Timmy U

Had to do it. Not like Cease is a lock to give you 6+. Rest of pen on fumes.

No. I'm saying that two organizations have chosen execs from Cleveland in the last 5 years, and I'll grant you that one of them was maybe the second choice. Do you honestly believe the White Sox front office is the envy of the baseball world? If you do, that's fine. You're welcome to your opinion. I don't believe that's the case. I believe the strength of our franchise is the integrity shown by Reinsdorf et al in the community, the character of the young men they bring into the organization, and their ability to lock up young players to team friendly deals. As far as analytics, player development, and maximizing wins out of the teams they construct, they have not excelled the way teams like the Indians, and Rays have. That latter skillset seems to be more valued, hence you see teams like the Dodgers and Red Sox raiding the Rays and the Twins and Jays raiding the Indians. My main point throughout has been, and I'll say it again: the White Sox have not done a good job developing/acquiring lefthanded hitting and that definitely played a role in them choosing signing Grandal over extending McCann. The number of people disputing that has surprised me, so I've probably been too adamant in my criticism of the F.O.

Yes, in 2015. So 5 years ago was the last attempt to raid the team. That job eventually went to Mark Shapiro and after 2016 Derek Falvey left Cleveland to run the Twins, which seems to have worked out pretty well for them. So, we'll see. Maybe some of the restructuring of the development staff and a successful rebuild will make the Sox a highly-respected org like Cleveland or Tampa. Don't see it yet, though.

I like Rick Hahn. I'm not one of the "fire Kenny" brigade, but c'mon. Toronto and Minnesota are both basically colonies of the Cleveland front office. The Sox do not have an elite front office that other teams are raiding. Maybe they will after the rebuild is over, but who is the last Sox coach or exec to leave for another team? There has to be a reason that they lost consistently for 10 years. Especially in the Central. Is it entirely bad luck?

All I'm saying is you cannot separate the Grandal/McCann discussion from the handedness of the players and the Sox overall righthanded hitting lineup. I don't really think it's news that they have struggled to find lefty thump for like 20 years or more.

I'm talking long-term philosophy. Feel free to ignore the last 15 years, but players like Brantley, Santana, Lindor, Ramirez, etc have helped them to a substantially better record than the Sox while both front offices have remained relatively stable. Look at which front office is consistently raided for talent and which one isn't. Cleveland has had a consistently better program than the White Sox. I hope it's going to change, but I don't think it's luck.

The mental gymnastics are what exactly? My point is that, if the Sox had another middle of the order lefty hitter, they likely wouldn't have signed Grandal, and would have been much more likely to extend McCann. But, because they didn't, Grandal's value as a switch-hitter was too much for them to pass up. I really like McCann. But he'd be a better fit on this team if, for instance, instead of taking Alonso's salary on from Cleveland, they had taken Carlos Santana's salary on from the Phillies. The Sox bad luck/incompetence signing/developing lefthanded hitting obviously played a role in their preference for Grandal over McCann. Do you disagree?

Okay, how about "passed on LH hitting HS hitters like Kelenic, Alek Thomas, Corbin Carroll, and CJ Abrams for physically maxed out right-handed hitting players." Look at who Cleveland drafts. They consistently value or overvalue switch-hitters and lefties. 5 of their top 10 position players hit left or switch, including 3 of their top 4. No Sox top 10 prospects hits lefty. Their top 3 lefty hitters are Sheets, Gonzalez and Rutherford. I don't see any impact here. Beyond them, there's nothing. Oscar Colas would instantly become their best lefthanded prospect, even if he's a DH. Gotta value something to get it.

Oh, I agree. Note that I said they signed Grandal long-term and then threw in Mazara. Next year, yet again, they're going to roll the bones on someone else outside of their system. Joc Pederson? It's weird, but the White Sox have a program that reallly values righthand power (or undervalues lefties entirely). So they consistently build teams that look like this -- see, Konerko, Mags, Carlos, and Crede -- while Cleveland has always valued switch-hitters and lefties. Until they make some fundamental changes in their approach to what they think wins games, I think you're looking at a ton of righties coming up through the system and then trying to find lineup balance from other people's rejects. So far in the last, what, 10 years the results have been atrocious. When you look at Dunn, LaRoche, Alonso, and Mazara, Nomar isn't even the worst case scenario. I want them to change their draft philosophy.

McCann is yet another victim of the Sox and their weird inability to develop ANY left-handed hitting. Even now, you look in the minors and if Rutherford busts, which is likely, they are not going to produce a lefty major league regular. Meanwhile, Vaughn just adds to what they already do well. It's why I was hoping they would draft Kelenic instead of Madrigal. With zero lefties developed that forces the team to roll the bones on Grandal long term and Mazara. As last night and virtually every game v. Cleveland proves, you can't have a lineup of 9 power-hitting righties who all swing at sliders/hard curves out of the zone. Way too easy to dominate. McCann deserves better, but you gotta have some balance in the lineup.

Thanks. Nice work. To me, the key upper level prospect is Rutherford. Any word on how he looks in Schaumburg? If he takes a leap, you could see him as a platoon 8 hitter with Engel. Otherwise, you got six guys playing in the bigs in 2021 Robert, Vaughn, Kopech, Madrigal, Dunning, and probably Stiever. Then suddenly the Sox have Crochet, a bunch of high school righthanders and a ton of right-handed young lottery tickets like Ramos, Bailey, and Gladney. That sounds like a bottom ten farm system. For me, time has just about run out on Sheets and Adolfo. I have Burger ahead of both of them cuz they're all basically 1b/dh types and only one of them can actually hit.

I could see Brantley as a DH candidate, but the Sox have Vaughn. He's NOT a rightfielder. Also I worry that he'd be yet another guy to come here and cash their last paychecks as our substandard DH (Dunn, LaRoche, Alonso, EE, et al). I'd probably look for a platoon partner with Engel ala Joc Pederson and spend the money trying to lock up Giolito. The millions they have locked up in Herrera, Colome, EE, and Mazara either has to go to one stud or they should spread it around to young guys. Old, mid-tier free agents playing out of position is a recipe for disaster. Hell, maybe they need a pint of whatever the hell the A's gave Robbie Grossman this offseason.

I am all for Rodon reclaiming his role as a SP if that means Lopez heads to the pen. I can understand why others feel differently. It's a real "pick your poison" scenario.

Bader and Fowler are not gonna block anyone. Marsh hits lefthanded, which the Angels desperately need. Waters is possible, but it's not Atlanta's style to commit to Inciarte ahead of a guy I know they love. Verdugo ain't gonna happen. (Which I'm happy about.) If Boston tries to unload a lefty OF on the Sox, it'll be Benintendi, and they'll ask for the world.

Thanks for the list, can't wait for the top 30. I do not envy you guys especially when it comes to ranking all the guys who've barely played but have some upside. I think the Sox's next top position prospect is one of: Bryce Bush, Benyamin Bailey, James Beard, Brian Ramos, DJ Gladney, Jose Rodriguez, Luis Mieses, Anderson Comas, Yolbert, Sanchez, Anderson Comas, Logan Glass, Lency Delgado, Chase Krogman, Johnibiell Laureano, Elijah Tatis, Cabera Weaver. Have no idea which one though. I'd bet the under on almost all of them because they're so young, but someone's gonna break out. I think you could make an argument for putting them in almost any order. 2021 is going to be interesting.

I second that. Verdugo was just traded for Mookie Betts. On a sidenote, because of previous character issues Verdugo would never play for a team I was running.

Stealing bases is so '80s. If you look at the stats, a lot of steals correlates pretty strongly with "can't hit." The leaders in team steals right now are Seattle, Miami, San .Diego, Texas, and Kansas City. Exactly one of those teams does not suck. The Sox don't steal bags cuz they don't have to. Plus, with the way they hit with RISP, they're probably better off keeping the guy on first.

Thanks for the breakdown. I was looking at this myself last night. Sure seems like Collins will be a fairly cheap back up catcher option and that all/most of the people you think will be gone will, in fact, be gone. It's possible with all that money to play with, the Sox focus on RF. I would love to know how Rutherford is doing in Schaumburg. The one article I read said he's showing more power, but there doesn't seem to be any buzz around him. The fact that whoever plays RF is going to likely hit 8th certainly lowers the need to spend big $ on them. Adolfo has a tough time fitting on this team because of how right-handed the squad already is. Gonzalez seems like a 4th OF, so the only one who could push for a starting job seems to be Rutherford, but I haven't heard anything that makes me believe that's likely. There aren't really that many options out there. I wonder what Joc Pederson goes for or if Mazara shows enough in the last month to warrant being tendered. I suppose after a down year and with Kiriloff and Larnach looming, the Twins might look to move Kepler, but it's a team-friendly deal and why would they trade inside the division? I have a hard time coming up with LH-hitting rightfielders that are either free agents or worth giving up much to get them Spending a lot on a SP with Kopech looming also seems unlikely. Of course, if you believe you're a playoff team, having multiple players with control problems like Lopez, Cease, and more than likely Kopech in one rotation seems risky.

1-12 with risp, kinda record setting pace

They want to get rid of all the short season leagues. So they move the draft later, shut down all the pitchers and have college hitters play low A. High school guys go to complex leagues. I bet they shrink the draft significantly over the next several years. I think MLB is tired of paying for a system in which whole teams don’t even have one Mlb player on them.

Why does Kopech have to wait until June again? With a normal offseason and like 7 weeks of Spring Training, he ought to be as ready to go as anyone else, unless this is to claw back that year of service time, which would be a weird thing to do in what should be a competitive year.

I think Vaughn can play a little around the infield, but with his speed, RF would not be pretty. If Moncada has to miss significant time, maybe they bring him up to play 3b? Or obviously if EE can't get it together.

He strikes me as like one of Cleveland’s starters. Below average fastball, plus curve, good slider, good change, 60 command. Profiles as a 4/5 but I suspect the combo ends up more like a 2/3.

Ha ha, if I guy is being discussed, he doesn’t pitch.

IMHO opinion, the real winner of this trade is Quantrill. He has a lot of talent, but hasn't really developed. I think he could use a little of that Indians magic. This seems like Quantity of Quality unless Quantrill develops, but that's what the Indians do.