Chicago White Sox

Sell. Put Frazier, Melky, Lawrie, Robertson, Duke, & Shields (or Gonzalez) on the market. Trade any and all of them if the return merits a move. Listen to offers on Quintana but only move him if blown away. Give Saladino a legit opportunity at 3B or 2B the rest of the season. The same goes for Coats in LF if Melky is moved. Call up Leury Garcia to see if he can a legit bench option. Call up Ranaudo and give him a look if Shields or Gonzalez is moved. Make Nate Jones the closer going forward. DFA Albers & Navarro. Let Kevan Smith serve as the backup catcher. Give some of the young arms (Kahnle, Ynoa, Beck) looks the rest of the way. Long-story short, give the young guys in AAA and above some chances and see if any of them might be able to contribute next season. In the offseason, you start seriously exploring trades for Sale, Quintana, Eaton, & Abreu. The free agent market will be incredibly weak, so these guys should be worth a f***ton. Obviously don't move these guys simply for the sake of doing so, but my guess is there will be plenty of offers that will more than tempting, at least for the first three guys. The goal for 2017 should be about developement across the organization. Put the young guys in the best situations to help the organization long-term and not fill short-term needs. I want Fulmer & Burdi in the minors working on becoming starters. I want Collins in AA working on his catching. Let Alec Hansen start in low A and build some confidence before moving up to A+. Rebuilding is an ugly word and a dangerous game, but expecting things to magically get better with a bottom 5 farm system and weak free agent classes is much scarier IMO. It's finally time for a fresh start and unfortunately that means making some tough decisions.

I own guns and generally support the right for most people to own them, but I find it completely f***ed up how easy it is to purchase an assault rifle. There is absolutely no practical purpose for them unless you want your people armed to help deter the threat of a foreign invasion. Pretty crazy that an everyday Joe can pretty easily outgun local law enforcement.

For f***'s sake, score some runs and win today! Go Sox!

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 16, 2016 -> 11:23 PM) Well either a troll or a guy who knows nothing about baseball and thinks he does or some really old guy who saw Ted Williams bunt once. He's a troll and honestly not a very good one. I know that term gets thrown around a lot (I'm guilty of doing so myself), but this dude is the most blatant troll I can remember on this site in the 10+ years I've been here.

For the love of god, sin city sox is a troll. I can't believe some of you guys are wasting your time responding to him.

Absolutely pathetic. Entire organization should be embarrassed right now.

Morneau to be the hero?

Saladino needs to be running his ass off on contact.

If Frazier strikes out, I'm going to lose my s***. Make some f***ing contact.

I like putting Saladino in to run.

Thank god they didn't send him!

Ball four base hit!

Need to CAPITALIZE here.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 16, 2016 -> 09:30 PM) The farm system is bottom ten for sure Bottom five more likely. If Fulmer loses his eligibility, Collins is the only possible top 100 prospect. I do think the system is on the upswing as we're finally producing some Latin prospects and the current draft class looks promising. But there are a ton of guys in full season ball having tough years and very few having having breakouts.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 16, 2016 -> 09:14 PM) They will lose if they sell. For maybe a long time. Trading Sale doesnt = winning baseball I know, trading Sale is a scary proposition and I don't disagree with your general sentiments. But wasting Sale's remaining years and having nothing to show for it is even more terrifying IMO and a real possibly. Anyways, I don't want to derail a game thread with rebuilding talk. Let's score some f***ing runs.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 16, 2016 -> 09:02 PM) Oh give me a break. Those two directly coincide with each other Come on dude, you're better than this. I want the team to win every single night, but that doesn't mean I can't be objective. We're 4.5 games out of a playoff spot and have some serious holes on our roster with limited chips to fill them. While I'm starting to lean towards selling, it definitely doesn't mean I want them to lose. The two have nothing to do with one another.

4.5 games back for the second wild card. Rick Hahn said he's looking for a bat, but it's a sellers' market which is obviously not good for us. While I think Morneau & Fulmer will help some, I just don't see how we can cut that gap without a major offensive addition and probably another bullpen arm. The system is in really bad shape right now. Spencer Adams is about the only guy other than Fulmer that could be a headliner for an impact player. Unfortunately, his performance this year has probably cooled a lot of teams on him. It really seems like we don't have the muscle to get the pieces we need right now. I'd love for someone make me feel more optimistic about our situation, but I really can't see an argument. Honestly, if it's a sellers' market then we should be selling. Frazier, Melky, Lawrie, Robertson, & Duke all have value and right now is the ideal time to deal them if we want to optimize the returns. The problem with that means the beginning of a rebuild, because you will have decimated your offense and key parts of your bullpen. I really don't want to endure a lengthy rebuild, but I don't see the alternative. Several key guys will be gone after the 2017 season or will need to be extended, which would eat up a lot of our financial flexibility. The next two free agents classes look terrible, forcing us to improve from within or via the trade market. Unfortunately, with a bottom 5 system, that will be difficult to pull off. I love our draft class this year, but it's going to take several years before we bare those fruits and will take several more classes like that before we rebuild our system. We have three years left of control of our single most important asset in Chris Sale. If I felt ownership & the front office would and could do whatever it takes to make us legit playoff contenders, I would say go for it. But after watching them miss on numerous targets this offseason and knowing how difficult it will be to improve the roster over the next years (for the reasons mentioned above), I don't have faith they can pull it off and we will just waste the rest of Sale's years with us. I know this is a hard discussion to have, but I really think it's time to finally consider a full-fledged rebuild.

I have no side in this battle, but Dick Allen is straight ethering Caulfield right now. There's nothing worse than ripping a move in hindsight when you were in favor of it when it took place. Glad that certain posters are being held accountable for their flip-flopping.

No offense, but when your second good month is an OPS barely above .800, that's a bit concerning. I'm not writing off Abreu by any means, but the dude needs to at least put 2015 type numbers or we are f***ed. We really haven't seen much of that player this year and until we do, there's nothing wrong with posters being worried.

This is really pretty simple guys, the team is desperate for a reliever and Fulmer is our best internal option at the moment. I highly doubt this has anything to with showcasing him for a trade and I definitely don't think it means they're writing him off as a starter. It's pretty clear, IMO, that the front office is doing whatever it can to salvage this season. Calling up Fulmer for the pen helps in that regard, even if it's not the best thing for his development.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jul 15, 2016 -> 07:25 AM) I'm ready to give the journeyman Minor Leaguer, Jason Burgeois a shot. I know that he's 34, but he's always been a capable hitter, and is having a career year. He has? In over 700 major league plate appearances, he has an OPS of .626 and a wRC+ of 76. That doesn't scream "capable" hitter to me.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 15, 2016 -> 06:54 AM) I just do not like this for his development at all. He seemed like he was just starting to hit his stride as a starter after struggling most of the year, so now we move him to the pen? It sounds like he hit his stride hit after he abandoned the mechanic changes he was working on. If so, I'm far less concerned about that and more concerned about not getting him enough innings this year if we still plan on him being a starter long-term.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Jul 15, 2016 -> 05:23 AM) What a nightmare trade for the Dbacks. Atlanta absolutely fleeced them. Inciarte hasn't been very good. Honestly think he was one of the most overhyped players on Soxtalk this offseason. I still like Swanson & Blair and definitely think they will easily win the trade (especially with Miller sucking), but it's not quite the haul people thought it was at first.

It likely won't be right away, but Fulmer should be a weapon out of the pen this season. Having a second legit guy from the right side for the 7th & 8th innings will be huge.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 13, 2016 -> 12:16 PM) I think you can make real and fair criticisms on the organization's ability to properly recognize talent and put that talent in the best position to succeed. But it's difficult to argue that the current team isn't moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. I agree with your general premise, but I'm not sure how well it applies to the Sox's current situation. We have a bottom five farm system and are about to hit two consecutive poor free agent classes. We have three key hitters that will hit free agency after next season. Meanwhile, we have three to four years of control on most of our core assets. That may seem like a lot of time, but when you're only making "gradual" improvements, you're real window of opportunity will be very short. IMO, given how much organizational value is tied up into our core, we definitely need to pick a direction. Either fill the holes around them so you can be a legit playoff contender or convert these assets into other sources of value while it's still an option. The worst thing we can do right now is hold our ground for the next couple years and wait for the system to replenish itself. Half-assing it is exactly why we've had a long playoff drought while still having a s***ty farm system.