Chicago White Sox

On the offensive side, college guys with good on-base skills or a polished hit tool but without elite power or speed and don’t play a premium position are what I’d deem a high floor pick. Unless you think Walker can play CF, he’s the defition of a high floor guy. There were definitely HS guys or pure college athletes we could have taken in the 2nd round that provided far more upside.

Luis Gonzalez looks like a great pick, although it seems like he had a bit more upside than many originally thought. Burdi looked like a decent floor pick floor prior to his injury, as he appeared to have top 5 reliever upside (and given the going rate for relievers, there may have been some arbitrage value there). Still too early to write-off Burger and Sheets, but the initial returns don’t look great, especially when you consider they’re bat first guys. Call seems like a wasted pick as he a tweener with a 4th OF type ceiling. What’s funny is a year ago, Hansen would have looked like the best pick of the entire 2016 & 2017 classes and he was the only true “ceiling” guy we took.

This argument is pretty ridiculous. He are all the top 3 round picks under Hostetler (Fulmer was not his pick FYI): 2016-1: Zack Collins (in between) 2016-1: Zack Burdi (floor) 2016-2: Alex Hansen (ceiling) 2016-3: Alex Call (floor) 2017-1: Jake Burger (floor) 2017-2: Gavin Sheets (floor) 2017-3: Luis Gonzalez (floor) 2018-1: Nick Madrigal (floor) 2018-2: Steele Walker (floor) 2018-3: Konner Pilkington (floor) Out of 10 picks under Hostetler, there have been 8 clear cut “floor” picks and only one true “ceiling” pick. I’ll say Collins falls in between while he was high risk as a catching prospect, there was belief at the time his fallback would be as a passable 1B. Either way, it’s pretty clear we’ve gone with a safe draft strategy under Hostetler.

That also says that Baltimore was hoping for a talent like this to become available so they could spend part of their $6M budget. Seems a bit crazy to bank on the O’s not topping a ~$2M offer when their 2018 budget will soon be worthless.

Seems pretty unlikely IMO, but who the fuck knows.

Yeah, it’s pretty disappointing if true.

Because most of the top prospects are already tied to teams. If we have the budget flexibility to afford this guy, that likely means we haven’t add many / any high end prospects.

This is a fair complaint and I personally will try to limit any future whining unless actually relevant. I just don’t appreciate anyone making accusations of how easy or hard my life has been when they literally know jack shit about me.

If you’re complaining about whining on a message board, you must have a pretty fuckin easy life with no real problems. I envy you.

That’s what I suggested, but I honestly think come July that Jace could command a return better than Happ.

Yeah, that would be the no-brainer of the century for us. Unfortunately the Cubs can’t afford Colome and even if we covered his salary that’s not a fair trade for them IMO.

I know my constant b****ing is really getting annoying around here (and I’ll try to minimize going forward), but it’s absolutely wild that Rick Hahn has been GM six years and his team has never finished above 4th place.

If they wanted to trade them because of money, they would already be gone as there definitely wasn’t a lack of interest in Kluber & Bauer this offseason. Instead, they traded away secondary players achieve the payroll savings they needed to hit budget.

I’m not sure I agree with your last line. The Indians are actively shopping some of their pitching because they have a ton of depth and can get long-term pieces that could greatly extend their window. If the AL Central wasn’t so weak, they may not be considering this strategy right now.

Last I saw, his season start was delayed to late April because of a lat injury he suffered earlier this spring.

He had a lat injury earlier this spring, but he was never supposed to be part of major league camp. And while his stuff is still not 100% back yet, I believe he was in the 96 to 97 MPH range when he first came back, which should still work when you have two quality secondary offerings.

Thanks man! And yeah, it’s crazy how rough the housing market is right now. Should have moved down there a few years ago when prices were extremely reasonable.

This is true to some extent, no doubt about it, but over time winning definitely becomes more important (at least it did for me).

Yup, definitely would be the plan. Both sides of our families leave in Chicago plus most of our friends, so we’ll be in town quite a bit for long weekends and whatnot. Will definitely try to catch games when I can.

Exactly, it doesn’t mean they’ll never go to Sox games (it’s literally an hour flight), but I used to go to a good dozen or so a year with my dad when I was younger and that obviously won’t be happening. But there are many other perks to living in Nashville that my kids will really like.

I’m punishing myself more than anything. No guarantee they would like Sox even if we stayed here (my wife is a diehard Cubs fan) and there are many perks they’ll receive from moving. Us missing on Machado simply reinforced all that and made it easier to make what I deem to be the right decision. That doesn’t mean leaving Chicago and not being able to attend Sox games with my sons isn’t an emotional kick to the nuts because it is.

Yup, it was simply the tipping point of doing what I think is in the best interests for my family.

Sorry bro, Machado didn’t want to play in San Diego no matter how hard you try to sell that narrative. He simply wanted $300M and that was something we were unwilling to do. And you know absolutely nothing about my life, but keep being a condescending dick to everyone on this site. I am a little surprised life is so hard for you when you seem to have all the answers.

Thanks & 100% spot on. I would never switch allegiances or stop being a Sox fan. I simply decided to reprioritize other things in life and take advantage of an opportunity in the wake of an organization that doesn’t give back what I feel I put into it. People may find that laughable, but it will be a huge bummer not being to take my sons to Sox games every Saturday or Sunday like I’ve done for years with my dad.

I think Frare & Banuelos have different roles, so both being lefites shouldn’t be a problem. I do think Covey will end up drawing the short-end of the stick if they decide to go with a 12 man pitching staff. He’s got options and having two long relievers is something I consider to be a luxury. My guess is he’ll be a guy that’s called up several times this year as we deal with injuries or need someone to throw some innings on a given day, but won’t have a regular spot.