How to rebuild in just a few short months

The Chicago Cubs may be the more popular team in Chicago and they are the defending world champions along with being set up to be a contender for a long time to come.

All of that might be true, but if all works out, the Cubs might not wind be being the best team in Chicago, if the amazing amount of talent that has been brought to the less popular team on the South Side in the White Sox pans out.
White Sox general manager Rick Hahn has moved assets for a bounty of prospects that are the envy of the league and took advantage of teams from contenders that frankly surprised many observers.
These deals have revitalized a franchise that has had four losing seasons in a row (about to have their fifth) and their fan base by trading good players to desperate contenders.

Let's go back to December and the first deal with the Red Sox.
Chris Sale is a legitimate top-of-the-rotation starter, but seemed like a luxury item on a below-average team.
Combine that with occasional clubhouse issues like this one and it made sense to shop Sale as the player that could bring back the highest return (more on that later).

The Red Sox won their division last year after missing the playoff two years straight, but being swept in the first round left a rabid fan base wanting to see their team make a move to improve a good team into a serious championship contender.

Sale was sent to Boston and the prospect return was quite good as the top prospect in the game second baseman Yoan Moncada (last night, Moncada made his big league debut) was the headliner.
Getting Moncada was a good start, but add power-armed Michael Kopech (several times clocked at over 100 MPH), who in each level of his career is averaging double digits strikeouts per nine innings with a ceiling of a 1 or 2 starter and a floor of a hard-throwing reliever, an interesting arm in Victor Diaz (Diaz has struggled in high A this season with Winston-Salem) and toolsy outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe (Basabe is striking out once every four at-bats with Winston-Salem) and the White Sox looked to be quite happy with their return.

This deal might come down to how Michael Kopech develops.
Moncada looks to be about as sure of a bet as you can have for a prospect and Kopech might be the difference between a good deal and a very good deal as both Diaz and Basabe were high-ceiling lottery tickets that the White Sox have to be hoping that they get anything out of just one of them to make this a successful trade.

One day later, Hahn struck again with a team desperate to make postseason progress in the Washington Nationals, who have made flopping in the post-season a habit over the last few seasons.

Even considering desperation, it was more than a surprise that the ChiSox were able to turn outfielder Adam Eaton into three high-level pitching prospects.
Eaton was injured after 23 games in Washington, so the jury is still out on this trade, but Washington felt the need to win now as their window might only have a few years left and Eaton was under a very friendly contract, so he would not be considered a rental.

The cost was three of the Nationals' top four pitching prospects and left the Nationals dependent on the development of Erick Fedde if they were to get any help at all from the farm system for the immediate future as far as pitching-wise.

Lucas Giolito was thought of as one of the best pitching prospects in the game but had struggled in a brief cameo with the parent club in 2016, Reynaldo Lopez looked very good at AA Harrisburg last year but was unimpressive in Washington in his short stint there and the Nationals first-round draft pick Dane Dunning was included in the deal as well.

The results so far are mixed, but promising for the White Sox.
Giolito has been pounded for AAA Charlotte but has occasionally shown signs of brilliance (a seven-inning no-hitter and seven innings allowing just two hits two starts ago).
I wondered about Giolito (the link is here somewhere) and the lack of movement on his fastball as far back as his time with the Hagerstown Suns, but the talent is there.

I liked Lopez as the better of the two even back then and Lopez has begun to be mentioned as the next potential callup from the Charlotte Knights.
Lopez has allowed more than three runs only once since the end of May and more than two just twice in the same period.

Dunning has been excellent all season at two stops (Low A Kannapolis and High A Winston-Salem).
In my opinion, the White Sox had to do this trade even if none of them turned out at the big league level.
The potential to plug in three arms into a future rotation for a good, but not impact outfielder is one that a rebuilding team has to make every time....

The season moved on and the White Sox used Jose Quintana, a good not great starter who will eat innings and slot into the middle of most team's rotation anywhere from 2 to 3 depending on the team.
Combine that with another reasonable contract and Quintana was yet another valuable trade chip for Hahn.

Hahn managed to turn the dependable arm of Quintana into the huge upside of outfield power hitter Eloy Jimenez as the main piece of another four-player return.
Jimenez (Remember him?) missed the early part of the season, but his eight homers in 155 at-bats were enough to make the Carolina League All-Star game, and his forty doubles last season at low A South Bend is the type of stat that impresses observers.

Power bats like the 6'4 Jimenez don't come around every day and at 20, Jimenez looks like a future star.
Add another top prospect arm in Dylan Cease (thought of as a top 100 level prospect) at low A South Bend (batters in two seasons have hit below .200 against him) and two other high A minor prospects in first baseman Matt Rose (14 homers with Myrtle Beach this season) and middle infielder Bryant Flete (hitting over .300 in a breakout season for the same Pelicans) and you have the potential for a huge return.
Jimenez could be a franchise cornerstone, Cease has the upside of a solid starter and if Rose or Flete give the major league anything, this deal would be rated as a huge win for the White Sox.

Hahn still wasn't finished as he used the interest of Boston in Todd Frazier to help with their failing third base situation to parlay that into a deal with the Yankees that included help for the New York bullpen in David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle.
This deal carried a little more financial wiggling as Robertson is owed 18 million for 2018 and the pro-rated version of that for the rest of this season and Frazier earns five million over the final few months of the year.

Chicago had to decide to move them and eat some money, perhaps improving the haul or making the money the problem of the buyer, and as a result, the prospects might not be of the level of the players returned earlier.
This time, Hahn chose the lesser return to save the dollars and gained one nice prospect and others with questions.

Outfielder Blake Rutherford is the blue chip return of this bunch as he was the Yankee first-round draft selection in 2016.
Rutherford was hitting .281 for Low A Charleston with only two homers, but his twenty doubles give me hope that he'll grow into his power.

Righthanded pitcher Ian Clarkin has good numbers in two years at High A Tampa, but has been plagued by injury and has never pitched 100 innings in his nearing five-year career.
Outfielder Tito Polo is hitting .307 in 2017 between High A Tampa and a recent promotion to AA Trenton after being acquired from Pittsburgh at last year's trade deadline.
Polo has speed to kill (stolen base numbers of 46,37 and 27 over the last three years), but doesn't seem to have the pop in the bat to be more than a 4th outfielder.

The White Sox also took on veteran reliever Tyler Clippard for the rest of 2017 to offset some of the Yankee's expenses for the new players.
This deal is the riskiest for Hahn, yet he managed to turn a player he acquired in a minor deal (Kahnle) and two high-priced players into somewhat of a decent return.
There is no sure thing in this trade and only the recent fourteen games of Polo have been at the AA level, so all three players have reasons to be looked at skeptically.

The Chicago White Sox have accumulated what seems to be a strong amount of talent by moving players that didn't help them to even be average.
None of these players are guaranteed to be contributors, although the odds are that at least a few will be, but the commitment to blow it up and do it quickly is a sound one.
I like what's being done in Chicago and if even some of these players fulfill their potential, there could be two powerhouse teams by Lake Michigan....

Road Trip:Norfolk

I've been on the road a lot over the last week and didn't have a chance to write about the Cavaliers two wins and one loss on their way to winning the Eastern Conference for the third year in a row.
I'm planning a title series preview covering the Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors later this week,but since that series doesn't start until next Thursday-I'll do that in a few days...

I added another stadium to my passport as I visited Norfolk Virginia with one of my normal travelers in Derreck Chupak along with Brandon Diehl,who has went on trips with us before and a new voyager in Patrick O'Connor.
I'm not a huge grapher of AAA baseball because it's a lot of work,but this was intriguing because of the visiting Charlotte Knights.
The new Bowman top 100 set was released and with luck,I could get five percent (five for the non-math majors out there! Ha Ha) of the set in one visit with four Knights and one member of the home Norfolk Tides.

The trip was originally scheduled to be taken to Trenton,NJ for the Trenton Thunder and I took off work to do so,but the trip was changed with the reported lack of signing of top prospect Gleyber Torres,scared us off a bit.
Being that I had never been to Norfolk and I was knocking a ball park my list anyway,I was fine with the change.

We drove straight to Harbor Park and did "arrival" so we could get a head start.
AAA graphing is difficult mainly for two reasons-the prospects are getting hammered by graphers from all over as they travel through their various systems and AAA guys are getting their first shot at them and the veterans are often older guys that think they should be in the majors and are grumpy for being in AAA.
I didn't get many players during the arrival period-Tyler Danish,who was always a good signer with the White Sox lower level teams,signed a few,veteran journeyman outfielder Ryan Raburn signed his Indians heritage card,but was grumpy doing it.(I wager he was in a better mood in a few days when he was traded to Washington to bolster their bench) and the biggest catch came with Carson Fulmer.
Fulmer was my first top 100 of the weekend with maybe my favorite card of the entire set-this year's Fulmer showed Fulmer pictured in the throwback uniforms from the early 1980's!
Fulmer signs just one card at a time,but he is so nice and easy to deal with and I'm really rooting for the Vanderbilt product to succeed in the bigs..
Those players all walked from the hotel and we weren't as fortunate with the remainder of the team,who took the bus to the park as none of those players signed.

A quick trip back to our hotel,where a computer snafu left us scrambling for our reservation,having to find Ryan and a re-send of the reservation to finally get settled in before a return to Harbor Park,which despite a mist of rain and winds which made the night long,was not melting in the dark.
We tried to do some pre-game graphing by the visitors dugout in hopes for a few cards to be finished and that's about what we had in a few cards from the Charlotte pitching coach and former Oakland Athletic Steve McCatty.
Harbor Park is a two tiered park with the lower deck having far more seating than the cheaper upper deck and we were given pretty decent seats from the Tides.
We were very fortunate to have two prospects charting for Charlotte with Carson Fulmer signing my second (and final) card for me and former Sun Reynaldo Lopez signing his top 100 for my second of the series.
The cards he signed for us were the only ones that we saw Lopez sign for anyone over our time in Norfolk.
I know that players sign less and less as they move higher and higher in baseball,but this one surprised me a bit.
Lopez was always a great signer and very gregarious in dealing with graphers when in the Washington system,it's sad to see him sour on signing,but I'll still remember him best for one night in Hagerstown.

Norfolk does have some pretty good hot dogs as Brandon recommended and at reasonable prices at 4.50 per.
I had one "Frito Dog" (Chili,Cheese and crushed Frito) and one "Oriole Dog" (real Crab and Mac and Cheese).
I loved the Frito dog and the crab on the Oriole dog was good,but the mac and cheese could have been done without.
I ate one of each and the other guys ate more than that.
If I had ordered another one,it might have been an Oriole-hold the mac!!
The pictured dogs were Derreck's second helping of dogs!!

We left the game after the seventh inning in order to get into position to land the biggest fish-the number one prospect in all of baseball-Yoan Moncada.
Moncada was the largest chip that Boston had in trading for ace starter Chris Sale with the White Sox and Moncada is expected to be a star for the White Sox for years and could be in Chicago soon.
Moncada was ranked as number one in the top 100 set by Bowman and I was never able to get him to sign for me last year in games that I saw him play in the Boston system with both Salem (High A) and Portland (AA).
As we waited for players as the game wound down,more and more people began to arrive.
We were in great position and a fellow that Derreck met earlier in the day arrived and began acting strangely,pointing at us and had some less than nice things to say as reported by Patrick.
Both of us would have loved to have put this guy in his place,but we had came to get Moncada (and others),we didn't want to lose that spot for some guy that likely had too much to drink.
We move on to Brandon's favorite player,Lucas Giolito,who signed his top 100 to me (Lucas always personalizes,which bothers me much less than others,it seems) and then chatted with Brandon and Patrick for a bit.
Lucas threw a seven inning no-hitter earlier this week in his first start since our visit and might be turning things around after a awful start to the season.

As our "friend" continued his proclamations,Moncada peeked out around the corner to check the amount of graphers,he waited a bit and came out.
This is where the leaving early to gain position won the day-Moncada signed for the four of us (Top 100 for me),a kid with a baseball and Derek,who I had just met.
Derek is on the SportGraphing message board and did a Danville team set for me on consignment last season.
Glad I was able to meet him in person as he's a good guy and an excellent grapher!
Moncada was finished now and walked onto the bus and now this guy mentioned earlier went from drunken happy to drunken unhappy!
The guy began to scream at the bus and walked the length of the bus with his middle finger extended.
He then looked to be moving to the parking lot to leave,but a few minutes later,returned to do the same thing!
Finally,his girlfriend/wife showed up and told him he was embarrassing her,which ended his evening.
I don't write this just to demean this fellow,who I hope just had too much to drink,I write to show two things.
1) This type of behavior helps to contribute to why players get tired of fan interaction.
2) The actions of guys like this makes all of us in this hobby look bad and that's sad because even though graphers like this exist,they aren't around all the time.

I wasn't finished after Moncada as I was able to add a few more players in former Padre outfielder Rymer Liriano (two) and former Padre shortstop Everth Cabrera (two) to end the evening at Harbor Park before an Uber ride through what seemed to be the rougher side of Norfolk and Portsmouth,which is where our hotel was located across the river.
At the end of the day,four top 100's down,some other cards finished,a ballpark on the list and a few interesting tales to tell-good day...

After some sleep,we returned to the stadium to see what we could get on arrival before we left for Hagerstown.
I had worked on Charlotte more on day one,but with the 100's finished,I was trying to fill in cards from both teams,but most importantly,the remaining top 100-Norfolk catcher Chance Sisco,who we had been told that came in very early before almost any of the other Tides.
I did get three Knights in former Phillie Cody Asche (minor heritage),Will Lamb ( 2014 Myrtle Beach) and another Tyler Danish (Bowman) that went to Craig out in Utah.
Norfolk did provide a few in former Braves infielder Chris Johnson (Heritage),who was very nice in signing.Jimmy Yacabonis (2016 Frederick) and Mike Yastrzemski (2016 Bowie),so I was able to feel OK about the Sunday morning hour,but I was disappointed to miss Chance Sisco.
The Knights got off their bus and all walked into the stadium without signing,but as I put away my stuff,Brandon came running over and said Chance Sisco had pulled into the lot.
I've lost some weight,but now the time had come-could I run from the stadium end to stadium end before Sisco entered the clubhouse?
Derreck took my briefcase,so it wouldn't slow me down and the race was on!
I was slow before I gained all this weight,but I suppose motivation can occasionally defeat natural gifts because I made it
in time to get Sisco on his top 100 and make it a perfect five for five on the trip!
I wasn't as out of breath as I thought I'd be,but still I'm surprised I pulled that off!
Former Indian Michael Bourn arrived via Uber,but waved us off with "Not today Ya'll" and that finished our day.

We ran into a lot of traffic on the way home,so a long ride became longer,but I had a great time with Derreck,Brandon and Patrick and it was successful as well.
AAA is far tougher than what I usually do (Even AA) and I don't think I'd enjoy it every day,but it was quite fun and I'd consider doing it again-On occasion!!!!

Still plenty to catch up on and that'll include my anniversary trip and my first trip to Whitaker Bank Ballpark,the home of the Lexington Legends...

Nationals send former Suns to Chicago

I usually don't write about teams trades that I don't cover,but today's swap between the Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals badly needed to be a topic for discussion.

Not just because there were two former Hagerstown Suns players involved in the deal either,but to discuss the apparent all in attitude by the Washington Nationals,a team that you always have to give credit for at least trying to improve a franchise that to this point has failed to win in the postseason.

The Nationals sent arguably their three pitching prospects and at minimum three of their top four (Depends on where you rank Erick Fedde) to the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Adam Eaton.
Former Hagerstown Suns Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez are headed to Chicago along with the Nationals top draft pick from last season in Dane Dunning as the White Sox add those three players to the haul led by Yoan Moncada in the Chris Sale trade earlier in the winter meetings in an attempt to bolster one of the weaker farm systems in the game.

For the White Sox,it makes a ton of sense to move some valuable players from a team that went just 78-84 with those assets.
Chicago may not be done if they desire,as they still have players of value that they could receive even more prospects for in pitcher Jose Quintana and especially infield power bats Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier,should they desire to do so.
Giolito is the big name of the three,but I've always preferred Reynaldo Lopez of the two.
On the radar gun,the two are pretty similar,but Giolito's fastball has always been straight with little movement even in his Hagerstown days and no matter the speed,when you fire straight fastballs against major league hitting,they tend to disappear as seven of them flew over the fence in just 21 big league innings last season.
I like Lopez's stuff and movement,my main worry about him is his slight frame.
Pitchers with similar size as Lopez tend to flash brightly and flame out quickly,so there is somewhat of a risk over the long term.
I didn't get to see Dane Dunning,who was Washington's first round pick out of the University of Florida last season.
Dunning was expected to start the season in Hagerstown before the trade and perhaps with a fortunate assignment (the White Sox have teams in the SAL and Carolina leagues) I could still see him pitch.

For Washington,who had been rumored to be talking to Pittsburgh for Andrew McCutchen to patrol center field,this comes as a surprise.
Adam Eaton hit .284/14/59 and those numbers have been consistently in that range over the last three years with the power picking up over the last two seasons.
Eaton brings some speed and intangibles to Washington as he is a high intensity player that Nationals fans should quickly love.
At 28,Eaton should be in his prime years and is under contract for five years (three years and two club options),so that could play into the exorbitant price paid for him.
Eaton is also a good defensive right fielder,but is not as solid in center,which is where he will play as a National.
Bryce Harper isn't moving from right,so plugging Eaton into center means that Trea Turner can be moved to shortstop,where his bat will play even more than center.

In my opinion,this smacks of a panic move.
The Nationals see the window closing with several of their bats possibly moving on over the next two or three seasons and having dealt many of their top prospects (they have held onto Victor Robles and Juan Soto) in trades,the Nationals are in win now mode.
I understand that and give them credit for continuing to tinker with the lineup in an attempt to put them over the top,but this is such an oppressive cost for a player that is good but not great.
Desperation can make teams do things that they normally would not and I feel some desperation on the Nationals part.
Had the Pirates received those three players for Andrew McCutchen,I would have rated it an excellent deal for the Pirates,but to add those three pitchers for Adam Eaton,I would score that as a win for the White Sox.
Prospects are far from a guarantee and they arrive with plenty of risk,but the more you get-the better your chances of success.
Adam Eaton may be a productive player in Washington,but the White Sox made the better deal-even with risk....

Reynaldo Lopez-A Bolt from the Blue

When you watch enough minor league baseball,sometimes you can get a bit numb to things.
Games can become dreary and players become routine,but then are nights like last night when you are surprised to the point that makes you realize why you watch the games.

Reynaldo Lopez may not look the part of a power pitcher,but he sure impressed me in his first appearance in Hagerstown.

Lopez had appeared in two games with the Suns earlier in the season,but both games were on the road,so this was my first game in seeing the Dominican righthander pitch.
Lopez entered the game with the best ERA in the NY/Penn league with Auburn with a number of 0.75 in seven starts,but he had less than impressive numbers in his two Suns starts,so I wasn't sure what to think.

I do now after a sharp start against Greenville that saw Lopez pitch six innings,whiff nine and allow just two hits,one of which was a blooper off the end of the bat.
Lopez throws hard.
As in tremendously hard.
So hard that Bill Cover and I remarked just how loud the pop of the mitt sounded at times to the point of resembling the loud crack you hear from a good firecracker.
For the all of the hype on Lucas Giolito and it's deserved,I haven't heard the catcher's glove ring like that in the starts that I have seen Giolito pitch this season.
It was reported to us that some radar guns (I have always wanted one of those) had registered Lopez as high as 101 MPH during last night's contest.
Normally,without seeing the gun,I would dismiss such things as hyperbole.
I will not this time as I saw (and heard) the pitches-I believe it.
This is a prospect that is flying way under the radar and at just 20 years old,the Nationals may have found themselves a arm for the future that could develop into a fine top to middle part of their rotation down the road.
There is plenty of refinement needed,but the raw ability is there.

Nights like last night are the type of nights that make following this game fun.
When someone without a large background to draw from suddenly shows up and makes you sit up and take notice,it's always a great feeling.
Reynaldo Lopez may or may not be a big leaguer and he has plenty of distance still to go,but I'll remember him one way or another on a chilly (yes,chilly) night in July that he arrived like a bolt from blue and popped that glove.
That is just another reason that I love this game.....