JUSTgottaBELIEVE

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 6, 2017 -> 06:12 PM) 4 relievers? I'll buy that if we get a starter somewhere (I still expect rule 5). With Rodon likely on the shelf to start the season we need at least 1 more who can start. Even if guys are called up, there's innings for a guy who can start. 3 relievers and 1 CF/Util OF. Would be nice to have another vet for a couple years in the outfield as the young guys are working their way through the system and one that is also capable of playing CF.

Fine with me. Now sign Gomez, Reed, Swarzak, and McGee and I'm good.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Oct 28, 2017 -> 09:24 AM) My friend's Halloween display. In his basement now but he will be setting up on the front lawn on Tuesday. I thought he did a great job. https://mobile.twitter.com/joemeldrumoma/st...741627411259393 Update. Turned out completely badass. Did a great job with the video too:

My friend's Halloween display. In his basement now but he will be setting up on the front lawn on Tuesday. I thought he did a great job. https://mobile.twitter.com/joemeldrumoma/st...741627411259393

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 20, 2017 -> 09:12 AM) It's not like Theo is working on some razor thin budget, he's thrown some money around too. I'd probably take Theo #1 too, but I'm just impressed with the full roster the Dodgers built. For all the money on their books, their lineup last night was full of guys who don't make much money at all. Theo was certainly ahead of the curve in many ways but many other front offices have caught up. Plus Theo was able to exploit loopholes in the system prior to the latest CBA like no one else (international signings, MLB draft). He doesn't have those advantages any more.

Puig looks really locked in right now. I know he's always cocky but he looks super confident right now, not the tentative looking player I saw last year against the Cubs.

Frazier: RBI double Kahnle/Robertson: 4 IP, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 BB, 3 K Where would the Yankees be without those guys?

Ex White Sox continue to produce for the Yankees this postseason. Robertson, Kahnle, and Frazier all look great.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 13, 2017 -> 10:16 AM) Yep Lackey is just an amazing guy. There's a bunch of assholes on every team. A lot of us on here have worked in sports before and the less you know about your favorite players behind the scenes, the better. And Addison Russell is a class A citizen...

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Aug 18, 2017 -> 01:59 PM) With the extra year of control we got from calling him up late this year wouldn't we have him through the 2023 season? It's 6 seasons after this year. That's right, even better and more time to be patient! Not sure why I was thinking this year already counted as Year 1 of the 6.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Aug 18, 2017 -> 08:43 AM) I am going to try and give a level headed opinion here - maybe some will disagree but I think there is value to what I am saying. First, there are always rankings that anoint someone the next #1 prospect - when one of those guys is on your team you instantly have HUGE expectations of said player. If you look to the past lists, not all are correct. A lot of times the #40 prospect goes on to have the best career. So let's put the rankings to the side for a bit. To me Moncada obviously has all the tools that are necessary to become a top 20 player in baseball. However he's not there yet and I also think he will never get there without a different approach at the plate. Don't quote me on this, but I believe he's never hit above .300 above A level ball. He was able to put up some real nice numbers still outside that though in the minors - but that's the minors. You can have a selective eye down there and take walks and steal bases on catchers who aren't MLB level. My worry with Moncada is that he sits and watches too many pitches. It's nice to see patience but he needs to mix in some aggressive at bats. Now what do I think he'll be in the future? I personally think Kopech was the star of the deal - and I've felt like that from day 1. I think that Moncada is more likely to be an Adam Dunn, Starlin Castro, Javy Baez, Buxton type player than he will be a Machado, Harper, Trout type of guy who is a MVP candidate every year. That's not terrible though, those guys are all-stars on good seasons, above average players, but they aren't the guy you build around. Now all of this is subject to change if he gets the right player or coach in his ear and it all clicks. People can you can't judge from the first 100AB's at age 22. Well I disagree ..... You can't judge his whole career from it, but you can certainly draw some conclusion. 22 is young.. I get it... but SUPERSTARS don't go through this rough of periods. He's not a superstar and I don't think he ever will be. I think he's a guy who makes 2 or 3 All Star Games and contributes as a nice piece on a good team and has a season or two where he can be a fringy MVP candidate. I am calling him a George Springer at best .... and more of Starlin Castro type (with walks) .... Sure they do. Especially over short samples like 30 game stretches. Also, many star players struggle at the start of their MLB careers as well. This year's AL batting average leader and MVP candidate posted an OPS of .654, .740, and .678 in his first 3 seasons. Things really didn't click for him until his 4th season and this year he has taken it to another level (.986 OPS). If Moncada is still hitting under .200 and an OPS sub .700 next year at this time I will be concerned but I wouldn't completely write him off as being incapable of achieving star levels until he's at least had a few years under his belt. Hopefully by 2020, 3 years from now, things will have clicked for him. Thankfully he is controllable thru the 2022 season and still has plenty of time to figure it out in a Sox uniform.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 06:33 PM) The rotation at least on paper is going to consist of: Rodon, Kopech, Rey, Gio, Adams/Guerrero/Stephens/whoever all of which will most likely spend sometime in the bigs in 2018. That's 3 of our top 10 prospects just right there. And of course all these guys have giant ?'s that's how this is going to be, nobody is arguing that. That doesn't mean Moncada can't be a superstar by then or Anderson got his s*** together or one of Gillaspie, Cordell or Delmonico have become solid major leaguers. Maybe Leury and Avi are for real. They don't need 9 superstars by then. I'm honestly not even going to speculate on the bullpen yet. There's a lot of our minor league pitchers that might be in there at that point and if anything the Sox have proven they can take some random ass guys and make them good relievers. And I couldn't disagree more about free agency. They're going to be players in the 2019 field, I'm not saying they're going to bring in Manny or Bryce but they're going to start dipping their feet in the pool to bring in some guys who can be part of the long term plan. If they see the arrow starting to go way up on Rey and Gio and Moncada and Kopech by the end of '18 and think Eloy is going to be ready at the beginning of '19 they're going to start filling in some holes to make that team competitive. It's not ridiculous that you don't see this stuff happening, it's ridiculous that you keep running around telling everyone there's absolutely 0 chance they could be a contender in 2019. I'm certainly not betting on it but that rotation has a chance to be phenomenal and who the hell knows what can happen if that is indeed the case. Add a 22/23 year old Brady Singer to the 2019 starting rotation and the sky's the limit with that staff.

What happened to Melky? I just tuned in

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 02:29 PM) The key difference though is despite having those superstars previously, we did not have the depth or payroll capacity we're projected to now to fill in around them. We literally had no one in AAA that we could call up and expect to be 1 to 2 WAR player right away. That's the main reason we had to rebuild. I hear you but pretty sad when you consider that every one of those players was on a "team friendly" contract. It was still a very strong collection of talent as evidenced by these trades, just a shame they couldn't find even average MLB starters to field the rest of the team. So many free agent busts in recent years.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 19, 2017 -> 01:10 PM) I'm not sure anyone really complained about the Eaton trade, but otherwise the "one player short" comments are frequent. And quite frankly, I think they reflect exactly what Hahn is trying to accomplish with these trades and that's grabbing the best potential impact talents possible. The hardest thing to find is stars and with greater restrictions on the draft & international free agency it's got even harder for rebuilding clubs. Basically, you have to get super lucky or spend big in free agency if you don't have great draft position or valuable that can be cashed in to kick off a rebuild. We had three super valuable trade chips coming into this rebuild. For those three assets, we landed two blue chip positional prospects & five quality pitching prospects along with some filler (sorry Basabe). We were also able to use some of our payroll savings to add another potential positional star in Robert. That's a great start, especially on the pitching side, but obviously we needed more star upside on the positional side. IMO, even though I feel the trade is a player light when viewed in isolation, getting another potential blue chipper in Rutherford is HUGE for the overall process. We all have to remember this is a numbers game. As much as I wish we could, we simply can't assume all these guys work out. Let's say we have four potential positional stars in Moncada, Jimenez, Robert, & Rutherford. If two of those guys become full-fledged superstars, one becomes an above-average everyday player, and the fourth guy completely flops, that's a huge win for us. We have enough organizational depth and payroll capacity to fill in holes with good/solid players. The important thing is finding two or three superstars for the lineup and another two or three in the rotation. Getting Rutherford puts us in a much better spot to achieve that goal. And while a much lesser consideration, losing Robertson & Kahnle puts us in a better position to land a future superstar in the 2018 draft. So again, while I think this trade is a little light on its own merits, I think it was worth making when considering the whole process. I just think it's hard to pass on a potential superstar today, because you might get a better prospect with a higher ceiling down the road. I just don't think the reward is worth the risk, especially if you believe that Rutherford can be a blue chipper by next season. The funny thing is, depending upon how you define superstar, the White Sox kind of already had that prior to this season between Eaton, Abreu, Sale, Q and now Avi this year. I'm not saying at this point I disagree with the rebuild approach but just find it ironic that the best case scenario for this rebuild is to find a new group of core players (which is a risk when referring to prospects) when we had already established this type of core group locked up for multiple seasons yet still couldn't manage to win more than 78 games.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Jul 14, 2017 -> 02:03 PM) Don't see Yanks going hard after a 1B after yesterday's deal for one and Bird likely to return by mid-August However they do absolutely need starting pitching and relief Q would have been perfect, maybe they take back D-Rob and/or Swarzak Bird's bad ankle might require surgery. If so, he's basically done for the year or at least until late September.

https://mobile.twitter.com/GDubCub/status/8...%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Bottom line, I want no part of Corey Ray as the centerpiece in a Q trade. I agree with the other posters that NYY, LA, and HOU all line up as better trade partners in a Q deal. I also think those 3 teams are much more likely to make a trade for someone like Q because they are in the midst of their competitive window (NYY just now hitting their stride) while the Brewers are just beginning to scratch the surface.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 27, 2017 -> 12:24 PM) Unless he's going to absolutely destroy his leg and cost himself 2+ seasons of development next year, then Jared Mitchell is a pretty poor comparison. Check out Mitchell's offensive numbers from his 2011 season and Ray's this season. Nearly identical at the same age. Ray has a higher slash line overall but it appears to be inflated by a .385 BABIP (well above his .299 BABIP last season in A+). K and BB rates very similar as well. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playe...amp;position=OF http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playe...amp;position=OF

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Jun 27, 2017 -> 12:18 PM) Ray's K% rate scares me for sure. Ortiz has been solid, but the rest of their top 10 prospects have had mediocre or down seasons for sure. Based on his numbers and age, some parallels to a younger Jared Mitchell..

The Brewers had a highly touted farm system entering the season but wow have their top 10 prospects had a tough go at it this year. Outside of Brinson's AAA stint (he's been terrible since his promotion to the big league club), the stats from their top 10 guys are UGLY overall. Ray striking out a 31.5% clip in A+ at age 22 (turns 23 in September) is an ominous sign.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 26, 2017 -> 07:20 PM) 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 5 K for Hansen.. Oh and no walks At this rate he's going to be the second best pitching prospect in the system after Kopech by season's end.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 24, 2017 -> 05:07 PM) 38,618 Yea and felt like it. Very crowded, almost forgot what that feels like...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 24, 2017 -> 05:28 AM) Now up 16% through 29 home dates (I assumed 35,000 for Buehrle) 2017 632,235 total, 21,801 average 2016 546,600 total, 18,848 average 29th game last year on Jun 6, this year on June 24...we were in first place all last May until the final day of the month 22. AZ 23,918 23. MN 23,804 24. Pitt 23,631 25. Cincy 23,122 26. CLE 22,600 27. CHW 21,801 28. Miami 20,821 Chicago the oldest stadium of all those teams, closest is Jacobs/Progressive in CLE I bet the 35,000 assumption for today's game is low. The stadium is going to be packed, I'd guess standing room only.

Pumped to attend today's game. Will be more energy in the stadium today than any other home game this season.