Chicago White Sox

Bulls tied for the 7th worst record. If they can trade Niko & Lopez I think they can finish bottom five. A potential top five pick combined with Cousins could actually make this team incredibly dangerous very soon.

No thanks on Broxton. I think the biggest takeaway from what Stearns is doing is that strikeouts haven’t been valued appropriately. Dude just traded three prospects with swing & miss concerns for a high contact hitter. He just signed another high contact hitter to allow him to potentially trade two other ones with swing & miss issues in Santana & Phillips. In isolation a K may be no different than any other out, but once you add context in and group a bunch of these players together it can start impacting your offensive production. Still too early to say what our offensive core will look like when it comes to strikeouts, but I’d rather not add a guy who strikes out 30% of the time this early in the process.

I think it’s time the Sox stop looking as radio as a revenue driver and start seeing it as marketing tool. WLS was a complete joke and I’m still bitter that I had to tune in to that s***ty station if I was in the car and wanted to listen to the Sox. I truly believe the Sox need to find a way to get on AM 1000 even if they lose dollars in the process. Just being on a sports station will result in more people listening to their games and while they won’t benefit from that directly, it should create more interest/excitement in the team which can indirectly have a financial impact. Lots of business have loss leading products and I think it’s time for radio to become such a thing.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 06:29 AM) Both the Pirates and Marlins are going to have very low payrolls the next few years. Isn't that the same situation the White Sox are going to be in? After this season the White Sox will not have any long term contracts on the books and will probably have a lower payroll than either the Pirates or Marlins. I realize that people don't like to hear this but this White Sox franchise has become a goldmine for JR. Lol..your reading comprehension skills leave a lot to be desired. If you actually read the tweet, you’d realize this is in regard to revenue sharing, which the Sox don’t benefit from like the Marlins & Pirates. But keep ignoring the fact we’re rebuilding in your endless quest to convince us Reinsford is a cheap old f***.

Did any interesting nuggets come out of yesterday’s session?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 06:22 AM) It is for the best. I have flip flopped on this. It is too dangerous now. Even if you are paying full attention to the game , you could be in a tough spot. These days people pay far less attention. Looking at their phone, taking pictures....not only at games but everywhere. Maybe someday someone will come up with some netting you can barely tell is there when you look through it. But the time has come. I agree and support the change, but the netting is definitely a little annoying. I used to love sitting a few rows back behind the dugouts and those seats won’t ever be the same with the netting IMO. Not sure what I’d consider the best seats in the stadium now.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:13 PM) That it's in the way of my view of my season tickets and they decided to tell us well after we had to renew. I think this is a fair complaint.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 09:04 AM) Sox don't have a young DH per se, but they have a lot of players (primarily outfielders) that need to rotate through the DH spot in order to get regular at bats. I'm glad it's an open position right now. And I'd be ok with that. I'm super excited to see what Cordell can provide and would love to see more of Willy Garcia (not likely to happen). I'm just worried that Davidson will get the majority of the DH at-bats next year and I just don't believe in him taking that next step.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:40 AM) Balta has talked about using our playing time as an asset to find undervalued talent, that was the role the Brewers played. 2016 they picked up tons of near major talent and gave them playing time. This trade was also a great example of why to wait until you are closer to knowing. When brewers had a clear surplus they were able to trade for an elite, cost controlled talent, not just an upgrade. That's what I'd like us to do, use surplus for elite upgrades, not just filling 0 war with 2 war vets. I mean, we’re pretty much going to do the same thing. Look at some of the guys we’ll be trotting out in 2017: 3B: Yolmer Sanchez (2.1 WAR, 534 PA’s) CF: Leury Garcia (1.1 WAR, 326 PA’s) LF: Nicky Delmonico (1.0 WAR, 166 PA’s) 2017 is a perfect opportunity to give all those guys 600 PA’s and see what happens. If they can maintain 2 to 3 WAR production next year, they can fill supporting roles in the rebuild or be moved for additional talent. DH is the only spot I’m not overly excited about how we’re using at the moment.

QUOTE (GermanSock @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:20 AM) Good deal for both sides. My math has yelich at a surplus value of 120m and the prospect package being worth around 110m. No haul for the Marlins but also no rip off. Pretty even value deal, the time of 50m plus surplus value deals is over, the teams now know what they do. Might sharing your math here? Always interested in how people calc projected surplus value for prospects. Is it simply based on whether they’re a pitcher or a position player and their current FV score?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 07:29 AM) I wouldn't think the Sox would be interested in Santana unless he can play a good 1B and they move Abreu. They just can't put a defender like that in the OF this early in the buildup. He might actually be an interesting pickup for Boston. Broxton might be palatable on the buy-low side. As for moving Yolmer, perhaps, but the Sox aren't exactly loaded with Middle Infield prospects (or 3B for that matter). You obviously don’t move Yolmer unless you get value for him. His versatility is useful given some of the uncertainty on the left side of the IF. But I really think we need to keep trading our shorter-term assets for more controllable talent. We have a nice young core starting to take shape and a ton of financial flexibility, but we definitely need more prospect depth IMO. As much as I love what Sanchez brings to the table, we should be able to buy a 2 WAR 3B with just money if not something far better with Machado, Donaldson, & Arenado all coming up for free agency in the coming years. I love what Milwaukee was able to do here in trading prospects for a cost-controlled star, signing a good veteran OF, and setting themselves up for a Santana for SP trade. This only works because they had a solid core in place PLUS prospect depth. I think we’re poised to do something similar in a year or two, but far more effectively because we have what could be a great pitching core (Rodon, Kopech, Giolito, Hansen, Lopez, Dunning, Burdi, etc.) & multiple potential positional stars (Moncada, Jimenez, Robert) in place. If we can maintain a certain level of prospect depth, I think we can be positioned to add a Yelich type talent (along with a couple big free agents) without blowing our entire prospect wad. And that’s important if we’re hoping for “sustained success” as Hahn has alluded to time and again.

QUOTE (GenericUserName @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 12:04 AM) He's the type I would be willing to buy low on because he does have the tools, but you know if you take him that he is a project and not someone who just has small things to work on. The problem for us is diminishing returns. We really don’t have a spot for him in our A ball OF.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 09:42 PM) Brewers insider claiming they are working on two trades. Santana to an AL team tomorrow and one other. These moves also validate Crasnick’s tweet, which means we’ve been talking with the Brewers about something. Sanchez still makes the most sense for them IMO, but Brewers fans seem enamored with Abreu anchoring their lineup. I still think there may be some smoke here. Maybe something happens this weekend and it gets announced during SoxFest.

He could suddenly fall off a cliff and I’m sure those last few years will be rough, but that seems like a reasonable deal for Cain. He needs to provide 9 WAR over the life of the deal to basically break-even. Seems like a good gamble to take for the Brewers.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 05:38 PM) It was floated out with more pieces of course. I’m pretty sure I floated what you’re referring to and it was essentially Brinson for Chance Adams & Dillon Tate and Diaz for Sanchez. Suggesting it was “Brinson for Sanchez” like Dick Allen just did is simply being disingenuous. But Dick loves arguing against false narratives.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 05:27 PM) Would you agree Sox equivalent is Robert, Hansen and Rutherford? I definitely would say those packages are comparable.

QUOTE (Sleepy Harold @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 05:16 PM) Milwaukee Brewers @Brewers The #Brewers have acquired OF Christian Yelich from Miami in exchange for OF Lewis Brinson, OF Monte Harrison, INF Isan Diaz and RHP Jordan Yamamoto. That’s an incredible return for the Marlins.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 05:14 PM) So Brinson for Yolmer isn't going to fly. Damn. Said no one ever?

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 09:57 AM) This kinda stuff just doesn't do it for me, personally. Never really into conventions and don't really care about getting autographs. I used to go with my brother, cousins, dad and uncles every year when we were little though. The Q&A sessions with Hahn are worth the price alone IMO. Some of the other seminars are really good too.

Unless they’ve changed it, you get a wristband at the entry to the line and can literally come back right before it’s literally wrapping up to get your autograph. I spent maybe 5 minutes per autrograph in line last year, although I did have to check the status of the line a few times.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 07:41 AM) Nothing really. He made some pretty icky comments the other day and said something like “hopefully they got the right guy”, but he isn’t gonna get fired Gotcha, thanks.

I’ll be there Sunday with a couple buddies and my two sons. Have they released the schedule yet?

As someone who hasn’t followed the details of this horrific story too closely, what does any of this have to do with Izzo?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 24, 2018 -> 07:16 AM) If the White Sox "Aren't as deep as we'd like to think we are", that points to a much larger problem. There is a ton of 2nd tier talent in this organization: Cease, Collins, Rutherford, Burger, Adams, Adolfo, some of the other guys down in A-ball, the other catchers. I don't think all of these guys are going to have breakout years next year, but there's so much talent in that range that some of them should. If all of these guys flop, that's a sign of a much more serious issue - that we still haven't fixed either the player development or the player scouting issues that plagued us for the last decade. The best proxy for the strength of any given farm system is looking at how many 50+ FV prospects they have. How many of those do you think we have right now? If you exclude Moncada, Giolito, Lopez, & Fulmer, we have four guys remaining who met this criteria last year per Longenhagen: 1. Jimenez, 60 2. Kopech, 55 3. Rutherford, 55 4. Collins, 50 5. Burdi, 50 My guess is Rutherford & Burdi fall to 45's, which would leave just three holdovers. The question then becomes how many guys will join the list after 2017? Here are my guesses with predicted FVs: 1. Hansen, 55 2. Robert, 55 3. Dunning, 50 4. Burger, 50 Cease was a 45 last year and I don't see him making the jump. Sheets will probably be a 45. Same goes for Adolfo & Adams. So in summary that's only 7 50+ FV players. That's not horrible, but the deeper systems have closer to 10 from what I've seen. Again, this is simply a good proxy to measure the strength of the farm system. The fact we have two guys that should be in the 60 to 70 FV range (Eloy & Kopech) and a guy that could join them in a half season (Robert) needs to be taken into consideration. But the flip side of the coin is how many guys in our system have a legitimate change of becoming 50+ FV prospects by the end of next season? That's the real concern IMO as I'd only probably put it around five to seven (Rutherford, Cease, Sheets, Burdi, Adolfo, & maybe Basabe or Curbelo). If you look at other high-end systems, I bet you they have many more guys who could conceivably make that jump. Unfortunately, our system lacks the high-school & LatAm talents that can radically improve their future value in a year.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 11:23 PM) Anyone with knowledge of the system can answer this. Would you say that the current group of position player prospects and their success or lack thereof would be an indicator to evaluate those who develop that talent ? I'm just curious with our lack of success in recent years with position player prospects and with changes made to the system if any one truly thinks the Sox have what it takes to develop these players or even draft well enough and recognize talent that basically just develops on its own. I think so yes. The last two drafts under Hostetler we’ve drafted “ball players” over athletes for the most part. Collins, Call, Fisher, Burger, Sheets, & Gonzalez all fall into that bucket IMO. Those guys should be much easier to develop than the Courtney Hawkins of the world who have serious issues with pitch recognition & plate discipline. That doesn’t mean they should eventually turn into stars or even major league regulars, but we should see productive seasons out of them as progress up the system. At this point it’s impossible to say if Getz and of the other any player development changes have made much of a difference thus far. While Call gets a free pass due to injury, Fisher played himself out of top 30 lists with a very disappointing season. Collins raised red flags with his bat to ball issues. And obviously it’s way to early to judge, but Burger & Sheets didn’t exactly demonstrate the plus power potential we’ve been hearing about. Next year will be huge though as the Sox have actively working with these guys during instructs & the off-season to fix issues. If Collins can come back in 2018 with the hitch even semi-corrected and Burger & Sheets show signs of lofting the ball more, I’ll start getting a little more optimistic that Getz may be driving some real change.