Balta1701

that seems like some kinda statistical fluke?

Presumably though that includes Abreu?

They were 12-7 against the White Sox last year. That's why the White Sox wound up about .500 against their division - Cleveland balanced out Detroit (notably this also looks worse because the White Sox quit for that 6 game stretch against Cleveland and then Detroit in September, prior to that the White Sox were 12-4 against Detroit I believe).

That assumes the White Sox didn't get fat off of beating anyone in their division though. If we play that same game in 2021, the White Sox were 12 games above .500 against the AL Central, they only had a losing record against Kansas City. If the White Sox were .500 against the AL Central, they'd have only on 87 games that year as well. The White Sox have been 12-7 against Detroit each of the last 2 years. They got their tail handed to them in 2022 by Cleveland, to the tune of 7-12, but Detroit has been important to their record each of the last 2 years. Basically every time that people thought "They're finally turning it around" last year was thanks to a series against Detroit. Where are the White Sox with fewer games against Detroit?

I think Boston probably knows they're not up there with the elite teams and isn't trying to act like it. If they made the playoffs, that would probably be a big success for where they seem to be right now.

You mean like the White Sox's international operation over the last half decade? A successful international operation can regularly produce talent. The Astros, for example, have Urquidy, Valdez, Luis Garcia, Christian Javier, and Bryan Abreu just in their pitching staff - and all of those were international signings. A couple names coming through every now and then is a big difference from "an entire starting rotation". A complete failure of an international operation, like the White Sox have been, will still produce some names by a roll of the dice, so quoting those names before we see a line of repeated big league success stories, giving them credit for success right now is the same as praising RH for his international operation in 2016, which in reality I think we all agree was pretty bad.

Was the White Sox's latin american operation respectable in 2016?

You've set yourself up. Were the White Sox doing a good job in the international market in 2016? Your own post title "actually building a respectable latin american operation" tells me that you don't believe they did because otherwise it would be "White Sox continue building their successful international operation" Saying a couple of names who have positive trajectories doesn't make a strong case on its own that a team is doing a good job there. A consistent set of talent coming from there is a very different story.

I feel like we've been reading this same thing for years. "Look, we brought in Abreu and he was a huge success. We signed Tatis, Yolmer Sanchez looks like he could be a starting 2b, and we have Adolfo who looks like a future stud, and other guys like Johan Cruz are now in our system. Plus we had a big signing with Franklin Reyes, that's sure to strengthen the system."

So they've signed a couple of 2 year deals but nothing long term right? Looks like they're likely to be well under the tax so they avoid any multi-year penalties, they fill in holes and hope that Clevinger Kluber has a little left in him so that maybe they can make a run at the last wild card slot if things happen to go their way, but they avoid any multi-year deals that are likely to go bad in the end and their guys on short term deals are tradeable at the deadline to help them restock? Seems like a decent strategy to me if you're in the spot they were in - an older team, guys approaching FA, but not nearly enough depth to manage a legit contender.

Worth noting that Spotrac has the Rangers payroll counting arbitration at just under $216 million. The tax line this year is $233 million, and there's always some money spent during the season when guys go on the IL, so Hendriks basically would push the Rangers up to and likely over the tax line unless they had a way to send money out somewhere.

2 years $34 million with a vesting option and other performance incentives for Eovaldi.

Ask yourself if Pedro would have the authority to say no.

He had the pacemaker before he was ever hired for the job I believe.

Weirdly I thought last year that Leury might have been the guy that the "put the ball in play" approach was the worst for. I always felt like he was swinging for the fences every time and he got a little bit of value as a backup because he'd hit .220 with a lot of strikeouts but occasionally a ball would connect and go over the fence.

I'm wondering whether the previous regime would notice success (like the improvement of Sheets, for example) and encourage that, or they'd notice that the guys weren't following the tactics they wanted and have them start doing pushups every time they pop the ball up (Major League reference).

This was a useful and detailed response and completely helpful and on subject and not at all trolling as it's not bringing in a completely unrelated discussion point into this thread.

Genuinely wondering something. Some players had to have the notion that "hitting the ball on the ground and the other way isn't the best idea and this has to be affecting my career", right? Especially people like Pollock, who had experience with other systems had to know that. So what do you do when you're not getting information and scouting reports from the team, but you know that type of training and planning is vital for your earnings? Do you go outside the organization or do you just go without it and try to do what the coaches are telling you to do?

If you're only interested in triumphant projections about the White Sox then you probably should skip all projection threads this year.

Here’s a post player movement update on the Steamer predictions. They have the White Sox second in the AL Central, 1.3 games ahead of Minnesota on average but 6.6 games behind Minnesota. https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/35292245/ranking-all-30-mlb-teams-biggest-free-agents-signed It’s paywalled so here’s just the White Sox excerpt:

Santos has options yes, but Ruiz does not. Ruiz is arb 1 so his contract becomes guaranteed if he makes the opening day roster.

The end result of course being that the white Sox sign this guy then the magic trade proposal for Hendriks never comes and they wind up cutting Santos and that guy they got in the rule V draft because they have so many arms, followed by both of them becoming all star relievers in a few years for other teams.

Many of them get derailed. But if your team doesn’t have the talent of a team that should win that many, you won’t survive the season and playoffs.

How about this version. If you don’t look at your roster at the start of the year and think “this team should win 100 games”, you need to be thinking about how you will get there long term, because titles go to Teams with good answers to that question: