Jake

I know McGuire got off to a hot start this year (has slowed down considerably since then it looks like) but he had played terribly for us, Zavala was on fire, and we were about to release him. Wish Diekman had pitched better but that trade isn't even on my list of things I'm upset about.

When Giolito and Kelly come back, who is the odd man out? Aren't we carrying an extra position player? Feels kind of like Haseley has earned a spot on the roster but I'd be surprised if we called up Hamilton just to immediately send him down/DFA.

I've never bought into this kind of thing but I think the players who we believed to be the leaders of last year's (unsuccessful) team were Abreu, Hendriks, and Tim. All of them absent at the moment.

"The Bears will be successful thanks to the QB whose statistics so far are not very good" — words that have never steered me wrong

Too soon to say worst, but it certainly is provoking a lot of apathy in me. BTW, does anyone else remember when Jacob May was our opening day leadoff hitter and then didn't get a hit for like 3 weeks?

As Hawk would say, you make your own luck. And Ozzie sure did plenty to avoid getting hired to manage this or any team

Just at a point where you're dying for some small number of players to stake a claim to a decent season

No doubt about it, while again I'm very much on the general side of "coaches don't matter much" this is the kind of situation that could justify a quick hook. But I think the front office knows deep down that even if Grifol is fucking up he's not being given good players and it wouldn't surprise me if Reinsdorf would disallow a managerial change at this point. I know we all hate Reinsdorf etc etc but any decent owner who found himself in this situation would not allow his front office to make any decisions with long-term consequences right now. And if it goes on much longer you'd have to make the rare midseason firing of the GM (and in this case VP) in furtherance of that goal

Who on the White Sox has clearly met or exceeded expectations thus far? Burger and... I don't know, Middleton and Santos I guess. Cease not a disaster by any stretch but I'm not sure if he's really at the expectation yet. Giolito also not a disaster so it depends what your expectations were.

Well I'm not saying there was some obvious first place roster out there, and it's not a pro-front office statement, but there was no reason to believe this group of players should go 7-18 and look like maybe they were lucky to win as many as 7.

I have tried to disengage a little bit but Eloy definitely looks completely joyless in my observations

So...I don't want to act like the manager really matters all that much, but when things are going *this* badly you've gotta wonder about the manager right?

As I teach in college, I'm often trying to find a balance between the two things hinted at here. On one hand, I don't want to ask my students to do things I would have found utterly torturous. On the other hand, I know that as a student I needed to be forced to do certain things I'd never have chosen because I always wanted to find the lowest effort, easiest way to the end of the course.

Jake Burger's healthy season last year as chronicled through Rotowire and Rotoworld updates: White Sox placed INF Jake Burger on the 10-day injured list with a bone bruise in his right hand. It doesn't sound like an overly serious injury, but Burger might remain sidelined through the All-Star break given where this transaction falls on the baseball calendar. The 26-year-old has slashed .250/.302/.458 with eight home runs and 26 RBI across 51 games played this season for Chicago. Jul 6, 2022, 11:59 AM ET Jake Burger's (hand) rehab assignment has been put on hold due to illness. Burger had been slated to play his first rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte on Friday. Assuming he makes a quick recovery, he still could be ready for activation immediately after the All-Star break. Source: Daryl Van Schouwen on Twitter Jul 15, 2022, 2:56 PM ET White Sox activated INF Jake Burger from the 10-day injured list; optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Burger is recovered from a bone bruise in his right hand, but the White Sox don't have a spot for him on their major league roster at this moment. The 26-year-old is sure to get another look down the stretch. Aug 2, 2022, 7:03 PM ET White Sox's Jake Burger: Dealing with fractured wrist Rotowire Aug 27, 2022 Burger is expected to miss several weeks due to a non-displaced left wrist fracture, James Fegan of The Athletic reports. Burger dealt with a hand issue earlier this season and sustained his most recent injury when he was hit by a pitch Aug. 20. The 26-year-old was placed on the 7-day injured list this week but will likely need to spend more than the minimum amount of time on the shelf prior to returning to action at Triple-A Charlotte. White Sox's Jake Burger: Makes late return at Triple-A Rotowire Oct 3, 2022 Burger (wrist) was reinstated from Triple-A Charlotte's 7-day injured list Sept. 23 and went 5-for-26 with a triple and three runs over the club's final six games of the season. Burger suffered a non-displaced left wrist fracture in late August, but he was able to make his return to action after about a month-long absence. Unless the White Sox are in need of another position player over the final two days of the regular season, Burger will rest up at home before beginning offseason workouts. Over his 183 plate appearances with Chicago earlier this season, the 26-year-old hit .250 with eight home runs and 26 RBI.

I really hope Burger has figured something out and you gotta find ways to keep getting him looks until he falls back to Earth. But let's not forget he had a nice run last season only to proceed to put up some very mediocre minor league numbers afterwards. Let's try to avoid having another Yermin Mercedes situation as far as overhyping a hot hitter is concerned.

Sounds like it's the classic sign stealing where you spend enough time looking at the coaches giving signs and waiting for the results that you learn the pattern. Probably wasn't all that useful unless they were signing in every pitch and the Sox had a more clever system to tell the hitters what was up than the Astros did.

It's early, he has some flaws, he has some strengths, and I'm just happy it hasn't turned into a complete disaster.

Yoan has played: 149, 132, 52 (out of 60), 144, and 104 games in the seasons of his career. Last season was really the only time he missed a significant period and the amount of games he played would be the second best of Byron Buxton's life. Here's my feeling on Yoan. He seems to be "banged up" frequently, which may affect his play, but he's usually on the field. I think this may relate to his personality and willingness to tell people when he's hurting. You see it when he gets hurt in the middle of games from collisions, foul balls off the body, etc. He at first looks really hurt, needs a bunch of time to work it out, and eventually stays in the game. I suspect he is dealing with stuff that other guys are but he may be different from some other guys in terms of his willingness to keep the coaching staff up to date and maybe advocate for rest at times. The polar opposite in recent memory is Jose Abreu who basically always played, often had barely-discussed nagging injuries, and rarely showed outward signs of pain.

I still wonder about the potential risks of having a guy sit down all game except a few brief moments where he may need to sprint blast

So if you drop both Leury and Romy, who plays 2B if Andrus has to fill in at SS?

We start with: 1B Vaughn 2B Andrus 3B Moncada SS Anderson C Grandal LF Benintendi CF Robert RF ??? DH Eloy That’s 8 guys. Add Seby Zavala as backup catcher and you have 9 of the 13 accounted for. Also potentially in the mix: Gavin Sheets RF/1B/DH Leury Garcia 3B/SS/2B/LF/CF/RF Romy Gonzalez 3B/SS/2B Oscar Colas RF Jake Burger 3B/1B/DH Billy Hamilton LF/CF Jake Marisnick LF/CF/RF One of the above will need to start in RF and 3 more will occupy bench spots. Sheets, Romy, Burger, and Colas all have minor league options AFAIK. Your choices for RF are Colas, Sheets, Leury, Marisnick, or Eloy + some non-OF at DH. I don't think the Sox would start Hamilton in RF except under special circumstances. If I were in charge, I think I'd go Colas in RF plus Romy, Marisnick, and Sheets on the bench. I'm not totally sold on Colas, in which case I guess I'm stuck with Sheets/Marisnick platoon and Romy + ??? I don't know, Leury or Hamilton?

I would urge not to over-interpret the statement from this person who doesn't speak English as a first language. I suspect he merely means he hasn't given up on the idea that he can catch the ball out there and I say good for him, I hope he can prove the doubters wrong. I'll be shocked if he causes the team any clubhouse problems when he sees most of his reps coming at DH.

What is so impressive to me is that he basically missed the entire process of minor league development and is still doing more than holding his own. I see nothing to suggest that he should be playing the outfield for any period of time, but that's okay since that was never a standard he should have been held to. He's probably going to struggle again (in fact I can see that Statcast thinks he's been on a lucky streak) but his ability to take his lumps at this level without falling apart is great. Really the main drawback is it has cost us the ability to see what his ceiling looks like since he missed the chance to dominate minor league competition and show what he looks like when he's fully "on."

FWIW, Statcast seems to indicate that Hendriks is releasing the ball closer to home plate this year than last year (by about 0.2 feet). Maybe the cause of a back issue? Of course you can release closer to home for reasons besides the follow-through.

Worth keeping in mind that the option increases in value every 50 plate appearances starting at 400. Pollock's track record tells us it's a dicey proposition for him to get much over 400, but if he does manage to play nearly every day it's a $15M option.