Eminor3rd

The greg-aroo’s most logical, reasonable post?

Don’t forget, when he was asked what they need this offseason, the first thing again said was pitching. I think they’ll seriously pursue Kikuchi. Though I think he’ll get more money than MLBTR predicted.

Giolito has a big asterisk, which is that his stuff has drastically diminished over the last several years. It’s definitely took early to write him off. But I don’t know if it’s FAR too early.

Did we? If so, that’s a good sign. I was under the impression that we helped go add horizontal movement to the fastball, but I knew basically nothing about him before he was called up to us, let alone before we acquired him, so I could be wrong.

I am also disappointed that several teams now seem to have figured out how to reliably add velocity to pitching prospects, and we do not seem to be one of them. I think Don Cooper and company know how to clean up mechanics to noticeably improve control, which is great, but they can not add power at this juncture. For example, it’s been popular to think about why we didn’t draft Walker Buehler. But he added 3-5 mph to his fastball in the minors. Would he have done that in our system? I don’t know but I tend to think he wouldn’t have. And that is frustrating.

Positive: 1. I remain convinced that the trades we made were good. I think we did well in selling assets for legitimate high end talent. Negative: 2. I’m concerned about player development organization-wide. I’m not sure they know what to look for to determine if a player is truly ready to go. I wonder if they are effective at diagnosing issues that need corrected. I’m not worried about Moncada’s numbers or “where he is” relative to his age and experience, for example, but I am concerned that he didn’t seem to make much progress over the course of the year, especially given that much of his struggles seem to be related to very coachable issues. 3. I do not blame the rash of injuries on coaching or training, but it still concerns me, because they could all be long-term issues whether or not they could have been avoided. Overall: I think that it just isn’t realistic to expect this process to be one of linear growth, even if it has gone that way before for other organizations. I think we look at the Astros and Cubs and find it hard to recall the bumps in the road, but they were there. Even though this was a disappointing year overall, I’m not convinced that it means we are “off track” necessarily. I remain cautiously optimistic and will continue to preach patience. The next 12 months will be important and telling.

Where did you see that? Everything I thought I saw at Longehagens chats said the opposite.

I’d be shocked if the Cubs gave up Happ like that. But also that Heyward contract still has some length to it. Yeah, we have the payroll, but it won’t help us if we don’t save enough of it to get actual good players when we need them. If you could actually get Happ then sure, but otherwise, if we’re willing to be inefficient with the big payroll gap to get better, I think I’d rather spend that Heyward money overpaying Machado by enough to get him here.

I’m going to guess you have no idea who he is.

Ah, it seems “So is no one falling on the sword for 2018?” has fallen off the first page.

Wow this dude is still playing baseball?

I think you’re right on here, but I think that the Phillies are in the exact same boat with the exact same motivation, except closer to contention. So now it becomes more than just “spend higher than the market,” it becomes “spend higher than the other guy who is ready to spend higher than the market.” I believe this front office is ready to throw real, big money at this rebuild. I believe they’re ready to step up to the plate with the NY/LA teams on pieces they really want. But I don’t know if I believe they’re ready to outspend Middleton, at this juncture, when he’s essentially trying to play the same game.

There was speculation posted from some tweet a few posts back.

If the Philles WERE out on Machado (I don’t think they are), it would drastically increase our chances of signing him, IMO.

Wait what? His health has been great since 2017? The guy who missed a third of the 2018 season and just had offseason knee surgery?

I worry especially about Keuchel because he already sits in the low 90s and is heavily contact reliant. I guess that might mean that he’s already good at pitching to contact and can get by with diminished stuff, but I can also see it mean that when he throws 88 and loses some bite on the breaking stuff that he will just be relentlessly shelled.

That list made me nauseous.

I was referring to our posters here as the accountants. Sorry, forgot green.

Yep. White Sox accountants come out of the woodwork again. FWIW, szymborksi mentioned recently that the White Sox heavily outsource their quantitative analysis. So maybe we should remember that we don’t know anything.

Chavis, the guy who Spent half of last season suspended for PEDs? Yeah, much better role model for our young players.

This FIRE stuff probably makes a ton of sense for you, then. It’s like the meta game of work. Minimize time, maximize output. Youll figure it out man. You’re obviously smart. Stay determined. And be proud of what you accomplish in light of your extra challenges. They aren’t fair, but you’re doing it and that’s awesome.

My point wasn’t that there’s is a specific path to follow, my point is that there’s a difference between being stuck and simply not being willing to take the risk to make a change. Everyone’s circumstances are unique. I read the article you sent. I respect the challenges you face. There IS a path for you to take (you described it) should you choose to take it. I’m not saying you should, I’m just making a distinction that most people don’t think to make. Which is what feels like CAN’T is often actually WON’T, and there are probably good reasons for the WON’T, but you can choose to disregard them if you want. I’ll never forget a moment I had with my piano professor in college. I hadn’t declared a major yet and was stressed about it, but was doing a music minor. I asked him, essentially, how he decided to go for music full time, given how hard it is to make a reasonable living with that degree. He laughed and said something like, “it was never a choice. I’m a piano player and I’ve just been figuring out how to make it in the world.” That was the day I knew I wasn’t gonna be a music major, because I was asking the wrong questions. If you want to be a software developer, you can BE a software developer. How you’ll make a living as a software developer is a related but different challenge you’ll have to deal with. If you’re just concerned about making a comfortable living though, then accept that as a higher priority and be comfortable and confident in your decision to do something else.

PM'd

For sure, now's the time to be creative. Depth and specialization are in. Yeah, we need to grow some stars, but we had those before -- we were missing the depth that the good teams have.

Yeah great guy but we don’t want to be the ones to win that bidding war at this point. The Braves and Rays have farms as strong as ours and have way more incentive to win now.