2025 Rule 5 Thread

[GreenSox]

32 minutes ago, Timmy U said:

The guys on the Baseball America podcast were raving about the Sox second pick Alexander Alberto. Said he had the best stuff of anyone chosen. Not much experience, but he throws a 100 mph cutter. So he will at least be interesting in Spting Training.

What impresses me is that in 170 pro innings, Alberto has given up 2 home runs.  TWO.  Skubal gave up 18 in like 200 innings last year.  Diaz gave up 4 in 66 innings.

[Chicago White Sox]

31 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

What impresses me is that in 170 pro innings, Alberto has given up 2 home runs.  TWO.  Skubal gave up 18 in like 200 innings last year.  Diaz gave up 4 in 66 innings.

Alberto > Skubal ?

[almagest]

2 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Alberto > Skubal ?

The numbers don't lie!

[WestEddy]

21 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

"Say it's great to have a rule 5 pick leading your team or you're not a Sox fan!"

The funniest part of this is the inference that Vinny Capra was on the Brewers' 40-man after 2024 because he was better than Shane Smith, and by extension, Miguel Vargas and Edgar Quero. What part of this is supposed to embarrass us? 

[WestEddy]

On 12/10/2025 at 8:19 PM, WhiteSox2023 said:

If your team is down to giving extended starts and at bats to guys like Ben Cowles, Tanner Murray, Derek Hill, Jacob Amaya, or Vinnie Capra, your season is over regardless.

The Milwaukee Brewers declined to roster Shane Smith after the 2024 season while Vinny Capra was on their 40-man. Every team in baseball makes the kind of moves you excoriate Chris Getz for. 

[WhiteSox2023]

14 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

The Milwaukee Brewers declined to roster Shane Smith after the 2024 season while Vinny Capra was on their 40-man. Every team in baseball makes the kind of moves you excoriate Chris Getz for. 

Check the number of scrubs the Sox have rostered in the Getz era versus these other teams you mention.  It isn’t even close.  You are making false comparisons.

Edited yesterday at 12:23 AM by WhiteSox2023

[WestEddy]

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Check the number of scrubs the Sox have rostered in the Getz era versus these other teams you mention.  It isn’t even close.  You are making false comparisons.

The Sox are rebuilding on the cheap. The Brewers are a perennial playoff team at this point. The Sox should have scrubs on their roster. I made a great comparison. Study and learn from it. 

[WhiteSox2023]

34 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

The Sox are rebuilding on the cheap. The Brewers are a perennial playoff team at this point. The Sox should have scrubs on their roster. I made a great comparison. Study and learn from it. 

A rebuilding team with a GM who has been with the team for several years and was previously in a role of Director of Player Development should have some talent that was ready for the majors by the time he was named full GM.  But instead, Chris wound up making bad trades for outfielders like Fletcher and DeLoach which wasted about two years of improving our outfield.

Also, I’ll pass on studying and learning from a poster who thinks that the White Sox “developed” 0.0 bWAR Seby Zavala and flaunts it as if it some sort of achievement.

Edited yesterday at 01:04 AM by WhiteSox2023

[WestEddy]

5 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

A rebuilding team with a GM who has been with the team for several years and was previously in a role of Director of Player Development should have some talent that was ready for the majors by the time he was named full GM.  But instead, Chris wound up making bad trades for outfielders like Fletcher and DeLoach which wasted about two years of improving our outfield.

Also, I’ll pass on studying and learning from a poster who thinks that the White Sox “developed” 0.0 bWAR Seby Zavala and flaunts it as if it some sort of achievement.

He developed every good player Rich Hahn drafted or got in trade. Then they traded guys like Steele Walker, Konnor Pilkington, Alex Call and Avery Weems, depriving Getz of even more developmental victories. The rest were horrible. 

Every team makes incidental trades that don't work out. Please tell me about the trades you knew were on the table for Santos and Mena that would have brought back All-Star OFs. 

The Sox did develop Seby Zavala. He was a bad defensive catcher, and they turned him into a good defensive catcher. That's what achievement looks like. I'll let you get back to being embarrassed that Shane Smith worked out. 

[WhiteSox2023]

2 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

He developed every good player Rich Hahn drafted or got in trade. Then they traded guys like Steele Walker, Konnor Pilkington, Alex Call and Avery Weems, depriving Getz of even more developmental victories. The rest were horrible. 

Every team makes incidental trades that don't work out. Please tell me about the trades you knew were on the table for Santos and Mena that would have brought back All-Star OFs. 

The Sox did develop Seby Zavala. He was a bad defensive catcher, and they turned him into a good defensive catcher. That's what achievement looks like. I'll let you get back to being embarrassed that Shane Smith worked out. 

Once again, you put words in other’s mouths.  I never said I was embarrassed that Shane Smith worked out.  I will say this now for the third time.  Shane Smith was a great move by Getz.  But how does any team not already have another starter capable of putting up a 2.3 bWAR like Smith?  A Rule 5 draft pick turning out to be your best starter in the same year he was chosen is pretty sad because it means your home grown talent has failed.  See Burke and Cannon.

[WestEddy]

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Once again, you put words in other’s mouths.  I never said I was embarrassed that Shane Smith worked out.  I will say this now for the third time.  Shane Smith was a great move by Getz.  But how does any team not already have another starter capable of putting up a 2.3 bWAR like Smith?  A Rule 5 draft pick turning out to be your best starter in the same year he was chosen is pretty sad because it means your home grown talent has failed.  See Burke and Cannon.

I've given you a thorough, bulleted response in the Rolison thread. If you want to argue with that, have at it. 

[caulfield12]

It's embarrassing just to have to spend this much time discussing V.Capra in the first place...

Edited yesterday at 01:58 AM by caulfield12

[WhiteSox2023]

17 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

It's embarrassing just to have to spend this much time discussing V.Capra in the first place...

The weird thing about these very questionable Getz acquisitions is that he usually already had a better player in the minors.  Now you could argue that he doesn’t want to start their arb clocks, but who in their right mind would rather play Capra rather than Baldwin?

[WestEddy]

32 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

The weird thing about these very questionable Getz acquisitions is that he usually already had a better player in the minors.  Now you could argue that he doesn’t want to start their arb clocks, but who in their right mind would rather play Capra rather than Baldwin?

Capra and Amaya are natural shortstops. Baldwin isn't. 

[caulfield12]

29 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Capra and Amaya are natural shortstops. Baldwin isn't. 

In the end, it would have mattered not in the least if Tauchman played last year, or Baldwin.

They really never should have brought Baldwin up in the first place the prior year and skipped him over AAA.

Sox rush prospect...he inevitably struggles and eventually becomes a utility candidate.  Said player never quite gets an extended run of playing time, at least not enough to determine what they actually have in him.

 

Edited yesterday at 03:18 AM by caulfield12

[mac9001]

5 hours ago, Timmy U said:

The guys on the Baseball America podcast were raving about the Sox second pick Alexander Alberto. Said he had the best stuff of anyone chosen. Not much experience, but he throws a 100 mph cutter. So he will at least be interesting in Spting Training.

I don't doubt the stuff. I've seen video, looked at numbers. I believe in the stuff. But dudes who manage to throw strikes for a few months for the first time in their career while at high A ball don't leave him with feeling like this works out. I would have taken every dude with a big time fastball in the R5 draft. Take 5 of them, if even one works out it's a huge win.

[WestEddy]

18 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

In the end, it would have mattered not in the least if Tauchman played last year, or Baldwin.

They really never should have brought Baldwin up in the first place the prior year and skipped him over AAA.

Sox rush prospect...he inevitably struggles and eventually becomes a utility candidate.  Said player never quite gets an extended run of playing time, at least not enough to determine what they actually have in him.

 

Baldwin was always a "utility" guy. Look back to his college experience, summer ball, and through the Sox system, he's always played 7 positions. 

[mac9001]

3 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Baldwin was always a "utility" guy. Look back to his college experience, summer ball, and through the Sox system, he's always played 7 positions. 

I do feel to some degree they're doing him a disservice by not letting him focus on a single position. If you let him play 100 games in center he might actually prove he can be defensively valuable. He's probably the fastest guy on the team and his athleticism is vastly underrated.