Balta1701

This thread is about Lance Lynn. He has the 2nd worst ERA of any qualified pitcher in baseball and has given up 6 more home runs than any other pitcher in baseball. His walk rate is the worst for him since 2018. His xERA is 4.88. He has lost 1.6 mph from his fastball over the last 2 years, his 4 seamer this year is the same as his 2 seamer in 2021. There is no reasonable standard where he doesn’t look like garbage. He was also owed what, $7 million for 2 months. There is no reasonable standard where Anderson looks vastly less fixable than Lynn. Teams just need pitching and will do with whatever they can find at the deadline.

This is much more a function of the trade deadline, you could see how it was working. The number of teams who could use a starting pitcher was, well, "all of them in the playoff hunt". Teams that were in a tolerable spot on starting pitching like the Astros...added starting pitching. Teams that maybe needed bullpen help, added bullpen help. Teams that needed a catcher were - well maybe the Rangers needed one after their guy got hurt, and there were 3 options available.

I think Ethan Katz made his name by having most of his staff increase their spin rates through Spidertack. He definitely did help Rodon at least, no one else was able to get him into shape, but that’s one player.

Excellent point. I wonder if there isn’t also a “boredom” factor. If guys in the field aren’t active, their minds wander and that Carrie’s over to the plate.

The white Sox have the 24th ranked ERA in baseball. They have given up the 4th most home runs and second most walks in MLB. Their strikeout to walk ratio is 22nd so even if they’re getting strikeouts, the walks are winning. How is that not on the pitching coach? edit: and all that is while in the AL Central, with one of the easier schedules in mlb.

Dylan Cease has made progress? Giolito didn’t go backward the last two years? Katz also was the 2022 pitching coach for the Giants?

Ethan Katz is absolutely one of them, this pitching staff has made very little positive progress this year and wasted a whole lot of resources. Plus, the pitching staff has been repeatedly put in positions to fail or get hurt (Crochet, Hendrix, Martin). The good news is he’s likely to be the fall guy to protect Hahn and Grifol this year.

Didn’t he figure it out the hard way?

I would like to strongly suggest that the game is markedly different today from what it was in those years, and many if the things that Ozzie loves (Juan Pierre) look even worse now.

Of course they were. But Hahn had plenty of defenders in that.

Naw, there was a significant fraction that said Hahn did things exactly right because Kimbrel would be easy to trade for huge value (they picked up his option) and they couldn’t afford Rodon if he accepted the QO, plus they had plenty of starting pitching.

Miami thought this too. He alienated their fanbase before the season began.

Remember when Luol Deng was in the hospital having spinal fluid drained and Thibs asked if he could play 40 in a playoff game that night? And no one knew if he was joking? That but the white Sox medical staff.

Neat thread, guy worth cheering for.

Another super ironic bit - the only time I thought the White Sox were well coached in the last 15 years was the year after Ozzie was removed. It was like everyone suddenly went “oh right we are here to practice baseball” in spring training and actually did so.

Reinsdorf: “Wow Rick your team made the front page of the New York Post sports section. I agree, your next extension can run through 2034.”

…without a CONTRACT EXTENSION!!

I totally thought you meant that Rick Hahn was going to try to shut down Jay Cuda.

Well you can’t let a guy this valuable come in as a lame duck. He told me so. 7 year extension.

When journalists have to rely on access for their careers, you just aren’t going to get the kind of pushback on bland stuff like this that you might otherwise want.

Hahn’s first year felt a lot like Phil Emery’s last year with the Bears. They hired Trestman, it collapsed completely in year two, and the Bears just said “nope” and completely started fresh. The White Sox extended everyone and Hahn is still here a decade later.

It might have genuinely been unfair, but there’s a decent fraction of sports who would have fired a GM after 2013. Guy adds payroll, comes into the season expecting to compete, loses 99 games? Sports are results oriented and those results are not acceptable For most franchises. I believe Arizona fired a guy after one year in a situation like that.

If they were winning and then in an offseason multiple recent players called out their culture unprompted, in ways that could hurt their careers - I’d worry something much worse was going on than just laziness.