GreenSox

The clubhouse seems more like a Pedro excuse. The Sox have Eloy and Vaughn for multiple years, if they want them. No reason to jettison them for dimes on the dollar to make room for a player coming off of an ACL. I'd spend the $ on short-term pitching, so that the Sox don't get blasted ever night. Also trade for a young outfielder, given that the pipeline is really thin at that position. I keep reading that the Cardinals have "outfield depth"; I guess "Depth" is in the eye of the beholder as most seem to have not done well in the majors, but maybe pick one of those guys up cheap and hope for a rebound.

That's a better collection of young players than the Sox had when they started the 2016 rebuild. Some of it is because they made a much more energetic reasoned effort last July in peddling 2nd/3rd tier players than they did during the rebuild when peddling 2nd/3rd tier players.

It didn't change last July when trying to move him. Sox wanted elite, and no one bit. Teams rarely trade away their elite prospects - too much risk. Preller has done it it, but it wouldn't surprise me if he is gunshy now. I think they can get a nice package for him: a ML ready OF and a couple of prospects in the 40-120 range.

It would still suck. Let's the new GM start the resurrection of a 100 loss team by trading young players for declining negative fWAR player. The farm finally isn't in the decrepit shape that it usually is in. Use it judiciously.

Wasn't that Burdi to rush to the bullpen (Hahn was successful in that effort). Collins who would be quick to the majors at a needed position. Etc. etc. 1 high school player signed in the entire draft.

As well as the 2016 draft. I sure wish JR did informed Hahn that he had a long-term contract. Maybe Hahn wouldn’t have made those desperation moves. The Samardzija trade annoys me even more. Hahn actually thought that he had made a great move. He was strutting and preening after that trade.

Wasn’t it Pedro over Bochy as well? I thought I read that Bochy was in Nashville and was interested in the Sox job.

Rice has been terrible in baseball for a while now.

That's certainly true. But I guess i'm not going to get hung up about it if it's just a conventional bad trade. If you make trades, you'll make some bad ones. As long as the trade is well-intended and if you have a reasonable idea of the value of each piece of the trade (Hahn, clueless) , they should, at worst, even out. And, also, the trader is out of the org. The Semien and Tatis trades were not well-intended; there was very little to be gained from either trade.

First, they are going to have to actually make some of those types of trades, which Hahn, for some reason, stopped making after in 2013 (Eaton #1 and Davidson). One worked out, one didn't, but all in all, a huge net +. I love these kind of trades, I agree that the Sox need them, and, for us old-timers, those are the type of deals that Hemond used to jumpstart the Sox after the 1970 disaster. I will edit to add that Carlos Quentin trade #1 was like that; Matt Thornton trade was like that. They made several from 2005-10, some worked out, some didn't, but the winners hit big. They involved fewer players than the Az trades, but the same type of trade. The Burger-Eder trade is arguably like that. But otherwise, it's mostly old-for-young or young-for-old.

I never quite understood the point of trading Burger, given his salary, years of control, power, and, for an org. and manager concerned about its "culture," he was one of the few players who seemed to give a damn. That said, I am not convinced that it was necessarily a "bad" trade. Acquiring well-regarded young pitchers is a good thing. I doubt that we traded away the next Semien or Tatis here. I'll await to see what Getz & Co. can do with Eder. They seem to be on top of things, at least.

There's no reason to trade Moncada; they need a 3B and they'd either eat 75% of the salary anyway, or throw in something good to entice a team to take that salary. Grandal isn't a member of the White Sox. How does he get into the conversation? I lean toward picking up Anderson's option. I know he isn't worth that cost, but I'd prefer neither Andrus again nor Montgomery rushed. And that seems to be the Anderson alternative. That said, one thing that they need to do, and Hahn went short-shrift on during the rebuild, was some scrapheap work, and perhaps they can find an acceptable SS, at least one who can defend, via the heap.

Given the choice between Ng and Getz, I'd certainly take Ng. But bringing in Ng at this point, with a pre-selected staff, would probably be much worse than just Getz.

The White Sox under Williams/Hahn had an enduring record of squeezing those tendencies out of young players (and not-so-young as well). Changing that should be #1 on the list of this new regime.

I doubt that JR's perception of the quality of those deals had anything to do with it. BUT the workings of the Burger deal did reveal dysfunction between Williams and Hahn, which might have been the "tipping point" for JR.

Footman Hostetler, aussi

Could also look at the 2020 draft. Picking productive players off of the scrap heap, etc.

I like what I've heard out of Barfield. I also liked his words about "grinding" which wasn't the KW/Ozzie-style hacking and lunging grinding, but OBP grinding, which has been the weakest part of the Sox offense throughout most of the century. Tim for RF! He's athletic, should do a good job, and it might help clear his head. Wish they'd given him some OF time last season.

Well, darn. What then is the backup plan for addressing the possibility of porn in the clubhouse?

The situation after the 1970 season was far more dire than it is right now (in many ways, including the 26 man roster and the farm). This was the move that started it all; and coupled with Tanner/Sain moving Wilbur Wood to the rotation, solidified the pitching in one offseason. This was a great move. Though Hemond made some bad moves as well over the years**, he made moves, which was essential in the context of the owner: Veeck. who could barely afford the team. ** Chet Lemon fiasco; otherwise mostly in the late 1970s, when the farm finally started to improve and he squandered a lot of it.

Have the Hahn footmen Jeremy Haber and Nick "Steele" Hostetler been sent on their way?

I would pay it for both of them, especially Crochet. Crochet has real talent Clint Frazier, on the other hand.... If they don't pay for Touki, they'll pay $10 million for a "proven veteran" fifth-starter type who is no better than Touki is.

I hear you and I'm not pining for Katz' dismissal or anything. But our starting staff wasn't supposed to suck, with Giolito, Cease and Lynn expected to be top-shelf starters. Kopech was a WIP and then a 5th starter.

It takes a great bullpen to pull that off. Starters' pitch counts rise drastically with all of the walks and lack of quick out. You'll need high leverage relievers from the 5th inning on. It may minimize the damage when you kind of suck. But I don't see that as a championship strategy. And I hope he knocks it off starting next season. Rangers starters didn't walk anyone against a team that likes to walk. They won 2 road games in absolute hand-rides.

"Aggressive hitting" has long been an organizational philosophy that Getz, hopefully, expunges. But I really can't imagine any coach actually teaching players to hit the ball on the ground, nor players doing that intentionally (other than when some clown manager orders them to intentionally make outs in order to move those runners up).