Balta1701

Reese McGuire DH’d once last year.

On the subject of this agreement, the big issue is we are roughly 5 years from it being over, and the whole organization is in such a terrible state that it may well spend those 5 years below .500 and out of the playoffs again. This scenario seemed possible a few years ago but was hopefully unlikely, now the path to it happening seems clear. The deal ends in 2028 or 2029 (I think they could extend it for a year). When that happens, the Sox will have a 35 year old ballpark and have a genuine case for a new one. But, between the current political state in Illinois and the lack of excitement around the White Sox, when the Reinsdorf group asks for money for a new stadium and another sweetheart deal they will be laughed out of Springfield. This looks an awful lot like the Oakland situation. There will be some effort to keep them around, but the state won’t want to put up nearly the deal they put up last time and the team won’t want to accept a deal that makes them way less money. The odds of Reinsdorf willingly paying for a privately financed ballpark are less than zero. The obvious path then becomes them struggling for a few years with a half empty ballpark and no deal, bad press, angry politicians, rumors about what might happen suppressing attendance, and eventually they find a deal somewhere else. This path wouldn’t be so obvious if all they had done was win a few baseball games.

The more they pack in the more they make, but they are protected from losing much money if attendance plummets by this sweetheart deal.

The first "Rick Hahn should have been fired" moment on my list is 2013, his first year. He thought they had a competitive roster, added players to it, did not subtract or start a rebuilding process, did nothing to plan for the future until midseason, and wound up 63-99. Not every team would have fired their GM for that after only 1 season, but that was such an epic collapse that at least half of the teams in the league would have said "nope, this is unacceptably bad and we don't care how little time you've had on the job we're going in a different direction".

Had Rick Hahn actually had any dignity, he should have resigned in October 2020. Literally everyone in baseball would have understood it. He could probably have negotiated out of any noncompete clause for a reduced salary and taken a job as an assistant GM somewhere with his reputation mostly in tact from having rebuilt the Sox into a playoff team. He could then wait out another GM job if that’s what he wanted. He also would have gotten out of any of the restrictions on spending that people believe are imposed on him. He’s here by choice.

In the Korean league? Yes.

14 games below .500 matches their worst of the season, at the end of the 10 game losing streak. Fully undoes the 3 wins afterwards. More than 100 years since a team was this far below .500 at any point in the season and won a World Series.

Harder take on him - if all you had in terms of scouting was the MLB.com top 100 prospect list, which of those rebuild deals would you have not done? He made a promising strategic call in selling off players when they had to move them, but part of a rebuild is supposed to be developing from your high draft picks and finding good players outside of those couple key trades. The Braves are rolling thanks in part to a 4th round pick in 2020 right now. The Astros won last year based on a bunch of guys who came in as international signings, a guy they picked up cheap from the Dodgers, a couple of former top picks. The White Sox got no help outside of those trades.

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.