Chicago White Sox

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/zack-burdi-enters-offseason-healthy/c-300184132

Lance Lynn at 2/$16M seems like a fucking steal to me. I’d also add Allen & Pomeranz on one year deals if at all possible.

Right now, I think you have to score this one under inconclusive. The first wave of guys really struggled and failed to meet expectations IMO. Obviously it’s way to early to jump to any conclusions with those guys, but it would have been nice if even one of them had a strong season or even a great second half. I do have some concerns that Coop may be a bit behind the times now and that Steverson just isn’t good. The 2019 season needs to be make or break for them IMO. Then you had the array of injuries that decimated our term system. I may be in the minority here, but I actually saw positive signs with our player development this past season. Cease made major strides. Basabe, Adolfo, & Rutherford all improved. LuGo became a legit prospect. Dunning was fantastic when healthy. Lambert came out of nowhere. A bunch of minor league relievers had strong seasons. Overall there were far more positives than negatives if you ignore the injuries. The question is whether 2018 was just an unlucky year or a sign of things to come. We better hope it was the former and not the latter. Drafting is a big concern right now for me. At this moment in time, the Burger / Sheets combo looks horrific. I’ll acknowledge that could change with a strong 2019, but it just seems like we selected for need (i.e. power) vs. BPA. I won’t overreact to the Walker pick, but something about going overslot for college juniors seems off to me (same with Sheets). Madrigal better be a big hit or I’m afraid Hostetler needs to be on the hot seat. LatAm is concerning as well and the going “all-in” for Robert but not actually signing a ton more guys seems like a wasted opportunity. That decision goes well beyond Paddy, but if Luis flops that’s another misfire in a long list of them for Marco. At some point we can’t use the “needs more time” excuse to protect Paddy. Overall I’m a little down, but will be far more optimistic if the front office can land a whale free agent. If last year taught me one thing, it’s that we’re going to need more than internal talent to end this rebuild.

Steele Walker was coming off an injury and actually provides utility with the glove. That’s a poor comparison IMO. As for Banuelos, there are reasons for optimism with him. Former top prospect with returning velocity and coming off a stellar year in a notorious hitter’s league. Odds are he will amount to filler, but I’d rather roll the dice on him than a 22 year old 1B only type coming off a sub .700 OPS in low A. And I thought you were a fan Javy Guerra? Somewhat comparable move IMO.

Let’s be honest here, anyone who is proposing we cut a former 1st round pick coming off an injury who doesn’t need to be added to the 40 man for another year and actually pitched well in the AFL despite lost velocity edit by mods: removed, let's cool the personal attacks

I’m interested in hearing how they plan on using Banuelos. Is he just a depth piece for the rotation or someone they believe can challenge for a major league role out of camp? My guess is they view him as Santiago’s replacement and he’d be a much more interesting option than Hector.

Everything about this post is just stupid, dumb, & ignorant and represents everything wrong & cowardly about the internet.

I like your assessment better.

?

Did you read the article I posted? His velocity just recently returned (back up to 94 MPH now) after years of elbow problems. A lefty with his kind of stuff is very interesting to me, especially one coming off a pretty damn good season in the PCL. I think he’s a guy worth rolling the dice on, especially at the cost of a one dimensional 1B prospect.

Again, reading comprehension my man. I literally said there was upside for more beyond that, so not sure how you’re trying to spin the 12 WAR scenario into the “ideal case”. And 12 WAR would represent like an 8 game improvement from our rotation alone. Combine that with a Machado signing, a decent OF addition, Eloy, and some improvement from our young guys like Moncada & Anderson and a .500 season looks like it could be in the realm of possibility when you play in the worst division in sports.

Am I arguing with an insane person? I even italicized “IF” because I knew Balta would try this bullshit. Under no circumstance do I expect everything to go right with that rotation, but it’s certainty in the realm of possibility. Just like how no one expected everything to go wrong with our rotation last year and that more or less happened.

Probably the one who is injured or the one who flops this year. Assuming the five arms that we have in place will be healthy, ready, & deserving of a role (or not traded in Rodon’s case) is quite the optimistic expectation from you. And I have never assumed that Lucas Giolito will be a lot of better. In fact the last time we got into this argument I said it’s likely one of these kids will flop. And guess what bud, if all our young guys work out there are these things called trades where we can move the veteran to open up a spot. And good god man, you got to work on those reading comprehension skills. My entire argument has always been adding vets on “short-term deals”. Signing an OF to a one or two year is something I can get behind as it really wouldn’t be blocking anyone. At some point you need to accept there are ways to make the on-field product better without jeopardizing the long-term viability of the rebuild.

Yup, no chance the three 24-25 year old former top 40 prospects (top 10 for two of them) could become pretty good next year. Yup, no chance the guy who put 3+ WAR seasons in 2016 & 2017 and whose velocity starting trending up towards the end of the season could be pretty good next year. Yup, no chance the guy who has put up 2.8 WAR in 5 of the last 6 seasons (including last year) could be pretty good next year. Will they all be good next year? Probably not, but I could see us realistically getting 12 WAR out of those guys with enough development / good luck. And there’s definitely upside beyond that if you assume development isn’t linear with our young guys, but unfortunately that’s not something you seem willing to accept.

What in the world are you talking about? Who are we blocking in the rotation, 3B, OF, etc?? Your idea that adding a single starter to a two year deal would be blocking our young pitching is comical. Depth is only a good thing, whether we need it internally or can cash it in for other assets. Adding veterans to short-term deals will NOT do us harm.

I love everything is so black & white with you. There will be quality starting pitchers that come out of this class and there will also be landmines. A guy like Pomeranz was really good prior to last season. He’s a guy we should definitely roll the dice on. The other guy I really like is Lance Lynn (not on that list) if I can get him on two year deal max. Add those guys and you have something like this: Rodon Lynn Lopez Pomeranz Giolito By June or July it’s possible Dylan Cease could be ready and would take over for the weakest guy or whomever is traded. That rotation has the potential to be pretty damn good IF things go right.

Wow, absolutely love this move. I’d highly recommend reading the article below: https://newsok.com/article/5603029/manny-banuelos-enjoying-a-resurgence-with-the-oklahoma-city-dodgers

Here’s an example of Middleton contacting his manager due to a player not busting: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/philadelphia-phillies/freddy-galvis-base-running-gaffe-caused-owner-john-middleton-send-email%3famp Hopefully this guy is the Ricky Renteria of owners and decides to take a pass on Manny.

Yup, would be huge. And I did read an article that speculated that the Phillies owner might be turned off by Machado’s “antics” in the playoffs. If so, that would be fantastic for our chances.

I think they’ll tender Avi a contract, but his BABIP fueled batting average from two seasons ago doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things IMO.

I mean, that’s not entirely true. Albert Belle was signed to the biggest contract in baseball history at the time. Joe Borchard was given the largest signing bonus ever at the time. Yes these were ages ago, but Reinsdorf has had his moments and recently he outbid everyone for Luis Robert. Regardless, the situation is much different now. Jerry is really getting up there in years, the Sox have almost zero financial obligations going forward, and the team is desperate for attention as it preps to negotiate a new TV deal. Adding a legit superstar isn’t just critical for the long-term well being of the franchise but something that we’re actually positioned to do. As grim as this may sound, I have zero doubts in mind that Jerry doesn’t plan to die during a rebuild. He’s going to add a legit star (and other pieces) to help put an end to this rebuild and the first target will most certainly be Machado. That doesn’t mean the Phillies or some other team won’t beat us out for his services, but I truly believe Reinsdorf will do everything in his power (within reason) to land us a star.

I guess we’ll have to wait & see. But if sports have shown us one thing, it’s that more often than not guys take the biggest offer.

Money talks and the Sox should be the most incentivized team to land a star. If they outbid the competition (which is possible) they should have a decent shot at landing one of these guys. Obviously there are no guarantees here.

The team that invented the opt-out is going to pass on a guy they’re obsessed with because of an opt-out?

People are WAY too pessimistic here. We are clearly planning to go hard after Machado. We wouldn’t have considered trading for him last offseason if that wasn’t the case. I’m a little concerned they have no interest in Harper, but that’s purely speculation. Regardless, I still think us & the Phillies are the favorites to land Machado.