nrockway

Just do away with divisions entirely and make the pitcher hit again...in both leagues. Cubs and Sox in the same division/league would be horrible.

left side? is it his kidney? pancreas? spleen? anything but the back

Hopefully it isn't American Airlines where they cancel your flight while you're sitting on the tarmac despite knowing well in advance that Chicago is going to be a stormy, flooded mess...then they string you along for an hour...oh maybe you can go to Midway...while you sit at the airport bar drinking $15 high lifes watching Logan Gilbert get shelled. Or something like that. in other news, this one seems like a good replay to watch. too bad we're not seeing Fedde this series, go off for 20 runs.

optimism! I'm not projecting it, I'm just hopeful we might do something in 2027. I'll change my point of view in the homer department if it doesn't happen. I'd be disappointed, but not necessarily surprised. I was excited about the new Bulls front office, but they proved quickly they were worse than the previous guys. Had to give em a shot though. Everything you said is fair. I don't know that it's already happening though, but it's def realistic. There's a wide range of outcomes. I think Braden will be a star, I wanted to draft him in the first place. I think the org is doing things differently with the new front office. The AZ complex seems rejuvenated. There's a new DR complex coming. Hiring biomechanics people strikes me as smart. Lowly-rated minor leaguers have started to show something. I think the minor league system is pretty exciting, though lacking in star power outside of the Montys. I was writing a post about Montgomery in response to you the other day and forgot to hit post. Essentially, he could still bust if he never figures out how to hit a fastball. It was the same problem as in the minors and teams will expose him if he can't figure it out. Think Bannister and Fuller were good hires, Venable was a big name hire though the jury is still out on him; and Getz seems like a guy who empowers his staff unlike Kenny. Kenny was great, brought a WS, I have a positive opinion of him, but it was time to move on. Same opinion with John Paxson. I thought Hahn and Gar were both pretty bad and it was a weird structure to have essentially two GMs competing against each other. I write "I think" a lot on this forum because I don't really know, it's just my perception. I've been comparing the hire of Getz to the Mets hiring Stearns. The Mets are kinda floundering with a much bigger budget and a more appealing geography, I wonder what he would've done differently than Getz with our team. I think they're doing things that the previous front office did not do, hence my optimism. Will all the players turn out? Certainly not. I'm skeptical about free agency like you are.

why'd I even turn the tv on

can't help but laugh

Vargas played some left for the Dodgers. I would've liked to see him get reps there this season. I think you're right though, sluggers in the corners would be ideal. Honestly, cutting Benintendi would be addition by subtraction.

ugh

the second I turn this game on, we lose the lead. I'll see myself out.

thought Fangraphs had us at 2 in the 2024 update, but guess not! I don't think the specific rating matters too much, it's fairly arbitrary. It was a well-regarded farm system that was built pretty quickly.

I don't know how you can predict who is going to be a worthwhile free agent/trade target two years from now. I can't read the future. Why would I make an absolutist statement and say: we need to get this guy two years from now? I said it's a test for Getz and his staff, not for me. I'm not the GM, I'm some guy on the internet. I wrote a post recently about who the Sox could've traded Steven Wilson for and offered non-vague options because we can look at how those players are performing today, or otherwise how prospects might project. Who the hell knows who is going to be very good in two years and also a free agent. It also depends on how the current players are looking. What if Fauske, Wolkow, B Montgomery are all superstars? What if Quero and Teel both bust? Suddenly, it's not an outfielder problem, it's a catcher problem. It depends, dude.

The test will be who they acquire in free agency/trades. Not prospects, but real players. Detroit surprised a lot of people last year, I think that’s the ‘27 team. Now I think Detroit is the favorite to come out of the (weak) AL. Could be the Sox in 2028. I mean, we’ll see.

Analysts ranked this iteration of the Sox farm system 2nd through 6th before a lot of the graduations, as I recall. Tigers aren't really spending money, the only vet they've given a multi-year contract to in recent memory is Javy Baez which was ahead of their 66 win season (down from 77 wins). Reminiscent of signing Benintendi after an 81 win season before losing 101 the next. DET is 15th in payroll as a team looking to compete for a World Series. Our Sox were 6th in payroll in that 81-81 season, 8th in payroll in 2011 coming off an 88 win season. The problem doesn't tend to be payroll, it's been bad management. Obviously JR is the source of bad management, but I'm not sure it's a money issue. Whether or not JR will spend money seems like speculation. Who knows what lessons he learned, I haven't asked him. It seems like a logical assumption, but it would also hold true for every other non-LAD/BOS/NYY team. History of the Sox/Bulls suggests that the pocketbook opens up (to some extent. Bulls mighta won a title if they paid the luxury tax in 2010-11) when the team is in a position to compete. It opened up for Albert Belle right after the strike, seemingly contradictory to his 'philosophy'. The team was garbage in 2022 and they still overpaid Benintendi instead of taking a flyer on Teoscar Hernandez or Cody Bellinger. If I was going to speculate on JR's psyche, I might think: the team is sold, Reinsdorf is 90-years-old...this is his last chance, if he was ever going to spend money, it would be now. Not sure who they'd spend it on though. I'd go after Kyle Tucker, but why would he come here, and I'd also wait a year and see what parts of the roster actually need to be supplemented. Besides, my post was only to say that this is the third year of the rebuild and the team's fortunes seem to be turning around in a similar way as those other two teams that really don't spend any money. Orioles blew it by not spending, the Tigers might blow it in the same way. I think the Sox farm has some things in common with those Orioles guys too. Colson is Gunnar. Teel/Quero are Rutschman. Hagen and Schultz are Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall. Tim Elko is Coby Mayo. Jackson Holliday is Popeye Rodriguez. 2027 is a more logical assumption than 2030. 2030 doesn't make any sense as a timeline, all of our current prospects will be approaching 30 and nearing free agency at that point, it'll likely be a totally different team. It genuinely makes no sense because we'd be speculating on players who are still in high school. Or maybe it's an optimistic take and Alejandro Cruz, Eduardo Herrera, Yobal Rodriguez are the future of the franchise. I That doesn't mean it'll work out, all these guys could bomb, but I would probably change my perspective on the front office if we're not halfway competitive in 2027.

2021 Orioles won 52 games, '22 won 83, '23 won 101. 2022 Tigers won 66, '23 won 78, '24 won 86, '25 on pace for 95. It's not like it's a crazy assertion. 'doom and gloom' just because seems like a more hopeless perspective. I mean, by definition, it's a lack of hope, innit.

2 things: I think you're underrating the importance of 2B defense. It's shortstop without the throw and a lot more players bat left-handed than ever before. More balls get pulled to the right side than ever. Range is important there. More important defensive position than 3B for sure just in terms of how many balls are being hit that way, though SS is still the king of the infield. But I might remove a couple of those '>' signs lol. The other thing is that Sosa is pretty much league average defensively at 2B. Statcast ranks him 60th percentile in outs above average. In terms of qualified 2B, he ranks 26/42, basically tied with Jose Altuve or Luisangel Acuna...beats out gold glover Brice Turang surprisingly. He's also just getting better across the board. He was 10th percentile in 2024. His bat has obviously improved. He might just keep getting better, right? Now that he's getting extended play. His bat has gotten better every month (and every season), he has 9 homers in July and August compared to 6 the rest of the season in ~100 fewer plate appearances. He improved from a really bad defender to simply an average/slightly below one. I think you take that if he can hit a bunch of home runs and OPS around .800 like he has since June. The problem is that Meidroth is way better defensively in that regard, 89th percentile. I think Meidroth is the best shortstop on the team though and would be playing there if he was a 'prospect' the way Colson is. Meidroth could probably win some GGs at 2B, but thus far he hasn't really proven anything with the bat. Agreed that you don't really want him at 1B if you can help it (or anyone on the team currently...), but he's passable defensively at 2B with serious pop and hits for average with a sustainable babip. Maybe that's what you want out of a 2B on a team with a terrible offense. Or any team. It's his job to lose IMO and no one has really pressured him. Especially Brooks, ostensibly the guy he was competing against for the job to start the year. One might expect Meidroth to become the better hitter in the long run, love his profile, but so far he isn't. He's getting babip'd, but his eye in particular has regressed. One might also just prefer a middle infielder who can hit 20-25 HRs a season over a guy who hits 2 to 4. Personally, I think Vargas is the odd man out of the infield, that Colson should play 3B and Meidroth should play SS for the foreseeable future and we don't actually have a 1B or DH on the roster. If Jacob Gonzalez continues to hit at AAA, it makes things more complicated. Sosa might actually just be a good trade piece but there isn't any point in trading him any time soon. BTW, Lenyn Sosa's .743 OPS puts him in line with Christian Walker, Spencer Torkelson, Jake Burger, Arraez, Goldschmidt tier of first basemen...not in the Romy Gonzalez tier though...wtf?

in fairness, I think it was like a 70mph curveball that barely touched him 😅

90,000 people showed up to watch a Tupac hologram play pre-recorded songs 30 years after his death. nothing is surprising.

How was it? Is there gonna be a replay? How was Mark's stuff? Did he twerk?

what. I mean I know Rojas is bad but...there's gotta be a better option

Bummer is still pretty good. 109 ERA+ with Atlanta. His FIP is better than his ERA. He throws a bunch of different pitches. He'll get another contract. All those guys were, ya know, baseball players. It wasn't a good trade. I like Naperville Nicky, seems like a nice dude, I like local players and any player named Nick or Nicky or Nico. His dad in the booth was fun. That trade and the Mena trade seem like they were based on old information. Or Barfield's opinion. Doesn't really reflect on my opinion of Getz, didn't really make a difference, but it wasn't a good trade, ATL got the better end of it for sure considering Bummer is playing and producing. Negative WAR, I guess, but his ERA is above average. Seemed like they just wanted guys to fill out the roster but could've done it via other avenues. Ultimately, who cares.

yeah, could've taken Nasim Nunez in R5 that year and he would've given you 3 times as much production (0.6 bWAR vs 0.2 lol) as Nicky Lopez for 1/5 the cost. Not like it matters, neither guy is a difference maker and it isn't my money. I liked Deyvison de los Santos in R5 but he's also proven to be not very good. Basically Tim Elko. Might still be worth having in the system vs...Shane Drohan...who is not in the system and has actually produced for AAA Worcester this season. Figured Shewmake and Shuster might've been better. Bummer of a trade. Gowens is a Libertyville and U of I guy though so hopefully he can do something in Chicago. I'm not holding my breath.

I remember when...never mind.

nice a .420 winning percentage across 162 games, if you round up, is 69 wins. just saying.

now there's a SAT word if I've ever seen one. didn't see enough of 'em.

It was the first sentence: he's low-paid and under contract through 2027. I'm optimistic we might be good by 2027. Wouldn't it be nice to already have a proper setup guy instead of a guy who "might" be a proper setup guy in 2030? Build a team for the 2027 has been my view since the 81-81 disaster season (which to me was more disheartening than the worst team of all team. bad and rebuilding is preferable to permanent treadmill. see: the Bulls). Maybe if a deal could've been done with Tampa to go along with Houser that returned us Taj Bradley, that would've been a good trade to make. Who's to say that was an option though. Otherwise, let's look at what the relievers who were traded at the deadline returned: We wouldn't have wanted the Yankees catchers for Bednar. Bednar is better than Wilson anyway with more of a track record. Helsley is more similar to Wilson and he returned pretty good value, namely a third baseman, but we're pretty stacked on mid-tier infield prospects and the two pitchers are flyers. I wouldn't have been mad about that trade, but also, who cares? Duran is incomparable. Tyler Rogers is better than Wilson and returned MLB-ready guys. I kinda like Drew Gilbert, that might've been an OK trade, but he's not exactly highly-touted, I'm not sure he's the solution in the corner outfield any more than Dom Fletcher or Corey Julks is. I think the last guy is Brock Stewart who returned James Outman. Maybe that would've been an OK trade...two years ago if he didn't fall off a cliff. This is to say, are any of those players more valuable to the White Sox in 2026 and 2027 and beyond? Maybe, maybe not. It's certainly not something to complain about. Maybe Wilson keeps up his play and actually becomes a valuable trade piece. Maybe we're upset that he's seemingly the best player in the Cease deal, but maybe Cease wasn't all that valuable to begin with as the Padres found out. My perspective is similar with Robert at this point. Are you actually going to find a better player to replace him when it comes time to compete? The time to trade him was after the 2023 season.Since that didn't happen, might as well keep him. My perspective is not similar with Crochet (though I really loved watching him pitch and was a big cheerleader when he was injured/in the pen). Too much money, too much injury risk, far too valuable to other teams ready to compete now. The idea shouldn't be to trade guys just because you can. Tauchman is probably the only guy we didn't trade who maybe should have been, but there were some mitigating circumstances and he's still arguably the best corner outfielder we've had in years, is under contract for another year, and maybe we just extend him.