2 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Man I was flipping through some old drafts last night and the Sox have drafted pretty damn well outside of Vaughn and maybe that was more on the development side anyways. We've gotten more studs out of the first round than 2/3 of the teams in the last 6 or so years.

In 20 and 21 after whiffing on Vaughn they got Garrett and Colson as their FRP and both guys are absolute studs. Then they got Noah in 23 and Gonzo in 24. Even Gonzo is looking like he might be a useful player now.

Really great top of the draft picks whatever else Hahn was doing he had a good draft method going.

Mike Shirley deserves majority of the credit for the strong drafts since taking over. His draft classes are 2020-present.

Nick Hostetler was the SD before that, and if you ask me he was a disaster.

5 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Rushing Vaughn and Crochet to the majors was such unforgiveable sins. Can you imagine having six full years of Garrett as a starter? Or getting a starter at 1B out of Vaughn? So many unforced errors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen%27s_race

6 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Man I was flipping through some old drafts last night and the Sox have drafted pretty damn well outside of Vaughn and maybe that was more on the development side anyways. We've gotten more studs out of the first round than 2/3 of the teams in the last 6 or so years.

In 20 and 21 after whiffing on Vaughn they got Garrett and Colson as their FRP and both guys are absolute studs. Then they got Noah in 23 and Gonzo in 24. Even Gonzo is looking like he might be a useful player now.

Really great top of the draft picks whatever else Hahn was doing he had a good draft method going.

You can credit Mike Shirley for this. He's been in charge from 2020 onwards. He's very good. If you want to get into some of the rumors/dirt, Jacob Gonzalez was supposedly dictated by Haber, and Hagen Smith was a Getz selection. Believe what you will though.

Edited May 15May 15 by DirtySox

27 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

You can credit Mike Shirley for this. He's been in charge from 2020 onwards. He's very good. If you want to get into some of the rumors/dirt, Jacob Gonzalez was supposedly dictated by Haber, and Hagen Smith was a Getz selection. Believe what you will though.

Gonzalez made sense in that he was from a winning program at Ole Miss and they were (eventually) trying to turn around a losing culture, but the high upside tools were just never there in the beginning to justify it.

And likely still aren't...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Major_League_Baseball_draft

Cags Wetherholt and Griffin are going to be beaten to death, but JJ also had his limitations as a future 2B as well as the injury concerns at WVU.

Cags hasn't realized his power potential yet...at least not in "in game" situations.

Bad luck on the front side missing on #2 Chase Burns and #4 Kurtz as well.

(Maybe Nick Kurtz wasn't even a possibility after Vaughn? Also not yet convinced Bazzana or Condon will have meaningful big league careers either, but we shall see.)

At any rate, a good number of teams also missed on Griffin.

So the Sox now essentially have Mune instead of Kurtz and Colson/Roch or Emerson and Carlson instead of Griffin.

And then Braden was #12 there in that draft as well.

That's an acceptable trade off if if if:

1) They can extend those 2-3 guys AND

2) Spend $$$$ in FA or trade prospects to shore up the starting rotation with a legit frontline starter to go along with Davis Martin.

Then there's the lockout and a real dearth of FA pitchers who even qualify for Point 2, maybe Peralta King Imanaga, but none of those three are even close to guarantees, either.

Edited May 15May 15 by caulfield12

I was really wrong on Vargas. I saw him as an underpowered dh. His glove has been average and now he has above average power. 1.8 fWAR already which is 15th in the league. Heckuva player to get for Fedde. My bad.

Getz still clearly outclassed. Team isn't .500.

Do we get an apology for the Jordan Hicks trade?

3 hours ago, Timmy U said:

I was really wrong on Vargas. I saw him as an underpowered dh. His glove has been average and now he has above average power. 1.8 fWAR already which is 15th in the league. Heckuva player to get for Fedde. My bad.

His glove has been much better than average, and third base is no longer a power position across the majors....so players that can do both, field and hit for power, are worth their weight in gold.

Ofc, he has to sustain this into the summer months.

A 775-800 ops would still be a major victory.

On 5/15/2026 at 12:44 PM, chitownsportsfan said:

Man I was flipping through some old drafts last night and the Sox have drafted pretty damn well outside of Vaughn and maybe that was more on the development side anyways. We've gotten more studs out of the first round than 2/3 of the teams in the last 6 or so years.

In 20 and 21 after whiffing on Vaughn they got Garrett and Colson as their FRP and both guys are absolute studs. Then they got Noah in 23 and Gonzo in 24. Even Gonzo is looking like he might be a useful player now.

Really great top of the draft picks whatever else Hahn was doing he had a good draft method going.

Madrigal at #4 overall? Look at who the Cubs picked at #24 that year. A few other solid MLB players in that draft, too. When the team totally whiffs on #3 and #4 overall in back to back years, that's a huge missed opportunity. Looking back, it was really the years between Rodon in 2014 and Crochet in 2020 that were all busts. That's 5 years of wasted picks - several of them in the top 10 and that's gotta hurt the organization.

Otherwise, I agree with your overall point, picks have been much better in the last 6 years. Obviously getting Colson at #22 was a huge win for the Sox staff.

How do the Sox compare to other teams in picks beyond the 1st round? It would be nice to see more solid MLB players come from those picks. Maybe Bonemer will be one of those guys.

44 minutes ago, 77 Hitmen said:

Madrigal at #4 overall? Look at who the Cubs picked at #24 that year. A few other solid MLB players in that draft, too. When the team totally whiffs on #3 and #4 overall in back to back years, that's a huge missed opportunity. Looking back, it was really the years between Rodon in 2014 and Crochet in 2020 that were all busts. That's 5 years of wasted picks - several of them in the top 10 and that's gotta hurt the organization.

Otherwise, I agree with your overall point, picks have been much better in the last 6 years. Obviously getting Colson at #22 was a huge win for the Sox staff.

How do the Sox compare to other teams in picks beyond the 1st round? It would be nice to see more solid MLB players come from those picks. Maybe Bonemer will be one of those guys.

It was horrific for most the Hahn era. Only recently (last 5 years or so) have we improved to solid to good.

10 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

It was horrific for most the Hahn era. Only recently (last 5 years or so) have we improved to solid to good.

Shirley's been much more solid than Hostetler.

On 5/16/2026 at 7:39 AM, Timmy U said:

I was really wrong on Vargas. I saw him as an underpowered dh. His glove has been average and now he has above average power. 1.8 fWAR already which is 15th in the league. Heckuva player to get for Fedde. My bad.

...and we still got Fedde back.

Chris will now be accepting apologies for those who criticized the Luis Robert trade. Luis is injured and useless once again, his salary is off the books AND we got Sandlin. Chris is an absolute wizard.

1 hour ago, ron883 said:

Chris will now be accepting apologies for those who criticized the Luis Robert trade. Luis is injured and useless once again, his salary is off the books AND we got Sandlin. Chris is an absolute wizard.

Thought it was going to be criticizing Craig Breslow for trading Harrison AND Sandlin away…at this point, I might actually prefer Getz with this coaching staff AND the three Assistant GM’s.

Breslow is terrible communicating with players and the press…he only speaks the same profit first-driven language as John Henry.

Crap dangit, he actually has made some good moves. But i still want to complain more...

27 minutes ago, EloyJenkins said:

Crap dangit, he actually has made some good moves. But i still want to complain more...

Would any fanbase in mlb just quietly acquiesce to 2023-24-25?

Rockies’ fans, maybe? That might be the only totally forgiving fanbase that will support their team no matter what ownership does.

Chicago Bulls’ fans, too.

On 5/13/2026 at 7:28 PM, 46DidIt said:

This is easily the most confusing post from you I have ever read

I know this post is from a couple weeks ago, but perhaps you were confused by the “WE” part? If you read it as the pronoun “we”, the last paragraph is very confusing. But if you read it as “WestEddy”, it all makes sense.

On 5/16/2026 at 10:02 AM, caulfield12 said:

Do we get an apology for the Jordan Hicks trade?

The quintessential trade as of today of eating salary for a player. The fact Boston gave it up...woof.

Just now, Harry Chappas said:

The quintessential trade as of today of eating salary for a player. The fact Boston gave it up...woof.

Well if Sandlin somehow pitcher like this for 19 more starts, he will be Mark Fidrych/Fernando/Hideo Nomo/Dwight Gooden all rolled into one.

On 5/16/2026 at 7:39 AM, Timmy U said:

I was really wrong on Vargas. I saw him as an underpowered dh. His glove has been average and now he has above average power. 1.8 fWAR already which is 15th in the league. Heckuva player to get for Fedde. My bad.

There's a real strong case to be made that Vargas has been on our MVP this year. I love Mune but the protection Vargas provides and the way he's able to get on base has made him so valuable.

1 minute ago, Colome's Hat said:

There's a real strong case to be made that Vargas has been on our MVP this year. I love Mune but the protection Vargas provides and the way he's able to get on base has made him so valuable.

Equal votes for Martin and Montgomery.

12 hours ago, ron883 said:

Chris will now be accepting apologies for those who criticized the Luis Robert trade. Luis is injured and useless once again, his salary is off the books AND we got Sandlin. Chris is an absolute wizard.

Only if you apologize for the nickname you are trying to force on poor Sam Antonacci.

On 5/16/2026 at 8:02 AM, caulfield12 said:

Do we get an apology for the Jordan Hicks trade?

Boom !

22 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Boom !

Except Hicks is beyond redemption.

They could have drafted Sandlin for $397,500 in the 11th round instead of now paying $13 million or whatever…since Hicks is already a sunk cost with a negative fWAR value.

Só the real cost is actually closer to $15 million.

Edited Friday at 04:55 PM1 day by caulfield12