WestEddy

He was getting full articles about his "struggles" in national publications while he was still a rookie. I think he was certainly a live arm with ace stuff. He was considered a good "get" as a 2nd piece behind the much touted Yoan. But again, with "the issues".

Kopech was a very late first round draft pick, and was a top-40 prospect when the White Sox obtained him. He already had some dirt on him for getting in a fight in a clubhouse. After the Sox got him, he rose to ~top 15 in most lists. But, no, he wasn't some man-child that everyone expected to be a rotation ace. He was a nice 2nd piece who was probably available due to the clubhouse thing.

"Most" isn't "all".

Oh, okay. I will eat the meaningless crow that nobody else seems to over an opinion. Let me know which string everybody lines up to take their L's for declaring that Crochet wouldn't make it through the season, or that it was ridiculous to consider Fedde's work in Korea in being positive about him.

Again, weird that he missed the main reasons why this team took a dive. It's also strange that you guys consider this any meaner or more emotional than most of everything I got in spring training for not getting in the whiner hot tub.

...And the strangest part is that WS2023 left out all of Greg's predictions that Robert, Yoan and Eloy would be out 11 games into the season, and that Benintendi and Vaughn would OPS .400 for 3 months. Oh wait.... Dude was dealt 17 cards before he caught his inside straight.

Crazy. I gave my honest opinion and was criticized for it. One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

Wow, I feel so "owned". LOL.

Isn't the "itch on your left side" a euphemism for "Michael A. Taylor could be signed really cheap and flipped for a haul"?

They drafted a "bad" body, lack of height for 1B, a "gap power" hitter who hasn't really tapped into it, yet, rushed by a GM no longer here, played out of position to fill a hole. I keep thinking about that promo video of Konerko meeting Vaughn last offseason, and it seemed more like the 2 of them had no idea why they were there, Konerko basically scolding Vaughn, and Vaughn looking thoroughly called on the mat.

Yeah, I've completely discounted the AFL for him and Elko.

You have already stated that the three guys who have put up substantial WAR in the majors aren't really comps for Monty because they probably progressed through the minors too quickly due to their advanced experience in college, and age (I'm assuming you're attributing their progression to this). They didn't stay around long enough to become the #1 prospect, and they didn't need extended development. So, there's not a lot of HS players who were taken at #22, then became top 20 prospects, getting to AAA quickly, and having sustained success there. And seriously, a month of OPSing .820 gets prospects promoted. I brought up the 15 WAR bar to single out those whose accomplishments were clearly above what Monty clearly hasn't achieved. Weird that you are so bent out of shape by that. The posters who don't like me and pounce on most of my comments aren't even inspired to lift their heads up off the front porch to mock me for saying the 2024 bullpen looked "shutdown", or that I'm "fluffing" Nicky Lopez.

He OPSed .821 over the last 4 weeks of the season. Development isn't linear, and it isn't my job to make you admit that a strong, sustained period of AAA when still quite young for the level is impressive. Nobody ever claimed he played in the majors and had a 15 WAR season outside of you. Perhaps you could bring that up in your next therapy session.

Well, in that case, all team systems are tied for 30th best minor league systems in the game. Again, you're making a tortured argument to not give any credit for taking a HS player at #22, developing that player into one of the top 20 prospects in the game and seeing that player have success for an extended period at AAA, while still being extremely young for that level. If Monty was in the Orioles' or Braves' system, the negative posters, here, would be screaming and peeing themselves like 9-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. And, you bending yourself into a pretzel to play down any excitement over Monty puts you on the side of the poster who exaggerated negatively, and two is the absolute minimum for "a bunch" of posters. I win. I'll take your apology in 20's.

No, just offering the context that you will dig in and argue the inverse opposite of reality, then slink away when concrete proof is posted.

I would expect Monty to get a few at-bats in the bigs, at least, so we can then speak of him in the hallowed tones of success that "making the bigs" carries. I would agree with you that he was rushed to AAA. They probably wanted him to play through his back issues so that he didn't fall behind, and wind up being an A baller they needed to put on the 40-man. His final 6 weeks in AAA is a positive.

From 2000 to 2013, the Sox had one pick in the top 10. No, the White Sox have not been good. Probably bottom 10. But they aren't unique in their misses from the bottom half of the first round.

A bunch of posters, here, seem to be bending over backwards to make a negative out of a HS pick at #22 being on a slightly better than normal trajectory only because admitting to it somehow validates Chris Getz in their mind. Maybe you should be addressing the latter part of that sentence instead of the former. Monty being a HS #22 pick in the top 20 prospects is a big positive. Red flags exist for every prospect, and we can certainly discuss them.

If Abreu cleaned up his issues to OPS .650, that throws him into the Rowdy Tellez/Josh Bell pool. That fills a hole for about 5-7 teams.

Or they could just hold the Slater announcement off until after the Rule 5 draft. They did that a few times last offseason.

That's the guy who clearly stated that we'd be fools to believe Wheeler's and his agent's own words that the White Sox offered them more money. Consider the source.

Vaughn isn't going to be around for the World Championship parade. The only reason to gamble on him is that he breaks out, and is another lower level piece to trade for an arm July/2026.

I think we can agree that, at this point, Colson Montgomery hasn't played any Major League Baseball, and is currently a "prospect". Right? If your contention is that all prospects suck until they break out, then sure, Colson Montgomery sucks, as does the entire top 100 list of prospects. It's a bit disingenuous to argue that the White Sox completely screwed up Colson Montgomery, only because enough time has not yet passed for him to mature into a Major League Baseball player.

And protecting players seems to be more an exercise of assessing the threat of them getting picked over "protecting" them. Spitballing, 10 teams will be at 40 because their systems are so awesome, and teeming with prospects. Available players are ranked. 10 other teams are good enough so they don't have to carry a guy like AHT for an entire season. The 10 teams who are a risk to pick them have so many better options missing 40-man cuts that the chance of those 2 getting selected is remote.

3 of the last 20 #22 picks have had big success in the bigs (15.0+ bWAR). None of those three were HS picks. It's funny how a minor leaguer making the majors is definitely not a sign of success when talking about a minor league director, but when setting a floor for a White Sox pick, it's practically the Hall of Fame.