TomPickle

Acquiring a better player than the one currently on your roster isn't really an obstacle. Grandal was signed despite McCann existing. Having depth is also an acceptable thing, though Mazara and Pederson are pretty redundant I'll admit. Pederson can at least fake it in CF and would allow extra options in both corner OF spots, 1B, and DH in case of injury.

There was nothing stopping the White Sox from trading for Pederson yesterday.

I chose his worst season as his floor, seems reasonable to me. Yes, if he has his best season in the majors he won't be an outright bad player. The Yankees, Dodgers, and Astros all got at least 2 WAR from every position last year.

The Twins are pretty good at using pitchers in non-traditional ways. Or at the very least they seem to realize players limitations and don't ask them to do more than that, like Odorizzi not being asked to go a third time through the order. They have a competitive window right now so it makes sense to try to improve their team in the short term. I wouldn't love it if the White Sox had traded Dylan Cease for Maeda, who is at least a somewhat comparable piece, but I get why they made the move.

He was a below replacement level player in 148 game in 2017 and has never even had a 1 WAR season. He has one skill, hitting RHP, and if he doesn't thrive at that then he's not even worth playing. His floor is higher than Charlie Tilson, Ryan Cordell, and Daniel Palka though, I'll give him that.

Give me the Leury Garcia Yoan Moncada hat.

.275/.335/.525 with a wRC+ of ~125 I expect him to be in a close competition between he, Yoan, and Encarnacion to be the best hitter on the White Sox.

Seems like they were targeting guys with high upside. Thompson/Dalquist and Benyamin Bailey is probably a little closer, but still a much lower return than what they got. First round high school pitcher that touches 99 and and a SS that held his own in low A at 18.

From an outsider perspective it seemed obvious he was going to need TJ and they just kept pushing it back until he finally did have TJ several months later and killed any chance of him being able to pitch in 2019.

He doesn't really have prospect pedigree and only has 80 MLB innings. It's not like he's some untouchable piece. I just thought he was a reasonable comp for Cease given their age and time in the majors. Their xFIPs do not diverge that much, but Gallen out performed his peripherals and Cease under performed. Reports are now that it's two prospects so my hypothetical is already out the window.

I'll be very interested to see what the return was for Marte. If it's mostly just Zac Gallen would you have traded Cease for Marte straight up?

76 at BP, 80 at MLB Pipeline, not in the top 100 for Baseball America pre-season 2019. His injury was handled very poorly by the White Sox.

I agree, but that's what was floated out there. That's probably what the Indians were asking. Lux alone is still much more valuable than Senzel. May is probably about equal value to Senzel at this point.

Lindor makes a lot of sense for the Reds, but Senzel is nowhere near the rumored Dodgers offer of Lux and May. Lodolo is the only top 100 guy in the Reds minor league system right now. I don't know what value Winker has at this point either, but the Indians OF is terrible so those guys would both be upgrades for them.

This has kind of been the catch-all thread for prospect rankings so I'll just post it here. BP top 101 came out 6. Luis Robert 13. Nick Madrigal 20. Michael Kopech 31. Andrew Vaughn They remain super high on Madrigal and are a borderline skeptic on Robert, with FanGraphs the real outlier there. Unsurprising, but kind of a bummer that no publication is slipping any other guy even in to the back end of their top 100s.

It's a cool can, but there are dozens of other beers served at GRF that I would rather be drinking

Great job by Keuchel endearing himself to a new fanbase in his first real opportunity. I'm sure Astros fans appreciate it at least.

I know they want to play service time games with Kopech, but he's going to be 19 months removed from Tommy John by the start of the season. He should be ready if needed as well.

I agree that he's not lighting the world on fire and making a joke of AAA. But he's a super polished and possibly physically maxed out guy without that much more upside. The two possible boxes that he has to check that are basically the same thing: hit for more power (even if just doubles) and/or change his approach to wait for more pitches he can hit with authority. Even then I don't know if doing that actually maximizes him as a baseball player. I don't think that's going to happen either way and he'll still be up in May at the latest.

I came in expecting this but only because I hadn't seen that yet.

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?/topic/108911-mlb-pipeline-prospects/&tab=comments#comment-3899164

Update from Fegan's article today on The Athletic is that there is no update.

They got one from Donaldson so it's pretty much a wash. Echoing the sentiments of many here, but it Castellanos is going to just get one year the Sox should definitely be in on him.

https://theathletic.com/1523975/2020/01/17/jim-bowdens-top-50-prospects-for-2020/ Jim Bowden has Luis Robert as his #1 overall prospect. Kopech #11, Madrigal #14, Vaughn #35