key loss from this year's team heading into next year. And this is with Lindor and Kipnis not playing near their peak/s.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 12:52 PM) Abreu, Avi, Moncada, Davidson...the Sox have plenty of power. They have like 10 pitchers who are on a clear path to major league success, if they cannot build a bullpen out of that I'll be shocked. Is Avi for real? Can he hit 25-35 homers per season, instead of 15-20? Can Davidson and Moncada not strike out 30-40% of the time? By fwar, Davidson basically is replacement level value due to his strikeouts, lack of OBP and defensive shortcomings. How much "better" can he realistically be in the future? (According to Hawk, he has Schwarber upside, whatever that means exactly.) Abreu has hit a ton of doubles, but he's seemingly lost some weight and isn't the feared power hitter he once was. He's very good as a DH, top 30% probably, but you negate a lot of his value when you trot him out there defensively, where he might grade out as the worst 1B in baseball according to most scouts (no, it's not Hosmer, as Harrelson concurred recently.) Defense up the middle? (Engel looks fine, but what else? Can Engel at least put up a 700 OPS?) Bullpen?

Any teams come to mind? Obviously, the 2000 White Sox were ranked as the #1 farm system in baseball, with Rauch at the top. Of all the prospects from that time period Buehrle (barely in Top 10), Garland and Crede were the main ones to make an impact with the Sox. Pretty sure Rowand wasn't officially with that class. There were a lot more failures than successes, at any rate. The heart of the 2005 World Series team came from the Contreras/Loaiza trade, the Garcia for Morse/Reed/Olivo deal, Pods/Vizcaino (last guy in pen) for Lee, picking up Jenks for free from the Angels and a slew of nearly perfect free agent moves, along with young holdovers like Uribe (Aaron Miles) and otherworldly bullpen performances from Cotts, Politte and Hermanson. This was all made possible due to the dumping of Lee/Ordonez/Valentin, in large part. At any rate, there was a recent statistic/blurb here about the number of teams with Top 5 farm systems and how all of them (almost) at least made the playoffs within 5 years of being ranked by Baseball America, correct? Was that pinned? Where did it go? How many teams with Top 2 systems didn't at least win their divisions (once) during that five year time frame? Why?

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 12:45 PM) I think the tide is going to turn significantly faster than you do. But in any event, there is simply no defending the statement "this team has no chance at competing until next decade." That is categorically false. This team absolutely has a non-zero chance to compete. "Competing" does not equal "prohibitive Word Series favorites." Are they likely to win 90+ games in 2019? Probably not. But there is more than enough young talent making its way to Chicago by the end of next year to construct a slightly-above-.500 team if enough goes their way. And guess what, that constitutes competing in the two-Wildcard era. Obviously, the ultimate goal is a juggernaut team in the early '20s, but I don't know why you would 100% dismiss the idea that nothing will happen sooner. Sometimes I think people are so used to the "all-in/win-or-bust with patchwork veterans" Sox underacheiving and imploding that they don't realize how easy it is to be in a playoff race until late in the season these days, especially in the two-Wildcard era. The Indians are set up for the next 2 years still...after that, all bets are off. Just don't see this team competing without really good catching, really good up the middle defense and POWER...not to mention a semblance of a bullpen. If Burdi, Rodon, Collins, Anderson, Fulmer were all doing what they were expected to do, sure. And JR's not going to jump out there early and start spending money (assuming he's still around) until it's logical/rational to do so.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 10:00 AM) Rodon/Lopez/Giolito could realize enough of their talent to carry the team. Kopech is going to force his way onto the ML roster next year too. They've shown an adeptness at building bullpen pieces from seemingly nothing, though closer might be an issue. On the offensive side all it would take is holding on to Abreu, a bounce back from Anderson and Moncada living up to at least some of the hype for them to be good enough to ride those arms. See Glavine/Smoltz/Avery numbers in the late 80's for a rebuilding Braves' team...success doesn't happen overnight, usually.

Yeah, the Cubs' situation with Bryant...let's just wait and see what happens next year, before we start worrying about competing TOO early. We don't even have anything resembling a bullpen, even if all our minor leaguers turned into Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Eric Thames.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 10:25 AM) Nearly everyone that reported on that trade has said that Cordell's floor is a 4th outfielder but that he has a great chance to be a regular OF. Good defense, arm, speed and ability to hit 15+ HR is not a scrap heap OF And we (close to desperately) need as much power as we can get...

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 09:13 AM) Did. You watch. The event. Where they. Announed the lane. They picked? You literally have zero credibility to talk about this until you've watched and listened to the Democratic Party DOING EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. It's maddening to me watching you and bmags pontificate begging for the Dems to do something they did on Monday. You just didn't watch it. Inform yourselves before you make another post about the subject. It's ridiculous. http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/27/politics/tru...tics/index.html And nobody cares about THE BETTER DEAL, because everyone's talking about transgenders in the military. Do you have a better way to shift the conversation back to substantive policy that will actually work?

And when they rejoin after getting sick, the 30-40% planned penalty goes directly into the pockets of insurance companies rather than Obamacare penalties going into a pool to subsidize the system on behalf of the people/government....great stuff, there.

QUOTE (Two-Gun Pete @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 08:28 AM) Look, I'm not debating the "why" of TA'a underperformance, nor Rodons performance. I'm speaking to something called, "organizational behavior." In other words, while there may be "reasons" for TA & Rodon to be here, but were they rushed, yes or no? Was it smart to bring up TA after 55 AAA games, yes or no? Was it smart to pay ANYTHING for Shields, when they could have exercised patience, & waited for him to be DFAed from SD, yes or no? Is it smart to have Rodon here after 17IP in his rehab stint, or could he start developing his leadership skills around his future rotation mates down on the farm? As it pertains to a forward-looking view, yes, it's true that "past performance is no guarantee of future results." But the history of this organization's behaviors are what I'm calling into question. NOT the individual performances of any one player. The other angle is for the fans. Will Greg and others sit tight as Ricky calls another stupid bunt, & the team sinks to 20 below .500? Will cub apologists in the media be as patient for our SOX as they were for "their" cubs? (Before you answer, remember how the media just "HAD TO" put out a story about crime around The Cell during the 2005 WS, & cubs fellators like Levine just "HAD TO" ask Sale about Arrieta in the clubhouse after a SOX game.) You forgot "rushing" Burdi to AAA (potentially a late-season callup to finish 2016 pennant race)... And drafting another elite "MLB-ready" collegiate pitcher in Carson Fulmer instead of other candidates (particularly, position players, with Happ among many available).

As soon as White Sox merchandise starts showing up again in the stores, then you'll know how effective the rebuild is... If a Maddon (non-player) jersey outsells Moncada, that's not the greatest starting point. At any rate, we'll see exactly how the broadcasting rights deals for the two franchise in 2019 split things up. 60/40. 65/35. 70/30, etc.

Huge list of players to get at-bats for now... Hayes will probably get pushed out by Gillaspie/Delmonico/Asche. Feeling Tilson has little to no future due to his lack of power playing 81 games in Chicago. Then you've got Cordell, Willy Garcia, Liriano, Engel, Leury (who might have to move back to SS), Avi Garcia (upon return), Hanson, Sanchez, Saladino, obviously Matt Davidson until they find someone better. Maybe, just maybe, Eddie Alvarez or Peter. That's 14-16 players there alone. Plus, Abreu is ensconced somewhere in there, either at 1B or DH. How many of them will be on the next Sox playoff team, one wonders...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 07:03 AM) It's all going to be about development. If they can develop these guys, the team will be really good. If they can't, it will be what it is now, unwatchable. Seeing the younger pitchers will be frustrating...and exciting, but nobody can tolerate much more of Shields, Holland and Pelfrey. Luckily, we've got 6 strong candidates in the upper minors. Two of them will make it, hopefully three if you go down to A ball and Dunning/Hansen/Cease. We simply can't throw around $440 million in free agency, especially on pitching. $225-275 is probably more accurate.

Draft Day will definitely be the highlight of 2018. Here's hoping Rodon, Anderson, Fulmer (Erik Johnson II), Collins and Burdi can all get turned around in positive directions as well in the next 12-24 months.

Reddy, the bottom line is the Dems need to pick a lane. Centrist, what's the point? Stand for something...convince the Midwest and Rust Belt you can provide better future outcomes in terms of education, infrastructure, health care and job training/retraining. Figure out the most appealing environmental message. Not rocket science. And reconcile the globalist/trade protection sides...finally, model after the Obama and Sanders campaign strategies of taking thousands of small internet donations rather than being beholden to Wall Street.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 10:45 PM) Hope he got the ball, knew it was gone off the hit but I was worried it'd fall into some douche's hands who wouldn't have given it back Red Sox fan gave Devers' homer back to usher without holding it hostage too

What did Law say now?

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 09:59 PM) Did you watch Schumer's remarks? Don't 100% care what he says. It's the messenger, just as much as the message. Meanwhile, the Trump Tornado just sweeps everything into its vortex. A month from now, it will be just as memorable as Trump's own infrastructure, small business, women's empowerment, etc., weeks. Nothing is getting through right now in terms of the Democratic Party until the health care debate is settled, and Sessions/Mueller goes in a discernible direction. Summer is the worst time of the year to try to pivot, anyway. Better to wait until September when people are actually starting to pay A LITTLE attention again. It's not even an election year.

The last two players were just roster filler to improve the A teams...can't imagine they meant anything at all to the deal. The only hangup was trading Q to the Cubs in the first place, and that was quickly wiped out by Jimenez/Cease coming back. The quote was something like JR didn't want to be the one who helped the Cubs win their first championship in ages, in his mind, they had to "win it all on their own," but, after that the Sox/Cubs rivalry was no longer the prevailing consideration.

Zimmer's a pretty incredible player for the Indians. Spider-Man nickname already earned defensively.

Unless Leury's 140+ slugging numbers compared to career MLB average was going to hold up... Yolmer and Avi both plummeting back to earth already.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/180-million-...-212432811.html $180 million Scaramucci conflict of interest over Chinese buyout (at multiples considerably higher than fair market valuation) of his firm back in the news

Good point, Flavum. Best to look at stock portfolios 2-4 times per year...depending on market conditions/current events. Have to trust your original decision-making process.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 08:19 PM) Stop acting like there is some infinite number of baseball lineups the White Sox need to fill. They have one team. We have an actual mlb organization, you know. We have lots of guys that "can make the major leagues." Do you know that Anthony Swarzak was "in" the major leagues already? And dominating? But we'll keep trading good "actual" major league players for guys that can "make" the major leagues, with "ceilings" that are really high! Based on the theory we can actually draft/evaluate like the Cubs, Astros, Brewers, Padres, Royals (late 2000's), Yankees, Braves...

Overvaluing players based on fWAR....Leury Garcia is worth $12-13 million for half a season, theoretically. If healthy, what would he bring back in trade as 3rd highest sabes guy on MLB roster? Otoh, Sale was worth even more, if that was possible.