Buehrlesque

Fans complaining to Sox employees, even with season-ticket cancellations, isn't going to change anything. Reinsdorf doesn't care and probably isn't monitoring the response anyway. The only ways things could change are Someone gets through to TLR himself to voluntarily step down Sox players revolt The commish or other owners threaten some kind of punishment Even still, I think Sox fans and media need to continue to voice their displeasure to all this. Despite Reinsdorf not being available publicly, the heat needs to continue to be turned up on Hahn, KW, Reifert, etc., even though they clearly had no real part in the decision and have no real power to reverse it. Heck, an organized in-person protest at the ballpark would probably be appropriate.

I'd take a chance on Mazara, obviously assuming the cost is nothing significant. The guy is very young.

I think the "he might help win a close game in April that could affect a tight playoff race down the line" actually minimizes the impact of a delayed call-up. IMO the bigger loss of not calling a guy up until late April is the delayed major league adjustment period. In the big picture, I think that would cost a team more wins and hurt their playoff chances more than anything specific to Ws and Ls in the first two weeks. Rookie Player X with two months and two weeks of experience >> Rookie Player X making his ML debut in win-now mode

This would be interesting.

The Sox know they have to do something significant this offseason, and I think they will. They won't be left holding the bag like last year. That said, there's no chance they end up with Cole.

For me, this is /thread. Perfectly put.

I come at this from a bit of a different angle than many of you, in that I don't demand as many HRs out of prospects, so I don't have that obsession with power. I find it too reductive to pin such a majority of a player like Madrigal's value purely on power production. This isn't HR derby, or a WAR contest or fantasy baseball. The idea is to build a good, balanced, winning major league team. He's going to be in a lineup with Eloy, Vaughn and Robert — three guys with monster power, TA — a guy with good power for his position, and possibly Collins or Burger — two guys with massive power if they make it. The White Sox will not lack for HRs to the point they desperately need their 2B to hit a lot of them. How many HRs Nick Madrigal hits is just not that important to me to how he will provide value to the White Sox. JMO.

1. Robert 2. Kopech 3. Cease 4. Madrigal 5. Vaughn 6. Dunning 7. Basabe 8. Rutherford 9. Sheets 10. Walker I understand the lack of enthusiasm over Rutherford and Sheets, but I think some of the concerns are a little overblown. For comparison's sake, Walker is a full year older than Rutherford and has been playing a level or two lower all year. (Also, I don't dock guys for lack of HR power as much as other people do.)

Probably not worthy of a new thread, but what do you guys think of Wil Myers as a buy-low guy? He's owed a bunch of money, isn't having a great year (I think he's been benched lately) and the Padres already have too many OFs as it is. You could probably get him just as a salary dump. Is his track record good enough to give him RF for a while here and see if he flourishes again?

I think we're all working overtime mentally to wishcast some formulation of Collins that is better than he actually is. A three-true-outcomes 1B (or pretty bad defensive catcher for a team that couldn't stand Narvaez) is barely above next year's crop of DFAs. I'm hoping for the best, like @bmags said, maybe a Joc Pederson type offensive peak if all goes right, but I don't think he'll be a "borderline star."

I feel good about Vaughn, but can someone reassure me again that he is significantly better than Pavin Smith? What differentiates the two? Smith was a top 10 pick, college 1B, good contact/power combo with a low strikeout rate, but he's been really underwhelming so far in the DBacks' system.

I know it is cynical of me, but part of the solace I would take if the Sox drafted Abrams is that his prospect value could be leveraged in a trade next year, or even this winter, for an established MLB player Kelenic-style. The Sox don't have many high upside guys like that, so it would be nice to have that as an option. And it could be accomplished before his actual minor league performance becomes a factor one way or the other.

Not sure. Obviously, if the cost is even remotely high, it's an easy pass. I'd try to start with one of Basabe/Gonzalez/Walker, then add a second piece (maybe Flores or Pilkington?)

This thought has actually crossed my mind before. In a vacuum, it's a so-so move. But when you consider the realistic options available, it's really not that bad.

They also have Nick WIlliams and Roman Quinn too. I think it's fair to think Odubel could be available. NBC Sports Philly was speculating about it yesterday.