Giolito promoted to White Sox, Kopech to AAA

[brett05]

Do you realize that many of the games that they won last season were with Sales, "Q", two quality relievers, two quality outfielders, and quality 3rd baseman on their team?

You appear to be mixing seasons. The 2017 season we had no Sale. After trading away Quintana, Robertson, Kahnle, and Frazier the team played better than it did with those guys against better competition. In fact they played better the last two months of the season than they have since 2012. Those are the facts.

Now will the outfield be worse? It could be however that is a long shot. 2017 was pretty bad already. However, they have Avisail to man RF. Melky was a disaster in the field, but he did have a bat to help. That bat was replaced quite nicely with Delmonico this past year. The defense was very solid in CF with Engel. I think L. Garcia will handle LF quite well and play at a level full time above replacement value. In his part time role this past season he was worth 1.2 bWAR. In fact he was better than Melky this past season who put up a .9 bWAR. Several wild cards are out there going into next season including Tilson, May, Delmonico, W. Garcia, Hansen. They really are just place holders until guys like Jimenez, Robert, and Rutherford are ready. If those guys never get to the big league club the White Sox have flexibility to trade or sign for those positions which normally are easier to fill than others.

I agree on Anderson. He had two different halves, but if he has truly turned it around, he's a top 15 SS type.

I agree on 3b too. I think Davidson is probably a wash with Frazier and again a place holder until Burger is ready.

Catching you have to admit was a bit of a surprise this year on how well that turned out. Smith turned in the best batting average a White Sox catcher has ever had in his rookie season. Omar was pretty solid too. Definitely would like to see the ability to throw out runners improve, that may come with experience.

Our Starting pitching was hot garbage in 2017 outside of Q, Giolito, and Lopez. And even Q would toss in a horrendous start at least monthly it seemed. With Giolito, Lopez, and at least to start Fulmer, those three by default almost have to be better than what we did last season. This will be Shields last season. His cost to us is only $7 million and yes, I am hoping he pitches well enough to get flipped for a lottery ticket.

Levine wrote about Abreu. He speculated that Abreu might be on the block. It was a meatball piece that all writers write quite frequently. It was purely a space filler piece. Of course Abreu could be traded. Any of the guys could be traded. The facts are that Abreu will be past his prime offensively when the team is ready to compete again. So it would be foolish not to entertain offers. That said, I really believe the organization knows the value he has with guys like Moncada and that Abreu's intangibles might even be greater than him as a ballplayer. He's the extra coach that has the instant bond with the latino players. I think he's a lock for a 4/$60 million dollar deal that will only see maybe a year to possibly two years of ball player value, but four solid years of maturing the young players as they come up to give them the best shot at staying on the straight and narrow as he has up to this point.

Finally Relievers. They come and go. And with the White Sox, they have a few current options, a few minor league options and will fill out the rest with FA signings. Minaya looks to be their closer. He saved 8/9 and in decisions since being promoted to closer had a 2.25 era and just under a k per 9.

Really, how could the rebuild in under a year have gone better?