bubba phillips

Speaking of horrible defense, is there a more horrid outfield defense in the majors than Jimenez-Garcia-Palka?

I'll be happy with a HBP or catcher's interference.

On the other hand, Phegley (a catcher) is batting .333 for Oakland with 3 HR's in 12 games. Simien is batting .319 and playing good defense (supposedly the reason the Sox let him go). Bassett, the 3rd player in that trade is on the injured list, but a serviceable pitcher when healthy. Those 3 guys were traded for Samardzija. That sure worked out well.

The Sox are 16th in value at $1.6 billion and 6th in operating profit of $76 million. That comes out to 4.75 % of profit divided by value. I haven't done the calculations for all 30 teams, but for 4 of the top 5 teams in value, that percentage is right around 2.8%. I would bet money that the White Sox are #1 in operating profit as a percentage of total value. Another reason to hate Reinsdorf if you're a fan and love him if you're one of the stockholders. BTW, I always thought it was "F you" (not FU)

Killer bottom of the order. 7-8-9 "hitters" have the following batting averages: .118 .074 and ZERO.

It certainly doesn't look good at this point. It amazes me how many people think that just because you say you are doing a "rebuild" that that automatically will make you a World Series contender in 3-5 years. It would help if you had a front office that knew what it was doing. Not the case here, I don't think.

Strange story, this one about the one they call Dylan Covey. Last year, as of June 18, these were Covey's stats: 7 starts, 40 1/3 innings pitched, 16 walks, 35 K's and an ERA of 2.90. And then he turned to crap for the rest of the year and so far this year. What the hell happened? I know baseball is a game of adjustments. Many rookie hitters start off like a ball of fire. Then scouting reports over time reveal the batter's weaknesses. He then adjusts to the pitchers' adjustments or he doesn't. He becomes a star if he does, becomes mediocre or gets sent down to the minors if he doesn't. Pretty straightforward, I think. But what about pitching? Forty innings is a pretty good size sample (20-25% of a season for a starter). If Covey did that well, nice K to BB ratio, and an excellent ERA, what happened? Adjustments by pitchers usually go the other way: a guy has trouble early on in his career: control problems, pitch location, mental toughness when things go wrong, etc. Then, if he is successful, he figures it out. Many HOFers started out poorly before turning it around. Off the top of my head, Smoltz and Glavine here in Atlanta had less than stellar beginnings to their careers but they figured it out. I've never seen it go the other way as it has for Covey---to go from an ERA of 2.90 as a starter to out of MLB as a dreadful relief pitcher.

We lead MLB in one category, at least for today: most players in the starting lineup whose first name starts with the letter "Y" (3)

There was a story in the local paper here in Atlanta about how the local teams play games with the attendance numbers. The announced attendance for games at Mercedes Benz Stadium was not people in the seats nor tickets sold but TICKETS DISTRIBUTED. So tickets given away, whether they are used or not, are counted as part of the attendance. The Sox might need to do that this year.

For a more objective view, ask an outsider with no hometown bias (positive or negative): ESPN put out their pre-season Power Rankings and the Sox come in at #24, with a projected record of 72-90 and a 3rd place finish in the AL Central. Looks about right to me and is consistent with the poll results thus far.

Very fair analysis. You're sticking with giving Williams credit for 2005 but realize that he was lacking in the latter part of his GM tenure. You've swayed me on his role in the WS year, but I disagree on one thing---he was NEVER a shrewd talent evaluator (see his previously mentioned horrific record in the MLB Draft, especially the all-important first round).

Don't hate the guy. He proved to be an incompetent GM when he was in that job for 12 years. Look at his record of total busts of the #1 draft picks on his watch.

And, unfortunately, K. Williams received credit from some people for the World Series title and has been living off that unearned and undeserved praise for the last 13 years.

I like the idea of an opt out after 3 years under the following circumstances: the competing offers from other teams are very comparable and both players want to play for a team that is (or soon will be) a World Series contender. A 3 year opt out opportunity might be the differentiating factor that swings them to our side. If our rebuild has stalled after 3 years, chances are they will bail out. If, on the other hand, we are where we want to be, they could stay and be part of a championship team.

I've been a White Sox fan for more than 50 years and I loved Harold Baines. But there is no way he is a Hall of Famer. It's easy to get emotional when a player is from your team, but in this case I have to defer to the impartial national media, who almost unanimously agree that Harold doesn't belong. He never got more than 6% of the vote when he was eligible, for goodness sake.

Glad that he's doing OK. But he is a horrible announcer, nonetheless.

And another point of view: MLBTrade Rumors ran a story on the Top 50 Free Agents and who will sign them and for how much. NONE, repeat NONE were by the White Sox. All these writers are just guessing and nobody's opinion is any better than anybody else's. BTW, with Harper being a Boras client, doesn't that alone rule him out, since Reinsdorf basically hates Boras and will not negotiate with any of his clients?

Good one

29 other teams are probably running the same story. Just Hot Stove filler during football season.

If he is a "mop up" reliever, chances are he would be pitching the 9th inning of a blowout game, so the bench and the DH situation would be a moot point.

We all know about All-Star teams, All-Rookie teams, Gold-Glove teams, etc. Thought I would get a little silly and come up with some other "all" teams. Here's a few I came up with: All Fruit Team: Chet Lemon, Darryl Strawberry, Ken Berry All Adverb Team: Ron Fairly, Mike Brenly , Don Mattingly All Colorful Team: several players named Brown, Black, Green, White The only player whose name consists of 4 body parts: Tony Armas(s) Anybody have any additions to the above teams or have ideas for other "all" teams?

Actually it's a relevant comparison because it spans all industries. It's a simple tenet: if the product is no good, you don't buy it. It applies to Sears, the White Sox, and any other failing or failed enterprise.

Conservatively, it looks there will be about 18 teams competing for a championship in 2021. Seven or 8 teams are in the middle of a rebuild, 3 or 4 have had a successful recent rebuild and will be set for the next few years at least, and then there's about 6 teams that are perpetually competing for a championship because their franchises were never run into the ground and therefore never needed to rebuild. The realistic view, in my opinion, is that we should be competing for a division championship. And even that is not guaranteed, if the injuries keep piling up. Also, this rebuild is not happening in a vacuum---we can't assume that we will greatly improve and the other teams in the division will decline, stagnate, or improve at a much slower rate than the White Sox.

I mentioned this on another thread. Though his ERA of 4.90 is not good, the breakdown between home and road is very interesting. At Yankee Stadium, with its Little League dimensions in right field, Gray's ERA was a whopping 6.98, with 11 HR's allowed in 59 innings. On the road he was a different pitcher. His ERA was 3.17 with only 3 dingers in 71 innings. Maybe the pressure of New York and/or those short dimensions got in his head.

MLBTradeRumors.com has a story on how Cashman is shopping Gray this off-season. Interesting stats on Gray: overall ERA was 4.90. But it was a nasty 6.98 at the Little League Park and a nice 3.17 on the road. Apparently Gray couldn't handle the bright lights of NY and the tiny right field dimensions. Cashman will certainly emphasize the road record and I'm sure Gray will not come cheaply.