Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 26, 2013 -> 12:21 PM) Really? Because of Nestor Molina? One guy busts or starts pitching poorly, and suddenly you shouldn't trade for anyone from there ever again? Because Myles Jaye and Daniel Webb have sure pitched well up to this point. I was going to post this, but you know he'll say they were in A ball and that you're forgetting Zach Stewart.

There is absolutely no reason for Thompson to be in opening day lineup next year. I don't care if we trade Rios & De Aza, you should not rush a top prospect to fill a hole at the major league level. You go out and find stop-gap in free agency like Granderson or give a guy like Jordan Danks a shot. Thompson will need some seasoning at AAA to start next season. Maybe around the All-Star break you can consider calling him up, but otherwise 2015 should be the target for him becoming an everday regular for us.

Castro with two strong innings tonight. I really think he's going to be a damn good reliever once he gets used to coming out of the pen. And Webb's ascent through the minors this year has been nothing short of amazing. Absolutely crazy we got him & Jaye for Frasor.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 25, 2013 -> 05:44 PM) Wait aren't you arguing vehemently in another thread about how trading for prospects sucks and they always bust? He was before he went on his trade Reed at all costs tangent.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jun 25, 2013 -> 02:17 PM) From MLBTR "Other teams say the Tigers are willing to surrender top prospects Nick Castellanos or Avisail Garcia if necessary. The team is focused on finding a closer." What closers will be available at the deadline? I know Crain isn't a closer technically, but I'd love to hear what the alternatives may be for contending teams. Also, Castellanos definitely has to be the starting point if you consider trading Reed to the Tigers. Otherwise, Hahn should tell them to go f*** themselves.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2013 -> 09:15 AM) This ought to tell you something about the top-100 prospect lists and what actually goes into them. I have no doubt if he was in the Cubs' organization he would have cracked some lists, at least Baseball America's.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jun 25, 2013 -> 08:24 AM) No one would argue that. And of course Thompson is most likely to reach the majors - he's already producing a level or two ahead of the others at a similar age. It still bothers me that Thompson has never been considered a top 100 prospect. While his numbers have never been eye-popping, as you said he's a level or two above players his age and has shown steady improvement each year. Plus he is a legitimate CF, which is a huge positive. I'm way more confident of him becoming a 2015 regular than any other position player in our system, including Phegley & Sanchez.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 24, 2013 -> 11:35 AM) It's shocking that people would prefer to trade Rios over Reed. Rios has two years of team control left and should be one of the top bats available at the deadline. Moving him now makes sense if a team is willing to pay a premium for him. Not only would you be receiving young talent, but you'd also clear his salary off the books for next year. Reed has four years of team control left. He's still pre-arb next year, so trading doesn't him doesn't have much of a financial impact. His value at next year's deadline should not be much less than it is right now. IMO, you might as well focus on moving Crain, Thornton, & Lindstrom righ now and reevaluate the Reed situation next year. Now, if a team makes a ridiculous offer in next 30 days you take it, but otherwise I think you're better off waiting to move him.

Trading Sale makes no sense to me. We actually have a nice, young rotation we can build around with a legitimate ace at the front of it. That's what every team in baseball is hoping for and you don't reshuffle the deck once you have one. Yes, we basically need to rebuild the entire offense, but an offense can be fixed much faster than a pitching staff, especially if we make a couple smart trades at the deadline and are willing to buy a couple agents in the offseason. I'm all for selling pieces right now, but trading Sale to fix the offense is just going to create a gaping hole in the rotation that will be nearly impossible to fill in the future.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 23, 2013 -> 08:27 PM) Heads22 just layeth the smacketh down, did you not seeth that great event? I'm in the kitchen You smell what I'm cookin? IT DOESNT MATTER what his numbers are. They can only go down from here with the rest of this sinking ship. We almost swept the Royals, yesterday was like the highest point of the season since we played the Nats and got our behinds handed to us. Yeah. Trade Reed, that's all I'm saying, you'll get a return that's good, better than he'll be worth. Why is this so controversial? There shoulodn't be any controversy. This shoudl be unanimous. That's all I'm saying. Laying the smack down? All Heads did was support your statement that Reed sucks in non-closing situations by providing actual data. Unless Reed is not our closer over the next 12 months, that does not suggest Reed will suddenly lose his value.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 23, 2013 -> 07:55 PM) Cue Farmio on closers in non-save situations. Why do you think he's suddenly going to lose all this value? He's only 24, he was a highly regarded prospect, and is currently getting the job done.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 23, 2013 -> 05:57 PM) My feeling is the opposite. You absolutely do NOT shop Reed around, but if someone makes an offer, you definitely consider it. If you are shopping someone, you are telling people you want to move this piece. If they come asking, the price is likely to be higher. This is spot-on. Crain is going to be the top reliever on the market and he loses all value to us in 1 month. Therefore, Hahn needs to focus on selling him to teams and maximizing his value. We should also have Thornton & Lindstrom available as lower cost options to teams. We don't need to over-saturate the market by adding Reed in the mix right now. If a team calls about Reed then Hahn should tell them he's not available. That's going to tell teams that it's going to cost a f***-ton to get him. Force a team to make an insane offer or otherwise hold on to him for now. He's not going to lose that much value between now and next year's deadline.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 19, 2013 -> 11:00 AM) I'll wait for the "R" version on Showtime in two weeks. If you have Comcast, the pilot is already on demand.

Cubs have a nice collection of position playing prospects, no doubt about it, but in general their system is overhyped.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 10:31 AM) Hold on, a player with his traits and characteristics, who might not even have a "true" position at the major league level...and, is, at best, a 2B or possibly outfielder, you can see him being #75-100, but no way BA's going to rank Micah Johnson in their Top 50 even with those same stats in AA. And he's not even cleared High A ball, that's going to be a huge jump in competition from Low A. I'll just have to wait and believe it when I see it. And he's got a long ways to go before we're penciling him for Durham HR and XB numbers. Finally, 77% isn't a good steal rate. To be effective, it should be closer to 85% or at least 80%. As he progresses from level to level, it's going to get harder and harder to sustain anything above a 60-65% rate if he keeps running like this because his results are as much based on technique as pure speed, and superhuman catching arms at the major league level will beat technique most of the time. The Southern League leader in OPS is currently at .891, so a 2B with a .950 OPS and 70-90 steals would be pure insanity. I never once said I expect Micah to put up anything close those numbers in AA (because I don't), but there is no question he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball if he did. Billy Hamilton was ranked 20th overall by BA after putting up an .830 across A+/AA last year (2/3 at A+ though) with a 155 steals. Imagine if he put up those same numbers over the course of a full season at AA with more XBHs and less SBs. He'd be ranked way higher than 20. And while I think Micah's defensive concerns are overblown, even if I'm wrong, he wouldn't be in much different of a situation than Hamilton. Again, I'm not arguing that Johnson will put up these numbers in AA, but if he did, you are so off on his value as prospect. A prospect who leads any AA league in OPS & steals is going to be considered elite.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 10:11 AM) Is anyone worried about Micah Johnson being 22 in A Ball? Now obviously he has been performing big time but at some point doesn't he need to move through the system? He's the type guy that I thought would be moving through the system really quickly. He will be 23 in December. That's why he needs to be promoted soon. If he can spend the rest of the season in Winston-Salem, then hopefully he can be in AA by the first half of next year. That would put him on an age-appropriate time-frame IMO.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 08:27 AM) We have to relax about Micah Johnson until he's putting up those SAME results for Birmingham. Yeah, we've got a lot of athletic ability in our system.....but are they baseball players rather than just athletes playing the sport of baseball? We'll find out. It's exciting to think of Johnson, Tim Anderson and someone like Billy Hamilton on the same roster, but they've all got to get on base at 330+ clips to be effective (due to their lack of power). It would be reminiscent of those early to mid 2000's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim teams. Here's Micah Johnson's slash line: .338/.420/.534/.954. Right now, he's not just a speed guy, he's an all-around offensive threat at 2B. He's got 31 XBHs through the first half of the season on top of his minor league leading 55 SBs (at a 77% rate). Plus he gets on base at a high rate. If he hits like this in AA, he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, but the good news is he doesn't have to be incredibly valuable. There's plenty of room for regression in that OPS as he moves up the system for him to remain a valuable player. Also, his speed isn't going anywhere, so he should be able to sustain his SB numbers and a high BABIP even as he's promoted. No one should have him pegged at 2B on our 5 year big board just yet, but there's no reason not to be excited about him. He has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff, which is something this system hasn't produced since Ray Durham.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 22, 2013 -> 08:27 AM) We have to relax about Micah Johnson until he's putting up those SAME results for Birmingham. Yeah, we've got a lot of athletic ability in our system.....but are they baseball players rather than just athletes playing the sport of baseball? We'll find out. It's exciting to think of Johnson, Tim Anderson and someone like Billy Hamilton on the same roster, but they've all got to get on base at 330+ clips to be effective (due to their lack of power). It would be reminiscent of those early to mid 2000's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim teams. Here's Micah Johnson's slash line: .338/.420/.534/.954. Right now, he's not just a speed guy, he's an all-around offensive threat at 2B. He's got 31 XBHs through the first half of the season on top of his minor league leading 55 SBs (at a 77% rate). Plus he gets on base at a high rate. If he hits like this in AA, he'd be a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, but the good news is he doesn't have to be incredibly valuable. There's plenty of room for regression in that OPS as he moves up the system for him to remain a valuable player. Also, his speed isn't going anywhere, so he should be able to sustain his SB numbers and a high BABIP even as he's promoted. No one should have him pegged at 2B on our 5 year big board just yet, but there's no reason not to be excited about him. He has the potential to be a dynamic leadoff, which is something this system hasn't produced since Ray Durham.

Trayce with a HR, almost has the AVG up to .270 on the year. Looks like Simon Castro is officially a reliever. Probably a good idea to get him used to coming out of the pen, because we'll probably need him in a couple weeks.

http://www.southsidesox.com/minors/2013/6/...eview-white-sox Nice preview of Bristol's roster. Has signing bonus information for some of the Latin American prospects.

Gillaspie would be a terrible everyday 1B. He's still a question mark at 3B because of his bat, so I don't know how you think he's a 1B option. If the Sox somehow acquire a stud 3B prospect, Conor moves to the bench or is traded.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 12:49 PM) Because very few teams will give up a major league ready upper level guy in a trade deadline deal these days. If a guy is nearly major league ready, the team will find a way to call him up rather than trading him to see if he can help. How will a team solve their pitching needs by calling up a position player from the minors? How does a team fill their hole at SS when their best, most ready prospect is a 1B? I'd argue that teams with major league ready talent at their positions of need don't really have holes to fill in the first place. I don't expect to see a lot Hudson-Jacksok deals in the near future, but let's not pretend there won't be teams at the deadline desperately looking to fill holes that are willing to trade young talent for the right pieces. We may have the top reliever on the market in Crain. We can have one of the best bats on the market in Rios, who is under team control for two plus years, which is incredibly valuable. Peavy is a wildcard depending on how teams feel about his health, but he's also not a rental and could still be one of the more attractive SPs available depending on how quick his rehab assignment goes (although I'm not counting on it). Hell, even Alexei has some value if the right team feels they're a SS away from a serious World Series contender. The point is we have some attractive pieces that might get us some nice returns if Hahn plays the market right. There is no guarantee that happens, but expecting miminal returns across the board doesn't make sense to me.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 08:50 AM) Keep in mind, it's a very safe assumption that the White Sox will get zero of the exciting players people are looking at. Why is this?

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 19, 2013 -> 02:30 PM) And to Jake's point, Walker no longer projects as a "high ceiling" type player. I think his ceiling would be mid-weak lead off hitter with a floor of never turning into anything. Given his speed and defensive skill he could be a 4th outfield that fits the mold of a DeWayne Wise type with less pop and more speed down the road. And again, I didn't say his ceiling was "high", just that it's high enough to warrant a spot in our top 10 prospects list. I do disagree with you on his ceiling though. A guy with his speed and ability to get on-base can be a solid leadoff hitter, especially if he develops a little more gap power as his body matures and he becomes a smarter hitter. Plus his range and arm strength could turn him into an above-average defensive CF down the road. I'm not saying any of this is likely to happen, but it would be foolish to deny his tools and say he definitely can't become that player. People need to remember that Walker was incredibly raw when we drafted him and that this is only his second full season of development. Last year he had an injury that negatively skewed his numbers at Kannapolis. This year he was sent to Birmingham before he was ready for AA. I take his total numbers with a grain of salt because of these factors. I look at his June and see signs that he may be progressing. All things considered, I still think he's a better prospect than most of the hot garbage in our system.