poppysox

I like how the Sox have approached this rebuild. When I look at 2005 there were no mega stars. They had some moderate power, good defense, great pitching, lockdown bullpen and some speed. Pods and Iguchi brought a spark but most importantly they had 25 complimentary pieces. These mega deal guys don't seem to work out all that often. I think that's because those deals go to power hitters and strike out pitchers. Guys like Iguchi, Pods, Dye and Rowland were nice complimentary pieces not high priced stars. We had AJ and Dye and Crede as moderate priced guys who were productive and not expensive. Kind of McCann like guys. We will be winning when we get 25 players who do their jobs well. One or two so called stars are not the answer. Pitching, timely hitting, speed & and defense is needed on a well balanced wining team. I will say that half of those 25 men are pitchers. If those 12 or 13 guys aren't good... your wining nothing.

Find someone from organizations like St. Louis, Milwaukee or Minnesota. All small market teams that manage to win without buying their teams.

Good guess might be lead off hitter with high average & walks for high obp... A forty + base stealer and a player with a high baseball IQ...a really good glove and the quarterback of the infield. I'll take a dozen years of that.

Kenny has always prized athleticism over baseball skills. Hasn't always worked.

This might drive Balta off the deep end. We better take a pass.

What...they don't know our boys don't quit.

This is true for most of us I would guess.

Does this mean you are not excepting my offer?

I'm willing to wait until ST 2020 under those conditions.

No! With a second home in Corpus Christi I went to a lot of Hooks games (Houston AA). Pretty easy to become a fan of nice kids trying hard and best seat in the house was $9 . Food was the price of fast food and parking $3. When a Hooks player hit a homer the fans passed a hat for the hitter...people threw a $1in the hat. Probably got 40-50 bucks. In a side note...Hunter Pence III was on that team. Kind of nice to not be so emotionally invested in every little thing.

He was signed October 2013. Five + years probably not long enough for fixture status.

Letting him walk will not happen. It for sure will be trade or extend. Because of Collins, Burger & Draft pick type guys...Abreu might be deemed better used as trade bait.

I'm not counting on Carlos for much at this point. Between not much time to build back up and his agent...I'll be happy with anything we salvage.

I am no fan of Nova and his slower than slow pitching style. In fairness, however, they got him to give them innings. He does take the mound every fifth day and about 40% of the time gives them an OK game. He won't be part of things when the games count so I try to live with it.

Someone needs to get on base if you want to see 3 run bombs.

Interesting adjustment to the lineup. Lineup looks odd without Anderson. Odd...not better.

We will see what we shall see. I admittedly think with my heart when it comes to the White Sox.

We are seeing Gio, Anderson and Moncada improve vastly from when they first came up. Jimenez also show small improvement day to day. As Kopech, Cease, Robert, Collins and Madrigal join the Sox the same will happen. At first we will see the raw talent and the frustrating rookie mistakes. Over a year or two we will see this group gel into a very good team. The sooner we can get these guys together the sooner the championships get to Chicago. You get to be the best by playing against the best.

Madrigal was named by the baseball community as the most major league ready player in last years draft. Chris Getz said on Saturday that the fans should judge the front line minor leaguers on what they see in the second half. Actually said they were very happy with where Robert and Madrigal are in their development. When asked about Robert being major league ready he said he could do it but was better served where he is for now. I believe the players I mentioned will be part of next years team. I also think that next years team will be the pulling together of all these prospects into a year of mutual learning at the major league level.

The person with the most influence over talent evaluation is probably Kenny Williams. Not thrilled with that thought.

When you start the rebuild with pieces like Sale, Q and Eaton the process should go faster.

And that's about what you need on a championship team. That kind of staff and a lineup augmented by Robert and Madrigal wins something. Maybe all of it after playing together for a year or two.

As I've said in other posts...watch what they do with Abreu & Colome...If they are going to take a long time view they will trade both at the deadline. If they think contention is near they need both a closer and a thumper.

We are not as good as the Twins but we will play them much tougher at home. Twins at their home have always been a house of horrors for us.

If Hahn thinks that the contending team will be on the field in the next year or two...it might be right to extend Abreu and Colome. If not...I would move on. They are undoubtedly our best trade chips.