Chicago White Sox

Yup, and a great fit for the Cell given how much it plays up HR’s and the importance it places on infield defense. I’m a big OBP guy but there’s nothing wrong with a having a couple guys like Rondon at the bottom of the lineup.

I’d honestly rather have Rondon as our reserve IF than Sanchez. I really like Yomer, but I don’t see the point of spending $5M on a reserve infielder and I think Rondon has more upside. I’d be looking to deal Sanchez this offseason and reallocate those savings elsewhere.

He also had 6 HR & 6 2B in just over 100 plate appearances. That’s in addtion to the 18 HR he hit in 80 games at AAA. The power looks like it might legit, which is shocking as that’s what drove down his prospect rankings in the past. His calling card coming up was actually being a good defensive SS. If Rondon can be a plus defensive 2B with 20+ HR power, we’re talking about an incredibly valuable player even with his plate discipline shortcomings. That’s a player worth investing some time in during a rebuild season and one who is far more interesting than most of the fringe guys we rolled out there last year.

I think you do what’s best for Moncada first and worry about the prospects later. Any excess at given position can be used to fill other holes. Plus all our CF prospects can pretty much play anywhere in the OF. Having three plus defenders with above average arms would only be a good thing.

It’s tough because Machado fills a bigger hole and has been the better overall player as of late, but Harper is the type of star this franchise desperately needs. He would immediately change the way the national media views us and would no doubt sell tickets & improve our TV ratings. It’s really a tough call. I’d probably lean Machado but can see a case made for either of them.

In all honesty, I’d love a Narvaez for Jon Gray trade (with other pieces involved potentially) to bolster the rotation and then give Castillo the vast majority of starts at C. I like Omar’s bat, but 2018 will likely be a career year and his defense leaves a lot to be desired. The time to sell high is now. Just don’t know how other front offices will view him. I do know the Rockies are desperate for a catching upgrade and don’t have a lot of money to fill the hole.

Also, this gives me reason for optimism: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mlb.com/296665770-yoan-moncada-wants-to-stay-at-second-base.amp.html

Sorry bro, I’m going to keep doing it until it happens!

Not nearly as doom & gloom as James Fegan has been suggesting. Obviously I’m still concerned, but do feel a little better after reading that.

Read the footnotes though:

If you sign Harper you might as well add Donaldson on a one year deal. I’ve included Steamer’s projected wRC+ for 2019 as well. The lineup below would be projected to have four guys above 125, which would be insane. Steamer is only projecting a total of 34 guys in all of baseball to meet that criteria. Moncada, CF (99) Donaldson, 3B (131) Harper, LF (147) Abreu, 1B (125) Jimenez, RF (129) Palka, DH (98) Anderdon, SS (85) Narvaez, C (93) Rondon, 2B (83) Now, god only knows what our pitching staff would like, but that’s an offense you could dream on at least.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/zack-burdi-enters-offseason-healthy/c-300184132

Lance Lynn at 2/$16M seems like a fucking steal to me. I’d also add Allen & Pomeranz on one year deals if at all possible.

Right now, I think you have to score this one under inconclusive. The first wave of guys really struggled and failed to meet expectations IMO. Obviously it’s way to early to jump to any conclusions with those guys, but it would have been nice if even one of them had a strong season or even a great second half. I do have some concerns that Coop may be a bit behind the times now and that Steverson just isn’t good. The 2019 season needs to be make or break for them IMO. Then you had the array of injuries that decimated our term system. I may be in the minority here, but I actually saw positive signs with our player development this past season. Cease made major strides. Basabe, Adolfo, & Rutherford all improved. LuGo became a legit prospect. Dunning was fantastic when healthy. Lambert came out of nowhere. A bunch of minor league relievers had strong seasons. Overall there were far more positives than negatives if you ignore the injuries. The question is whether 2018 was just an unlucky year or a sign of things to come. We better hope it was the former and not the latter. Drafting is a big concern right now for me. At this moment in time, the Burger / Sheets combo looks horrific. I’ll acknowledge that could change with a strong 2019, but it just seems like we selected for need (i.e. power) vs. BPA. I won’t overreact to the Walker pick, but something about going overslot for college juniors seems off to me (same with Sheets). Madrigal better be a big hit or I’m afraid Hostetler needs to be on the hot seat. LatAm is concerning as well and the going “all-in” for Robert but not actually signing a ton more guys seems like a wasted opportunity. That decision goes well beyond Paddy, but if Luis flops that’s another misfire in a long list of them for Marco. At some point we can’t use the “needs more time” excuse to protect Paddy. Overall I’m a little down, but will be far more optimistic if the front office can land a whale free agent. If last year taught me one thing, it’s that we’re going to need more than internal talent to end this rebuild.

Steele Walker was coming off an injury and actually provides utility with the glove. That’s a poor comparison IMO. As for Banuelos, there are reasons for optimism with him. Former top prospect with returning velocity and coming off a stellar year in a notorious hitter’s league. Odds are he will amount to filler, but I’d rather roll the dice on him than a 22 year old 1B only type coming off a sub .700 OPS in low A. And I thought you were a fan Javy Guerra? Somewhat comparable move IMO.

Let’s be honest here, anyone who is proposing we cut a former 1st round pick coming off an injury who doesn’t need to be added to the 40 man for another year and actually pitched well in the AFL despite lost velocity edit by mods: removed, let's cool the personal attacks

I’m interested in hearing how they plan on using Banuelos. Is he just a depth piece for the rotation or someone they believe can challenge for a major league role out of camp? My guess is they view him as Santiago’s replacement and he’d be a much more interesting option than Hector.

Everything about this post is just stupid, dumb, & ignorant and represents everything wrong & cowardly about the internet.

I like your assessment better.

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Did you read the article I posted? His velocity just recently returned (back up to 94 MPH now) after years of elbow problems. A lefty with his kind of stuff is very interesting to me, especially one coming off a pretty damn good season in the PCL. I think he’s a guy worth rolling the dice on, especially at the cost of a one dimensional 1B prospect.

Again, reading comprehension my man. I literally said there was upside for more beyond that, so not sure how you’re trying to spin the 12 WAR scenario into the “ideal case”. And 12 WAR would represent like an 8 game improvement from our rotation alone. Combine that with a Machado signing, a decent OF addition, Eloy, and some improvement from our young guys like Moncada & Anderson and a .500 season looks like it could be in the realm of possibility when you play in the worst division in sports.

Am I arguing with an insane person? I even italicized “IF” because I knew Balta would try this bullshit. Under no circumstance do I expect everything to go right with that rotation, but it’s certainty in the realm of possibility. Just like how no one expected everything to go wrong with our rotation last year and that more or less happened.

Probably the one who is injured or the one who flops this year. Assuming the five arms that we have in place will be healthy, ready, & deserving of a role (or not traded in Rodon’s case) is quite the optimistic expectation from you. And I have never assumed that Lucas Giolito will be a lot of better. In fact the last time we got into this argument I said it’s likely one of these kids will flop. And guess what bud, if all our young guys work out there are these things called trades where we can move the veteran to open up a spot. And good god man, you got to work on those reading comprehension skills. My entire argument has always been adding vets on “short-term deals”. Signing an OF to a one or two year is something I can get behind as it really wouldn’t be blocking anyone. At some point you need to accept there are ways to make the on-field product better without jeopardizing the long-term viability of the rebuild.

Yup, no chance the three 24-25 year old former top 40 prospects (top 10 for two of them) could become pretty good next year. Yup, no chance the guy who put 3+ WAR seasons in 2016 & 2017 and whose velocity starting trending up towards the end of the season could be pretty good next year. Yup, no chance the guy who has put up 2.8 WAR in 5 of the last 6 seasons (including last year) could be pretty good next year. Will they all be good next year? Probably not, but I could see us realistically getting 12 WAR out of those guys with enough development / good luck. And there’s definitely upside beyond that if you assume development isn’t linear with our young guys, but unfortunately that’s not something you seem willing to accept.