WestEddy

I get tired of my Twitter feed full of blog articles about "4 Sox players sure to move this week". "BREAKING!!! Brewers interested in acquiring pitching".

Nice James Fegan interview with Brian Bannister, discussing the draft and other stuff. https://soxmachine.com/2024/07/brian-bannister-white-sox-draft/

The White Sox spent their whole allotment. I believe the issue is the Sox going over slot for some players, and punting on a couple of rounds to pay for it.

I don't know why people aren't seeing this as a supply and demand issue. It's a weak draft. Less players at the higher levels. Therefore, more negotiation to get the guys they want. In a stronger draft, some toolsy high school kid who needs work gets sassy, you move on to the next toolsy high school kid. That doesn't really play this year.

In theory. Once Crochet's off the board, it's still supply and demand. The Sox don't like the offers for Fedde to this point. They'll either get better or stay the same. Beyond Skubal and Crochet, there's no real "aces" on the market, I believe.

Fedde and Crochet are probably clouding up each other's markets. Teams see Fedde as a fallback from Crochet, won't get serious about Fedde until Crochet's off the market.

And to be complete and comparative, Low-A has a minimum salary of $26.2k.

Just a quick Google search tells me that while a player in a complex league makes a minimum of $4800/yr, the Chicago Dogs pay a salary range of $52k-$96k for a season. I don't know what level of play they are, but that's quite a jump. I'm intrigued by a player like Matt Hogan, who finally hit consistently at Oral Roberts in 2023, looks like he went undrafted, played a year with the indy Pioneer League Rocky Mountain Vibes (Glassdoor says they have the same salary structure as the Dogs), and now, this year, after signing with the White Sox, jumped to age-appropriate Birmingham, and is OPSing .774.

I read once that every system has a guy another team wants. Somebody who they were going to take in the 7th round, and that team grabbed him 3 picks ahead. Even when the Sox were a bottom 5 system, they still had Montas and Bassit lurking in the teens. Semien was seen by some as an eventual utility infielder. So Houston probably has talent that can be developed, somebody just needs to trade for it and develop it.

They really don't offer any names. 1. White Sox trade Garrett Crochet to Orioles 3. White Sox trade Luis Robert Jr. to Phillies 4. White Sox trade Erick Fedde to Astros

Be upset all you want. The people who present every single move in the worst light just to feed their narrative get tiresome. The team sucks. It's painful to watch. I don't need to be spoon fed some conspiracy about how every move is designed to save money, or make the team worse, or results from panic, or whatnot.

But the Cubs are in the same boat the Tigers are in, right? They could very well be competitive next year and Taillon would be a nice piece to keep.

Whereas everybody should be shocked that our minor leaguers don't come up, play flawless ball, and hit .400 for the next 10 years with no slumps.

One thing the Sox have done which is cool is they've partnered with area artists to create posters for each series.

Jeez, the narrative was that GMs are waiting for the draft to be over until they pivot to the TDL. Will everything hold off until all the picks are signed? So we might really be looking at a 4-5 day TDL period. I guess that will be an exciting 4-5 days.

I'm here. This ain't the dad, Mike Ilych, spending his money to see a world series champ once before he leaves the Earth. It's his kids trying to hang onto their inheritance.

Because, depending on what a team is looking to spend, maybe they can shift them over to Flaherty. And maybe to gauge Skubal's perceived value ahead of the off-season and perhaps next year's TDL, if the team doesn't make a run.

I took it that way, and I'm sorry for my reaction.

I think that if the Sox don't trade him, he'll probably get 10 more 'starts' of 1-2 innings each, then get shut down. That gives him about 120+ innings. If they trade him, we can all argue about how the prospects are being brought along.

Well, down playing Crochet's half year seemed silly and argumentative. And yes, it is respectful.

I started out thinking they can extend him, but that would be something like 3/50, and we still might not be competitive in that window. In which case, I think they should trade him ASAP, get those prospects in our system and start working with them.

Just from what I've read in other places about injury recovery and work load recovery is that this might all hit him next season, where he loses a tick off his fastball, or whatnot. And maybe it won't. You keep asking the question, yes, it's all worth the risk, for the White Sox and for Crochet. Even slightly diminished for part of a season, Crochet is a rare talent, and the trading team has 2 more seasons to evaluate giving him a contract. If he's intact, and doing anything like his current results, I guess that teams will line up to throw their money at him.

And I think I've been pretty respectful, and have just offered counter arguments. To downplay a dominant half season is silly. Dude made the All-Star team.