The Kids Can Play

Typical Sox betting embarrassment at home being the underdogs to the visiting Cubs. Sox are (+100) on the moneyline and Cubs (-117).

Wow, I have a lot more respect for Garfien. I too always thought he was the company "yes man" for the Sox. It's so awesome to see he doesn't worry about his job, as he perfectly explains the total inept job Grifol has done.

Exactly why you get rid of Trout and even eat some of his contract and go all in to keep a Ohtani that could set the AL HR record and win the AL Cy Young and MVP in the same year. That would be the single greatest player performance in a given season ever in the history of baseball.

It's more than a good chance, it's definite fact. Let's face it, Getz has been handling the player development in the Sox farm system 7 years now. No GM can be effective on his own. That is why a good GM needs to rely on his front office executives under him. Getz is one of those key guys who obviously hasn't been giving good advice to Hahn. It's clear Getz also hasn't been making the necessary and efficient changes in the farm system approach to player development...in the fact we have one of the worst farm systems and ML rosters. So why in the word would Getz be a good GM? Making Getz the next GM would be plain Insanity and thus many more years of mediocrity. Note to Jerry from every loyal die-hard Sox fan: Please wake up and quit being so ignorant and stubborn and do the right thing for once!

I do agree with you, the best solution is to trade Trout right now to shed serious money to afford Ohtani. Let's not forget Mike Trout is 31 years old and will be 32 in two weeks. His numbers are declining and his injures are increasing.

I agree sometimes its about dumping salary. However other times it's obviously about getting rid of a player who will be a free agent that the team selling thinks they won't be able to resign. The team buying sees that rental as worth it, to go for the WS and worth giving up some prospects. If the Angels trade Ohtani by the deadline, that will be a perfect example of a selling team getting rid of a star player to strictly get a massive haul of prospects back and not to dump salary. We already know the Angels can afford to play him, but the fear is if Ohtani signs elsewhere in the off-season, then the Angels got nothing for him. Then you have the best example of where a selling team was not dumping a huge salary. Case in point, the famous Cubs-Sox 2017 trade of Quintana. As we know the Cubs having won the WS in 2016 were hungry to go for a repeat. They needed another starter and coveted Quintana. As Theo told the media at the time, Quintana was under a super attractive contract through 2020. The Cubs would only have to pay Jose 7 million in 2017 and then 8.8 million, 10.5 million and 11.5 million in 2018 through 2020. The Sox obviously weren't dumping some huge contract with Jose and the Cubs were desperate so they willing to give the Sox 5 prospects including Cease and Eloy.

You and I both know the Cubs should be sellers and like you, I've been telling my Cubs fan friends the same thing, that they need to sell. It just depends on if Ricketts and Jed are sane.

I'm sorry to be so negative about our Sox chances, but losing both is a strong possibility. Kopech pitches the first game tonight. We never know which Kopech will show up. He has been struggling and given up 19 home runs. Then you have Lynn vs Stroman on Wednesday. Lynn leads the majors in home runs given up with 28 and Stroman is having an all-star year. However I get your point and knowing the Sox, they can always surprise you because that is baseball.

Actually the Cubs are 7 games back from the Brewers and 5 back in the wild card. All the teams in the WC ahead of the Cubs are all good teams over 500. They might catch one or two of them, but not enough of them to get into the WC...because ahead of the Cubs in the WC are the Reds, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Giants and Phillies.

I'm totally with you there a 100 loss season is not impossible and that might really piss off and embarrass Jerry enough. Btw, over the years this Cubs-Sox games have always been important to Sox fans for pure pride. However it's ok this year if we lose. Our team sucks and is probably worse than the Cubs and more importantly, winning does nothing in the big picture to get Hahn fired. As much as I hate losing to the Cubs. I will accept the two losses this year knowing its for the good of the team, in order to hopefully get rid of the front office cancer.

It shouldn't if they are smart. The Cubs are 7 games back of the Brewers who are probably going to be buyers. They are not even going to catch the Reds. If the Cubs hold on to Hendricks and Stroman and don't become sellers, then they are as dumb and delusional as the Hahn front office.

It was mentioned in here a few days ago, that Jerry is supposedly very irritated about the fact is team is so horribly bad. I'm wondering if the Cubs will both games, would that hopefully fuel Jerry's fire even more and get him to be so mad to maybe start thinking about firing Hahn. Kenny can do the trades with help from Getz and others in his front office. I understand that probably isn't going to get Hahn fired, but it would hopefully anger and embarrass Jerry more.

It's not losing the trade that concerns me, it's the fact we will have to find another Giolito and they are hard to find. I know we need tons of prospects, but let's get them dumping all the other loser position players or relievers on this team. This one pitcher Gio isn't going to turn around this horrible organization with one of the worst combinations of farm systems and major league rosters.

I would be fine if David Stearns was the new Sox pres of baseball ops. He is one of a few young modern GM's that understands building a strong farm system and major league roster.

Trust me I get if we trade Gio as a rental there is no chance in hell we get him in the off-season as FA. My only point is we have Gio now and I know we need prospects, but I am not confident or convinced Hahn will pull this off and not be once again fleeced.

How about nobody! The rebuild was a complete failure. How can you possibly give Hahn credit for failing miserably at his job. There is no, "Hey we got close and 70% there." That would be like a sales rep badly missing his quota for the month, quarter or year and he tells his sales manager, hey, but I came close to those several deals I lost.

Gio last outing was great, but that doesn't mean the haul will be great. Again if this were the Rays, Dodgers, Guardians or some other of the smart GM's, then I would be comfortable we might get a great haul. However we are talking about Rick Hahn. He sucks at trading players because he doesn't know how to evaluate talent and more times than not, he gets fleeced.

My bad! You are correct sir! No playoff series wins!

We will have to agree to disagree. I know this org is fu*ked to the max! We have a horrible ML roster and even more horrible farm system. Where we disagree is I am predicting the trades Hahn is about to make will be bad and its not a guess...its simply fact based on Hahn's track record. I don't agree with you that Gio will bring in a a max return. Time will tell as we track Hahn's trade of Gio. No matter how many players Hahn trades at the deadline and no matter what free agents he signs, he will at some point need to find a starting pitcher to replace Gio. There are none in the minors other than maybe low and high A ball, which is years away. Plus Gio said publicly a few weeks ago he wanted to remain on this team. You are assuming he will break the bank, when maybe he won't. Yet if that is what it takes, then so be it, it's the most important position on the team.

I'm sure you meant that as humor and frankly it's quite funny. The total hilarious irony is Dunning was part of the initial 2016 rebuild when Hahn traded Adam Eaten for Giolito, Lopez and Dunning. However then genius Hahn decided to trade Dunning for Lynn. Then again only in Jerry's world can a GM like Hahn last 11 years with only two winning seasons, two playoffs and zero playoff wins.

I get Giolito is going to be traded. That doesn't mean it's the right decision. Plus you and nobody else here can assure me that the Sox will be better off for trading Gio. Hahn sucks at negotiating and making trades. Why of all of sudden well he be brilliant and start playing chess when he is only a checkers player. Again you need starters. You make it sound like they just fall right off trees. If Hahn was so good at finding starters, then why do we have the worst pitching in the minors of probably all 30 ML teams? Let's see who we get back on the Giolito trade. It will be fun tracking the prospects and see of any of them amount to anything. My bet is doesn't make us any better in the long run. In the meantime Giolito will go to a good team like the Rays for example and they will make him an all-star.

Making Burger sound bad with his .270 OBP is a bad argument and is very misleading when the Sox are 29th in OBP in MLB. The entre team sucks in OBP relative to the top teams. Yes Burger's OBP is .270 which is bad. However is that any worse than Tim Anderson at .281 OBP? At least Burger is 2nd with 21 home runs and 3rd with 47 RBI's. How does that compare to the starter TA with 0 HR's and 17 RBI's? Plus the only reason TA is a only bit higher in OBP is only because TA has a few more hits. Burger has 17 walks in 276 AB's to TA's 17 walks in 311 AB's. Plus at least Burger comes to play every game healthy with a great attitude, as opposed to some other Sox third baseman.

I am starting to change my mind on Giolito being traded and I like your idea of signing him to an extension. Here is my reasoning: 1. Although Gio should bring a good return, it bothers me that Hahn is doing the negotiating and trading. He has failed miserably on his past trades. What makes anyone convinced he won't get fleeced again. 2. Let's face it, Gio had a good year thus far overall. He leads the Sox in quality starts with 11 and has a good 3.79 ERA. He has kept the Sox in most games to win and unfortunately his shitty bullpen and/or lack of offense has been the problem and not Gio. 3. When you get rid of a quality starter like Gio, then you have to replace him. As we know, pitching is the most important position and the hardest in trying to find a good one. Why do we want to get rid of a solid pitcher when there isn't a guarantee Hahn will be successful at it. Gio is only 29 years old and has shown to be very healthy and durable. The Sox AAA and AA pitching staffs are horrific and you won't be getting anyone in 2024 from the minors. 4. As you pointed out, a SP rotation of 1.Cease, 2. Gio, 3. Kopech, 4. Open and 5. Open isn't that bad. If the Sox can dump enough other losers like Grandal, Moncada, Clevinger Lynn, Anderson etc. to free up money, there are some good SP free agents the Sox could aggressively go after in the off-season. I don't care what we get back on the trades, just get rid of the losers I mentioned for some A prospects just to free up the payroll and afford two FA starting pitchers