Greg Hibbard

Taking the BABIP into account, it feels as though the truth is that Avi has improved significantly from being a .740-.750 OPS hitter, but I think he maxes out over time as another .780 OPS type hitter. With sub-par defense. In other words, basically a slightly above replacement level guy. I'd trade him in a heartbeat in the offseason. I hope I'm wrong though.

This team isn't going to be competitive The biggest lineup problem is the K:BB ratio we have the fifth most strikeouts as a team and the 3rd least walks Davidson is the biggest problem child, but Engel has this issue as well. Even Abreu, who's been a monster, has had very few walks. The biggest rotation problem is James Shields Second biggest is lack of experience and consistency The biggest bullpen problem is we don't have a proven one If everything went right we would win like 78-84 games, resutling in a worst case scenario for 2019 draft pick I hope we suck next year but trim the fat

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 7, 2017 -> 01:05 PM) Here's the trick. Let's assume we have: Jiminez, Moncada, Anderson, and Collins as guys who are highly drafted and who take over positions next year. Some of them are going to get a chance to prove themselves whether they earn it or not, and Jiminez is just a monster. Let's also assume the team does not move ABreu but does move Garcia #1 for something useful but not MLB ready. Let's assume that Jiminez does not turn into a dragon and randomly eat any of them. Delmonico Garcia Garcia Hanson Engel Cordell Gillaspie Sanchez Saladino Davidson Liriano I'm probably even forgetting someone. Counting the DH, that's 10 guys for 4 starting positions. If we get 2 starters out of that list, even if one of them is only a DH, that leaves us going into 2019 with a rotation that is about to look loaded, a lineup that is full, depth on the bench, and guys like Rutherford and Robert who are going to be rising up to AA and AAA. Out of 10 guys with talent who made the big leagues, there is a substantial chance that a couple of them will in fact improve enough to become big league regulars, or at the worst bench players. If we can get just 2 starters from that list...we can look at what we have and say "1-2 positions is entirely reasonable to fill on the free agent market and oh look, here's $50 million to do it with". Get me 2 starters and a couple bench players out of that list and my armchair GM job becomes painfully easy. Is Saladino still a guy who is in contention for a major league spot after this season? Offensively he's been utterly atrocious since April.

Oops I did some math wrong. Edited topic! Abreu has played 120 out of 121 games, and has 61 XBH....and he seems to have been racking them up of late (a double last night, a triple and a homer over the weekend...) Extrapolated through the rest of the season, if Jose were to maintain this pace, he would have an astonishing 81-82 XBH. That seemed hefty to me so I looked back through the annals of recent history, since 2000, the White Sox leaders in XBH Mags 2002 - 86 XBH JD 2008 - 78 XBH Frank 2000 - 77 XBH Frank 2003 - 77 XBH JD 2006 - 74 XBH Jose's would be up there. What does it mean, though? How good is Jose's season, offensively? He still doesn't walk enough to be truly elite class, and his OPS won't wind up above .900. However, the sheer numbers of doubles, triples and homers is astonishing. What kind of weight do you assign this statistic? I also noticed that throughout the 2009-2016 era not a single White Sox batter had more than 73 XBH.

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2nd half of 2016: G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K BA OBP SLG OPS 73 315 282 34 90 13 0 14 48 25 48 .319 .384 .514 .898 1st half of 2017 (granted there are 4 games left for Jose to tank it completely): G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K BA OBP SLG OPS 82 359 332 51 97 22 2 16 58 20 60 .292 .357 .515 .855 Total last 155 games: G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K BA OBP SLG OPS 155 674 614 85 187 35 2 30 106 45 108 .305 .369 .515 .884

Good article. Brings back some memories. I never thought Brian Anderson got a fair shake of ML development, and I seem to recall that Ozzie Guillen had some personal problem with him that led to him not really giving him a chance during the 2007 season. Is that accurate? Was it really fair to evaluate a very good defensive CF on the merits of basically his 2006 season where he hit .225 but otherwise had relatively decent power? 23 doubles in 405 PAs seems pretty ok to me, as does 8 HR. Look at Avi's 2015 numbers for example. I wish Brian had gotten one more full season, especially during the 2nd half of 07 which was totally meaningless

Oh it's triples.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 30, 2017 -> 01:30 PM) Not saying it will last but Yolmer is currently rocking an ISO of .141. That's pretty damn good for a defensive minded 2B. If his power surge is real he can hit 260 and still be a 2 WAR player. If he hits 280 he can push into 3-4 WAR territory. But doesn't the ISO stat just express what we already know - that he's going through an anomalous power surge? It seemingly doesn't describe anything but the fact he's hitting more homers than he usually does.

Leury Garcia? I don't think so. After having 2 HR in his first 340 ML PAs, he has 6 in his last 159. It's not gonna last. This is your classic Moneymaker variance. He's having a nice couple of months, but everything points to a sharp regression to norms and beware the power outage which may be precipitous. Yolmer Sanchez? Hell no. He's young, but this guy is your classic late inning defensive replacement who just happens to be hitting .300 for a month. He'll simmer down to his usually .240 self soon enough. He doesn't have enough power to be effective long term. Davidson is the wildcard. He has so few PA at the ML level we have no idea what we're getting. If he has enough pop, .230 with 25 homers is just fine at the cell.

I suppose now would be a good time to ask Ron if he knows how many players in White Sox history have better stats than Jose Abreu through their first 2000 PA with the club, and who those guys are, and if he thinks they are awful players That is, it would be a good time to ask that if I knew this guy wasn't just trolling all of us I mean who the hell really questions the offensive prowess of a .299/.359/.515/.874 career hitter

It's all actually encouraging. Draft picks are somewhat of a crapshoot, and the Robert signing basically is adding a top tier-level draft pick this season anyway, so mission accomplished on that front.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 23, 2017 -> 07:34 AM) I think Jose Abreu is a guy who has more value to us than he has to the rest of the league. First base production is actually way up this year league-wide (so far), and even a team with a big hole there will only pay so much for what is essentially average-ish production from the position. For us though, he's a really mature and likeable guy for the fans, he's a calming and popular leadership presence in the clubhouse, he's a role model and familiar face to our top Cuban prospects, and he's paid fairly. Certainly, if someone wants to overpay, we'd have to consider, but I'd plan on keeping him around for the duration, honestly. Avi, on the other hand -- if he keeps this up into trade season and someone is willing to pay for THIS YEAR'S production, we should ABSOLUTELY try to cash in. But I think that any acquiring team is going to look at the same numbers we are and will price the risk of regression into their offers. Ultimately, it'll probably make more sense to keep him around given what I'd expect the offers to be. I completely agree with this. I'd keep both. Also, I really don't understand anyone who would want to get rid of Abreu at his point.. He's a consistent producer who can just shift to DH should we strike gold with Delmonico or any other 1b0. We need a DH anyway. Yes, he's regressed since his rookie year, but he's never even had a single season that wouldn't be termed "good" to "very good".

It's Cody Asche. Only Cody Asche could replace Cody Asche, you fools.

QUOTE (miracleon35th @ May 10, 2017 -> 02:09 PM) Frazier isn't blocking anyone. Davidson can't hit enough to be an every day player and Delmonico cannot play mlb level defense at any position. We need home runs. Hopefully Frazier starts hitting a lot of them. We need home runs for?

QUOTE (ron883 @ May 10, 2017 -> 11:02 AM) Count on the mods to derail a thread. Keep up the good work boys. Yes, your ridiculous trolling of Jose Abreu wasn't the start of this derailment. Please, by all means, go on.

QUOTE (ron883 @ May 10, 2017 -> 11:01 AM) That's some good cherry picking. Jose has been in the league from ages 27-30. Those are pretty prime years. I doubt it's all that impressive when you compare OPS from the ages of 27 to 30. He's having a good year on top of a great second half. I'm not really all too sure what else he should be doing to satisfy your ludicrous expectations.

QUOTE (ron883 @ May 10, 2017 -> 10:09 AM) The thing with Todd is 1. Had has people behind him who can take over. Jose, while nothing special when you account for his defense, has nobody knocking on his door. 2. Todd doesn't have the weird cult following that Jose does. jose could bat .200 for the season and youd have people here defending how great he is. You do realize that only about 100 players in the entire history of major league baseball have a career OPS above .873, right?

The stats of this team are so bizarre, across the board. They almost don't make any sense at all. Not only do certain individuals not make any sense, but you look at their team stats and wonder how this team could only have a team OPS in the .600s scoring 7, 8, 12 runs in many recent games. The whole thing is just baffling.

Who the hell is this team??? Gotta admit I'm loving this so far.

This is absolutely amazing

This team sure likes doubles

I look at their team stats and mutter to myself "who the heck is this team???" A lot of positive development from positions we will need next year, and if Davidson and Garcia emerge with solid progress, if Holland and Gonzalez are solid #3s and Rodon can come back healthy and strong we are looking at being a couple position players away from being in real contention. Lot of ifs I know, but something is different about the culture this year. I only wonder if our record ends up being too good this year to get the draft pick we need.

I will be at the game chanting for an Asche appearance. I'll be the guy in the Sox jersey

What the hell was that tag up with a 5 run deficit in the 9th?