Flash

Sox have question marks at every position. The only way we can expect to compete for a ring is for everyone on the current roster to play to their full potential. We need career years out of Moncada, Robert, Jimenez, TA among others. For that to happen, we need a manager who can instill a winning culture and inspire 100% effort and performance (a Francona or Cora type). We also need leadership among the players to emerge (I like Abreu but am not convinced he is the a leader of men). As far as trades, I'd look to the Dodgers and see what it takes to get Lux...maybe in combo w/Bellinger and hope for a bounce back. I have no problems sending Giolito to the west coast as part of the package.

The White Sox misery circle...'Eloy (or fill in the name) sucks'... 'but its TLRs fault for sticking him in LF'...'but its Hahns fault for hiring the old fossil in the first place'...'but its JRs fault for hiring Hahn'. In the end, there is plenty of blame to go around and not much hope for change unless/until a smart baseball mind starts calling the shots (see Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, not to mention bigger market teams NYY, LAD, and rebuilders like the Nats and Red Sox). The difference is they have highly competent leadership who figure out how to get the job done within the framework of their markets and any limitations imposed by ownership. Here's an unpopular perspective...watch the Cubs for the playbook. My guess is they will develop into the better team for years to come.

I heard a recent John Mozeliak interview where he stated that the Cardinals never think in terms of a 'competitive window'. I doubt the Yankees, Dodgers, Rays or other well run organizations have that mentality. Mozeliak said the Cardinals approach every decision with a 'win-now' perspective and deliberately populate their roster with players who can be counted on to provide leadership in addition to on-field performance. Its no accident guys like Molina, Goldshmidt and Arenado dot the infield as well as provide mentorship and guidance to the Cardinals philosophy and culture. I'd love to remove the expression 'competitive window' from the lexicon of expressions describing WS fortunes. It implies we have no right to expect the sustained excellence as other well run organizations.

Would he have not achieved the same results were he still under his rookie contract?

There miight be reason for optimism if Lynn, Moncada and Kelly bounce back, which they are capable of, but I do believe Hahn got a bit carried away with the extensions, especially Eloy. I believe he would still be arb eligible.

Man this team is hard to root for

Its always fun for me to start my day by reading Soxtalk comments. I'm genuinely impressed by the well developed points of view and how articulately they are expressed.

MLB career (7 yrs) - 46-41 W/L; 4.24 ERA....hardly the ace Sox fans annointed him as. Throw in his new (relatively) short arm delivery and, well.....

Having TA, Vaughn and Robert hitting 1-3 is badass. Hope TLR doesn't get cute and start mixing and matching.

If Lynn is 'right' upon his return, Gio slots in a our #4 starter (if stack ranked according to who you'd want in a must win). I do tend to agree that he hardly looks like an ace and I'm not convinced his short-arm delivery is very effective.

Luis Basabe

Might have had the foresight to move Luis Gonzalez to RF like the Giants did...Avg. 338/OPS 860. Steller defense.

McGuire appears to handle pitchers (I.e. Kopech) extremally well. Provides a great 'open glove' target and frames the borders very well. We're gonna need Grandals bat to come alive but it seems like our pitchers enjoy throwing to McGuire.

Personally, I doubt Donaldson intended any racial implication and I think his locker room interview supported his intention. The silver lining is this incident might be the match that ignites a more united and cohesive team spirit which, in my observation has been sorely missing this year. I was gratified (and a bit surprised) to see Grandal sticking up for TA. It showed veteran leadership that again, seems to have been missing. I don't much care if there is further retaliation tomorrow but do hope we use this to coalesce as a team and adopt an us vs. them attitude from here on out.

Good context and rationale. The challenge is what needs to happen to turn things around? If you just focus on player moves, you have to start with the two highest paid guys and sort out how to proceed. Abreu's contract expires after this year and it will be interesting to see what the team will do, but, in meantime, he has become an easy out. The same can be said for Grandal but he at least provides defensive value and I'd expect his OPS to climb from current depths. I also have to wonder about clubhouse and locker room dynamic. Sox rely on a mix of Latino and US born contributors but its not obvious who the team looks to for collective leadership. They don't seem to be responding to TLRs leadership.

A bit melodramatic but we might look back on this win as a singularly important turning point in Sox season. Both because Cease had the weight of the world on his shoulders and was up to the task as and, had he not been, it would be hard for anyone to be optimistic about the rest of the season despite being this early in the year.

Whether a ball is hit in the air vs. on the ground or not hit at all often relies on a pitchers ability to induce a certain outcome. For instance, some pitchers are better than others at inducing ground balls and when that happens, there is now a reliance on the fielder or fielders to perform their part, which might include several players touching the ball. In order to facilitate the desired outcome, the Catcher signals for a certain pitch to be thrown to a certain location. Based upon the pitchers approach and a particular hitters tendencies, the infielders might shift to defend certain areas (same w/OF). At the end of the day, of course, as in any sport, there is a need to perform your role better than the person lined up across from you but to suggest 'the fate of an entire team comes down to the individual performance of a single player', way oversimplifies the subtle aspects of the game that are the very definition of a team sport.

Respectfully - what positions (non-pitcher) do you favor Sox player vs. Twins?

Maybe so but short of 1B and C, I'd pretty much give the other positional advantages to the Twins.

Does the division really suck?

Wow...really had to dig through the archives (6/17/2011) to pull up that piece. Solid point(s) though.

Was not referring to how well they get along off the field (if that is what you mean by 'tight knit'). On the field, I see no sense of team spirit and/or combined purpose. I see a bunch of individually talented (and flawed) baseball players from various backgrounds who have yet to coalesce as a team. Individual contributors who also like one another isn't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Sox are not a team in the sense model organizations (Cardinals, Rays, Astros, others) are. The Sox are a collection of individual contributors, each with enough talent to tease a bit of optimism but each with flaws to their game. Be it mental/physical toughness, lack of range, poor plate discipline, poor pitch recognition or just weak in fundamentals, this bunch is lacking throughout the lineup. There appears to be no 'team culture' , no veteran leadership, no camaraderie and no sense of playing for one another. For periods of time, you can mask team flaws with pitching excellence. When Gio, Lynn, Cease and Kopech are 'right' Sox have a better than fighting chance at a W but not signing Rodon changed the calculus and shines the spotlight back on the position players...a group of individuals who show up and collect paychecks.

Wow. Hadn't heard that. Thanks for the update.