The Kids Can Play

In June he hit 6 bombs and July 8 bombs, as it wasn't a few bombs only in April and May.

You can only hope for that. However unless the Sox front office is making some changes in the minors with their pitching coaches, I'm not counting on it.

Robert in that same series with even more feared power got zero walks. Based on your theory, why did the smart Francona not walk Robert 5 times? Hell, let's not for one second give any credit to Jake that he was trying to be more selective.

You make a good point. Everyone defending the trade and trying to convince us that this pitching prospect will be a starter next year in the rotation are assuming the Sox coaching and player development in the minors will get this kid great and productive in the majors. However they seem to forgot or maybe don't realize the Sox AAA and AA pitching staffs are dead last in ERA with 6.46 in AAA and 5.60 in AA. It's not speculation and it's a fact the Sox suck at developing pitchers.

That's a nice spin. I think the debate between the people in here who like Burger versus the ones who hate him, is going to be even more intense than the debate we had with the two factions for or against Moncada.

I believe you missed the context of the original poster who said, "With more experience, he may become a dude who learns the strike zone a bit and walks a little more." I was just stating facts. Everyone here was complaining about he doesn't take enough pitches and wanted him to be more patient. He was starting to do that. I realize it wasn't a lot of games, but it was more walks in those games than any other Sox player. At least he was trying to make adjustments, unlike others on this team. time will tell and it will be interesting to watch his progress in Miami. I think he will get better at plate discipline.

I'm pretty sure we don't have to wait until 2024, as they already one of the worst offensive teams at 25th in runs scored. Now that you lost 25 HR's from Burger, I'm quite certain the rest of the season, the Sox will fall further in the standings for runs scored.

He was already starting to get more walks. In his last 4 Sox games, he had 5 walks which was the most on the team in those 4 games. In those same 4 games, the next two were Zavala and Benintendi with 2 walks. Then you had six other players in those 4 games with one walk.

You're right he should and that is what team players do. Yet selfish players like Eloy, keep whining about playing the field and hates the DH role...and that is not a team player. I'd love to know how many other DH players in this league are complaining out loud they hate being a DH.

Wow, more delusional BS from Hahn. He sure does have a misguided definition of right handed power in MLB in 2023. Of course as we know by now, anything out of Hahn's mouth is usually pretty stupid. After Robert, the next two leaders on this team with HR's are have Vaughn and Eloy tied with 13 home runs. There are 94 players in MLB with 13 home runs or more. However there are only 12 players with 25 home runs or more. Keep in mind you take away Burger's 25 home runs and the team now only has 94 home runs which is tied for 29th. Once again the brilliance of genius Hahn with his slick observations on the Sox strengths.

great debate and great question. All I know is you had 7 of 9 Sox players in that starting lineup over .340 OBP, which is obviously amazing. Today there are 57 players in baseball over .340 OBP. Maybe we were just fortunate to have a great group assembled together one year. Plus we are talking about one of the top 5 teams arguably in Sox history from 1959-present.

I am with you totally. As a long time die-hard passionate fan, Jerry is now pushing me to a point I never dreamed could happen with my favorite Chicago team...which is to force me to stop watching them and just wait for the POS owner to move off this earth and wait for the new owner. I'm tired of being a machoistic fan and watching the worse owner in sports, along with the worst GM continue to ruin this great franchise with ZERO accountability for ineptness and losing results.

Well said and I couldn't agree more with you!

It's going to become easier for Sox fans in the future to now bolt and find a new team or quit spending money on the team and stop going to Sox home games anymore.

Well didn't our genius GM tell the media that his core players, which included Eloy, were untouchable. LOL! I think at this stage Hahn knows that no matter how bad he does his job...it's totally safe. It's almost like Hahn has a bet with one of his buddies on how far can he test Jerry's patience and loyalty with being stupid.

You're not the only one who doesn't get it. We are giving away a power hitter with amazing HR potential and is only 27 years old with so much upside. We get as you pointed out, a not so young 25 yr old still unproven and still only in AA. We have zero proof he will make it. This is all based on hoping! Yes that same Hope which is based on the horrible track record of the Sox developing pitchers in the minors currently. Just another dumb Rick Hahn fleeced trade.

Take a chill pill. I have a right to reply to the poster that said he doesn't have any faith with the Sox to handle the new pitching prospect Jake Eder and I am simply agreeing with him. If you don't like it, then keep your stupid comments to yourself or don't come to SoxTalk. I am not stopping you from the watching the deadline, so drop your crappy attitude.

We have the worst pitching staff in AA and AAA in MLB. This isn't even a debate. We have botched the comebacks or initial minor league progress badly with Rodon, Crochet, Kopech and Hendriks. We are really horrible at fixing or tweaking pitchers struggling like Cease and Kopech. We DFA Diekman and the Rays fixed him and he is doing great. So yeah why in the world would anyone trust this dysfunctional org with pitching knowledge or development skills.

He was extremely fun to root for, but then we shouldn't be shocked. The POS owner could give a rat's ass about the fans and what they like or want to root for. Plus the owner's GM is a complete idiot completely over his head.

Yeah the brilliance of the genius Hahn to force out the guys like Gio and Burger with great attitudes and keep the toxic cancer of TA, Moncada and Grandal! Here is a novel idea, why don't they get rid of the GM and his front office toxic culture.

Yep! Hahn is the Core master!

Carlos Rodon from the 2014 draft and Chris Sale from the 2010 draft. You should be concerned about Sox pitching because the huge problem is this front office is piss poor at scouting, evaluating and drafting pitchers. Even worse, once drafted the Sox player development is horrendous at developing the pitchers into major league productive pitchers. This is why the AAA Knights have the worst ERA of 20 teams at 6.48 and the AA Barons are last of 8 teams with a 5.65 ERA. Keep in mind, even when the Sox have brought a few pitchers up from the farm system that are productive at the ML level, they were actually pitchers drafted by another organization such as Cease, Giolito, Dunning, Lopez to name a few. Until we fire the entire front office from the top to the bottom and go to the outside of a successful org that knows how to draft and develop pitchers, we will be living in this " embarrassing "lack of talent" nightmare for many years to come.

Look at these insane numbers from 2000. Name Age G R H 2B HR RBI BB BA OBP SLG OPS C Mark Johnson 24 75 29 48 11 3 23 27 .225 .315 .319 .635 1B Paul Konerko 24 143 84 156 31 21 97 47 .298 .363 .481 .844 2B Ray Durham 28 151 121 172 35 17 75 75 .280 .361 .450 .810 SS Jose Valentin 30 144 107 155 37 25 92 59 .273 .343 .491 .835 3B Herbert Perry 30 109 69 118 29 12 61 22 .308 .356 .483 .839 LF Carlos Lee 24 152 107 172 29 24 92 38 .301 .345 .484 .829 CF Chris Singleton 27 147 83 130 22 11 62 35 . 254 .301 .382 .683 RF Magglio Ordonez 26 153 102 185 34 32 126 60 .315 .371 .546 .917 DH Frank Thomas 32 159 115 191 44 43 143 112 .328 .436 .625 .1.061

You're right the second half was the exciting part of the .83 team. I totally blanked and forgot about that 2000 team. They were awesome with the Big Hurt, Carlos Lee, Magglio Ordonez, Paul Konerko, Jose Valentin and Ray Durham. The pitching was bad and if we had better pitching that year we might have gone far in the playoffs.