Jake

I'm still happy with the Sox, but I'd say this is the best return they've gotten in a trade so far. Just makes me chuckle that they aren't even remotely interested in building a winner with the current talent on the roster

Mitchell is one of those prospects whose stats I rarely visit - I feel like I know his deal and usually there's nothing but sadness to see in his current numbers. So, with that in mind, I checked on things since he's hit so well in AA. I wanted to be able to tell myself that there could be some relevance to his AA production thus far. Let's look at things chronologically. It seems to me that we really set Jared up for failure. 2009 - he's drafted at 20 years old and is known to be quite raw for a 4-year college player. Hits well in Kannapolis in 34 games, drawing a lot of walks and sporting a .296/.417 line. Nearly 29% K rate is a concern, but sample is small. 149 wRC+ 2010 - Awful showing in AFL. .163/.239, 31% K rate. No power. Suffers a gruesome ankle injury in ST, misses entire season. 2011 - Despite time away from baseball and only 34 games experience in A- (and a pitiful AFL showing), he goes to A+. Not insane, by any stretch. He's 22 and they feel like he's too old to be in A-. Okay. He puts up a .222/.304/.377 line. 34% K rate. 93 wRC+. Wasn't ready/needed more time. 2012 - f*** the bad year in A+, he's going to AA. And...it could have been worse. .240/.368/.440, 127 wRC+. His walks recovered a lot, which is always a good sign for a young guy. Still, very high K rate at 31%. He's 23 years old, really not too old for AA. A case of the strikeouts in particular screaming out "don't be fooled by the OBP!" 2013 - He starts in AAA. Not pretty. Walks dip (11.3%), strikeouts skyrocket (37.6%). At this point, we have the cajones to demote his ass despite a modestly okay OBP (.329) and wRC+ (96). He falls on his face in AA, though, an obvious sign of a guy who has been jerked around so much that he's lost his grip. AA numbers are .174/.297, 70 wRC+, 14.1% BB/33% K. 2014 - Given all that....we put the motherf***er back in AAA. Again, he's trying to break everything we know about advanced statistics. High walks, alarming Ks again. .199/.348. Now he's in AA and has hit well in the couple weeks he's been there - .340/.400, 9.7% BB/22.6% K, 194 wRC+. So given his history, I just don't see how we could have ever had a reasonable expectation that he succeed in AAA. The fact that he had some success in AA in 2012 seemed like a fluke. I don't see how you ever promote a player with a K rate north of 30%. It seems to me that we needed to just be okay with the fact that his rawness out of the draft and the major industry the next season were going to make him old for his levels and just deal with that. Instead, we've just inexplicably promoted him over and over. You hear guys like Buddy Bell complaining that he's stubborn and this or that and those things might play into his struggles...but I'd probably be reluctant to make changes when I'm incredibly overmatched too. I don't know whether he'll do well in AA over the course of the season or not. Depends whether his mind is right and whether he has EVER been ready to be a AA player.

I don't see Tank being a great fit in Fenway. He's never been great at getting loft on the ball and he isn't a pull hitter in the air, either.

I think a Kevin Martin sort of player would be perfect

That's just bulls***. People need to forget about it. It's clear that it doesn't even make a difference, anyway. Once in the history of ever has recruitment by one player caused another star player to change teams. Otherwise, it's just money and fit.

A team with: Rose Butler Dunleavy Gibson Noah Mirotic McDermott Snell Bairstow Randolph plus whatever our cap space nets us That doesn't make me hate my life by any stretch. I'm a little excited for it.

It's been discussed before that Abreu (rightly) feels that playing every day that he is physically able is an important part of his leadership activity

I'd also like to mention that the difference in AAV between max deal in NY considering NY/NYC tax and max deal in CHI considering IL tax is at least somewhat relevant. NYC income tax - 3.7%. NY state income tax - 8.9%. CHI income tax - 0%. IL state income tax - 5%

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 03:49 PM) The other thing to look at is vision problems. These can change it as well. Mike Olt

Seems like we're just getting progressively further from the facts at this point

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 12:25 PM) It has been stated that Melo wants Taj Gibson to remain on the Bulls. If that is the case, about $70 million is the best the Bulls can do. Now if Melo wants more $$, I'm sure that the Bulls would trade Taj Gibson and sign Melo for the $$. He can't have both though. He can't want more $$ and want the Bulls to keep Taj. Doesn't make sense. Yes he can. Who wouldn't want both of those things? It could end up being the reason he walks away. He might want to play for the Thunder, but he doesn't want them to trade Durant to free up cap room. But he has to earn minimum salary if Durant stays. So he just doesn't come.

Just remember - it isn't just Carmelo is either all about the money or not at all about the money. Each aspect of changing teams has a price. Winning is worth a certain amount of lost earnings, moving his family nullifies a certain amount of the benefits of winning, etc. He could reject the Bulls for their inability to make a max offer without him being greedy. If max is 4/96 and we offer 4/64, his turning us down does not mean that it was 4/96 or nothing. In other news, I've been impressed with Melo in this process. When he left Denver, I saw him as a big baby who strong-armed his way out of town. Throughout the entire mess in NY, Melo has been quiet about his intentions and likely dissatisfaction with the Knicks. He hasn't been making public evaluations of each suitor. By all accounts, he has been incredibly good at keeping his private thoughts out of the rumor mill. Every rumor is "NBA executives think" or "people who are friends of Melo but haven't spoken to him in months believe."

It's not unreasonable for Melo to talk things out with us and decide that he can't balance his interests and the Bulls interests.

That's awesome. You guys do a great job. There's really nothing better out there. Perhaps the services like BA might have more "talent" for this sort of thing, but they don't put the time and effort on our players like you do.

A question, which you guys can feel free to measure as vaguely as possible: To what extent is FutureSox solely a labor of love? Is there any money made? Does it pay for itself?

Only teams with cap space can bid on him. I would guess that he'll get at least half of his due pay from his new team.

They probably informed him, "you'll be amnestied unless..." whatever it is

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jul 2, 2014 -> 08:34 PM) Which reminds me. Who can show me where to find custom date range stats? Like if I wanted to know what Davidson has been doing since June 16th? Go to his minors page on Baseball-Reference. Game log. Click on June 16, click on his most recent game. Ta-da!

Tank chronically lets the ball get too deep. Even his grounders to short, which is his go-to sort of out lately, are from mistiming. You can tell particularly because they are usually chopped. You can handle seeing the ball deep when he is pounding balls to the opposite field, but even when people were highly optimistic about him, they were hoping he'd learn to catch the ball out front.

It interests me that Tank has kept his plate discipline stat of main concern (O-Swing) to a much lower figure than he has in the past, yet his struggles have continued. Given how low I would guess his trade value to be, I wouldn't trade him just to get next to nothing. On the other hand, past this season, I wouldn't promise him anything. If we can't get anyone better than him for LF/DH, he can have it. If we do, he has to fight his way into the lineup, primarily in platoon spot starts.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 2, 2014 -> 02:07 PM) Funny: http://plannedparenthood.tumblr.com/post/2...oes-an-iud-cost I'm sorry, you guys are really grasping at straws here to make this a much bigger deal than it is. You act like dropping a grand on anything is feasible for your average Hobby Lobby employee

Likewise, some of the stuff being taken away isn't inexpensive. People that can't handle normal birth control due to side effects often need IUDs, which are a four-figure cost when factoring in the "labor" cost of getting them put in. Someone I know was lucky enough to find a "last resort" charity that covers the cost of things like this.

I think there's no f***ing way he goes to the Rockets. What an awful fit that would be. How many basketballs do they play with down there? Salary cap space isn't there, just like with Bulls. As soon as Parsons is signed to an offer sheet, HOU is f***ed. There's no big 5 there - it's incredibly dubious that they can even keep Parsons if they want Melo. HOU is even more in need of a S&T than Chicago. Will he stick with the Knicks? That would make a lot of sense. Chicago is a better basketball situation with star power, depth, and personnel that makes it make sense to bring in a ball dominator like Melo. He gets to stay in the East, which appears to be the easier conference to play in. Chicago is a city with real culture and personality without some of the headaches of NY (I don't think paparazzi are going to follow Melo to dinner every night in Chi-town). Also, trading Jimmy Butler to open up 2 million in cap space ought to be a f***ing fireable offense. Sweet Jesus are there better ways to achieve that end.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 09:29 PM) I'm glad you oppose right to work laws. They can just find a job somewhere else if they don't to pay union dues. :notworthy :notworthy

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 06:57 PM) Again, does that sound like something an organization with this major impass between front office and coach? Maybe that was part of the reason they did it (to alleviate that perception), either way, it sure seems to me that everyone is on the same page and all this media talk about Thibbs and FO is completely overblown. I'm guessing that Gar and Thibs have beef but they've managed to sustain a solid working relationship anyway.