Chicago White Sox

Feels like punting at least two picks is almost like a cost of doing business type thing. Just part of playing the overslot game to gain ceiling elsewhere.

Thanks and I definitely will. These past couple of months have been so rough without Soxtalk that I almost convinced myself to post on Sox Machine or god forbid Reddit just to have some one way dialogue. Hoping the recommended fixes will work when I get back stateside, even if just on my home’s Wi-Fi.

That’s certainly a consideration, but Emerson & Roch are represented by the same agency so hard to build too much leverage there. Emerson likely can be had cheaper, but not sure at a dollar amount that likely changes the calculus.

Fully agree. And let me be clear, I am very much a ceiling over floor guy when it comes to all drafts, but at the 1.01 in baseball you can oftentimes be afforded a high degree of floor with the best college positional prospect. And over time, I think taking that floor as long as you aren’t sacrificing too much on ceiling likely pays off. The good news is we should have the pool to double up on high ceiling preps in rounds 2 & 3.

IMO, the draft playbook should be Roch at the 1.01 followed by two high ceiling prep prospects. Giving Roch say an even $10M and the 5% overage should give us a combined ~$2.2M to elevate our 2nd & 3rd picks. For perspective, if used entirely on our 3rd round pick (77th overall), that would allow us to boost the bonus amount to $3.3M or 29th overall money. There is also an opportunity to punt a couple picks in round 6 to 10 to add another $400k to $600k of pool. We could ultimately have enough to pay late 1st round money two prep players with our 2nd & 3rd picks, still make most of our top 10 selections, and still go $150k on a bunch of guys after round 10. To me, this is the way.

The top of this draft feels akin to the “a boat’s a boat, but the mystery box could even be anything…it could even be a boat” Family Guy joke. Everything I have read is that Emerson may have a slightly higher ceiling than Roch but a much lower floor and further distance to the majors. IMO, don’t overthink this, if the two players are close in terms of ceiling, always take the college player.

I don’t see the allure of trading Taylor if we are actually good. Yes, you could get a haul, but ultimately waken a team competing. I also think the truly elite closers are far less vulnerable to volatility. To me, the second you trade Taylor, you will be looking for a similar backend reliever. At this point, just let him close and rack the W’s in close games.

That’s been my issue as well.

Meidroth is the heart and soul of this team, no way we can trade him

I will happily oblige, but I remain confident in this team’s ability to compete.

Fully agree. When it comes to the upcoming roster crunch, Acuna needs to be the first one out the door when a spot is needed (likely for Hayes). His ability to provide insurance in the infield is nice given our current construction, but the bat is not currently major league caliber and we can’t afford to roster him much longer. In the short-term, Venable needs to plan around Antonacci being the backup IF even if he primarily plays LF. Long-term a LH infielder would be of real value though. I love Meidroth more than anyone, but his hitting against RHP is far from great. Against tough righties, it would be great to have Jacob Gonanlez as an option. It would also give us more flexibility late in games as well. However, after we theoretically dump Acuna, it gets much harder to figure out who to option or DFA next. Right now, we are carrying six outfielders if you assume Hayes replaces Acuna plus you are starting your 5th infielder in LF most days. Ignoring Antonacci, three of these guys are LH and three are RH. While it’s not the strongest pool of talent, to Getz & Venable’s credit they are doing a good job of platooning. When Pereira comes back, it feels like one of the RH outfielders will need to be let go. I see people online saying to dump Kelenic, but his underlying metrics remain strong and warrant more runway. More importantly, I see little value in carrying four RH OFs. As such, one of Hayes, Hill, or Grichuk must go. I’d lean Grichuk, but tough to cut bait on a guy who is giving you what you hoped Hayes would without the injury baggage. The other factor here is that Braden Montgomery will also likely be ready at some point in the 2H. To me, unless Benintendi & Kelenic both get hot, he should take over for one of them and it feels like that could be the right time to cut bait on Andrew. And if you can free up the DH slot, suddenly there is a more compelling argument to call up Gonzalez. IMO, Braden & Jacob should both be 2H call-ups so we can continue assessing what we have before we actually cut bait on players.

And OPS.

Will try when I get back to the states.

Verizon for mobile, AT&T for internet. Neither works for me. But in Tokyo right now and able to access on hotel Wi-Fi and same happened during spring break in Mexico. Absolutely brutal that after enduring this s%*# show of a team for the last five years, they finally get good and I can’t talk about them with anyone.

Sorry for doing this, but haven’t been able to access Soxtalk in the US since the site upgrade. However, while in foreign countries and on Wi-Fi, I am able to access. If anyone has a solution, please let me know.

I don’t know why we wouldn’t 10 more days and get the extra year. Like I want to see Antonacci as much as anyone, but this would read of desperation to burn a year of team control.

He’s not a ranked prospect and therefore not eligible for draft pick compensation.

I’m in Mexico so this is going to be me in about five minutes.

I’ve seen enough of this trash…goodbye

Was Shane always this thick?

When can we call up McDougal without losing a year of service time? He needs be up the second that’s feasible.

Waiting for Shane to say April Fools and stop sucking

All true, but I still struggle to understand why you take two Rule 5 guys who have zero roster flexibility and don’t at least hold onto the guy with options who can be sent up & down. Still could have taken a shot on Paez all while holding onto Pallette until someone better required his 40 man spot.

Well we are dumb and the exception to the rule

Montgomery at 3B doesn’t bother me. Benintendi in LF is what seems dumb here as it’s a rough defensive OF with him anywhere and Peters in CF. You could play the same guys in different and have a better overall defense IMO.