Chicago White Sox

Haven’t been able to watch, but did Giolito actually hit 96 MPH this game? I just checked the box score and saw that and couldn’t believe my eyes. That to me is super promising if true.

I’m glad that Rutherford & Adolfo will both get a full year in High A. The old development staff would have promoted these guys at the first sign of success, but I think we should be patient with them. Given their age, there is no reason to rush their timelines.

Good for him. As bad as this team is (and it’s really bad), they’re still playing like absolute shit. It’s a mix of sloppiness & guys pressing and that falls onto to Ricky. He’s got to keep this team both loose & focused and he’s failed in that regard.

What’s awesome is that list doesn’t include our last two first round picks. Madrigal will be on there as soon as he signs and Burger could crack the list pretty quickly if he can come at near full strength.

That dude is a fucking diehard!

Shields is really bad at baseball.

Which is completely rational, but also represents a huge black mark for our front office. LaVine was a key piece of the Butler trade and to lose him for nothing makes the return pretty fucking disasterous. In fact, I’d argue that he was perhaps the centerpiece of the deal despite being injured and only having one year of control. Our front office deemed him worthy of those risks so cutting bait on him now would suggest they are terrible at player evaluations.

The fact that this is even up for debate shows you just how bad the Jimmy Butler trade was. Obviously we should not resign LaVine to make the trade look better, but if all we end up with is a serviceable point guard and a pick swap then good fucking god that's beyond terrible.

See, that’s a plan I could get behind. But unfortunately that’s not the plan. We are going for it with this core and one free agent signing next offseason. That is how GarPax work. And the problem is that free agent signing will likely be a Carlos Boozer tier free agent because history has shown elite free agents don’t come to Chicago. The Carter pick may be fine in isolation, but it’s what it represents in the larger scheme of things that’s the problem. This organization has no balls and only cares about being good enough to keep the house packed. Carter helps get us closer to fringe contender and that’s all that Michael Reinsdorf & GarPax care about.

Look, I can’t tell you what they should have done because I don’t know what options were out there. But I know I would have been active. I would have explored trading up to #4, I would have looked into trading down for multiple bites at the apple, and I would have strongly considered trading out of the draft for future assets. I would have done anything to maximize my chances of landing a future star. But it doesn’t really matter, because the Bulls don’t plan on tanking next year. This is the core they are going with. I don’t know how anyone can look at our roster and find a path forward that allows us to beat the Celtics or 76ers in a playoff series anytime in the near future. And that’s what we deserve, because unlike those two teams, we weren’t patient and focused on asset accumulation and instead tried to compete a rebuild as quickly as possible. I think it’s utter insanity to think we can build a championship caliber team without a single top 4 pick or an attractive free agent, but that is somehow our plan.

But we need multiple stars. If we trade Markkanen for a legit star, we will be better no doubt but it won’t move the needle enough. The other problem is GarPax has a history of loving their own talent and not being willing to move it until it’s too late. Part of my frustration is knowing that our front office will only make landing a star one way or the other that much more difficult.

Bamba is a potential star. And no one here has said Carter is a nothing. He’s a very safe pick with the upside of being a good (not great) starting center. You continue to evaluate the pick in insolation and ignore the broader consequences. We now have a core that should be good enough to draft in the teens. Our only realistic way to get a star now is through free agency. I hope Benny’s got those balloons ready, because we now have to pull off a free agency miracle to avoid NBA hell.

We will never be serious contenders with one star. That is the definition of NBA hell.

Exactly. I’m sure Carter will be a solid to good starting C, but he will never be a star and we just used our last good chip to get one on him. Our entire rebuild strategy was an absolute joke. We traded Butler for two talented, but flawed semi-developed players and a pick swap. Markkanen was obviously a terrric draft choice, but we were always going to need another star (at minimum) and were probably only going to have one good chance because of the assets we got for Butler. Unfortunately we didn’t tank hard enough last year and we ended up one pick short of getting a guy with superstar potential. I would be surprised if we picked in the top 10 next year with our core.

Who is he complimenting other than Lauri? We already have a bunch of role players, we need guys with superstar potential. Playing it safe is a terrible idea IMO.

Welcome to NBA hell! I hope people are excited about being a 5-8 range playoff team for the foreseeable future as I don’t know how we ever get better than that with the core we have in place. We have one potential star and will quickly become decent enough to not have top five picks. This is an absolute nightmare.

It’s a great framework, but there are imperfections wit it and people too often use as scripture whether a good directional indicator of total value.

I’m not going to argue against the concept that 1B aren’t typically in high demand come the trade deadline, but let’s stop using projected surplus value as the end all be all when it comes to deadline deals. What was Chapman’s projected surplus value for the rest of the season when the Cubs gave up a haul for him? Need/desperation come into play and guys who have been 135 to 140 wRC+ type hitters will be in short supply. Throw in a likely compensation pick after 2019 and there is a reason to be optimistic here. Again, we won’t get an elite prospect like Eloy for him, but I think some people here are seriously under-valuing what Abreu will be worth.

I actually enjoy you as a poster and wasn't trying to make this personal, but this is the worst assessment of trade value I have ever seen. A snap-shot of WAR on June 21st doesn't change the fact that Jose Abreu has decent (although probably not great) trade value and that Shields has little to none.

You said you’d give up Basabe for Shields. You may have changed your tune a bit afterwards, but your initial statement was a B prospect for Big Game James. Regardless, if you think that Abreu & Shields are even remotely comparable players then god bless you and your inability to think beyond a good but flawed statistic. I can’t believe anyone would actually quote WAR in an attempt to argue these guys are roughly the same in value.

Someone will almost certaintly get a comp pick for him after the 2019 season, so that increases his value.

#1 overall prospect in baseball is not the same as just any top 25 guy. Huge value difference there.

Hold on, you were just saying a few weeks ago you’d give up a B prospect for James fucking Shields if you needed a backend starter and now you think that’s all we’d get for one of the best hitters in baseball??

IMO, there is far more upside for us than downside. A core of Dunn, Lavine, MJP, Markkanen, & JJJ/Bamba is a pretty good starting point. Plus by offsetting Felicio, I think we should still be able to afford a max free agent next offseason by using the stretch provision on Parsons. I may be in the minority here, but I’d much rather give up an unprotected pick for next year than the 7th overall this year.

I’m almost positive it’s 2-3 MPH slow. This was reported somewhere last year with Giolito I believe and perhaps on one of the telecasts I watched this year.