Greg Hibbard

AV and Gavin have more value to us than what we could get back in trade right now. AV seems like he’s going to be a fairly solid high floor/low ceiling 20 homer, 30 double, .750 OPSish player. We have seen enough to know what he probably is over four years, and it’s ok, not great. He doesn’t seem to make adjustments, especially to offspeed pitches, Gavin is more of a wildcard, I feel like he could have better OPS and SLG potential if he is more aggressive early in the count. He takes way too many strikes early in the count. He could be better than AV, but he also could be far worse. His walk rate this year is very encouraging. I don’t want either to lose time to a Jose Abreu curtain call. We need them each to have as many ABs as possible so we can get a sense of which is the better starting player.

He had a reputation to uphold of not knowing what the hell to do with challenges to save his life

Benintendi just misplayed a pretty easy jump catch into a home run for the mariners.

Crochet looking electric in the 1st.

After declining both options it will come out to $46 million for somewhere around 5.5 career bWAR when it’s all said and done. So incredibly disappointing, but not as disappointing as the lack of accountability in this organization.

At the game today, the weather and this winning streak were too good to pass up.

I hear you, but record has nothing to do with progress this season, IMO. I really don’t care if they lose 90 or 110, as this team has no way to make the playoffs, and no way to get the number 1 pick. I think as hard as it is to divorce ourselves from our record, we have to do it, partially to stay sane. I think success this season will be in making the right decisions about which young players under long term control this team can move forward with that can produce at the major league level. If that means we end up at the end of the year with at least Lee, Ramos, etc being major league talent, we succeed. If we prove that Moncada and Jimenez are too injury prone to move forward with, we succeed. If we prove Sheets is a better option at 1b than Vaughn (and that the latter is a bust), we succeed. This season has to be about separating the wheat from the chaff and moving forward. One would hope that would maybe include eating Benintendi’s contract, but that’s very unlikely to happen.

Aren’t they 7-6 in their last 13 now? That seems like a healthy enough sample to think of as an actual trend. Also, I will happily eat crow on Gavin Sheets if he continues to hit and get on base at this clip…

White Sox Team Leader in Home Runs Paul DeJong.

LLLL W LLLLL W LLLLLL W LLLLLLL W

Time is a flat circle (like the runs scored for the White Sox)

Ask yourself this question: how would a historically bad season cause the outcome you want? because I’m not sure that a 120 loss season affects Reinsdorf’s net worth or the franchise valuation that much, especially because the biggest dollars are from cable, not from ticket sales. Unless lots and lot of people stay away for years I’m not sure it does anything either way. that all being said I’m verging on full boycott mode (as I did for the Blackhawks from 1997 until the day Bill Wirtz died)

I'm good with playing him for 400 PAs this season. I just don't want the Sox to make him into a starter.

Ok. I guess you know how I feel. I’m worried that the White Sox are going to do what the White Sox frequently do with fringe players that get hot. Bet on the flimsy notion that the kid has “come into his own” and “grinderball” worked

Ok I take back what I said in comparing Valentin to Sheets. That’s a pretty big insult to Valentin, whose numbers are better than I remembered.

I am not panicking about anything, that seems a strange way to put this. How could anyone panic about anything on this team? We have reached the literal bottom of our fandom. I’m not afraid of blocking anyone on the current team. The first baseman of the future should be a quality proven MLB FA or a high draft pick. The point is that I don’t want some Jose Valentin type of situation where a replacement level player becomes this evergreen mainstay “heart of the team” for the next four seasons while scuffling to Dan Pasqua type numbers because he has a hot first half in one year. That’s a very White Sox thing to do, and I think you know it. An even more White Sox thing would be Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn becoming some sort of “Veets” 1B platoon that maxes out at a combined 28 HR and .805 OPS. I’m saying Sheets hot streak - whatever it ends up being - can’t be for real. He will come back to earth for many reasons. Having a replacement level 1B might be passable if we had any power prospects at any position. In the White Sox’ case, we need a prototypical slugger on a team that struggles to score runs. Sheets ain’t and won’t ever be enough.

Medium term I think it’s potentially a terrible thing for this organization. Holding onto a Gavin Sheets that has a hot two months (which turns in something like a full season at .250/.310/.450/.760) past this season, especially if Andrew Vaughn goes busto, means that Gavin Sheets is potentially your idea of a First Baseman of the Future that You’re Building Around. That would be a disastrous notion.

Lost rebuilding season? Check Desperate team looking for anyone to pin a positive story on? Check Fringe AAAA 1/2 tool player having an insanely hot streak that the White Sox will want to “move forward” with in their latest “off the scrap heap” love affair? Check mate I would love to believe in this guy, but I just can’t. He’s too old, too slow, too left handed, too one dimensional. Please Please Please let him come back to earth before the Kool Aid Man reaches the White Sox FO

Imagine an entire team of 2001 Royce Claytons. Now imagine you don’t even have to imagine it

So the most fun aspect of this season is that we are probably THE team this season that other fanbases will feel it is absolutely unacceptable to lose even one game of a series to. Every time we win a game, it will be fun to read other team’s boards and reddits and see people freaking out to losing to Gavin Sheets’ White Sox.

Gavin Sheets hitting 3rd in a major league lineup. And it’s appropriate because he sucks the least I can’t believe it’s come to this

INFIELDER Gavin Sheets?!?

I don't want Eloy Jimenez anywhere near a field and haven't for three years. I want him DHing 140 games and hitting home runs.

Remotely seems like an exaggeration. I would argue that there's no way to evaluate that trade for the White Sox as anything except an A. With respect to Jimenez, how can a 2 WAR a year MLB player with 33 homers per 162 be a "bust"? I feel like there's this tendency here to either view players as overwhelming successes or failures. Jimenez is a very solid offensive player when healthy, and not a "bust". He's a starting caliber MLB player. There's also still a chance he becomes a 40 home run / year slugger. We don't need him to play defense, even if he disagrees. If I recall correctly, nobody really projected Cease to be anywhere near as dominant as he became when he was traded to the White Sox. He far exceeded my expectations with his 2022 performance, and we just flipped him for four other prospects coming off of a very disappointing year.

I understand your point about control, but 20 seems like it would be a outsized haul. Consider that Cease and Jimenez haven't even put up 20 combined yet, and I think most consider that an A+ haul for the White Sox side of the Quintana deal, which offered more control to the Cubs.