southsider2k5

Even if you divide the Chicago market into 2/3 Cubs, and 1/3 for the Sox, that 1/3 of Chicagoland is bigger than pretty much anywhere left as a viable baseball expansion candidate. If someone is going to pay a couple of billion dollars for an expansion team, they could do a LOT worse than the Chicago market, even as a secondary team. In this made up scenario where the Sox leave Chicago, MLB could force JR to leave behind the name and history, which also leaves them a ready made audience for that expansion team instead of building from scratch.

Actually you made the case for why they are panicking quite clearly right there. As for the "not convinced", only you have said that, but I suppose I should thank you for making it clear I shouldn't waste time on you then.

https://twitter.com/FutureSox/status/1792952003850645952

You haven't presented anything that isn't moving goal posts, which goes right along with what I have been saying. I keep back this up with stats and facts as you switch between broad and general concepts which don't allow for any burden of proof. Whether it has been numbers of moves, plate appearances, defensive stats or anything, I keep bringing it to you in stats that disprove what you are saying. Naming a lot of names isn't the same thing, especially when the lists keep being deconstructed for inconsistencies and falsehoods. Even in your Holiday example, they gave him how long on the roster? How many games did he play? How many ABs did he get? Notice how many guys we have blown through without anywhere near that level of exposure? Notice how he started every game he played, right? You are also conveniently ignoring that Baltimore is actually trying to win something this year, so their wins and losses actually matter. Also they have been relatively stable, making almost 50% less moves than the White Sox have. They have 17 recalls to the Sox 44.

None of this is actually happening though. There are blowing through everyone so quickly, you have no idea if a guy is catching on or not. This is fantasy.

I can't walk away from this. Even taking the guy who is pretty universally accepted as having one of the best seasons for the team in DeJong, if you go to the fangraphs WAR calculation, he is ranking 18th of 28 SS with at least 120 PAs. Danny Mendick is a zero WAR player. That isn't average, it is replacement. Pham has a 0.6 WAR so far, in his limited ABs, so far I can give you that one. Nicky Lopez has been flat out awful. Remilard has been cut twice this past year, he's so good that no one has claimed him twice.

At this point Vaughn hasn't even shown the flashes that Rodon showed all along. When he was healthy (which hasn't been often, he could be otherworldly. I have yet to see Vaughn has some streak or tear that you step back from and say yeah, that was why he was a top of the draft guy.

Yeah, I can't get past this line. It is so not true.

Andrew Vaughn has 3 full years of service time and is now an arb player. Sheets is two years into his career and has shown a ceiling of a below average DH. Why would you apply this policy to guys you know won't be around the next time the Sox are good (heck we aren't too far from being non-tendered in these cases), but not the guys who could be here? Because it is about how it looks to the outside, and not what is best for the franchise long term, because they are scared of the results so far.

So it's about defense, until it isn't. It is about development and learning at the major league level, until the make a mistake, and it isn't. It is about the "plan" until it isn't. It is about ABs to get comfortable, except for the guys who need them the most, and it isn't. There is no plan. This is running from fire to fire trying to cover up the last problem and creating the next problem, instead of realizing there is no difference between winning 50 or 60 games this season and getting what you can for the future of this franchise, they panic when something looks bad. It's all they have done this year. At this point if you don't want to see it, it is because you don't want to see it. Everyone else can see it.

Like this is a perfect example of what I am talking about here. We cut Ortega to get Fletcher on the roster, and now we aren't playing him. That isn't good for his development, his confidence, and it sure doesn't help this franchise at all for the future. He needs to be playing daily, somewhere. If he isn't ready for Chicago, why is he here? And before someone states that the manager is the problem, the GM is his boss. Either the GM tells the manager to get Fletcher into the line up, or he is OK with him not being there. Why the hell does Andrew Benitendi need to be in the line up every day with his .500 OPS and terrible glove? Gavin Sheets has hit for a .582 over the last two weeks anyway, and it still one of the worst defenders in baseball. Fletcher's season OPS is actually higher than 10D, and not much less than what Sheets has put up the last couple of weeks at .548. Remember when we were fixing the defense for the pitchers so they would want to come here? Yeah, what happened to that plan?

Even if the Sox picked up his entire salary, who is going to be willing to roster 10D right now?

And when he refuses the assignment?

The kid has 19ks in 39 ABs. Let's let him simmer a bit in case this is a fluke

The defense has sucked because of the roster moves that Getz made, not because of the injuries to a large extent. There is no injury in RF. Martin Maldonado is having the worst season in baseball between his defense and offense both being the worst in the league. Eloy is one of those injuries, and he wasn't supposed to see the field anyway. The Sox have decent defensive CF, and they are running Tommy Pham out there. They have other choices and are running Sheets in RF. There is zero chance what is happening in the rotation is "planned". You don't start 9 different guys in 40 something games without injuries, and call it a plan. You know what is great for getting prospects acclimated to the majors? Getting minimal regular ABs/innings and being sent down before they could possibly get comfortable, or work through anything. They didn't HAVE to stop the start they had. They could have understood that their long term plan was more important and stuck with it. Instead they panicked and dumped as much of the roster as they could, all while having no hope of contention for years.

If they are going to spend on 2nd and 3rd tier free agents it really doesn't help though.

Cool. That expectation doesn't change what the team will do even for a second.

lmao, what does this even mean? Your "standards" have nothing to do with what the team looks like on the field. Most of us are looking at the roster and seeing the COMPLETE lack of talent in the system short term. It isn't that hard to not see this team being decent for a number of years. Knowing their history, even if they do go out and sign guys, they are going to play in the 3rd tier market anyways, which isn't going to move the needle enough to matter going forward. I really hope you aren't expecting this team to be real players for top free agents as a condition of being good soon.

Yeah, that might be said by a couple, but it isn't reality. -They started seemingly with a plan for a good defense, but as soon as they had offensive problems, that went away. Sheets and Pham are now in the OF on a daily basis, and Eloy just played RF. If they had stuck with that plan, sure give them credit for doing what they said. They said it, and then did the opposite as soon as things got tough. The team is dead last in MLB in defensive rating according to fangraphs. That includes being last in DRS, 2nd to last in UZR and UZR/150, last in FRV, last in runs saved by arms, and last in runs saved above average. -They might well have been trying to build rotation pieces, but how many starters have we been through? How are they identifying guys in like two starts? Either they knew they weren't good when they brought them up, which isn't much of a plan, or they are panic moving to the next guy when they pitch exactly how they expected they would pitch. A plan implies trying something for a while to see if it works. Nine different guys have started games for the Sox. Keller and Nastrini got two starts. Canon got three. If they through they were ready, they would have gotten more than that. -I do like you appreciate you reaching into the 3 players got hurt bag, but again, for teams who were anywhere near the Sox in roster moves, those teams have had more DL trips. The Sox moves haven't been as much because of injuries, but very predictable badness. -If they are trying to give prospects more time, that would mean NOT calling up guys like Nastrini, Canon, Ramos etc and just rolling with what you have. It would mean sticking with a middling guy like Sosa instead of starting the clock on Ramos, or a guy like Colas instead of going to the street again, and losing more roster slots. -Also if you want to talk about defense in terms of catchers, that unnamed catcher we brought in off of the street is 58th of 61 in DRS. He is 5th from last in Stolen bases saved. He's 8th from last in good fielding plays runs saved. He is 3rd worst in catcher defensive rating. He is 60th of 61 in Statcast fielding run value which covers throwing, blocking, framing, arm and RAA. I am sure the pitchers appreciate him at least giving them a boost on offense... oh wait.

There is just nothing in this organization offensively. We have a couple of guys, but there is no way to squint and see an entire respectable offense in this organization today. Even if you say that Montgomery, Quero and Ramos hit quickly with the team, we are missing 2B, RF, LF, 1B, and probably CF once Robert gets dealt. You can get by with say 7 decent hitters, you can't get by with 3 to 4. We have more pitching, but even then, our top level guys are 3-4 years away.

So Ortega HAD to be on the roster RIGHT at that moment, even though we didn't need to because we already had other OFs on the roster by which we could still send down Fletcher AND keep Bailey Horn, for what reason exactly then? If we weren't going to learn about him, if we weren't going to show him off for a trade, what exactly did he achieve then, other than churning another roster spot for no reason other than churning another roster spot? Even if you want to give Getz the benefit of the doubt on half of that Thompson trade to say he had some kind of insider knowledge on Thompson, how awful was the trade if the guy he got was cut that quickly? What does it mean for their evaluation process to arrive at Bailey Horn in the first place that he was bad enough and unsalvagable enough to dump that in about a month's worth of minor league work? Either their evaluation process is flawed, or their coaching is flawed. They already knew the kids character as they drafted Horn and had him in the system under Getz leadership of the MiLB system anyway. Remember, if they came into the season with a plan, but quickly yeeted the plan as soon as the team started badly, that is the very definition of panic moves. If they believed in their plans, their players, their evaluations, their player development etc, they wouldn't be surfing through all of these random guys for an AB, an appearance, or a week or two on the active roster just be sent out of the system. They would have just continued with what they were doing knowing the long term was right.