Sox Acquire Tyler Gilbert for Aaron Combs, DFA Braden Shewmake

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

It is, and if the Sox didn't trade him, he probably would have been tested at a different time, and might not have been caught, and 40 homers a season might have continued. But he would have been traded in the last 2 years anyway. Admittedly, they would have got a lot more than James Shields.

32 homer pace if he played a normal season, but the crazy thing about 2023 Tatis is that he put up a 5.5 bWAR (despite that much lower .770 ops) because of how many outfield assists he piled up and his defensive runs saved, much like Eaton in RF in 2016...

[caulfield12]

Aaron Combs, RHP, 8th Round

Combs is another pitcher who gets a lot of vert from a low slot. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in saying the White Sox draft philosophy revolved around this principle. It’s a great shape fastball with below-average velocity at 92, getting huge ride and arm-side run. He also showed a sinker with slightly less ride and more run, and he may keep both pitches going forward.

His curveball is a huge pitch with tons of movement and spin, at around 2900 rpm. It’s probably not a major league pitch, but the feel to spin is there, so you’re getting a potentially plus fastball, and the raw clay to build a couple of breaking balls. Combs is a very intriguing arm.

 

baseballamerica.com

Plus he's from the University of Tennessee, so clearly the next Crochet in waiting, lol.

[WestEddy]

The Brewers doing something that all teams do

 

The #TexasRangers have acquired LHP Mason Molina from the #Brewers in a trade for Grant Anderson.

The 2024 seventh-round pick out of @RazorbackBSB has not allowed a run over 2 pro appearances: https://t.co/JlZNoUBmuP pic.twitter.com/sVGaoIehNS

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 3, 2025

 

[Balta1701]

4 hours ago, Dick Allen said:

Tatis Jr. was obviously a horrible trade, but you would have hated him on the White Sox, especially after his PED suspension.

While True, I'm also going to note that I reread the Samardzija trade thread this year and there was one person who said "This is still a below .500 team and I am skeptical about this deal". That opinion was not popular at the time.

[caulfield12]

24 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

While True, I'm also going to note that I reread the Samardzija trade thread this year and there was one person who said "This is still a below .500 team and I am skeptical about this deal". That opinion was not popular at the time.

They were 14-15 games over .500 at one point in early May, but I seem to remember a collapse against Texas and the bottom quickly falling out.   When Shields was acquired, they were already starting to slide in the wrong direction.

Of course, unless you were a big fan of the often-injured Erik Johnson or simply upset that JR and KW were once again favoring cash savings (Padres' subsidy) on Shields over protecting/preserving your prospect stash...because only Keith Law/Preller were on the Tatis trail at this point.

And Shields had been bombed for something like 9-11 runs in a single game (in his previous start) and the owner at the time (Moores) was basically forcing his GM's hand in terms of dumping him on the market for whatever he could get, so the GM obviously had very little leverage to work with at that point.

Edited Friday at 02:32 AM by caulfield12

[WhiteSox2023]

52 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

The Brewers doing something that all teams do

 

 

Completely different situations.  The Brewers are contending and looking for bullpen help now.  The White Sox just started yet another rebuild, are not even close to competing in their own division, and should be prioritizing developing young pitchers rather than trading them away for veteran relievers.  God knows they will have plenty of time to do so.

Anderson’s numbers with the Rangers were terrible but his strikeout rate in both the majors and minors looks pretty good.  The Brewers were buying low on his arm and thinking he will help the big league ball club before Molina who may take 2+ years to develop.

Edited Friday at 02:53 AM by WhiteSox2023

[WestEddy]

20 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Completely different situations.  The Brewers are contending and looking for bullpen help now.  The White Sox just started yet another rebuild, are not even close to competing in their own division, and should be prioritizing developing young pitchers rather than trading them away for veteran relievers.  God knows they will have plenty of time to do so.

Anderson’s numbers with the Rangers were terrible but his strikeout rate in both the majors and minors looks pretty good.  The Brewers were buying low on his arm and thinking he will help the big league ball club before Molina who may take 2+ years to develop.

Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? 

The White Sox have a top 5 minor league system based pretty much solely on their development of pitching. I think they'll be okay. 

[WhiteSox2023]

11 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? 

The White Sox have a top 5 minor league system based pretty much solely on their development of pitching. I think they'll be okay. 

Trading young pitchers, especially recent draft picks, for 31/32 year old vet relievers without any history of success sure doesn’t seem like a wise strategy to me.  Last year, at least Bailey Horn was still somewhat young but Getz still admitted failure on that move within two months.

Enjoy those farm system rankings.  We saw the same thing during the last rebuild.  Remember that?  Any team can dump their best players, wind up with a top 5 or so farm system, be as barren as the Sahara Desert with their major league team, and set a major league record for losses…

Oh wait, other teams tear it down and rebuild and still don’t manage to achieve that last piece of history that Getz did…

Edited Friday at 03:20 AM by WhiteSox2023

[WestEddy]

13 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Trading young pitchers, especially recent draft picks, for 31/32 year old vet relievers without any history of success sure doesn’t seem like a wise strategy to me.  Last year, at least Bailey Horn was still somewhat young but Getz still admitted failure on that move within two months.

You didn't answer my question. Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? 

You seem to have this hang-up with age that people working in baseball don't. They have to play the games. Last year, they ran out of arms. As the Brewers' trade shows, all teams do this regardless of whether they're rebuilding or retooling. 

Please tell me about all these 23-year-old pitchers with 5 solid years of success that are just waiting on the waiver wire for free. 

[WhiteSox2023]

27 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

You didn't answer my question. Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? 

You seem to have this hang-up with age that people working in baseball don't. They have to play the games. Last year, they ran out of arms. As the Brewers' trade shows, all teams do this regardless of whether they're rebuilding or retooling. 

Please tell me about all these 23-year-old pitchers with 5 solid years of success that are just waiting on the waiver wire for free. 

The Sox ran out of arms last year?  Really?  No, they just never had good options to begin with.  They kept cycling through either bad internal pitching options or Getz’s awful offseason and in-season pitcher acquisitions.  All of their options were bad, primarily because Getz had a garbage offseason.

Deivi Garcia, Brad Keller, Justin Anderson,  Sammy Peralta, Jake Woodford, Tim Hill, Jordan Leasure, Steven Wilson, Jake Eder, Touki Toussaint, Nick Nastrini, John Brebbia, etc.

And ultimately, the Sox were going to be terrible regardless so would it have even mattered in the grand scheme of things if they kept a guy like Touki and let him continue to get beat up?  He would have at least ate up some of the innings you are acting like are so difficult to cover.

Edited Friday at 03:59 AM by WhiteSox2023

[Balta1701]

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

They were 14-15 games over .500 at one point in early May, but I seem to remember a collapse against Texas and the bottom quickly falling out.   When Shields was acquired, they were already starting to slide in the wrong direction.

Of course, unless you were a big fan of the often-injured Erik Johnson or simply upset that JR and KW were once again favoring cash savings (Padres' subsidy) on Shields over protecting/preserving your prospect stash...because only Keith Law/Preller were on the Tatis trail at this point.

And Shields had been bombed for something like 9-11 runs in a single game (in his previous start) and the owner at the time (Moores) was basically forcing his GM's hand in terms of dumping him on the market for whatever he could get, so the GM obviously had very little leverage to work with at that point.

You should check again on the results after the Samardzija trade. You have missed an important point.

[southsider2k5]

40 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

You didn't answer my question. Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? 

You seem to have this hang-up with age that people working in baseball don't. They have to play the games. Last year, they ran out of arms. As the Brewers' trade shows, all teams do this regardless of whether they're rebuilding or retooling. 

Please tell me about all these 23-year-old pitchers with 5 solid years of success that are just waiting on the waiver wire for free. 

The Sox seem to have more faith in 3other teams 30s relievers than they do in developing their own young pitchers by their own recent moves.  If they believed in their own people,  why do they need other people's journeyman in another in a string of 100+ loss seasons, instead of developing their own for pennies on the dollar?

[WestEddy]

22 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

The Sox ran out of arms last year?  Really?  No, they just never had good options to begin with.  They kept cycling through either bad internal pitching options or Getz’s awful offseason and in-season pitcher acquisitions.  All of their options were bad, primarily because Getz had a garbage offseason.

Deivi Garcia, Brad Keller, Justin Anderson,  Sammy Peralta, Jake Woodford, Tim Hill, Jordan Leasure, Steven Wilson, Jake Eder, Touki Toussaint, Nick Nastrini, John Brebbia, etc.

And ultimately, the Sox were going to be terrible regardless so would it have even mattered in the grand scheme of things if they kept a guy like Touki and let him continue to get beat up?  He would have at least ate up some of the innings you are acting like are so difficult to cover.

You still didn't answer my question. Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? Four of five of the end of year rotation was Sox-drafted and developed. 

I guess you know you're wrong, and will just babble about Touki Toussaint. I'm not even sure if you wanted to keep or cut him.

[WhiteSox2023]

10 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

You should check again on the results after the Samardzija trade. You have missed an important point.

Let’s not look back at that trade.  Arguably and literally three times as bad as the Shields/Tatis trade currently if you go by WAR output of the players involved.  🤣

Edited Friday at 04:18 AM by WhiteSox2023

[WhiteSox2023]

6 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

The Sox seem to have more faith in 3other teams 30s relievers than they do in developing their own young pitchers by their own recent moves.  If they believed in their own people,  why do they need other people's journeyman in another in a string of 100+ loss seasons, instead of developing their own for pennies on the dollar?

Pipe down!  Getz wasn’t around when the young pitchers he just traded away for vets were acquired and developed!  It’s not his fault!  That was all on Hahn…

Oh wait.

[caulfield12]

7 hours ago, WestEddy said:

You still didn't answer my question. Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? Four of five of the end of year rotation was Sox-drafted and developed. 

I guess you know you're wrong, and will just babble about Touki Toussaint. I'm not even sure if you wanted to keep or cut him.

Well, we did just finish 26th in fWAR, and that's looking even bleaker now if you subtracted Crochet from the equation.

Without him, the rest of the team was at 3.9, and a good part of that was Fedde.

Fwiw, the altitude-challenged Rockies were 30th in MLB at 3.8.

Edited Friday at 11:27 AM by caulfield12

[WhiteSox2023]

1 hour ago, WestEddy said:

You still didn't answer my question. Are you saying the White Sox aren't prioritizing developing young pitching? Four of five of the end of year rotation was Sox-drafted and developed. 

I guess you know you're wrong, and will just babble about Touki Toussaint. I'm not even sure if you wanted to keep or cut him.

I have no idea what Getz is doing.  Trading away young arms for DFA vet reliever candidates doesn’t seem like a wise strategy, regardless of how much young pitching you think you have.  Especially when likely half of it will bust anyways.

My point about Touki was that you keep saying the Sox ran out of pitchers last year.  Huh?  They had a historically bad season.  They could have kept throwing Touki out there to eat up garbage time innings, regardless of how he performed.  It didn’t matter anyways as they set the futility record!

Edited Friday at 05:41 AM by WhiteSox2023

[Jake]

20 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

While True, I'm also going to note that I reread the Samardzija trade thread this year and there was one person who said "This is still a below .500 team and I am skeptical about this deal". That opinion was not popular at the time.

I'm not always right, but man I hated this deal from the get-go before I even knew we were putting Bassitt in there.

On 12/8/2014 at 11:37 PM, Jake said:

Danish and Michalczewski can be parted with. These are the kinds of players you give up in these deals. High risk high upside for the receiving team. Semien has too much upside and too little risk for this IMO

On 12/9/2014 at 1:22 AM, Jake said:

I really don't like giving up the presumptive MLB starting 2B for the next X years for one year of Samardzija. It's well-known, I suppose, that I just don't think Samardzija is that great. I hope the Sox see something in him that hasn't really been there in his past production, which wouldn't merit this kind of return for a one-year rental

[oldsox]

I can see why another team would be interested in Combs. 7 + innings at Kanny with 13 K's last year. Two years in SEC showed a ton of strikeouts. Sox gave him $250 K to sign. I don't get it.

[WestEddy]

A nice article looking at Tyler Gilbert's recent changes, and possible adjustments he could make going forward:

https://www.theskippersview.com/p/is-tyler-gilbert-a-sneaky-good-acquisition?r=47gvws&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

[zisk]

probably could have waited for 2 bad outings in spring training to get these 2 junkball

lefties free. aaron combs might end up being useful. sad part is if i know this our GM 

should too.

[WestEddy]

19 minutes ago, zisk said:

probably could have waited for 2 bad outings in spring training to get these 2 junkball

lefties free. aaron combs might end up being useful. sad part is if i know this our GM 

should too.

Booser and Gilbert were moved off the 40-man, which means they went through waivers. Booser, to make room for the Red Sox' Patrick Sandoval free agent signing, and Gilbert, to accommodate Jesus Luzardo being put on the 40-man. If we didn't claim them, another team would have.