Balta1701

For now, I am half joking about Grifol benching Montgomery if he's called up late in the year because DeJong and Lopez have got to get their at bats. It might still happen, some guys got that treatment last year. I have zero doubt that if Montgomery were called up in August for any reason other than an injury while Ozzie is the manager, he's playing 2, maybe 3 times a week. DeJong has earned it.

Ozzie had a pretty decent record with young pitchers (Garland, Danks, Floyd), how much of that was Cooper who knows but they did a good job together. Ozzie's performance with guys in the lineup...was less positive. You had guys like Anderson, Viciedo who were completely buried because Ozzie immediately declared them to be platoon players or just said he wasn't playing them, he needed his vetz like Juan Pierre and Rob bleeping Mackowiak in the lineup whenever possible. Carlos Quentin was benched to start the 2008 season because small guys like Jerry Owens were more valuable. The Mark Kotsay experience was on Ozzie. Ozzie would love the roster Getz put together this year, full of short guys who don't produce much but who have da experience and da TWTW. Eloy is a guy he'd probably be looking to bench or get rid of, because that's not how you play baseball, you have to bunt and Eloy can't bunt.

This is one of those where the actual correct response, the one that doesn't sound terrible, is to acknowledge there's a problem and vow to fix it. He could easily have doubled back on the other things he said in this interview. "Pedro, some fans want to know why you haven't been fired yet, how do you respond to that"? "Well, honestly I understand their frustration, we lost 101 games last year, our defense was poor, we had a lot of things to fix. The fans have a right to be frustrated with that style of play and that level of performance. But this year, I think we have a good group of guys in the clubhouse, we are going to be better on defense, I don't know how the season is going to wind up but I expect the fans will see progress and improvement on the field, and I hope they judge all of us by the improvement they see." Contrast that with: ‘‘It didn’t look right, maybe, in their eyes last year,’’ he said. ‘‘But there’s a reason I am where I am, right? You don’t just get handed these [manager] jobs, right? This is one of 30. So over time, you know, I’ve earned the right to be here. But I’ve got to continue to prove that, you know, [hiring me] was the right decision.’’ See the difference? In one he's telling the fans they're wrong and he didn't get handed the job for no reason so he must have done a good job so all those other peons must be wrong, that "maybe it didn't look right in their eyes last year" (really, maybe????), in the other he's saying that the fans who pay his salary have some genuine complaints and he expects to do a job this year that will satisfy some of those complaints.

But we are 22 months from TJS instead of a ludicrous 13, and we aren’t expecting him to come back from surgery and immediately save the bullpen as a high leverage arm.

I agree with the idea that Getz is calling the shits.

I get what Getz is trying to do, but I do feel like he believes he can import a culture by bringing in his correct Vetz, and praise be to Maldy fits with that. But I think the Sox have had plenty of vets rip them upon leaving - Keuchel, Lynn, Middleton, and that tell me something about the idea of importing leaders rather than having a solid organizational footing. If you want a silver lining, aside from $15 million or so spent on his Vetz, Getz did not make things worse. No trades for Perez, no prospects given up, no Hahn “we are one player away” backloaded signings. I don’t like the “overpay for guys I like and former Royals” mentality, but it is way better than the Hahn way.

I haven’t found the numbers for the full team but their starters did not have better ERAs throwing to Maldonado.

The thing with Maldonado is that “he handles the staff well” has become a self fulfilling prophecy. He must handle the staff well because everyone says he handles the staff well. Last year, Framber Valdez throws a no hitter and it’s because Maldy called a great game. Valdez gives up 6 runs and it’s because Valdez had an off day or wasn’t prepped. It could never have been Maldy’s fault because he calls a great game. Several of the Astros starters had down years last year especially in the second half, but Maldy can’t bear responsibility for that. Hunter Brown has a lower ERA throwing to Diaz, he threw to Diaz in the minors, but we have to spend the second half having him throw to Maldonado because Maldonado has to start playoff games, not the guy with the OPS like 300 points higher, better defense, and better work with that pitcher. Then, Brown has a bad enough second half that he isn’t in the playoff rotation, but that can’t be Maldy’s fault because we know he calls a great game so it must be the pitcher not understanding his greatness. Maldonado calling a great game, for Dusty at the end, was Leury having a good day in the batting cages for LaRussa. It was a truth that couldn’t be challenged by anyone, even if it doesn’t look good. These pitchers had bad games - that’s not on Maldonado, ever. I think the Astros are better led and that limited it from being a problem, but I think we’d have seen Dusty’s deference to this player become a real problem this year if Dusty had come back, one of those that really causes a break with the GM and coaches. It started to last year because people around here could recognize the struggling rotation pieces and how Awful Maldonado was with the bat, and there was an awful lot of talk about it.

With that lineup, the white Sox are going to have an awful lot of short games this year.

I can't stress this enough...last year, Maldonado was literally, by basically every publication I have checked, the worst catcher in all of baseball.

Normally I think you're wrong, and then I read things he says.

Better chance of success here than the ridiculous and insane miracle that was key to their bullpen plans last year.

I said this a lot at the time - trading away a player like Jake Burger makes a ton of sense for the White Sox. 1. He's position limited at positions where the White Sox have several players, including some minor league talent (3b, 1b/DH). 2. He's defensively a liability. The White Sox defensively aren't good enough to just cover for him. 3. The fact that he's pre-arbitration means that teams who don't trade for guys close to free agency will be in on him. This happened - the market for 3bs making $15 million in their last arbitration year is almost nothing. The market for weak defensive 3b who are pre-arbitration exists. 4. He's already going to turn 28 in April. Although he doesn't have a ton of experience, this is not some 23 year old prospect we're talking about whose body might fill out or whose abilities might increase. 5. His injury history makes holding him a risk for a team in position of the White Sox. At least with Cease, he's been healthy and reliable for 3+ years, you can say it would be surprising and out of character if he got hurt even though he's a pitcher, that isn't the case with Burger. 6. The 2023-2025 White Sox don't look good. At all. Jake Burger will probably give his biggest contributions in the next few years. These do not match up. None of this means that Hahn identified a quality return, it's not like I have a ton of confidence in him, but if "Trading Burger away was such a mistake that I'm firing you" was how it went down, that is not a good sign. Trading Burger away was aggressive on rebuilding, but also sensible in the context of the White Sox.

They don't all play good D. They all have reputations for playing good D, sometimes several seasons ago.

Is McCarthy being looked at as going that high?

this one is paywalled for me but there's presumably the business version discussed here.

if they're starting Crochet at AAA and using an option year on him, don't they get an additional year of service time if he's down for like 2 months?

If I'm counting right, that means they need 3 40-man roster spots? Chavez, Pillar, Mendick.

Maldonado is probably here for 2 and you know that.

If the White Sox and that realty company spent the money to produce renderings and designs already, my guess is that they're early in the process of deciding this right now. We are seeing a little bit of financial posturing in the press, each side is going to want to make sure that they get every last cent, but we are also seeing them avoid any declarative "Take it or leave it" kinda statements. I have to guess that's exactly what they are doing right now. And yes, high density development being created in this area would be very different from just having spending shifted from one neighborhood to another. It would support development of the surrounding neighborhoods as well as generating revenue on its own. Hopefully it also frees up the space in Bridgeport for appropriate redevelopment as well. This should be obvious by the fact that "There are other buildings in the designs for the property that they showed".

What boggles my mind is that KC is likely better next year. That secondary is legit and their draft picks this year and last year will likely help them restock. Losing Jones will sting but no more than Hill or the other guys they lost.

Maldonado hasn’t had a .700 OPS since 126 at bats in 2014. What exactly is a resurgence for him?

While it is tradeable it does not carry over if not spent.

Who had money on Jennings for MVP? He’s like one play away?