Chicago White Sox

I don’t think anyone on this board actually thinks this.

No doubt Joss has no one but himself to blame, but Paulie didn’t even win the money as a result of his betrayal. He simply cost Joss half a million dollars. In some fucked up way I think that’s even worse.

No, I’m trying to point out that your theories about Jose Abreu were wrong and it appears you’re using similar logic with Nelson Cruz now.

Are you actually trying to get credit for realizing Jose Abreu didn’t suddenly become Adam Engel with the bat?

He did say this (over & over again) and based it entirely on Fangraphs pitch value, but ignored all the Statcast data I provided that showed no decline against high velocity fastballs. It was slower fastballs that were the problem during Abreu’s slump. But hey, once Balta has an idea in his head, it’s literally impossible to convince him otherwise.

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Cruz had a wRC+ of 134 last year, good for 19th amongst qualified hitters. You are ignoring park factors and the fact that his peripherals suggest he didn’t really fall off that much last year. But I know Balta, everything with you is linear and whatever happened the year before is predictive of the next. Let’s just ignore his massive BABIP drop and assume he’ll continue to decline so much that he’ll somehow be worse than Palka next year. While anything is possible, the odds are high that Cruz is a significantly better hitter than Palka next year. Steamer has his wRC+ projected to be 34 points higher. I can totally understand the argument against adding Cruz, but trying to rationalize it based on production is bat shit crazy. And for the millionth god damn time, $10M to any free agent will have zero impact on our ability to land Machado.

Great job Clint! And I appreciate you asking Gavin about the lack of power despite it probably being a bit of an uncomfortable ask.

What if it improves our chances of landing one of those guys?

His defense was horrible last year by advanced metrics, but prior to that he’s been fine for the most part. So the question is that a sign of things to come or just a blip on the radar. Personally, I lean toward the latter and believe he would be fine in a corner spot playing half his games at the Rate. 1B would be more of a fallback option years down the road IMO.

I don’t follow. Are you suggesting we should not have acquired Frare from the Yankees for international bonus pool we couldn’t use because they had 40 man problems? If so, how does that make any sense? Regarding the so called “riff-raff”, those guys will be discarded as we make external additions. For now, they can stay on the 40 man roster and provide organizational depth. As for fringe guys like Thompson & Mendick, the odds suggest you’re way better off not protecting these guys too early. Look at Clarkin for example. We put him on the 40 man a year too early and to create roster space had to try to sneak him through waivers. Instead of a team being forced to use a 25 man roster spot on him for a full year, now a team only had to take a temporarily flier on him with a 40 man spot. With fringe guys, I’d much rather keep them off the 40 man as long as possible and make a team select them in the Rule 5 draft.

I know people will disagree, but I’m all for Cruz at the right price. Given his market size should be tiny, I’m glad to hear we’re actively engaged and staying in the mix.

Holy fuck, what an insane finale. I hope Paulie rots in hell for all eternity for the shit that he pulled.

I think you’re right but I can’t recall who that was.

Lol...I was 100% kidding. I think they simply thought now was the best time to sneak Clarkin down.

The Sox did hype up Clarkin a bit and ultimately put him on the 40 man roster last year when it was very unlikely IMO someone would take him in the Rule 5. That being said, hard to be too upset with losing him after his horrific 2018 season. I don’t anticipate him being on the Cubs for very long.

This may be a reach, but it seems like keeping two roster spots open means we’re probably signing one of Harper or Machado in the coming weeks.

I didn’t hate the deal, but did not like Clarkin being the second piece.

Easily the best moment from the Ian Clarkin era: https://mobile.twitter.com/jon_greenberg/status/1064992238521016331?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

I’m assuming that has to be the case, but wasn’t 100% sure. Just surprised anyone would claim him at this point.

So did the Cubs add Clarkin to their 40 man roster?

Well he’s still technically a starter right now and would be in the top 6 on our current depth chart. I personally think he’ll end up in the bullpen as a multi-inning guy (which can be valuable) and I’m not sure which 10 guys are clearly ahead him for bullpen roles. In terms of RH relievers, I’d only put Jones & Hamilton well ahead him and Nate is always a huge question mark. A healthy Burdi would also be ahead of Jordan as well. Otherwise, I don’t see how guys like Burr, Vieira, Ruiz, & Fulmer are that much different in the pecking order. And outside of Fulmer, most of those guys are shorter outing types. I think some of you guys are really selling Jordan short as a possible multi-inning reliever / spot starter.

If I had to guess, I’d assume Clarkin or Tilson is coming off, with Ian being the more likely of the two.

I agree, I’m still pretty high on Stephens and would have been surprised if he wasn’t protected. I do think his future is probably in the bullpen due to a lack of durability. As long as the velocity picks up a couple ticks that should work fine.

Thanks Jimmy. Any word on Adams or Thompson?