Eminor3rd

Juan Aguilar, lol.

Well, no one LIKES to have to rebuild. At some point, though, if you run your organization into the ground with unwise spending (whether on bad players or bad development processes), it becomes the quickest way back to relevance. Unfortunately, both organizations did that. The plan for both the cubs and the White Sox is to never have to do it again. They won’t be able to avoid a year or two of being “less competitive” here and there, but the disasterpiece rebuild is a desperation move that should be avoided if possible. But, like filing bankruptcy, it is a legitimately good option if you find yourself fucked.

I would agree with all of that. I just think it’s tough for us to know how much is related to coaching and how much is simply that the players need time to adjust. I would not be opposed to changing any of our coaches if it was because the FO legitimately believes the players need different instruction, but I would disappointed if they fired anyone just so that the fan base could see some heads roll.

Cubs, the with most talent the organization has ever had at one time, underperform after their second consecutive early playoff exit. White Sox, in the second year of a full-scale, scorched-earth rebuild, lose 100 games like everyone expected. These things are not similar.

Just because ADHD is drastically overdiagnosed (and it certainly is) does not mean that it isn’t real. I spent most of the last two years working very closely with a guy that had the most extreme ADHD I’ve ever seen. Probably something like as much as you can have and still hold down an office job. He was heavily medicated all the time, but depending upon his mood, stress level, amount of sleep, etc., it would just go overboard on a fairly regular basis. He would start sentences and lose focus before finishing them. He would get completely overwhelmed by tasks that he couldn’t complete immediately because so many steps he couldn’t immediately control made the task feel impossible to him. It would cause him to physically get out of his seat, take three aggressive steps in one direction, pause, mumble to himself, then sit back down. Beyond work, he would struggle sometimes even having social conversations because he would get lost in his own rambling, realize what he just did, and be embarrassed about it. This is an otherwise perfectly intelligent and well-adjusted individual. But who would struggle to keep this condition from defining his personal and professional relationships on a literal daily basis. Again, I don’t know at all about Moncada and if he really has ADHD or not. But this IS real and it is a potential issue for anyone who actually has it. To casually delegitimize this type of thing because you haven’t seen it is destructive to our society and makes it harder for people who really have to deal with it.

Think about it this way: if a player causes a team to go over the luxury tax barrier, then the penalty money would be added to the “cost” of acquiring the player. So in your example, if keeping Chatwood means that they’d go over by $15mm when getting someone else, then moving him solely for that space would be worth something like ~$10mm say, depending upon how many times they’re over. So if they were gonna give up a player to avoid that, it would be someone worth near or less than ~$10mm in surplus value. My math is guessing at actual figures, but both Happ and Schwarber are worth a bunch more than that.

This is just an unbelievably ignorant post. I don’t know at all if this Moncada stuff is legit, but if you haven’t had serious mental health issues or known someone who has, you shouldn’t just pretend it doesn’t exist just because it doesn’t affect you.

And yet we’re talking about this because a well-known media correspondent cited it as a reason he should move down the defensive spectrum just now. No, if he hits, it’s fine. But if he’s inconsistent and looking for a job in a few years and someone decides to take this narrative somewhere, who knows? There’s all kinds of dumb shit that passes as “explanations” for player performance. Yeah it’s probably not a big deal. But it might be and it might not even be true and Moncada had no say in it. That’s bullshit. I’m not calling for anyone’s head over it, but it’s not fair.

It’s pretty BS to “out” someone’s mental health issues without that person’s consent, especially when it’s just hearsay, and ESPECIALLY when it could potentially affect the person’s employment opportunities in the future. It probably isn’t, ultimately, a big deal. But it COULD be.

James Shields was 34 and exhibiting noticeable declines in velocity. It isn’t the same thing. We can both cherry pick data and look right because Gray has been inconsistent and flawed. But that’s why he’s available in the first place. If he fetches a back-end top 100 guy, then yeah, it’s too much. But without much control left and considering that the Yankees are looking to bolster a current roster, I think it may be possible to get him for a decent depth piece or two that simply meets their needs more than Gray does. All I’m saying is that the White Sox should have made an inquiry the moment Cashman said he was a change of scenery candidate, and if he gets moved for peanuts, it should be the Sox paying the peanuts.

That’s one way of organizing some data, yes. But another way would be to say that Gray is one year removed from a 3.55 ERA / 3.90 FIP season in which he put up nearly 3 wins in just 160 innings. Yes, there’s a good reason he’s on the chopping block, and you don’t want to give up a ton, but this is exactly the type of guy the Sox should be looking at. Bounce back guys that still have the stuff and can fill a much needed rotation spot can turn into gold a la Arrieta. One of the advantages of rebuilding is that we have innings to give the guy with nothing at stake. We are gonna have to nail a couple of these if we are going to end up like the Cubs/Astros. I wish he had more control remaining, but we could flip him or extend him if he gets good. We should be very involved in trying to pry him away at a modest price.

I always liked Eddie Esco

Was gonna say the same thing. McDaniel/Longenhagen spent some time talking about Witt on a recent podcast and at what point said it’s possible that Witt is a 30 hit at maturity and will be a major leaguer on the strength of his speed and power. This is not the type of player I want in the White Sox organization.

Never forget Matt LaPorta.

Excellent example of how we don’t know what the F*** we are talking about when we decide how the front office works from reading articles.

Good, this thread again.

Right, and 24 teams passed on Trout, etc.

Jeff Hoffman?

The last sentence of your post seems to contradict the rest of it.

Refusing to be enraged by pointless milestones is not the same thing as “pulling for losses.” We want the process to continue, we want to stay the course so that we can be good as soon as possible and for as long as possible.

What difference would one more win make? Would 99 losses really be any better than 100? Dont be fooled by arbitrary cutoff points as milestones. Whatever problems you have with the team, they wouldn’t be any different with 97 losses or 105 losses.

So much is going to change. It’s really hard to take any ranking seriously at this point — more useful just to compile names to watch. From what I’ve read regarding Langeliers, he is as defensively advanced as Rutschman and has pop, but less athletic and far less bat, making his offensive upside a full tick lower. It sounds to me like a Zunino comp.

No one's draft strategy is to end up with only relief pitchers. Both the A's and Rays tried it because all of their decent starters got hurt.

Right, because it isn’t possible to agree on a player. Everything has to be polar. Scouts versus stats! Us versus them!

Also, there are many that believe Jake Burger (and Zach Collins, to a lesser extent) was a pure Trackman exit velo pick. Considering how bad the body and the defense are, it’s hard to believe old scouts were clamoring for him.