WestEddy

The Sox are 2-1 in the 2nd half, opposed to 0-3 in the first. An improvement, sure.

There's your run, Drew. Hold 'em.

It's like these guys are just allergic to getting runs in from scoring position.

He could have just lied and said it was an extensive interview process. Read the room, Shirley!

Mike Shirley? If he has any siblings, hire them, too. He has done a very good job with the draft the last couple of years.

I didn't realize Knebel had TJS, then tore his shoulder capsule. I guess he won't be bringing back prospects at this TDL.

Sorry for the harsh language the other day about baseball talk. We never know what's going on in people's physical life. I am very glad for you.

Tampa Bay, April 26-28 was the only sweep of the season, so far.

Correct. There won't really be any real trade rumors until after the draft.

Okay, even I know this is silly. I would think any Mets convo starts with Jett Williams or Drew Gilbert, right? Like, Williams/Gilbert, (one of) Tidwell/Sproat, Ryan Clifford, and that's just Fedde and maybe Banks. Add in Wilson, and you're talking about another pitcher. Like Tidwell AND Sproat.

Wow, fans of other teams actually "lusting" after Tanner Banks...

Ran into the fence playing CF. Hurt his shoulder.

got it. thanks

I'm not catching the meaning of the string title.

Well, these guys are beating and are going to beat the s%*# out of Charlotte the entirety of this week. They develop hitters. Gimme some.

I concur.

That's what I'm thinking. If Gowens goes to AA after the TDL, he's basically on route to maybe hit the bigs in the later half of 2025. If he winds up being a power bullpen arm, and Shuster eats innings during the troubles, I think it's a low level win for the Sox. If something happens with Soroka, all the better. We all hated Bummer. He had weird bad luck. There's certain players that you just can't take the "dog ate my homework" outings anymore.

Do you not see a difference between playing in a Stanley Cup game, and a meaningless baseball game in June for a team 40 games under .500?

Tim Dierkes has a mailbag feature for subscribers of MLBTR. Somebody asked about the Bowden trade proposal of Crochet, Kopech and DeJong to the Dodgers. Lengthy answer - says that any starter is an injury threat, and they'd get more splitting Kopech and Crochet. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/06/tim-dierkes-mlb-mailbag-francisco-alvarez-hoerner-crochet-and-more.html Looks like Dodgers and White Sox match up well for a deadline trade. Do you think LA has prospect capital and the need to receive Crochet, Kopech, and DeJong from Chicago? Not sure I would want to pay the price for Robert. Steve Adams got into the feasibility of a popular Jim Bowden trade proposal last week that included Robert. If you take Robert out, the plausibility goes way up, because I agree with Steve and putting Robert and Crochet into the same deal seems highly unlikely. I see DeJong as a minor piece of this deal. I was initially dismissive of Kopech as well, but he’s under team control for 2025, throws 99, and has punched out 32.2% of batters faced this year. The Dodgers and other intelligent teams can quite possibly turn him into a very effective reliever. Entering this season, Crochet’s professional career high in innings was 65 in his second year at Tennessee. He’d never started more than six games. At the time of this writing, he’s made 17 starts and pitched 94 1/3 innings. Aside from his Opening Day start, he’s split his outings evenly between having four and five days of rest. Crochet is under team control through 2026. Crochet as a trade candidate is fascinating. At his current pace, he’s in the AL Cy Young mix, which no one saw coming. Given that he’s 29 1/3 innings past his career high halfway through the season, naturally you’d expect his team to use caution. That’s especially true if it remains the White Sox, since they’d either be trying to lock him up or trade him for a king’s ransom. White Sox manager Pedro Grifol put it this way: “We’re going to start dwindling his workload down a little bit, and we’ll manage that correctly. But it’s not something we’re going to put out and say, ‘Here’s what we’re doing,’ because nothing in this game is black and white. He might have five innings where he goes 12 pitches or less and we might let him go six or seven innings, even when we’re trying to minimize his workload. It all depends on what he does.” The Dodgers still have a consensus top ten farm system, and yes, I do think if they put enough 50 or 55 grade prospects or young players into a package they could get Crochet, Kopech, and DeJong from the White Sox. I also think that A) uncoupling Crochet and Kopech probably nets the White Sox a better return and B) competition would be fierce for Crochet even if it’s unclear how much he can give you in the second half. As an aside, there’s not an arm in the Majors for whom I have full confidence of 15 second half starts. So while letting Crochet reach 30 starts and then possibly leaning on him as a #2 playoff starter would seem to carry increased injury risk, I don’t think MLB teams have really cracked this nut. If Crochet were to be limited to 75 pitches per start instead of the 89 he’s averaged this year, is there actual evidence that would benefit him? He’s more likely to get a benefit from pitching on five days rest more often, but again, this is lacking in hard evidence. There’s also the idea, which I put forth when everyone was dogging Tyler Glasnow for his injury history before the season, that Crochet mostly had one major injury, and maybe needed extra time to fully recover from it. And a pandemic and lockout didn’t help pitchers in general. In other words, a pitcher can need Tommy John surgery but not immediately get it, and also not recover in a straight line 18-month period. Such a player might get a reputation for being more injury-prone than he really is once this major surgery is truly behind him. I’m skeptical the White Sox will be good within Crochet’s control window, and if nothing else he seems to carry more injury risk than most. So I still support trading him, though if the offers aren’t reflective of a top of the rotation starter, they shouldn’t make a deal. Similarly, if an extension can be reached that prices in Crochet’s injury risk, that’s worth considering.

happy birthday.

They were certainly lock down today. I would have been glad for them to get their first victory 2 games into the 1st half.