Chicago White Sox

Ramos is struggling in AAA and definitely needs more time down there.

If you could get Griffin to agree to #8 slot money, you’d save just over $1.2M at #5. Combining that with the 5% bonus overage of ~$700k would give us $2.0M to work with. That could allow you to scoop up a pair of high upside prep arms with our second round and comp pick tonight. To keep things simple, adding $1M of those funds at #43 would give you $3.2M to work with or roughly #28 value overall. Adding the other $1M to #68 would give you $2.2M to work with or roughly #43 value overall. Feels like that could get you Ryan Sloan at #43 and Joey Oakie at #68 which alongside Griffin would be a pretty sweet day one and wouldn’t require you to go underslot anywhere else in the draft.

How much do you think price would be factoring into that preference? If you believe what Callis is saying, does that hold true if both commanded full slot?

Upon further review, I have officially convinced myself I want Jac at 1.5 despite the bad history of 1B picks. From a physical standpoint he’s the dream for 1B (the opposite of Andrew Vaughn) and the chase rate is much less concerning when he’s got such a high outside the zone contact rate. I will always believe that winning at the Rate requires a lineup filled with power hitters and this would be a great first step in addressing that need on a timeline that fits with most of our young pitchers and more advanced positional prospects. If not him, then I think you roll the dice on an underslot deal with Griffin. He was the guy I liked most heading into this week, but I do worry about this org being the one to fix major swing issues. That being said, we can’t expect Getz to sign any true stars in free agency with Jerry still in charge so we must go after ceiling at the top of the draft every year. And no one appears to have a louder sets of tools than Griffin. Eventually pairing him with Wolkow would be pretty fucking wild and fun to follow.

Mayo has us taking Montgomery with Jac, Griffin, & Smith on the board and suggests Kurtz, Rainer, Griffin, & Smith would be other options here (no Jac).

It’s both weak at the top and also has a massive dropoff after the top 10 to 15 players. But there is a lot of good HS arms and having $2.4M in additional slot and the #39 would allow us to be more aggressive in that area. A guy like Ryan Sloan probably becomes a much more realistic target with those extra dollars and that’s a super exciting addition at the cost of Kopech (but maybe I’m biased here).

Seems like the perfect time to trade for a draft pick since you now know who might be available when and for how much. And I get it’s a bad draft, but that doesn’t mean talent won’t be available at #39. That $2.4M in slot value the pick comes with would allow us to a lot of cool stuff with five picks we’d theoretically in the top 78. Obviously it all comes down to the cost, but an org top 5 prospect and the #39 pick (even a bad draft) seems like an absolutely incredible outcome in a Kopech trade.

Brooks Baldwin is a legit dude apparently.

Then was trading Santos to Mariners a bad move because right that extra pick looks the most promising of the three assets we got?

This would have been an insane return for Kopech who are both controllable through 2025, have similar fastball velocities (although Kopech kills him in Stuff+), but Michael has a slightly better xERA.

$100M vs. $75M isn’t really all that different

Wasn’t great command either IMO today

And Schultz pulled with one out and based loaded

Based loaded HBP.

Bases loaded walk now.

Future White Sox players batting 4th & 8th for the AL squad and 1st & 8th tor the NL squad (I hope). Also, hopefully Rolle Tide doesn’t get triggered by who is batting 5th.

Sorry, I meant pair Flexen with Crochet in a trade to solve the temporary innings dilemma that Garrett comes with. I think Flexen is gone no matter what though.

They will eventually sign some guys for up to $100M each. Obviously anything beyond that is probably unlikely with Reinsdorf alive.

Baldwin probably gets first crack at SS even if he’s more of a 2B long term.

I kind of think you pair him with Crochet to provide some innings while Garrett is temporarily ramped down.

To be fair, it’s Rosenthal who is saying the Phillies won’t be trading for Robert. Bowden said he was one of their three main targets for the OF.

Zero chance Sosa is the placeholder 1B as he will never hit that much.

That’s a good question. To me, next year is going to be a massive transitional season with many of our better prospects getting their first real opportunity. It probably won’t be pretty overall but my guess is it will be better than the s%*# show that is the 2024 season. I think they spend some money, but the more impactful signings probably don’t happen until the following offseason.

I think they want a CF though and that ain’t Pham even if we’re playing him there.