ChiSox59

Depends on who you ask. The diehards are still believers. The serious but a little more casual fan are pretty frustrated. Very casual fans are fed up. Buxton is in trouble, he has some serious hamate issues, and as we all saw with Beckham, that can really fuc* up your swing. But when his rehab stint ended in early July, they actually optioned Buxton, so they now control him through 2022 as opposed 2021 (which is when Sano and Rosario are FA). He's likely done for this season and needs to spend 2 more weeks on the 25 man this year for Twins to lose control in 2022. My buddies all think Sano is a POS, but the talent is obviously there. He did have a rod inserted into his leg about a year ago, so I think they give him a little slack. I tend to agree that the Twins are in a pretty bad spot. But Mauer is off the books after this season, and they have minimal future commitments. They have a top 5-6 farm, and still do have some good young talent on the major league roster in Berrios, Rosario, Kepler, Polonco, Buxton and Sano. Beyond Berrios, they have a pretty good set of SP prospects in Fernando Romero and Stephen Gonsalves who are both MLB-ready and Brusdar Graterol who is bit further away. They have an elite middle infield prospect in Royce Lewis and an OF prospect in Kirilloff that is blowing up. But besides Gonsalves and Romero, their better psopects aren't that close to the bigs. Not all things are terrible....but this is supposed to be the meat of their contention window, and instead is looking like a team that is going to struggle mightily to contend before their core of Sano, Rosario and Buxton (now delayed another year) hit FA after 2021 unless they go big in free agency, which is something they haven't done much at all, and their FA signings have all been pretty bad in recent history. That being said, this isn't the old Terry Ryan-led twins. Lavine and Falvey know what they're doing.

I personally was talking about next season. I'd keep Nicky around for the rest of this season so we don't waste an option, and I don't think there is any issue getting him at bats between LF and DH. He and Palka each DH and LF against RHP, Davidson sits. Davidson DHs against LHP, one plays LF. But I am also in the leave Eloy in AAA camp, so that's why there are plenty of ABs to go around. But we don't need to discuss that in another thread.

I don't think anyone wants to jettison Nicky. But he has 2 options, and I'd rather him play everyday in Charlotte than sit on the bench in Chicago. Having depth that can actually play in the bigs at AAA is never a bad thing.

Mentioned this here before...but I live in Minneapolis, and obviously my buddies are Twins fans. I had the under on a bet with a bud on Buxton's fWAR at 3.5. It ended at 3.5. I ended up looking up the calculations and doing the math...it came out to like 3.4975. I had Eno Saris confirm my math via twitter DM, which he amazingly did. It was an incredible line we set. Was offered the same bet this year, which I declined, because I took an amazing amount of shit from my buddies the last several weeks of last season as Buxton's fWAR rose and rose and rose. Wasn't worth it...but man I wish I did this year. But instead I did Twins under 85 wins, so not all is bad. They've been awfully quiet....

Chris Sale was the last guy. And at that point he as a reliever, and the team was in a vastly different situation.

I'd continue to give both of them reps the rest of the season. Next year will sort itself out. But Nicky has options (so does Palka), and Palka has earned another shot next season, so Nicky probably starts in AAA next year, or at least once Eloy is up for good.

Has Polo been hurt all year or what?

Let him get 2 starts this weekend. Why the hell not?

Shrug. Cearly you’re not a Dozier fan. But I don’t see how a 2 year $26M deal that I suggested (candidly it may take more) does anything close to hamstringing the Sox. Seems like the exact type of move they should be making if they’re serious about starting to teach the core of this team how to start winning games on a consistent basis. And Dozier would not cost a draft pick.

While I wouldn’t hate Donaldson on a two year cushion type deal, anything long term would scare me. He’s already had the yips of sorts at 3B and has had shoulder issues already. Don’t think he’s a full time 3B more than a couple seasons.

I kind of think that what he was alluding to. Probably won't be players in this FA class (probably at least talk to Machado because the fit), but that 2019 FA class may be different. He did say that they'd be looking for more signings in the Wellington Castillo mold to fill gaps while prospects develop.

But now we can't poke fun at his ridiculous tom@gmail.com username! Lame.

YES!

It has gotten pretty silly at this point.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/white-sox-talk-podcast-rick-hahn-unplugged-live-remote-podcast Have not listened to it yet, but I’m sure this was covered. Definitely worth listening to. Nothing earth shattering, but here are a few notes: -Continued to say that any prospect is not going to be called up for instant gratification or fan complaints, etc. He said that they're not going to do anything to jeopardize the long term sustained success of the club. Take out of that what you please, but IMO, Hahn has been pretty crystal clear about this all along. He even made a funny comment that now everyone thinks he's an idiot because the guy he acquired is doing so well. -Don't expect to see Burger before middle of next season. -Was asked about under the radar prospects to follow and mentioned Luis Gonzalez and Alex Call. -Was asked about future RH relievers on the farm. Mentioned Burdi, Hamilton, Ruiz, Burr and Vieria. No mention of Fulmer at all, which I found interesting. Seemed like a good opportunity to touch on his move to the pen. He did break that Burdi will be pitching in the AZL starting tomorrow and he expects him to be there for the rest of the season. -They're going to continue to let Moncada develop as a switch hitter, but that moving to exclusively LH is not out of the question in the future. -The intention with demoting Hansen is for him to working with Zeleski. The two have previously clicked. -WSD asked about big time FAs and if the Sox will be in a position to spend $300M+ to acquire the likes of Machado and Harper. He did not touch on either of them specifically but said "While I cannot guarantee you that we will land any whale FAs, I can tell you that when the time is right, this club will be in a position to go down swinging." Mentioned multiple times that they know this club will need to be augmented by FA signings. -Mentioned prospect for prospect type deals to deal from an area of depth. Said he had a few discussion about them in recent weeks, but that they are tough to do during the season, but they may resurface in the winter. -Touched on Bryce Bush and how excited they are about him. They didn't think they'd be able to get him to sign, but that they were thrilled to be able to get him in the fold. Said he's a top of the draft talent.

Obviously not a perfect source, but Tim Dierkes who does the FA rankings on MLBTR pegged Dozier for a 4-year $72M deal before this season. The Sox should be doing cartwheels if they could get him at 2 years/$26M to plug a gap that they have no one imminently available to fill.

Seems a bit harsh. A .314/.453/.619 line is fairly impressive is any league, and they probably wouldn't have wasted over 200 at bats on him this season if they saw nothing. Didn't realize he was already 24 until I looked today, so it makes more sense considering his defensive shortcomings.

Lol, Holland and Dozier are not even remotely close to equivalents. I don't see Dozier getting less than 11-12M AAV.

lol

This is a little surprising, no? .314/.453/.619 line in rookie ball last year. .261/.347/.384 is A ball this year. I know his defense sucks, but seems pretty early to release him. I suppose at 24, he was pretty old for the level.

This is rude.

Can we just ban this guy? He's ruining this board.

Great news.

Pretty much what Balta said. The Sox have no internal options at 3B other than Yolmer. I love Yolmer, but he isn't an everyday 3B. He's a utility guy. The crop of FA 3B isn't exactly great. Like I said earlier, I hope the Sox shoot for the moon with Machado, and when he inevitably gets out of their price range, landing on a guy like Dozier with a 2 year ~$26M deal wouldn't be all bad. He could theoretically play 2nd base and move Moncada to 3B - Yoan is probably going to have to move for Madrigal anyway. But I do think Dozier could play 3B, and I think the Sox would prefer to tinker at 3B before moving Moncada.

I think its possible Dozier could be had on a 2 year deal. 3 probably more likely. The Sox wouldn't be signing him for 2021-2023, they'd be signing him to try and start actually winning baseball games in 19 and 20. Obviously Machado would be preferred, but its such a long shot its almost not worth even thinking about. In some way or another, the Sox should be looking to upgrade at 3B next season. They don't have any internal options and the only FA options worth noting other than Machado are Donaldson, Moustakas, Eduardo Nunez, and Eduardo Escobar who all have their flaws.