Mazara had a 786 ops in 2019 with the Rangers.

800+ seems like a dream right now.

13 hours ago, mac9001 said:

It's likely with another 100 PAs his average would have reverted to his expected numbers.

Oh well. Then he'll suck, and it's a bad trade. 

I like the trade, and think we have our All-Star RF for the next 6+ years. 

Every time some dour guy shakes his tiny elf fist in the air and demands I be unhappy about a Sox move, only makes me like it more. 

2 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Naw, not really. They might have several of them, but that's far from a surplus.

They have a surplus of pitchers similar to Christian Mena as it compares to OFs, of which they literally had Robert, Benintendi and Colas, one of which is firmly entrenched in a doghouse that has been welded shut. 

5 hours ago, LittleHurtCG said:

Not sure how anyone can say with a straight face that the Sox have a surplus of pitching. Teams  with a surplus of pitching, if something like that even exists, either have top 5 farm systems or are perennial world series contenders. The Sox are neither of those things. 

I said it, and my face is as straight as an arrow. You have proven my point. 

4 hours ago, T R U said:

It makes zero sense to me to trade a potential future option for a low ceiling outfielder considering the state of the franchise.

So, until the White Sox are annually posting 10-15 guys on the All-Star team, they can't trade a single player, unless he's already retired? 

Every single player in the minor leagues is a potential future option. 

16 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

So, until the White Sox are annually posting 10-15 guys on the All-Star team, they can't trade a single player, unless he's already retired? 

Every single player in the minor leagues is a potential future option. 

You called Fletcher an All-Star OFer for the next 6+ years. Go away.

22 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Every time some dour guy shakes his tiny elf fist in the air and demands I be unhappy about a Sox move, only makes me like it more. 

Ironic choice of words considering the acquisition.

 

14 hours ago, mac9001 said:

His expected batting average was .225. In his limited big league at bats the only thing he's demonstrated is incredible luck. It's not just a single loft stat, it's the single best indicator of sustainable success. If you take a walk or hit a home run the outcome is not on doubt. Make weak contact (which he did a lot of) and in a small sample size the range of probabilities in incredibly wide. His xwOBA trended down with each increment AB. It's likely with another 100 PAs his average would have reverted to his expected numbers.

Moving past his good fortunes at the plate he (on very limited opportunities) only measured out to to 30 percentile on sprint speed. Which is likely an indicator of below average range. By comparison Robert was in the 84 percentile. He may have below average sprint speed for an OF, he would be near the bottom as a CFer. Thus significantly reducing his expected FV if he's not a viable option at CF.

The high BABIP is concerning, but if you look at his minor league stats from 2019-2023 on fangraphs he has put up a  high and seemingly unsustainable BABIP every single year. 

I agree that theoretically it should normalize but 4 years in a row suggests that maybe (hopefully) he's one of those guys who has an uncanny ability to find holes.

/trying to be find a way to be positive 

2 hours ago, SoCalChiSox said:

The high BABIP is concerning, but if you look at his minor league stats from 2019-2023 on fangraphs he has put up a  high and seemingly unsustainable BABIP every single year. 

I agree that theoretically it should normalize but 4 years in a row suggests that maybe (hopefully) he's one of those guys who has an uncanny ability to find holes.

/trying to be find a way to be positive 

If we had traded for Alek Thomas, the excitement level would have been much higher.

The DBacks obviously liked him, but not enough to consider him an important part of their future and a franchise building block with their current depth chart.

6 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

I would suggest skepticism over anyone claiming that this is knowable for certain. Daniel Hudson was a guaranteed injury risk, the White Sox gave him up because the pitching coach said so, he pitched well for a year and then got hurt...and since then has had a 10 year career and made over $40 million as a reliever. 

Totally agree. You can never know that for certain. You can feel strongly that somebody might never become a major league player, but you can never know for sure. 

However, the job of the front office is to make moves like this if you feel strongly. The person I quoted says it makes zero sense to make a trade like this. I was simply pointing out that the trade DOES make sense IF you feel strongly that Mena will never amount to anything. 

14 minutes ago, SoxBlanco said:

I was simply pointing out that the trade DOES make sense IF you feel strongly that Mena will never amount to anything. 

Or if you have a bunch of 'back of the rotation' arms, and this is the guy the other team wants, and you feel won't top out his ceiling. 

12 hours ago, SoCalChiSox said:

The high BABIP is concerning, but if you look at his minor league stats from 2019-2023 on fangraphs he has put up a  high and seemingly unsustainable BABIP every single year. 

I agree that theoretically it should normalize but 4 years in a row suggests that maybe (hopefully) he's one of those guys who has an uncanny ability to find holes.

/trying to be find a way to be positive 

And with the removal of shifts, which everyone seems to have forgotten about,  good LH handed hitters should be priorities. Fletcher does seem to have a good BAA RHP. Can't hit LHP and K's a lot but OK walk rate. He isn't even close to being fast but we've heard he has great jumps, reads, routes.Maybe his strengths are good enough to be a solid strong side of a platoon guy. Remember the Sox franchise has the worst or least productive LH hitters in the history of baseball.

Left handed savages are still needed but hopefully both teams benefit from this trade .

On 2/5/2024 at 4:42 PM, caulfield12 said:

If we had traded for Alek Thomas, the excitement level would have been much higher.

The DBacks obviously liked him, but not enough to consider him an important part of their future and a franchise building block with their current depth chart.

Sure, because he was a top prospect and he’s still young.  However, people would still be deathly afraid of his bat never developing like it hasn’t so far.

Edited February 7, 20242 yr by WhiteSox2023

When people were comparing Fletcher to Eaton, I figured he was small and probably the same size as Eaton. Eaton is 3 inches taller, Madrigal 2 inches taller lol Altuve is listed at the same height (5'6") and he's hit for some power in his career.

Edited February 8, 20242 yr by Bob Sacamano

 

6 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

 

They did this because they didn't want a photo of Lane Ramsey standing next to Fletcher

11 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

 

The only guys I can think of that the Sox could dfa to make room for MiLB signings are some of the older guys who may not have long-term value like Banks (he's 32) and Scholtens but they have options. I'm also not really sure if they would get picked up or not. Lambert and Peralta (just meh guys really) too I guess. Also depends on if Shane Drohan makes the team out of Spring Training I guess.

Edited February 8, 20242 yr by Bob Sacamano

1 hour ago, Bob Sacamano said:

The only guys I can think of that the Sox could dfa to make room for MiLB signings are some of the older guys who may not have long-term value like Banks (he's 32) and Scholtens but they have options. I'm also not really sure if they would get picked up or not. Lambert and Peralta (just meh guys really) too I guess. Also depends on if Shane Drohan makes the team out of Spring Training I guess.

You have a whole spring training for this stuff to sort itself out.  There will be some injuries and guys who play themselves out of jobs.  It would be a dream to have to make hard choices because it means multiple guys out played themselves to make it tough.

2 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

You have a whole spring training for this stuff to sort itself out.  There will be some injuries and guys who play themselves out of jobs.  It would be a dream to have to make hard choices because it means multiple guys out played themselves to make it tough.

If you told me that Adam Hackenberg or Carlos Perez had the best spring training of all the catchers, I would not bat an eye.

Just now, Quin said:

If you told me that Adam Hackenberg or Carlos Perez had the best spring training of all the catchers, I would not bat an eye.

They simply can’t have Perez on the team if they’re going to value defense

3 minutes ago, fathom said:

They simply can’t have Perez on the team if they’re going to value defense

I should stressed that I meant hitting wise.

Fletcher is wearing #7

12 minutes ago, flavum said:

Fletcher is wearing #7

Good number.

Too bad his middle initial isn’t T.

14 minutes ago, flavum said:

Fletcher is wearing #7