Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Mar 2, 2017 -> 09:19 AM) So, does Zelda come out tomorrow? I pre-ordered it on Amazon but it's telling me I won't get it until next Tuesday. Anyone else pre-order it? I'm pretty excited. The reviews are all super positive. 10/10 on IGN. Sounds like everything I hated about past games (closed off world, repetitive structure) has been fixed. I hope the Wii U version is as good as the switch version. Yes, it comes out tomorrow and it sounds absolutely fantastic. Right now it's a 98 on metacritic, which makes it one of the highest scoring games of all time. Can't wait to play this tomorrow on the Switch. As for the Wii U version, sounds like the graphics are pretty comparable, but that it doesn't run as smoothly. Shouldn't ruin the experience though.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Feb 28, 2017 -> 02:19 PM) According to this, the Bears have drafted 3 first round caliber players last year. http://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id...os-angeles-rams Can summarize this for us? Don't have insider access.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 28, 2017 -> 12:41 PM) I want Alvarez. The Sox rebuild is SLOW. So try to win this year as well. We need a DH desperately. On paper he'd be a prime candidate to blossom. We always sign pitchers who are on the comeback trail, why not hitters? Alvarez would fill a need. Then you add a catcher and a middle reliever via trade if we are in contention at the all star break. I can't figure out how the Sox are selling any season tickets at this point. They are just telling the fans we are rebuilding at a snail's pace. We have a ton of veteran players still but we have no intention of contending with them. Seriously ... Shields?? Robertson?? Frazier?? Melky?? Avi?? Abreu?? Lawrie?? Holland?? Q?? And we're rebuilding?? I don't get it at all!!!! Don't insult me, White Sox. Pick up Alvarez now please. You really need to step your troll game up, this s*** is getting pathetic.

Pass, don't really see the point. Might as well give a kid like Davidson those at-bats.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Feb 25, 2017 -> 08:50 AM) I still think that this so called rebuild is as phony as a $3 bill. I think JR is going to trade off and not sign any real talent the team has. He will have the lowest payroll in MLB in 2018. He will then sell the team after the 2018 season. I'm hoping he'll sell the team before the 2018 season, but I think he will wait until after the season is over. This team has absolutely no positive direction. I've read where the most talented player coming out of Cuba is a 19 year old outfielder named Luis Robert. Virtually every team in MLB wants to sign him. The White Sox are probably the only team who have shown no interest in signing him. The farm system is barren of any every day outfielders. Robert would be a good signing for the team and yet they have no interest in signing him. After Cabrera leaves the White Sox after this season the White Sox will probably have the worse outfield in 2018 in MLB. Wouldn't Robert be a perfect fit for this team? How do you know the Sox have no interest in signing Robert?

Breadth of the Wild is getting some serious praise right now. Pretty much every preview has been nothing but positive. I can't wait to get my hands on this next Friday.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 22, 2017 -> 11:05 PM) Meh. I agree with him in this case. He skimped out on amateur spending for over a decade and pushed his front office to take measures to try and catch lightning in a bottle all over again. Sorry if I don't give a s*** about Jerry Reinsdorf's feelings. I'm not defending Reinsdorf here, I've called him out many times for his various flaws including the ones you described above. But I'm not going to criticize a guy for having a hard time accepting a strategy that might result in him never seeing an above .500 team again in his life. Ultimately he did the right thing for the broader fanbase and not just himself. Again, there are plenty of things to criticize Reinsdorf about, but his feelings on going through a rebuild isn't one of them IMO.

Thad, I really hope Reinsdorf f***ed your woman or something, because your hatred/obsession with him is honestly out of control. There's absolute nothing wrong with a 81 year old not being excited about going through a multi-year rebuild.

We should definitely be one of the worst teams in the AL, but our division is also pretty weak and should allow for a few more wins than projected. At the same time though, these projections aren't accounting for all the players we'll likely be dumping off over the course of the season. Honestly, it's really hard to say just how we'll be at this point, although I feel confident saying there will be a couple teams worse than us as currently constructed.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 22, 2017 -> 07:18 AM) The WAR scale isn't working anymore for one dimensional power hitters. Frazier had zero market at $12 million. On the open market he is worth a fraction of that. Why do you keep calling him a one dimensional power hitter? He can play a solid 3B, which automatically separates him from all the 1B/DH types you are comparing him to. Second, there is a big difference between a player having no market and teams not wanting to part with a premium prospect for said player on top of assuming the contract. I find it far more likely teams simply didn't want to meet the Sox's high asking price for a player coming off a dissapointing season rather than not a single team valuing Frazier as a $12M player. Finally, to assume the 3B market next year will be the same as this year is ridiculous. Hell, the 3B market could be radically different by June or July as there are several contenders with sketchy 3B situations. His value may be suppressed for now, but it won't be for a long with any semblance of a bounce-back. ZIPS has him as a 3.4 WAR player next year and I think that's very realistic. If so, he'll be worth a lot more than $12M.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Feb 21, 2017 -> 07:45 PM) Phil RogersVerified account‏@philgrogers 17s17 seconds ago More If the #Nationals are willing to trade catcher Pedro Severino, the #Whitesox would probably move David Robertson w/some salary relief. I just don't get this. Severino may be a phenomenal defensive catcher, but I don't see how the bat plays in the majors, even in a backup capacity. Seems like the type of guy we'd be looking to replace by the time we actually got good.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 21, 2017 -> 04:24 PM) Would you put up an offer in the $17.5 to 18 million dollar range to Todd Frazier? If he has a solid bounce back, no doubt I would. With lesser penalties for signing free agents with QOs, I really don't think there would be much risk that he'd accept.

I really don't get the Severino love around here.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Feb 21, 2017 -> 01:12 PM) The same Adolfo signed the same year the Cubs signed BOTH Gleyber Torres AND Eloy Jimenez? That Adolfo? I pointed this out a month or so ago, but yeah it's not a good look for us. Regardless, it's way too early to write off a prospect with the physical tools Adolfo has. I'm not overly optimistic, but you never know what happens if we can stay healthy and maintain some consistent development time.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 21, 2017 -> 10:57 AM) We are just now starting to get to the point where we can grade these players at a minimum standard. The first group is starting to get into High A ball. The largest chunk of them is pretty much in rookie ball or the DSL itself. This is true, but to raBBit's point the early returns haven't been promising. Out of the first group, Martinez is probably the biggest success and he barely cracked futuresox's top 30. I'm higher than most on Cruz, but he doesn't deserve a top 30 spot at this point in time. Rodriguez's 2016 season was a huge failure. Same goes for Adolfo, although it's way too early to jump to any conclusions on him just yet. Honestly, outside of Nunez's breakout season, Solorzano's solid performance (despite underwhelming stuff), and Tatis's rise in prospect status (not with us mind you), there were simply not a lot of positives on the Latin American side of things.

I have no idea why I keep watching Walking Dead. To me, this garbage people group is a new low for the show.

From Scott Merkin: Who's next on the CF depth chart? Liriano?

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Feb 18, 2017 -> 10:05 AM) Ah, but be careful. The question was would ownership pay for "premier" free agents the next time the Sox are a few pieces away. That exact opportunity presented itself about as good as it could last offseason when Yoenis Cespedes was available, and the team failed to make it happen. You expect a different outcome the next time around with the same ownership and management in place? I hope you are right, but color me skeptical right up until that time when I see it happen. Completely different situations. In your scenario the Sox were approaching some theoretical payroll threshold, whereas the Sox should have minimal payroll commitments entering the epic 2018/2019 free agent period. What exactly do you think Reinsdorf will do? Not allow Hahn to sign free agents above a certain AAV or for a certain amount of years? I just don't see it unless Hahn is looking to sign an elite pitcher to a crazy long-term contract. Otherwise, I expect Hahn to a fair amount of autonomy on how he spends his budget.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Feb 18, 2017 -> 09:04 AM) I agree with your assessment of the 2018 White Sox. You could have the worse offensive team in MLB. Does anybody really think that JR is going to spend big money on premier free agents? He hasn't done that since he signed Albert Belle. I think he will, but it won't be until the following year most likely. Hahn made it clear at SoxFest that the money will be there when the Sox are a few pieces away.

Honestly, 2018 could be worse than 2017. Our offense will be losing at least two key contributors in Frazier & Melky and maybe even Abreu. The only prospect worth a damn replacing them at the moment is Moncada. That could be a really ugly dropoff. The pitching side should be better with Giolito, Lopez, Fulmer, & Burdi all up, but they'll all have their growing pains and will have to offset any potential contributions from Quintana, Robertson, and possibly Jones this year. That's not a guarantee by any means. We're going to need add a few more near major league prospects and see some fast development for 2018 to be an improvement. This is all assuming they don't plug some holes with legit options in free agency.

Thanks for posting! This list shows me our Latin American operations still need a ton of work. Tatis would have cracked the top 20, but it's a bit scary that no one else did. Marco Paddy's early returns have been pretty poor. Really need one of Adolfo or Nunez to break out next year.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Feb 14, 2017 -> 09:42 PM) You may see some make it out of ST. Hopefully the coaching staff makes good decisions but if Moncada has a solid spring he could go north. Moncada has no chance of going north out of camp and Rick Hahn has made this perfectly clear. They will not be giving up a year of control on any of their key young players that aren't already on the major league roster (i.e. Rodon & Anderson).

Not overly surprising, but four Sox prospects ranked in the top 150 on at least one writer's list, but didn't crack the overall top 100 list. They are Basabe, Burdi, Fulmer, & Hansen.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 13, 2017 -> 09:14 PM) Seems very odd that the players we think the Sox have targeted have moved up on a lot of these lists ( Meadows, Tucker, Marte, Keller )while the guys they acquired are moving down (Moncada, Giolito). Well it's been somewhat of a mixed bag. Kopech & Lopez have both moved up quite a bit over the past 12 months.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 13, 2017 -> 08:27 PM) Especially with as cheap some some of the free agents are out there. Exactly, the fact we didn't add a legit DH on the cheap should be proof to all.