Chicago White Sox

I will continue to say it’s way too earlier to make any call on Fletcher, but he greatly improves his floor if he can play a solid CF.

Cutting Moustakas and going with Sheets isn’t making the roster older. And yeah, I didn’t like the Fletcher trade because of the specific players involved, both who we gave up and who we acquired. And I didn’t necessarily dislike the Horn trade, just felt it was a bit odd given where we are at in our rebuild. Losing Matt Thompson isn’t a real concern of mine. And guess what, I’m probably one of the biggest fans of the Cease trade (and even like Wilson). I just gave Getz credit for the Fedde signing and moving Crochet to the rotation and Kopech the bullpen. I don’t look to hate to feed any intrinsic desire to be miserable. I’m simply confused by some of these moves and general strategy and will continue to be skeptical of Getz until the vision becomes more clear and he has some wins under his belt.

Fletcher in CF and Sosa at 2B. Two of my asks already being met!

lol…I have complained about who? DFAing the 26 year old Speas and 22 old Rodriguez? Who else? And you’re right, I’m complaining about Getz’s general roster management and not specifically Popeye. I have now said this five times in this very thread. I get it, the world would have imploded if we would given Speas the handful of innings that went Leone and his double digit ERA.

When is Clevinger going to be ready? Also, have they totally reversed course on Nastrini? It seems like he was a lock for the major league rotation after one turn through the rotation. I’m not complaining as we’re only like a week away from securing an extra year of team control, but it seems like they have pivoted on their plans for some reason.

Please win

3.9 more seasons

At least they aren’t trading international bonus slots to fund the Clevinger addition (yet).

They don’t have the time? Bro, we got nothing but time. I have watched every single game this season and we are YEARS away from being competitive. We should be prioritizing the long-term over the short term wherever possible. And we have plenty of fat. We don’t need both Pillar & Grossman. We don’t need both DeJong & Lopez. You say we don’t have time for Popeye to f*** around in AA for another season, but we do have time for Sheets to clog a major league bench spot up for another year? I still don’t get what we’re doing with Cousin. Will he even be in the Barons’ rotation? If he can’t even crack that rotation, then why are we using up a 40 man spot on him? Those are all easy cuts for me. Honestly, Shuster is also probably a waste of a 40 man roster spot, especially when you have Touki sitting in AAA in the event of an emergency. As for DeLoach, he had 600+ plate appearances last year in AAA. If he needs a lot more development time there, then it was stupid to make him a key part of the Santos trade. Now is the exact time to see what you have in the kid. Again, this isn’t about Popeye. It just feels like Getz is panicking a bit and trying to put lipstick on a pig by giving Grifol a few more bad, cheap veterans to f*** around with.

Speas was already rostered.

If Robert is out any extended period of time, I’d like to see Fletcher shifted over to CF and DeLoach called up to play RF. Pillar & Grossman can be their platoon partners against LHP while Robert is out. Colas gets another month in AAA and potentially replaces Fletcher or DeLoach if he performs well and they struggle. For the infield, I really think we should get rid of one of DeJong or Lopez. I’d like to see Shewmake at SS against RHP for a month or two. He probably fails, but I think it would be a better use of playing time there until Montgomery forces the issue. I also think Sosa should be getting the bulk of the playing time at 2B if he’s going to be on the major league roster. If they want to give him another month or so in AAA, I could support that. I just don’t want him rotting on the bench. That being said, eventually we don’t need both DeJong & Lopez. Pitching wise, I’d keep Nastrini down in AAA a few weeks, but call him up around the end of April or early May. At that point, Flexen gets pushed to the bullpen (with Clevinger in the fold) and can be the mop-up man. That means both Leone & Shaw are pushed off the 26 roster. After that, I’m hoping Banks gets sent down once Drohan is healthy or Horn is ready. And hopefully come July we start seeing real reinforcements with Thorpe, Eder, Cannon, & Berroa. The roster would still suck, but those few moves make the team a bit easier to endure in the near term.

By who?

He’s definitely not major league ready, but I’d rather give him one last chance in the upper minors before cutting bait. There is plenty of fat to trim on this 40 man roster. For example, why do we need both Pillar & Grossman? Why did we trade for DeLoach if we won’t even give him a shot when injury opens up an opportunity for him? Save that spot for one of the garbage arms that’s needed to fill innings and keep someone like Popeye or Speas.

Then let’s cut those dudes and not the 22 year old middle infield prospect.

Yeah, not rushing prospects is actually a smart thing Getz is doing. But at some point adding all these bad veterans is counterproductive if you’re out of 40 man space.

You think Speas would have an xERA above 23.0?

Why do we need a 22 year middle infielder with some tools to be major league ready right now? This team isn’t competing any time soon and we should be willing to roster some kids who might be able to provide some value in the future. I get Popeye is a long-shot to be more than a UT guy, but the players we’re keeping over him are pure roster filler and provide zero long-term value. And just to be 100% clear here, if we were DFAing Popeye because we were adding a kid like Montgomery then I wouldn’t be complaining here. I simply don’t like adding more 30+ year olds who don’t move the needle and aren’t good enough to be flipped at the deadline. We have plenty of bad veterans who can provide leadership in the clubhouse already, we don’t need more of them in hopes of Pedro maybe winning one more game this year.

This isn’t just about Popeye for me. Why can’t Speas be given the innings that are going to Leone? What would be the difference in actual production?

Other teams passing on him is irrelevant to the point being made here. Other teams actually have legit talent on their 40 man roster and Popeye isn’t a good prospect to force his way onto every other club’s roster. Our 40 man is lacking proven young talent and has tons of veteran trash that will be gone five months from now. As such, Popeye has more intrinsic value to us than most clubs. Also, when you say we already have “better options on the 40-man”, in what context do you mean? Better to win right now? Better bet to be a long-term solution at some spot?

How is Leone helping us get outs with his 11.57 ERA and 20.32 FIP?

I am really excited for Zavala. Kid looks legit in the videos I’ve seen and his Low A numbers were incredible. I mean, look at this company he’s in:

Honestly, pretty much anyone else, even some of the non 40 man guys at AAA. I’d also rather throw Alex Speas to the wolves than give any innings to either of these guys (and yes, it would probably be a disaster). Also, why did we trade for Horn if he’s not ready to contribute? And what has Josimer Cousin done to warrant a 40 man spot at the moment? Does his ceiling really warrant a spot when we’re forced to cut young talent to make room to pitch garbage innings for the major league team? And I while I’m picking on Leone & Shaw because they are very old and bad, there are plenty of old & bad position players as well. The infield group has a ton of guys who won’t be here next year and/or are just bad. Carrying both Pillar & Grossman seems like a complete waste of limited roster spots. I’m not going to lose sleep over trading Popeye for cash, but the way this 40 man is being managed is highly questionable. Most of thought the veterans they added like DeJong were meant to be cheap placeholders who would be cut when young guys started pushing for roles. The problem is we are now adding more and more of them to turn a steaming pile of s%*# into just a flaming piece of s%*#. I simply don’t get the logic of what Getz is doing here.

And what do you think the league thinks Leone & Shaw are worth?

We don’t need to worry about this. His kids will sell the Sox when he dies. The real concern is Jerry may outlive us and we’ll never know what a non Reinsdorf owner White Sox org operates like.

The offensive additions have all been atrocious so far, but most of these guys should have been expected to be bad. Other than committing to way too many of them, the biggest concern at the moment for me is Fletcher. It’s incredibly early, but I just don’t see an everyday offensive profile with this dude. Hope he picks it up soon, because Grifol won’t continue playing a struggling youngster for long when he’s got other veteran options available to him. At least some of the pitching moves are working out. Fedde & Wilson look really good so far IMO and switching Crochet to the rotation and Kopech seem like moves that could payoff (if managed appropriately). I still don’t get the Tim Hill signing and can’t imagine Flexen being more than an innings dumpster, but at least there are some early signs of Bannister being a quality addition to the org. And Thorpe’s first start at AA is a nice little cherry on top.