South Side Fireworks Man

But he's such a great defender.

For cryin' out loud! Can't hit it much harder than that.

Not yet. This organization would rather play a man short for a while.

I remember that. I was watching the game on TV with my Dad and he would bring up that play for years to come.

When slugging third baseman Bill Melton first came up to the Majors, his defense at 3B was terrible. So bad that they even tried switching him to LF for a while. Then a coach worked with him and made one little tweak to his defense. What they had him do was play a little farther back than usual, but as the pitcher went into his motion he would begin to creep forward so he would be in motion every time a ball was hit. Bill became one of the better fielding third basemen in the league after this one small adjustment. Point is, Burger may not be a very good defensive third baseman right now, but he has shown signs of improvement and seems to be coachable. If only the Sox had a good infield coach to work with him. But he's not going to get better by sitting on the bench or mostly DHing when he does play. At this point he needs to be playing everyday with a great percentage of the time at 3B. You can always move Moncada back over to 3B for defense late in a close game. That's how most teams would try to develop a young player.

He saved that money by not signing Harper and Machado so he could have it to resign guys like Moncada, Anderson, Eloy, etc.

Robert will never be as good as he can be.

It's really simple. When they want Sheets in the lineup Moncada has to move to 2B. When Sheets is on the bench Burger is the DH and Moncada can play 3B.

I love Jake Burger!

That's what he gets for calling Burger's HBP a foul ball.

Hot dog had to change his shoes.

Gone with the juiced ball or the juice he may have been taking.

Jerry will probably scramble the signal and you'll have to attach a separate box to your TV to unscramble it. That way he can make money selling all those old Sportsvision/ONTV boxes Einhorn left him in his will.

Burger is a team leader. Good example for the rest of the players.

That's why you always hustle down the line. Nice Jake.

Sox don't believe in developing young talent in the minor leagues.

They didn't want to spend money on Harper and Machado because they prioritized re-signing their young championshit core. Now they can't find anyone who would want them.

It's all about developing young talent. Good organizations take a high draft pick and start him out in their minor league system where they are acclimated to professional baseball, observed and then allowed to work on areas they need improvement and taught fundamentals if lacking, and also the finer points of hitting and fielding their positions. As they show they can handle the level of competition they are promoted to a higher level until after a couple of years or more they are ready for the major leagues. There are exceptions of course, but those are usually the superstars with elite talent. The Sox draft Vaughn, a good hitting 1B prospect and instead of developing him in the minor leagues, throw him into the fire in the majors on what is supposed to be a championship contending team, and instead of playing him at his natural position make him play a position he has never played before, forcing him to try to adjust to major league pitching while trying to learn a new position on a team that is expected to win now. He should have been in the minors learning the finer points of playing defense at 1B for those first couple of years. Instead now he's the starting first baseman after not having played there regularly for a couple of years and so it's no surprise that he hasn't played exceptionally well there defensively. Still, he's leading the team in RBIs and his defense should improve with experience. He's still young so he may still reach his potential. The point is that the White Sox organization does not develop it's young players the way competent organizations do. Fortunately Vaughn wasn't ruined but his development was most likely delayed. But that kind of handling can ruin a young player. To make a long story short, this organization sucks.

Agree on all the above. Regarding Vaughn, while any competent organization would be developing him at his natural position in the minors, the Sox had him prematurely in the majors playing a position he had never played before. That's not how you develop a young player, that's how you ruin one. As for Burger, his development was delayed by two severe Achilles injuries that would have probably ended most careers. It's impressive that he was able to come all the way back to make the major leagues and he is still developing. That "young championship core" of TA, Moncada, Eloy, and Kopech were never as good as the hype.

What great baseball the Sox are playing in the middle of their multiple championship window. Gotta love this great championship core.

See how easy it is to move a runner?

Burger lines out. This game is over.

LOL

If they can't score Robert from 2B they shouldn't even take the field in the bottom of the 10th.

This team is a bunch of fundamentally flawed losers.