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So here the rub... you’re on a Chicago White Sox message board and the user name you selected is a reminder of one of the worst trades ( if not the worst trade ) in franchise history. People here have tried to forget that awful trash for years. There’s likely other members here who find it a poor choice and can’t get into your post content simply because of your name. Please change it or go to San Diego.

Vs RHP 1. Anderson 2. Eaton 3. Abreu 4. Grandal 5. Jimenez 6. Moncada 7. Robert 8. Vaughn 9. Madrigal vs LHP 1. Anderson 2. Jimenez 3. Abreu 4. Grandal 5. Robert 6. Moncada 7. Vaughn 8. Engel 9. Madrigal

Found out I can get a shot on Wednesday and just about cried

A team with owners willing to spend that much. It's no fault of the Dodgers that everyone else chooses to spend less year after year.

You want to go with a six man rotation when we have six off-days in our first 40 games and the likelihood of a few rainouts? Finding reasons to give both Rodon & Lopez starts at the same time seems like a good way to dig ourselves a hole to start the season. I’d much rather skip the fifth starter spot altogether on off-days and just limit our top four starters to shorter starts over the first six weeks. That seems like the better plan of attack if you believe our bullpen is the real deal.

"He expects" isn't exactly what will happen. I'd still bet money on him being a lock for Charlotte to open the year (barring any some surprising really cheap extension). Edit: I completely read the tweet wrong as Kopech expects.

So the Dodgers owners should be pocketing the money and not spending it trying to win.

Some teams aren't sticking to the Collusion/Covid script/payroll.

Unlike the last clown skipper, glad Grandal isn't going to be fixated 2 and 3 all season.

Yeah, I get Madrigal 9th. But I do see him improving his BB rate too. I really like Anderson 3rd to take advantage of his slg. Mostly why I went with it. I get the "why mess" too. Eaton has a helluva obp when healthy. Hopefully still has some speed on the bases, too. Just to clear, my Madrigal/Eaton is not uncertainty but rather against L-R SP.

... Why? Save the innings early in the season and get an extra year out of him. Ramp up the innings with the expectation that he will have to pitch in the playoffs.

But they rarely take advantage of their advantage. We are White Sox fans. Look at the advantage the White Sox should have over their division rivals, yet ownership plays down to their level. I know you don't find that noble. The Dodgers above their payroll which will cost them $14 million do also throw a lot into the revenue sharing pool. Winning a WS makes you some money. If they want to spend it on players more power to them.

Lol apparently.

It really needs both. This idea that teams should be allowed to spend tenfold more than their competition because of the market they are in is ridiculous while at the same time the Pirates trotting out like a $30M payroll is simply unacceptable. It probably won’t happen because MLB likes having its big market teams in the playoffs as much as possible, but floors & caps are exactly what’s needed.

I think that would make things even worse. A salary floor is what the game needs

1. Norge Vera hasn't signed officially. I've been told that it should be any day now but I was told the same thing last week. It'll happen at some point. 2. Cespedes is probably looking for a big league deal and I'm not sure anyone has that for him at this rate. I connected the agency to the Sox but they'd probably only be interested on a minors deal. 3. MLB Pipeline made him the #1 international prospect and it's probably not fair to the kid. He's safe in a sense that he's the closest guy to the majors. Many of the 16-year-olds who were signed have significantly more upside though and I'd rank many of them higher. Marco Paddy is one of the better international scouts in the business. He has Jose Abreu, Luis Robert and Fernando Tatis Jr on his ledger. Jerry Reinsdorf hates paying amateur talent so there's a question on Sox strategy. Does Paddy not have the relationships with trainers to land the top end teenage Dominicans or is Jerry opposed to giving $2-$5 million to 16-year-olds and they don't even bother? When in doubt, I blame Reinsdorf.

They are paying a tax on it so whatever. If other teams choose not to spend, why is that the Dodgers problem?

There are a few problems with using Eaton in the 2 hole. First, he's not nearly as good of a hitter as Moncada, assuming Moncada returns to 2019 form. You don't give extra ABs to worse hitters. Second, he's a platoon hitter, at least part of the time, vulnerable to lefty relievers. Moncada is a switch hitter, able to handle whatever reliever is thrown at him in the late innings. Third, Eaton can be a good hit and run player, both behind Robert, but more importantly, ahead of Madrigal. You don't want to hit and run with Abreu behind you. You don't want to try to steal ahead of Abreu when it might result in an out. If you do it in front of Madrigal, you turn him into an RBI guy with just a single, and if you end the inning with an out, Madrigal is a fine lead off hitter for the next inning. Fourth, by grouping Robert, Eaton/Engel, Madrigal at the bottom, followed by Anderson, gives the Sox their speed together with no one to clog the bases between them. I think LaRussa will use that speed to put pressure on opposing pitchers and produce more small-ball runs than we did last year.

This would be my lineup too. Anderson is the table setter for the whole offense. Has great speed. Will continue to get better. Moncada is #2 so you don't need any kind of platoon, and no reliever will gain an advantage. Abreu is the MVP. Jimenez is the heir apparent to Abreu's role. Bats behind him in case Abreu is out or walks. Grandal is the second lefty/switch hitter. High on base percentage. Vaughn/Collins. Vaughn will also be a high OBP guy, with less power and speed than Robert, which is why I put him here. Robert. At some point he'll have to move up. But for now, I like his HR power cleaning up the high OBP guys ahead, and his speed ahead of the two guys with the least power on the team. I expect LaRussa to use the speed of Robert, Eaton/Engel, Madrigal, and Anderson to disrupt pitchers. Eaton/Engel. With Madrigal it's like a second lead-off group to bring the order around to Anderson. Madrigal. He's not easy to get out. Can hit-and-run with Eaton or Engel. Having the 4 fastest players grouped together gives the White Sox another dimension other than just slugging teams to death. LaRussa will use this as a weapon

Theres no way Anderson will go for not leading off. He’ll hit first. I bet Eaton Bats 2nd though.

Anderson Moncada Abreu Jimenez Grandal Robert Vaughn Eaton Madrigal

Yeah, it would really suck to have the guy with the 3rd best OBP on the team batting in front of Abreu and Jimenez. Who needs guys on base for them?

Anderson is our giant middle finger. He’s 1st.

I already gave my answer, but how much would people lose their shit if they went: Eaton, Madrigal, Abreu, Jimenez, Moncada, Anderson, Grandal, Vaughn, Robert I wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't necessarily call it terrible either. We have a good team.

I think Madrigal bats 9th no matter what, but I do think Eaton is the wild card. I could see La Russa batting him 2nd, but ultimately I’m expecting him to do the right thing to start the season and keep him towards the bottom of the order.

This is exactly how I would write it up.

Anderson, Moncada, Abreu, Jimenez, Grandal. Vaughn, Robert, Eaton, Madrigal

Also the tv playoff revenue. Dodgers vs/or Yankees, advertising price goes up. Not so much for Pirates vs/or Rays, etc. Big bucks for all teams.

Thanks for posting, but I thought Narron was brought in to develop young catchers, not pass them over to bring in yet another relic Tony can remember from a decade plus earlier when he last managed.

Yermon Mercedes in all likelihood is a 4A player. He has no defensive position to play. You are talking about his skills in the past tense like he has proven anything.

Stop it. Nobody could have predicted that Tatis Jr would turn into a perennial MVP candidate. He was a lottery ticket. Yermin's numbers that season in the minors were ridiculous. He mashed in the pitchers paradise at Birmingham then put up an OPS north of 1.000 in AAA. It was clear Yermin could hit and should have been given a chance. Hahn decided to play literal garbage players at DH in a year where the Sox weren't competing. It is inexcusable.

A salary floor can't work unless the teams agree to share local TV revenue equally. Also, don't look up where the Sox rank in local TV revenue. It will make you puke when you compare it to this season's payroll.

I'm hoping the White Sox finally take the plunge again on a prep position player at 22. They've been all over multiple guys.

Come on man. You can't be serious with this.

I am getting more and more in favor of a salary cap but it will never happen

Eh he can squat and put on a glove and call pitches and catch them. I think the narratives on how bad he is gets overblown. Winston-Salem, Birmingham and Charlotte pitching staffs didn't blow up when he caught them. Just saying he wouldn't be a disaster . 2/14 Happy 28th Birthday Yermin ! Article from yesterday about Yermin .https://fromthe108.com/2021/02/13/the-case-for-yermin-mercedes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-case-for-yermin-mercedes

The realest ish I’ve ever read.

Child, please. The Sox external free agent acquisitions have been garbage throughout Hahn’s entire tenure. Overpriced and underperforming, with his fanbois continuously posting how much they feel sorry for him. Smart teams with competent front offices like Tampa own the Sox with half the payroll. They’re not wasting money two managers, overpaying for clubhouse cancers, signing lengthy contracts for declining players no other team would even consider. They’re signing quality players at good rates with plenty of upside.

Yermin is "my" third-string catcher and I would love to see him get a fair # of at-bats while giving Vaughn a chance to sign an extension. He is a prospect worth developing for trade value if nothing else.

Look at what the Rays are doing. They are trying to get 7 or 8 guys to give them around 100 innings. Guys probably aren't going to go 200 innings in 2021. Everyone seems to know this but the White Sox

Are you demanding the same of the MLB Network of why they chose Story over Tatis? Or why they have Bogaerts ranked neck and neck with Tatis? I don't owe you anything - opinions can't be wrong. You personally can disagree with them, but they can't be wrong. But just to please you, Xander is age 27, in his prime, with experience, and has proven himself over many years. Tatis has 1.5 years under his belt and susceptible to the curve ball. I think he'll be every bit as good, if not better than Xander, however for one year I'd go with Xander on this team, as constructed for the Sox. There's something to be said of a guy who has been there and won a world series, been on winning teams, and has the experience and how they'd fit in on a sox team. This is a guy who had 52 doubles, 35 homers and drove in 117 in 2019 ... and you think the questioning of putting him above a guy like tatis is so set in stone. He's put up 30 war in his career. This is not like I"m comparing kevin newman w tatis. this is me comparing two top 5 SS's in the game for a hypothetical one year stint on a sox team. Tatis has done this for a shorter time and whiffed at above a 50% and 40% clip on breaking balls in his first two years. That concerns me. Not enough to outweigh the rest of his game which is why hes still ranked very high and why i said over a three year period I'd probably want him number 1 overall. Tatis is a fastball hitter at this point in his career - no doubt he'll develop, but at this point he hasn't done as well against sliders, changeups and curves. Year Pitch Type Team RV/100 Run Value Pitches % PA BA SLG wOBA Whiff% K% PutAway % xBA xSLG xwOBA Hard Hit % 2019 Splitter -7.9 -1 11 0.8 2 .000 .000 .000 100.0 100.0 40.0 .000 2019 Changeup -2.3 -3 149 10.7 48 .200 .400 .266 41.9 39.6 33.3 .154 .329 .215 33.3 2020 Slider -1.1 -2 165 16.7 43 .211 .342 .290 48.1 30.2 23.2 .223 .363 .292 52.0 2020 Changeup -0.8 -1 133 13.5 38 .226 .355 .333 34.3 21.1 18.6 .266 .564 .400 56.5 Is that enough to justify my ranking your grace? This ought to be good.

Glad McClure was invited, he's definitely my guy to watch

I think you misunderstood me. I’m not afraid to go at all. I just have friends who have been vaccinated and had terrible side effects like Bell’s palsy for nearly a month. I’m not interested in being a guinea pig. I choose at this point not to get the shot and don’t think I should be told to to attend a game. I mask. I distance. I wash often. I stay home when I don’t feel good. I’m a high school teacher and have been in class everyday from the start of school. I agree with your last statement as well that people shouldn’t mess with others rights as adults. I appreciate and respect your feelings and hope you can understand mine as well. Baseball is almost here!

Deadening the ball isn't going to make people want to walk less, or make pitchers stop being unhittable mutants.

So people who currently aren't a fan of baseball or are on the bubble, would rather see some more hard ground outs and flyouts than home runs? Okay, Manfred.

They're going to deaden the ball when Manfred said it was never juiced. Every word that comes out of that piece of shits mouth is a fuckin lie.

This hurts the Twins more than the Sox imo

Nobody goes under their draft cap anymore. And I don't think the Sox ever have since they went to the bonus pool system. It doesn't even make sense what you suggested. Not spending a few hundred K on draft salaries is a drop in the bucket compared to MLB payroll

And all those things are reasons why I have been advocating trading him. Options 1 and 3 involved him pitching and building up innings therefore risking that arm falling apart. It's definitely going to get very fatigued and maybe by mid season starting games in the minors. Basically you prefer him pitching a whole season just because ideally that's what's best but that's going to require quite a few 1 inning appearances . Lets say he can get 15 starts in the minors and averages 3 innings per start so maybe's he's at 45-50 innings by pitching May through August , then in Sept. give him some relief appearances in the minor and MLB . Maybe 6 appearances max going 1 or 2 innings. Let's say he average 1.1 innings, then he's perhaps up to 50-60 IP. Then the playoffs where hopefully he can help the team by pitching another 10+ innings in relief. Win a World Series. Build up his innings as a starter, and he doesn't get injured . Is everybody happy ?

I think you are right on with 2 and 3 . I'd adjust 1 to say that him pitching at all, with how hard he throws ,there's going to be a good chance of injury anyway. You can stretch him out as a starter in the minors, but he will still more than likely not be going longer than 3 innings every start until he reaches a point they feel he can do more. At some point you will have to slow him down because fatigue will definitely come into play which is why I think anyone mentioning 100 inning this year is going to be very disappointed. The Sox just cannot ignore that he could help them win a World Series. You might think that is short sighted but that is why we all talk about White Sox baseball. We want to be able to win a Championship and have that electric arm help in any way he can. If the Sox can still use him in October I'd love to see it. If not then I'd be ecstatic to have him get through a whole minor league season as a starter with no MLB pitching uninjured with 75+ innings.