WestEddy

Okay, veteran leaders? The team was a clown car in 2023. Rookies not listening to coaches, vets staring down rookies on the field after yet another bone-headed decision. Physical altercations in the clubhouse. Suspensions for on-field BS. I don't even think the animal house clubhouse problems get fixed in one season, but prospects are now graduating to a more stable situation than 2023. Everybody here is in agreement that there was no way this team was getting fixed in one season. Nobody's arguing with the notion of filling the lineup with guys who can catch the ball. They're just not going to pay the $50 million it would take to plug in guys like Duvall at C, 2B, SS and RF. Especially if they think they have guys at AAA who are going to be taking PAs away by August. Cease, Robert, Kopech, Fedde, Santos, Brebbia maybe Soroka if he can fog a mirror by July - that's all that will be flipped. DeJong or Lopez might get slightly more than the proverbial bag of balls.

Has something happened to him that makes him non-viable?

I never said this is a stellar group of players. I said that they could pick up 5-10 wins just by adding replacement + players to C, 2B, SS and RF, along with Yoan, Eloy, Benintendi and AV realizing any part of their upsides. They got 9.8 bWAR from their starting rotation in 2023. That's not a high bar to clear, especially if Cease stays to the deadline.

Frankie Montas has had exactly one more "above average" bWAR season than Chris Flexen. Luis Severino hasn't been dominant in 6 years. We would all be high fiving each other if the Sox threw $15 million at one or both of these guys, and Chris Flexen and Erick Fedde have a better chance of out-performing either. Getz told us what the plan was, and it looks like he's following it. I'm not sure why everybody is surprised. Maybe you're surprised he's actually doing what he said. He's picking up character guys who can catch the ball. When Montgomery, Ramos, Quero and Popeye (maybe Sosa and Colas) are ready, they'll slot in. I agree that this roster looks like ass. I'm interested in what they can do with Soroka, Fedde, Flexen and Kopech.

SoxBlanco, in his hypothetical:

At this point, I just want the White Sox to do anything. I keep refreshing Twitter just to see what happens to Canaan Smith-Njigba.

If the Sox are at .500 and are 3 games up, yes.

If they're 3 games up in July, it's not so delusional.

Were they right? I thought SG agreed with whoever was having that long convo that the return should be Cowser/Kjerstad and Ortiz, and not a bit higher until the bidding went up.

The Orioles could still trade for Dylan Cease.

Orioles close on Corbin Burnes. https://theathletic.com/5245875/2024/02/01/brewers-orioles-trade-corbin-burnes/

He'll get his 100 pro PAs with us after thoroughly failing with Houston.

Captive audience. People who go to spring training, go to spring training. Nobody's going to not schedule a February Arizona Sox/golf trip because tix are $10 more. And once they're there, the game is the whole purpose of the trip.

I'm sure it would be very healthy.

Well there is an absolute value to running Cease out there for 33 starts, half of which will be quality starts, and 75% of which will be 50+ GameScore starts. We don't have to trade Cease. I think the hold-up has more to do with the Boras clients than Getz's "high ask". The Yankees and Orioles (or others) haven't pivoted to other equal or better options for returns that expose Getz as mean and greedy.

Maybe, just maybe, the Sox were waiting for this shoe to drop, now they'll swoop in and sign up all the $1.5 million dollar "16 year olds" as $30k 19 year olds mentioned in the string.

This is a nice and informative Twitter string on the current age scandal unravelling in the Dominican.

I guess somebody running the equivalent of Andrew Vaughn at 3B *might* think of upgrading, but other than that fantasy, I concur.

I really don't want to jump on the guy, but it sure would have been nice for him to have been this focused the last 5 years. But hey, I'm here for it.

One thing I've read a few times is that key to the deadline is it's right after the draft, and teams have a better feel for where their systems are. They may have just picked up 2 prime prospects, and feel good about letting the older guys go.

I didn't listen to it. I don't really care what he said compared to the reality of the situation. If they start making a bunch of "KW always gets his man" type signings next year, or whatnot, to pick up another 5 wins to "compete", then it'll be longer, yet.

Considering they haven't "won" in 18 years, 5 is "soon" by comparison.

Maybe he did. Maybe that looked like plunking his ass down in Jerry's office guest chair, telling him the problems he's been running into trying to upgrade development, and he came out of it with a GM job.

My recollection is that Reinsdorf was trying to keep the project as cheap as possible for fear it wouldn't get through Springfield.

Are you asking why Getz didn't hire a director of Player Development when he was Director of Player Development?