Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 03:53 PM) Henry SchulmanVerified account @hankschulman #sfgiants are listening to offers for their No. 2 slot in Thursday's Rule 5 draft. Usually those are swapped for cash. Giants have not decided to deal it or not. 1 reply 1 retweet 1 like James Fox‏ @JamesFox917 18m18 minutes ago I've heard that #WhiteSox have their eye on two players tomorrow. They could be in play here. Come on Yimmy, give us some names!

I thank the baseball gods everyday that we pulled the trigger on our rebuild when we did because we are now kicking it off with a f***ton of talent and should only endure two or three non-competitive seasons if things go as planned. The Marlins are easily looking at a 5 plus year rebuild based on what they got in their first three big trades. Rebuilding is always going to be far more risky/painful when relying on draft picks rather than semi-proven minor leaguers.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 02:16 PM) I'll guess Jack Flaherty + Sandy Alcantara + Piscotty or Grichuk for Ozuna Hopefully that’s the case. The bigger the return the more hope I have we get something good back for Avi.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 01:29 PM) Or the fact that you have 4 spots filled in the rotation rght now and have rodon on the dl till he comes back plus 3 rookies in the rotation. QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 01:32 PM) Wouldn't look too far into it Chief I'd like to sign Bucholz and Tillman and try and flip them in July You guys are missing my point. Chavez sucks, he’d simply be a placeholder. A guy like Tillman is a potential flip candidate, but will also cost more money. If you don’t think Kopech will be up until closer to the All-Star break or later, you probably invest in a guy you can flip. If you think he’ll be up by the end of May, you sign a place-holder like Chavez that can be cut when needed. To me, it’s blatantly obvious what this implies assuming the Chavez rumor is true.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 01:27 PM) I don't know why I'm discussing this or anybody is because you simply do not trade four top prospects (even though I hate prospects) for Manny when he's a free agent in a year. It makes absolutely no sense as he's not going to sign with anybody before becoming a free agent and getting paid the maximum amount. The Sox can't win the pennant this season with Machado so it would be absurd to deal 4 propsects for a one-year player. That's why I say it's not worth discussing. If you must play fantasy baseball dream of next offseason and let the Sox try to get in the bidding war for Manny. Discussing things like this seem counterproductive. Sorry I elected to take part, but I won't post any more about Manny. It ain't happening just like Otani wasn't going to consider Chicago cause Chciago had no money to dangle to him. Who in the world “hates” prospects? What a bizarre (dumb?) statement...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 01:00 PM) Cease is also more than a year younger. What does age have to do with durability concerns? If anything, Cease’s health issues at such a young age should be viewed as a negative.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 12:36 PM) I’m surprised by how willing people are to trade Cease. I personally think he’ll be better than Hansen Cease has been handled with baby gloves his entire career. We have no idea what happens when they take the reigns off a bit. While I want to be optimistic, we still need to see signs of him being able to handle a major league starter’s workload. To me Hansen seems like the real deal and a guy who could quickly become a top 5 pitching prospect in no time. Cease has a long road ahead of him before he ever enters that conversation.

QUOTE (Soha @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 12:35 PM) I would add Moncada and Giolito to the list of untouchables, bringing it to 6. Everyone else is tradable to some degree. If they can pull off a Lopez & Cease for Machado trade, where it includes a window to sign him - I do that trade. Without the window I would give up too little for the Orioles to consider it. But I would not trade any of those top 6 guys for anything. They are what we are building around. Also if they can trade for Machado, and he does insist on playing shortstop - move TA to CF. He has the athleticism to excel out there. I was just talking minor leaguers, but yes I 100% agree about Moncada & Giolito. And I’d include Lopez on that list as well. Those are the seven players I personally wouldn’t trade at the moment. Other than Robert they should all be on the major league roster by the All-Star break (timing is important in a rebuild) and Robert has #1 prospect in all of baseball potential. Anderson & Rodon are on the bubble just a little bit, Tim because of his rough 2017 & general lack of plate discipline and Rodon because of his durability concerns & slightly limited team control. It would take a lot for me to move either guy though.

Cardinals closing in on an Ozuna trade. That should open up the Avi market quite a bit. Will be interesting to see the return to get a general sense of what Avi might bring back, even if he’s no doubt worth less.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 12:18 PM) Or you are getting good value before Cease loses any chance to be considered a starter and Rutherford loses trade value if he continues his hitting struggles. Also don't know how Marlins feel about Blake as they have some former Yanks executives over there now The problem is the Sox just acquired these guys, they most certainly think they’re candidates to improve their value rather than regress.

To me, the Sox have four untouchable prospects at the moment in Jimenez, Kopech, Robert, & Hansen. After that, I’m open to exploring deals as long as I’m not completely exhausting my prospect depth. I still think it’s a year too early to cash in on our prospects though unless a deal is simply too good to pass up.

Going after a stopgap starter the caliber of Chavez tells me they expect Kopech to be up relatively quickly.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 11:57 AM) How can it be riskier if it's for significantly less money? Free agents fail all the time. The Adam Dunn signing wasn't risky either, was it? At least the young guy won't screw up your major league win/loss record if he craps out. The young guy has zero at-bats in the majors, while the veteran player is a proven superstar. $50M for a guy who has never accomplished anything is a huge risk. Sure, anything can happen, but risk is all about realizing a certain rate of return not about the absolute dollar amount of the investment. Robert has significantly more bust potential even if the downside risk is larger for Machado from a magnitude perspective.

QUOTE (Quin @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 11:27 AM) Even with extension, highest I would go would be... Anderson, Fulmer, Cease and Sheets. Based on Stanton's return I'd probably end up actually offering Avi, Fulmer, Dunning if we could convince Machado to man third. He's coming with a massive literal price tag. The first offer is way too much IMO. If you’re willing to give up that much, might as well go after Yelich even if the cost is a little more.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 11:08 AM) Which makes the Machado and Harper free agencies unprecedented ARod got $250M like 16 years ago, accounting for inflation this is not unprecedented.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 10:59 AM) That's like saying your friend covered the table's bill at Chili's, so he definitely would do the same at Gibson's. The Sox spending $50 million on a very young international FA isn't all that comparable to a veteran FA who will cost $300+ million. You’re right, the amateur signing is far riskier and much more surprising.

Great write-up! I think Reyes is the only guy they consider if they go the positon player route and even that would be a surprise. I just don’t see us taking a catcher with the addition of Castillo and Collins & Zavala hopefully both in AA. I do think you’re spot on about potentially taking two arms though. As you pointed out we simply need more options to fill out a bullpen and 2018 would be the perfect year to give a couple not fully developed flame-throwers an extended opportunity with Cooper. And I really hope Burdi is one of those guys.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Dec 13, 2017 -> 07:22 AM) I don't know but how many times do I have to read about WAR being the be all, end all to a players value? I don't get the dismay with Garcia. I've seen people wanting Delmonico playing rather than Avi. That's just wrong. Delmonico will never approach a year like Garcia just had and is not near the plyer. I heard Carlos Pena last night talking about Ozuna and how teams need to let players develop because he was sent down to the minors a couple years ago, made adjustments, and now is the most coveted available trade chip out there. I also heard a GM, think it was Shapiro, talking about a prospect comparing to a current player on their roster. He mentioned how the prospect was in the minors, while at the same age, the other guy was already in the league. Everybody is high on Eloy, and rightfully so, but at his age in high A and AA, Avi was already playing in the bigs. Now that Avi seems to have figured things out.....trade him. Makes zero sense to me. WAR isn’t the end-all-be-all, but completely ignoring is far worse. The same applies to all advanced metrics and the key is to take both what the numbers say on the page and what you see from watching the player actually play to put together a thorough evaluation. Unfortunately, what happens more often than not is people simply stat scout (I’m guilty of this myself at times) and ignore issues/outliers with certain stats. Having said all that, you’re much better stat scouting with advanced metrics than tradional ones. Based on your tone, I have feeling you’re of the tradional variety and think Avi is the bees’ knees because of his batting average & RBIs. And while those stats tell you some things, without looking at advanced metrics you’ll be missing a large part of the story.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Dec 12, 2017 -> 08:50 PM) Lol it wouldn't be that simple. If teams could get a window, the price goes up. Other teams could beat that. How much is a team going to pay in prospects to then pay Machado market price? Obviously there’s value to having the negotiating window, just not sure what that price would be.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 12, 2017 -> 08:48 PM) I’d do Cease and Dunning if I got the window. I could live with this and it fits the rumored “two controllable arms” asking price.

What’s the most everyone would give up in a Machado trade assuming a 72 negotiating window? I’d probably be willing to do something like Rutherford & Spencer Adams if I had to.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 12, 2017 -> 08:09 PM) That is $56 million short. We came in second place though and might have gone higher, Boras just straight up hustled the Rangers.

I’ll say this, him losing this race will be an even bigger embarrassment for Republicans who supported this pervert/pedophile.

QUOTE (Tony @ Dec 12, 2017 -> 08:16 PM) 8:15pm CST, Jones has a 65% chance of working via NYT 77% now, 8:17 Of winning?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 12, 2017 -> 08:03 PM) Cubs just signed Smyly to a two year deal. He'll miss the season after electing to have Tommy John. Cubs have a monopoly on injury ridden pitchers, good for them.