Jerksticks

QUOTE (hi8is @ Dec 22, 2017 -> 01:51 PM) Yea, the rule 5 thing is still a head scratcher Well maybe it was Burdi or bust. At that point just snag some quick cash from Texas. Also, maybe they have a really concrete plan for the 25 man roster already and couldn't spare a spot with the anticipation of having slots filled by guys like Cordell, Engel, Delmonico, Davidson, L Garcia, Sanchez, Adams, Stephens, Viero etc. Maybe the "give young guys a chance" spots are full.

PM Screenshots please. My cheap ass would love to read this.

QUOTE (Quin @ Dec 20, 2017 -> 10:35 PM) SoxTalk has been way higher on Hansen then basically everyone else since he was drafted. Agreed. But who's right? I feel like nationally he's still some dude who had trouble his last year in college so his pedigree is lower. We look at his results which indicate he's just mowing down the minor leagues. The body of work prior to his final collegiate year and since have been tops. Trying to say Cease and Hansen are in the same tier is laughable. Hansen is higher than Giolito, even with Lopez, and a tick below Kopech for me.

For the first time I definitely believe the Sox can sign Machado to the biggest contract in baseball history. Harper too if they want. They have like 10 or 20 million on the books after next season. I'm sure Jerry has some number between 110-150M that maxes payroll. Remember when they went "all in"? Who cares how it gets to 120M? 2 guys at 40M each and then all our 500k guys. Still under the Jerry number.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 17, 2017 -> 08:55 PM) Great post. Sox fans, like almost all fans of all teams, tend to devalue their own players while overvaluing others. Human nature. The unknown is always better. People follow Abreu every day and see all his warts. Manny, meanwhile, is a concept. A great concept. GO SOX! Win the pennant someday with Avi and Abreu please! Solid post my man

QUOTE (cjgalloway @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 11:05 AM) I went to Ball State with Alex Call. We actually even played on the same slow pitch softball team in the fall. (I played on a ball state baseball team). He's a cool, down to earth dude. Never seemed like a tool or that he was too good for the sport. Cool guy. Very cool man. Got an Alex Call story we might find interesting or funny?

f*** i got such a busy day at work tmrw

The Orioles have played their hand- they can't compete so they need to cash in on Machado. Everyone knows he's going to sign a record-breaking deal so I can see how just maybe the offers aren't too great. He doesn't have years of cheap control like Sale/Q/Eaton. Maybe it's as low as the Cease/Burger/Rutherford/Adolfo tier of guys. Great prospects but farther away.

Love the idea. Hate it if he leaves because 1 comp pick can't replace the value of losing 2 of our pitching prospects.

I could see the Sox making a big trade for a key guy moving forward.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 9, 2017 -> 10:59 AM) So...I think people should remember this day. Remember the concept that KW and Hahn pushed for several years - that with enough pitching, if we could just make the Wild Card, that pitcher could go on a run and take us to the end? Take a look at the teams now. The Yankees, the first wild card team last year, won >90 games and they just added the guy who hit the most homers in baseball for basically nothing. They have enough talent coming up that even without this, you'd have thought they could be better next year. The Red Sox won >90 games in a season where their team never got comfortable and their #2 starter spent basically the whole year on the DL. The Astros won 100 games. The Indians won 100 games. There's not only 1 way to do it - you can get there by spending a lot of money and having some talent coming up (Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers), you can get there by fully rebuilding and having an enormous glut of talent come through (Indians, Astros), but if you want to be a team that does damage in the MLB now, you have to have a team on paper capable of winning 100 games. That's the message today. The AL now has 4 teams that, on paper, you can look at and say "This is a 95 win team", and that's without knowing what other teams do or what Ohtani can do. That model of "oh let's just sneak in at the backside and that's good enough", that model is broken. I like everything you're saying here. I think it's worth noting that parity might be at an all time low as well. Maybe not but it feels that way.

Robert Moncada Stanton Jimenez Abreu Machado Arenado Avi Beef/Collins Mercy RH heavy but whatever. Mercy. Bench: Burger Beer Delmonico Anderson Mercy

Not saying this applies to anything going on, but as a young man I "played the field" and wouldn't commit to a woman because I just wanted to experience what was out there. This led to a lot of bitter young women who made up plenty of false claims to slander me. I think their motives were often "well this will get his attention and scare off other women at the same time". A scorned woman is a powerful weapon and I was smeared like crazy for loving and not committing. Not proud of my actions looking back but I had plenty of false info spread about me that I had to unfairly answer for. I'm sure many of you experienced the same thing. Not saying this applies to any of these famous cases, but that level of scorned & crazy is certainly out there in droves, men and women. Can't help but wonder. I'm proud of the women who were assaulted coming forward and i'm sorry for the men who are innocent. And we'll never know who is who since they are all guilty first. Human beings.

At first I thought the common thought of "well crap, people are gonna get pissed over there, there goes a chance at peace." There will never be peace. There will always be pissed off Palestinians pissed off about Israel's existence, and rightfully so. So maybe this move is a good thing. It does SOMETHING. It says "This site is not holy to you, we're taking it. So let's not fight over Jerusalem anymore." Letting everyone have their holy lands is a good place to start. And f*** the UN and their meeting and thinking another 100 years of nothing would do something. We'll see how this plays out. There will be initial rioting and unrest and hopefully not many people get hurt.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 08:27 PM) Well there are a bunch of insanely expensive or mediocre dh/1b types available. Sullivan over at FG said he thinks Abreu has more trade value than Stanton, given Stantons contract and the all important opt out. Exactly. The market has a few guys you gotta pay 100-200M for. Abreu's value is way UP because the only other options are huge overpays for mediocrity. 2 years for under $40M in a playoff window allows a team way more flexibility. Those beat writers are either idiots or they think they have some kind of sway to drive his value down.

All i want for christmas is Mundell from the Rockies. Ever since he set the doubles record I've been hoping he would be one of our trade targets. So far Rick hasn't delivered for me. Cmon Rick, doubles are more exciting than homers.

QUOTE (daggins @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 04:50 PM) ALC is going to be hilarious next year with three teams in full rebuild. Which makes me think we're going to win more than most predict (if you believe we'll be better than Royals/Tigers already). We could be a force in the second half when Lopez, Giolito, Hansen, Kopech & Rodon are all averaging 7IP 12K, and Eloy is hitting 5 bombs a week. Suck it

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 02:47 PM) I think they very clearly need one more starter. I could even be talked into finding someone who could be a swing guy to give extra rest or to deal with anyone who gets sent down. Without caring about the order of players, here's the rotation right now: Fulmer Lopez Giolito Shields Rodon - DL If they found someone on the waiver wire or in the rule 5, that can even work - if Kopech is ready to come up in the 2nd half, you can send Shields to the bullpen or limit the workloads on the other youngsters in the 2nd half. Yea at least 1 starter for sure. I wonder if the swing guy you mentioned is even enough to account for disasters like a Fulmer demotion, an injury to Lopez/Giolito/Shields, and a setback with Rodon's recovery. I'm in the camp that thinks Hansen and Kopech will force the issue mid year so that helps. But man it gets thin quick if any of the above happens prior to that. And then who takes the swing role. Covey? Almost want 2 swing guys to cover the young guys taking their lumps.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 09:45 AM) I pretty convinced now they’ll sign at least one reliever to a multi-year deal. That may only be for two years, but it really sounds like Hahn’s focus at the Winter Meetings (outside of potentially selling guys like Avi, etc) will be to add major league ready pitching and I definitely see him adding one moderately priced veteran to esnure some stability. I agree. I think there are going to be plenty of innings that'll need to be gobbled up, especially the first half. I think you can only plan on Kopech & Hansen for the second half, maybe Rodon then too. They might have to sign 600 or so innings worth of dudes to be safe.

I'm not a Trump fan. I just don't think Flynn is a traitor at this point. Evidence could change that, but at this point I'm in no position to make that judgement. Same with collusion. Unless I missed something. It's not like Turkey secretly called Flynn and said "Hey is this Flynn? Don't worry the call is scrambled, untraceable. Kipnap the cleric for $15M but don't tell anybody." Fricken Woolsey was there talking about it. Just speculating (not judging) this situation is why he wanted immunity. Perhaps the US was considering this move but couldn't put their hands on it obviously. Perhaps using Flynn's company was a government op. Speculating here of course. Thinking Turkey called Flynn and offerend him 15M for a kidnapping op is ridiculous. There's gotta be more to it than that right?

I feel bad for Flynn. Seems like he lives by a good code and is one hell of a patriot. He got screwed. His own doing it seems, but the smear after just seems distasteful. Dude served his country for a long time and held his ground to the previous administration til he got pushed out. Politics aside, he's got a big set of American-loving balls.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Nov 24, 2017 -> 05:26 PM) I'm right there with ya on Hansen. Totally have a prospect stiffie for that dude. It's a mighty stiffie indeed. Like an old oak

Love Eloy & Kopech at 1,2. I think Hansen is ahead of Robert right now, by a mile. Dude is like a half season of more dominance away from pitching in the majors at an elite level. He might be better than Kopech, just as good, or just below. Not sure how Robert can be ahead of him before any A Ball ABs. Love me some Robert and the fact that you all put him at 3 has me super excited for this season.

Zeroer balls- Gavin Floyd or Javy Vazquez?

QUOTE (Tony @ Nov 20, 2017 -> 10:11 PM) That's where I really don't like the Rule V draft. No one can convince me that putting a kid like Basabe on an ML roster, giving up 80-100 ABs in 2018 is good for his development. But the team doesn't have any other choice. Totally agree. Doesn't seem right messing with young guys like that. And especially now with parity disappearing and the super tankers becoming more popular, I see the potential for bad precedents being set. What the hell is the reasoning for Albuquerque over Tito, Guerrero or Peter? What is the front office thinking there? They are obviously WAY smarter and more informed than any of us so I'm trying to wrap my head around it. Is there still time to make changes?