Chicago White Sox

I’m personally not that concerned about McCann getting hurt mid- game and losing the DH. If that happens it would suck but it’s impact would be limited to one game. To me, that’s not a big deal.

I’m not giving up on the idea of Collins being in the mix, but McCann has been pretty impressive even when accounting for all the BABIP luck and as of now I’d ideally like to see him kept around (this is all subject to change upon further observation). If another catcher is needed, we can always add a cheap veteran if Zavala doesn’t look the part. I do think any interesting idea would be to add Grandal, resign McCann, and go with a three man rotation at C & DH, with Collins getting a little bit of time at 1B when Vaughn needs a day off. It would 100% depend on McCann’s salary depends when it comes to an extension, but if he’s looking for something reasonable it’s an interesting concept that could help us get a ton of value out of the catcher spot.

But he’s barely been playing as of late, seems odd for Ricky to suddenly re-insert him into the lineup. I think he may go when Jay comes back.

Anyone else think Alonso is getting his last run of starts and will be released in the next couple weeks? It’s moderately annoying that Collins is on the bench in favor of Yonder, especially since Zack could have played 1B with Abreu DHing.

I’m not sure I get the velocity comment, are you suggesting because he’s left-handed velocity doesn’t matter?

Madrigal, 2B Robert, CF Moncada, 3B# Jimenez, LF Vaughn, 1B Ozuna, RF Collins, DH* Anderson, SS McCann, C

But does he have the same stuff? Didn’t he lose quite a bit of velocity over the course of his college career? Again, that’s probably more of a miss on the part of my expectations than anything, but I didn’t think he’d be this good without a return to form velocity wise and I don’t think that’s actually happened.

Gavin Sheets, but I was going to guess Rutherford first. I completely agree with what you’re saying. Part of the reason I put Sosa in the “Met” group because he’s been much better in May & June vs April. Improvement/trend does make a huge difference, which is why these groupings could change significantly by the end of the season.

I was torn on Bush, but I ultimately put him in the “Underperformed” group because of his 36% K rate and just how bad he’s been in June. For me, trend is very important when evaluating young prospects and while he may have legit reasons for his recent struggles, it’s still a bit of a concern until we start to see a rebound. Still plenty of time for him to right the ship though.

I really was torn on Madrigal & Collins. For Nick, I’m placing extra weight on his AA numbers, in particular his 9% BB rate and his sub 2% K rate. IMO, that combo at the AA level is elite (and practically unheard of) and while I’d love to see more power I’ll wait and see how he does once introduced to the juiced ball and a more power friendly environment in Charlotte. As for Collins, I’m probably being a bit kind there. I guess I thought he might struggle a bit in his first go at AAA and he more or less was the same as he was in AA with the power playing up for obvious reasons. In all honestly, he should probably only be a “Met”. My expectations for Pilkington were incredibly low, so he’s pretty much an “Exceeds” by default for me. Walker has improved all facets of his game this year (at least with the bat) and I think he warrants an “Exceeds” as a result.

Would love to see others views on this. Feel free to criticize my groupings or to create your own. I did this fairly quickly and I’m sure there will be a few picks that will be a bit contentious.

Alright, as someone who enjoys following our minor league system, I thought it would be fun to check and see how our key prospects have played so far this year relative to expectations and use it as a proxy for how our development staff has done in 2019. For this exercise, I’m taking FutureSox’s top 30 (excluding guys who never played in a minor league game this season) and placing them into five segments from “Greatly Exceeded” to “Greatly Underperformed”. Hi Group 1: Greatly Exceeded: #4: Luis Robert, CF Group 2: Exceeded: #5: Nick Madrigal, 2B #8: Zack Collins, C #15: Steele Walker, OF #24: Konnor Pilkington, LHP Group 3: Met: #3: Dylan Cease, RHP #22: Jimmy Lambert, RHP #23: Bernardo Flores, LHP #26: Lenyn Sosa, SS #28: Jonathan Stiever, RHP Group 4: Underperformed: #7: Micker Adolfo, OF #9: Luis Basabe, CF #16: Seby Zavala, C #18: Gavin Sheets, 1B #21: Bryce Bush, 3B #25: Laz Rivera, SS Group 5: Greatly Underperformed: #10: Luis Gonzalez, OF #11: Blake Rutherford, OF #12: Alec Hansen, RHP #13: Zack Burdi, RHP #17: Ian Hamilton, RHP #19: Jordan Stephens, RHP #27: Luis Curbelo, SS #29: Kodi Medsiros, LHP #30: Spencer Adams, RHP As you can see above, it’s been a very disappointing season for the system from a development standpoint. Yes, Robert has been insanely good and the other two key prospects (Cease & Madrigal) have met expectations at the very least. After there is simply so much more bad than good. The failures of the entire AA outfield group and many of our advanced pitching prospects has really killed the depth of the system. And I’m not really accounting for injuries even, which would paint an even uglier picture. Obviously we’re just over halfway through the season, so there’s plenty of time for things to change, but at some point if we don’t start seeing some rapid improvement I do wonder if Getz is ever held accountable. It’s really hard to argue that him and his staff are doing a good job based on the above analysis.

Must win game tonight.

No way he gets six years Fathom. I’m guessing he gets a four year deal with an outside chance at five.

Bummer & Fry could be a deadly pair of lefties.

Leury will be the 4th OF come May, so might as well go cheap and roll with Cordell or Tilson in April.

I disagree. Bumgarner isn’t the guy he once was and has way more mileage on his arm. I would take Wheeler over him without question.

I don’t think Bumgarner is a bigger signing than say Wheeler. Does he count? Either way I’m totally game for something like that, let’s wait to closer to the end of the season though. Got to be sure what the class looks as you never know what could happen with injuries, extensions, etc.

Are you just trolling or do you want to lose our DH?

I’d do a sig bet, but it can’t be just on who we get for RF. Puig is an acceptable short term signing if they go big elsewhere.

The guy I wanted had a great arm before his shoulder troubles. I’m willing to see where things are at by year end. Money won’t be the reason we don’t land him.

Dude hasn’t had a 3 win season since 2014. And you know the guy I want.

We are definitely signing top tier talent and can do better than Puig. If we add big elsewhere I could live with him on a pillow contract, but no way am I giving him a three year deal at this point.

Sure, but Greg is the most stubborn poster in SoxTalk history.