caulfield12

If you want "feel good," there's always Owen Wilson's "Stick," Kpop water bomb or the latest iteration of Superman that hit theatres Friday.

We might as well argue Balt's Elias is worse than Getz too...or the Braves' organization in their current struggles. At least we don't have to argue Andrew Freidman or the Brewers' current front office vs. Getz, lol.

Where the Big 3 pitchers are now compared to coming into the season has to be a pretty significant concern to any objective Sox fan. And the argument a year ago was taking Cags over Smith and had/has nothing to do with Colson's well-chronicled ups and downs. Just as big a concern is that the supposed niche advantage presented by the tandem of Quero and Teel has not exactly turned out that way... Finally, Vargas and Teel would both need to hit for at least an 800-825 ops to be legit firstbasemen.

Same conversation happened around Burger and his dreaded H bar style at Missouri State...although power was never his big question mark.

Struggling so far in the Carolina League… https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fajard000yho

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2025&month=0&season1=2025&ind=0&team=0%2Cts 25th in pitching fWAR 29th in offense at -0.4 fWAR https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/stat/runs-per-game 0.03 runs per game from being last in the majors

Yikes. Doesn’t really feel like a Top Ten system anymore…a lot seemingly rides on McDougal and the draft now now, after the Houser and Tauchman trades. Between Vargas Meidroth Quero Teel and Colson…are any of them even close to “for sure” things for the 2028-29 White Sox? Exactly holding that 54-108 pace recently.

Sheets? Romy? Alex Call?

Well at least they finally started cutting down on Smith usage...but the offense is just dead like the dog days of August are already upon them. Teel and Quero both need to get more at bats collective to show what they can actually do when they get in an offensive rhythm again.

This is going about as expected...after the Meidroth oppo ball.

Doesn't seem to affect the Cubs in quite the same way...we shall see how it plays out with Tucker in FA.

There's the flip side to this... AJ Preller has traded away a whole complete team of All Star talents like Trea Turner, Munoz/Sea, Wood/Gore/Abrams, Naylor, Rooker, Fried, Bednar, E.Clase, Ph.Maton, etc. over the last decade. Which is worse? The Padres totally went for it last year and are still right there for the third WC spot, but they also have Cease King (IL) Arraez and Suarez they theoretically might be better off trading, rebuilding for the longer term future with an actual injection of young prospects.

You can't ignore Smith's injury history since high school and Wake Forest, the total innings count the last three or four seasons as well as the more recent velocity uptick and seeming crash in his results and just have him try to pitch through it when this is all completely new to him as a rookie in the big leagues...need to really sit down and map out a new plan or strategy to address what's going on.

Weren’t Shane Smith’s numbers through mid to late May similar to Houser’s when his ERA was in the low to mid 2’s (at that time)?? Is his falloff simply due to fatigue or overwork compared to past seasons in the Brewers’ system? Can they figure out whether to invest in any of Martin Cannon or Burke…or are they all “what they are” at this point in their development? Trade Martin or Cannon or simply hold? Burke obviously has the best stuff, but…

Any relation/ship to David Robertson?

HE has already made a lot more money in his career than you would imagine...

JR won’t even think about it…but the Fedde deal of slightly more w/ $15-17 million for two years and an option would be “okay.” The problem is he would probably prefer going to a contender and has made enough money in his career he can afford to roll the dice with this current hot streak he’s on and let it all play out. Buying high on journeyman vets in their 30’s experiencing velocity increases usually don’t end up well..although there aren’t tons of examples here to compare to in Sox history. Maybe Esteban Loiaza’s 2003 and Jose Contreras 2005-May 2006.

If you credit the Sox with this improvement (including velo uptick), you might think about something like the Fedde deal, but the JR of 2025 only thinks about future cash on the books, and Houser’s age and extreme outlying stats compared to his entire career would make trading him now the obvious choice. While there’s the danger of blocking him by occupying a rotation spot in 2026…it’s also far from a sure thing that even Schultz and Hagen Smith are automatic 1-2 TOR starters at this point. Martin Cannon Smith and Burke all look more like 4-5 guys, with occasional hot streaks and slumps (see Smith inevitably wearing down) thrown in for good measure. At any rate, the perpetual rebuild continues. It’s going to take the handful of pitchers who went down to TJS the better part of next season just to get back to where they were. Can we please just hire everyone from the Brewers’/Rays’ staffs not nailed down and really come up with a realistic plan to compete with a true small market mentality???

333 .941 Romy G. Giolito, 6-1, 3.36 ERA

After a couple of posters wanted to rush him up to Chicago THIS season, based on the first 4-6 weeks in A ball... Not to mention the difficult gauntlet of just surviving Birmingham as a Sox position prospect.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts could do little to counteract Houston Astros left-handers Bennett Sousa and Bryan King in the seventh and eighth innings of Sunday’s 5-1 loss. Three of Roberts’ four right-handed hitting reserves — Teoscar Hernández, Kiké Hernández and switch-hitter Tommy Edman — were unavailable because of minor injuries, which could force the Dodgers to make a roster move to bolster their bench depth before Monday night’s series opener at Milwaukee. That forced left fielder Michael Conforto, second baseman Hyeseong Kim and catcher Dalton Rushing, all lefties, to bat against Sousa and King, who threw scoreless innings to help the Astros sweep a three-game series in Dodger Stadium for the first time since 2008. yahoo.com/sports

Probably how every legit big league team feels visiting any AL Central city other than Detroit…which isn't exactly Miami, Las Vegas or So Cal. Remember Cora’s quote about GRate/Chicago being a shithole?

Montgomery, Braden…all the way down to a 754 ops at High A.

Crochet, Marcus Semien, Rodon arguably

One need for every team at the deadline... White Sox: Shortstop This choice seems a bit interesting with Colson Montgomery, the No. 5 White Sox prospect per MLB Pipeline, making his triumphant debut at shortstop this past weekend in Colorado, and with rookie Chase Meidroth already having played 56 Major League games at the spot. There also are talented options such as Caleb Bonemer (No. 9 White Sox prospect) within the system. But general manager Chris Getz has talked about strength up the middle for his developing team and the best athletes often are at the shortstop position. Overall, the White Sox are looking for young talent to continue strengthening their core. -- Scott Merkin mlb.com