GreenSox

Jennings is pitching reasonably well for the Brewers. He was a good pitcher, but not someone who's going to bring back much in prospects. One thing that is missing is getting something out of the 2nd tier trades...the Brewers mastered this: Zach Davies for 2 months of Parra; they scored when moving Segura (who had 2 successive years of not hitting a lick before they traded him); year and a half of Gomez yields Santana and Hader. And the help with these young players was almost immediate. And the Cubs and Astros were helped in their progress with second tier trades as well.

In college, Fulmer got a lot of outs with pitches out of the strike zone; major league pitchers do that too, but only after first setting them up with pinpoint command early in the count. Fulmer didn't have to do that in college. Fulmer does a glove-pump in the middle of his windup; it's like a twitch. Hard to see how you can have consistency doing that. Cooper's not for everybody; the Sox have good minor league pitching coaches, so it may help him. I don't think Covey's necessarily a disaster either- he had under 40 pitches above A ball prior to last season, and the Sox didn't try to hide him in the bullpen by using him sparingly; they threw him out there. He may end up being useful, especially on this team.

Holland also has a WHIP of 1.28 and is averaging 8.5 Ks per 9 innings. He had a good April and May with the Sox, but without those K numbers. He clearly wore down. One thing that might help is that he's exceed 90 pitches only twice this season. Last year, he exceeded 90 pitches in all 10 of his April and May starts.

When did KW want to do a rebuild? And, really a rebuild never made much sense until the time he stepped out of the GM chair. And they did set down the path 2 years ago (22 months anyway). If you meant 2 years earlier, yes, they would have been dealing with the Cards, Rangers, Giants, Royals and Mets..probably wouldn't have been as bountiful if they were trying to trade Sale, but good enough for most of the rest of the players. And they may not have had to trade Sale. And they would have Tatis. They would have been worse in 2014, which might have netted Benintendi. They needed to rebuild after 2013. Hahn knew it. He started rebuilding. It was aborted for some reason. And speaking of "What ifs", what if instead of making the bizarre trade for 1 year of Samardzija, they had traded for 4 years of Donaldson, whom the Jays got with a similar package? Good move optioning Fulmer. Let me work things out without the pressure.

There is no "help the tank." That's an excuse. You don't pay $8 million in the anticipation of poor performance. His purpose was to be flipped. Yea, it doesn't really matter in the long scheme; but Shields mattered. The 10-15 such stiffs they signed when trying to contend mattered. They need to do better.

Soria - this org. certainly can scout the veterans.

Just send him to AAA to try to regain some control. Hearing from a different coach might help (might help some others, too).

Get well soon. Elmore? For goodness sakes.

North, how do they determine whether a pitcher is on a relief or starter track? I know a lot of starters who couldn't develop the 3rd/4th pitch are switched to relief. But this player seems to have several pitches (although they need development).

Certainly a good effort on paper; I don't know whether he was facing prospects or AAAA guys, however. Covey is doing this too.

Fry is pitching his tail off Soria is doing what over the hill veterans do, surprise, surprise.

Fulmer = hand-picked by the talent evaluators, #8 draft choice Lopez = Top 100 prospect Giolito = Top 10 prospect for 2 seasons. None are busts yet; although none are mainstay, they have talent and that often takes a while to develop. I suspect at least 1 will become a rotation mainstay. 1/3 is a reasonable ratio for pitching, which means you need a lot of it.

That doesn't make any sense not to take the player because of those 2. Neither is elite (yet) . And 2 isn't exactly depth. You can always use up the middle players. What doesn't make sense is reaching, drafting for position, drafting for "quick to the majors" and the like.

Lopez' mediocre peripherals catching up with him. I would have liked to see Beck pitch more..he was rolling and has pitched well in spots this year..see what he can do over many innings. 3 Top pitching prospects up. Progress, Don Cooper? Is everybody protected in this org?

I assume that you don't mean the Sox version of Laroche. 2017 Davidson surpassed that..

If that's accurate, then they have to draft him. Top bat AND plays middle infield. As for Singer, delivery issues. We've seen enough delivery issues and swing hitches lately (with all due respect to the phenom Sale).

There are some interesting items on that list. Lowrie really isn't scrap heap, but he is having a career year at 34. While it seems that most players taper off around 30, Cabrera found his stride at that age and we're seeing more and more of those kind of players. It guess it's a lot of luck as to whether you can find one, but then again you make your own luck with good scouting. Also notable is that most of those guys weren't drafted at all and were international free agents. If you look at the best position prospects the Sox acquired, they are international players. I wonder if there's a study on scrap heap players: if the bounty strikes more on pitching or position players.

Pass

He's been in the majors for 4 months; he shows consistently good plate discipline. He has a chance to be a good hitter.

Cooper's just been here a long time, and things don't seem to be working: the young guys aren't responding and the vets aren't either. Samardzija wanted out of here after a week, he didn't give Junior Guerra a chance and completely mis-evaluated him. Just nothing has happened in years. As for the hitting coach, the guys who are supposed to hit are hitting; and some younger players have developed. He has a lot of players with limited talent.

Quite a statement when the Cubs only got 1 hit...and yet, it's a true statement.

They made the decision less than a month after trading for Shields and drafting a ceiling reliever in the first round. They just weren't able to execute anything significant until the winter.

The rebuild process is in its 3rd calendar year, closing in on two total years. Nowhere near the beginning. 3 of the top pitching prospects are already on the major league team as is one of the top 3 hitting prospects (the other 2 are in A ball). There is one legitimate prospect in AAA. None of the really top prospects are up the middle players. Pitching is short (despite some claims of "excess"). Is it reasonable to question the progress?.....

I guess they'll need to quadruple down on that "good in the clubhouse" spin.

You may be right about AAA. But I will say that Charlotte is mostly organizational minor leaguers and declining prospects(Kopech an exception).