Balta1701

I would expect that if things got bad enough for JR to make an in season replacement, KW taking the GM spot temporarily is exactly what would happen.

I can’t say this enough - injuries are up League wide already this season by quite a bit over last year. The White Sox are comparatively quite healthy. They have all 5 starters healthy, teams like the Braves, Astros, Rays have lost multiple starting pitchers. They are missing a 3b, a couple DHs, and a closer, and maybe a mid 30s catcher today. This is not a banged up team, this is one of the healthier teams in baseball. If your team needs to be healthier than this, they have to be the healthiest team in the league.

Did you miss the 8 game losing streak in April '22 where I was joking that the Mon-Stars had stolen all their baseball abilities because of how bad they looked and the 8 game losing streak where they gave up after having lost the first game of a key series to Cleveland?

Rain update:

2000 was super fun. 2001 was a hated mess.

If Benintendi gets onto his usual self with a mid 700s OPS by the deadline, and you could move the last 4 years of his deal while eating $15 million or so (make it 4/$50 remaining), shouldn’t you do that?

Their run differential since Sunday is 0. 27 to 27. Including the 1 game against Cinci they won 17-4 and 3 subsequent games against Kansas City. They have a 17-4 win in May and a negative run differential on the month.

Lance Lynn went from having an average fastball in 2021 to a very weak fastball by 2023. He got old and had a leg injury last year. That one makes sense.

I checked the score while I was walking the dog and it was 4-4. Oh.

It would be equally interesting to know how many teams haven’t had to use a 6th starter all season this year because of their solid health.

IIRC Cueto was terrible in his AAA starts with the White Sox last April also.

Now I know there is at least one really bad GM in baseball so it's possible someone could get seduced by a BABIP-driven good half of baseball, but most of the competent ones could pretty readily figure out that Eloy wasn't worth much in a trade. We heard last offseason here literally how someone didn't want to involve Eloy in a trade for (#1 prospect in baseball) Francisco Alvarez because Eloy might hit 40+ home runs this year, so for people seduced by that type of potential there's no trade that would make them happy. If I were an opposing GM, and a realistic one, what was my evaluation of Eloy last offseason? Eloy Jimenez is an oft-injured player. He hits the ball hard and is very strong, but he hits way too many ground balls, so between his injuries (low PA) and the ground balls he goes through BABIP-driven hot and cold stretches, and he had several of those in 2022. He is terrible defensively and playing the field increases his injury risk, you can play him there for a couple games but he's a DH. Overall, he's a DH who will put up an OPS in the mid-800s over the course of a full year, and he probably won't play a full year. He's due $22.5 million over 23-24, and his options after that are so expensive they are a big risk to pick up even if he stays healthy one of those years. I'd take him back in a trade, but I won't give up too much beyond taking back his contract. What's my opinion of him after a couple injuries and his performance this year? Eloy Jimenez is an oft-injured player. He hits the ball hard and is very strong, but he hits way too many ground balls, so between his injuries (low PA) and the ground balls he goes through BABIP-driven hot and cold stretches, and he had several of those in 2022. He is terrible defensively and playing the field increases his injury risk, you can play him there for a couple games but he's a DH. Overall, he's a DH who will put up an OPS in the mid-800s over the course of a full year, and he probably won't play a full year. He's due $22.5 million over 23-24, and his options after that are so expensive they are a big risk to pick up even if he stays healthy one of those years. I'd take him back in a trade, but I won't give up too much beyond taking back his contract. He'll be back in a couple weeks, enough time for him to maybe have a hot or cold streak, but any competent GM can see how those pop out of his approach at the plate naturally. His contract is still movable, you'll get some middling prospect back for him. DHs with mid-.800s OPS numbers and $10 million contracts are usable but not worth a ton in a trade. Nothing about this season has changed that.

I was once at a game where Dallas Keuchel started for the Astros. Danny Farquhar realized there was a sound coming out of the dugout, and the Astros panicked and ripped out their video recording equipment after that game. Can we trade him for Keuchel? I'd be happy with that.

Naw this team is still one of the healthier ones in baseball. Injuries are up a lot this year League wide.

Dunn did come back way too early , but maybe there was some complications here.

Didnt Adam Dunn come back a week after one of these?

0/4 today drops you back to .536.

Exactly and where does that leave things? There are only a handful of options. -The Reinsdorf group pays for a new stadium with little public money. Why are you laughing? -They get into a situation like Oakland the last few years, where some people want to make a deal but neither side wants to leave money on the table, and the state and city are demanding Reinsdorf can’t get the same amazing deal as last time. -The team is sold, and new ownership has to decide whether to move. Entirely possible that the new ownership could be a group from another city.

And if that’s the case, when you met with him earlier in the offseason you outline what will happen if he doesn’t work with them. ”Our number 1 goal with you this year is health. We need you to participate with it this way and work with us honestly. But if you won’t, then we will have to be much more aggressive in taking away your playing time and resting you, because we can’t let minor injuries build up until you can’t swing like last year. Either you work with us or we have to treat you like Buxton.” I look at Robert having one day off in all of April and suddenly having a sore unmanaged leg, or Anderson playing the first 12 games in crappy April weather without an Offday then getting hurt, or Burger playing 15 straight games after his two Achilles injuries, and I say “this is just a rerun.” Theres very little room to criticize Grifol on lineups or bullpen decisions so far because Rick Hahn gave him a terrible ball club, all his options are bad. But here, we’re seeing the same failure to develop any professionalism that has been the hallmark of the Rick Hahn years, over all 4 of his managers, and we got a window into it under this staff yesterday.

Ironically, Robert clearly needed a day off anyway.

Ask it this way. What happens if the team continues to White Sox for the next 5 years, the fan base atrophies and shrinks, and then Reinsdorf and Co. go to the city and state and demand another sweetheart deal on a new stadium?

I do think the scalp of Rick Hahn will sate a little bit of the anger. I also think that several more years of struggling will leave this fan base as withered and apathetic as the As were The last couple years, primed for moving.

If he’s willingly ignoring them, then I’d say they definitely never earned his respect, wouldn’t you?