WestEddy

I quickly looked at his stats, and he appeared to be a better fielder than Pillar, and a natural CF. However, his platoon stats are neutral, perhaps even slightly reverse, and I didn't really look at his contract status. I rescind my support.

I thought they usually include those on the schedule.

Okay, here's a waiver claim I could get behind.

Yeah, but Michael A. Taylor played for the Royals. Everybody here agrees that makes him the worst player to acquire. You don't even know whether Taylor wanted to come in to be the weak half of a platoon. You wait to sign guys who don't matter and are filler. If somebody cuts Jose Ureña at the end of spring training and you have space? Sure, stow him at AAA. If you think Chris Flexen is a guy you can refocus and get throwing ground balls again, no, you don't wait and hope. That's what an idiot would do. Getz obviously had guys he targeted. I don't like the Maldonado signing. I don't care when it happened. He's here. I'm not going to have a stroke every single day because of his signing. I'm not going to look for random reasons why the signing was bad. Is it bad? I don't know. I haven't been coaching or managing baseball teams my whole adult life. If he wants a steadying influence on the field, then go for it. I'm not going to pretend I know more than industry lifers because I bought a ball cap.

So it really doesn't matter whether he signed January 5th, or later. But signing Maldonado had nothing to do with signing any pitchers.

Martin Maldonado was signed January 5th. Chris Getz must have done a great job this off-season if you're down to arguing that he should have signed Maldonado a day later. Just because.

I thought I heard him say in a post-game interview that he threw about 80 pitches.

Where did you hear this?

Hey, did you hear that Garret Crochet never had a professional start in his Major league career? That's crazy. I never heard that before. Also, did you hear that Garret Crochet never had a professional start in his Major league career? That's insane. I never heard that before. Conversely, did you hear that Garret Crochet never had a professional start in his Major league career? That's nutso. I never heard that before. But that's not the worst of it, did you hear that Garret Crochet never had a professional start in his Major league career? That's stark raving na-na. I never heard that before.

$15 million a year. I'm not sure who anybody thought Getz would be signing up this off-season. If those were the constraints he was put under, he actually did a great job.

A couple of you guys keep saying this. Cueto and Moustakas don't overlap. Moose, Maldonado or Pillar doesn't keep the Sox from signing Cueto. And the fact they didn't sign somebody not as good as Soroka for $15 million means they can sign Cueto if they really want or need him.

Looks like it's that famous dead arm period we hear about every spring.

I know it's easy to reflexively complain about player development during Getz's tenure (2017-2020), but putting fact to the assertion: 2017 - Burger, Sheets, Gonzalez Burger was developed to a starting MLB 3B. I'd call that a success. Sheets is a major leaguer, playing out of position. His hitting has regressed since his debut. Luis Gonzalez got 11 PA's with the 2021 White Sox, and Hahn tried sneaking him through waivers the next year. The Giants grabbed him up and started him for a few months. While it may not be the case that Sheets can be considered "developed", he has had success in the bigs. 2018 - Madrigal, Steele Walker, Pilkington Madrigal was rushed by the GM, then traded for Craig Kimbrel. While Madrigal hasn't set the league on fire, he is still top 5 in bWAR for that year's first round, and has out-produced the 3 players picked in front of him. Walker was sent to Texas for Nomar Mazara, and Pilkington was sent to Cleveland for Cesar Hernandez during the 2021 pennant push. Developing players to the level that other teams want to trade for them is one method of obtaining MLB players. 2019 - Vaughn, Thompson, Dahlquist Jury's still out on Vaughn. He was rushed, then played out of position for a couple of years. That was the GM's decision, not Getz's. Matt Thompson was brought to AA, and is considered by many, here, to be a grave loss for this organization, thanks to Getz's personal development of this player. Dahlquist has never really progressed. 2020 - Crochet, Kelly, Coffey Garret Crochet is our opening day starter. I'm not sure what else you could say about this development success. Kelly and Coffey are both notable bullpen prospects. Coffey having looked good in the AFL, and Kelly moving up to AA. 2021 - Monty, Kath, Burke Colson Montgomery is a top 20 in the game prospect. Having been overlooked in the draft, Monty's development is one of this organization's best success stories. Wes Kath hasn't caught on at any level. Sean Burke has pitched his way up to AAA by the end of his 2nd pro season before getting injured. He is also a success story. 2022 - Schultz, Pallette, Cannon Noah Schultz is a consensus top 100 prospect who is being brought along slowly. Pallette came back from injury, and Cannon will most probably pitch at AAA in his 3rd pro season. Out of these 6 drafts that cover the entirety of Getz's time as director of player development, I would say only 2 of the 18 have been development failures. The others you might cite as not hitting their ceilings with the Sox were either traded, or rushed by the previous regime. Burger, Madrigal, Vaughn and Crochet are contributing major leaguers. Thompson, Kelly, Coffey, Montgomery, Burke, Schultz, Pallette and Cannon are well-regarded prospects.

Sure. Who knows what the exact dynamic was last July? Did Hahn/KW know they were leaving, hedged on moving Cease, so they asked for the moon and stars? Did JR not give the go ahead for the benefit of Getz? I've seen a few people suggest that the economic dynamic in the game now forces GMs to hold onto their clear franchise prospects, as they'll get 3-4 cheap years from premium production.

What 2023 says, but also - nobody seems to be trading their top ten in the game prospects. Trading for the #5 top prospect means you're buying at the top of that guy's market. Think Kopech and Moncada. I think the market is shifting to targeting just missed and end of the top 100 guys who will be ascending with a bullet once real games start being played.

2024 is the large link top-center. I posted that link right above the bp.com one.

Hey, if you get to pretend that solid defensive players can't play defense adequately, I get to pretend that Texas' GM got them into a bad TV deal.

Got there through Cots on bp. https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/american-league/chicago-white-sox/

Looks something like $117.5 million. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C4dU46AiC_pt1GtzakmASUg9UD_UnpG32kdRZ3clOnk/edit#gid=1520401900

Filtering for 200 PAs, Nicky Lopez ranked 6th among 2B on Fangraphs for 2023 defense. DeJong ranked 8th for shortstops. So, pretend all you want that these guys are washed up and can't pick it, that's just factually untrue. Getz replaced negative production with positive production at SS and 2B. RF couldn't get worse than it was last year, and the same with C. There was probably a guy or two who hit a little better and fielded a little worse than what they're getting, but he chose these guys' profiles based on character, etc. Everybody can make up a dream list of free agents they could sign. Who says those guys would play for the Sox this year?

I'd think a guy in his 30's who has already made $30 million in his career might want to take the certainty of being on one good team all season.

This off-season looks nothing like anything Hahn has done. Dude's laid out a clear plan, and he's followed it. The guys you're singling out have a higher ceiling than you're letting on.

And that's a thing I keep coming back to. You're bidding along side the Yankees and the World Champion Rangers. 3 offers on the table for $4.5 million. Where is Lorenzen going? How much more do the White Sox have to offer this guy to pick a 1-12 record, a manager on the hot seat, almost certain last place, and a roulette wheel spin of where he's going to wind up in 4 months?

Let's start here: Smart GM's don't have TV deals go south and blow up their entire payroll budgets.

This is silly. The only signing out of that group I question is Maldonado. Fedde will be a solid contributor as a discount. If Nicky Two-Eighty can put up 1.5 WAR at 2B, that's a major win. Pillar and DeJong are solid placeholders. None of them broke the bank, nor precluded the Sox from taking on Lorenzen.