You know who swung thru MANY fastballs yesterday? Tim Anderson when he struck out three times.

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Incorrect. I do not root against 'Timmay.' He plays for my team, so I want him to be an All Star. I wish he was as good as player as you think he is.

My problem is not with the player. It's with you. When you like a player, he can do no wrong and gets zero criticism from you even when said criticism is warranted. When you dislike somebody, that person gets zero praise or compliments from you when they actually do a good job. Its hypocritical, sad, and unacceptable for somebody in your line of work to be that way.

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Timmy is making remarkable improvement over the last 2 months,. He's flown up the defensive charts and he's 14 pts above last year's wOBA. I presume we'd all be happy with a stellar shortstop and an average hitter. Because that's where he's heading.

But right now he is neither. He is at best an average shortstop and a below average hitter right meow.

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I beg to differ. RIGHT NOW he has moved up 11 places in fangraphs DEF rankings over 2 months. In Aug his BA is .268, his slugging is .507, and his OPS is .804

And what were his hitting stats in July? Terrible.

Again, I want the guy to succeed and yes ballplayers are streaky, but Tim Anderson does not appear to be an everyday SS for a Championship team. I hope I'm wrong.

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I've provided evidence Tim is developing from last year and I've provided evidence for right now. There's nothing else I can say other than to remember this is his 2nd full year in the bigs at a demanding position and he is young in baseball years. Didn't start playing competitive baseball until he was 16. I don't believe you will see a fully developed Tim Anderson until 2020.

I don't think, the Sox were going to call Eloy up this year. I think come 4-15 of next year, he was gonna get the call. I think with this letter he wrote, it means Sept 1st he gets called up, and that time will be added to next year. So maybe it will be 5-15 next year with the call up.

Alec Hansen. I wonder if they’re gonna send him to the AFL to try and figure something out.

4 IP 2 H 1 ER 5 BB 4 K

The White Sox have decided to shut down Dylan Cease for the season. He is not injured, but Sox have decided to limit his innings. He pitched a career-high 124 innings between Winston-Salem and Birmingham

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I have no problem with that. Especially for a guy with an ouchy history.

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No use keep sending him out to dominate Birmingham. Too late for a couple starts at Charlotte, or at least too much that could go wrong. Starts the season at AAA next year, if he picks up where he left off this season he's in the rotation by midseason. Guy really took off this year. He's no worse a prospect than Kopech was a week ago.

An overlooked aspect of the rebuild is the Sox have a collection of bullpen arms in the minors that might allow them to spend next to nothing in payroll to field a championship bullpen.

I was going to make a post concerning just that. They've drafted well. If Burdi can be a closer things will really be looking good in the pen. I dont think it does too much for them other than save money, when motivated they seem to always be able to cobble together a bullpen (Belasario years notwithstanding...), but its a nice bonus.

Bryce Bush hitting streak up to 14 games in Great Falls. What happens at Kannapolis to begin next year could be really exciting.

Bullpen arms are volatile. They need more.

Of course they're volatile. They get abused.

They seem to add a few in the draft every year.

Alec Hansen. Man is this guy fucked up.

3 IP 1 H 3 ER 7 BB 2 K

Guys going to the AFL. Figured Robert and Burdi would go because of all the time they've missed. Robert can use all the reps he can get. A little surprised to see Basabe go. Thought they'd send a guy like Booker or Call.

OF Luis Robert
OF Luis Basabe
Inf Laz Rivera
RHP Zack Burdi
RHP Zach Thompson
RHP Tanner Banks

Its kind of interesting how the Basabe and Robert are both being sent here with their fates somewhat intertwined. This is Robert's shot to really light it up and show us what he's made of. Huge opportunity to hype himself to the moon or make further cause for concern. If Robert takes that step it does make Basabe a little expendable. I know you can never have too many guys at a position like CF, but seriously if Robert breaks out they have like 4 top 100 tier (Basabe is ~top 50 and Robert, with a breakout, contends for Eloy-status. Personally I'd have Rutherford ahead of all of them but that is not consensus) CF prospects. Plus Luis Gonzalez who is not far behind that pack. Its just overkill. Rutherford is probably destined for LF anyways so OK take him off the list, but even then they have their bets hedged pretty deep.

Flipping Basabe in a prospect-for-prospect swap could net the Sox some pretty nice stuff. If they want to get really interesting JT Realmuto might be put on the block this winter. Basabe alone doesn't do it but throw in a few arms. Sucks about Hansen being such a flop, if he had a good year probably wouldn't take much more than Hansen + Basabe to make that deal work with Miami.

Maybe they wanna see if Basabe is gonna be the CFer of the future.

Doesn't Robert need to show something other than speed? When I read the updates on twitter, it always is about his speed.

I know Adolfo had some surgery, where does he figure into all of this? I checked the teams website the other day, and he was listed as a 1B.

Micker has a huge arm and is perfect for RF if he recovers well from surgery. He was only a DH this year because of the injury and probably will be limited to that next year.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

TJ for a position player is different. He should be fine to throw if not for spring training by the start of the season. Gleyber Torres had TJ and missed about 3.5 months of the season and was ready to go for spring training. He sure didn't look to have any throwing problems when they played the Sox this week.

Adolfo had that injury all year and played through it until they felt like he had made enough strides in 2018 and decided to call it a year. He was actually awesome at Winston-Salem considering how hurt he was. He's probably ready for Charlotte, and I'd expect the Sox to be a bit more aggressive with promotions now that the big league club is starting to play well.

I have a hunch the Sox see their outfield of the future as:

RF: Adolfo
CF: Robert
LF: Eloy

I hope Eloy won't object to a move to 1B or DH. His bread isn't being buttered by fielding anyway.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I think there will be a Narvaez/Collins/Abreu rotation that soaks up a ton of the 1b/DH AB's. Probably room for Eloy to get a few games as DH as quasi-rest days but nothing more than that. By the way, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised to find that Eloy is not a bad corner defender. I dont know if he has Adolfo's arm, but Adolfo's arm is Cespedes-level strong so not many do. The rest though? Eloy has some range and is pretty good with the glove.

but the sox can have elite level OF defense with one of the other promising prospects in LF while also keeping Eloy healthy and fresh in the long term

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Any OF that has Adam Engel in it is going to be elite level.