Thursday, July 20, 2017

Hope is a good thing, even for White Sox fans


Image Courtesy of Bing

The trading of Dave Robertson, Todd Frazier and Tommy Kahnle to the Yankees means the 2017 White Sox have been stripped for parts. That's not a bad thing. The 2017 White Sox model wasn't going anywhere anyway. The Sox are taking the assets from the sell off of parts of the old White Sox model and using towards a sleeker 2019 model. Still there were a couple of decent pieces sold off.

Those tires are pretty good


I hate to see Tommy Kahnle go. I thought he might be a closer in the making. While Robertson may not be a top echelon closer, he was functional. He slots as a decent closer but a good setup/seventh inning guy. Todd Frazier plays a decent third base and has some power but is a free agent after this season anyway. Matt Davidson has a similar profile and is a lot cheaper.

Bring your teddy bear


The Sox got Tyler Clippard and three prospects back in return. Clippard looks like a skinny Radar O”Reilly and has been getting lit up coming out of the Yankees pen recently. He has had some success at the major league and will be the Sox closer for the rest of the year. Of course, this year, the Sox closer figures to get as much action as the Maytag repair man.

What's being door number one?


The prize for the Sox was Blake Rutherford. Rutherford is a left handed hitting out fielder with a high offensive ceiling. He was the Yankees first pick in the 2016 draft. The Sox also got out fielder, Tito Polo. The thing that strikes me about Tito is he has a really cool name. He reportedly has good speed, but no other tool that stands out.

What else have they won?

In addition, White Sox also got lefty handed pitching prospect, Ian Clarkin. According to my 2017 Baseball Prospectus, Clarkin projects as a long reliever or spot starter. I haven't found any information that makes me think otherwise.

White Sox Rizzo?

Yoan Moncada made his White Sox debut Wednesday night and went 0-2. Of course the bigger point is that Moncada is the first wave of prospects to hit the majors. Hopefully he'll be the Sox version of Anthony Rizzo. In a perverse way, the Cubs success may have given White Sox fans hope. These are strange times.

Gar/Pax wouldn't, or would they?


Derrick Rose has reportedly drawn interest from a number of NBA teams including the Cavs, the Lakers and the Bulls. It would transcend stupid for the Bulls to bring Rose back. Which means they're probably interested. With the Cavs and Lakers Rose would be a backup point guard. There's a reality check for Derrick. From max contract guy to backup guard. That MVP award seems like a long, long time ago.

More next time.

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