Rowand44

And lets also be honest here, he's a victim of his own success at this point. He came to the majors last season and played a lot better than any of us thought he would right away. Because of that, he looks a lot worse this season. Next year is a big year for him but I'm confident he rights the ship.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 20, 2017 -> 01:26 PM) I wouldn't even say next year. I'd say if there's no signs of improvement come 2019, then it's time to start worrying and trying to find alternatives. That puts him at 26 years old, so there's little room to grow beyond that point. He is going to have to start drawing a few more walks, even if he just gets it to 5-6%, and it'd be ideal if he could cut his strikeout rate down by a few points too. All of this is fair. That said, I will personally be worried if he still looks like this next year. I'm patient but I'm also not patient which of course makes a ton of sense.

Anderson's super young from an experience stand point as well. He's struggled at every level and has managed to make an adjustment at some point. I'm of the opinion TA will be fine and it's way too early to be freaking out about him. If he looks like this and his numbers are like this by this time next year then start freaking out.

EJ is a fine example. Just like EJ if Fulmer is mentally weak enough where he can't recover from his early time in the majors then he wasn't going to be successful anyways imo. I for once actually agree with fathom and just don't see the stuff there right now. Maybe it's an injury, maybe he's f'd up mechanically, I don't know but right now I don't see a legit major league starter either.

Love me some Jake Laroche.

Collins will be borderline top 10 on most lists. Fulmer will be borderline top 15 on most lists, he ain't making the top 10.

From a minor league depth perspective, I'm not sure there's too many organizations in a better spot than the Sox when it comes to catcher.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 20, 2017 -> 08:02 AM) Yep. While she spoke nonsense in the bathroom, God spoke to her and helped her out in the game. What a moron. Sounds about right. I caught up completely on the season over the weekend but haven't checked in on the feeds at all this week. She went full Audrey for a bit there last week.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 20, 2017 -> 10:47 AM) Tell us EXACTLY! Adam Eaton.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 11:06 PM) Speaking in tongues is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Dominique I'm guessing?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 10:21 PM) I think you guys are making it more complicated than it is. There doesn't have to be an obvious winner or loser. We traded present value for future value, it's that simple. Kahnle may turn elite, Rutherford may bust, but it doesn't matter -- Kahnle wasn't going to win championships for us, but Rutherford might. With as long as we've been obviously shopping all of our guys, I'm going to have a hard time believing that Hahn hasn't held out for max value. I understand if "max value" turns out to be less than we hoped or thought, but it is what it is. It's possible that Kahnle returns more next year, but given the high injury rate of relievers combined with the extremely high injury rate of pitchers who see sudden, substantial velocity spikes, it's at least as likely that he returns less or nothing. Sometimes the bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This is all fair but hey it's Soxtalk, we have to argue about something.

Cotts had no where near the stuff that Tommy does. The point is fine that he can regress, I'm certainly not going to argue that but with his stuff and the Sox history of fixing mechanical issues, it's not out of the realm of possibility at all that this season is the Kahnle we're going to get going forward.

QUOTE (iWin4Ron @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 07:47 PM) I disagree. It's easy enough doing what is obvious ... trading away players for prospects. (This also saves them some $$$). The w'sox have literally never spent anything close to the relative amount that Harper or Machado is going to get. It's unheard of in the franchise. Just because they are doing something shocking like rebuilding fully, doesn't mean the owners/GM will pony up money for the top dog in baseball. I don't have any statistics with me, but history tells me that the white sox just won't buy big time free agents. As for my personal feelings, while Harper is amazing, I think the money is better spent on filling multiple holes and depth. I wonder what the differences in $$$ will be between McCutchen, J. Donaldson, Z. Britton vs. Bryce Harper. Personally, I'd rather have the first 3. Not sure if that's a fair comparison. By the way, Free agents: http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/2019/ EVERYTHING the Sox are doing right now is unheard of for this franchise.

QUOTE (TRU @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 07:33 PM) But why? Frazier had no real value, Robertson is not a dominant closer and is still owed a lot of money. Kahnle is the only one of those guys that was worth anything, but he certainly wasn't worth 2 Top 100 guys. Because I value Robertson and Kahnle more than you do, it's really that simple. I'm not saying that in an I'm right and you're wrong type of way, that's just where the disconnect is. Once again, I'm not pissed about the trade as I'm thrilled to get Rutherford in the organization, it's just not my favorite trade that Rick has made. It is a bit light imo.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 05:26 PM) Exactly. You have to be pretty paranoid to hate last night's trade. They got their guy. Be happy. Their guy that they've basically passed on twice in one year. Their guy or not it's not about Rutherford to me, I'm completely fine with him being the main piece, I would have just liked one other top 100 or so guy, that's all.

I think he's your 2 hitter going forward.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 12:24 PM) Who did they replace? Older admins/mods with not a lot of team control left on their deals who had no value to Soxtalk during the site rebuild.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 11:56 AM) 2017 = suck 2018 = suck 2019 = ideally a return to respectability, should see progress. Team works its way back to around .500 baseball 2020 = should contend for the division I think that's the realistic timeline for most people. I also don't think it's completely out of the equation they arrive a year early since the rotation has a chance to be loaded and some of the top hitters in A ball might get here quicker than expected. Am I betting on that? Of course not. Do I think it's impossible? Absolutely not.

I'm cool with Clarkin being Kershaw, just saying.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 11:45 PM) We all know you love Fulmer ? It'll be fun when he pulls the Gio/Adams turn around on fathom. I kid fathom, I'm actually with you for the most part on Carson at this point.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 18, 2017 -> 11:40 PM) How can any Sox fan complain about an extension to a young guy? It's been the best thing the organization has done over last five years. Anderson might flop, but it doesn't mean it was a bad idea. This rebuild was literally made possible by those contracts.

Of course he has work to do. It seems like some people believe that development stops once you reach the majors. From an individual stand point it'll do him better to be in the majors than it would to stay down in Charlotte. It's the right time to call him up.

Do people finally think we have enough hitting prospects now?

But seriously guys, we have like 12 bucks dedicated to the payroll going forward...

The is Tommy Kahnle elite argument isn't going to go anywhere. There's fair arguments on both sides of the aisle there, it's a wait and see.