caulfield12

He had the really early career reputation of a dominant TOR starter and then lost that mystique largely due to injuries and non performance.

Only 13-14 Ohtani contracts…

Flaherty was garbage last year and just now, one year later, the #3 starter on the market.

In the scenario where JR has to at least create the appearance of competing. Without that, any stadium project would get pushed back 2-3 years or killed off entirely with this ownership group. With Crochet, Thorpe, Cannon and Schultz…you have a solid foundation in the upper minors and majors, lots of depth pieces and room for growth out of Taylor and many others. You can compete much faster than waiting on even an average offense. And you’re not going to get close to full value to Crochet in terms of increasing the resale value of the team through a new downtown stadium and picturesque views to compete with Wrigley…as well as a feeling of more secutity to out of towners and tour groups.

Not necessarily. None of the players received in return even project as "potential" 3 fWAR guys...well, MAYBE MAYBE Thorpe. But the last two prospects in this area (85-115 MILB) for the Sox in Ramos and Colas have been pretty much complete busts. The Padres are not trading Dillon Head or Zavala in recent deals if they were huge believers, as OF is the biggest area of current weakness after Profar and Merrill (and Tatis, Jr.) David Peralta was added, but seems quite washed up by now.

fip? fip+?

Trade candidates with stock rising before 2024 Deadline (mlb.com) Vaughn, DeJong, Crochet all with stock on the rise... Jose Urena Career Stats - MLB - ESPN Made another mistake on the margins by not holding onto Jose Urena, who's one of the "trade risers" Robert should be there too based on his recent standard of play (other than throwing home!!!) Another good "buy low" candidate would have been Jesse Winker, fwiw. Honestly think I would look at Arozarena (especially if they hold onto Robert) and Brendan Rodgers for SS. ADDING. It can be done. Those small market teams are having cash crunches that are on the periphery of playoff contention.

There's just NO WAY that Fedde isn't getting traded...Robert/Crochet much more complicated decisions in terms of risk management vs. return (like when Sox held onto Quintana until the trade DDL, and his ERA was in the mid 4's).

Okay, good enough...at least to not have to watch Mendick or Remillard or Ramos or whoever trying to play that spot instead. Give him at least until the end of this season with everyday playing time. Continue monitoring Baldwin, Ramos, Ja.Gonzalez and Montgomery for how this whole infield puzzle's going to fit together eventually. Biggest problem remains Benintendi, Fletcher eventually playing CF and Sheets/??? in RF where he doesn't belong. Should be purely 1B/DH. Would honestly much rather see Colas in one of those spots, Getz already his own agenda to force Fletcher on everyone to prove he can be right on talent evaluation, but Ramos and Colas are both kind of withering on the vine at present moment.

MLB Pipeline 2024 mock draft July 4 Wetherholt the new pick, with Kurtz (yikes!), Smith, Burns, Griffin, Rainer all under consideration. Seems there's going to be a huge injection in AL CENTRAL 2B talent, with Bazzana to CLE the pick for now.

The White Sox seemingly messed up both Vaughn and did Burger no favors, cutting him adrift when his stock was basically at rock bottom. Now with Fedde and Crochet, A+ so far. Flexen, as expected, basically, CLEVINGER you should never ever sign pitchers starting in April/May with that lengthy injury history. (Scholtens and Martin were also pleasant surprises.) Cease, that guy is so inconsistent, but at the very least he's eating innings and holding at around a 4ish ERA...certainly NOT the same guy we saw two seasons ago except for his velocity/K's/high pitch counts. Kopech has been a lost cause for years now, maybe since the original TJ or at least to the Covid year he sat out and along with all his attendant personal/relationship issues. Lopez they never got a handle on how to use him but at least got something back in return. Giolito, investing the exact same Red Sox money in him would have been insane. Lynn extension worked for ONE year, Keuchel contract for one year, Hendriks for just one year...all of those relievers like Graveman, Kelly, Santos, Mr. White Sox not paying for his daycare after leaving the team. One other key inflection point is going to be with Schultz...how/why they have chosen to allow him go only 4 innings per outing with attached MAX pitch counts as well. Obviously, he very well might be the most valuable member of the organization right now after Crochet and Robert (to other teams), with Montgomery slipping based on his offensive numbers in 2023/24 and possible position change off SS to 3B.

de Paula's one of the names that keeps coming up. The more one thinks about this current time frame of 2026 (starting on the path to .500)...just feels HIGHLY unlikely they're going to take a high school middle infielder on a 4-5 year timeframe. Wetherholt or Cags it is...or one of the two premium college pitchers, has to be one of those four guys. Griffin just feels highly unlikely...and when they try to save $1-1.5 million to reallocate, one just gets the feeling it will backfire based on 30 years of results with Sox 2nd round draft picks.

OF COURSE Like Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in the KC metro area...

He's more inconsistent offensively than Acuna, but at least much healthier in general. When he's on a tear, just an incredible player, even better defensively and disruptive on the basepaths, more so than almost anyone but Elly de la Cruz of CINCY.

757 career MiLB numbers....that translates to about 675 at the major league level. Still just .597 OPS in 342 MLB at-bats, 11 homers. Semien career 765 OPS at the major league level. Much better defense after Ron Washington got a hold of him in OAK. 841 ops in nearly 1500 minor league at-bats. USING the same "discount" rate between the two, would be a 671 major leaguer...with below average defense, that's something like a 1-1.5 fWAR player. Lucky to be much better than replacement level. OFC, Semien was an All-Star and occasional MVP candidate...Sosa will be quite fortunate to get to 1000 MLB at-bats.

They will never eat $35 million…

https://www.mlb.com/padres/news/starting-pitchers-that-could-be-dealt-at-the-mlb-trade-deadline?partnerId=it-20240704-10366805-mlb-1-A&utm_id=it-20240704-10366805-mlb-1-A Crochet and Fedde top two on trade market, 11 other possibilities, including Bauer. Flaherty number 3.

Sosa can never play big league SS. 3B and 2B are questionable enough. He will kill the confidence of the pitching staff.

The exact same it was for Korey Lee last year. Just abysmal. Colas as well. Finally, Ramos doesn't look close to ready, either.

He's only hitting .200 OPS points higher than the $75 million man. Like with Vaughn, the real "settling in average" is NOT going to be much higher than a 625-675 hitter, and that's not good enough with below average fielding and baserunning speed as well. Too many K's. Maybe 12-15 homer power, which one again isn't enough for third with all the lack of power up the middle.

Thank god they traded Caminero to the Rays...they might have dominated for five more years. Now they have to draft another up the middle guy because none of theirs are hitting well enough. Unless they go with one of those two collegiate pitchers.

Gonna use him like Dyson/Gore in KC...

At this point, they would probably be equivalent values...because of Robert's age, how DOWN hitting is around MLB, his past competition for Gold Gloves (pure CFer when healthy). The fact of the matter is that Crochet just doesn't have a long enough track record of success as a starter AND a clean bill of health back through University of TN through today. Luis Robert, if HEALTHY, IS a legit 5 fWAR player, maybe even 6ish. They hardly grow on trees. Look at the money being thrown around for guys like Ohtani, Matsumoto and next will be ROKI SASAKI...although he will be coming at an earlier age so his very first MLB contract will be similar to Ohtani's.

Maybe his struggles will force them back onto the trade market for ANOTHER White Sox pitcher, lol.

That series they got swept at the end of 2022 by the Guardians was REALLY the end, although most Sox fans were at least SOMEWHAT optimistic going into 2023 because of the possibility of better player health and the replacement of TLR...but we were almost universally correct about being skeptical on that one. It's usually a bad sign when a guy's own organization doesn't have enough faith in him. Kind of the same thing with Sandy Alomar, Jr., in Cleveland. Some just don't have the drive and determination to deal with the modern day player in a more proactive way, or simply to put in the long hours and deal with incessant travel for 7 1/2 months of the year, and an extra 3 weeks for the post-season. Call it the Gabe Kapler-ization, Joe Maddon or Terry Francona after he left BOS approach. The opposite of "old school" which Grifol pretty much defines. Even Grifol's best friend Eduardo Perez is much more forward thinking from a media-oriented perspective. In the end, Anderson let fame and women go to his head and started to believe he was one of the greats of the game, a modern-day Jackie Robinson and basically his "s%*# didn't stink." He didn't put in the time and effort to keep improving on defense. He hit so well over a 3 year stretch that he thought it was just like riding a bike and he didn't have to put the work in there, either. When you believe you're indispensable to the franchise, you tend to start getting a feeling of entitlement and nobody was every able to really get in his face like an Abreu, Cueto or Pham type of leader and get through to him about the consequences of living a wild life on the road, going out all the time, not living the "clean" dedicated/committed Ohtani way...the guy who's always out there thinking of ways to improve and hone his craft every single day on earth until he retires.