The Kids Can Play

I think trading Vaughn makes the best sense. I think he would still bring value. There are good teams out there who have the right people in place to get a player like Vaughn straightened out. Since were not moving Moncada to 2B, and we can't afford to sit or platoon Burger, it makes total sense to play Burger at 1st and keep Eloy at DH, to assure he doesn't get injured as easily, by never letting him play in the OF.

You are damn right on that!

Everyone needs to be patient with his comeback. He was diagnosed with cancer on 1-9-2023. It was announced he was cancer free on 4-20-2023 I realize he is being lit up at Charlotte with a plus 10 ERA. I also get his fastball is way down. We seem to forgetting Liam was battling cancer and receiving intense chemotherapy and radiation. I know two people personally who did beat cancer. The amount of strength and energy stolen from them in battling cancer was incomprehensible. As a result, we can't expect miracles from Hendricks. I think eventually Liam will get his strength and fastball back...but it probably won't be happening in the very near future. The fact is the Sox don't have to trade him at the 2023 deadline. They have a club option on him for 2024 at a reasonable 15 million. Maybe by next season he gets his total game back and then at the 2024 deadline we can trade him as a rental for prospects.

You're right about going out and recruiting away talent from other successful teams. However it has to start at the top. The main problem and only problem is Reinsdorf. He is too clueless and arrogant to understand the value of going out to the super successful baseball teams and recruiting their best people away. In all successful companies or Sports teams in America, they call this recruiting the "Best Practices" type people! The Sox will never have a great farm system until they go out and recruit a top executive from a winning organization that has shown the consistent track record of building a productive and highly ranked farm system. The Dodgers understood this concept several years ago and decided to recruit one of top GM's in baseball in Andrew Friedman to leave Tampa Bay as a GM and go to LA with a promotion of president of baseball operations and a massive raise in salary. Then in turn, Friedman was allowed to bring in his own people and hire a GM, along with all other top executive FO people needed to run a successful and winning baseball club. Until Jerry wakes up and decides to try this concept, or when the team is sold and then the new owner hopefully cleans house and does this, the White Sox will always be a dysfunctional and embarrassing baseball organization, especially developing talent in the farm system.

We said this all along, these Sox fans need to send a message and I hope it continues to get louder. This is what happens when a team has an owner who has "checked out" and doesn't give a damn about his players or fans. Jerry deserves all this and more!

Aaron Hicks was DFA for a reason and that's because he is going downhill fast. He is 33 yrs old turning 34 later this season. 2023 stat line: .188/.263/.261/.524 Last three year stat line is: .209/.288/.310/.599 We have enough holes in our lineup and this does not improve the Sox lineup or depth.

Rick Hahn added to the problem "everybody's a DH" when he missed that wake up call back in 2017 and picked Gavin Sheets with the 49th overall pick and then doubled down again in 2019 with the 3rd overall pick to select Andrew Vaughn...when we already had 1B/DH covered with Jose Abreu.

Great memories from that 1977 South Side Hitmen team. Richie Zisk hit 30 home runs that year and Comiskey Park was not a home run stadium with arguably one of the longest outfield dimensions.

You are missing the point of why Rick Hahn sucks and needs to be fired. Yes he made a few good trades and brought in some current key players. Early on in the rebuild the Sox farm system was highly ranked. However once you bring those prospects up to the major league level, the GM and front office are suppose to continue re-stocking the farm system. The good teams with the top ranked farm systems like the Rays and Dodgers take up prospects every year. Yet they continue restock their farm systems and keep them ranked in the top 5-10 each year. Hahn's farm system has been ranked near the bottom for the last three years. Every team has injuries. Look at the Dodgers for example, they are bringing up two of their AAA starters for tonight and tomorrows' games against the Braves to replace two of their current starters that are injured.

To further document your statement about the depth and strength of the Dodgers #2 ranked farm system. They just brought up from AAA, two of their top pitching prospects in Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller. Gavin Stone starts tonight against the Braves and multiple sources say Bobby Miller will also be brought up to start Tuesday's game against the Braves. Bobby Miller is a RHP #19 overall MLB top 100 prospects. Gavin Stone is a RHP #44 overall MLB top 100 prospects. If that is enough, the Dodgers also have in their farm system of the MLB top 100 prospects: #12 - Diego Cartaya, C - AA #42 - Michael Busch, 2B/OF - AAA #55 - Ryan Pepiot, RHP - AAA #64 - Andy Pages, OF - AAA #67 - Dalton Rushing, C - A+ It will be a "Freezing Day in Hell", before you can expect Rich Hahn to ever build a farm system similar to the Dodgers or other top clubs.

Yes and maybe 6.5 games if the Angels can hang on to the 3-1 lead in the top of the 8th against the Twins. You are also correct on it's a terrible division. Imagine how the Red Sox feel playing in the toughest division and are 6 games over .500 and 7 games back.

Sadly if he hasn't matured, then the lack of leadership, developing skills and mentoring from the our organization surely won't help him.

I heard that too and I also heard he has a flight arriving in Chicago right around the trade deadline, to send his sorry ass to some contending playoff team for some prospects. The Sox might have been able to put up with his poor attitude if he was having the years like he did in 2019 and 2020. Right now though, the Sox do not need his selfish and cavalier attitude with a stat line of: .246/.282/.288/.570/.0.5 WAR...especially as a leadoff hitter!

If we win today and get our sweep and Lynn gets the win, this will be the first time since the end of last season when the Sox starters had three straight wins. It was done late last year on Oct 2, 3 and 4 with Lynn, Cueto and Giolito consecutively getting 3 wins in a row.

I love Jake Burger at #2. For once Pedro is being smart at least in regards to Burger. Not sure why Frazier is at #6.

Yes the Sox suck at all three facets in scouting, drafting and developing. The good teams like the Rays are very good at all three. I agree with you the Sox suck at developing, but I also think the Sox are bad at scouting and drafting the right players. The Rays and Dodgers definitely develop their players better than the Sox. However I think it's because they also know what players to draft and bring into their baseball farm system. Remember you can have the greatest coaches in the farm system to develop players like the Rays and Dodgers have, but, "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t.".

Seriously this makes a lot of sense. Jake Burger to first base and Andrew Vaughn to the outfield. - Burger is 6'2" vs. Vaughn 6'0", so Jake is technically the more natural and taller size for first base. - Since Jake is a third baseman, he is much stronger and more comfortable at grounders than Andrew. Imo I think Jake could play first much better defensively than Andrew. - Vaughn played the outfield last year. Yes he wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either and did a pretty decent job. At least Andrew didn't get injured playing the outfield. We need both bats in the lineup. - Playing Burger at first obviously gives a greater chance for Burger to stay healthy, as opposed to going to the outfield. Likewise then you keep Eloy at DH and he has a better chance of staying healthy as well. - One big benefit of Burger at first is, you might just find out he is better than Vaughn for playing first base going forward. If that is the case, then you can consider trading Vaughn at the deadline and get some decent prospects back. If Vaughn is still hitting good around the TDL, then his value should go up because he shows his versatility as a first baseman and outfielder along with being a run producer. Again this whole debate has us arguing about who to move around out of their natural position. Once again, this is a direct result from loser Rick Hahn. He drafted Sheets with the 49th overall pick in 2017 and Vaughn in 2019 with the #3 overall pick. This was flat out dumb when we still had a Jose Abreu.

This is exactly what should happen. Players play better when they go out everyday to the same position. This is what the great teams in baseball do.

It's definitely a crap shoot for dysfunctional clubs like the White Sox. I'm sure the teams like the Rays and Dodgers who always have top ranked farm systems would completely disagree with you.

Gio struggled and got into some jams I wished he could have avoided, but came through nicely and ended those jams without major damage. The Burger 3 run double was not only clutch, but as smooth with his ability to go opposite field like only a veteran player would do. Great bullpen and great fielding, which has killed us this season. I'm happy for the series win and 2nd series win in a row, but we are doing this against bad teams. Let's see how the boys can do against the tougher teams on the schedule coming up later in the season. We have a 115 games left. We have 47 games left with teams over .500 Twins 7 Angels 7 Yankees 6 Rangers 6 Dodgers 3 Marlins 3 Blue Jays 3 Braves 3 Brewers 3 Orioles 3 Red Sox 3

Very strange you go back and find a post we debated from almost three weeks ago on 5-3-23. You are also taking my points out of context. All I told you was he hasn't been the pitcher we thought he would be. Yes you can easily now go back with his last three starts from this post and build up the value of Giolito since he has put together three straight good starts. However I'm curious though, if Gio would have had three straight bad outings and losses, would you still go hunt down this post from 5-3-23? Your last point is how the Sox will be trading Gio. All you are doing is repeating what I told you the Sox would be doing with Gio at the trade 2023 deadline. The only point you seem to be adding is that he will now be worth more on a trade, because again, you are cheating and going back three starts to an old post. Having said that, be careful about pumping your chest and getting too cocky. Looking at the number of starts left for Giolito before the deadline, provided he isn't injured, he has around 12 more starts. There is no guarantee he keeps this hot pace up and maybe fall off and maybe not finish so well by the TDL Let's also get one final thing straight. I am not against Giolito. In fact, I hope he does really well the rest of the way until the TDL. I want his trade value going up so we can get a better haul of prospects when we trade him.

Actually he has wronged you and all the Sox fans. Not only has he been bad, but he has been allowed to keep his job being bad for way too long. You can judge him as a nice guy but more people in here I think hate him versus like him. We will agree to disagree, because nothing will change my mind as long as Hahn is the Sox GM.

Hmm, are you saying we are not suppose to hate Rick Hahn and instead like/love him for his accomplishments: 1. Complete debacle of the 2016 rebuild. 2, Horrible 2023 roster with 3rd worst record in MLB. 3. 26th ranked farm system. 4. Terrible misuse of the team salary with many of bad FA signings. Sox have the 12th highest ML payroll at 185 million, which should be more than enough to be competitive. Yet we are one the worst teams in the league. 5. Miserable history of bad trades giving away good young prospects. 6. In his 10 years as Sox GM, his overall record is significantly under .500 with only one payoffs appearance and zero playoff wins. Yes I am a die-hard Sox fan and I take my fandom seriously. However I don't enjoy watching my team constantly lose and not be anywhere close to a playoff team. When my owner who I also hate, keeps Hahn employed all these years with these numerous failures, when all other 29 team owners would have fired Hahn by now...yes I do hate Rick Hahn. For further clarification on why I hate him. I disrespect Hahn for being so arrogant and smug, like making comments during the early rebuild, "We are building a baseball team to win multiple championships" and "See me at the parade!". I'm sorry, but when you are that cocky and can't back it up, you bet I have a serious problem that he is still around.