WestEddy

I still can't embed from Twitter. Person there made the point of Nick Maton at SS. He got 290 PAs for Detroit 2 years ago, and Fuller must see something in his bat.

There were some clearly egregious examples of Hahn shoe-horning players into the OD lineup. Micah Johnson. Jacob May. I'm okay with either decision, starting or optioning Monty. I'm glad they're committing to something early enough to get a good look at their other options.

Josh blocked me long ago on Twitter, and my timeline has been much better for it.

Jim Margalus and James Fegan are great reporters and have fine insights. Josh Nelson is a rung below the typical sports radio dolt.

I think Josh Nelson is an idiot. Are you referring to the comments? Even though I have the same opinion, start him in the bigs, then demote him if he's exposed to work on his shortcomings. I just don't feel like I have to dig in and fight over a move I just made up in my head. Once Nelson's move is avoided, the entire organization becomes a "joke".

I don't consider being 2 slots behind another team in subjective farm system rankings to be "behind" in player development. They're basically equal. Now, as for the 40-50 games part, yes, they are behind.

But if your system's ranked top 6, and 3 other divisional systems are ranked anywhere between 1-8, you're really not that far "behind".

And hey, I'm sure I'm just managing my own emotional mitigation if the negative reports all turn out to be true. I think Monty's production will be closer to Benintendi's first 6+ years than Mookie Betts'.

Pretty thorough analysis of the OD roster by SoxMachine: Podcast: How is the 2025 White Sox 26-man roster shaking out

So then, it's Amaya, Baldwin, Meidroth at SS, unless they're really going to plug Rojas in for a month.

But is it even rushing him, at this point? They may have seen enough in the last 6 weeks of last year to know they don't need a month of him blasting HRs in a bandbox to learn anything new. However, setting him up against major league pitchers, they could expose a part of his game they drop him back to AAA to work out, then bring him up for the last 2-3 months, a la 2024 Dominic Fletcher. Voila! You have an extra year of control!

Do you feel Monty's a 4-6 WAR shortstop going forward? Keith Law has written about how when talking to scouts about him, a collective opinion was that he didn't even look like a top 100 prospect. I get it, the back injury could have seriously hampered him in all aspects of his game. I'm even willing to say that as his growth stabilizes and they pay more attention to stretching and training, he could be *a* guy. I don't think he's Bobby Witt Jr. He's not going to be a perennial MVP dude. But he doesn't have to be. If he's a solid guy who hits and doesn't embarrass himself in the field, that's a clear win from the 22nd pick in his draft year. The power could play in a corner, and that's a nice guy to have for 6+ years. I just don't think he's "the franchise" anymore. That's over.

Twitter is still having problems with embedding, today. Martin Maldonado revenge game. Padres starting lineup for 3/11 vs CHW: 1. DH Luis Arraez 2. RF Fernando Tatis Jr. 3. CF Jackson Merrill 4. 3B Manny Machado 5. 2B Jake Cronenworth 6. SS Xander Bogaerts 7. 1B Yuli Gurriel 8. LF Jason Heyward 9. C Martin Maldonado SP - Dylan Cease

This is cool. Are you snipping the headers?

This lineup certainly has a B-game feel to it. Baldwin in CF and Teel starting are interesting.

Yes, I am referring to Montgomery as a major league player, going forward, and what kind of player he can be, comparing him to Benintendi's first 6+ years of control. I used Benintendi, as we all know him. Fangraphs' last rating of Montgomery pegged him as a 55FV prospect, meaning a player who give you 2.5-3.3 fWAR a year. If we got Benintendi's first 6+ years of production out of Montgomery, that would be a win.

Elijah Evans profiles some options for the opening day bullpen for Just Baseball: It's an Open Competition for Innings in the White Sox Bullpen | Just Baseball

Read the sentence. Tops. Out. As. A. 3.5 bWAR. Dude. Benintendi put up 4.8 bWAR in 2018. Then he put up 3.2 between 2 teams in 2022. That is a type of player. If C. Monty averages well over 2.0 bWAR over his first 6 seasons, that's a good player to have. So, Earth. On the world called Earth did Benintendi top out as a 3.5 bWAR dude.

The interesting thing is that most of the pre-Rule 5-draft prognosticators missed out on Shane Smith. Melissa Lockard of The Athletic is the only one who tagged him as a Rule 5 pick. The MLB draft brain trust of Callis, Mayo and Dykstra didn't even have Shane Smith as the top pick from the Milwaukee org. If he wasn't even on anybody's radar, kudos to pro scouting. Unless McKinven suggested him, in which case, you can't keep hiring new bench coaches each year to get special insight on another team's org. depth. Or maybe you can...

Sure, getting the extra year is a thing. You can get the extra year by leaving him down a month at the beginning of the season, or letting him get exposed, then sending him down for a month. Still the same month of service time saved. And with the slippage of Monty's star, maybe he tops out as a 3.5 bWAR dude. That's Benintendi. I would hope that in 7 years, we've produced another 3-WAR 3B or LF.

I coming to the realization that C. Monty's not the guy. But he may be *a* guy. Maybe he's a 3B who can hit you 25 HRs a year. Of a LF. He's no longer such a commodity that he needs to be handled with kid gloves. If he can hold his own, not embarrass himself at SS, you have a cheap position player. If he takes off, you might get the extra draft pick for top 3 ROY. If not, he gets exposed in the bigs, you drop him down and work on whatever is the new weakness. If Getz is establishing a pipeline of talent through the draft and international signings, there will be other shortstops coming through. They already have Gonzo and Bergolla who, if they can hit .260 w/10 HR and acquit themselves defensively, can move Monty off short as soon as next year. I don't think this rebuild will result in this Godly "These are the core 5 players we will build around!!!" It's just going to be a more steady stream of prospects coming through who can step in and hold down a position. Monty becomes a starter. Then Teel/Quero filter up. The better hitter moves from behind the plate. Zavala/Wolkow/Saucke/B. Monty - one or more of them start looking like a guy.

If he's rostered all year. If he's pounding out 2 WAR into July, I think he's gone. Unless the Sox slip through some vortex and are in the thick of a divisional race.

That, and the development feels a little more organic. It's not just a spate of first rounders and a bunch of trades.