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QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 2, 2018 -> 10:59 PM) Waste of money?? Why do we care about Jerry's money for gosh sakes? We need some real bullpen arms. It won't help the confidence of our young players at all if they get us a 6-1 lead and our pen blows it from the fifth inning on every night. If our starters can take a lead into the sixth, how frustrating to have a bullpen thais bad. This bullpen is going to be historically rotten. Nate Jones is an injury waiting to happen and Soria is laughably bad. The other guys? Nobodys on paper. I mean if we're taking all season again, fine, but the worst way to lose is to have the bullpen suck night after night. Makes the games insufferably long and boring and frustrating. This is seriously a cliche at this point. Look, everyone from top to bottom of the organization knows this is still another rebuilding year. The young players will learn, grow and go through rough patches together. You seriously think losses with the bad bullpen blowing the games will break them? In this day and age, wins to a pitchers record is about as meaningless as, well, having a dominate closer on a rebuilding team. If you don't want to watch another long and boring and frustrating season, you should tune away from any Sox games in '18. On the upside? We have stock up both MLB and AAA with hard throwing reclamation projects. With the cost of bullpen arms in the FA market, if we can turn 2-3 of these arms into Kahnle, we will have some cost controlled bullpen arms when we're ready to compete.

Not to wish injury on players, but Davis and Holiday has had trouble staying healthy in the past. If they miss time the prospects of this pick suddenly looks a lot better.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 31, 2018 -> 04:49 PM) Disagree. Everyone knows he's on the market and everyone knows deals are close with teams that want his help this year. They won't do this for more than a couple games; they'd even run afoul of the players association if they did this and then held him for too long. Sitting him only shows they are extra motivated to move him, moreso than before, reducing leverage they have.

This can only hurt his trade value.

QUOTE (Quin @ Jan 30, 2018 -> 03:00 PM) I don't think many good teams have cap space. Getting that first would be gold. Could snag someone like McCoy if you miss on one of the top tier bigs. I think even an up and coming team would be willing to give him 3/$45 mil in the open market, and he's only making $12.5 mil if the TO is picked up next season.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 30, 2018 -> 01:59 PM) Niko wanted the Pelicans to pick up his option. Blocked it when they refused. (Woj) This sucks. A top 20 pick for Niko was a goldmine. Asik had a buyout, too. Wouldn't he be able to get a better contract if a team doesn't pick up his option? He's having a pretty good year for sure, and many teams have/will make cap space in the upcoming free agency.

I am not going to lose sleep over it. I would think they can trade Niko for a mid 1st round pick without taking THAT much future money back.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 07:06 AM) Bulls tied for the 7th worst record. If they can trade Niko & Lopez I think they can finish bottom five. A potential top five pick combined with Cousins could actually make this team incredibly dangerous very soon. Cousins most likely will not be the same again, so don't bank on it. The impact from the DMC injury is Niko and Grant may now have a taker.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 03:47 PM) An above average starter that puts up 200 innings pretty much IS a TOR starter. No? There is a difference between the two. I am also pretty sure Law is not yet convinced Hansen would pan out as a TOR.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 06:40 AM) His top 50 is up now. Eloy at 6, Kopech at 11, Robert at 46 and Hansen at 49. Here is Law's summation about Hansen: Law is really trolling hard here. If Hansen can continue to harness his control, I see the ingredients of a TOR starter.

Surprised to see Curbelo that high. Hard to justify with what he has done so far. On the other hand, Bernardo Flores and Ryan Burr is really flying under the radar here.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 22, 2018 -> 11:18 AM) So we’ll probably have the big 4 in this list. We had five in BA’s list. Callis hinted at six in his list. Honestly, it’s a bit concerning that we’re in year 2 of our rebuild and that’s all we got. And I’m fully aware we had three top 50 prospects graduate last year, but sucks to see Cease & Rutherford completely fall off these lists. I am, but I am not. Law has proven wrong many times about Sox prospects in the past. I don't take his rankings to heart. Fact of the matter is we had 6 guys who were infused into our young team last year and all had solid debuts. Then 5 more guys who are locked for Top 100 in most lists. Then you have guys like Cease, Collins, Rutherford, Burdi, and Burger who just missed the 100 on most lists. Oh and by way, we have the 4th pick in the next draft, and payroll savings to make a big splash in the upcoming free agency.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 22, 2018 -> 09:54 AM) Yeah, it is funny to see both Fowler and Mateo still in back end top 100. That’s how teams like Yankees and Astros built their orgs with strong big league team and also a productive farm system. Their prospect evaluators are some of the best in he business. Astros made smart choices about not trading Bergman, Tucker and Whitley, and Yankees sold high on a guy who they lost faith internally on.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it’s not like we didn’t see this one coming. We gave up 3 productive ML’er (one of which had immense trade value) for a guy who was hyped as a Top 30 guy at that point. Some 200 ABs later he fell completely out of Top 100. Not saying he won’t bounce back inside T100 going forward, but I think it will be hard for him to sniff the top 30-40 status again. Return seemed light then, but even more so now.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 22, 2018 -> 08:50 AM) I think Robert's ranking is pretty strictly based on his little exposure to higher level competition. I imagine he will be a top 25 prospect at this time next year. As for Hansen, he was previously unranked, so that jump for him is pretty impressive. I think we should all be pretty happy that the Sox might've landed a #1A or #2 with a 2nd round pick. That said, seeing this kinda gives me similar feelings to what bmags expressed. Hansen is the only player you've drafted in the last 3-4 years that cracked the top 100? I'm not sure that speaks highly to the talent evaluation in our system and that is a little scary. I think Collins, Burger, etc. will be useful MLB pieces, but can't help but be a little irked that the industry isnt a little higher on people the Sox have drafted and developed. Don’t sell yourself short, Moncada debuted at #6 after a pretty good year at A ball at the age of 20 when he was with the Red Sox.

I’d be cool with Sanchez, Fulmer + for Brinson. But man, every time Brinson’s name come up, I couldn’t help but think Rangers resurrected his career from the dead but we failed to do the same with Courtney Hawkins.

Keep in mind Engel typically takes a while to figure out each level, but definitely gets better at each level with more playing time. He has played a little more than 1/2 season in Charlotte and hasn't fully figured out that level yet. I'm fine with him starting in Charlotte as the everyday CF, let him figure out hitting against better competition, and if improvements are made then call him up when a spot opens.

Sosa, Coronado, Feliz, Perez, and Mercedes from LatAm signings, and Yurchak, McClure, Tyler Johnson, Alex Destino, Matt Foster, Curbelo, Burr and Hamilton from the draft are all interesting guys to follow. Quite confident a few of them will break in Top 30 or 20 by end of next season.

To think one top FA would sign with this franchise and deal with this FO is iffy, let alone 2 near max players. I think it's important for us to stockpile as many future 1st as we can, and use the picks to trade for big names when the time comes.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 15, 2018 -> 11:01 AM) My question is, if we move Niko, do we think we stop winning at this pace or does Lavine counter the loss of Niko (albeit I’d expect some rust / tranisition) and thus even moving Niko isn’t enough. Personally I think the Bulls should be calculated in who they move to facilitate the better draft pick (without negatively impacting the overall culture or implying to the team...we don’t want you to win, etc). Rolo seems like a guy who should be moved (but damn if he isn’t a great guy in the Locke room, etc). You need to be careful that you don’t turn into the cancer that is the Lakers (for example) or even the Sixers (might be looking good now but in no way would I call how long they sucked a good path / strategy). If we move Niko, Portis and Holiday and are still winning games, I would have absolutely no problem with it. In fact, it really gives more optimism that the rebuild could be fast tracked with a high lottery pick and some FA signing. But as the GM, Gar absolutely have to trade away assets that has value but do not belong to our long term picture. If we do not do that, I would consider it a failure on his part.

Great debut by LaVine. Dunn is just awesome.

QUOTE (wrathofhahn @ Jan 11, 2018 -> 03:15 PM) Agreed but between opening day and june someone is going to likely miss time. Also Gonzalez and Shields are not sure things just from an ability to perform standpoint. Neither is Lopez who got hit around at times and longterm maybe more of a reliever. That is without taking into account injuries. I think they need another guy. You made it sound like Sox is competing in 2018.

While he’s not going to help with tanking this year, I do like Favor as a long term fit next to Lauri. I think he’s an FA at the end of the season though.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 5, 2018 -> 05:53 PM) Well I would say he's better than those 2. Those 2 make me cringe. I'm just telling you Soria to a Royals fan is Rios to Greg. If you remember how I despised Rios. Soria is just a gascan. That doesn't mean I mind the trade. The trade is fine since we got that other guy and aren't trying to win anyway. Plus I've said 5 times Coop may fix Soria. I love Coop the grouch. Agreed. We're not trying to win so no biggie. My problem is Soria (to me) is so bad he's affecting my decision whether to buy mlb.com or not. I don't need the angst. Dang Greg, let me see if I understand you here. You WERE planning to get MLB TV but now that the Sox have added two relievers better than Albuquerque and Covey and who won't make you cringe as much without giving up any MLB talent, you are deciding you aren't watching the Sox next year? I am a little lost.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 6, 2018 -> 09:07 AM) All he’s saying is that KC fans are happy he is gone, which is true. Have you read the thread at all? QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 5, 2018 -> 05:53 PM) I just think Soria sucks and can attest to you KC fans are rejoicing at dumping him and that salary.