JUSTgottaBELIEVE

At a similar age, Kris Bryant posted a wRC+ of just over 200 in his short stint in A ball. Robert was at 288 coming into the game tonight and well over 300 now. This is next level stuff even at an “old” age of 21.

Unlike Robert, no one ever said Madrigal had the ability to hit 30+ homers in MLB one day.

Fathom was certainly one of many on here concerned about Robert’s lack of power last year. The pessimists weren’t accepting nagging injury as an excuse either.

^ and cheaper. Sox don’t have a better 1b option now or next year as far as I can tell.

You conveniently left out the part of your response where you implied the Sox are not seeing progress from their young core: ”The White Sox are like the 2014 Cubs in 1 way - a lot of the young guys they're relying on are now here and called up. They're not all here, but for the Cubs, they were legitimately seeing progress. If we're like the 2014 Cubs, we should be seeing progress. If we're like the 2013 Cubs, then we have a handful of scraps that we'll eventually need to trade, and we will need to basically replace everything on the roster before we're in place to do any damage. So the question is - are the guys who are here trending upwards?” The reason this Sox team is a mix of the two cubs teams and not just 2014 alone is because we also have elements (e.g., scraps) of that 2013 cubs team that need to be replaced and/or traded this July before competing starting in 2020/2021 - Herrera, Colome, Nova, Alonso, etc. That’s why I said 2013/2014 rather just one of those two.

I would agree with that. Just hope he comes back the same guy.

The outlook on the 2019 season would have been much different if Kopech was in the rotation instead of Nova/Santana with Cease waiting in the wings. That’s why his injury was so devastating.

And...Cleveland has regressed even more than I anticipated. I didn’t think their fall would really hit hard until next year but that team is more vulnerable now than any time over the past 4 years. I don’t think the Twins are a good team but they just might take the division this year, especially if Lindor struggles with injuries for a better part of the season.

@Balta1701 strongly disagreed with me last week but this version of the White Sox is the 2013/2014 Cubs. Chance to be very competitive in 2020 with a strong offseason and contention window should open in 2021 regardless.The signs are there whether people want to open their eyes to them or not I don’t know.

Maybe not 150 but 133, like he posted two years ago, is certainly possible...

Yea, his career average is ~10% but his BABIP career average is also .296 so those two should offset to a large degree. I’d surely take a 2017 version of Alonso and “call” it a huge win. ?

16 RBI for Yoán Moncada is most by a White Sox player through the team's first 16 games of a season since Joe Crede (18) in 2008

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yoan-moncada-is-different/

123 wRC+ on .222 BABIP

Remember when posters were crushing Alonso while he was a carrying a BABIP under 150 but a wRC+ still near 100? Those things even out.

So much more enjoyable when Herrera is pitching for your team rather than the opposition. He just pumps strike after strike with plus stuff and location. Refreshing to have a setup guy like that.

Agreed. I can’t think of any top notch closers that will for sure be available this deadline outside of Colome. Maybe the Pirates closer if they fall out of contention. Who else is there?

He’ll be gone in June well ahead of the July trade deadline (or at least I think)

Yes and what other proven closers will be available in July and how many contenders will be in need of late inning bullpen help? Colome could very well be one of the best options available, if not the very best.

Normally I would agree but he was so dominant last year and he’s already 23. Unless he starts getting knocked around, I think he’ll be up before the end of May. Santana should be due for a trip to the IL by then, if not sooner.

I didn’t reread the entire thread but @Balta1701 first post in this thread indicates he did not like this trade. “Generally not a fan of this at all. One question I haven't seen answered - aside from Grandal, if we wanted a backup catcher to play part time behindsteroid dude and thought that Zavala wasn't yet ready as heisn't, who is available that could be a cheap backup catcher?” (Page 4)

Yep. 1 earned run over his last 8 starts (40 innings) dating back to last year. If that’s not ready, I don’t know what is.

Let’s say the Sox are hanging around .500 in early May and just a couple games back in this terrible division, would the Sox consider a promotion for Dylan Cease? Looks like he’s ready and they’d have the extra year of control by then so that’d be a non-factor in the decision. Thus far it seems like they are keeping his pitch count and innings down in Charlotte for a reason.

Sure is nice having a reliable closer. Colome should fetch a nice return in July, certainly more than Narvaez would have.

Yep and the right move. I stand by my opinion that when this team is ready to compete (2021), we will be thankful we missed on Machado because we will have more pressing needs in other areas and Machado won’t be performing to the level of a $30M AAV player at that time.