Chicago White Sox

Fully disagree on the second paragraph.

While we’re at it, let’s not convict any murderers because some people have gotten away with killing before. This isn’t directed at you, but I will never understand people arguing for known cheaters & scumbags getting into the Hall of Fame just because unconfirmed cheaters and scumbags from previous eras were voted in.

100% agree.

Below average <> epically bad

My point is decade is an arbitrary cutoff when deciding if the Sox are a good drafting club. Exclude the 2010 draft and the total WAR accumulated is vastly different. Let me ask you this, can you say with a straight face that the Sox have been a good drafting club under Hostetler?

That’s exactly why I’d only commit one year to him at this time. If the defense is so detrimental you can move on from him after the season or possibly even flip him at the deadline.

I’m taking about Nomar and I think it’s pretty fair to think he could get 80+ starts against RHP in that setup.

I think Nick would start most games with Mazara basically filling across four spots (RF, LF, DH, & effectively 1B). Again, on a one year deal I’d be fine with that setup.

I wouldn’t be against a Castellanos move if it was a one year deal, but the reality is Mazara was slightly better (110 wRC+) against RHP than Castellanos was (106 wRC+) last year. No doubt Nick destroys LHP while Nomar is unplayable against them, but is that worth $18M when you already have several guys who are elite against LHP like Abreu & Encarnacion and provide no defensive utility? Honestly, I’d rather find a cheap platoon partner for Mazara (Pillar, Pence, Zobrist, etc) and same my financial ammo for a run at Betts (unlikely), Springer (more likely), or Joc (very possible) next offseason.

They’re also top four overall draft picks and were the highest floor guys available. I was all for those picks BTW, but am not going to give the Sox too much credit for them. If Madrigal turns into a star and not just a solid two win player, I’ll happily give them far more credit for that pick. I totally agree it’s too early to evaluate the last five drafts, but the reality they have zero top 100 prospects and zero quality major leaguers (again it’s early) outside of those two high picks under Hostetler. The early returns aren’t promising and that’s incredibly frustrating given how well Hahn did in his core rebuild trades. The reality is our failure to supplement via the draft could be costly when we need to trade for reinforcements in a few years. So again, saying we’ve been great at drafting primarily because of an amazing pick 10 years ago is not very relevant to our current situation.

Your opinion or something you heard?

Then how are you judging an entire decade when 30% to 40% of the drafts can’t be reviewed?

I think if you look at the last five years or so you could argue with great conviction that we have been terrible at drafting. So while saying we have been great at drafting over the past 10 years may technically be true, the reality is the Sale, Semien, & Anderson picks from the first half of the decade don’t really reflect our current struggles and is therefore completely disingenuous to the argument at hand.

Is this a serious statement?

A significant portion of the population is hate-filled assholes so not sure how that justifies his actions.

Exactly.

The Sox aren’t pulling Moncada or Madrigal late in the game for a defensive replacement unless it’s an absolute blowout. Also, his ability to switch hit is not valuable when he’s not good from either side.

There’s a notorious “hangover” effect on the road when playing for the Rockies, so I really wouldn’t overreact to his splits.

I think Zobrist would be a fantastic addition, although I’d be more than ok with any of those three.

An analytics based projection system is not going to care about RBIs (nor should they) so Abreu was never likely to make this list when he’s a mediocre OBP guy with poor fielding metrics. Now, I would expect their expert panel rankings to include him because of the RBIs, power, and general respect in the clubhouse.

Merkin did say in a recent Q&A that he didn’t think the opening day 2B was on the roster. I still think they add someone in the next couple weeks.

Unless Balta does something crazy...

What am I missing with the car angle?

No one knows what Keuchel did or didn’t do outside of not snitching out his teammates. I’m not going to hold that against him given the ramifications it could of had against him.

Amazing post.