Chicago White Sox

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.

lol...this isn’t like Giolito at all. It’s probably a mix of a slow gun & Kopech sacrificing a bit of velocity for command and fathom (who I respect) is taking the negative viewpoint as usual. I’ve seen a couple times this year and he was consistently in the upper 90’s.

Would the Grizzlies take Portis, Felicio, #22, and an unprotected 2019 1st rounder for #4 & Parsons? Would love to get Bamba or JJJ at #4 & MJP at #7 (assuming medically are acceptable).

My rankings: 1) Jimenez 2) Robert 3) Adolfo 4) Basabe 5) Rutherford 6) Gonzalez 7) Steele

Define top end.

I’ve been against trading Abreu for quite some time, but given the pace the first wave of prospects are developing at I think it might make sense to move him if the return is right. Got to get at least one top 50 prospect plus a nice secondary piece. From the Astros, I would happily take Alvarez & someone like Cionel Perez.

He flashed some ability, but they never really gave him a chance for whatever reason.

Thanks. Not the best of news, but at least he’s accounting for I guess.

Still no sign of Franklin Reyes. That’s a bit concerning.

Excellent news. Now just need to find out who from Kannapolis is moving up.

He’s playing SS in game 2 of their double header. Also, Beltre with a HR to start the second game. I wonder if he gets promoted to Kannapolis once Rivera gets a promotion.

I really hope he’s up in the next month or so. I think he’s got a chance of being a damn good #4 type starter.

WTF does a guy’s signing bonus have to do with anything??

He also has a 3.98 FIP. That ERA is very misleading and driven by a handle of ugly starts. We also don’t know how much working on his changeup might be affecting his numbers. Regardless, the K rate is still a nasty 11.84 per 9. The stuff is clearly there to be an ace, he just needs a bit more time to learn how to control his emotions and not throw every pitch 1,000 MPH.