Chicago White Sox

That I’m not sure of, but will admit it seems a little odd a face value. That being said, how often are guys signed to minor league deals assured major league spots?

Similar raw power / bat speed. You’d be gambling on Mead improving his ability to square up more consistently with support from Fuller. Based on his minor league profile, that seems theoretically feasible to me. Obviously I have no idea what the Sox think, but my guess is they have some plan to right the ship with Mead. But if I can’t get anything for Sosa, I’d certainly keep him over Curtis.

Why do you think that?

I think people are sleeping a bit on Lee. His arm is legit special. I don’t think he returns a ton, but I think he has more value than Romo and is tradable.

Romo definitely feels like the replacement for Lee. Will be interesting to see what he returns if traded.

There must be accountability or else the integrity of ban bets will be in question.

Looking at this roster, I still think the Sox end up trading both Sosa & Lee before Opening Day. Mead certainly sucked last year, but offers a similar hitting profile to Sosa, is a better defender, and has more years of control. Given that Mead is out of options and Sosa should theoretically have some trade value after last season, I could Getz cashing in and giving the limited bench role to Mead instead. The Lee situation is pretty obvious. If you keep both Teel & Quero, there is simply not enough playing time for him and he becomes nothing but an insurance policy against in-game injury (which is a poor use of a bench spot). He won’t return a ton, but there is zero chance he slips through waivers and must be traded if you don’t plan on putting him on the OD roster. I fully expect a trade to happen at some point, although it’s possible the Sox hold into spring to hedge against injury.

It’s much less two way conversation over there.

Harder to post random crap over there though, so probably not getting the same fulfillment as he does here. Feel bad for the guy as he means well, but a bet is a bet and there are real consequences to losing.

You sure about this one? Not sure I can take any more on poor soil and the lack of ingress/egress at the 78 site.

If he lost a family member, he would not have had to get approval from his employer is the point I was trying to make. There is a very big distinction here. And as someone else has pointed out, this wasn’t a lifelong friend and a normal “funeral”. No matter your political beliefs and whether the situation was fair or not, this was certainly going to be a distraction and risk conflict in the clubhouse. And let me be very clear here. I am supportive of differing political views. What I am intolerant to is hate in any form and Charlie Kirk routinely made dumb, hateful comments that created further division in this country. You seem to be arguing for a greater tolerance for political & religious freedoms, but then are surprised by the baggage that comes with being BFFs with a political pundit who was very black & white with his views. If there was a similar extremist on the left side that someone pulled the same move with I’d feel exactly the same.

We really need some general free agent movement. Bregman should help, but don’t think we see a lot more trade movement until guys like Tucker, Bichette, Valdez, & Suarez sign. And U fully expect a couple more interesting trades from Getz before OD.

Drafting and developing has certainly gotten better. I’m a big fan of Shirley and think he’s legit good at what he does if unimpeded. Need to see some more wins on the development side before I say we are even average there, but am confident we are no longer multitudes below the normal bad teams.

I wasn’t referring to you…you have always seemed to like the kid.

Not sure to be honest, but’s he got some pedigree from past prospect rankings and for certain people he has friends in the right places. I personally don’t see enough to pay up what would likely be a steep price to block someone like Vargas who also has some prospect pedigree and doesn’t cost us anything to give him an extended look at 3B this year.

I’m actually kind of shocked how good this system is for having practically nothing coming from Latin America. I really like the top 9 guys. I think Schultz & Smith are both suffering from some prospect fatigue and deserve a greater benefit of the doubt when it comes to their somewhat lackluster results last year. If Schultz’s slider comes back next year (which I don’t see why it wouldn’t), then I see him as the same high ceiling, 60 FV talent he always was with the same question marks on health & durability. Bonemer has a fuckton of helium right now and could cement top 30 prospect status with a strong start to the season. And candidly, I think that Braden is being slept on a ton. Dude no doubt has contact issue concerns, but he has insane physical ability and was pushed up three levels in his first professional season. Overall, the top nine is very fucking good. I think 10 through 20 is where you start seeing the cracks. Lots of low ceiling SPs, an intriguing arm who likely ends up being a reliever in Batista, a high ceiling high floor OF in Wolkow, and a bunch of UT / 2B types. We’re really going to need some breakthrough performances from guys in the 20’s and beyond to fill in the gaps here. The likely graduations of many guys in the top 20 won’t help matter, but what should be a strong 2026 draft should help by season’s end. Again, really need the LA program to start bearing fruit in the next couple of years if we ever want to have a consistently good farm system.

A lot of negative WAR was framing though. He’s known as a good pitching handler and I believe the other aspects of his defense are viewed as being solid (or will be with time). But yes, maybe going young at catcher is a tougher sell when you are trying to win a World Series. But if it allows you to afford Tucker…maybe?

I agree, but probably harder now after signing Murakami and keeping Robert (assuming that they do).

Let’s be honest, Vargas has two full seasons worst of plate appearances and was significantly better in his second set. There is still plenty room for improvement at his age and with his limited experience. We’ll see if he can ever live up to his past top 60 prospect status, but he’s far from a finished product (good or bad).

No idea, but Shaw isn’t going to be free while Vargas is. Ultimately, I don’t see us being interested in Shaw given our glut of infielders. Just a poor use of resource allocation unless he comes incredibly cheap, which I very much doubt. IMO, you need to see what you have in Vargas at 3B this year. If he can handle the position and show a bit more power, he can be a core piece from 2027 to 2029 or at worse a valuable trade chip. Vargas flashed enough last year to avoid blocking him with further outside additions.

Yeah, I’d assume Marsh is the primary CF but he would need a platoon partner. Regardless, that wouldn’t be Crawford due to handedness. I don’t believe that Castellanos ends up in their 2026 plans and will eventually be cut. He has negative surplus value and they appear to be done with him altogether.

To get this thread back on track, there has been some buzz that the Phillies are trying for Kyle Tucker. If they add Tucker, does that take them out of the Realmuto market and force them to look at cheaper options for catcher? I know it won’t be popular here, but I still like the idea of a Quero for Crawford trade and Justin will be hard pressed to get any meaningful playing time if Tucker is added.

Wow, the Sox have no one else in the top 100 outside of the two guys were already knew of. Can’t wait to these Keller classes start hitting because we are at such a disadvantage without a competent International program.

Let’s be honest here, he wasn’t allowed to make this decision on his own without risk of a consequence. He had to get approval from the Cubs front office to attend this “funeral”. If the rules don’t consider this an automatic reason to miss a game, I think it warrants open discussion. This isn’t tee-ball, this is professional sports and guys have sacrificed much more to play in games with stakes. And yes it matters because a poster is saying we should go out and acquire the dude. Unfortunately character does matter and this player has some baggage behind just skipping important baseball games to attend the “funeral” of an extremely polarizing right wing media personality he BFFed up within the last year. I guess that his decisions to resist Cubs coaching should also be ignored due to your full support of all people’s individual rights.

Canfield lost a ban bet and is now posting at SoxMachine