Eminor3rd

No surprise. They consciously chose Luis Robert. And as much as I want Otani, I'm totally okay with the decision, because the Sox weren't going to be able to be anything other than extreme longshots to land Otani anyway. I've been following Japanese baseball the past several years, and I've seen a decent amount of Otani (I subscribe to Pacific League TV, their online streaming service). He is no joke as a hitter. If there's ever someone who could legitimately make a non-gimmick run at two-way player, it's him. The word on him has ALWAYS been that he doesn't care about the money and he just wants to compete at the highest level. Some may remember also that the DOdgers actually agreed to terms with him as an amateur out of High School, but there was a fair amount of controversy, as the NPB agreed to the posting system partly so that MLB teams would NOT poach all of their best talent before it had a chance to blossom in Japan. Supposedly, Hokkaido convinced Otani to back out of the Dodgers offer on the strength of two primary conditions: (1) Otani would be allowed to be a two-way player, and (2) when Otani decided he was ready to jump to the MLB, Hakkaido would let him go, no questions asked. All signs are pointing that if he feels he's ready, he WON'T wait until he's 25 and can sign a FA deal. And if that's true, every team not in IFA-penalty prison will have the cash to sign him, so he'll be able to choose exactly where he wants to play. Some say he prefers the west coast, some say hge prefers the cache of the Yankees, others say he'll go to whoever let's him hit. Regardless, unless the White Sox were the only team willing to let him hit, it doesn't seem like they would have anything at all to offer that another team couldn't beat. They wouldn't be able to outspend anyone because of the new CBA. So, I think it made total sense for them to focus on the Latin American stud, where they had a pipeline and community to lure him in, and they were able to force the issue with a big check. Too bad -- Otani is going to be fun. But they made the right call, IMO.

If Kopech forces his way into the MLB rotation next year, even EARLY next year, fine. If Kopech is in the MLB rotation on Opening Day, the White Sox are stupid. Service time is important.

Rob Brantly has been just demolishing the IL all year. I'm mildly excited to see if he finally turned a corner.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 22, 2017 -> 06:16 PM) Eh, he's 28. At this point, I think he's just a good AAA catcher/potential ok MLB backup, regardless of how well he hits in the minors. Right, probably, but Kevan Smith is 29. I'd rather see if Brantly can be a platoon piece than give pending FA journeyman Soto ABs in September. The only reason I can think of to play Soto is to do him a favor to show he's healthy going into FA.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 22, 2017 -> 04:14 PM) Forgot he was even on the team, rather than Brantly this is probably your Sept 3rd catcher. The thing is, Rob Brantly has earned another shot. I looked up his numbers after he destroyed us (Lehigh Valley) a couple weeks ago -- he's running like a 140 wRC+ or something.

Surprised to see this. If it was going to happen, would have been nice a week earlier so I could have seen him

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Aug 17, 2017 -> 03:10 PM) Even the walks have stopped. He's one for his last twenty with 10 strike outs and no walks. He's not struggling, he's drowning. Anyone still convinced he'll climb out of this is deluded. You don't have to take the exact opposite point either, but now it's time to seriously consider that Moncada is a complete and total bust. It has gotten so bad that the Buxton comparisons are starting to look generous. I hope he turns it around, but watching him play leaves almost zero room for encouragement. You forgot the green font

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 17, 2017 -> 11:57 AM) I wish some poster would make a thread that tracks how all of our former players are doing. I watched Robertson get a save last night. I haven't heard much about any of the former Sox now on other teams. It would be cool to have day to day updates on each of them. That's like checking your ex's Facebook. Gotta let it go man

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 15, 2017 -> 09:06 PM) Thank goodness.

It is very likely that our return will not be someone on the 40-man roster.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 10:37 PM) Guys, I didn't believe it before, but now I am sure of it - the White Sox are in full on rebuild mode. I thought with a young group of fire throwers in the bullpen and a veteran saddled rotation, along with a rejuvenated offense, the Sox were absolutely still trying to contend. But, with the trade of Tyler Clippard, I now have absolutely no doubt that they are rebuilding. Killer blow to the bullpen. Smdh I don't think I've seen enough evidence of this supposed "rebuild" yet. I think they're just getting rid of guys that Kenny doesn't like.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 10, 2017 -> 10:07 PM) Pretty awesome you got to see Gio though! Definitely! The curve looks awesome live.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 10, 2017 -> 06:32 PM) Gillaspie 2.0 starting to get some hits lately. He ripped one to the warning track in deep center in his last at bat, too. The game was ugly overall, but some dudes are hitting.

You wouldn't believe how many people are wearing Cody Asche jerseys tonight in Allentown. He must have been a stud when he was here.

Giolito's curveball is just mystifying guys, but the fastball is getting hit hard or is just straight missing, usually high. Second curve he threw against Kingery achieved the rareified "swinging strike/hit batter"

Gillaspie with an RBI double into the RF gap.

CHA vs. Ben Lively: 1. Peter 2. Asche 3. Brantly 4. Liriano 5. Hayes 6. Peterson 7. Gillaspie 8. May 9. Alvarez

Charlotte plays here at Lehigh Valley tonight. I'll be working, but I should be able to get a few innings in mostly uninterrupted. We (the IronPigs) need a win to stay in the playoff picture, but I wouldn't mind getting shut down tonight Also, they just called Rhys Hoskins up, so that's good for Lucas, haha.

This is cool. Ordered me a Mal Tiempo shirt.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2017 -> 05:56 PM) If you wait until the stage where it isn't premature, the cost goes from $25 million to $100 million. Exactly. If you've identified the guy as one you believe in, the earlier the better. The explicit point of these things is to get as many of them in as possible, knowing full well that you're going to miss on some, but that the cost is so low that it will be overwhelmingly worthwhile in order to get the ones you hit on. Even if Tim Anderson busts completely, this strategy is still a good one and has proven to be extremely fruitful for our organization thusfar. In fact, it's been arguably as fruitful for us as it's been for any franchise. We've hit WAY more often than we've missed, at a rate that's frankly too high to expect to continue. We shouldn't lose perspective of this when we see a bust. And that's IF Tim Anderson doesn't figure it out.

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Aug 9, 2017 -> 10:35 AM) White Sox Dave posted a good blog yesterday pointing out how Moncada has actually sprayed the ball to all fields, and hasn't tried to pull things in general. This is a good sign. He's also swung at less pitches outside the zone than the major league average. For basically his first few months in the big leagues, I think this is good. Yeah, definitely.

To me, the results don't matter, it's about the process. If the process is good and we lose, we're good. If the process is good and we win and we get a worse draft pick, it's worth it. If the process is bad and we get the #1 pick, we're still in trouble. For example: Moncada's second AB is the only one I was able to see. He drew a walk on a full count. I'm glad he drew the walk, because he continues to show patience and a good process -- forcing the pitcher to throw him what he wants. However, what I DIDN'T like were the two swings he took. Both were offspeed pitches, and were strikes belt high and on the outer half. He clearly recognized them as pitches he wanted to hit, but he tried to pull both of them and was way out in front. Keuchel is a junk slinger and a good one, so it's easy to miss the first one. But between the video prep he should have done, Keuchel's reputation, coaching prep that should have happened, and seeing the pitch earlier in the AB, he needed to be able to stay back and try to poke that second strike into RF. He's still learning, and he's already further along than, say, Dayan Viciedo EVER got in the MLB, so I'm not being a debbie downer. Just an example of the stuff I think we should be "rooting for" and/or "concerned about" aside from draft position.

QUOTE (Scoots @ Aug 8, 2017 -> 02:45 PM) Those were basically his numbers when he was with the Sox, no? Maybe just a tad higher when he was here? No reason to think they would change much...other than maybe he might get more opportunities to hit with men on base, but even then he was pretty awful hitting with RISP last year and not great this year...great guy, absolutely love his personality and also his defense at 3B...not so much his hitting. Yeah, he hit 40 bombs...pretty sure a big majority of those were solo shots (or at least it felt like it) or meaningless in lost ballgames. Idk. Will be interesting to see who he goes with next year. He hasn't exactly put himself in a great position to be on a team that is in win-now mode for years to come. He slugged way higher than that.

QUOTE (Two-Gun Pete @ Aug 7, 2017 -> 05:59 PM) And that's perfectly fine. If it was OK for Sale to wait, why was it suddenly ALL-IMPORTANT to get Anderson signed, without having a body of work to properly judge him? Because the market has changed dramatically since FO's started clearly getting the better end of these extensions. They've gotten substantially more expensive each year. Remember how much Evan Longoria signed for?

QUOTE (Two-Gun Pete @ Aug 6, 2017 -> 11:18 PM) ...and both are better, smarter, and more versatile players than Anderson, full stop. Thank God we gave Anderson a contract extension after one lucky season. I'm with you, man. Early career contract extensions have SUNK this team. Still living with the repercussions of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Adam Eaton.